Evil From the Beginning
In Gen. 6:5 we read,
5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5 ESV
This came from when man ate of the tree where God had warned Gen. 2:17
17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 2:17 ESV
Man ate of the tree and set death on its course. It also introduced evil to humanity and set it on its course.
Because in Gen 3:14-19
14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” 16 To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” 17 And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; 18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Genesis 3:14–19 ESV
This man and woman were in perfect perfection and failed. They were in the perfect situation and failed. This shows that man will fail and do this regardless. All of us would fail here. God removed them to what they desired above Him. He kept them alive through grace and removed them from perfection to what they wanted.
Man then continued to grow more and more violent and hateful and evil until God was fed up with His creation.
Noah was found as faithful and righteous. God gave him a command and spared him and his family.
But the hearts of all other men was evil continually as Gen. 6:5 told us.
But, even after the flood God still acknowledged that man was evil. In Gen. 8:21
21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
Genesis 8:21 ESV
We also read in Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV
That is the heart of man pre-flood and post-flood. Humanity is evil and we desire evil.
God’s good creation, image bearers, are evil by nature now. If God destroyed all evil now, He would need to destroy every human being.
Noah failed after the flood and we still fail today. We are evil and desire evil over good.
Yet, in His great love, He gives us all a chance to have life and adopt His ways. Many evils occur and will continue to do so because, 1 John 5:19
19 the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
1 John 5:19 (ESV)
Satan is the Eph. 2:2
2 the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
Ephesians 2:2 (ESV)
and he is 2 Cor. 4:4
4 the god of this world [who] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians 4:4 (ESV)
Not only this but he deceives believers because he 2 Cor. 11:14-15
14 disguises himself as an angel of light. [and] 15 his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
2 Corinthians 11:14–15 (ESV)
This deception will cause many to Isa. 5:20
20 call evil good and good evil, [and] who put darkness for light and light for darkness, [and] who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Isaiah 5:20 (ESV)
These people will receive punishment as Isa. 5:20 begins with ‘Woe to those who…” Also, Prov. 11:21 tells us
21 Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished…
Proverbs 11:21 (ESV)
So, even though these people are evil, people chase and choose the desires of their hearts, Eph. 5:16
16 because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:16 (ESV)
People have become, 2 Tim. 3:2-4
2 lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
2 Timothy 3:2–4 (ESV)
But they will not go unpunished. They are just following the desires of their hearts and the guidance of the god of this world.
God’s Love
Even though people are like this. God’s love allows us time to believe. 1 John 4:16 tells us God is love. He has a steadfast love for us. A love that does not end and one that allows for a chance. His love does not end and because of this love justice will be served.
He is a God who is
7 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty…
Exodus 34:7 (ESV)
Christ died for evil people and sinners who needed Him because they could not maintain what was necessary to have change and freedom from evil and sin, Rom. 5:6-11
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. 11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:6–11 ESV
This means that the guilty who place their faith in Jesus, have had their guilt paid for and the guilt has been punished. But those who reject Christ are,
18 condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
John 3:18 (ESV)
They will receive the just condemnation that comes with this.
This is why we believers do not imitate evil but 3 John 11
11 imitate good. [because] Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.
3 John 11 (ESV)
This is why we find more things evil over unbelievers. But when we have horrendous actions such as what happened yesterday [Uvalde school shooting] , we all, believer and unbeliever alike, see that as evil because we still bear the image of God. But only believers can make sense of that type of evil.
We know it is evil and from man because man is not good naturally but evil. Evil is not from God but from man and the world.
God does not approve of evil nor does He desire it. Evil is from the world and our hearts 1 John 2:16
16 For…the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
1 John 2:16 (ESV)
We read that Jas. 1:13
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
James 1:13 ESV
People do this wickedness of their own desires.
Much like we read in Jeremiah 19:4-5
4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—
Jeremiah 19:4–5 ESV
God has not fathomed the evil we commit. He hates it and despises it. He will punish the wicked. This was written to Israel during their exile to Babylon because of the evil and wickedness they had performed.
God cannot stand it and has provided a way for this to end, yet people reject Him and His offer of life and pure hearts.
God’s love restrains Him from destroying all evil because this would destroy all the people that His Son died for.
But one day, one day all evil will be vanquished.
Destruction of Evil
One day the Lord will come, Jude 14-15
14 “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15 to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
Jude 14–15 (ESV)
Death and Hades and all evil people will receive their punishment in the end as Rev. 20:14-15
14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:14–15 ESV
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:8 ESV
All evil will be ended and turned away. There will no longer be evil and wickedness. It will be over and when it is Rev. 21:4
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:4 ESV
But until then Christ has said, Rev. 22:11
11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”
Revelation 22:11 ESV
But He further stated, Rev. 22:12
12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done.
Revelation 22:12 ESV
Evil is here and it is from the heart of man. Man is not innately good but naturally evil because we chose evil and we continually choose evil. But, this evil will not be here forever.
As Lebowski in the Big Lebowski said, “This aggression will not stand. Man.”
He is correct. Christ is coming and all will pay for the evil committed. And all evil will be done away with.
Until then though, no policy will fix this.
No politician will fix this.
No party will fix this.
Only hearts changed by the power of Jesus Christ changing the hearts of mankind through the power of the gospel will stop evil.
16 for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Romans 1:16–17 (ESV)
That is the only way to end evil and wickedness in this world until the Lord returns.
Until this day comes, we can see that evil, suffering, and disorder is here and God uses this to drive people to Him. We know there is evil because there is a moral good above what we see. If there was not then no one could ever call something evil but maybe just not as good as another choice. It all becomes subjective.
So, evil tells us that there is a great good above it because to know a crooked stick is because we know of a straight stick.
We may never fully understand the reasons for evil to be permitted but what we do know is that it does drive many to God and helps mature them and grow them into strong faithful followers of Christ because 2 Cor. 4:17
17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
Romans 8:18 ESV
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
James 1:2 ESV
6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6–7 ESV
Evil does drive us to the Lord and for that we can be thankful. It is awful and it breaks our hearts, but it has caused untold numbers of people to become believers because they see that this world is evil and there must be something better than this evil depraved world out there and they find this answer in the Lord.
May we all find rest and peace in the Lord in the face of extreme evils we see daily.
C.S. Lewis once wrote after the death of his wife,
“The terrible thing is that a perfectly good God is in this matter hardly less formidable than a Cosmic Sadist. The more we believe that God hurts only to heal, the less we can believe that there is any use in begging for tenderness. A cruel man might be bribed—might grow tired of his vile sport—might have a temporary fit of mercy, as alcoholics have fits of sobriety. But suppose that what you are up against is a surgeon whose intentions are wholly good. The kinder and more conscientious he is, the more inexorably he will go on cutting. If he yielded to your entreaties, if he stopped before the operation was complete, all the pain up to that point would have been useless. But is it credible that such extremities of torture should be necessary for us? Well, take your choice. The tortures occur. If they are unnecessary, then there is no God or a bad one. If there is a good God, then these tortures are necessary. For no even moderately good Being could possibly inflict or permit them if they weren’t. Either way, we’re for it.
What do people mean when they say, ‘I am not afraid of God because I know He is good’? Have they never even been to a dentist?” (A Grief Observed, HarperOne, 55-56).
Sometimes pain, even severe pain, is for the betterment of the one going through it and this is true of the evils in the world too.
