> General Discussions

evil is not sin

(1/3) > >>

lilitalienboi16:
Can someon share with me all the information scripturally amd from ray that we have on how one can understand this? The idea makes sense to me but I lack the understanding behind hoe it makes sense to be fully able to defend the position if need me.

I do believe it to be scriptural that evil does not necessarily equate to sin but how do I prove this to myself and any curious inquisitor?

Thanks!

Nathan:

--- Quote ---Can someone share with me all the information scripturally and from ray that we have on how one can understand this? The idea makes sense to me but I lack the understanding behind how it makes sense to be fully able to defend the position if need me.

I do believe it to be scriptural that evil does not necessarily equate to sin but how do I prove this to myself and any curious inquisitor?

Thanks!
--- End quote ---

lilitalienboi16,

As Ray states below, "evil has no moral bias.  There is nothing sinful about evil in and by itself.  Evil (ra in the Hebrew) means to crush
or break into pieces.  And God uses evil for many good purposes.  Evil only becomes a sin when men use
it for wrong purposes.  In the same way, God created "darkness."  There is nothing inherently evil or sinful
about darkness, even though it may not be a pleasant thing."

http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,13677.msg120247.html#msg120247

If All things were created by God, specifically Out of the Father and THROUGH Christ; Does that mean that when God created Evil, it came out of the Father and went through Christ?

Now believe me I don't doubt one bit that when things were created, it happened out of the Father and through Christ. I fully believe that... but my confusion comes in when we talk about evil. Is evil apart of the "ALL?" I know this sounds probably blasphemous to even think that Evil went through Christ and I'm not trying to imply that, I'm honestly sincerely confused about that. Am I not seeing this right? Could you please help me in my confusion here? I've read just about every article you've ever written and almost all your audios. This is just a humble sincere question. I am probably not seeing this right and so thats why I was hoping for some clarification from you, if you could spare the time.

Thanks and God bless!

In Christ.

Your little brother,

Alex
 
Dear Alex:  I am afraid you are confusing "evil" with "sin."  They are certainly not one and the same thing.
I can tell from your wording that you feel that evil is a bad thing when you say:  "I know this sounds probably
blasphemous to even think that Evil went through Christ..."  As I have stated in my Lake of Fire series, evil
has no moral bias.  There is nothing sinful about evil in and by itself.  Evil (ra in the Hebrew) means to crush
or break into pieces.  And God uses evil for many good purposes.  Evil only becomes a sin when men use
it for wrong purposes.  In the same way, God created "darkness."  There is nothing inherently evil or sinful
about darkness, even though it may not be a pleasant thing. Hope his helps your understanding.
God be with you,
Ray

lilitalienboi16:
Ironically, that is my email you shared with me, oh how the Lord has a sense of humor. Anyone else have more info??

Thank you though nathan for the relay :D

Extol:
Hi Alex,

Here's the thing that's confusing about this: evil can be either an adjective or a noun. When God says "I create evil," evil is used as a noun, and as Ray noted, "has no moral bias". When used as an adjective ("What an evil person!"), there is a connotation of SIN there. Merriam-Webster defines the adjective form as "morally reprehensible: SINFUL, WICKED". "Evil" is almost always used as an adjective in our world, so it almost always means sinful.

Think of a person who has some kind of mental disorder that makes him want to rape little girls. We might say "What a sick man!" In this context, "sick" could mean perverted, twisted, sinful, etc. But when we diagnose him with a particular sickness, we don't say that the sickness itself is sinful. The sickness (noun) makes him sick (adjective). The noun has no moral bias, but the adjective is sinful.

"Bad" is a similar word. Usually when we say "bad," we are talking about some kind of sin or immorality ("That's a bad thing to do. . ."). But we can also have "bad" things that have no moral bias. If a tree falls down and crashes through the roof of my house, that is bad. But the tree itself isn't bad, and it did not have any immoral intentions. On the other hand, if a thief crashes through the roof of my house in order to rob us, that is "bad" with a moral bias. In both scenarios, the roof of my house was broken. But the tree is neither moral nor immoral, while the thief is immoral.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that "evil" can mean sin/wickedness in the Bible, and it often does. For example:

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Genesis 6:5

Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Exodus 32:12

“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. Exodus 32:22.

These are just from the first page of results in a BibleGateway search for "evil". There are hundreds of others, probably. So the Bible uses "evil" in both the noun and adjective forms, and it often does mean sin/sinful. When Aaron says "You know how prone these people are to evil. . ." there obviously is some moral bias there. Aaron is saying "You know how prone these people are to wickedness." You would have a very difficult time convincing someone that evil never means wickedness/sin. In Genesis 6:5 above, wickedness and evil are used synonymously.

When Ray said evil has no moral bias, I don't think he intended to say that evil (noun) never means sin, or evil (adjective) never means sinful. His point, I think, was that God, who creates evil, is not sinful or evil Himself. I may be wrong, but I believe when Ray said that, it was in answer to an e-mailer who asked something like "Since God creates evil, is God Himself evil?" He creates the evil, and creates the men who will do evil (sinful) things, but that does not make God evil Himself.

Dave in Tenn:
I agree with Ray with no qualifiers.  Assuming those scriptures are "concordantly" translated (ie. from Ra):

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Genesis 6:5   Evil is a noun here.

“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. Exodus 32:22.   Evil is also a noun here.



I don't know if it's helpful, but I've used the example of the man born blind.  BLINDNESS is an evil.  Being born blind is an evil.  For the man to have been born blind was NOT the result of his or anyone else's sin.  He was born blind so that God would be glorified.  If I, on the other hand, blind a man, that is sin. 

Sin, wickedness, transgression, iniquity are EVILS--a subset of EVIL, if you will--but not equivalent.  Not in the language of Scripture, or in the spiritual truth in scripture.

BTW, I had to stifle a chuckle when I saw that email posted here.   :D 

 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page