What is evil?
We see it, we feel it, and yet we seem ignorant of what it is or how to fight back. One advantage both Christians and Jews have is scripture, God breathed instruction, on evil and good and admonishments not to fall under the sway of evil. I propose fielding public argument using scripture to answer the hows, the whys, and the plan to allow us to live in in such evil times. Definition...from Google e·vil adjective: evil
synonyms: wicked, bad, wrong, immoral, sinful, foul, vile, dishonorable, corrupt, iniquitous, depraved, reprobate, villainous, nefarious, vicious, malicious; More malevolent, sinister, demonic, devilish, diabolical, fiendish, dark; monstrous, shocking, despicable, atrocious, heinous, odious, contemptible, horrible, execrable; informallowdown, dirty "an evil deed" antonyms: good, virtuous
synonyms: cruel, mischievous, pernicious, malignant, malign, baleful, vicious; More destructive, harmful, hurtful, injurious, detrimental, deleterious, inimical, bad, ruinous "an evil spirit" antonyms: good, beneficial
synonyms: unpleasant, disagreeable, nasty, horrible, foul, disgusting, filthy, vile, noxious "an evil smell" antonyms: pleasant noun noun: evil
"the world is stalked by relentless evil" synonyms: wickedness, bad, badness, wrongdoing, sin, ill, immorality, vice, iniquity, degeneracy, corruption, depravity, villainy, nefariousness, malevolence; devil; formalturpitude "the evil in our midst"
"the evil that took place last Thursday" synonyms: abomination, atrocity, obscenity, outrage, enormity, crime, monstrosity, barbarity "the evils of war"
harm, pain, misery, sorrow, suffering, trouble, disaster, misfortune, catastrophe, affliction, woe, hardship "nothing but evil would ensue" Evil is that which resists life. Evil is all those things which make life unbearable, ruinous and difficult. Evil has a source. That source is Satan (adversary) or Lucifer. The light bearer. The being that covered the throne of God. Ceremonially, the being closest to God. We may not know much about the angelic realms, or the courts of God (third heaven) but we know this being chose to try and usurp the position of God the creator. He lost his position, though not his right to be in the throne room, and as God unfolded the plan for redemption of creation, through a physical, incarnated race on a world very different from third heaven, having restrictions such as time, and apparently no such abilities as the angels have (moving between dimensions for instance) Satan, in his adversarial role, chose to tempt mankind with the same sin he himself fell into…you can be like God. You can be your own God. By agreeing, we turned creation, and ourselves, over to the administration of Satan. He is the god of this world. John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. 2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. Yet evil is not unlimited; Satan is not and never was the equal of God; and while Satan uses chaos death and destruction to further his goals, God gave every human being certain things; not just believers but every human being. The sun and the rain fall equally on all. He did not reserve the basic components of life but gave to each human in the same measure. And though Adam and Eve did in one sense die the moment they sinned..that is, their spirits died, and so each of us has a spirit that is unquickened unless it is brought to life by the Holy Spirit, but we were given enough light to be able to find the truth. Call it conscience, call it a spark, every human being has this ability. The measure of faith. We in fact do know the difference between good and evil. Now that we have defined the problem, that we are a corrupted and fallen race, and that everything we focus on tends to also corrupt, but there are unambiguous moral laws we can use to focus on as a way to limit the scope of evil, leading to a healthier and freer society, and greater opportunities as individuals, let’s see where a discussion of current issues leads.. 1. politics We have reached a point in the US that experts are calling our former representative democracy an oligarchy…a government run by elites, which puts the posturing and spin of both parties in the lie category. It’s all a big show..promise rights to those who will vote for you, demonize your opponents, which has always been true, except it turns out there are no opponents. Just a big play to keep the population thinking they have a say in running the country, promise new freedoms or benefits, and use the resulting conflicts to make new laws that tighten control over said population. The public is considered uneducated and unable to make decisions for themselves. 2. judges. A judge in the Old Testament was given special rules by Mosaic law. As well, our list of judges includes heroes who battled Israel’s enemies. Deuteronomy 16:18-21:9 18 Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. 19 Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. 20 That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. We have summarized this with the statue of “blind justice.” We even modeled our circuit courts after the different towns used to render judgements of the prophet Samuel. These days, judges make law or make precedents without regard to the written law (contained in the Constitution of the United States.) As well, we have an overburdened system, where only those with the means for private counsel tend to get a positive result, and many of the rest are advised to take plea deals, thereby eliminating court time, regardless of guilt or innocence. Truly, as Jesus said, Matthew 5:25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 3.Jews While Christianity grew out of Judaism, Christians often state that Jews lost their covenant with God, and we supersede them, that Israel doesn’t really matter (so backing the Palestinians becomes an easy choice.) I have even noticed a bit of Jewish believers mouthing how evil Christians are. The fact is, God never reneges on a promise, Jews have returned to Israel as predicted, and Christians have always been the best bulwark and protection against anti Semitism. Anti Semitism, though not widely reported, is increasing in the US especially among college students and the beginnings of it are rumbling along in rhetoric coming from Black Lives Matter. When I was growing up, the radical black groups of the sixties hated Jews because they were landlords and store owners in black areas.Anti Semitism is always an indicator of the level of manipulation due to the hatred of Satan himself. It seeks to wipe out the promises of God as well as destroying God’s holy nation. Numbers 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Genesis 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. Genesis 3;14 The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life; 15And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel."