Evil From Birth To Death We Experience A Life That

EVIL From birth to death we experience a life that is good and evil. We learn that evil is an essential part of life, and that without evil the meaning of good would not be known. Therefore, we learn to live with evil, and think countless evil thoughts, and commit many evil acts. Life becomes a warfare between truth and error, and we may wonder if God is the source or the creator of evil. This paper will attempt to answer this question by examining the Bible. The existence of evil is an enigma. The foundation of evil is based on a belief that there is a power other than God. This belief supports the idea of two opposing powers, which begins with the story of Lucifer, and this angel transforming into the Devil, and wanting to become a god himself. (Isaiah xiiii: 12-14) Logic would tell us that God must have knowledge of the future, otherwise, like ourselves, he would be prone to accidents. Thus having foreknowledge, God would have known that creating Lucifer would bring into being the Devil as well. Therefore, we may conclude that God intended for an opposing power to exist, otherwise He would not have created Lucifer. Also, if Lucifer was transformed into the Devil, God must have imparted the knowledge of evil to Lucifer. Christ, Jesus contradicts this view by saying: “Either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.” (Matthew xii: 33) On the other hand, God may not have had the knowledge of evil to pass on to Lucifer, and He may not have had foreknowledge. Subsequently, the creation of the Devil would have been an accident, and Lucifer would have created evil in and of himself, which will mean that there is more than one creator, more than one God. Can God be all powerful if another self-creating power exists? The Bible clearly states that there is only one creator: “there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things”. (1st Corinthians viii: 6) This passage is one of many that speak of one God, with the most familiar passage being the first commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”. (Exodus xx: 3) Thus God could not have intended for the transformation of Lucifer into the Devil, He could not have imparted the knowledge of evil to Lucifer, and Lucifer could not have created the knowledge of evil himself. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”. (John i: 5) If God is good and only good, and if “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made”, (John i: 3) then the entire creation must be perfect. We might believe that darkness is as real as light, but darkness is the absence of light, and because God is an omnipresent light, it follows that darkness cannot exist at all. If God is everywhere, then there is no room for the existence of evil in any form. If God created man, then man must be perfect. This thought is supported by Jesus when he said: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”. (Matthew v: 48) We can find a more concrete evidence of mans’ perfection in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The first chapter of Genesis states that “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them”. (Genesis i: 27) Your reflection in a mirror is your own likeness. If man was created as the image and likeness of God, and if God is perfect, then man has to be perfect as well. If man was created perfect, and has lost his perfection, then either he was imperfect from the outset, or that the image is reflecting imperfection. Can the image of perfection reflect imperfection? (Science & Health with Keys to the Scriptures) The following

passage from the Bible clearly answers the question: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in Him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God”. (1st John iii: 9) “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I Am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing”. (John xv: 4-5) If God is omnipresent and infinite, then everything that exists must exist within God. The Bible states: “the Father hath life in himself”. (John v: 26) Because God is life, nothing can exist outside of Him. If we exist in Him, and He is perfect, then we are perfect as well. We are told in chapter three, verse three of Colossians: “your life is hid with Christ in God”. Some say that the purpose of evil is obvious. They say that God has created a life that is both good and evil, so that we may be tested. It is believed that during this test, if we forsake evil for good, we will reap the reward, after death, by existing in heaven, and the sinners will burn for an eternity in hell. Again, the test will be meaningless if God has foreknowledge; because God would know the answer to test even before beginning the creation process. Also, can we call God good, if he creates imperfection, and then punishes the creation for His failing? Why do we need to know evil, in order to receive perfection? Is it not possible for God to create a perfect universe, including man at the onset? Some say that if life were perfect, it would be uninteresting, dull, and tedious. They say that evil completes life, by providing an opposite to good. But because the good in this world is defined by evil, if we destroy all manner of evil in this world, we will destroy the good as well. What we call good is not good at all. Good to be good must be everlasting, and autonomously perfect. (Science & Health with Keys to the Scriptures) Jesus: “believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.” (John x: 38) Christ, Jesus preached the unreality of evil, and demonstrated reality by healing disease, sickness, sin, and death. He delivered the truth with his words and his works, and showed us that understanding the unreality of evil will enable us to overcome evil in our lives, and realize our existence as the image and likeness of God. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do…At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”. (John xiiii: 12-20)