On his website, Arminian Perspectives, Ben Henshaw has a questions page at which he answers questions about Arminianism and Calvinism that visitors to his site pose in the comment section of the page. Here is a question submitted by a man named Tyler followed by Ben’s answer and an additional thought from another commenter:
Question:
Hello, I am a Pentecostal Evangelical who has been taking a class on soteriology at my in-law’s church in the same neighborhood and they teach a Reformed view. It has really wracked my brain as to whether or not Arminianism or Calvinism is more in line with the Gospel teaching.
So I went to your blog and found your articles critiquing John Piper’s theodicy and his idea that God creates both good and evil and how that obscures moral categories. You’ve also argued that it is not Biblical. Yet I want to know how you would interpret the following verse from Isaiah,
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7 KJV)
I am not trying to be annoying. I sincerely want to know how this verse should be in interpreted within an Arminian framework, because it seems to me that this verse supports Piper’s theodicy.
Answer:
The KJV is a really poor translation here. The NASB says, “Causing well being and causing calamity.” The NIV says, “I bring prosperity and create disaster“, and the RSV translates it, “I make wealth and create woe.” Even the new Calvinist favorite translation, the ESV, renders it, “I make well being and create calamity.”
Now the Hebrew word “Ra” can also have reference to moral evil, but it has a wide range of uses and the proper use must be determined by context. That is why so many translations translate the word “disaster” or “calamity” in this passage. The context has to do with God’s dealing with Israel and other nations. It is a reference to divine judgment for the rebellion of kings and nations against God in this context. In this chapter it describes the contrast between the help that will be given Cyrus and Israel compared to the disaster that will come upon Egypt.
What is interesting is verses 9-11 which was used by Paul along with Jeremiah 18 as the imagery of the Potter in Romans 9 that so many see as a proof text for unconditional election and reprobation. But in this context it is wholly concerned with God’s righteous judgment on those who “strive” or “fight against” their maker (in Romans 9 it has reference to the Jews who are denying God the sovereign right to save the Gentiles through Christ and to reject unbelieving Israel due to their rejection of Christ, because they wrongly see this as God not upholding his promises to the descendants of Abraham/Isaac/Jacob).
In Jeremiah 18 it is clear that the way God, as the Potter, deals with peoples and nations is wholly conditional on their responses to Him (vss. 6-10). And you will notice that the same word that the KJV translates as “evil” is used in Jeremiah 18:8 with reference to God relenting to bring judgment on a rebellious nation that turns back to God (clearly conditional rather than unconditional),
“If the nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.” (NASB)
The same is true in verse 11 where God devises calamity and judgment for the people of Israel due to their stubborn rebellion, even though He had good intentions for them (again, clearly conditional based on Israel’s response to God rather than unconditional). In verses 8 and 11 we see the same word being used in two different ways based on context. It is used of the moral evil of rebellion against God and the disaster of divine judgment in response to that rebellion against God.
Any Calvinist that uses Isaiah 45:7 as a proof text that God is the origin of all sin and moral evil is guilty of gross proof texting.
Additional Thought from Another Commenter:
Let me also add that for a Calvinist to use Isaiah 45:7 as a proof text for God as the origin of evil seems like it would be for them to prove too much. The official Calvinist line is that God is not the author of evil. But if they use that verse to say that God creates all evil, then that would seem to be them making him out as the author of evil.
