An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 92

1 BOOK IV — CHAPTER 19: That God is not the cause of evils.

2 It is to be observed that it is the custom in the Holy Scripture to speak of God's permission as His energy. His permission, therefore, is usually spoken of in the Holy Scripture as His energy and work. Nay, even when He says that God creates evil things, he does not mean by these words that the Lord is the cause of evil, but the word evil is used in two ways, with two meanings. For sometimes it means what is evil by nature, and this is the opposite of virtue and the will of God: and sometimes it means that which is evil and oppressive to our sensation, that is to say, afflictions and calamities. Now these are seemingly evil because they are painful, but in reality are good. For to those who understand they became ambassadors of conversion and salvation.

3 It is, moreover, to be observed that of these, too, we are the cause: for involuntary evils are the offspring of voluntary ones. Moreover, God does not wish that He alone should be just, but that all should, so far as possible, be made like Him.