THE ISSUE OF EVIL

EVIL DEFINED - AMISS

Subjective (Humanistic) View

Relativistic argument – culture, experience, emotive truth decides for the INDIVIDUAL what is good and evil
Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil…”
1Cor 14:33 “For God is not a God of confusion…”
How can you measure evil? inches, liters, watts, degrees...?
-Einstein handout-
Jude vs 8, 10 “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties…these men revile the things which they do not understand, and the things which they know by instinct…by these things are they destroyed.”

RE-DEFINING EVIL (or rather, giving back its original Biblical meaning)

Objective (Biblical) View
Gen 1:4,10,12,18,21,25,31, “God saw that it was good… very good”
Is “good” referring to a moral good, or some other kind of “good”?
He is referring to “order”, He created & set EVERYTHING in perfect working “order”
“Good” in the sense of morality springs from what was set in order.

Gen 2:9 & 3:22 – “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” & “knowing good and evil”
Was ½ the tree “good” and ½ “evil”?
The tree represents “knowledge” it’s what was done with that tree that represented “good/evil” – “following intended order/rebelling against intended order”

"OUT OF ORDER" = "EVIL"

This does NOT take away from evil being “bad”, “hurtful”, “destructive”, “morally wrong”, “sinful” etc.
It ONLY takes away the subjectivity of what is “good/evil” & makes it something objective & clearly understood through the lenses of the Bible.

Is the Accusation/existence of Evil Proof that the God of the Bible Doesn’t Exist or That NO God Exist? or “How can an all-loving, all-knowing God allow evil to exist?”
-Ravi Zaccharias explanation-

1. "Would you agree that 'evil' exists?"
2. "Since you agree that 'evil' exists, surely you must agree that 'good' exists as well?"
3. "Since you agree that 'evil' & 'good' both exist, then you must agree that there is some type of universal moral law from which 'good' & 'evil' both descend from?"
4. "You agree that 'evil' exists. You agree that 'good' exists. They are substantive in a transcendant 'moral law'. So then, logically you must agree that wherever that this law & whoever gave/initiated this law must be as equally transcendant as the law that was given."

How does this disprove God? The answer is: IT DOESN'T. In fact it PROVES the need for God for the issue of "evil" to make sense.

WHAT IS THE "REAL" BATTLE BETWEEN "GOOD & EVIL" & HOW DID IT BEGIN?

God may have made evil possible, but people made it actual:
Deut 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order hat you may live…”

Gen Chap 2:15 – 3:24 follows the:

• Boundaries for what is good(in order) and evil(out of order) are set in place with clear explanation of consequences for rebelling from the intended/imposed order (good), [2:15-17]
• The possibility for evil, [2:17]
  
• The responsibility of good & its benefits [2:18-25]
  
• The confusion/temptation of good & evil, [3:1-5]
  
• The choosing/actualization of evil (disorder) & rebellion of good (order), [3:6]
  
• The understanding of evil – its producing guilt & its fear of good & its (evils) desire to separate itself from good, [3:7-10]
  
• Attempt of evil(disorder) to explain(justify) its rebellion of good(order), [3:11-13]
  (PROCESS BEGINS TO REPEAT AT THIS POINT)the explanation from Good as to the subsequent consequences of rebellion from the imposed order(goodness), [3:14-19]
  
• The desire for “Supreme Good” to once again try to establish order where rebellion from the originally intended order had begun. However, this order is now a less than perfect order as was before, which makes it increasingly more difficult to appropriate the responsibility/benefits of staying within “the intended order”. [3:20-21]
  
• Necessity of good to judge/punish evil to perpetuate and further separate the already established boundaries/separation between them. [3:22-24]
  
• Also read Gen 4:6-16, confirms the order given in Gen 2:15-3:24
  ***Gen 4:7 “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."

WHY DOESN'T GOD GET RID OF EVIL?

Defeated vs. Destroyed
Evil defeated in the life, death & burial of Christ
Col 2:14-15 “having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”
Romans 5:17-19 “For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many…Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because the one disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because the One obeyed God, many will be made righteous."
God destroying evil completely could possibly be the greatest evil of all…
It could take away the propensity to truly love God.

IS THERE EVIL POSSIBLE IN HEAVEN?

Why did Satan fall if it were impossible. REBELLION FROM ORDER.
We cannot destroy evil ourselves, but we can overcome or defeat it – AT WILL!!!
Luke 10:19 “Behold, I have given you authority…over all the power of the enemy…”
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Romans 12:21 “Do not be overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Remember “agape” love is a matter of will/choice & not a feeling
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Psalm 65:4 “How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You to dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house…”

Do you see the choice indicated here…?
1John 2:10-11 “The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness had blinded his eyes.

The existence of evil is a better argument FOR the existence of God rather than AGAINST.
-Christian Apologetics, pg 348-
“The point is that to say something is evil is to say that there is an objective, transcendent, personal being whose will is being violated or whose order is being disturbed. In short, to say something is evil is to claim there is a God. In fact, the existence of evil is one of the most powerful evidences for God. Without the existence of God, the idea of evil becomes unintelligible. As a result, the problem of evil is not a problem for the Christian. Rather [it] is a problem for unbelievers.”

copyrighted 2008, travis marshall iv