In the good old days, people believed in evil.
Even people who didn’t go to church, read the Bible, say prayers, or sing along with K-Love believed in evil.
Those days are over.
A lot of people don’t believe evil exists anymore.
Nothing anybody says will convince them that wickedness is a real thing.
What’s worse is…
…nothing anybody DOES will convince them either.
Come on, John! You’re exaggerating!
No. I’m not.
Surely these people would admit that shooting children in a school is evil.
Read it for yourself if you doubt.
So I gotta ask you “church folks”:
Do you believe in evil?
And if you do…
…will you condemn it?
There’s a whole lot of love and tolerance coming from “church folks” these days.
Lots of sympathy and understanding too.
A guy kills some kids in a Florida school…
…the “church folks” can’t rush to judgment.
The guy had a tough childhood!
He had a history of mental illness!
He needs help!
You know what?
That’s exactly what the pagans told me.
The same people who don’t believe in evil.
It’s a problem when “church folks” agree with the heathen about how to handle wickedness.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! – Isaiah 5:20
“Church folks” are supposed to be “lights to the world”.
You remember that?
Why does anyone need a light if there’s no such thing as darkness?
If you can’t say that killing kids is evil…
…YOU are doing evil.
Jesus didn’t mince words.
Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea. – Matthew 18:6
27 Responses
J. Warner Wallace’s “Cold-Case Christianity”. It is a book to read if you are a skeptic convinced that faith demands the absence of reason.
John, atheists and whatever else they call themselves have a “darkened” mind…2 Corinthians 4:4 says “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
John 12:40 says “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn—and I would heal them.” And the big one : Romans 1:18-31 God’s Wrath Against Sinful Humanity
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.”
So, no argument from us will reach them, it needs an act of God. And, isn’t it odd that they use selective scripture (and even believe it, so it seems), when they do not believe that God exists? How’s that, again??? It’s very sad….and I’m going to say it…these people need PRAYER! Do not stoop to their level, and be angered by them….for you give power over to the principalities of this world…you know the one…his only trick is deception…and he’ll use it by any means….leave these folks to muddle around in their own vises…they’re not going anywhere effectual with their thoughts….God is in control.
“So, no argument from us will reach them, it needs an act of God. ”
If our arguments can’t reach them, why recommend Wallace’s book?
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger, lol! I love your blogs!
Partly I recommended the book in a satirical gesture (especially when I posted it on DANICANALLEN’s blog. But, also I recommended the book for those bloggers who may be interested in a viewpoint from a man who searched evidence in cold cases to see if he could see things from a different perspective and solve the crime. Also, Wallace is someone who once thought like an atheist, ate like an atheist, walked like an atheist, etc. Past tense. It’s not just a book for skeptics; Christians who have been weighed down by society and it’s “oneist” mindset (Familiar with Peter Jones?), it will reaffirm their confidence that what they believe is true. Further, it’s a great book to give to a friend or neighbor who may be a skeptic, so they can weigh the evidence, as well.
Otherwise, you did get the point of my comment, right? Though we Christians may plant a seed, or at least attempt to, yeah, ultimately it will take an act of God to change the unregenerate heart. And we must know when to step back and let that happen, or not….God’s will be done, amen?
Thank you for all your blogs!!!
I’m not trying to be difficult! Sorry. I come across pretty terse in written form.
I’m a fan a Wallace. I applaud your bravery posting the book for Danica’s readers.
Thanks John…and she let me….go figure; but I’m grateful she did….perhaps there’s a spark left there after all? I blogged with an atheist some time ago, for only a couple of weeks. I just kept asking him, “Why is it you atheists try so darned hard to convince everyone else that God, and everything His Word stands for is myth, if you truly believe He doesn’t exist, other than to perpetuate your own agenda? What’s the point? Why do you even care what others think about something you don’t believe even exists? Talk about an exercise in futility.” We actually had pleasant interactions. When he got hot under the caller, I’d just be nicer about the truth, and prayed harder. I think I finally convinced him, too, that the devil is real and that his arsenal was all about DECEPTION, and how well atheists fall into his web of lies. A few examples later and in the end he was seriously questioning his atheism.
