Chapter
16
The
Nonexistence of Evil
What Is
Sin?
A great cosmic conflict, the dark one versus the
Light, two equal and opposite forces, there is good and there is evil, darkness
and light, sin and righteousness. The opposite of God is Satan, Gods
antagonist. There are inherently good, and inherently evil actions. Really the
struggle is very simple, it is your classic hero versus villain story. This is
the view that almost all the worlds’ inhabitants hold to be truth. It is easy
to understand and seemingly easy to define.
Now take all of that and throw it out of your
mind. I have found that if the majority holds it to be truth, than it is
probably false. In physical terms, when describing the properties of light, we
say that it is a wave of particles called photons that travel at 2.998 x 10^8
m/s. So then what is the absence of light? Most people will say, darkness, but
as we think about it a little bit deeper we find that that is not the truth of matter
at all. Lets do an quick exercise, try and describe darkness for one moment…
Darkness is not an entity, it has no intrinsic existence, in the universe,
darkness does not exist, there is only light, and not light. Light has
existence, it moves, it has energy, it has a speed, it can be detected.
Darkness? Darkness is simply non-existence. There is no such thing as darkness.
Nothing exists in darkness.
"Nonsense!" you might say, after all,
many of us have walked through a dark room and run into that table or chair
that was “existing” in darkness. Yes, but what made you be able to feel that?
It was the fact that you exist, and you do in fact put out a wave of energy
that can be detected and measured. Just because you cannot observe it with the
naked eye, does not mean there is no light. Look through night vision goggles,
or an infrared camera, and the world again comes to life. You could say that
your existence, or your ability to put out energy makes you exist. The table
also has stored energy and its electrons interact with yours giving you the
feeling of resistance, it is called the electromagnetic force. Without that
force, it would not exist. True darkness, is not actually a physical thing at
all. True darkness is simply to not existence.
So how does this relate to our chapter about
sin? What is sin? Let me first start how I often do, by making a bold
statement. There is no such thing as innate sin. Taking our physics lesson,
there is only life, and not life. Likewise, there is not such thing as good and
evil. There is only good and non-existence. You see, most people see there
being two forces at work in the universe, good and evil. God and Satan. If you
asked people what the opposite of God is, they would tell you,
"Satan" without missing a beat. I am suggesting here that if God is
as great as I have made Him out to be, then there is no such thing as God's
opposite. There is only God, and nothing. There is no such thing as self
existent evil, for if there were evil that existed outside of the creation of
God, then that would mean that there is another god in the universe besides
Jehovah, which on actuality would mean, there is no such thing as god.
How do I explain Satan then? Satan is no
different than you or I. Over the millennia since Satan fell from heaven,
mankind have made him greater and greater, until we see him as a force nearly equal
in power to that of God, but in reality, Satan is like you, or me. He was
created, he exists inside this universe, he has a form, he is made of energy
that proceeded from the limitless source of energy that crafted the cosmos and
was the originator of the Big Bang, the designer of our world, God. Satan is no
different than you or I, except for one thing, that is that he exists in a
different dimension than we do, and he likes to use that fact as a means to
frighten children and unknowing adults.
Why then would there be all this talk in the
bible about good actions and bad actions? If there is nothing bad, than why
isn't everyone saved? Here comes the real important thought that sets the stage
for this entire chapter, and indeed the ending of this whole book. God did not
create sin, nor did he just decide what was good and what was bad arbitrarily.
Neither is there something existent outside of God. Sin is not an action that
is innately bad in and of itself. Sin is anything that leads us toward
non-existence. You see, God is love. Love is the essence that drives the
universe. It is Love that crafted us, and formed our cosmos. Love permeates the
very fabric of existence. When we stray from what love is, we drift toward
non-existence, because we quickly fall out of the harmony that sings through
all ages past and ages to come, the vibration of the strings of creation.
We have a free will, we can choose how those
strings vibrate, just as an electron can "decide" to be a wave, or
particle, or both in quantum physics. Our free will dictates our existence. If
we choose to exist outside of existence, we cease to exist because to desire to
not love, is to desire something that has never been, and will never be
created. That is how good is determined. That which separates us from God, from
existence, is sin. God has laid it out for us to see. He has very clearly
designed for us a template to compare actions to, and we call it good and evil,
I choose to call it, that which leads to eternal existence, and that which leads
to non-existence. Our free will.
The Law
The law has many connotations associated with
it. Most Christians say it was done away with at the cross and no longer
important for moral guidance. I say that is ridiculous. That would mean that
killing is now ok, and committing adultery is fine too. No, the law was not
done away with. So what is its purpose then?
To understand the purpose of the law, we have to go back to when the law
was given and understand the people the law was given to.
