Doctrines of the Fall and the "Birth" of Evil

By

Michaelbrent Collings

The previous piece on the misconception of God's abilities dovetails nicely into this next thought: People have made much of the problem of evil. That is, they contend God cannot exist, for what kind of God would allow evil to enter the world?

Some Christians seek to sidestep this by declaring it a "mystery": theological wording that usually means "We don't talk about that."

Others do a more intricate dance move, a theological two-step of sorts, by saying Adam and Eve introduced evil into the world. "There," they say. "Now it wasn't God's doing." Of course, that overlooks the problem that God introduced Adam and Eve into the situation that caused the Fall: in effect, He started the ball rolling. This, then, makes the causation less direct, but no less real.

Of course, the answer then must be that no one "allowed" - that is, created - evil. Evil has always existed, at least inasmuch as we mean evil to be a power standing against God. If not, then how could there have been a war in Heaven? How could there be a will in contradiction to God's if not fueled by that motivation we call "evil"? Though the exact form evil had in the pre-mortal world was likely somewhat different from its present iteration, even as we resemble those intelligences which existed with God in the beginning, but have altered in our own appearance and stature, a universe absolutely bereft of evil is (as was pointed out in the last essay) "impossible": i.e., it is a situation which does not exist.

But if evil is such an omni-present force (and few religious individuals would deny that it is, indeed, a force to be reckoned with), what, then, is the ultimate difference between good and evil?

In plainer terms: why be good if evil is coeternal with God, and (it seems at times) just as powerful?

The answer, and the reason we must seek good over evil, is found in the final destiny of those powers, not in their eternal genesis. Evil and good both always have and always will exist. But eventually, evil will be "bound." It will be confined to a place - an actual, geographical location - from which it cannot leave.

Some will then say (knowing that evil will be ultimately bound after the "end of the world"), "But just as evil cannot leave that place, so good cannot enter it." Again, these people contend that it appears evil is bound no more than good, and so they are equivalent in power. And if equivalent in power, what advantage have we for following God and good?

This attitude manifests the truism "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

They are wrong.

The difference: ultimately, evil is bound. It cannot leave.

Good, on the other hand, is free. It may enter the lower kingdom of the damned, but never will.

The circumscription is only enforced by one side. The power is held by a single group. And the road to hell becomes one-way, not because both good and evil are bound to a single direction, but because the wicked are bound and the good, true to their nature, never walk that path because they simply have better things to do.