The disciple must know the difference
between evil, sin and the Law's influence.
"What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the the law had not said, 'You shall not covet.' But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.
"I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me." - Paul's Letter to the Romans 7: 7 - 11
There is a difference between evil and sin; the two are not one in the
same. Sin did not enter the world until there took place the first
disobedient act against God's first command to Adam in the Garden
of Eden:
'Thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil....' Adam disobeyed and the first sin was
committed. First law, first act of disobedience, first sin. Evil, to the contrary, has existed since the first
intelligent human violated the harmonious laws of nature.
Evil is an entity that exists on a different level than does sin. Sin is a triangle entity - at one point of the triangle is God, at another point is the human, at the third point is the option to disobey God's commandments. Evil, the creation of the debased abnormal human soul, in most historically documented cases does not even involve God as part of the triangular equation, but exists as a malevolent, and usually violent, act of one human victimizing another human or group of humans. Evil malevolence also exists when a human brutalizes animals. Evil is the absence of God's will and love. Evil is darkness.
The apostle Paul, Christ's brilliant spokesman, came forth in his statements above, with a stunning declaration about sin and the Law: that there exists a separate life in ignorance of the Law. That is, one who never before knew anything of the Hebrew God's Law, could either live a redemptive, or non-redemptive, social life. It must be remembered at the time, outside of the Hebrew culture very little, if anything, was known by other peoples and far off nations of Jewish law. Yet, there were (I am willing to eagerly wager) more than a few good men and women to be found.
Keep in mind the Magi who paid a visit to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. They traveled far to witness the newborn King of the Jews. Upon finding him, they were overwhelmed with joy. In a dream from God, the three men were warned not to go back and report their finding to Herod. They didn't. Instead, they did the right thing and departed by another route for their own country. What did the Magi have to do with Jewish law? Nothing, and yet they comported themselves in a way so as not to expose Jesus to danger from Herod. God's Law did not enter the equation here; it was human decency
that entered the equation.
But, as Paul so succinctly points out, once he became aware of God's Law, the situation morally changed and he could not reinstitute his ignorance of the Law and claim innocence. Once exposed to the Law, always exposed to the Law and its moral demands in obedience to its author, God. An analogy would be the port wine stain in a white carpet. Most difficult, if not impossible to make the carpet as it once was.
Sin is disobedience to God's commandments, but where did evil originate? I don't have an exact time and date for the birth of evil, but as far as I am concerned evil existed long before Adam and Eve. The current Hebrew calendar is the year 5770, and that reckons the time from Adam to the present; as genealogically traced in the Hebrew Scriptures (and in Matthew) from the first man up to the time of Christ and then from Jesus' time to the present day. This listing accounts only for 5770 years and that is done within the closed community of the Hebrews. What about the rest of the world's civilizations? Some of those date back to times that precede the Hebrew nation, and human remains located everywhere from North and South America to Africa date back from 20,000 B.C. to nearly 2 million B.C. And, judging from the remains of their primitive societal centers to their advanced cities, many of the civilizations that pre-dated the Hebrews and their Adam, were intelligent in addition to demonstrating what we today would call evil behavior.
The sacrificing of human beings by the ancients to strange gods and beliefs - especially the sacrificing of their children - could be considered evil. The act of outright killing of one tribe by another for unknown reasons other than 'It's always been that way.' is evil. Even in modern times the world becomes exposed to evil people on a grand scale. Stalin was the archetype. He did not acknowledge the existence of God, was in no way influenced by God, had no need for God, and Stalin went on to butcher (at best count of Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his "The Gulag Archipelago" series) over 60 million Russian souls. And, of course, there is Hitler and his atrocious crimes against humanity. But there are also those loathsome creatures outside of the sphere of the Judeo-Christian influence such as Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia who slaughtered over 2 million in his killing fields, only to be joined in infamy by the murderous Hutu in Africa who systematically butchered from 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis. These people were clearly ignorant of the Hebrew God, or if they knew of Him, they could care less about His sixth commandment: Thou shalt not murder.
On a lesser scale, the modern day serial killer, or serial rapist, is a person devoid of any pangs of a conscience based on the foundational teachings of, or knowledge of, the God who the Christian knows. Unfortunately, we come face to face with a vile mixture of both evil and sin when the transgressor is a recognized Christian; especially a member of the Christian clergy. Ministers cheating on their spouses, having sex with children; priests who are pedophiles; clergy who steal from their parishes or engage in corrupt business or political deals. Or worse, murder. What Christian in their right mind, knowing what they know from their Scriptural studies of Christ, would instinctively want to kill another motorist who just cut in front of their car? As we know, the instantly arising urge to kill goes beyond the rational and resorts back to that primal instinct we humans have had since our prehistoric origin; the instinct that civilization and religion tries to suppress.
Let it suffice to say that evil has been a human trait long before the Garden of Eden and the intelligent Christian disciple must realize this. There will be plenty of opportunities for the disciple to come into contact with those who have the fundamental belief that all human life began with the advent of Adam and Eve - a belief that they hold absolutely. But let it be declared here and now that within the human species there resides the deadly beast of evil. With most civilized people, the beast is kept suppressed, but oftimes there are those cases where the beast within is covered by the thinnest of civilized veneer and it only takes an incident, or a drug, to unleash the evil. Just talk with the family of an alcoholic to verify this statement. Or, talk with the wife of an abusive husband who's temper resembles the wrath of Satan and its vileness is unleashed against helpless family victims. Or a student who exacts his personal brand of judgment against his classmates and instructors on
the Virginia Tech campus.
