The Origin of Evil has been a topic of debate throughout human history. There are those who believe that evil began when the devil and angels fell, others when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of Eden by partaking of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There are even religions based on a concept that there are two gods, one good and one evil, and you must choose who to serve, this is called Zoroastrianism. There is belief that good and evil must be balanced, or need one another which comes from Buddhist and Toaist teachings of Yin and Yang, and Hinduist thought. But what is the truth? When did evil come into existence? Is it a diety or fallen angel, is it a power like the Dark Side of the Force in Star Wars, does it have personality or is it merely Sin or a choice?
Evil has always existed. God is living, He has personality, and He is Good (Mark 10;18). Because God is good, there has to be evil. There is saying, "God is good all the time, all the time God is good." Before Man and Woman were even created God said, "What I have made is good," (Genesis 1:31) and when he made Adam nad even said, "This is very good." (). Man nad woman are madei n image of God (Genesis 1:27), so they have appearance of God who is Good, "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone." (Luke 18:19). Evil exists eternally, because God has always existed and was never made. Evil is not a diety, it is not the devil, and is not a force power or energy, it is a disposition. Evil is anything anti-Christ, antigod, anti-Good. Evil is to rebel, to usurp, to disobey, to seek your lusts, to sin, and to ignore God. Adam and Eve when they ate of Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil were changed, "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." (Genesis 3:5-7). Firstly Satan lied, for God does not know (close with, sex, know a person) evil, because God is good and so cannot be mingled with evil (1 John 3:5). Secondly Adam and Eve after having their eyes opened knew they were naked and treated it as evil, which it wasn't because they are made in image of a Good God (Genesis 1:27). Adam and Eve have distorted view, because they were made to Good and image of Good God, but now evil is in their conscious making them precieve what was meant by God for good to be evil. This is why God could no longer embrace us, for when Adam and Evil sinned this happened, "And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (Genesis 3:22). In the Orthodox Christian Study Bible, Orothodox Christian scholars understand this judgement of God, called death as mercy (The Orthodox Study Bible). Rather than man having to live in tormented state of having good and evil in himself, thus separating man from God in life because evil is constantly causing man to see what God has done that is good as evil as in case of being naked, God spares man by not letting him live forever in this state of hating good because evil's disposition has warped man's mind and soul. The problem wasn't that Adam and Evil knew Good, for God is Good (Mark 10:18) and they were called "Very Good," () and made in Image of He who is Good. The problem was Adam and Eve now knew, possessed in their will, body, emotions, heart, and desires the disposition and thought processes of evil in addition to good. Because of This God could not be in their midst, they had to leave him, for "God cannot sin," (1 John 3;9, 2 Corinthians 5:21 NLT, 1 Peter 2:22, Hebrews 4:15) and because of our sin we could not see God and live (Exodus 33:20), God could not be close to man who was now evil and good. In order to fix the problem of evil being in man now, God had to die for our sins (evil deeds that increase our evil disposition and slavery to evil). "He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." (1 Peter 2:24).
Through Jesus Christ who is Emmanuel, evil was purged from our being and now only goodness reigns washed in His Blood. But evil is not like God, it has no personality, no emotions, no mind, no winsdom, because evil is the antigod, while God is loving and relates to man, and God is a Spirit (John 4:24), evil has no spirit, no love, and cannot relate, because it is the antigod, so it has no characteristic of God. The devil has a personality, emotions, and mind to manipulate, "to steal, kill, and destroy," (John 10:10) but he is not the anthisis of God, he was created by God and once was Lucifer a good worshipping angel until he decided to usurp, disobey, and have disposition against God, "How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn (Lucifer)!
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit" (Isaiah 14:12-15).
Evil is not equal to the Lord or powerful like God, it is not living, it is dead in that it brings death to all things by making man want to murder, kill, steal, destroy relationsihps, property, and all things. Its ultimate goal though he has no goals, is to lead men to hellfire (Matthew 25:41). Evil exists merely so God can be good, and give us free will. If we were submitted to obedience by God without free will and made to Love God without free will, we would not truly love Him. We need a choice to love, and so with that evil must exist, because "without darkness there is no light.". Now a day will come when evil will meet its end for hell and death which evil leads to is thrown in Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14), but again evil is not active or relating or making pawns of men, it is a choice, Satan makes pawns of men, and demonic spirits lead men to evil, but evil is not a the puppet master, it is simply the choice that has always existed to not love God, to not obey Him, and to rebel and want a will apart from God's Will.
The devil leads people to evil, but evil is not ruler of the devil, because evil again is not like God or a god the Zoroastrians believe in. Evil is simply a disposition against the Divine One that creates the devil, demons, and dark people who having embraced evil long enough create a power or presence of darkness. Evil can be felt not because it has a presence, but because it removes the presence of God through rebellion, disobedience, self-determination, self-promotion, and self-will. Evil is felt because those who embrace the disposition invite and fill with evil spirits who have already chosen the disposition of evil, thus creating a presence within or around the person that creates fear, stabbing pains in a righteous person's chest or intestines, headaches, and more. Evil is not more powerful than God, because its not a power, it is disposition. It can easily be defeated by "The Blood of Lamb, and word of your testimony." (Revelation 12:11, though this is to overcome devil, it applies to evil too). Evil can be overcome simply by saying, "no." No, I will not seek my onw will over God's, no I will obey my God, no I will love rather than harm another. The reason evil is so strong in world is that people don't say no, they say yes to evil because they want to build their own empire, their own wealth at expense of their souls (Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36), and they want to do it at all costs. Evil is felt because Satan, the fallen angels like Tyre and Persia (Daniel 10:13, princes as pinrcipalties, see Ephensians blank), demons, and princes of this present darkness (Ephesians 6:12) are full of the evil disposition and they act on it against God, fill people with themselves, and thus create a power or sense of evil.
