Is There Justification For Evil?

"Who can say to Him, 'What have you done?" Job 9:12 

"What's wrong with the world?  'I am. sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton.'"

"We have met the enemy, and he is us!" Pogo, in Walt Kelly's cartoon. 

NOTE: THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF EVIL (MORAL AND NATURAL), I AM CONCERNED WITH THE MORAL ASPECT. 

FIRST:    God justified giving mankind free will when He planted the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and commanded Adam not to eat of it. Notice that there was one, simple rule to follow!   If there had been no test of obedience, one could say that true love and obedience couldn't exist.  It is impossible for evil to exist with free will and no one choosing it.   

Thus, God gave mankind the right to choose evil without being coerced or inclined in that direction and then prevent them from choosing it. If evil had not existed, then we would have no choice but to obey God and wouldn't be freewill moral agents but mere automatons, puppets, dolls, pets, or robots of God. 

The Bible clearly says God allows evil for His own purposes (Prov. 16:4) and even uses it to glorify Himself and can turn short-term evil into long-term good (Acts 2:23:4:28). All things happen according to God's design and plan (Eph. 1:11).  All things are going according to plan!  (Isaiah 37:26).   We must acknowledge nothing can happen without God's permission if we realize God is sovereign.  If God isn't ultimately in control, what kind of God is He?

But we tend to complain to God when we are the victims of evil: "Why me Lord?" Job probably never contemplated God's justice in allowing evil till it happened to him!  He said, "Must we accept good times from God and not bad times?" (Job 2:10).   "God turns the wrath of man to praise Him!" (Psalm 76:10) and that means God has ultimate purposes we cannot know and everything is for the final glory of God (Romans 11:36) for we were created for the glory of God (Isaiah 43:7). 

We wonder if God has done anything about evil and don't realize we can do something ourselves: God made you! Realize that Jesus was indeed the victim of evil and didn't complain to His Father that He had gotten bad karma or something He didn't deserve: remember, Jesus signed up for the Via Dolorosa and the Passion to the cross for our sakes. He was a willing target of Satan. 

We see in the crucifixion, a gross evil event perpetrated by wrongdoers and malefactors doing Satan's bidding via Rome, but God knows what He is doing and that "all things work together for good for them that love God that are called according to His purpose," (Rom. 8:28). But God allows short-term evil for long-term good. As when he told Joseph about his brothers, "Your brothers meant it for evil but I meant it for good," (Gen. 50:20). 

Evil must run its course because there is an angelic conflict in the spiritual arena between God and Satan and we are in the middle of it and sign up as combatants when we get saved. Good overcomes evil and will defeat it in the end, for Satan is already a defeated foe because of the victory of Christ at the cross and especially in His  resurrection, the victory over death itself. We are to equip ourselves with the weapons and armor of God and fight in Jesus' name. 

At the end of history, evil will be cast away into the lake of fire and will be silenced forever. But it is better in God's eyes to have defeated evil with His goodness than never to have allowed it to enter the equation in the first place. This way, all of us can participate in this war in heavenly places and be rewarded for our own victories with crowns and rewards.  

Only in Christianity is evil actually given meaning and given some sense of justification.  But we must not merely justify evil's existence but find what the answer to it is for the sake of argument: we must not just philosophize about it, grin and bear it, or become mere stoics but have faith in face of evil; this means that the prima facie answer is knowing a Person, namely, Jesus, not words of man, but the Word of God!   

In the final analysis, if God were to eliminate all evil in the world immediately, none of us would be left; only God is good.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

Did God Create Evil?...

 Some people read into the King James Version translation of Isaiah 45:7 that God "created evil." Actually, if you bother to read other more reliable translations like the NASB, NIV, ESV, or NLT, you will see that in context God is referring to natural evil such as disaster, calamity, bad times, bad or hard luck, and so forth. God cannot create moral evil for God is moral and good and holy and there is no evil motive or thought in Him. God is pure goodness.  A parallel verse to interpret this is Amos 3:6 which says does disaster come to a city unless the LORD has caused it. Job also in v. 2:10 thank God for bad times as well as good times as being from God

To be clear, God did create the possibility of evil just like when He created rocks and stones, He made it possible for Cain to murder Abel with one. A gun manufacturer makes murder possible but is not culpable for what a gun owner does with the weapons they manufacture.  Now, God gave us free will and that means we must have the option to be evil or to disobey God. God cannot give us free will and then prevent us from using it against Him. Free will necessitates the possibility of evil and hatred or we would be robots and puppets forced or coerced to obey and love God.

First, we must realize what evil is. It is not the opposite of good for then it would be equal to it and something that is existing in itself per se. Evil is the distortion, perversion, and twisting of good; a deviation from the good. It is a parasite and parasites need a host  (goodness!). If there were no good, neither could there be evil. Examples then of evil are unrighteousness, lawlessness, injustice, and unfairness.  You see that the objective good must exist first. That is why God cannot create evil: it is not a thing, but a lack of good and a parasite a vacuum that sucks in error and falsehood. Evil was once good just like Satan was once perfect in all his ways till evil was found in his heart.  God didn't force or tempt Satan to do evil or to be evil; he managed this unprovoked by God and on his own initiative. 

Goodness is something that can be infinite and perfect for God is good and perfect in all His ways. But evil cannot be absolute or perfect or infinite, because it is a parasite and deviation.  The power of evil is that it masquerades and parades as good and deceives people.  Like mixing enough error or heresy into truth to inoculate or immunize one from the real thing, like a false religion. Yes, pagan religions and false religions are not totally evil or completely wrong! They do have an element of truth and enough good to deceive! Satan then is in the counterfeit business trying even to deceive the elect with heresy and false doctrines of demons.  

Now God has reasons to permit and allow evil: We see good in contrast to evil, we get the opportunity for good in the midst of evil, we praise God for turning short-term evil into long-term good, and it is a test of our faith and character (some get better, some bitter). Soli Deo Gloria!

How Do You Prove Evil Exists Without God?

Don’t you know that Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? They go hand in hand and can be distinguished but not separated. Good and evil are metaphysical ideas and not physical ones. They can be logically deduced but not proven by normal means as you would think. Note that you cannot prove anything without making some assumption that cannot be proven, even in science they assume that nature is orderly, consistent, and knowable and put faith in the scientific method. NOTE: All knowledge is contingent and begins in faith!

You would have to first assume that good exists, and then define evil as its privation, distortion, or twisting. For instance, if you assume justice, injustice must also exist by definition whether realized or not; also laws exist so lawlessness must also even if not reckoned; and if there can be righteousness, there is also unrighteousness by nature. An atheist may even assume he is good without God in the equation and even think evil of others or think they are evil compared to him (not God!).

Note: there’s no perfect evil but it’s always mixed with enough good to deceive just like lies that have an element of truth—enough to make you immune to the real thing or the ultimate Truth with a capital T. That’s why cults thrive—they have enough truth to inoculate from the truth and reality which it corresponds to.

It is difficult to define good without God in the equation as Plato defined God as the only Supreme Good and standard of it to recognize it by. How can you conceive of justice without a Judge, order without an Orderer, laws without a Lawgiver, righteousness without rights? You may ask how is this possible, yet Communists believe in justice without a Judge and laws without a Lawgiver. Atheists will tell you they are or can be moral without a moral center to the universe, God the Judge.

If there were no moral or good and evil, what is the purpose of our conscience or moral compass (given us by God)? Does anything repulse you at all, not even the Holocaust? Is there anything you wouldn't do because of your principles, scruples, or inhibitions? That’s why we see good in light of evil, light in view of darkness, blessings in spite of cursing, love in contrast to hate!  Soli Deo Gloria! 

Why Is There So Much Evil? ...

"The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time" (Gen. 6:5, NIV).
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9, NIV).
"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today" (Gen. 50:20, ESV).

Evil is not the opposite of good, but its perversion or deprivation--evil couldn't exist in its own right unless good did. In the beginning, there was no evil in the world. There is no such thing as a struggle in life between yin and yang like Eastern mystics believe. God created everything and said it was good! But He also created the possibility of evil. For if evil had not been possible, there would be no way to see good in contrast. We see good in light of evil and shouldn't ask where's God, but where isn't God and where's the church. God did something about evil; He made you and me! He created us for such a time as this and we must let our light shine in the darkness and it shall not be put out or extinguished. John Donne said, "Don't ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." Evil gives us the opportunity to overcome it with good and to bring glory to God with victory in Jesus' name.

