THE MYSTERY OF GOOD AND EVIL

Rev. Bertrand L. Comparet, A.B., J. D.

   From the earliest times, men have been puzzled by the fact that God allows evil to exist, and often to overthrow good. Almost the whole of the Book of Job deals with this question. Job, suffering great affliction, and knowing that he had done nothing to deserve it, saw the wicked flourish. He said, I will say unto God, 'Do not condemn me: show me wherefore Thou contendest with me? Is it good unto Thee that Thou shouldest oppress, that Thou shouldest despise the work of Thy hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?' Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty In power? Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their off­spring before their eyes. Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.' (Job 10:2-3; 21:7-9) We cannot deny this: evil men do flourish, get all the cream of this life; while the good have much trouble, and cannot keep the things they create. Why is this?

  The problem of GOOD AND EVIL confronted our race from its beginning. We were made for a purpose: to not only live by, but also to enforce the Laws of God. Participation in the evils of the older races was not for us. Adam and Eve were told, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." How Adam's original immortality was lost to him and all his descendants we are not told --- perhaps by infection with some disease which left hereditary effects; but Adam did die within the prophetic "day" of 1,000 years from the time he participated in the evils of the older races. Evil was not new in the world when Adam and Eve were put here: it was their job to curb it and to demonstrate good.

  The old races of Asia and Africa and India then, as also today, wor­shipped devils, Satan and the fallen angels who followed him into rebellion. Both Old Testament and New Testament affirm this: "They sacrificed to devils, not to God: to gods whom they knew not." (Deuteronomy 32:17) "But I say that the things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." ( I Corinthians 10:20) Satan was not a scaly snake, wriggling§ along the ground, but a mighty angel. The word mistranslated "serpent' is the Hebrew naw-kash", meaning "enchanter," or "magician"---which his angelic powers enabled Satan to be. Later, Satan's children and followers adopted the ser­pent as his emblem or symbol, and from this later tradition the mistransla­tion came about.

  Satan told Eve, in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened,  and, ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5) That is, "wouldn't t you like to be worshipped as gods, as I and my followers are?

  I'll show you how. These people are a rough, tough lot; you poor innocents don't know how to get along with them. You have to be tougher than they are and know more about it than they do. That's how I make them worship me. But evil brings eventual judgment. It was the cause of the catastrophes by which the ancient continents of Lemuria and Atlantis sank beneath great

  Why were we left so susceptible to temptation? We are the children of God, created to become His companions. He could have made us mere robots, who never sinned because they lacked the capacity to do so. But then would­n't we have been a rather stuffy lot? He wanted children who were loyal and good, not just because they lacked the power to be otherwise, but because they were fine enough to choose loyalty and goodness. Satan and his follow­ers had also been made with freedom to choose either right or wrong; and they abused. that freedom, before Adam was put on this earth. That didn't change God's mind: He still wanted His children to have free will. There­fore, they had to learn the first lesson: the consequences of our-own sins. True, God foresaw man's sins  and made provision for salvation "before the foundation of the world,' but still man had to be allowed to suffer the consequences long enough to make the lesson effective.

  Do not be misled by another serious mistranslation in your King James translation of the Bible: the use of the word "evil" when the Hebrew word carried no such meaning. Many have been deceived by Isaiah 45:7, which--­in your King James version---reads as follows: "I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things." God never creates evil, in the modern sense of the word, meaning "wickedness." The Hebrew word used In that verse is "rah"---meaning "calamity, affliction, adversity, wretchedness, or sorrow", but never meaning wickedness. God said, "I make peace, and create calamity"---calamity as a punishment for wickedness.

But why do we need to have the lesson rubbed in so bitterly? Because far more than just our own conduct is at stake. We are eventually to be the administrators of God's kingdom, over the whole universe. It will begin on this earth, of course: "He that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of My Father." (Revelation 2:26-27) But it is even greater than this: Isaiah 9:7 tells us that "Of the INCREASE of His govern­ment and peace there shall be no end"---and surely this one little planet has no room for perpetual increase. Hence, Jesus Christ also says, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne" (Revelation 3-.21) --- and that throne rules the whole universe.

  So one of the first lessons we must learn is that which our leaders today so willfully violate: that there can't be any such thing as "peaceful coexistence" of good and evil, for one must inevitably destroy the other. Adam's job was to attack, defeat and expel Satan; instead, he tried "Peaceful Coexistence"---and you are paying the penalty of it, today.