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- What Is a Biblical Worldview
- Concept of Evil
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The Biblical
Concept Of Evil
Evil - the haunting force that invades our world. From the shadows of society to the depths of our hearts, its presence is undeniable. Every worldview must grapple with the concept of evil, why it exists and how it arrived on planet Earth.
Any worldview must answer why there is evil in the world today in order to be taken seriously. No one can deny that evil exists. How did it get here, and why?
Humanistic
Concept Of Evil
Many embrace a humanistic vision, painting humanity as inherently good and pure, only to be tainted by a corrupted environment. This rosy view shapes our society, urging us to perfect our surroundings and education to unlock the dormant goodness within us. Families cling to this belief in their child-rearing choices as parents naturally want to think of their children as basically good. Even our justice system often echoes this sentiment, searching for the cause of crime in the environment and offering leniency for those tarnished by a harsh upbringing. Most government systems from Communism to our great Democracies have this concept of evil being able to be eliminated by changing the environment. The horrors of socialism and the decadencies of capitalism reveal that there is no good centre in human beings. Changing the environment, like painting over a tombstone, does not bring out goodness.
Ideas do have real-life consequences. Theology is not a tedious academic exercise unconnected from the real world. Its concepts impact how each person views the world and interacts with it. A wrong worldview will have fatal life consequences. Yet many people will not take the time to search for the Truth. They simply accept whatever feels good to them, and ignorantly go on refused to face difficult questions.
Biblical
Concept Of Evil
The Biblical Worldview slashes through our pride with a brutal truth: We are sinners from conception. We do not do bad things because of our environment, although it may shape how we sin. We do evil because it is rooted in the core of our being.
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Ps. 51:5, NIV
This is called the Sin Nature. Every human being is born a sinner.
God did not create us with a sinful nature, so how did it come about? God created a perfect world and made an ideal man and woman to begin the human race. God created them with the potential to do evil but not the necessity to do evil. This is a vital distinction.
Why did He do that? If God had not given Adam and Eve a choice to either love and obey Him or rebel and disobey Him, then He would have only had fancy puppets. He wanted people with real choices who would choose to love Him from their own free will. He gave them every advantage. They had a perfect environment. They had a perfect relationship both with each other and with God. They were brilliant. They had no sinful nature, which meant, unlike us, they had no natural desire to make the wrong choice.
Yet into the paradise, the Biblical worldview reveals, temptation slithered in. Satan tempted Eve to disobey God. When she did, she tempted Adam to make the same choice.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned… Rom. 5:12, NIV
Since Eve was the first to rebel, why did sin and its consequences, pain and death, come through Adam? Eve was deceived, although that is no excuse. When she rebelled, she sinned for herself. Adam, however, was the representative of the human race [called Federal Head in theology]. Whatever decision he made, he made on behalf of everyone. Adam was not deceived. Fully conscious of the wrong and its consequences, he chose defiance.
The evil we see in and around us results from that one decision. All we do is add our own style to sinning. We may choose to be a “nice” person or a murderer, but the fundamental sin nature is the same. If we are tempted to blame Adam, consider that every time we make a sinful choice, we say, “I agree with you, Adam. You made the right decision.”
The Biblical Worldview is that we brought sin and death into a perfect universe through hideous rebellion against our loving God. God did not create evil, nor does He condone it. He does allow it because it is a consequence of our choice, but He is working to eliminate it, as we will see in the next Biblical Worldview article.
One of the most common questions about Christianity is how a good God can allow bad things to happen. I address this in more detail in my book How To Know For Sure God Loves You.
For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.
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