There is a very good reason why evil must exist: different people respond to the same event in different ways--one becomes better and one bitter! The same sun hardens the clay, melts the butter! The same knife can cut butter and be used in war. If evil didn't exist, how would we know if we would choose God for ourselves? There so much evil now because God knows how to turn it into good and sees a silver lining behind every cloud. God works the wrath of man to His glory and there is so much of it to work with--but God doesn't allow anything that doesn't fit His ultimate purpose (cf. Psa. 76:10). We must never question God's wisdom and blame Him for our problems.

God could stamp out evil in the world with one stroke, but you and I wouldn't be here, for everyone has some evil inherent, for man is a totally depraved being in need of salvation. Who is it that would determine just how much evil is to be tolerated, if not God? We must trust God who is too deep to explain Himself, too wise to make a mistake, and too kind to be cruel. Job wondered why God was getting on his case because he saw himself as righteous. His error was that he was self-righteous! We all deserve far worse from God than we receive at His hand--God tempers His justice with mercy and remembers mercy in His wrath (cf. Hab. 3:2).

Instead of charging God with error, we should thank Him for His mercy and grace--We don't get what we deserve and get what we don't deserve! God is good to all in some ways and to some in all ways who are doubly blessed (cf. Psalm 145:9). But God's common grace extends to all and He calls all men to repent, but most men don't see their sins.

There are no easy answers to evil in the world and no religion has a complete answer but leaves room for faith to come into play. God isn't accountable to us, but we to Him and He doesn't have to explain Himself. A lot of evil we experience is of our own doing as we reap what we sow, some sow the wind and reap the whirlwind even. A man ruins his life and then blames the Lord (cf. Prov. 19:3), but when he's successful he gives himself all the credit! We must rest in faith that God allows evil to happen according to His providence and has a purpose for everything, even the wicked for the day of evil (cf. Prov. 16:4). According to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, sometimes referred to as the best of all possible worlds in which evil is minimized and goodness maximized, God cannot make a world with men having the ability to choose evil if they will, without some choosing it to their damnation!

God always makes it up to us for the evil done us and rewards us for the days the locust has eaten (cf. Psalm 90:15; Joel 2:25). We never come out losers with God on our side and always with us. Jesus expects nothing more from us He didn't do: all sufferings, trials, afflictions, tests must inevitably come but our crosses pale in comparison to His. In the final analysis, we must view evil in our lives as a test of faith and God doesn't allow any evil that isn't Father-filtered and He has a purpose for it--"All things work together for good to them who love God..."

NB: The world is not as evil as it can be for God's grace is at work always restraining it lest it gets out of hand. We live in the day of grace when God is keeping the door open to the gospel and not judgment. Someday God will judge the world and make His wrath known.  MAYBE WE SHOULD ASK: "WHY IS THERE SO MUCH GOOD?"


"The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good" (Prov. 15:3, ESV).

God didn't create evil (cf. Isaiah 45:7 refers to natural evil, not moral evi of man and should be translated as "disaster")  but did make it possible for it to exist by virtue of giving the gift of free will to innocent sentient creatures and to Adam and Eve. Evil entered the human race via the Fall instigated by Satan. There are many who wonder why doesn't God eliminate evil; Robinson Crusoe answered that question to Friday: Why doesn't God get rid of you? The point is that God is in the process of doing something about evil--He made you and me!

God has no hands to help but ours; no mind to think with but ours; no voice to speak through but ours; and finally no heart to love through than ours. The dilemma of God being almighty and good poses the question of why does there seems to be no justice and why do the good suffer. First of all, there are no good people--we are not basically good, but evil in God's estimation. Second of all, why do good things happen to bad people, not why do bad things happen to good people? Without evil in existence, or its possibility we all would be automatons with no will of our own to choose to obey or disobey God freely.

God did give mankind a chance in the Garden of Eden and he blew it--Adam represented all of mankind and we would've done the same thing (the original sin prefigures all sin and is a denial of God's attributes one by one. The proverbial apple showed the entirety of the sin question: Adam rejected God's authority; he doubted His goodness; he disputed His wisdom; he repudiated His justice; he contradicted His truthfulness; he spurned His grace (source unknown).

Edengate, as it has been dubbed as the very first cover-up and God didn't hide from Adam, but Adam from God in shame, because he knew he had done something wrong and felt guilty. God cleansed their guilt and wiped it away by clothing them in skins. This was the prototype sin and we should all see ourselves as doing ditto. Adam sought his own goodness, delight, and wisdom, having rejected God's. That's the epitome of sin: man's declaration of independence from God!

When asking why do the good suffer, the real question should be why are they blessed? God gives man less than he deserves punitively. God is good and so there is a standard of Supreme or Ultimate Good (per Plato) and God is omnipotent, almighty, and plenipotent. God is also just, kind and good; so why do we suffer? There is an invisible conflict between good and evil (evil has been dethroned at the cross and Christ reigns), but the mop-up effort and consummation are in process. In the end, God will turn the wrath of man to praise Him (cf. Psalm 76:10).

In the meantime, we find ourselves in the enemy-occupied territory--the devil's turf or domain! We fight evil from the vantage point of victory, not for a victory--Christ already won the battle! Evil must exist and it's not the counterpart of God nor its opposite, but a parasite and perversion of good (it couldn't exist in its own right).

Without God, there can be no evil or sin and without the possibility of evil, there can be no good expressed, for we only see and behold goodness in contrast to evil and sin. Someone said that one might ask: Do you see the evil and say "why?" Or do you see the good and say "why not?" We see good in light of evi; we have the opportunity for good with evil; we endure short-term evil for long-term good; realize that there can be no objective evil without objective good. In the final analysis, we must not lose faith in the fact that God will someday settle the score and mete out justice at Judgment Day; justice delayed is not justice denied! Soli Deo Gloria!

Why Does God Allow Evil?...

“Oh, the depth of both the riches and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out!” (cf. Romans 11:33).
“Who has prescribed his ways for him, or said to him, ‘You have done wrong?” (cf. Job 36:23).
“… Who can say to him, ‘What are you doing?’” (cf. Job 9:12).
“.. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: ‘Wha have you done?’” (cf. Daniel 4:35).
“I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD do all these things,” (cf. Isaiah 45:9).

Disaster doesn’t just come to India, but to all people for no one is immune from the judgment of God. Job suffered evil at the devil’s doing unjustly and he still didn't fault God. Who are we to blame God? “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (cf. Gen. 18:25).

We are to pray for God’s protection, a hedge of protection, or a shield to be delivered from evil as in the Lord’s Prayer. God didn't spare His own Son from evil and even Christians are not immune. Our God knows suffering first hand from what He suffered on the cross- if ever there was unwarranted evil that was it. But I suppose the Hindus would attribute this evil to karma. After a disaster, Jesus’ disciples wondered if they had deserved it: “Unless you repent, you shall likewise perish.” (cf. Luke 13:5).

But God is too deep to understand too kind to be cruel and too wise to do wrong or make mistakes. We are to note that God only allows short-term evil for long-term good. And all evil brings the opportunity for good to be seen in men. The ultimate question is not why evil? but why good? We deserve no mercy at all from God. If we did it would be justice. God reserves the right to have mercy on whom He will (cf. Romans 9:15,18).

Don’t think that this is the way God originally created the earth when He said “it was very good.” Sin and evil entered the picture. Satan has some effect on nature too but only with God’s permission—look at the calamities that happened to Job. Even though evil does happen, God’s guiding hand is there to filter anything contrary to His plan and will. In sum, note that God never explained Himself to Job or give him the answer he was looking for, but only revealed Himself; the answer wasn’t, “Why?” but “Who?” (God owes no one an explanation!). Note that the same sun melts the butter hardens the clay; some become bitter, some better!

In sum, a word to the wise is sufficient: We dare not ask God why is there so much evil in this fallen world (if there is a God), but why is there so much good (if there is no God)? Soli Deo Gloria! 

