The one
key thing that seems to define life on Earth,
And that
clearly impacts life’s quality and worth,
Is the
apparent war between good and evil,
With
opposing forces that sustain their duel.
Good: Virtuous; righteous;
excellent morally;
Of high quality,
quantity or degree.
Evil: Wicked, harmful,
morally wrong or bad; injurious;
Contrary
to everything that is good; insidious.
For both,
there are and are not absolutes,
Depending
on what motive contributes.
They
both can only be known contextually,
Thus,
herein they’re discussed enigmatically.
‘Behold, in knowing good and evil,
Man has now become like one of
Us’. 1
Hear the
loud strike of Heaven’s gavel,
Breathtaking
gasps of angels’ chorus!
To God, ‘knowing’ isn’t just head knowledge.
It infers something spiritual, a deep intimacy,
Akin to consummating a marriage. 2
To know
evil is to join or resist its insurgency. 3
In
exercising the choice to disobey,
Man’s intimate coupling with God was severed.
In this
one act, he had become satan’s prey,
And to this new god, he had become tethered.
The God
of good, for one of evil, exchanged!
Knowing
evil, yet ignorant of sin’s penalty imposed.
Yet a
return route to God had been arranged. 4
Along
the way, myths about evil are exposed.
Myth
#1: God created evil
God
created all things perfect and good,
And in
Grace, included the power of choice.
In doing
so, He fully understood,
The
power of choice would give dissention a voice.
Myth
#2: Satan personifies and is
responsible for all evil
In his
heavenly insurrection, satan has ‘first
dibs’,
On
exercising a dissenting voice.
But every
spirit has this voice, even babes in their cribs!
Even
Christ’s reign will know dissentious noise!! 5
Myth
#3: There is a war between good and
evil
Tell me,
do hot and cold between them fight,
Or are
there thermostatic equivalents?
Agents of
good and evil expedite,
Their
wars through us, their human constituents!
Myth
#4: Evil is God’s punishment
The
entirety of creation evidences,
Broad
sets of laws, physical and spiritual.
One law
by which we’re trapped is that of consequences,
Such as
the Law of Sin and Death, satan’s cudgel.
Myth
#5: Evil makes us draw near/run to God
When by
satan’s cudgel, our lives have been whacked,
God’s goodness is His much better drawing magnet.
Grace
wrote a new law, that no one can redact:
The Law of
Life in Christ Jesus, God’s red
carpet. 6
Myth
#6: People are basically good, not evil
Affirming
our inherently sinful nature to the core,
By God’s
Word, this myth has been resolutely debunked!
Though
some good we may do, and about evil say we abhor,
We’re
all born evil because on God’s test, Adam flunked.
Myth
#7: We can overcome evil
(…without
recognizing its true source)
This myth
is both un-spiritual and un-scientific.
Who can fight
and win a war while denying the enemy?
Yet so
many of us have fallen for this devilish trick.
Its root
is ungodly PRIDE in mere human ability.
Friend,
So our perceptions
of evil would be demystified,
God sent
His Word, and offers to change our spirit, sin-prone.
Only
then can our practice of evil be nullified,
Overcome
by His goodness and Spirit on our life’s throne. 7
----------
1 See:
Genesis 3:22
2 See:
Genesis 4:1, 25, and especially Matthew 7:23 and 25:41. Does Jesus ‘know’ you, intimately,
spiritually-speaking?
3 Led
by satan and his demons, against God. See: Isaiah 14, which culminated
in Revelation 12:4 and Luke 10:18. Connect the dots…
4
The death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Christ, The Savior and our
substitute sacrifice. This is The Gospel of Jesus.
Overcome
evil with Good.
5
For example, see Zechariah 14:16-18
6 See:
Romans 8:2 and 2 Corinthians 5:21
7