Israel, the people of God, had just been led out
of captivity from Egypt. They had spent over 400 years in submission to the
Egyptian rule. 400 years as slaves, beaten down, told what to do and when to do
it. The people no longer knew how to exist on their own. They had forgotten how
to worship God, or even why they did so. When in Egypt they had simple rituals
to follow, bow to pharaoh, acknowledge him as God, give an offering to Ra, and
all would be well. It was a simple religion of dos and don’ts, ruled by consequences.
When the Jewish people came to the wilderness after leaving Egypt they had no
idea how to live. No longer did they have rulers commanding them when to
worship, and when not to. They did not understand the worship of God. They lost
sight of the fact that the worship of the true God is worship from the heart,
not a series of rules to follow. They wanted an easy religion. Moses kept on
telling them they were doing wrong, so they desired to have the list. Just like
in kindergarten, you are given a list, 1. Keep your hands to yourself, 2. Be
kind to your classmates, 3. No yelling inside. Etc etc... This is the religion
the people of God desired. It is easier to keep a set of rules, than to
actually figure out for yourself what God means to you. So what did God do? He
gave them the Ten Commandments.
10 simple "rules" to follow. If you think about
it, it's rather simplistic. I could keep 10 rules no problem. In fact, I keep
much more than that everyday in work, school, society as a whole. Lets take a
look at the law of God and see for ourselves.
“I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land
of Egypt, our of the house of bondage.
1. Thou shalt have no other
gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or
that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto
thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the
name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that
taketh his name in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to
keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh
day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD
made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh
day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5. Honour thy father and thy
mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth
thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit
adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his
manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is
thy neighbour's.”[1]
At first glance, the Ten
Commandments do appear to be very simplistic. I mean, according to this law, I
think I’m practically perfect. This kind of thinking stems from a complete
misunderstanding of what the law of God is. The law of God is a revelation of
His character. It reveals who He is as the God who is Love. First it starts by
a declaration, there is none else besides God. God isn’t just saying that He is
the only one deserving of your worship; He is saying that besides Him, there is
nothing else to worship. God did not say, “Serve me or Satan” serving Satan
isn’t even an option because Satan is a created being. To worship Him is to
worship another creation; He is not on any level close to that of God.
This also explains why God is so
against making images of Him, and bowing down to them. No creation of man can
represent God. God is not of a form that can be replicated. In this commandment
God is seeking to lift the mind of men from the world to the heavenly realm.
God is eternal, existing forever and ever outside of space and time, to worship
human representations of Him is to make God human and created. It quenches our
ability to imagine the infinite God and leads us to belittle God and reduce Him
in our minds. This mind set is what led Satan to reject God. He belittled God
until he allowed himself to envy the very position of God.
Yet again when we come to the 3rd
commandment, it is more than just using the name of God as a cuss word, in
fact, I do not believe that had anything to do with it at all. God could care less
about names, they are meaningless, using God’s name as a cuss word is only
disrespectful because it would be so of any person. If I took your name and
started using it as a cuss word, you would probably be very offended. That is
not however what God meant at all. The commandment goes much beyond a petty
insistence on keeping his “name” holy. Taking the name of God in vain is to
claim you are a Christian while misrepresenting the character of God to the
world. In that case, all most all Christians I know are breaking the 3rd
commandment.
The 4th commandment is my
favorite, and not just because I am a Seventh-day Adventist. The 4th
commandment reveals something about the character of God that is beautiful. So
many people focus on the day argument, while missing what the whole thing was
about in the first place. God is revealing to the world that He is a God that
desires to be with His creation. He has set aside a whole day, just to commune
with His creation. God longs for companionship, that is the whole reason He
created in the first place, and He has set time aside for you.
Jesus said,
“The
Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”[2]
The Jews had lost sight of this so
badly that they had made the Sabbath something to be dreaded. So often in the
history of the Jewish people had God spoken out against their Sabbath breaking
that they decided they had finally had enough. They guarded the Sabbath day
with the strictest laws possible. You even had to count your steps on the
Sabbath to make sure you did not work too hard. Traveling any great distance on
the Sabbath was against the law. They did not learn from their past mistakes,
only added to their failure.
It was not the day that God was so worried
about, it was what the Sabbath represented. There is nothing innately holy
about the Sabbath, it is just like any other day of the week, what is holy
about it is what it represents; it is Love communing with humanity. In
rejecting the Sabbath, the Jews had not defiled a day; they had rejected a
relationship with God. Sabbath breaking was only an outward show of their
unconverted heart. They did not desire to know God.
The rest of the commandments deal with
protecting the rights of others. You see, it is not that these are rules that
we HAVE to follow, they are a way of life that any heart that has learned of
God will do automatically. We will respect others as God respects us if we know
God and understand His character. The main point I am trying to make is that
the law was not set up to be a series of rules to follow, the law was given to
show a template of what a true believer in God looks like. As we learn of the
character of the almighty and eternal God, we are changed, not by the works
that we do, but because we see something beautiful and lovely.