Can't We Ever Learn From Evil?

 “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees. to deprive the poor of the rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people.” (cf. Isaiah 10:1–2).

People condemn themselves in what they know as right and wrong for God has given all men some semblance of a moral compass or conscience (cf. Romans 2:14–15).

To beware of evil we must first be aware of it!

Evil is the privation, deprivation, parasite, and distortion of good. Nothing can be evil that was not first good. Good preceded evil: unrighteousness, lawlessness, injustice, etc. All men are evil for only God is good. God can turn short-term evil into long-term good (look at the crucifixion, cf. Acts 2:23; 4:28). God uses evil for good as in the case of Joseph and his brothers selling him into slavery (cf. Gen 50:20). He makes the wrath of man to praise Him (cf. Psalm 76:10).

There is no pure evil, but it has some “good” content, just enough to deceive. Evil doctrines of demons and heresies or false religions have enough truth to inoculate or immunize you from the real thing. False religions aren't all evil or wrong, just enough to deceive.

We see good in light of and in contrast to evil. All men have some basic knowledge of good and evil, right and wrong. Again: To beware of evil, as in their worldviews (cf. Col. 2:8) we must first be aware of it; we are not innocent but tainted and stained with evil ourselves. Only God can and does open our eyes and make us see the light (cf. Acts 14:27; 16:14). Satan has blinded the minds of them that believe not (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4).

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (cf. Isaiah 5:20).

Evil's Facade...

"... [Y]ou hate all evildoers" (Psalm 5:5, ESV). "... I will fear no evil..." (Psa. 23:4, ESV).
"The fear of the LORD is the hatred of evil..." (Proverbs 8:13, ESV).
"What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil..." (Isaiah 5:20, ESV).
"Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good" (Romans 12:21, ESV).
"Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight" (Psalm 51:4, NLT). "Will those who do evil never learn?" (Psalm 14:4, NLT).
"There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing evil..." (Rom. 2:9, NLT).
"... 'All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil'" (2 Tim. 2:19, NLT).
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5, ESV). (According to St. Augustine: Man has the inability not to sin before salvation or non posse non peccare in Latin.)

Man is not basically good, but inherently evil to his core and is radically corrupt through and through and must be redeemed by God to be able to do anything good; in his fallen state, he cannot do anything but sin and evil. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9, ESV). Isaiah 1 says: We are to cease to do evil, and learn to do good! ("Depart from evil, and do good..." (Psa. 37:27, ESV).

Evil doesn't advertise or promote itself by that moniker but tries to convince one of its good intentions to bring about the greater good as the end result. Remember Satan is the counterfeiter!  If something is not done God's way, it's the devil's way. God is able to work with evil and tolerates its existence because He can turn it into good (like curses into blessings), and there is a lot more evil to work with! What evil is, is not what people would suppose: It's goodness without God in the picture or the equation (like humanism that deifies man and makes him the measure of all things, the starting point of the equation, and dethrones God as dead and no longer relevant. God turns evil into good results: "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good" (cf. Gen. 50:20). There is no yin/yang or an equal balance of good and evil; however, Satan masquerades as an angel of light (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4).

We must become familiar with our common foe, or we will become like him, a do-gooder, who is trying to save humanity his way. There is only one person who is good, God. We do not have the power to harness the power of evil for good, like in Star Wars where they use the powers of the dark side. Christ annihilated evil and defeated it in toto at the cross and we are only here to proclaim His victory and to claim His authority. There is no such thing as pure evil, for evil, depends on good for its very existence; it's the privation of good; the deviation from good; the negation of goodness; and the perversion of goodness.

Satan was once good with no evil, but then pride was found in his heart and he fell and was booted out of heaven and his place of authority. Satan is not coequal with God, such as a yin/yang type working arrangement, but only a servant of God who must obey. There is now a cosmic battle or angelic conflict going on between Satan and his minions, and Christ, the church, and the elect angels on the other side. He is a defeated foe! 

We all have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in a sense, and are not innocent in God's eyes and are responsible for the light we have to be faithful and fruitful. It is good to be innocent of evil as much as possible and to be wise to what is good. Don't practice the occult nor magic arts and don't experiment with evil in any way, shape, or form. These are entry points and open the door to further evil.  

It all started when Satan challenged authority and asked Eve, "Hath God said..?" By her own volition Eve took of the forbidden fruit and the result of the so-called proverbial apple saga still goes on as it epitomized all sin in that one act of obedience (the prototype sin)--they only had one rule to obey and couldn't do it!

Today's youth are concerned more about what works than what's true, and they believe the test of an idea is not its truth value, but its results. The sorry result is that something can work and not be true or good, e.g., Yoga, or TM. These are not forbidden activities in Scripture, but nevertheless evil in that they circumvent the goodness and wisdom of God. Christianity is not true because it works, it works because it's true! Youth are concerned if something works for them and is practical or pragmatic, while God demands obedience and loyal faithfulness not to experiment with other religions or philosophies.

For example, to the innocent bystander or outside observer, Yoga may seem innocent enough but Yoga is a Hindu art that means union with God, and you learn to get in touch with one of their gods. People are lured and enticed into Eastern or New Age philosophy and religion, by such innocent-like practices that have mass appeal to man as being "good."

Heed the following caveats of 1 Thess. 5:22 (ESV), Job 28:28 (ESV), 1 Pet. 3:12 (HCSB); and Rom. 12:9 (ESV) respectively: "Abstain from every form of evil"; "...'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding'"; "... BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL"; "... Abhor what is evil; hold fast what is good." Soli Deo Gloria!

What's Wrong With Eating Of The Tree of Good and Evil?

 You mean: “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” That’s important to point out. It was simply wrong to disobey. There wasn't anything inherently wrong with the tree or its fruit nor even the knowledge that it would impart. God may have intended to let them eat of it at some future point after they passed His test of obedience and love just when children grow up when don't become evil automatically. The forbidden fruit merely represented a test of obedience love can not be forced but not have some test of faithfulness or obedience and loyalty.

Adam and Eve obviously were innocent in that they were unaware that there was an evil alternative to good and its threat to peace with God. They were as children before the age of accountability for their evil in God’s eyes. They had to decide which side they would be on—for or against God. The fruit wasn’t obviously a proverbial apple but something that did delight to the eyes and had natural appeal or temptation.

Their sin of eating of it was the prototype sin that represented all sins to some sense of the word in this sense: spring God’s grace, contradicting His truths, rejecting His authority, disputing His wisdom, repudiating His justice, and resisting His grace. What Adam and Eve sought was their own will, delight, plans, and wisdom while rejecting God’s; and we do the same today when we do our own thing and do things our way instead of God’s way according to God’s will or even seeking it—we still think we know better or more than our Maker. A believer actively seeks God’s will and submits to it

Does God Have Free Will Since He Can Do No Evil?

 We have the ability to make choices, just not spiritual ones. Our free will is a curse because we don’t choose God. Free will is not defined as being free to sin. In heaven, saints will not want to sin anymore and free from its power, unable to sin just like Christ on earth. There will be no temptation to sin and we won’t want to.

God’s free will consists in His ability to do whatsoever He desires: “My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure.” (Cf. Isaiah 46:10); “Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that he did…” (cf. Psalm 135:6). God simply wills no evil. “But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases,” (cf. Job 23:13). “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him,” (cf. Psalm 115:6). Nothing nor no one can thwart His will or plans (cf. Job 42:2).

God alone can exercise whatsoever He wills but restricts it to His nature which cannot be contradicted due to His holiness, the attribute that regulates the others, the attribute of attribute. In other words, God always acts in character and there are no arbitrary, capricious, or whimsical actions possible.

“For the good that I would that I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” (cf. Romans 7:19–20). God doesn’t coerce us to do anything we don’t want to do. We cannot do whatever we want because we are enslaved to sin. Even if we were without sin, we could not do anything. So free will is not absolute in any sense. But in heaven, we will be free to do what we want to and we won’t want to sin but to glorify God.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Doing Something About Evil...

