Yes, I believe evil is real (hi, Nexy!)
As for the more pressing question of what evil is, it's quite simply anything that goes against the nature of God. Whatever people have defined the word as since, this is what it really means.
If you boil down all of the rules God gave us it comes down to, "Be good to the planet,", "Be good to God," and "Be good to other people." Boil it down further and you get, "Don't be selfish; take care of others." (For the sake of this discussion, that's what I mean when I say 'good'.)
Evil, quite simply, is any selfish action.
Some of you might have heard of the apostle, Paul, from the Bible. Paul was one of the earliest Christians and to put it simply he did more good than a lot of other people. This was a guy who was humble, who devoted his home, his money, his power, his freedom and ultimately his life to doing good things for other people. He was about as good as you could hope. I
wish I could be as humble and as selfless as this guy. And yet when he wrote to a man he loved as a son, he called
himself the most evil of all people (
1 Timothy, 1:15).
This is a guy who was doing so much good and calling himself worse than murderers and rapists! Worse than the pagans who raped and murdered children because it seemed like a good idea! He called himself worse than Everyone's Favourite Evil Uncle Adolf!
You guys have all accepted one opinion; people aren't evil, but they do things that might be considered evil. You're afraid to say any one person is evil.
This couldn't be further from the truth! Here's what I believe with all my heart; all people are by nature evil! We have the capacity to do good, selfless things, but we are inherently selfish. We spend our lives saying "What can I do for myself? How can I make myself look good? How can I help myself?"
You draw a line between "What can I do to help myself?" And "What can I do to bring someone else down?" But there isn't a line there! As evil beings, we want to make ourselves look good so we say, "I can't possibly be evil! I might do evil things but that doesn't make me evil!"
So many Christians don't see this. So many people think that if they can call themselves Christians then they can call themselves better than non-Christians. But I am as evil as anyone, as murderers and rapists. In Paul's letters he goes on and on about his own evilness. He talks about 'inner groanings that words cannot express'. He is repulsed by what he is; he hates his evilness, and I agree with him. I hate what I am; I wish with all my heart and soul that I could go a day without getting it wrong! In
Romans 7:24 Paul writes, (paraphrase) "How wretched am I! What can possibly save me from this evilness that infects me?"
Don't misunderstand me; being born evil doesn't make me guiltless. If a plague of locusts was eating all of a farmer's crops would he stand there while they removed his livelihood because it's their nature to eat? No way; he'd call in the exterminators! We are guilty for what we do! And punishment has to be paid!
As someone said, people used to pay for their evil deeds by sacrificing animals. Quite horribly, the animals suffered so that people didn't have to, but God cares about people more than he cares about animals and was willing to accept the sacrifice.
In the end He Himself took the punishment we deserve. (Paraphrase again) "Christ died for our evil once for all; he was good and perfect but he paid the price for the evil acts we commit."
1 Peter 3:18. He took the punishment for all the evil of all the people in the world so that the people who committed evil could be free of evil. I hate being an evil being, but I can't deny that it's what I am; I see myself doing evil all the time. But the punishment for my daily selfishness has already been taken, so one day I know I can be free of it.
so completely lame
