Today we’re going to answer the age old question of “From where does evil originate?”
“God said to Noah, ‘the end of all living beings has come before me, for because of them, the earth is filled with violence. I will destroy them along with all the earth.'”-Genesis 6:13
In the above verse, God announces He is going to destroy the human race because on account of them the earth has become filled with violence.
Notice something interesting in this scathing indictment the Lord has just pronounced.
He never blames Satan for this sorry state of affairs.
He holds the human race fully responsible for the evil that has come upon the earth.
In an earlier post, I mentioned that contrary to popular Christian teaching on the subject, the ancient rabbis believed that from the very beginning God created human beings with both a good inclination and an evil inclination.
God did not create us as robots.
We have been given a will that allows us to freely exercise both inclinations as we see fit.
In this post, I am going to demonstrate from the science of physics that the ancient rabbis were indeed correct!!!
So get your thinking caps on.
Do you recall in the creation story from Genesis Chapter One it says…
….when God began to create the heavens and the earth, the natural state of the universe was CHOSHEK or “complete darkness”.
Then, in an instant of time, upon God’s verbal pronouncement, “light” broke forth into the universe.
Again, recall from an earlier teaching that the “light” I am referring to here is not a light-emanating object like the sun, but God’s holy and spiritual light.
In Hebrew, this light is called OWR.
At that very instant, the universe was comprised of two polar opposite forces; darkness and light.
Based on the creation story, the first scientific point I want to make is that our universe is based on the “Principle of Opposites”.
At the very atomic level of our universe, for instance, each individual atom has a positive electric charge and a negative electric charge.
If there is an up, there has to be down.
If there is a male, there has to be a female.
If there is black, there has to be white.
If there is a Holy Spirit in our universe, there has to be an unholy Spirit, etcetera.
This principle is woven into the very fabric of our universe.
In fact, if you were to sit back and take a look at your own thought patterns, you would notice that the way we distinguish one thing from another is based on the “Principle of Opposites”.
“Was it expensive or not?“
“Was she hot or not?”
“Do I want it or not?“
The Chinese also touched on this principle with their yin-yang concept.
So accordingly, when God created Adam and Eve, He created them with both a “good inclination” and an “evil inclination”, NOT more of one than the other.
I believe Christian theology errs when it teaches that unsaved man ONLY has a nature hellbent on sinning.
The truth is we have both.
We are equally capable of doing both good and bad.
Actually, even after we are saved, we still carry both inclinations inside of us.
This is evidenced by the fact that we still struggle with sin even after accepting Christ.
So God created man with the capacity and freedom to commit good or evil when confronted with moral choices.
And this is the reason why God does not blame Satan for the evil that has broken out into the world.
He holds man responsible.
“Freewill” is simply another word used to describe the good and evil inclinations that reside in all human beings.
Think about it, having the power to do good or evil when confronted with a moral choice is none other than the characteristic of “freewill”.
So based on the way God has constructed our universe, it is IMPOSSIBLE to have one thing without its opposite.
This gives us the answer to the origin of evil in the universe.
Since we can’t have one without the other, evil is a byproduct of good.
Below are some scriptures testifying to this reality.
“I form light, I create darkness; I make well-being, I create woe; I, Adonai, do all these things.”
-Isaiah 45:7
“When the shofar is blown in the city, don’t the people tremble? Can disaster befall a city without Adonai having done it?”
-Amos 3:6
“Don’t both bad things and good proceed from the mouth of the Most High??”
-Lamentations 3:38
Again, keep in mind that evil is a natural byproduct of good.
God didn’t create a lump of good in one place and then in another place create a lump of evil.
Evil was not manufactured per say.
Let me give you an admittedly imperfect example.
Let’s say you’re sitting inside a well lit room.
You decide to leave the room for a while, so you switch the lights off.
As a result, the room becomes dark.
Now let me ask you a question.
Did you create the darkness?
No you didn’t.
It is simply the absence of light that caused the darkness.
In the same way, where there isn’t God’s presence, evil is.
Here’s what the great scientist Albert Einstein had to say on the matter:
“Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.” Albert Einstein
I believe Einstein was right.
What good is having a freewill if there is no opportunity to exercise it?
Can you see now why God have to give Adam and Eve a one law Torah (instruction) that they were NOT to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil?
Without that choice, Adam and Eve would have been relegated to a robotic existence.
It would be like being given the right to vote in an election where there is only one candidate to choose from.
You can vote for Trump or you can vote for Trump.
In order to do good, the option to do evil has to also exist, or else the good we do is meaningless, simply because we have no other choice in the matter.
So Moses’ Torah had the same purpose for the Israelites that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil had for Adam and Eve.
Its purpose is not only to tell us the difference between right and wrong but provide us opportunities to exercise our capacity to do either good or evil.
Without the Torah, there is no knowledge of sin or the opportunity to do good.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
For what law brings is punishment. But where there is no law, there is also no violation.
-Romans 4:15
Sin was indeed present in the world before Torah was given, but sin is not counted as such when there is no Torah.
-Romans 5:13
I think this teaching neglects the plan of Adonai from the beginning. Why need a Savior if we have the capacity to choose good and do what is right, that is, not sin?
If…and this is something to wrestle with…our capacity to follow Adonai was thrown into darkness following the disobedience of Adam, how could we possibly choose right and good consistently? Israel proved time and time again it’s inability to follow Torah. Even when they made themselves accountable and followed Adonai for a season, it would fall into it’s natural and comfortable state…darkness.
So, I think man is inherently tied to darkness and thus needs a Savior…a man who IS perfect, and has been obedient to His Father, even to the point of death. I choose Him for my source of goodness, not my own abilities or good inclination.
This is just one teaching among many.