 "... [F]or they proceed from one evil to another, and they do not take Me into account..." (Jeremiah 9:3, HCSB).
"... If you do not stand firm in the faith, then you will not stand at all" (Isaiah 7:9, HCSB).
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (cf. Genesis 18:25).  
"In fact, if the trumpet makes an unclear sound, who will prepare for battle?"  (1 Cor. 14:8, HCSB).   
"What's wrong with the world?  I am.  Sincerely yours,  G. K. Chesterton
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."  --Edmund Burke


God ordained the institution of government to keep evil at bay, but there comes a time when those in the know have to stand up for what they believe either in civil disobedience or engaging in public discourse to disseminate the truth, as Francis Schaeffer said that there comes a time when this is not only a right but a duty!   We see this today manifest in peaceful demonstrations and protests.   But we must beware lest we assume that the government is always the problem or the solution, and the other extreme:  "My country, right or wrong!"

If we don't stand for the faith we have, it's worth noting, and we don't really stand at all.  If you won't stand for your faith, is it of value?  And if faith weren't a challenge or difficulty, it would be worth little.  We are representatives of God's righteousness as well as ambassadors of the kingdom of Christ.  Ultimately, it matters whether we have a faith we can live with, or one we will fight or even die for!  That's because infidels and the ignorant are seldom convinced by debate or argument and the faith we have is the faith we show!

Our do-goodery may win them over yet and perchance they may see Christ at work in us.  But we must first become introspective like G. K. Chesterton was:  "What 's wrong with the world?  I am, sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton."   He realized that true faith expresses itself and there's a difference between bogus faith or the mere profession of faith and the reality of faith.   We must first know what our faith is and what we do believe and this is the weak link in the chain of uninformed believers:  "Tell me your certainties, I have enough doubts of my own," said German famed playwright and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe over two centuries ago!

We need to end the doubting and commence to doubt our doubts and believe our faith, translating it into deeds, practicing what we preach, and preaching only what we practice.  Then we become a fidei defensor or a defender of the faith!   Note that there does come an opportunity and time in each person's life to prove what side he's on and to take a stand for right versus wrong and to fight the evil in the world:  God did something about evil; He created you and me!  This is the opportunity to throw down the gauntlet much like Martin Luther did on the door of the church at Wittenberg (All Saints Church) in 1517 with his Ninety-Five Theses to end the Dark Ages.

He knew what he was doing and this took grit and fortitude but crossed the Rubicon despite this:  Challenging the entire establishment much the way that Jesus was an antiestablishment figure and upset the religious apple cart.   He had the necessary dynamic for living and courage:  He knew what he believed and much more importantly, like Paul in 2 Timothy 2:12, he knew in Whom he believed.   Jeremiah was in a similar situation and was considered unpatriotic because he prophesied against Jerusalem and he said in Jeremiah 9:3 that "they refuse to stand up for the truth."  Jerusalem had become unfaithful and was supposed to be a city on a hill, as it were.  There's a limit to patriotism though:  We don't put country above God! 

Irish playwright and Nobel Prize winner George Bernard Shaw noted pertinently that "no nation has survived the loss of its gods."  And John Adams quipped that our Constitution "was made only for a religious and moral people."  Yes, I want to mention in passing that we have many issues and causes in our society and have found many questions, but it's now time to search for the answers and that means we need visionaries who can rightly interpret the times and have a Christian worldview so that they are not deceived by the prevalent Secular Humanism and the newfangled Postmodernism that is creeping into our schools and institutions that are simply "anti-Christian," a sort of militant atheism that wages war on Christendom. That's why it's called a "Truth War."

All the other worldviews agree on this one point:  They're all opposed to "dangerous" Christianity.  But the only truths that are irrelevant are the Christian ones!   And we must not let Christ be eradicated from the public square and open marketplace of ideas, even the social media but must fear not to exercise our First Amendment rights. There is no social gospel to preach but we do have a social commission to complete to be salt and light for social justice, as Cicero called Rome a city of light.

In sum, we are not to parade our righteousness, wear it on our sleeves, nor even to flaunt it, but we never should privatize it, being ready to stand up for Jesus and fly and declare our Christian colors, which means we are declaring war on the enemy, knowing that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one or wickedness and its "isms." (cf. 1 John 5:19).   (Relevant is the saying that everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it!)   

CAVEATS:  WE ARE NOT CALLED TO USHER IN THE MILLENNIAL KINGDOM, NOR TO LEGISLATE "CHRISTIAN SHARIA LAW," NOR LEGISLATE OUR FAITH.    Remember:  The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing (Edmund Burke).   Soli Deo Gloria!

The Freedom To Choose

"I know, LORD, that a man's way of life is not his own; no one who walks determines his own steps."  (Jer. 10:23, HCSB).
"A man's heart determines his way, but the LORD determines his steps" (Prov. 16:9, HCSB).
"A man's steps are determined by the LORD, so how can anyone understand his own way?" (Prov. 20:24, HCSB).
"For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose" (Phil. 2:13, HCSB).  

NB: GOD COULDN'T HAVE GIVEN US FREE WILL WITHOUT HAVNG THE OPPORTUNITY TO CHOOSE EVIL AND REBEL AGAINST HIM.  

Life is full of choices.  We've all heard the order by Joshua:  "Choose this day whom you will serve!"  If there were no choice, we'd have no freedom!  Deut. 30:19 says, "...Now choose life...."  Our life is full of choices or decisions if you will:  "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley decision!  For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision," (Joel 3:14, NIV).  Most people balk at making the big decisions in life (career path, marriage, buying a home, college to attend, but especially becoming a member of a religion and more specifically becoming a Christian).  We should be hesitant at such climactic times that could make or break us!

Now, why were we given this faculty of choice in the first place?  Adam had the power not to sin and the power to sin, after the fall, he had the inability not to sin, and after salvation, the ability not to sin and the ability not to sin again.  But Christ has the inability to sin!  He is fully incapable of sinning, while the natural man is fully incapable of not sinning!   As the Bible does reveal, there was a rebellion in heaven and the devil was cast out for his pride and revolt at doing God's will.  The issue is why does evil exist and there is no simple answer.  To say that it just shows who the bad guys are is too simplistic.  If we had no choice (i.e., free or independent will or our own) we'd be automatons or robots or puppets on a divine string pulled by God!

God never created evil; He created its possibility! (No choice to make means no real free will to obey).  If people weren't free to disobey Him, they'd be robots without a free will or faculty of choice.  With the existence of objective good comes the necessary existence of objective evil!  When you have equality, inequality will exist, whether realized or not, at least in concept.  We must see evil as a parasite on good and not its opposite, though.  It couldn't exist apart from good.  For example, we have inequity, injustice, unrighteousness, lawlessness, unfairness, un-sportsmanship, et cetera! But the good news is that good triumphs over evil and there will be a final end to its influence in the world in the Day of the Lord.   But God just chooses to let it run its course--that's His way of defeating it and showing that it cannot win no matter what. 

And so, the freedom of choice or free will cannot exist without a choice to be made or the existence of evil as well as good.  And we did eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we are all are involved in this battle against evil and its influence on the world. What we lost at the fall was the inclination to do good and inherited the inclination to do evil. And so we haven't ceased to be human, just to be good!   There is no outside force to influence us (that would be coercion or determinism), but God is able to work with our will to accomplish His will (cf. Rom. 9:19; Prov.16:9; Prov. 20:24, Jer. 10:23; Prov. 21:1).

We can only see good in light of evil!  There must be something to compare goodness to!  God is the Supreme Good you might say and we compare all goodness to Him.  Evil is the absence of good, therefore, and that's why we are evil because we lack perfect goodness in God's eyes and are sinners!

But our wills are enslaved to sin and need salvation just like the rest of our evil hearts.  We don't need free will to be saved, but wills made free--we are not born free but the slave of sin and in bondage!  As Augustine said, we are "free but not freed."  That is, we've lost our liberty like being a man in prison who still has a will of his own!

In a sense, everything is determined, even as it was written of Judas to betray our Lord, but God is not deterministic, that is to say, there is no determinism or coercion to do what aren't wont to do, but act fully voluntarily.  You may say that we act according to our nature or upbringing, (nature vs. nurture), but God determines both!  The vulture and dove eat according to their nature in a voluntary manner, because of their nature.   We cannot change who we are, but God can transform us into new creatures in Christ.

