Is God responsible for evil?

There is only one God, the true and the living God and He is Sovereign over all creation and He does fore-ordained whatever comes to pass. He is in control over every aspect of His creation. If a missionary is tortured and killed by wicked men, God did ordain it.

So is it wrong that God ordained for His saints to be cruelly tortured and killed for the gospel? Is it wrong for God to send a missionary to Peru to be martyred for the sake of the gospel? If God ordained these wicked and evil events, is God responsible for evil and wicked men doing wicked things? No. Man’s nature is depraved because of his own sin and he by his sinful nature loves the darkness, loves sin, loves selfishness, loves violence, and is a slave to it all. Because of his own willing sin, man is a slave to sin and a slave to their father the devil. The wicked man wants to kill but God, by His common grace, restrains evil in the world.

Think of it like this: If a man puts to rabid, stray dogs in a kennel and then throws one bone in the kennel, what will happen? Each vile, wretched dog will try to kill the other for the bone that it coveted. The same thing would happen if the same mad put a lion in a cage and then put a lamb in the cage with it. The lion, by nature, would devour the lamb. So, did the man who put the dogs together or the lion and lamb together responsible for their wickedness. By no means. The dogs and the lion have always wanted to kill, by their nature. The only reason they never killed before is because they lacked opportunity. The man who put the animals together never made them devour each other but the man did ordain that they would devour each other. The man always knew the wicked intentions of the dogs but restrained them in the past but now choose to leave them to their own wickedness.

It is the same way with God. God may ordain to do a might work in a man of God. He send the man and the man fulfills the will of God and God works through him. The entire time, God is restraining evil and wicked men from destroying this man of God. Then, when the saint’s work is done and it is time to bring him home, God releases his hold on the wicked men and the wicked men devour. In this, God is glorified and He uses the deeds of these wicked men for His glory and does many wonderful things from it. In fact, the church of Jesus Christ is built on the blood of the martyrs.

So God is not responsible for the wicked man’s actions but has ordained it for His glory. God just removed his restraint of the wicked man. God is not responsible for evil, man is. The only reason there is any peace on earth is because of God’s restraining grace on mankind. Thanks be to God and our Lord Jesus Christ.