More simply, God is so powerful and greater than all evil because he can appear in sky (Ezekiel 1, Revelation 1:7) and manifests through His saints (1 Timothy 3:16, Acts 10:44, Ephensians 2:18), lives in His saints (Galatians 2:20, 1 Corinthians 3:16, John 14:17), manifests in dreams (Acts 2:17), in visions (Acts 2:17), can appears through words (He is Word of God, John 1:1, John 1:14), and more. God is omnipresent, and can be everywhere at once. Evil cannot be omnipresent, it cannot manifest expect in those who choose it as disposition like the devil, demons, and dark people. Evil can only appear through those who have made choice of evil, thus is isolated to flesh and spirit, while God can appear at any time, in space, on Earth, in Saints, and more. This proves God is greater than evil, for evil can only find a face in evil spirits and people, whiel God needs not people or spirits to manifest His power, presence, personality, infinite wisdom, and more. God did come in flesh (John 1:14, 2 John 1:7), but it wasn't because that is only way He could manifest, God came in flesh to save mankind from death, evil, the devil, and sin (Romans 8:3, 1 John 3:8, John 3:16, ). Jesus Christ is God incarnate, made flesh, the Word became Flesh (John 1:1). God took on a body to save us believers and break evil's disposition in us, break power of the devil, and the power of death.
Evil is conquered, and is not equal to God. But it exists because God is Good, we need a choice between good and evil, for us to love and be sincere. Evil is fangless is people say, "no" the problem is that many people say yes. There are many doors to evil, a big one is money, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs," (1 Timothy 6:10) and "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (Matthew 6:24). I always wonder why Jesus didn't say, "you cannot only serve God or Satan." The reason is money is majorly connected to Evil itself, while Satan is but a proponet and campaigner for evil. Money actually connects faster to evil, than even the devil! The devil is evil, because he chose evil, and influences people for evil, but money is something most of mankind will serve before ever being deceived by the devil. Put this way, evil is the policy of a candadite that changes things, the candadite is the devil who wants to imput that policy. The devil is connected to policy and wants it, but he is not the policy.
The Apostle Paul says, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21). Does Paul mean good works? Possibly, but I think He means God, "For only God is Good." (Mark). But works are connected to God, "because it is Christ that lives in me," (Galatians 2:20) and "Do you not know your temples of God and dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). God dwells in all who believe in Him who is Jesus Christ (John 3:16), so when you do good works, they are good because they come from God who is inside you and you inside of Him (John 14:20, 1 John 4:4, John 17:23, John 15:4,). They would be filthy wrags and not good works, if God did not now live inside you and was doing the good works through you. The Apostle John says, "I write to you, dear children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one." (1 John 2:14). The evil one is the devil, but by calling him the evil one, not evil, John is making the distinction that evil is not a being, but the devil who serves or creates the disposition is evil. Between Paul and John we see it is God, Jesus Christ, Word of God that gives us the power to overcome, defeat, and resist both evil and the evil one!
I am not claiming that I know the origin or "Problem of Evil" perfectly. One can make strong argument that evil is a power, that it is disease, that it can manipulate men, lives in the devil, and the devil and world are evil's children, along with all the other fallen angels and demons, and half breeds. As Orthodox Christian scholars say, "We have done our best to explain this, bur we know that we are imperfect and so see imperfectly, there is Mystery of God and all that pertains to the supernatural, and so we must at the end rely on Holy Spirit to make things clear, for we can error, but God cannot." (The Orthodox Church, Timothy (Kallistos) Ware).
The apostle Paul said it most eloquently, "Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely." (1
Corinthians 13:12, NLT). So please keep that in mind, if I am wrong about evil, fine. But I have tried to explain how it could have always existed and how it is so the opposite of God, it isn't living or thinks, but is a choice, and is thus not as powerful or equel to God who outsmarted evil with the cross and His death.
Addendum:
Evil was never seen until God creates beings like angels and humans. God is good and though evil existed, God would never make an evil choice or embrace evil, it took God's created beings, the angels and man making the choice of evil to make evil appear in history. Evil has always been a choice, but no one was around who would ever make the choice until the angels and mankind was created. God would never choose evil, because He is good, so evil seemed invisible until Lucifer and One third of angels fell (Revelation 12:4), and Adam and Eve partook of the Fruit of Good and Evil.
Evil had no passion or power until it mingled with flesh, that is man and woman. Sin is connected to evil because it is evil done by beings that have bodies. Evil as choice then manifests by destroying beings with flesh via disease and death, while spirits like the devil are not destroyed by evil in forms of disease or death, but by God when he throws them into the hell fire (Matthew 25:41, Revelation 20:10)
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