"... Now choose life that you and your children may live"  (Deut. 30:19, NIV).  To have no choice to make is inhuman and foreign to freedom and will.    
   Soli Deo Gloria!  

A Sense Of Oughtness

"Love must be sincere.  Hate what is evil; cling to what is good"  (Rom. 12:9, NIV).
"Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good"  (Romans 12:21, ESV). 




We are all born with an innate conscience capable of discerning right from wrong and applying abstract laws and rules to specific and concrete situations.  Romans 2:15 says our conscience either excuses or accuses us:  We all know God's law (natural law) but we flaunt it!  Knowing better we still do wrong:  "I know the better things and I approve them, and I follow the worst" (Ovid, Roman poet). Paul said, "...Who will deliver me from the body of this death?"(Rom. 7:24).   "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing"  (Rom. 7:10, ESV).  None of us satisfies or fulfills our own expectations and standards--we all stand self-condemned.  There are as many systems of ethics as there are worldviews, but basically, the Christian one assumes man is not basically good, but inherently evil and needs revelation and salvation from God to be convicted of right and wrong.



There is no such thing as perfectionism, or reaching a state of sinless perfection (cf. Prov. 20:9; Ps. 119:96). We all do things that we should've known better not to do!  The law of Moses was given to convict us and show we cannot meet God's standards of righteousness, not to be a code of conduct to live by and earn salvation by merit.  The requisite for salvation is to realize you cannot save yourself by good behavior and you need a Savior because of your sin, that you have fallen short of God's glory and standard.




Ethics with a capital E is nebulous for those who deny God--they dodge the no-absolute-truth thesis: "The absurd is, sin without God," said Albert Camus.  Dostoevsky said that without God all things are permissible!  Immanuel Kant said that God is necessary for ethics to be possible.  The Nazis justified themselves socially and didn't think we had the right to try them for war crimes, but the allies appealed to "natural law."  In academia, they teach you that ethics is about the good press (spin) and not getting caught!   Social studies and psychology teach you to have good reasons for what you do and to have responsible decision making, as you make your own choices in life.



In antiquity, might made right and there was no universal ethic, and that is why Pilate asked, "What is truth?"  Jesus claimed to be the epitome or embodiment of truth and also the way and the life to live. Postmodernists dodge the ethics issue, by saying there is no absolute truth and it is a nebulous thing to have one standard for everyone, as it evolves with society and situation (ethics).  In other words, ethics are only relative!  Today most students judge the usefulness of an idea, by its consequences or results, not its truth value--is it practical?   Christians are urged to "overcome evil with good," and as the summation of ethics:  "Follow Me [Christ]!" We are held to a higher standard and are the witness of Christ in the world as lights in the darkness and salt to preserve it and add flavor.

Christianity is not a list of dos and don'ts, nor a system of ethics; it's a living relationship of knowing a personal God.  Ethics is the application of right doctrine and living it out by faith as our duty to God and man (cf. Gal. 5:6, NIV, which says:  "The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.").  The faith you have is the faith you show!  The law is written in all men:  "The work of the law written in their heart, their conscience"  (cf. Romans 2:15).  People try to make up their own voluntary initiatives or codes of conduct to live by, but they are always ones they think they have kept or can.  Christian ethics is based upon the exemplary, unequaled personality of Christ as the one to emulate, and He has no flaws--what a standard!



We all need a moral compass, and Humanists insist that they can have ethics without God, but Humanism is precisely that: Being as good as possible without God--which is a definition of evil. New age people will tell you to listen to the inner voice and to be in touch with yourself, and tolerance is the key, so don't be judgmental; if it feels like the truth to you, it is!  the codes of conduct range from the Golden Rule (cf. Matt. 7:12), to the Brazen Rule of reciprocity or tit for tat, to the Silver Rule of not treating others the way you don't want to be treated--a negative Golden Rule, to the Iron Rule of treating others as a bully, where might makes right, and the survival of the fittest or social Darwinism is the rule.  Most nonbelievers design their own ethics and don't adhere to an absolute standard of morality.  Something they can comply with to their standards.



In the final analysis, the only true morality or ethics is when the motive, as well as the end result or goal, is pure and good: the means to the ends must be right, because the means do not justify the ends; and utilitarianism, or the greatest good for the greatest number, is another evil that has justified the murder of millions in communist countries.  The premise that secular worldviews have is that man is basically good and can redeem himself, or lift himself up by his own bootstraps.  Soli Deo Gloria!

We Have A Dark Side

Mark Twain is quoted by Charles R. Swindoll as saying that we are all like a moon that has a dark side no one sees. This is true. We all have "feet of clay" and are vulnerable to sin because of our very nature. We cannot clean up our act before we can come to Jesus; we must come as we are, but we cannot stay that way.

We must see how bad we are before we can become good. It's not how bad we are, but how bad off we are. It is like the distance of a deaf man to a symphony or a blind man to the Mona Lisa. We cannot bridge the gap. Jesus sees through the veneer and we cannot fool him.

Humanists think mankind is basically good, but we an inherently bad. You must realize that we are not sinners because we sin, rather we sin because we are sinners. It is our constituted nature to sin. We can deal with sins in the plural, but our problem is sin in the singular--our old sin nature inherited from Adam. This is God's estimation of man, not man's estimation of man.

The totality of our nature is permeated with sin and our image of God is marred and defaced morally. "No one knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good," says C. S. Lewis as in a catch-22. The paradox is that we must see our bankruptcy--the truly bad person thinks he is all right! And Lewis adds, "We must realize how bad we are before we can be good." The way up, by paradox, is down.

We are sinful in toto and in solidarity with Adam completely. Someone has said, "We cannot escape our birthright." We cannot ingratiate ourselves with God, because we "have feet of clay." That means we have hidden vulnerabilities. We are permeated with sin through and through--there is no vestige of righteousness.

R. C. Sproul writes of a man who never lost his faith in the basic goodness of man despite being held captive in Iraq--this is sheer ignorance! Compared to Saddam Hussein the run-of-the-mill sinner looks like a saint; however, he is just as bad off from God's viewpoint and they both must come to Jesus the same way in childlike repentance and faith. Soli Deo Gloria!

Why Do Bad Things Happen To Good People?

PERTINENT VERSES TO PONDER:

"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good..." (Gen. 50:20, ESV).  
"But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks [gets their attention] to them in their affliction" (Job 36:15, NIV). 

"God left him, to try him, that he might know all that is in his heart," (cf. 2 Chon. 32:31) 
"[F]or he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men" (Lam. 3:33, ESV).
"I create the light and make the darkness.  I send good times and bad times..." (Isa. 45:7, NLT).
"But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).  
"... Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" (Job 2:10, NIV).  

"He speaks to them in their affliction." (cf. Job 36:15, NIV).
"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. 48:10,  ESV).  
"... 'We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God'..." (Acts 14:22, NIV). 
"... But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering" Romans 8:17, NLT).
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Rom. 8:28, NIV).  
"Who best can suffer, best can do."  --John Milton

Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote the book, Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?  Note:  There are many quick answers:  There are no good people!  In the book Robinson Crusoe Friday asks why evil isn't destroyed:  "What about you?" Robinson replies.  And so why do good things happen to bad people?  What is good and what is bad then, if there is no God?   When we call something good or evil, we are referring to some standard or Supreme Good, which was seen as God by Plato.  Ponder not about debating good but wondering where the idea of goodness came from, if not God?

In short, God is love, but we must see the big picture of what God is doing for His glory and also not forget that God is one of justice, wrath, vengeance, vindication, and judgment.  God will surely fulfill all His attributes.   Also, justice delayed is not justice denied!  We see no justice, but God lives in eternity and sees the big picture.  When we say that it's not fair for innocent people to suffer, how we do know of their innocence?  And if God were to eliminate all evil in the world, what about the evil in us--Jesus said that only God is good!  We must have faith that God is working for the greater good and short-run evil will result in long-range good.  Likewise, we must praise God for the opportunity to do good when we see evil.  Instead of asking where God is, we must realize where the devil is!

