A question I once put to Hafed, my spiritual teacher, was did God create evil? My assumption was that God created everything, therefore, evil must have come as part of the package.
Hafed realised the confusion that was going on in my mind and reminded me that without free will and the power to exercise choice, there would be no spiritual progression. He told me that if there was only one road back to God, you would inevitably return to Him, but you would be doing so without being tried and tested by evil.
The Bible tells us that we are all Gods in the making, however if we seek to reach that level of spiritual perfection, we must first acquire the same understanding of God and use the powers that go with that position, as God would use them himself. The only way we can do this is to discover right and wrong for ourselves, through our experiences, actions and choices. This continual learning process leads us to the realisation of what really is the best way to live our life. In essence this is true purpose of being here, to conquer the trials of this life and move spiritually closer to God.
When we begin to follow the correct path we feel happier, more contented and empowered by a new guiding force in our life. Our character changes and we jettison the harsher side of our nature, which belongs to our human form. It is replaced by a soft, gentle and caring nature that belongs to the God man in you, which you yearn to develop and become. You will want to share this feeling and knowledge with everyone and try to find ways to do this, even if it’s just giving the right advice and opinions to friends.
Just as I did, you may ask, did God create evil? The categorical answer is He did not, because good and evil have always existed. In the world today there is a widely held view that God created everything, but this is incorrect. Many things are just naturally there and did not require God to create them.
Just as you have light and dark, love and hate, hot and cold so you have good and evil. They exist because you exist; they give you power to choose and through choice comes spiritual development. It is strange but true that good teaches and informs you about evil and evil teaches and informs you about good. These polar opposites didn’t need to be created, they simply are.
To reach your spiritual potential you must follow the ways of truth, light and love. You can hide in the shadows and darkness where you will find the paths of evil or, if your nature is suffering and desperately wants to find peace, it will turn you to the light where you will find the contentment it seeks. But even though you do this you need to be aware that it will not shield you against the power of darkness, which is always striving to bring you down. The battle will always go on within you, like the fires of Hell turning you to pure gold. Good and evil coexist and the decisions you make can bring either one of them to life.
If you look at the scriptures none of the holy men and prophets had easy lives. They were constantly challenged for the things they believed in, but their strength of spirit and steadfastness to fight for good made it possible for them to repel the powers of darkness. All things are possible to him that overcomes.
Unfortunately there are some people who have gone too deeply into the darkness and they will never choose the light. They no longer have the common sense to see what is happening to them; as the expression says they have become as ugly as sin. They have become absorbed by the evil forces of darkness which control their daily lives.
An analogy my spiritual teacher once used related to the physical environment here on Earth. He would remind us that this world is made up of oceans and land. Obviously the human body has evolved to live on the land therefore if we choose to live in the sea it will put our life at risk. On a spiritual level the message is clear; we can choose good (the land) where spiritually we belong, or evil (the sea) which will damage our spiritual being.
God did not create evil; we create evil when we bring it alive through our thoughts and actions.