The Israelites did not see this. They took the
law and turned it into a burden. They were very careful to do their checklist
at the end of the day. It was very childish, it is like checking of the chores
to get a sticker. They provoked God and insulted His character. So what did God
do? God gave them Leviticus. Try reading through Leviticus. It gives such a
showing of purity that it will discourage you for life. Any one who seeks to be
holy and tries to follow the laws of God WILL fail. There are over eight
hundred laws covering purity and holiness.
So you might wonder, why would God give such an
impossible task to the people? I wondered the same thing, until I realized
something, God was revealing to the entire world how futile it is to win your
own salvation. Salvation is a gift; it is absolutely impossible to do anything
good to save yourself! It has never been about being “good enough”. Through all
those dos and don’ts of the Old Testament God was revealing to humanity His
infinite love for us, that though we deserve nothing, yet everything has He
promised us. We did not do anything to deserve existence, yet He created us.
Likewise, we do not deserve eternity, yet He has promised us just that.
Jesus again brought this up in the
Sermon and the Mount. He told the people, “You have heard it said” then he
would quote the law they knew well, but He would add, “But I saw unto you!” And
He would give them something so deep that they realized purity is something
that goes much deeper than outward show. “You shall not kill” Jesus turned
into, “if you are even angry in your heart it is as though you committed
murder.” “You shall not commit adultery” became if you even looked at a women
and lusted, you were guilty of adultery. Jesus revealed that it is not the
actions that defile a person. There is no such thing as innately evil actions.
Innately evil actions are myths of culture. Evil actions in your culture may
not be evil in another. Evil is not something that can be done or a task that
can be performed; evil is anything that leads you away from existence. If it
breaks the harmony of the universe, it is wrong. Not because it is bad in and
of itself, but because it destroys the chorus of reality. Love for one another,
Love for God, Love for yourself should be the driving force of all actions,
because Love is the essence of existence.
Jesus made this clear when speaking
to a lawyer one day. The Bible reads:
“Then
one of them, an expert in the Law of Moses, asked Jesus a question to test him.
He said, "Teacher, which command in the law is the most important?"
Jesus answered, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your
soul, and all your mind. 'This is the first and most important command. And the
second command is like the first: 'Love your neighbor the same as you love
yourself.' All of the law and the writings of the prophets take their meaning
from these two commands."[3]
Jesus does something very sneaky here, He adverts the
question. The lawyer expects Jesus to answer one of the Ten Commandments as the
most important, but Jesus seeks to reveal the true nature of the law. They are
not rules to follow. As we behold the character of the almighty God, the
nonexistent one, the essence of the universe itself, we cannot help be fall in
love with that Love. As we behold that which empowers existence we are changed
to be like that. We were created to Love like that and naturally as we behold
the character of a God who is himself Love we in turn become loving, and our
feelings toward other people will become love. Love is the greatest commandment
because Love is of God.
I have an older brother who at the time when I wrote this
chapter claimed not to believe in God. He said that a belief in God was not
necessary. He had found that love is the only thing that anyone need have. We
don’t need God to show us what that love is because it is in everybody around
us, if we would just open up our hearts and see the needs of others over our
own. I chuckled to myself as I listened to his thoughts written on facebook
etc. Not because I was jesting at his understanding, but because he just
described my God. It makes me laugh as I type. The God my brother did not
believe in is the God he unknowingly served by his lifestyle of love for other
people. My brother will find himself a believer in the kingdom of heaven one
day not because He served a God that most Christians still believe exists, but
because His life was aligned with the essence of eternity. The Bible says,
“Beloved,
let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born
of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”[4]
Prolog
I hope that as you journeyed with me through this book, that
your mind was at least opened to new possibilities. It has not been my goal to
convert you, or to make you a believer in my religion, only to broaden the
horizon of what it means to believe in God. The God I have constructed in this
book is a God I have no fear of. I could serve a God like this. Whether or not
He truly exists, may never be proven completely in my lifetime, but at the end
of my life, I know I will not say, “Man I wasted years of my life in service to
an imaginary God.” No, because my God is the God of my imagination, and the God
of my imagination is a wonderful God to serve. Who wouldn’t want to believe in
a God who is himself Love, and desires only good for every single living being?
Whether it is the God of science that most intrigues you, or
the God of the heart, the God of Love, and a pure character, if God can be said
to have such a thing as character; I hope that you continue to learn, to study,
and to discover the possibilities of what is out there. Not that you make God
into your own image, but that you take the evidence we have around us and
construct it into a complete picture of God. I have not covered everything in
this book, there is much to learn. I believe that for all eternity to come I
will be scientifically studying who God is and what His plan is for us, forever
studying, but never coming to a full understanding because that is how big my
God is. What I know now is that God is love, and Love is greater than all I know.
