If God created everything, did God create evil?

God did not create evil. Evil is the unfortunate result of God creating beings with free will… free to love or free to pursue their own interests, outside of, or against, his will. Some have said that love and evil are 2 sides of the same paper… it is not possible to create only one side of a sheet of paper.

God knew that creating out of love involved risk, because true love is always an act of free will. He knew that some would choose evil, and that all of creation would suffer since the nature of everything is intertwined. The good news is that he put a plan in place to conquer evil once and for all, and to extend forgiveness and salvation to those who accept these gifts. In the final state, evil will be no more, and his initial plan for creation will be restored.