Did God Create Evil?

Google that question and you’ll get over 1.6 million responses. Even if you could read them all, I’m not sure you’d get the correct answer.
Why do people ask?
Perhaps they think it’s a chance to make God like us, devious and manipulative, self-serving. To support that concept, we read that we were made for God’s good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). That statement sounds self-serving until we learn that God is all about giving of himself. His “good pleasure” is sharing his wealth with us, making us participants in the good he wants to do for others.
If God could intervene, is he guilty of a crime when he doesn’t?
Some scholars think they’ve answered well by saying God doesn’t cause evil, he only allows it. But wait. We would judge a police officer guilty if he watched a murder and did nothing. The fact that he didn’t cause the murder but only allowed it doesn’t excuse him from the crime.
Can God intervene?
Some Christians don’t seem to think so. They view Satan as an enemy who is present everywhere, causing everything that is evil. With that view, they either make war against an enemy who isn’t there, or they’re fighting “spiritual forces of evil” (Ephesians 6:12) without the power to win.
God has a good purpose in all he causes and allows.
If God were to step in without our complete surrender to him, we’re left without the spiritual relationship and glory that he has for us. The Bible tells us that surrender to God is our only means to defeat the enemy (James 4:7), so our real battle is with our own desires, not the devil.
Consider this part of the Lord’s Prayer. “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Why would Jesus tell us to pray for God not to do something that he would never do? Paul prayed for the removal of his “thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan,” but God said no (2 Corinthians 12:7). When Satan wanted to sift Peter like wheat, Jesus only prayed for Peter and told him what to do after he had repented (Luke 22:31–32). In both cases, God didn’t intervene.
Did God Create Evil?
Here’s the simple answer: God didn’t create evil, but it exists because of what he has created. And he allows it for a good and necessary purpose.
The people have overcome Satan (1) by the sacrifice of the Lamb, (2) by giving their testimonies, and (3) by complete surrender to God’s will, even unto death. — Revelation 12:11, Frank Ball paraphrase