Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! - Isaiah 5:20, ESV
Herbert Armstrong and his followers have always loved to apply this passage to Traditional Christianity and the society which surrounds them. The thought of applying it to themselves would never cross their minds. After all, they have God's TRUTH!
For these folks, the EVIL is plain to everyone who has God's Holy Spirit. They believe that things which have been traditionally associated with Christianity like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Sunday observance, Trinitarianism, the notion of an immortal soul, etc. are EVIL! Likewise, on a societal level, they believe that things like abortion, homosexuality, socialism, transgenderism, humanism, feminism, environmentalism, Black Lives Matter, and illegal immigration are EVIL!
Unfortunately, much of their perspective on what constitutes EVIL is derived from their dependence on the provisions of God's Covenant with Israel as outlined in the pages of the Torah. Their focus is on the dos and don'ts recorded there and is naturally colored by notions of paternalism, misogyny, designations of clean and unclean, slavery, conquest and subjugation, genocide, wrath, punishment, curses, and blood sacrifices.
In other words, they have rejected and/or ignored the fact that Christ and his apostles summarized all of those provisions of the Old Covenant and condensed them into two great principles for Christians operating under the NEW Covenant (Love for God and love for neighbor). Jesus of Nazareth said that this was the original intent and purpose of all of the dos and don'ts, and that the broad application of these principles to a believer's life would fulfill ALL of the requirements enumerated there! Moreover, this is the SAME message which his disciples wrote about in their various epistles.
Hence, if love is the standard for Christians, and Paul's definition of love is valid, then the ACOGs may want to amend their Good and Evil lists. If love is patient, kind, satisfied, encouraging, humble, polite, accommodating, peaceful, forgiving, celebratory of the truth, trusting, hopeful, and persistent, then many of the things which they label as EVIL don't fit! Think about it, if abortions are often spontaneous, save the life of the mother and prevent horrible suffering and pain, how can we make a blanket statement that all abortion is EVIL or murder? If a homosexual can be a Christian, follow the law of love and remain faithful to one person, how can that person or their life be characterized as EVIL? How can equal pay for equal work, equal treatment before the law, and demanding that the same rights which are accessible to men be granted to women be considered EVIL? How can loving and nurturing the earth and its creatures and attempting to shelter and protect them from abuse or harm ever be characterized as EVIL? How can it ever be considered EVIL to demand that the lives of people of African descent be valued in the same way that the lives of people of European descent are? How can we characterize a societal responsibility to protect and help the poor and disadvantaged among us as EVIL?
Likewise, if a person is following the convictions of their own conscience on some spiritual matter or is striving in their heart to worship and glorify God, how can anyone characterize any such practice as EVIL? Didn't Paul explicitly tell the saints at Rome that they shouldn't quarrel with their brothers and sisters or destroy their faith over what they think that they know? Doesn't the verse that follows that much quoted verse in Isaiah read: "Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!" (5:21) In the book of Revelation, weren't the Laodiceans reprimanded for saying that they were rich, prosperous, and in need of nothing - "not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." (3:17) Hence, from my humble perspective, the ACOGs are the ones who have been chiefly responsible for calling GOOD EVIL and EVIL GOOD! At the very least, I'd like to suggest that my ACOG friends be much more careful and thoughtful about the things which they condemn as EVIL! Indeed, it might be more constructive to focus on the things that are GOOD! (See Philippians 4:8) What do you think?
Deciding on what is good and what is evil is the greatest challenge that human beings must confront. It is a concern that goes directly back to the Garden of Eden when, in rebellion, Adam and Eve chose to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The pair essentially said to God, whether allegorically or literally, ”We’ll figure it out for ourselves.” And paradise was lost.
ReplyDeleteAdam and Eve and their descendants have never been able to figure it out how to discern between good and evil on their own. Jesus referred to this sense of the individual or group being the arbiter of right and wrong when he stated, “We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.” That generation wanted Jesus, the ultimate Good, to be what they wanted him to be and ended up murdering him because he did not dance to their tune. And their evil was transformed into our good.
I agree with the idea, held by Thomas Aquinas and others, that evil is parasitic on good. God created all things and all things were good. And then the Good was tarnished by evil. It is good for people to get together and communally worship God, for instance. It is evil if they turn the worshipping community into a preferential hierarchy with the people at the top exercising great power and receiving inordinate compensation while the suppressed lower ranks must dine on self-denial. And then to claim that this system is found in the New Testament is a profound error. And the evil is parasitic on the original good of communal worship. Evil has not substance unto itself but is a species of corrupted Good.
It is not trivial to discern good from evil. One can save a child from drowning and the child’s future grandchild may turn out to be a serial killer. Did one really do something that is good under those circumstances? We are not Pre-cogs like in the movie “Minority Report.” The best we can do is try to follow The Way with the associated code of ethics defined in the New Testament. But all the time realizing that is easy to fall into presumption.
I agree with your assessment of the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was absolutely symbolic of humanity rejecting God's decision about what constitutes good and evil and determining that they would decide for themselves what was what! I also agree with you that mankind has been doing that ever since!
DeleteIn this connection, it is especially ironic that the ACOGs have fully embraced inerrancy for Scripture and are laser focused on the Torah as their source for what is good and evil - right and wrong. This stands in sharp contrast to Christ's summary of the Law into two great principles (Love for God and love for each other). In other words, Christ made the lists of dos and don'ts obsolete. He gave us (Christians) the principles which God used to determine what was good and what was evil! The presumption arises principally from failing to apply these principles to whatever ethical/moral dilemma we face.
And, as you suggested in your comments, unlike God, we do NOT have the ability to discern all of the potential consequences and shortfalls of the decisions we make. Also, your nod to Aquinas is well taken. I agree that evil is corrupted good - It is not founded on love for God or our neighbors! Instead, it is based on self-interest, greed, retribution, anger, impatience, etc.