Articles
Good and Evil
According to a 2011 article in the online magazine Slate, evil does not exist and the very idea is "an antiquated concept that's done more harm than good," and "there is no such thing as 'free will' with which to decide to commit evil. (Like evil, free will is an antiquated concept for most.)" [The End of Evil? slate.com; Sept. 30, 2011.] According to the scientists they cite in the article, what we used to call 'evil' is merely "malfunctions or malformations in the brain," and, "instead of calling someone evil we should say they have no empathy."
This sounds eerily like the oft-repeated statement about the devil's greatest victory being that he has convinced man he does not exist. The problem with this thinking, though, is that — if accepted — man will begin to think he has no personal responsibility or guilt and will hasten mankind's moral degeneration. With evil being mentioned so often in the Bible [569 times in the KJV; 461 in the NKJV; 617 in the ASV], it seems the motivation for those who wish to remove the concept of good and evil is based on their rejection of the idea of a Creator, sin, and Judgment.
Man's knowledge of good and evil started in the garden, when woman first took, and then the man, of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:1-7), though God had strictly prohibited it (2:17). It should be noted that this was not a learned fact, but something they inherently knew without being told. No one told them that nakedness was evil, and that they needed to cover themselves; they simply knew, and acted out of shame to cover themselves. Now, man argues that such distinctions as good or evil are "antiquated" [that's a fanciful way of saying 'outdated' or 'old-fashioned' or, worse, 'backwards'] and such terminology should be eliminated.
While man may indeed be ultimately successful in eliminating the terminology, it will not eliminate the fact or existence of good and evil, however; good and evil will exist as long as mankind exists and as long as — yes — free will exists by which men make the choice of doing one or the other. We may argue over how to define either, but differences of opinion on what is good or what is evil does not mean they do not exist. Such 'reasoning' is a fallacy of argument called argument of the beard, where one concludes that no one can identify a beard until we all agree on how man whiskers it takes to constitute a beard. While we may never agree on the number of whiskers, we call recognize when a man has a beard! In the same way, we may not always agree on the definitions of good or evil, but we know evil when we see it!
But for all believers, it is important to know the difference. The writer of Hebrews chastised the early disciples for their failure to grow spiritually, saying to them, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:12-14). Their lack of spiritual maturity rendered them unable to discern between good and evil, and their choices reflected that inability.
What is ‘Good’? In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated as good is tobh, and refers to that which is pleasing to God and, in the New Testament, refers to things that are morally good, thus a choice of the individual. Despite the claims of some religious teachers that man is born morally and totally corrupt and unable to choose good, man does have a choice in the matter, else God will condemn a great majority of mankind to hell when they had no ability to choose good.
When the rich, young ruler came to Jesus, he said, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” (Matt. 19:16), to which Jesus replied, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God” (Matt. 19:17). In this sense, Jesus spoke of the moral purity of God, in whom was no evil or darkness (1 John 1:5). It is this characteristic that moved the psalmist to write, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psa. 34:8). Since He is thoroughly and completely good, then all He does and says is also good. Again, the psalmist agrees: “Your judgments are good” (Psa. 119:39), and, “You are good, and do good” (Psa. 119:68). In the simplest terms, good is that which comes from God, or is pleasing to God.
What Is ‘Evil’? As darkness is the absence of light, so is evil the absence of good. One who does evil is one who has purposefully chosen to do the things that God has forbidden. Sin is evil. And there is exactly the reason why many want to eliminate that term; since “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23), then we have all committed an evil at some point in our lives. We don't like hearing that! "Evil" is Hitler or Stalin or Osama bin Laden, but not us!
There is where we may overstate things; one who has committed an evil — one who has sinned — is not necessarily an evil person. Those who are truly evil are the ones who continually choose wicked, cruel, unjust, ungodly, violent acts against others. At the same time, we must admit that sin is evil, lest we do not treat it as seriously as we should. If we continue in sin, then we fit the definition of evil, no matter how loudly we may protest. Let us not forget, too, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23); that is as serious as we could get! The proper response would be as God's word clearly and strongly exhorts us to do: “Depart from evil and do good” (Psa. 34:14); “Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good” (Rom. 12:9); “Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thess. 5:21); and, “do not imitate what is evil, but what is good” (3 John 1:11). With all theses exhortations to avoid or abhor evil and do what is good, it should be obvious that good and evil do exist, and that we can know the difference between the two. Do we?
So, yes, good and evil do exist, and we do have a choice in the matter. And on this, let us hear John: “He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God” (3 John 1:11). The choice is God's way [good] or the devil's way [evil].
Choose good! — Steven Harper
