EVIL

Can anyone doubt that there is evil in the world? Look around. Muslim groups like the Islamic State are rampaging through and terrorizing countries like Iraq and Syria and are threatening to come to America. In fact, they, or at least their sympathizers, are killing people here in America and in Canada, though authorities refuse to call it terrorism. Americans and others are being beheaded. Our borders are wide open to anyone who decides to come in, bringing in diseases we have never had to tackle. Ebola is ravaging some African countries and has now been brought to America. There are riots in our streets. The tensions between the races has risen to a new boiling point.

Morality is a relic of the past, it seems. Movies and television are laced with profanity and promiscuity. Little girls are used to blurt out profanity in support of the feminist agenda. The sacred institution of marriage is in shambles with men working that which is wicked with men and women doing the same. The roles of mothers and fathers are being distorted and ther family is being turned into something unreconizable. God is being taken out of our schools and every vile thing is being put in His place. Can anyone doubt that there is evil in the world? So we think we know what evil is, but what does the Bible says about evil?

The Bible tells us that there are two kinds of evil in the world. First, there is extrinsic or physical evil. We all call a tornado that kills people evil. But the tornado, if it makes a path through territory that is uninhabited, is not called evil. We call it evil only because it takes human life or valuable property. When Joseph’s brethren were going to cast him into a pit, they were going to say some “evil beast” devoured him (Gen. 37:20). But the beast was not evil in and of itself, only as it took innocent human life. The same would be true of an earthquake or storm or some other such event. These events are not evil in and of themselves but only as they cause misfortune to human beings.

But the Bible also describes intrinsic, moral evil. This is evil in and of itself. God is good (Psalm 107:1). His word is good (Heb. 6:5). It is God Who declares what is good and what is evil (Is. 45:19). Anything that goes against the will of God, then, is evil in and of itself. Anything! Adam sinned and committed an evil when he ate of a tree that God commanded him not to eat. Because of this transgression, sin was brought into the world and all men have suffered the consequences ever since!

We recognize that things like murder or theft are wrong and evil. We see these things as “major” evils. But do we also recognize that things like the instrument in worship is evil because it, too, goes against the will of God (Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19)? Many will dismiss this as balderdash. They will argue that using an instrument and murder have nothing in common. But, I ask, is playing an instrument in worship really significantly different than eating the fruit of a forbidden tree? Both would seem to be innocuous, innocent actions. But the thing they both have in common is that they violate God’s express will and are therefore evil.

What we usually classify as evil, extrinsic, physical evil, came about as a consequence of intrinsic, moral evil. Extrinsic evil came about as a result of a violation of the will of God. God told Adam that they day that he ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would surely die (Gen. 2:17). This was the divine, legal penalty for sin (Rom. 5:12). Since death was the penalty, whatever brings about death also resulted from sin. Before man violated God’s law, there were no tornadoes, at least none that took human life or caused damage to man’s property. Before man violated God’s law, there was no disease, or sickness. These were the result of sin. Before man violated God’s law, there were no flesh eating parasites or carnivorous animals. These all resulted from eating of a tree that God commanded them not to eat.

The next time you are tempted to violate a command of God, think again. Do you really know what evil is?

Eric L. Padgett