Recently, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf received the following question on Facebook: “Since God created everything, did He create evil?”
In response to this question, President Uchtdorf shared this powerful answer:
As I have mentioned before, when I find time, I do try to review what you are sharing in response to my Facebook posts.
Recently I received a question on Facebook that was essentially this: “Since God created everything, did He create evil?”
I’ll turn to the words of the Lord, as well as scholars to answer this. Certainly, my answer will not be exhaustive, but I hope it will provide you with some increased understanding and direction where to search for more.
B.H. Roberts, a scholar and Church leader in the late 1800s and early 1900s, said this about evil: “Evil is not a created quality. It has always existed. It is as eternal as goodness.”
For example, before we were born, Satan used his agency to choose evil, and sought to destroy the agency of man. Because of this choice Heavenly Father caused that he should be cast down” (Moses 4:1–4).
President James E. Faust taught that Satan then became “the author of all evil in the world,” and it is therefore “essential to realize that he is the influence behind the opposition to the work of God.”
The Book of Mormon says that “all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil” (Moroni 7:12, see also Alma 5:40, 2 Cor. 4:4 and “Evil” in the Topical Guide).
There must be an “opposition in all things. If not . . . righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness” (2 Nephi 2:11).
Good and evil exist, along with our power to choose, so that when we choose the right, Heavenly Father can bless us with all the blessings He has promised.
Heavenly Father wants to bless His children and this requires that we must be able to make choices. God does not create evil, but allows it so that we can choose.
I testify that God loves His children. Because He loves us and because He is the source of all goodness, He does all in His power to invite and encourage us to do good continually (see Moroni 7:13). I bless you to always have the desire to choose the right—CTR!