Can God Do Evil?

Among the schools of philosophy it has been said there are two which are among the most important: the philosophy of death and the philosophy of love. Thanatology seeks to understand and prepare for the ultimate act of reaching the point of the ultimate finiteness of the person. Knowledge of love seeks to understand and prepare the person for meeting that finiteness, according to the saying, "You die how you live."

There are many aspects within the philosophy of love since there are many manifestations of love itself. For instance if a person had a child, they could instruct, console, reprimand, and bring them joy - all of which would happen for nothing other than the benefit of the child. The philosophy of love then delves into the nature of love and its manifestations, and the application of love's principles in a sort of loving praxis.

In speaking of God we must realize we can only conceptualize of a transcendent life and being, since the God that can be grasped by imperfect minds cannot be a God at all.

Since God is above comprehension of imperfection it is said from within His essence God pours out His energy, and His energy then becomes the essence of all things which have being. Without this divine energy the being of created things would cease to be. But from within the essence of God lies the source and cause in a transcendent sense of all that is, and all that is becomes an expression of the divine life brought into existence so that as God knows Himself He therefore knows everything. Likewise in that the essence of creation is the energy of God, making God everywhere present and filling everything yet still distinct from creation, and this energy flows from His essence, the essence of creation then takes on the attributes of the divine life, since they are expressions of the transcendent thought of God. The virtue that is performed by angels and men is an expression of this divine energy which gives us being. The evil that is performed by demons and men is also an expression of this divine energy which maintains our being, though in a disfigured way and not according to the intended natural state. All things which have being partake of the energy of God, and this energy stems from and is transcendent goodness and is in fact God (though it is in a sense an expression of His essence), so that all of creation in a state of being by the energy of God has this goodness in them, and all that is done - whether good or evil - is an expression of this goodness, again as either a natural reflection or a disfigured reflection. The control of the energies which give being and serve as the natural state of creation we call providence, since God not only knows Himself but also retains authority of Himself, returning what He sent forth to Himself in the ultimate act of transcendent completion, which does no less than make God the total infinite finiteness.

Knowing as we do that God's energy is our essence (and our essence is a reflection of what He is from before eternity, for as the pre-existent cause of being he gives forth being from within Himself), we can reflect on human nature and that of the cosmos and come to an understanding of the origin of all things, God Who Is. If we apply the theories, philosophy and knowledge of love we can understand God in His transcendent love.

We love our families, our friends, our countries. We love various arts and parts of nature. We love another and enter into a relationship. Love as we can see is natural to us. In that we are an image of the invisible God we can say love is appropriate to God as well. Even with a misuse of this love in the disrespecting of our bodies or that of another, the root of this is divine love though it has become disfigured or misused.

We also know through observation that we love one thing over another, one person and not another, and so it is that we love by a freedom of will when we are indeed loving. In the same manner, He who gives us this seed of love in our essence loves by His divine being exists as the self-determined cause of all that is. His energies are an outpouring of His own essence. Our essence contains love, given to us from His energies. Our essence contains free will, given to us from His energies. Thus God is Love and remains so by His own choice, in the being of His transcendent existence as the self determined cause.

Thus God's nature is that of love and He cannot go against His own nature, and yet He by choice remains in loving being.

As perfect, God does not make mistakes, and thus He will from before eternity and after eternity retain the nature of love.

It is therefore pointless to ask whether or not God can do evil. The reality is such that He never will.