Ask the Pastor 18

What is evil?

This will be the first of several articles on the subject of evil. First, we need to determine what is evil? There is the equation that 1. God is the author of everything; 2. Evil is something; 3. Therefore, God is the author of evil. To which we can reply that yes, God is the author of everything, but evil is not something. Evil is actually the absence of something and is not a created entity. It is like darkness is the absence of light and cold is the absence of heat, if there were no light or heat, there would be no darkness or cold. Evil can also be seen as the absence of something in between the relationship between good things. When a good hand picks up a good gun and points it at a good head and their good finger pulls the good trigger something evil results. There is a missing morality in between the good things. The word most often used in the Bible for sin, literally means “to miss the mark”, again there is something missing, which is obedience to the standard of God and His righteousness. We read that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), there is a missing relationship and obedience to the righteousness of God which is inherit in all of us. The answer is to fix what is missing by appropriating by faith the payment for our sin in believing on the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9).