This training with a hearty group of Kenyan leaders was productive. A frequent comment was: “We’ve never heard this kind of teaching before.” I reminded them to be sure they confirmed it was really from Scripture. Many of these folk are never exposed to anything other than what tradition has told them. (Some traditions really scare me.) Many have never explored or read the whole Bible. They appreciated being engaged in masterful study of spiritual topics, attention to questions, and practical applications.
Between sessions I continued contemplating the disciple’s criticism of Jesus’ response to the ‘Alabastor Lady’. (Mark 14 & John 12) How did evil come to exist? (God did not create evil but it exists.) It has to have a beginning. Most theology states that ‘original sin’ came with Adam, Eve and Satan in the Garden? But where did Satan get it?
Much of an average person’s theological opinions are left to the ‘experts’ to decide and then teach us what they think. Most preachers stop with evil in the Garden. But if everything that ‘is’, is a creation of God, that includes evil outside of His Being too.
God is the only eternal Being. He is totally holy but everything flows from Him. God did not create devils but they exist. From my contemplations, there seems to be a process that allowed a created and totally holy being (Lucifer) to be able to embrace evil within the finest and most perfect, holy environment. Sin began at the Throne of God, not in a garden or a slum environment. It began with angels. How can a perfect being, created by a holy God, existing in a perfect and holy environment, become evil?
It did and therefore there is a process which we need to understand in order to avoid it.
Lucifer was not created to be a devil. He was formed brilliantly and created for God. (Isa 14 & Eze 28) He was created with capacity to think. A key aspect of this created thinking process is that God made an allowance for offensive responses to His decisions. He included the ability for His creatures to decide for themselves whether they want to accept His way, or not, of doing things.
How did Lucifer become a devil? By choosing to reject God’s way and becoming self-centered. Some researchers say he was offended that God would create beings in His image that could receive His divinity. And that these beings were so pathetically weak and so much lower than he was that God must be wrong. “How could something less than me be the repository of Someone greater than I?” Like Judas judging Jesus by using himself as the standard to understand what was happening.
Evil is like darkness and cold. They don’t exist except in the absence of light and heat. That doesn’t mean that their absence cannot cause damage: hurting yourself in the dark or freezing can be very real. A quick answer would be to say that evil doesn’t exist except outside the light of God’s presence.
How do I pursue evil? To raise the idea that evil has any link with Jehovah runs in the face of popularly acceptable logic. But I also know that as a member of the Body of Christ, I still harbour sin. It is too easy for me to be disillusioned with His responses, or seeming lack of responses, to my expectations. It is too easy to assume that He will respond as I pray. That’s another way of rejecting His love and truth. And if my response is not checked, it becomes a barrier to hearing His voice. It provides a resting place for evil. My own expectations need to be shattered by Gods amazing ways. He will gently nudge me back to restoration.
May you be blessed with having a prepared mind to anticipate the Spirit’s presence and counsel during meditation. … john
(original post Dec 22 2015)
