Page 91 - Foundations

Satan is in this sense the father of lying and murder. They emanated from him, and found their
origination with him. Satan was NOT created as a liar and murderer. Christ is saying that lying and
murder originated with Satan. He was the beginning of these evils, for they first appeared in Satan,
and have spread to the creation through him.

To defend against the objection that naturally arises from claiming that God created a being that was
evil in its very inception, these men cite another verse whose meaning is similarly misapprehended.

Isaiah 45:6-7
I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create
evil: I the LORD do all these things.
KJV

This passage is used to support the contention that Yahweh creates evil, and by this moral evil is
implied. This is NOT what this Scripture verse is declaring. Throughout the Old Testament, a form
of Hebrew poetry is employed. Where it is present it provides a great service in helping the reader to
understand the original intent of the author. Hebrew poetry is not like English poetry where rhyming
words are a common characteristic. Instead, the poetic nature of the Hebrew writing was
demonstrated through the use of parallelism. Lines, or clauses, occur in pairs. These pairs either
restate the same or similar idea, or they express an opposite thought.

Where some ancient Hebrew word has been obscure and its meaning lost, Bible scholars have often
been able to ascertain the meaning of the word when it is used in this Hebrew poetic form. They
merely need to compare the clause an unknown word appears in to its parallel phrase and determine
whether the phrase was meant to convey the same idea, or a contrasting thought. We can use the same
principle to establish what the prophet Isaiah was intending to convey in the two verses above. Let
us examine what is set forth.

I form the light, and create darkness
I make peace, and create evil

Looking at the first line we can see that what is being used is the Hebrew poetic form that uses
contrasts. Light and darkness are contrasted with one another. We can therefore infer that peace and
evil are also being contrasted with one another, for these are parallel statements. The Hebrew word
for peace found here is “shalom” which Strong’s Concordance defines as: safe, i.e. (figuratively) well,
happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace. None of these things are the
opposite of sin, or of moral evil.

The Hebrew word shalom is being contrasted with the Hebrew word “rah.” The KJV translators have
rendered this word in a myriad of ways, including the following: adversity, affliction, bad, calamity,
distress, evil, grief, harm, heavy, sorrow, and trouble. We must ask, “Did they choose the correct
word to contrast with shalom in Isaiah 45:7?” Yahweh is saying, I create “Shalom” (health, prosperity
and peace), and I create the opposite of these things which would be affliction, poverty, and distress.

This passage is not saying that Yahweh creates moral evil, or sin. It is a terrible corruption of the