The point is that we only see good in light of evil and evil is not God's fault!  God didn't create evil, but only the possibility of evil, which was necessitated because of free will!  This would make no sense if no one turned evil and rebelled against God; therefore, evil exists and must be reckoned with and judged.  Remember, Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they come as a package: we can distinguish them and separate them, but evil exists only as a parasite on good.  If mankind had no choice of good or evil, there would be no love or hate in the world; we'd be robots, puppets, automatons, or animals with no free will or opportunity to know and love God.  Don't break faith because we all have to pay our dues.  God simply couldn't create a world of free people who have a chance to obey Him and then have none disobey or do evil!

We talk of injustice, intolerance, inequity, et cetera.  How could there be injustice without justice?  If there were no good, there could exist no evil!  Mankind was created good and went terribly bad, even Satan was once good!  But, fortunately, God is able to turn evil into good and His glory and wisdom will be shown in the end.  Most people just object to evil when it happens to them, but don't realize they are part of the problem too if they don't know God.  The point is that God sends good in envelopes of affliction to make us grow in our faith.  In the final analysis, we ought to celebrate the opportunity to see good in light of evil and to turn evil into good and to have the opportunity to do good when evil seems so certain and unavoidable to everyone to some degree--no one goes through life trouble-free.

Jesus learned obedience by what He suffered (cf Heb. 5:8) and didn't exempt Himself from suffering, nor guarantee we would lead a life in a bed of roses or in a rose garden.  "Jesus was honest enough to tell us we'd have tribulations" and that life was a test of our faith.  Would you believe in a Savior who wasn't sympathetic to suffering and had experienced none first-hand?  But God is the great Sufferer and when we break God's laws, we break God's heart.  When bad things happen, people act differently: some become bitter, some better!

Therefore, it is by adversity in life that we build character and learn the lessons of life to become mature.  And the existence of Satan, evil, sin, death, and adversity is not an argument against God, but for Him.  The ultimate question should not be:  "If there is a God why is there evil?" but the opposite:  "If there is no God, why is there so much good?" God is able to make "the wrath of man to praise Him" (cf. Psa. 76:10).

Faith is a choice and we must decide between good and evil. If faith were easy, it wouldn't be worth anything!  There is no easy answer to the existence of suffering, but it's just as likely to produce sincere faith as to destroy insincere faith; in a way, it's a litmus test!   There is no smoking gun evidence for or against God, so it takes faith both ways.  It isn't a matter of faith versus reason, but faith versus faith--which set of presuppositions you want to accept;  Faith in man and science, or God and His Word as the revelation.  Most people don't have enough faith to be atheists!

We must decide to believe and be willing to do God's will for our eyes to be opened to the truth.  God will authenticate Himself to us if we are willing.  God will not force someone to believe against their will, though He can make them willing (a paradox).  Faith can only be valid and of value, if it's difficult to attain!  That's because God is all-powerful or omnipotent and can overpower someone's will and make the unwilling willing--no one can reject His will (cf. Jer. 20:7; Rom. 9:19).

In sum, upon salvation, we enroll in the school of suffering, which is a given, and we must celebrate it as a red badge of courage that gives us braggadocio as it were and the right to say, "Been there, done that!"--this is Reality 101 and no one escapes it! God owes us no explanations:  "He is too deep to explain Himself, too kind to be cruel, and too wise to make a mistake!"  We answer to God not the other way around!  We are not to second-guess God: John Wycliffe tenet says, "All things come to pass of necessity."  We ought not get a martyr's complex, thinking the more we suffer, the more holy we are, but everyone is called to go through the school of hard knocks at times.

God knows that in our affliction, we will seek Him (cf. Hosea 5:15) and we should know that He gets our attention by affliction (cf. Job 36:15).   "People are born for trouble as sure as the spark flies upward" (cf. Job 5:7, NLT).  In the final analysis, one must acknowledge the fact that there are no easy answers as God didn't even explain Himself to Job.  God is too deep to explain Himself, too kind to be cruel, and to wise to be wrong or mistaken.  No religion, philosophy, or faith has the complete answer!  Soli Deo Gloria!

Upsetting The Religious Applecart

"Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them.  Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them"   ( Mark 7:15, NIV). 
"You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act..." (Matt. 7:16, NLT).

Jesus was clearly antiestablishment and countercultural and was determined to overturn the tables on the Pharisees' religious turf.  He managed a revolution of topsy-turvy spirituality.  They had no notion of true spirituality, but only of externalism:  circumcision, tithing, offerings, sacrifices, festivals, Sabbath observance, fasting, handwashing, ceremonial duties, and whatever agreed with the outward show of religious piety but having no inward vitality or reality.  Jesus succeeded in internalizing religion and making it a matter of the heart and sin was on the inside that God could see.  The Pharisees were highly jealous of Jesus and protecting their turf was Job One.  Everyone wants job security, but this was too much for Jesus.  They sensed a threat to their authority and teachings, which Jesus referred to as the leaven of the Pharisees.

The people were burdened by 613 additional (248) commands and (365) prohibitions or laws of their legal system that made the Law of Moses a burden too heavy a yoke to carry.  Even the Sabbath with 39 additional activities regarded as "work" was nothing to look forward to anymore nor enjoy as a day of rest and spiritual renewal.  What really got them uptight and ill at ease was His popularity among the common people who heard him gladly and the miracles He was doing were both undeniable, and they had to come up with some explanation.  Jesus repeatedly made them out to be as fools and an embarrassment to their own cause.  Jesus seemed like a hero and authority the way He threw the moneylenders out of the temple.  They had every reason to fear His authority because He spoke like no man, not by authority, as one of the teachers of the law, (cf. Matt. 7:29), but with authority and they could not resist the Spirit by which He spoke nor answered His questions.

Jesus was against religion as they knew it.  The Pharisees were frauds at worship--just going through the motions with lip service and their hearts being far removed.  He saw the Jewish faith as one of knowing God, not of performance or a list of dos and don'ts.  The Pharisees were white on the outside but inside were as sepulchers.  They would strain a gnat and swallow a camel because they were so worried about the minor details of the Law but missed the main points of justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  Religion for them was mere show and Jesus despised it.

One thing that He wouldn't tolerate was duplicity and He saw this in the Pharisees they way they didn't practice what they preached. The religious authorities were never the same after Jesus was through with them and He changed the culture by changing people.  He was the light that shown on every man to see.  No one was unchanged nor the same after an encounter with the Lord.  The religious applecart had become an organization, not an organism, or living community of believers.

The major realignment in religion came as Jesus saw through legalism and hypocrisy and instituted undefiled and pure religion as coming from a sincere heart and motive.  Jesus saw through the veneer and facade!  The people needed to be set free from the burden and yoke of the Pharisees and their take on religion, in fact, most people didn't want to emulate them nor were they jealous, though the Pharisees were respected, Jesus saw their veneer and masquerade that they hid behind.

One sad commentary on the Pharisees was their tendency to exalt themselves and of having an air of superiority.  Jesus countered that the way up is down in God's economy and one must humble oneself first to be exalted in God's eyes.  He warned them that one must become as a child to enter the kingdom of God (cf. Mark 10:15; Matt. 18:3).

The normal Christian life was in contradistinction to the one of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees flaunted their faith and Jesus taught that people should not practice their righteousness before people (cf. Matt. 6:1) but keep their religious duties between them and God and to pray in their closet, inner sanctum, comfort zone, or private space.  The Pharisees were the ultimate goody-goodies who were working for God and kept up all appearance of propriety, but they knew not the Lord in reality.  Christ will say unto them that He never knew them at the Judgment.  But we all have feet of clay (flaws not readily apparent) and must repent of the Pharisee in us.  All our works are worth zilch if we don't love the Lord and do His will--"if I have not love, I am nothing."   Soli Deo Gloria!

The Evil Question, What About It?...

"... [B]ut I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent about what is evil" (Rom. 16:19, NIV).
"The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time" (Gen. 6:5, NIV). 
"In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults" (1 Cor. 14:20, NIV).
"Don't ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." --John Donne
"If there is no God, all things are permissible." --Fyodor Dostoevsky

Do we need to apologize for evil in the world? No!   We live in "the best of all possible worlds," according to Leibniz, and this means God has a purpose for everything and allows evil to exist for the greater good (cf. Gen. 50:20; Prov. 16:4; Psalm 76:10).  God is able to turn evil into good and to overrule it for His glory, even making the wrath of man to praise Him (cf. Psalm 76:10).  Whenever men intend it for evil, God intends it for good (cf. Gen. 50:20).  There is a silver lining behind every gray cloud.  