I’ve had to put people (including immediate family) out of my life because of their unregenerate hearts, and mean heartedness. I still pray for them, and love them…just did my best with them and am leaving the rest in God’s more-than-capable hands. The Apostle Paul is pretty clear on this in 2 Corinthians 6.
Keep up the GOD work, John! You, and your daughter!
Good post, John. I did not always believe in evil myself. God had His hand over my eyes for many years. Later when I began to question things, many Christians were not really there for me, “hell is just a metaphor,” “evil is just a name for the absence of good.”
If you truly want to be kind to someone, moral, helpful, know the truth yourself and stand in it. Name it for what it is. The invisible elephant in the room that no one will speak of is far more damaging.
After reading the comments on DanicaAllen’s blog it makes one weep for humanity that there are those who willingly deny truth. The idea of just getting rid of guns will help is wishful thinking. The people who let evil rule them will find a way to do evil gun or not. And Zande’s Sandyhook meme is wrong this country decided it was ok to kill kids in 73′.
More vacuous incoherence from atheists. First, if evil doesn’t exist then why do so many “deconverts” blame God for the existence of it? Bart Ehrman said it was the problem of evil that led him down the slippery slope toward atheism.
Second, what would you call a whole people group (Nazis) committing horrible experiments and other atrocities, and generally not being nice (evil), to another people group? Why were the same Nazi guards, who committed horrific atrocities in the death camp, kind to their dog when they would come home. Were thousands of Germans insane psychopaths before and during WWII? Should we blame it on their deformed amygdala? Or, were they driven by hate, prejudice, anger….uh….evil?
Third, how does being able to give someone drugs so they don’t act out on their compulsions explain away evil?
Finally, why should we trust the atheist brain at all? For they tell us the brain is not fitted for truth, only for survival. And why should they trust their own cognitive faculties when trying to explain evil away? Denial of evil may just be a survival mechanism and not truth at all.
Basically the right course of action back in the day was to drug all the Nazis.
What’s goofy (and a little offensive) is that “evil” gets equated with mental health disorders in several of the posts that were cited by the OP.
The goofy part – Zande says that the kid has a disfunction in his prefrontal cortex and amygdala, which means that there is something wrong with the way the brain works. How can one say that there is no evil, yet say that a natural process with no real purpose is function incorrectly?
The a little offensive part – it reinforces stereotypes that people mental health issues are lesser. Maybe the evil-deniers don’t care that they are doing this (though I’m sure if confronted, many would say that they aren’t doing this), but it still makes me cringe every time someone equates evil with mental illness.
Personally, it’s more than a little offensive. The inconsistency (which you aptly described) serves as a shield for evil. Christians won’t condemn “mental illness” for fear of the accusations of “unkindness” or “unscientific”…or both.
You give me chills, John!
The greatest freedom that people can give evil to operate in this world is to deny it exists.
C.S. Lewis lays this out clearly in his “Screwtape Letters”.
Having read books written by those who used to live in the enemy’s camp (I can’t bring myself to mention details), and those who had the courage to rescue them, there is no doubt true evil exists, and thrives among the death, carnage and suffering it promotes.
Until people wake up and see the reality of the evil, they are a tremendous part of the problem, allowing it to operate under the cloak of darkness. They try to ridicule, dismiss, squelch and hamstring the actual antidote to evil. Drugs are useless at halting evil: if people take a deep look, nearly 100% of mass shooters are already on prescribed psychoactive drugs.
Indeed, the evil-deniers are actually servants of evil without knowing it.
Kathy
The Screwtape letters is a very good book, it got me to think long and hard about the decisions that I have made in the past and how or what influenced them. I have had the opportunity to go on a tour of the Dachau concentration camp to think of the pure evil that lived and ran that place brings chills to me still.
