Good and Evil.
It's often talked about isnt it? why this? why that? Its something we all tackle and try and figure answers out to, here's what I've tried to answers those questions with.
God’s explanation for acts of his seen as evil by humans.
God’s explanation for acts of his seen as evil by humans.
In a nutshell, in God performs no evil act, only the Devil
does. There is a reason behind every act God does and that will reveal its
purpose in time. God says that humans decide whether his acts or evil or not as
they judge for themselves, not trusting in what God is doing. A book called
“The Shack” illustrated this, when Mack (the main character) talk to God in his
different forms. One form is the Holy Spirit, taken from page 133, the holy
spirit says to Mack “Humans have a great capacity for declaring something good
or evil, without truly knowing.”
The following back this up in more detail.
Text adapted from a book called “The
Shack” written by William P Young - pages 134-7
(The character personification of the Holy Spirit, Sarayu,
talks about Evil to Mack.)
“Let me begin be asking you
a question, when some happens to you, how do you determine whether it is good or evil?” It is pretty subjective
“It is you (humans) who determines good and evil. You
(humans) become the judge. And to make things more confusing, that which you
(humans) determine to be good will change over time and circumstance. And then
beyond that and even worse, there are billions of you (humans) each determining
what is good and what is evil. So when your good and evil clashes with your
neighbour’s, fights and arguments ensue and even wars break out.
The choice (of Eve) to eat of that tree (of knowledge in the
Garden of Eden) tore the universe apart divorcing the spiritual form the
physical.”
(Mack in reply to Sarayu)
“I can see now, I have spent most of my time and energy
trying to acquire what I have determined to be good (…) And I spend a huge
amount of energy and worry fearing what I’ve determined to be evil”
(Sarayu)
“Such truth in that,
remember this. It allows you to play God in your own independence. That’s why a
part of you prefers not to see me (God). And you don’t need me (God) at all to
create your list of good and evil. But you do need me (God) if you have any
desire to stop such an insane lust for independence. (…)
You must give up your right to decide what is good and evil
on your own terms. That is a hard pill to swallow; choosing to only live in me
(God). To do this you must know me (God) enough to trust me (God) and learnt to
rest in my (God’s) inherent goodness”
(…)
“Evil is a word used to describe the absence of good, just
like the word darkness is used to describe the absence of light. (…) Both evil
and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not
have any actual existence (in God’s eyes) Light and good actually exist.
Removing yourself from me (God) will plunge you (humans) into darkness.
Declaring independence will result in evil because when apart from me (God),
you can only draw upon yourself (and your own wisdom). That is death because
you have separated yourself from me (God), (Who is) life.
(…)
(On giving up the right of independence)
“Then you would begin to know the wonder and adventures of
living in me (God). (…) Jesus didn’t hold any rights; he willingly became a
servant and lives out the relationship to God. He gave up everything, so that
by his dependent life he opened a door that would allow you to live free enough
to give up your rights”
So some things may seems evil when actually they're not, if it's truly sent by God - of course others could be evil in its purest form.
The concept of Evil.
What is evil? Evil is anything that goes against the
goodness of God, whether that be an action, thought or general being.
Why does the concept of evil exist in humans? Evil spirits
do exist; God did not create them as he only created the heavens and earth.
Just as God is for Goodness, Satan (or the devil) is the ruler for evil and
again just as God can appear in many forms, so can the Devil, traditionally identified as the serpent who
convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:1-6). The devil challenges our
faith with God through the actions of evil or Sin.
There is a story about how another form of the Devil came to
be, Lucifer. Lucifer started life as an Angel created by God who rebelled
against him and accused him of many things, so becoming a fallen star (Isaiah
14:3-20). In removing himself from God Lucifer became the devil in a physical
from.
The devil's most potent action is to make you believe he doesn't exist after performing such evil actions, leaving you to just be angry at God... It's clever, I've been there...
God can’t stop evil taking a stranglehold over people, due
to free will he gave us to experience true love and relationship, but God can
“weave tapestry of goodness” around the circumstances to tie in with his plans.
So how can we stop evil? The simple answer, through
Salvation. Salvation is saving the soul from Sin and entering that relationship
with God, trusting in his every word and judgement. The way we start this
relationship is looking to Jesus as he is the gateway to God. Following Jesus’
example through good deeds and telling the Good News that Jesus told us himself
about the Kingdom of God, to all people (Hebrews 12:1-3) and that in a nutshell
is what faith and being a Christian means, to live that life to fullest you
possibly can.
God also says about wearing his full armour when facing
battles against wicked spirits (Ephesians 6:10-20) and that with Christ you can
achieve anything, even in the most seemingly hopeless circumstance (Philippians
4:13)
Eventually the visions that were shown to John in the book
of Revelations will come true and despite God sending troubles to earth to
defeat evil and send warnings of judgement, those who keep God’s command and
praise him will kept safe. This is where the battle between God and Satan
become very real but with light prevailing over darkness and evil being
thrown in the lake of fire along with all the others that followed Satan when
it comes to judgement, also known as the second death. (Revelation 20:11-15).
After this, the new world comes into being with the old order and sin being completely
removed (Revelation 21:1-22:5) and then how Jesus will live again amongst us
all and we can all have the fullness of a relationship with him to its optimum. And that is some way to live! But its up us to fight for that in the meantime - I know I'm in, are you?
Love
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