Thoughts on Good and Evil

Thoughts on Good and Evil

“See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people” – 1 Thess. 5:15

Common Permissiveness

Good is relative. Everyone has a small amount of good in themselves, and no one is entirely evil. This is the world’s view on good. It is both illogical and unbiblical, and is grounded on the theory of the common atheist, as well as other “religious powers”, thus the illogical standpoint. Perhaps people come to this conclusion so as to avoid conflict. After all, if you tell someone that not all people are good, they are bound to think at one moment or another that you may be referring to them (depending on who you are talking to of course), and no one likes the idea of people going to hell when you look at things from the humanistic perspective. However, there is a much bigger reason as to why people believe these lies, that being the movement of relativity when it comes to truth. This stems from the push for anti-biblical ideas, and is yet another attempt of man to either downplay God or remove Him altogether from the world. Yet sadly the so-called “Church” has been growing further and further into this movement, and would much rather give in to the demands of the ever-growing population than to toss large numbers of people out of their mega-churches because of the truth.

It is more likely that someone will downplay good so as to bring evil down with it rather than pushing good to a higher standard and making evil harder to avoid. This is of course caused by the natural laziness of mankind and is something that can be seen throughout the modern world. The modern idea of evil is so watered down because the modern idea of good was watered down first. After all, one needs the other to define itself, seeing as God said what was good, and anything apart from that is evil. So the world degrades good by making it easier to accomplish, thus making evil harder to do. This is wrong because, when you make good easier to do, evil is misread and can often be mistake as good. When you downplay evil, you are passing beyond what God has said evil is (by telling us what good is), thus more people do evil thinking it is good. If any of that makes sense, then continue reading this. If not, I can (hopefully) explain better.

Now, amazingly, the world has not stopped there in the distortion of what true good is. There are people who overpower evil, in the sense that they give Satan too much credit. They blame him for everything evil that is done, and push away evil from themselves by saying things such as “It was too much for me!” and “I was not made strong enough!”

My answer to those statements would be “Yes! You’re right!” I’ll build on this later (if I remember).

The other overpowering movement that the world has attempted is the overpowering of evil to the point of saying that everyone is evil, and is beyond saving. This movement is pushed by pessimists, who think that they are too evil to be saved by anyone or anything, and are walking suicides.

So now I have set up multiple views that the world has made up, and now I shall attempt to prove each one wrong with the only thing that can define good, that being the word of the One who defines good, in and of Himself.

Opinion Based Goodness/Evil

This is currently, in my own opinion, the most accepted view today, and is the view that seems to have infected most, if not all of the “modern Church”. I will not waste any time in going after this view, seeing as it is the one that brings the most anger out of me. The stupidity of this idea is beyond words, to say the least. The idea that good is relative is entirely relative in and of itself, as one’s own idea of what good means is subject to their idea of themselves, and how they deserve to be treated. Compare the ideas of what the world can come up with and put them together and you will see an ever-changing wave of ignorance which never seems to cease bringing up what we each deserve. And when you say that good is relative, you are automatically placing the same idea on evil. Whatever a person says is good, the opposite is evil. Although there are even some who claim that they can name off evils without them being subject to their own idea of good. However, that idea is also very, very ignorant, seeing as I mentioned earlier, both are depended upon the other to define each other.

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

God is good (Luke 18:19), His will is good (Rom. 12:2, the above verse) and anything apart from Him is evil (3 John 1:11). That does not look relative to me.

Degrading Good and Evil

When you degrade good, you degrade evil (as was mentioned). This is something that no one can avoid, and should always be taken into consideration when you are going to downplay good. Now most people might say (if they are this ignorant) that, if evil is degraded, that is a good thing. Nay, ‘tis the opposite. When you downplay good, you bring about an easier path to good (which most work-based religions seek), and that then in turn brings about the idea that it is one is less likely to commit an evil deed. This is where it is dangerous. The less evil there is (when mankind attempts to redefine it), the more likely it is that people will do evil. For instance, if stealing were relabeled as a “rude” thing, rather than a crime, the rate of thefts would most certainly jump, seeing as it would be less of a possible offense for the thieves. In the U.S., when murder is no longer (or rarely) punishable by death, the murder rate jumps. People have even gone so far with idea of degrading the good of a gun (for self-defense) to say that it is all bad, and look where those places that have these new ideas have gone?

If you degrade good, it becomes less of a desired object, and when you degrade evil, it becomes less painful or less painful for the conscience. This then opens the doors for a wave of true evil to sweep through the world, as it has, is, and will continue. (Sorry if this is bad grammar.)

Overpowering Good and Evil

Please don’t misread this. There is no such thing as too much good. When I say overpowering good, I mean the modern idea of good. I heard a Catholic say recently that all people do only good. He said that God made us all with the desire to do good, and we do this, because no one thinks that what they do is evil. Murders, he said, are even doing good. This is of course the same thing as the “truth is relative” spittle that I dealt with above, but is also the same idea as overpowering the idea of good as is made by mankind. When you go so far as to say that everyone does good, no matter the deed, you are saying that there is no evil, and not only that, but that would be to say that Christ died for nothing. He died for sins, and if there are no real sins, He died for something that was never there in the first place. Such is another way that men mock God, or rather, attempt to mock Him (Gal. 6:7).

Then we have the overpowering of evil. When you push evil to the point of being beyond saving, you are also saying that Christ died for nothing. If evil is too much for God, why do we even live? Does not sin result in death, as is stated in Romans 6:23? And if Christ did not take ALL of our sins with Him on the cross, shouldn’t we be dead? And if evil is too much for God to take, how can He even be God?

God can, and has taken sin. Not only that, but He even beat the end-result of sin, which is death (Rom. 6:4 and 9, 2 Tim 1:10).

Then we have the people that blame everything on Satan. “He made me do it!” they say. “I was not strong enough!” Saying this is saying that God is not as merciful as He says He is. However, “God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

Thus, it is not the evil that is too powerful, but that the person has a low view on the threat of sin, and takes little notice of it. It is like a strong soldier, who sits on his couch as fire engulfs the entire room and he says “It is too much for me!” while there is a door that is clear for him to use. We overpower what evil is simply because we are lazy, and do not wish to do the work to avoid it.

And yes, I remembered. When I reply to the one who says “I am not strong enough to face evil!” and I say “Yes!” I am pointing back to the One who is. We are born depraved sinners, and in and of ourselves could never even fight the foe, but that is why we have Christ.

The World Proves Otherwise

Let us take a quick look at a rebuttal to these ideas that is so obvious, and that is the world around us. When people say “Good is relative”, they forget to look around and see all of the ideas of good. Some think it is sharing, while others think it is blowing themselves up for their own “god”.

Then you have the people that downplay good and evil. The world around us clearly shows that this is gross error. This is proven wrong simply by looking at events such as September 11^th, 2001. Or even worse, let us look back 2000 years at the cross. Those who downplay evil downplay the work of Christ.

The world clearly shows that evil and good are never relative, nor are they too powerful, as is seen by that fact that we are all still here, alive, breathing and walking (or reading, in this case). If evil was too much, we would all be dead. And if good is overpowered through the modern idea, we would all be at war because of the extreme ideas. (And in a sense, we are at war because of this.)

The Reality

Although this has been said many times in books, movies and TV shows, it is true. Good is worth fighting for. It is worth dying for. That is because the truth is worth dying for. If we give up good, what have we given up? So many people give up good for a brief moment of comfort, and never see what true good is. Good is not subject to our own view, nor to anyone else’s. Good is defined by God, and there the definition must stay, otherwise we will most certainly fall into evil.

Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. - Job 13:15, KJV.