Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
Did God create evil? Usually people that ask themselves this question follow a certain logic. The logic is if God is all-powerful, almighty, therefore He could stop evil. And if God is all- knowing, He certainly knows that there is evil. And if God is love truly, then He doesn't want us to live with this evil. So something is wrong, so they come to two different types of conclusions. The first one is: God does not exist. The second one is: God is the source of evil and if He is the source of evil, why would we worship such a god?
But the Bible tells us a different story. The Bible says that God is truly love and He loves us unconditionally. And it says that God is without sin, and this was demonstrated in His reincarnation and the righteous life that was recorded for us in the Gospels. So when God created the creation in Genesis 1 and 2, we saw that everything was good, and even very good when it came to humanity. But the devil swooped in; he came in with a different notion: He convinced Eve, and therefore Adam as well, with something else, something that was evil, something that was outside of God. So did God create evil? Not necessarily, but the question is now: Who put the devil there? Who created this devil that came with this notion of evil?
So did God create this devil? Did He create this source of evil? We have to understand who God is, who we are as humans, who the angels and the demons are, so we know that God is truly and certainly unconditional love. And because He created us humans in His image, we are also able to love and to be loved, although partially, not in the same way that God loves us, but we have tasted it. So we know from experience that I cannot force anybody to love me. So I need to have a choice, a free will to love someone else and vice versa. So when God creates an intelligent being, whether an angel or whether a human, He creates him with a will, a will to choose, a will to love Him or not to love Him. So did God create this devil? Look what Ezekiel 28 says... Ezekiel here it says:
'' 14 You were... [talking about the devil], you were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you, you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.'' (Ezekiel 28:14)
So the devil was created as a cherub, which is the single of cherubim, so he was created as a beautiful, good angel. The devil was not created as a devil, as the source of evil, far from it, because the creation of a good god are always good as well. It says:
'' 15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created [so God created him perfect from the origin, from the first day he was created], till iniquity was found in you.'' (Ezekiel 28:15)
So who brought this iniquity in him?
'' 17 Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendour...'' (Ezekiel 28:17)
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. So who brought this iniquity in him? The devil himself; this cherub became the devil. Because he saw how beautiful he was and he got full of himself, in other words, and that's what humanity also has as a choice: do I love myself or do I love God? So because he had this will, he chose not to love God anymore, but to love himself. Iniquity was found in him, although he was created good. And Isaiah 14 confirms this that the devil fell because of his pride, and in Jude, verse 6, it confirms that other angels fell with him.
Saint Basil actually confirms this understanding by saying the following:
''Again, it is impious [or ungodly] to say that evil has its origin from God, because nothing contrary is produced by the contrary. Life does not generate death, nor is darkness the beginning of light, nor is disease the maker of health.'' (St. Basil, Hexaemeron, Homily 2:4-5)
So what he's saying is that light is not the source of darkness, nor life the source of death. So only good things can come from a good person; only bad things can come from a bad person.
''In Genesis, however, each being comes forth not from its contrary but from those of the same type.'' (St. Basil, Hexaemeron, Homily 2:4-5)
So if God is good, it is very natural that all the creation in Genesis 1 and 2 were also good.
''Accordingly, they say, if it is not uncreated [or] created by God, whence does it have its nature? [Where does evil come from?] No one who is in this world will deny that evils exist. What, then, do we say? That evil is not a living and animated substance, but a condition of the soul which is opposed to virtue and which springs up in the slothful because of their falling away from good.'' (St. Basil, Hexaemeron, Homily 2:4-5)
What is he saying here? He's saying that evil is not a nature in itself; evil's not a substance in itself. But evil happens when there's lack of good. So God is good. When I step away from God, I stop praying, stop my Bible, I disconnect from him. When I sin, evil starts in me. So evil in itself is a condition of the soul and it's a consequence of me being away from God. Like this cherub when he was cast away from the presence of God because of his sin and his lack of
repentance, he found himself to become evil, but evil at the purest level, because he completely let himself become away from God.
''Do not therefore contemplate evil from without; and do not imagine some original nature of wickedness, but let each one recognize himself as the first author of the vice that is in him.'' (St. Basil, Hexaemeron, Homily 2:4-5)
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever. Amen.