Jesus said that the man was born blind that the goodness of God would be manifest in him. God sees the big picture, we are near-sighted.  Eph. 1:11 says God supervises all events according to His will.  John Milton wrote Paradise Lost to explain and defend the ways of God to man--this has been an issue from the beginning of all sin, even back to the Garden of Eden where Satan accused God of holding back on Adam and Eve.  Remember:  Hindsight is always 20/20!

We must be ever vigilant against evil and show our colors whenever possible--not standing on the sidelines--for we may all be called "for such a time as this" (cf. Esther 4:14).  We would not appreciate good, if not for the existence of evil!   Good is contrasted with evil and evil cannot exist apart from good, for it's merely a corruption of it or absence of it. Good and evil are not coequals in some cosmic battle like the yin/yang of Oriental philosophy, but evil is already defeated by good in Christ at the cross and we live in a mop-up effort between D-day and V-day so to speak.  

We need not apologize for its existence, for Wycliffe's tenet says "that all things come to pass of necessity."  Fear not though:  God did do something about evil--He made you!  You must ask yourself:  "What's wrong? Start with you.   The evil questioned has been solved by the death of Christ and its resolution is only a matter of time.

Many skeptics see evil everywhere and say why, rather than seeing the good possibilities and say why not.  Do you see possibilities in every difficulty or difficulties in every possibility?  It's not: if there is so much evil, where's God, but if there's so much good, where isn't He?  The force of God's good will eventually overcome evil!  We want to be part of the answer, not part of the problem.  That is our M.O. to take the high road and defeat Satan by the power of the Spirit in us.  We may look at the world and may even doubt God and wonder where He is; however, we really should say, "Where isn't He?"  The real issue is where the church is, not where God is.  God uses His church and has commissioned it as His ambassadors of goodwill, for God is the moral center of the universe.

If God were to stamp out evil where would you and I be?  Would we escape judgment ourselves? We are not without evil.  Let's indeed start with us and repent of our own evils.  Don't blame God for evil--He didn't create it nor direct it but allowed its entree by virtue of the gift of Adam's free will in eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil--the opportunity to decide for or against Him and thus creating the possibility of evil's existence. Remember: It's impossible to have free will without both good and evil and the power to choose between the two.  We can be grateful for the patience of God in extending the day of grace so that we all have space to repent.

The world is filled with evil and no one escapes blame. There seems to be a lot of evil turning into good because there's a lot more of it.  Remember, it's only in contrast to evil that we see good!  But people react differently to the same evils: some become bitter; some become better!  As they say, "The same sun hardens the clay, melts the butter."  Here's one quotable remark:  In response to the article, "What's wrong with the world?  I am, sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton."   If we yielded fully to God's will to accomplished His work we could usher in the kingdom of God a lot sooner, for we are to speed His return (cf. 2 Pet. 3:12); i.e., fulfilling the Great Commission, which is Job One.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

God's Wrath Versus Man's

"Will you be angry with us forever?"  (Psalm 85:5, NIV).
"Restore us to yourself, LORD, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure"  (Lam. 5:21-22, NIV).
"Surely the wrath of man shall praise you; the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt [restrain]"  (Psalm 76:10, ESV).
"Has God forgotten to be gracious?  Has he in anger shut up his compassion?"  (Psalm 77:9, ESV).

"God is a righteous judge, a God who displays his wrath every day" (Psalm 7:11, NIV). It's a good thing He "has not appointed us to wrath" (cf. 1 Thess. 5:9).   In the KJV it says "God is angry with the wicked every day."  Yes, God is not only a God of mercy but of justice and its consequence, wrath at the evil that must be judged, because God is holy.  The fortunate thing is that He is not angry at us, but that wrath was diverted at the cross.  We can also know that God's delights to show mercy and doesn't stay angry forever (cf. Micah 7:18). Also:  "For His anger is but for a moment..." (Psalm 30:5, NASB). And God tempers His wrath with mercy (cf. Heb. 3:2). 

We are warned in Romans 11:22 to "behold the goodness and severity of God" and realize that God means business!  When He chastises us, it isn't because He's angry at us, but about us, and we must suffer from our sins, not for them.  Man's anger doesn't achieve the righteousness of God and we are admonished to cease from anger and forsake wrath in Scripture.  The unbeliever suffers because "the wrath of God abides on him."  We are delivered from the wrath to come, according to 1 Thess. 1:10.  Proverbs advise: We are to avoid a man of quick temper, lest we learn his ways, and yet we are to fear God, for "His wrath is quickly kindled" (cf. Psalm 2:12).

One word of encouragement is that "the Lord is slow to anger" and "His patience means our salvation!"  Don't ask God to judge someone hastily, because He had so much patience with you.  God will someday mete out His justice and meet its demands, and we will no longer suffer indirectly from His wrath, which glorifies Him, even from the wrath of man (cf. Psalm 76:10)--"Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise and the survivors of your wrath are restrained"  (Psalm 76:10, NIV).  Soli Deo Gloria!

Evil's Facade...

"... [Y]ou hate all evildoers"  (Psalm 5:5, ESV).  "... I will fear no evil..." (Psa. 23:4, ESV).
"The fear of the LORD is the hatred of evil..." (Proverbs 8:13, ESV).
"What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil..." (Isaiah 5:20, ESV).
"Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good"  (Romans 12:21, ESV).
"Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight"  (Psalm 51:4, NLT).  "Will those who do evil never learn?" (Psalm 14:4, NLT).
"There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing evil..." (Rom. 2:9, NLT).
"... 'All who belong to the LORD must turn away from evil'"  (2 Tim. 2:19, NLT).
"The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually"  (Gen. 6:5, ESV). (According to St. Augustine:  Man has the inability not to sin or non posse non peccare in Latin.)

Man is not basically good, but inherently evil to his core and is radically corrupt through and through and must be redeemed by God to be able to do anything good; in his fallen state, he cannot do anything but sin and evil.  "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"   (Jer. 17:9, ESV).  Isaiah 1 says:  We are to cease to do evil, and learn to do good! ("Depart from evil, and do good..." (Psa. 37:27, ESV).

Evil doesn't advertise or promote itself by that moniker but tries to convince one of its good intentions to bring about the greater good as the end result.  If something is not done God's way, it's the devil's way.  God is able to work with evil and tolerates its existence because He can turn it into good (like curses into blessings), and there is a lot more evil to work with!  What evil is, is not what people would suppose:  It's goodness without God in the picture or the equation (like humanism that deifies man and makes him the measure of all things, the starting point of the equation, and dethrones God as dead and no longer relevant.  God turns evil into good:  "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good"  (cf. Gen. 50:20).  There is no yin/yang or an equal balance of good and evil; however, Satan masquerades as an angel of light (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4).

We must become familiar with our common foe, or we will become like him, a do-gooder, who is trying to save humanity his way.  There is only one person who is good, God.  We do not have the power to harness the power of evil for good, like in Star Wars where they use the powers of the dark side.  Christ annihilated evil and defeated it in toto at the cross and we are only here to proclaim His victory and to claim His authority.  There is no such thing as pure evil, for evil, depends on good for its very existence; it's the privation of good; the deviation from good; the negation of goodness; and the perversion of goodness.

Satan was once good with no evil, but then pride was found in his heart and he fell and was booted out of heaven and his place of authority.  Satan is not coequal with God, such as a yin/yang type working arrangement, but only a servant of God who must obey.  There is now a cosmic battle or angelic conflict going on between Satan and his minions, and Christ, the church, and the elect angels on the other side.

We all have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in a sense, and are not innocent in God's eyes and are responsible for the light we have to be faithful and fruitful.  It is good to be innocent of evil as much as possible and to be wise to what is good.  Don't practice the occult nor magic arts and don't experiment with evil in any way, shape, or form.

It all started when Satan challenged authority and asked Eve, "Hath God said..?"  By her own volition Eve took of the forbidden fruit and the result of the so-called proverbial apple saga still goes on as it epitomized all sin in that one act of obedience--they only had one rule to obey and couldn't do it!

