7.2 Defining Evil

Evil exists because God does not do evil; He does not force His knowledge on anyone. There is no substance or source or causation that is evil; evil has no existence inside of God. It is not a thing in itself.

When a human refuses the knowledge of God, that refusal must be met with a false anointing in order for the human to spin a fake story of self against the overwhelming flow of the good-speaking of Jesus. Adam commanded and the serpent agreed to be that false anointing in service to humans. Thus for both humans and angels, “evil” is a description of the actions coming out from a refusal to know God.

No Purpose. When we say “evil,” we mean those actions that come from the refusal to know God. And when we say “actions,” both thoughts and words spoken are included. God has no purpose for evil; He does not want it.

You see, if God forced Himself upon His creation, then there would be NO actions ever that were contrary to God. EXCEPT – such a “God” would be evil, and then all evil actions would be “like” that “God.” Look at the history of mankind. It is clearly evident that God does not force His knowledge upon anyone. And only a human mind, anointed to hate God without a cause, would decry that God “knows” evil or that God makes use of evil to accomplish His ultimate purpose.

Evil Passes Away. Let us assume that all created things come into existence and are sustained every moment by the good-speaking of Jesus, by His power-filled Word. This means that God intends every created thing in every moment of its existence. What God does not intend is that such a being would refuse His knowledge and would act out from that refusal.

God intends me every moment of my life, but He does not intend my actions that hurt other people. Those evil actions happen, and then they pass into history. They no longer exist as something in themselves. Yet the pain caused by those actions continues and must be resolved.

The Outcomes of Evil Actions. Evil is an action in a moment of time that immediately passes away. Evil does not endure. What endures, however, is the pain and loss caused in another by that evil action. Carrying pain and loss is not evil; evil is not pain and loss.

Evil is that momentary action that caused the pain and loss, but the pain and loss are now carried inside the hurting heart of one whom God loves. Pain and loss are the outcome, the result of an evil action, but they are not that evil action. Thus it is the pain and loss that God, together with us, turns away from the evil that caused it and into a future of pure and intrinsic goodness.

A Flow of Good Intention. When Joseph told his brothers that “God meant it for good,” he did not mean that their wicked actions were out from God. Those wicked actions were absolutely contrary to God, and as such must be resolved only by death, the one death of Christ.

Nonetheless, God always MEANS good. That is, good is a flow of intention always coming out from God towards every created thing. And that flow of good intention is always picking up the pieces after an evil action has destroyed, and turning the outcome into good – when a human, such as Joseph, synergeoes with God. Yet along with the flow of good intention comes also a requirement for justice. God has plenty of time, and the perpetrator of a wicked action WILL yield to justice.

The Certainty of Justice. The certainty of the coming of justice for every single wicked action ever perpetrated is the topic of Part 4 of this text. Yet the certainty of that justice – every knee WILL bow – is an essential part of defining evil.

Evil “gets away” with nothing. In the end, all conflict must be resolved, and every perpetration of pain and loss must be answered to full satisfaction. Hurting other people is not something you want to be doing. Yet we have all done just that. And we all WILL humble ourselves before the one whom we have hurt, and we WILL find resolution for them, with no regard for ourselves. We WILL, either now or later.

Not in the Bible. The last thing Satan wants anyone to believe is that he comes out from the good speaking of Jesus every moment, that he has to deliberately refuse that good-speaking, and that he WILL humble himself, at some definite point in the future, and find resolution for every evil action by which he has caused pain.

The serpent did not sin first. This grand “story” of the fall of the angels long before the fall of humans is just part of that most evil of all accusations, that God knows evil. I know the Bible. There is nothing in the Bible that supports such a grandiose exaltation of “evil.” The arguments for it use a very small number of obscure statements as their claim. And they refuse big New Testament verses that say the opposite.

Sin Came through Man. God did not give authority to the serpent, but to humans. Adam did not transfer his authority to the devil. Adam commanded the devil to his own service, that is, to anoint his false story of self. The problem with commanding the devil to service is that he is smarter than you are and tricky.

Sin did not come into God’s creation through angels, but through man, as Paul made fully clear in Romans 5. The angel who spoke with Eve was unfallen, and was anointed of God. That angel became the devil only by submitting to Adam’s rebellion. No sin existed until Adam’s teeth pierced the skin of false imagination for wicked purpose. 

What Precedes Evil. Now, the foundations for that sinful action, Adam and the serpent joining together in rebellion, were occurring in both of them in the moments prior to the action. In the serpent it was envy and contempt. In Adam it was unthankfulness and contempt. Envy and unthankfulness precede every action that is evil.

You see, when we feel contempt for others inside our heart, we place ourselves and that contempt entirely into God. The feeling of contempt is not itself sin. As we place ourselves and our contempt into God, God Himself keeps us from speaking out from that contempt, that is, God keeps us from sin and death.

The “Source” of Evil. The source of all evil actions, then, is one created being looking at another created being and wanting for themselves what God gave to the other, thus setting in motion a “feeling” of dissatisfaction with what God has given me. As Sir Mick sang in what is called his greatest song, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” He was simply expressing the source of all evil, common to every fallen human and angel.

The purpose for placing the blame on the devil or on the woman or on “original sin” is to hide one’s self from the simple fact that “I don’t like what God has given me; I want something BETTER. I want what God gave him.” Only a dishonest person blames “original sin.”

Envy and Unthankfulness. Creating the image of the “super-Christ” is just a way to refuse God’s good intentions for me and to lust after something else. And creating the image of the “super-Antichrist” is just a way to hide in dishonesty concerning one’s own refusal to give thanks. We know that the Pharisees murdered Jesus because they lusted after the “super-Christ.” And we know that Jerome brought the “super-Antichrist” from paganism into Christian thinking to hide from his own contempt for Christians, that is, for Jesus.

Turning evil into a “source,” into a god, or a part of God, is just one more stupid way for Christians to hide their own dishonesty, their own refusal to say, “God, You are good all the time.” It’s nothing but a personal envy and unthankfulness.

Small and Stupid. The effects of evil are beyond terrible towards God and towards other humans and angels for thousands of years. Yet the source of evil is nothing other than the brutish and stupid wish inside a human or an angel to want what God gave to someone else and to be dissatisfied with the wondrous glory and honor that God has given me.

It’s meaningless; it’s small; and it’s stupid. And it vanishes away as a vapor in the wind the moment any human or angel bows him or herself to the goodness and kindness of God coming to them through the sacrifice of Jesus.

The devastation of evil is vast, and our concern for ages to come, but we never think of the cause of evil as being anything but small and stupid.