4 8 2004 52689

Is Evil a Part of God?

Everything has got its equal and opposite. A negative person has a positive person as his friend. A happy man HAS to have at least one grumpy friend who tries to make his life miserable. A spiritualistic person will attract a materialistic person. Similarly, is evil the exact twin of the goodness that stands for God?

Many say that God doesn't know evil, because they can't explain why God, who is good, allows robberies, murders, disease, poverty, and other terrible happenings that are going on constantly on this planet. These misfortunes are evil to us, but are they evil to God? If they were, why would God permit them? And if Evil does not come from Him, who is the Supreme Creator of all these things, where does it all come from? Who created greed? Who created hate? Who created jealousy? Who created anger? Who created harmful bacteria and virus? Who created sex temptation and the temptation for greed? These are not human inventions. Man would have never experienced them if they had not been created. He would never have created something that would act like slow poison on his species. Many people explain that evil does not exist, but is merely a psychological factor. But this is not so. The evidence of evil is here in this world. It cannot be denied. If there were no evil, why would Jesus pray, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil?' The truth is, we do find evil on the world. And where does it come from? From God himself. It provides us the contrast that enables us to recognize and experience goodness. Evil has to be, if there was to be any creation. If you wrote a message with white chalk on a whiteboard, no one would see it. So, without the blackboard of evil, the good things in the world could not be magnified at all. It is like watching a motion picture. What would happen if a producer showed a movie of only angels sitting around and looking good? He would soon have to close his business. A villain, for instance, in a movie, adds to the charm and screen presence of the hero. Tougher the villains, more glorified are the deeds of the hero. Coming back to real life, we can say, for example, that Judas was Jesus's best publicity agent. By his evil act, Judas made Christ eternally famous. Jesus knew the role he had to play, and all that was going to happen to him in order that he might demonstrate the love and greatness of God. A villain was necessary to this enactment. But it was not good for Judas that he chose to be the one whose dark deed, by contrast, enrolled the glories of Christ's triumph over evil. It is hard to know where the dividing line is between good and evil. Certainly, it is true that bacteria kill two billion people every hundred years. But to think of the chaos of overpopulation, if there were no death. And if everything here were good and perfect, no one would leave this earth on his own accord―no one would want to go back to God. So in a sense, misery is your best friend, because it starts you seeking God. When you begin to see clearly the imperfection of the world, you will begin to see the perfection of God. The truth becomes clear now. God is using evil not to destroy us, but to make us disillusioned with His toys, with the playthings in His world, so that we might seek Him. So, evil is the test of God to see whether we choose Him or His gifts. He created us in His image, and gave us the power to free ourselves. But we don't use that power. At night, when we cease to be active, we all become God-like. But in the daytime, we become devils―not all of us, but most of us. Why not live with God in the daytime, for then we shall know no fear, we shall know no evil. It is easy to say this, but hard to practice it.

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