Today's youth are concerned more about what works than what's true, and they believe the test of an idea is not its truth value, but its results.  The sorry result is that something can work and not be true or good, e.g., Yoga, or TM.  These are not forbidden activities in Scripture, but nevertheless evil in that they circumvent the goodness and wisdom of God.  Christianity is not true because it works, it works because it's true!   Youth are concerned if something works for them and is practical or pragmatic, while God demands obedience and loyal faithfulness not to experiment with other religions or philosophies.

For example, to the innocent bystander or outside observer Yoga may seem innocent enough, but Yoga is a Hindu art that means union with God, and you learn to get in touch with one of their gods.  People are lured and enticed into Eastern philosophy and religion, by such innocent-like practices that have mass appeal to man as being "good."

Heed the following caveats of 1 Thess. 5:22 (ESV), Job 28:28 (ESV), 1 Pet. 3:12 (HCSB); and Rom. 12:9 (ESV) respectively:  "Abstain from every form of evil";  "...'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding'";  "... BUT THE FACE OF THE LORD IS AGAINST THOSE WHO DO EVIL"; "... Abhor what is evil; hold fast what is good."  Soli Deo Gloria!

In Adam's Fall, We Sinned All

The title is from The New England Primer and shows how Adam represented us all in his willful sin. He was posse non peccare and posse peccare or able not to sin and able to sin according to Augustine. God gave him the free will to choose to love Him; however, it is not that Adam chose evil as some suggest, but that he chose self over God.  He was the head of his wife and is the head of our race and we would've done the same thing.  His sin was a prototype of all sin in rejecting God's divine nature.  Especially His wisdom, love, justice, and omniscience.  

They rejected God's authority, doubted His goodness, disputed His wisdom, repudiated His justice, contradicted His truth, and spurned His grace (someone has said). Eve was deceived and may have been confused, but Adam knew what he was doing and chose to be on Eve's side rather than God, probably because of his love for her and not wanting to lose her to death.

God had every reason to place a test in the garden (note that the first sin was committed in a perfect environment) and there was only one command to obey--anyone could've kept it.  God, for sure, didn't want obedience without love and wanted man to love of a free will or voluntarily  (I use the term free will sparingly because of Martin Luther's book The Bondage of the Will (De Servo Arbritrio) in which he says it is too grandiose of a term.  (By the way, Calvin was in agreement.) There is a natural will and a spiritual will.  Free will has been debated since St. Augustine of Hippo, who said we are "free but not freed." He meant we do have free will in a sense, but no liberty.  

Our nature is enslaved to sin and even the will is depraved and unable to please God. God gave Adam free will that we don't have anymore and he sinned.  It is reckoned that he represented us and we have been deemed sinners because of him.  Yes, we had free will in Adam and blew it when we chose self and became sinners by nature, by choice, and by birth.  Sin is our birthright and there is no escape!  There is no position of neutrality for our will--it is tainted with sin (cf. Rom. 1:32; 7:15).

God was not inviting trouble or taking a chance on the so-called "risky gift of free will" because He is sovereign and omniscient and had planned for this to happen and took it into consideration--there was no plan B.  If we are reckoned sinners in Adam we have become enslaved to this sin in our whole being (total depravity) and Adam lost his free will and got an enslaved will. Only God has the ultimate free will (a term not mentioned in Scripture except for free will or voluntary offerings) and yet God is unable or not free to sin or be the agent of evil.  We, on the other hand, are incapable of doing good or anything that pleases God (cf. Is. 64:6). The Arminian believes some do desire to repent and be believe the gospel, while the Reformed tradition holds that God quickens that lost desire within us.

We don't need free wills to be saved, we need wills made free.  God's salvation went according to plan and we love Him because He first loved us!  God chose us, we didn't choose Him (cf. John 15:16).  God's dilemma:  No one chose Him, and so He was obliged to elect some according to His purpose and grace and the good pleasure of His will (cf. 2 Tim. 1:9;  Eph. 1:5).  You may say:  "I came to Christ of my own free will and by myself [without any wooing or divine intervention]!" That person probably left Christ all by himself too.  What God is able to do is make the unwilling willing ("[For] it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure," says Phil. 2:13, ESV) and God can turn that heart of stone into a heart of flesh. "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them" ("Ezek. 36:27, NKJV). Remember:  We are called and chosen unto salvation as Mathew 22:14 says, "Many are called, but few are chosen." Our destiny is ultimately in God's hands; God reserves the right to have mercy on whom He will--He isn't obligated to save anyone or it would be justice and not mercy (cf. Rom. 9:15).  Romans 9:16 says:  "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy."

Now, after the fall, man is non posse non peccare (unable not to sin or only able to sin!) according to Augustine.  [Note that we are not talking in reference to the natural faculty of choice but spiritual will.]  God doesn't coerce us or force us to do anything we don't want to do by any outside force (called determinism), but His grace is irresistible or efficacious and does God's will.  Adam had the inclination to do good but lost that at the fall--man is still human, not an automaton, but has lost this inclination to do good. We are free to act according to our nature, but God made us the way we are like clay in the hands of a potter, and determined our nature.  

Adam chose against God, but He saved him anyway.  We are free in our state of sin in that we are voluntary sinners and our real freedom is to choose our own poison.  Romans 9:19 says that no one can resist God's will--His omnipotence overpowers us.  There is "not one maverick molecule in the universe" that is left to chance--God doesn't play dice with the universe, according to Einstein, and leaves nothing to chance.

You cannot say, "From now on, I will be good."  All things being equal, that doesn't last any longer than a diet with good intentions.  Apart from the Holy Spirit ("No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him," says John 6:44, ESV) without His wooing, no one can choose Christ, and God must intervene and work grace in our hearts.  We are slaves to act the way we want to and are in rebellion against God in our old sin nature.  We are indeed free to choose whatever we desire, but we do not desire Christ without grace.  "If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know..." (John 7:17). That work is called redemption and causes us to repent and believe the gospel in the process known as conversion.  A spiritually dead man cannot believe or choose anything spiritual.  God must open our spiritual eyes to the truth ("I was blind, but now I see").

The essence of freedom is self-determination and we do make a decision ourselves and in this sense, we are still free. We never act by compulsion or as a programmed robot, but willingly.  We sin according to our own volition.  But whenever you look at a sinner you should say, "There but for the grace of God, go I" as George Whitefield said.   We can thank God for changing us and softening our hearts by grace ("... [Gr]ace might reign through righteousness," says Rom. 5:20).

Let me cite an everyday example of wooing:  In the process of courtship you fall in love and entice your lover to marry you (by an act of free will, of course), and you never interfered with her free will but got her to marry you and get your will done--she couldn't resist your proposition and was converted!

We all can act naturally according to enlightened self-interest in our old sin nature.  A sure sign of genuine saving faith is a heartfelt love for God and this is impossible without a relationship with Him--no one loved God before salvation.  We are not elected because we want to believe or we do believe (that would be merit-based and is called the prescient view, which Rom. 8:29-30 militates against), but we believe because we are the elect (cf. 2 Thess. 2:13, 1 John 5:1, Rom. 8:29-30). 

In the Reformed tradition of the order of salvation or ordo salutis, regeneration precedes faith!  Scripture clearly says, "We love Him because He first loved us." The unsaved, lost, and unregenerate man has no desire to repent, believe in the gospel, and choose Christ or he would have something to boast in his salvation before God.  No one will say, "I wanted to believe, but couldn't!"  This is because Reformed theology teaches that if left to ourselves, none would choose Christ.

Salvation is totally of God and He gets all the glory.  Soli Deo Gloria! According to C. H. Spurgeon the essence of Reformed theology is:  "Salvation is of the Lord, [it is not a cooperative venture, as theologians say, "monergistic, not synergistic"]" says Jonah 2:9.  God must change us and do a work of grace and regeneration, quickening our spirits to believe and repent because we have no inclination to obey God before salvation--we must be born again.  When we are saved we are set free: "If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed (cf. John 8:36)." We are not born free, we are set free--we are born slaves!   Soli Deo Gloria!