The Root of All Evil

March 3, 2010 · Category: Essays · Comments Off

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth . . . and God saw that . . . [it] . . . was good” (Genesis 1:1-5). There was no evil. There was no darkness, because He allowed “‘there [to] be light,’ and there was light” (1:3). For the next six days, God created “the heavens and the earth and everything in them” (2:1) and found that they were all good, but on the seventh day, “He rested” (2:2).

As God rested, the act of evil was unfolding. It was Satan himself that brought forth the darkness needed to successfully achieve his wishes – to be his own god. He realized that “the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made” (Genesis 3:1). It was the tool he desired to disguise himself from the Lord, to speak to Eve. Just the act of disguising himself foreshadowed human nature’s way of concealing what was wrong. And what Satan was concealing was beyond wrong, it was the beginning of all human sin.

It is assumed that Eve committed the first sin, temptation, but, before Adam and Eve, before the creation of everything, there was the story of God and His angels. These guardians were His servants. They were the ones who helped Him as He created the heavens and earth that He envisioned. But one of His angels, “the anointed . . . mighty angelic guardian” (Ezekiel 28:14), Lucifer, became vain and rebelled against his Lord.

Lucifer’s rebellion against God, which is an unforgivable sin because angels do not need faith, was caused because of his “exquisite . . . beauty” (Ezekiel 28:12). His vanity darkened his heart, which was the origin of his pride. He then destined for God’s power, because of such arrogance, and more. He wanted to “ascend to heaven . . . [to] . . . set . . . [his] . . . throne above God’s stars . . . to climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13-14). For that reason, Lucifer, the morning star, was thrown from the sky with “the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit” (Revelation 9:1) and renamed Satan, the adversary.

During that time, the first human sin was committed – Eve’s temptation for the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Even though both Adam and Eve were prohibited to “eat it or even touch it” (Genesis 3:3), she allowed herself to do it anyway because “she saw that the tree was beautiful . . . and she wanted the wisdom it would give her” (3:6). But, instead of pointing out the immoral act, Adam took the fruit she offered to him and “ate it, too” (3:6). Then, they realized that they were naked and “suddenly felt shame” (3:7). They covered themselves with “fig leaves” (3:7) and hid from the Lord God (3:8), because they knew that they sinned. It is human nature to conceal what is wrong; them hiding from the Lord is an example of this.

But, if God is “an omnipotent . . . Being” (Perry 97), why would He allow this to happen? This is because Lucifer manufactured the evil within his own heart, through his own choices. God did not wish for this to happen. He had created Lucifer to be “the model of perfection . . . full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty” (Ezekial 28:12). But such perfection only went against the Lord, for he became vain; however, wouldn’t have God seen this, being the beginning and the end? Yes, but since Lucifer had the ability to choose, he chose the path of evil, not knowing that “evil has its bounds” (Leibniz 95). Only God knew that his choice would bring him “down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths” (Isaiah 14:15). But, between the time of Satan’s reign on earth and the day that he would surely die, humans had the right to choose their path, as Lucifer did. And that is why the Lord God created the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the way of Satan and of Death, and the Tree of Life, the way of God and of Immortality, to test mankind.

From this, man was placed on earth with difficult tasks – to believe or not to believe, to sin or not to sin, to make choices. We are all being tested, until the end of the origin of all evil comes. But, if we are God’s children, why would He do this to us? Because, a gift as grand as Eternal Life cannot be given easily; Lucifer, the one that He loved most, is an example of that. Even though God may love us and want us to do the right thing, He did give us the gift to choose. That is why we are imperfect; we are not robots that follow His every command. To love God, we must show that we would do anything for Him, as He showed to us. We have to right what was wronged years ago, and since “good does go to infinity” (Perry 95), we have the ability to do so. And to only do that, we must show no evil.

But, if so, why would He “create darkness . . . and create evil” (Isaiah 45:7), if He is all goodness? Evil, in this context, is defined as “bad times.” God means that from committing sin, consequences are brought forth; “those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death” (Galatians 6:8). This is the reason why Adam and Eve’s sin happened, because Lucifer became evil and full with adversity, causing him to trick Eve into going against the Lord. So, with further explanation, misfortunes only take place in the presence of evil, because the evil that one does will affect countless of others. The body is not one member, but many (1 Corinthians 12:14), and while “we all share the same spirit” (12:13), it will always be so.

In the end, evil is the source of all hardships. The evil that we see today originated from Lucifer’s heart. Lord God cannot physically stop it, because it is not Him who caused it, but Satan and ourselves. And to prevent it, we must make the right choices by not listening to the fallen angel. By doing so, we will only bring forth goodness through God’s words. And, through His omnipotence, Satan’s reign on earth will end, and we will one day have Eternal Life.

Bibliography
Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2004. Print.
Perry, John, et al. Introduction to Philosophy: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Oxford University Press, 2009.