… 4.Christianity Much of the drive to come to the New World was to worship God without oppression, So much of our legal system and philosophical thought is based on the premise of man serving God as he chooses..without popes or bishops or kings interfering. The reformation, which quickly divorced people from the catholic church, but them splintered into groups seeking to control doctrine, etc, quickly gave way to the new intellectualism, seeking to influence the world (and the world influencing the church, the body of Christ) has further weakened into ecumenical meeting houses seeking Catholics, Muslims, atheists, and other to join them in solving problems. The solving problems part I agree with, the watering down of the truth I do not. Christian persecution is in the rise in much of the world. Christian influence in the US is at a low ebb; ridiculed, blamed for every social evil, and attempting to fit in with the world. Revelation 3:16-17 16So because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of My mouth! 17You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. 18I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, white garments so that you may be clothed and your shameful nakedness not exposed, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.… Matthew 5:15-17 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 5. The balkanization of America We have allowed our own self-interest as well as political chicanery, now fueled by instant wide spread rumors and negative stories, to now want to reside only in our own communities, whether that be by skin color, religion, or special interest, or sexual desires. A country cannot be run from a series of separatist camps. The US Constitution recognized we were different people and that we agreed to come together for common cause…national defense, trade, promoting business, etc. The narrow interests of the few are therefore promoted easily because we find no reason to build bridges to other groups. As well, if nothing is going to change, fighting for a larger share of federal dollars based on special status becomes an easy trap to fall into. 6. progressivism Progressivism assumes mankind must always progress, a never ending search for progress, and they aren’t just talking about technology. It constantly seeks new agendas and new rights, while insisting anyone who does not fall in line with progress is a moral imbecile, an enemy, a creature that did not have the sense to lay down and become extinct, in fact this is social application of Darwinism, which in essence was never about science but about giving the ruling elite an excuse to rule without benefit of God (go look it up.. who financed Darwin’s research?) Once all other forms of authority..behavior, family, religion, written law…can be ruled obsolete, progressives become the new gods who decide what the populace should believe, should do, should think. Their real intent can be seen in part of the 2030 United Nations plan. All humans removed to the cities to heal the earth. All humans would become captives in what amounts to zoos. Robots can process minerals and foodstuffs in the hinterland, I suppose. The hyper predators, that would be murderous groups intent on their own agendas, encouraged and turned into shock troops available to control and demoralize the populace at any moment.what passes for evolution is in fact a sick game of “only the strongest survive.” In essence, no lives matter. Christians and Jews, who actually stand for natural law, natural order, as well as for God, are always targeted and silenced, to further the goal. Genesis 5:2 He created them male and female, and He blessed them and named them Man in the day when they were created. Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. We are biological beings, in a biological system, with a biological way of reproducing. All natural law stems from the need to cement and protect the most basic of relationships…the family. 7. narcissism The cult of ego. Only that which is experienced by the self is of any importance. No one else can ever understand you, your specialness, your victimhood, your scars, are unique. Narcissism is in effect a total stunting of the adult in favor of a childlike state. It makes having the government take care of you, protect you from any thought that might disturb how you think about yourself, or even reality..that is the physical world ,because to the child like mind, even the world is whatever the mind thinks it is This of course, is insanity. Insanity that can actually kill you, as believing you can do whatever you like cannot change facts such as cars passing down a street you wish to cross. Or that you have to agree to rules to work for a paycheck, the fact that we raise narcissistic individuals is not surprising in a still relatively wealthy nation. The problem is in pandering governments which now says all these lies are in fact truth. The statistics about police involved deaths in the US totally contradict what black lives matter promotes More whites than blacks die in altercations with police, and there is a series of underlying problems in the black community that have set citizens on a path of criminal behavior which means more frequent interactions with police. You can’t solve the problem without addressing system wide failures. (Get rid of drugs and gangs, secure neighborhoods enough to bring in companies with jobs.) This doesnot address police officers either making mistakes or abusing their powers, either. Two sides to the issues and tow paths to start to change it. Transgenderism is a mental disorder. There is no such thing as a cross wired brain, there is no proof of any biological changes, Once you have agreed to drugs and surgery, you are still in the same sex body you were born in, mimicking the opposite sex, which it should be said is your right as an American citizen. It is not your right (especially those under 18 and still under parental supervision) to insist that everyone must agree to your insanity. There is no basis for the idea that gender is arbitrary ( that’s gender norms, not biological sex) male and female brains are shown to differ even in situations such as stress, so pretending you are like some game character, a made up bunch of changing sexes and desires, is simply another way of extending your narcissism. At the expense of everyone else. Insisting that muslims who believe in murder for Allah’s sake are not murderers, or muslims, and that muslims are victims, of Americans, is insanity itself, treat your neighboring muslim with respect, do not tolerate radical Islamic belief. Yes that means vetting incoming immigrants, and jailing or deporting anyone who says they believe in jihad. Destroying every basic human institution so that you never have to face any objective truth is nihilistic. When there are no rules, there is no society. Romans 9 19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? 21Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? Unless you are God, you are subject to the basic rules of life on this planet. to pretend you can alter life itself is ridiculous. Our scientific attempts to do just that..transhumans chimeras and implanted computer technology, are not evolution but a lessening of humanity itself . The answers…… All of the above..the persistent use of twisted ideas, to encourage chaos in every level of society, while weakening normal and natural human institutions, encouraging victim status, special rights, and using law to punish more conservative views, shows the real goal of returning, as we have since the beginning, to a system where small numbers of powerful people can control everyone else on earth, They promise the moon, allow us to drug and sex ourselves into a kind of oblivion, in order to form THEIR perfect world. We become pawns unable to change our fates. Nimrod and Babel, Babylon and Egypt, Greece and Rome,,communism fascism and even capitalism, where the wealth has now been applied to enslave and impoverish its workers as if they were serfs or slaves, proves human government fails to ever answer the question of evil, and eliminate it Instead it embraces evil to ensure the elites their own lives of privilege, and loved ones, and care little how many humans suffer to achieve their goals. We can resist this human tendency to seek a human god, by applying a verse from probably the most hated book in the Bible. Leviticus 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD. We can start to embrace each other as neighbors, and work towards common goals, and keep the government,,,any government, out of it. That requires actually talking to and listening to physically present human beings. Having looked at both natural law ( that spark, that conscience found in every human being) and Judeo-Christian law, we can start to stand up to every lie. Truth has a way of setting things right. We can encourage barter systems, use only local businesses or service people, to keep out of the way of big companies who harm their employees, to make more for themselves, and use social unrest and what amounts to loyalty oaths to improve their business. At least part of the time, step out of the rat race and join the human race. With more small business/sole proprietors, I do think the differences between men and women, blacks and whites, even LGBT and traditional heterosexuals, will disappear , and we can start to relate to each other as human beings, depend on each other for paychecks and services, and in general begin to form more community mindedness. We can remind politicians they do not own us by separating us, pushing our buttons, and trying to guarantee themselves votes, think anti votes. Throwing out career politicians, until by our protest we begin to see a more responsive government, is something we can do. We can agree to disagree and stay out of each other’s spiritual and private lives. That will make facebook traffic plummet..but maybe it is time. We can make sure that services, local service, to feed people to provide temporary housing, to counsel and heal the abused, are always staffed, Better to pay locally than to pay an uncaring federal government,. Maybe taking care of each other instead of telling people to go get their monthly check will make a difference. Schooling especially for boys needs to change, I know a while back some mostly African American urban communities set up charter schools separating out boys from girls, Scores went through the roof. I would like to know where some of those men are now and if this model continued to make a difference for them as adults. One other model that does work is homeschooling, We need to take back our schools, as social engineering, bullying behavior, criminal behavior and teaching to test instead of teaching so students learn is too much the norm as an example, our local schools have been singled out as particularly bad in disciplining black students far more often than white students. I am not sure how our black families are coping with this, or if it is more government control being exerted; certainly an atmosphere of punishment for a black skin is not tolerable to any rational person. Abandoning the system is an option because we need to raise kids with good values and a great education more than we need a government telling us how to do this. As far as the spiritual dangers of evil, and its author, I know we are all under the gun quite literally. Christians and Jews do have assurances and protections built into their beliefs. But the devil will have his day, his time of control. What he is doing now is sowing chaos and distrust, so that we will believe his messenger is the one, that we are entering a new golden age. We know that despotic rule is harmful. You don’t have to be a believer to understand that. Taken to a worldwide level, it will be horrific, but even at a local level, the effect of evil.. of the lie, is chilling. America does not need to falter entirely in the meantime,. We do not have to give up..sit on our hands, and allow ourselves to be consumed We seem to have forgotten how to take care of ourselves, or what having a life full of meaning is, or how to just enjoy the differences in people. Once we attempt in these very small ways to free ourselves from the drudgery and ugliness of the times, and new ideas start to flow, we can be a place of freedom, even if we are not a world power, the leaders and shakers, the current trendsetters, So a smaller quieter happier America is possible, and in such conditions, maybe an attitude of peace will overcome the despair the frantic search for wealth and fame. The ability to hurt anyone we feel has hurt us.. Meanwhile we believing Christians will keep praying and keep hoping. God’s not done yet! |
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