I agree until people wake up and see the reality of the evil they are a tremendous part of the problem.
God bless you.
You are so wrong on this John. You seem to be lacking empathy and compassion and understanding for this situation. -kia
Good thing lacking empathy and compassion isn’t evil!
(Or is it?) Lol.
Your silence toward the non-believers isn’t “compassion” and “understanding” Pastor. It’s spinelessness. Shame on you.
The man who learned too much still knows nothing.
… I feel bad for him. Everybody knows he’s only here so he can tell his three readers that he left a comment. (And they can pat him on the back.) He won’t even link back to it! But he’s not actually engaging his brain, and he’s definitely not making himself look good to thinking people…
He just keeps coming back! Poor thing.
I’m not sure heathen have “brains” to engage. The capacity for reason comes from God. When you tell God to go away, he takes all that stuff with Him. Mike doesn’t even have the “compassion” and “understanding” he accuses me of lacking.
Good people can agree that shooting school kids is evil even if they disagree about what causes it. Mike cares more about Mike than he does about slaughtered children.
Maybe they’ve already had that God part of their brains removed and that’s the whole problem.
@KIA, Can you elaborate on what you mean, if not for JB’s benefit, but for the lurkers? Your comment is relatively vague.
Don’t get your hopes up Dylan.
Evil is mental construct and is only mentioned in the Bible because antidepressants weren’t invented yet. Truly enlightened and culturally relevant peoplekind understand this.
Praise the Universe that we eventually evolved in such a way as to invent Risperidone and Clozopine and Prozac (for those of us who are just a liiiiiiiitle crazy). 🙂
Humans just keep hitting the jackpot.
You left out drugs,alcohol,and medical marijuana. Pretty sure all those brownies we munch and wine we drink is a sign of trying to escape something. 🙂
Evil is mental construct and is only mentioned in the Bible because of antidepressants (Ruigrok, 2018). No, I don’t think so, you see since it is good and bad there has to be an evil think about it like this, evil is the opposite of anything good. You do realize that the greatest thing that the Devil ever did was convince people that he does not exist. God created the Heavens and the earth so did God create evil? Yes and no I say yes, and now because God gave the man the freedom of choice when Satan fell out of Gods grace he used that choice against us and God thus evil exists. The last time there was this much sin in the world with Humans. God handled it by first destroying all humanity with a flood all except for Noah and his family, Sodom and Gomorrah if you were to compare the two with the world as it is today I would have to say that the United States is the new Sodom and Gomorrah. But on the subject at hand Evil is not a mental construct it is a real thing if evil was just a mental construct then why is there so much hatred in the world? People are hurting others because of anything color of skin, Money, road rage. Btw I am in college working on a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Theology. (not that it matters any)
sorry all had to redo the first one but here is the corrected version
Evil is mental construct and is only mentioned in the Bible because of antidepressants (Ruigrok, 2018). No, I don’t think so, you see since there is good and bad there has to be an evil think about it like this, evil is the opposite of anything good. You do realize that the greatest thing that the Devil ever did was convince people that he does not exist. God created the Heavens and the earth, so did God create evil? Yes and no I say yes, and no because God gave man the freedom of choice. When Satan fell out of God’s grace he used that choice against us by convincing Eve to eat from the forbidden fruit, and thus evil exists. The last time there was this much sin in the world with Humans. God handled it by first destroying all humanity with a flood all except for Noah and his family then because of all the evil and sin Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. If you were to compare the two with the world as it is today I would have to say that the United States is the new Sodom and Gomorrah. But on with the subject at hand Evil is not a mental construct it is a real thing if evil was just a mental construct then why is there so much hatred in the world? People are hurting others because of anything color of skin, Money, road rage. Btw I am in college working on a bachelor’s degree in psychology and Theology. (not that it matters any)