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B. L. Blatchley, July 1996
"For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Let us examine evil from the perspective of the Biblical account of The Fall in an effort to define evil, and gain insights about our relationship with it.God knew the meaning of good and evil, yet He preferred that His human creation not understand evil from experience. Within a perfect setting, with perfectly innocent humans, God placed a single restriction, a test. Superficially, it would seem that God set a trap, something anyone with curiosity would spring. Yet this simple test would determine whether mankind would use his free will in harmony with God or in rebellion against Him. Evil is not a thing, rather it is a quality. Evil is personal; it cannot exist apart from a free moral agent. Evil is the opposite of good. Yet evil is related to, and dependent upon good, for even the purest form of evil is formed around some (albeit perverted) notion of good. The moment of the test finds Eve near the forbidden tree. As she inspects it, a creature engages her in conversation: "So God says you should not eat from every tree," "No we should not eat nor even touch of this one, or we will die." she responded. It continues: "You will not die! In fact, you will be as gods, knowing both good and evil." We see from the Biblical account that evil did not originate with mankind. Indeed, Eve was learning of evil before she took that awful bite! That evil predated humanity can be seen in the actions of the serpent: First, it twisted and questioned God?s instructions. Then it contradicted God by denying his expressed consequences. Next, it understated and distorted man's position as God's Image Bearers. Finally, the serpent questioned God's motives as Sovereign and provider. The act of encouraging another to evil is itself another example of evil. Obviously the personality behind the serpent was really trying to attack God, using the crown of His creation against Him. Seeing that the forbidden fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and could make one wise, Eve took and ate. She then gave to Adam, and he too ate. Then their eyes were opened! Once they were innocently nude; now they were shamefully naked. Evil had taken-root in humanity! To Eve, what she contemplated (the potential advantages of eating) seemed to be good?it did not seem evil. She was deceived. Worse was Adam's response: surely he knew better! Hiding was the first couple's response to their newly acquired knowledge. That they were naked and ashamed was their first acknowledgement of the chasm that opened between God and themselves. (God is the very definition of good, and they had violated Him, and in the simplest and most profound way: disobedience. It is worthy to note that Adam and Eve's action had nothing to do with their sexuality, and everything to do with their openness, unselfconsciousness, and mutual vulnerability — symbolized by nudity, the exposure of those parts so exquisitely intimate, tender, and human.) "Adam, where are you," God called. Adam replied, "I heard You and was afraid, because I was naked. That's why I hid myself." "Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat the forbidden fruit?" Adam replied, "The woman You gave me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate." God confronted Eve to which she replied: "The serpent tricked me, and I ate." If hiding is the chief defense of evil, so its chief instrument is the lie. The serpent lied to Eve. Then both Adam and Eve distorted the truth in their attempt to flee personal responsibility. Where was the good upon which this evil depended? It was in revenge against God for the serpent, and avoiding punishment for Adam and Eve. (Here is another sense in which good is opposite of evil: God is truth, in Him is no lie.) Then God passed sentence upon his creation: Death would be the end of creation — toil, pain, and sorrow would characterize human existence. Still, God was not merciless, He prepared clothing for His "children" to help them bear their shame, and to prepare them for what would come: "Look! Mankind has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; he must no longer be allowed to live forever." With this, Adam and Eve were forced from the garden with its tree-of-life — banished, yet not abandoned by God. Man has often looked upon death in creation, and its sorrowful consequences as expressions of evil. Like Adam, even the best of us blame God from time to time. To many that read the Biblical account, God seems unnecessarily harsh; after all, it was just a piece of fruit!? We like to consider evil on a graduated scale. However from God's perspective, evil is evil — only the consequences are graduated. Original Sin received such a harsh response because it was original (for humans). "So your good God created death, pain, toil, and pointless suffering?" the skeptic snarls. More likely, these things are universal second-causes that God supernaturally suspended prior to The Fall. Consider this: rebellion implies the separation of the rebel and the rebelled — God removing his hand of constant, supernatural intervention is a response to the desire of separation on the part of mankind. (Moreover, we were forewarned of these consequences!) Therefore we labor under our punishment. Remember God punished out of justice and our present state is neither of His making nor desire. He continues to say: "I know your problem, I have the solution, let's talk." And so we have become as gods, knowing both good and evil. We gave up what we were, to be what we cannot become. We have embraced the lie, and now we will die. We have chosen independence from God upon whom we profoundly depend. The essence of evil is personal, willful rebellion against God. It ranges from doing what we know we should not, to refraining from what we know we should do. This is what the Bible calls sin. Evil is evil, differing only in its consequences. To have evil qualities implies moral free agency — therefore when we think of nature as being evil, we are anthropomorphizing. For me, the question of good vs. evil drove me to the God of the Bible. People had always considered me to be good, but I knew deep in my heart that I was not. As one with an acute moral sense, I often considered the apparent paradox of the coexistence of good and evil, both in the world and in myself. If God actually existed, this question must have an answer. Rarely do people consider themselves in the harsh light of uncorrupted goodness — their religions and belief systems made this plain to me. However, I wanted to know the truth — even if that truth left me forever condemned. One of the ways in which the Bible is unique is its clear explanation of the dark things about humanity that we cannot adequately answer, and seldom have the courage to ask. More importantly, it shows a clear and logical solution to our basic, and very personal, problem.
You might find these classic works interesting: The
God Who is There, Francis Schaeffer |