Continued...
Evil is an entity that exists on a different level than does sin. Sin is a triangle entity - at one point of the triangle is God, at another point is the human, at the third point is the option to disobey God's commandments. Evil, the creation of the debased abnormal human soul, in most historically documented cases does not even involve God as part of the triangular equation, but exists as a malevolent, and usually violent, act of one human victimizing another human or group of humans. Evil malevolence also exists when a human brutalizes animals. Evil is the absence of God's will and love. Evil is darkness.
The apostle Paul, Christ's brilliant spokesman, came forth in his statements above, with a stunning declaration about sin and the Law: that there exists a separate life in ignorance of the Law. That is, one who never before knew anything of the Hebrew God's Law, could either live a redemptive, or non-redemptive, social life. It must be remembered at the time, outside of the Hebrew culture very little, if anything, was known by other peoples and far off nations of Jewish law. Yet, there were (I am willing to eagerly wager) more than a few good men and women to be found.
Keep in mind the Magi who paid a visit to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. They traveled far to witness the newborn King of the Jews. Upon finding him, they were overwhelmed with joy. In a dream from God, the three men were warned not to go back and report their finding to Herod. They didn't. Instead, they did the right thing and departed by another route for their own country. What did the Magi have to do with Jewish law? Nothing, and yet they comported themselves in a way so as not to expose Jesus to danger from Herod. God's Law did not enter the equation here; it was human decency
that entered the equation.
But, as Paul so succinctly points out, once he became aware of God's Law, the situation morally changed and he could not reinstitute his ignorance of the Law and claim innocence. Once exposed to the Law, always exposed to the Law and its moral demands in obedience to its author, God. An analogy would be the port wine stain in a white carpet. Most difficult, if not impossible to make the carpet as it once was.
Sin is disobedience to God's commandments, but where did evil originate? I don't have an exact time and date for the birth of evil, but as far as I am concerned evil existed long before Adam and Eve. The current Hebrew calendar is the year 5770, and that reckons the time from Adam to the present; as genealogically traced in the Hebrew Scriptures (and in Matthew) from the first man up to the time of Christ and then from Jesus' time to the present day. This listing accounts only for 5770 years and that is done within the closed community of the Hebrews. What about the rest of the world's civilizations? Some of those date back to times that precede the Hebrew nation, and human remains located everywhere from North and South America to Africa date back from 20,000 B.C. to nearly 2 million B.C. And, judging from the remains of their primitive societal centers to their advanced cities, many of the civilizations that pre-dated the Hebrews and their Adam, were intelligent in addition to demonstrating what we today would call evil behavior.
The sacrificing of human beings by the ancients to strange gods and beliefs - especially the sacrificing of their children - could be considered evil. The act of outright killing of one tribe by another for unknown reasons other than 'It's always been that way.' is evil. Even in modern times the world becomes exposed to evil people on a grand scale. Stalin was the archetype. He did not acknowledge the existence of God, was in no way influenced by God, had no need for God, and Stalin went on to butcher (at best count of Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his "The Gulag Archipelago" series) over 60 million Russian souls. And, of course, there is Hitler and his atrocious crimes against humanity. But there are also those loathsome creatures outside of the sphere of the Judeo-Christian influence such as Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia who slaughtered over 2 million in his killing fields, only to be joined in infamy by the murderous Hutu in Africa who systematically butchered from 800,000 to 1 million Tutsis. These people were clearly ignorant of the Hebrew God, or if they knew of Him, they could care less about His sixth commandment: Thou shalt not murder.
On a lesser scale, the modern day serial killer, or serial rapist, is a person devoid of any pangs of a conscience based on the foundational teachings of, or knowledge of, the God who the Christian knows. Unfortunately, we come face to face with a vile mixture of both evil and sin when the transgressor is a recognized Christian; especially a member of the Christian clergy. Ministers cheating on their spouses, having sex with children; priests who are pedophiles; clergy who steal from their parishes or engage in corrupt business or political deals. Or worse, murder. What Christian in their right mind, knowing what they know from their Scriptural studies of Christ, would instinctively want to kill another motorist who just cut in front of their car? As we know, the instantly arising urge to kill goes beyond the rational and resorts back to that primal instinct we humans have had since our prehistoric origin; the instinct that civilization and religion tries to suppress.
Let it suffice to say that evil has been a human trait long before the Garden of Eden and the intelligent Christian disciple must realize this. There will be plenty of opportunities for the disciple to come into contact with those who have the fundamental belief that all human life began with the advent of Adam and Eve - a belief that they hold absolutely. But let it be declared here and now that within the human species there resides the deadly beast of evil. With most civilized people, the beast is kept suppressed, but oftimes there are those cases where the beast within is covered by the thinnest of civilized veneer and it only takes an incident, or a drug, to unleash the evil. Just talk with the family of an alcoholic to verify this statement. Or, talk with the wife of an abusive husband who's temper resembles the wrath of Satan and its vileness is unleashed against helpless family victims. Or a student who exacts his personal brand of judgment against his classmates and instructors on
the Virginia Tech campus.
Continued...
©
Copyright 2009 - Donald Neal McKay - The MISSION
DISCIPLESHIP