One biblical text that many have found confusing, particularly in older translations, is Isaiah 45:7. It reads, “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.” This passage may appear to be teaching that God is the author of evil—that He creates evil. And if that’s true, that would make God evil. However, there are about eight different words that can be translated as “evil” in Hebrew. And if we read carefully, we can recognize that antithetical parallelism is being employed in this passage. Notice the first line: “I form
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