S. Michael Houdmann Supporter Got Questions Ministries

Evil is what is morally wrong, sinful, or wicked. Evil is the result of bad actions stemming from a bad character. Biblically, evil is anything that contradicts the holy nature of God (see Psalm 51...

Login or Sign Up to view the rest of this answer.

July 01 2013 • 7 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

R K

Evil is first introduced simply as the opposite of good. The definition of good must be determined from its first usage and then its usage in Genesis chapter 1 & 2. First the definition of good:

The International Bible Dictionary provides several aspects of the word good and one of those is "beneficial". Something is considered beneficial when it satisfies a need. If you look at how God used the word good throughout the creation process He stated that each step (day) of the process was "good." When you consider what happened in each step (day) of the process you see that God was creating a perfect environment for human beings to live. That is, He was creating the satisfaction of human needs that would soon be created.

There is a whole study to be done on what this "need satisfying" creation says about the nature and character of God. It would take too long for this venue. But what it does say is that God is all about creating needs and then creating the satisfaction of those needs. Then as we move from the creation through today, we see both from scripture and our experience, He loves to meet our needs designed by Him in His designed ways. 

God did not want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because He did not want them to experience any attempt of having their needs met by themselves or others in any way other than how He designed. When they did eat then the very purpose of why He created them was corrupted and was the most vile of sins. His goodness was rejected. 

Anytime we attempt to meet our God designed needs in anyway other than God's designed way it is an abomination because it flies right in the face of our GOOD Father. Any attempt to do so is EVIL. That is what evil is and means.

One last thing: When God looked at the final step of His creation, the creation of Eve and presenting her to Adam, God said it is "very" good. Meaning that the last thing that man needed to experience all of God's created life was to have someone to share it with and someone to meet the needs created in the other. He also said right before that it was not "good" (God designed needs unmet) for man to be alone. Meaning man could not express his created need to love, share, help another person because one did not yet exist. We are created to serve other. There had to be another.

There is so much more to explore on this subject but it seems that EVIL is simply the absence of good as defined by God Himself.

January 28 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report