Normie-Passing

Beyond Vat Phou, the Champasak region of Laos is also known for its nature trails, waterfalls, and forested hills.

The Bible declares that evil is far worse than we realize. Evil is an invader, a parasite, a rot. It’s a malignant cancer that has spread, a rupture in the cosmic order. Evil is so real that it has a personal focus — a focus in the one Jesus called the Devil — the one who stands opposed to the purposes of God and all that is good, true, and beautiful. The good material world God created has been corrupted. The root of evil in this world is not material, it is moral. It is found in rebellion against God’s good rule. And from the beginning of humanity we have all participated in that rebellion and evil is embodied in our own hearts.

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

James 1:13-15

To ask the question of why God allows people to be parents if he knows ahead of time that they will one day commit abusive acts against their children is akin to taking responsibility away from the sinner and placing it upon God.

The argument goes that since evil exists, either: God must not really be loving, or God must not really be all-powerful. Either God is incapable of stopping evil, even though he’d like to – in which case he is not all-powerful, or God is capable of stopping evil, but chooses not to, in which case he must not be truly loving.

Pedophilia is an evil and grievous sin. Jesus said, “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin” (Luke 17:2). The vulnerable and helpless are most precious in God’s kingdom, and their abusers will not go unpunished.

These practices are an evil perversion of God’s good design for sexuality. They’re not only against Scripture but against nature.

God shares in our suffering even as He acts to bring victory over evil.

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. (Ezekiel 28:15)

God created every thing good. But evil is not a thing. Evil is not a created thing. Evil is a perversion. It is a lack of being.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)

Evil simply does not have the existence good does. Good and evil are not equal and opposite things. Good is an eternal reality found in God. Evil is a consequential, lacking thing.

Scripture also states that man has been given some autonomous authority and responsibility over this world.

The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. (Psalm 115:16)

Which further helps explain where evil comes from: For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:16)

God created life, and he is our comforter; he blessed people with the ability to produce offspring, gave us freedom, and created mankind with dignity beyond any animal.

In contrast, evil is a subtractive, leeching, parasitical concept—not an independent entity.

God did not create evil, but he did create human beings with the capacity to choose evil. And while the capacity to choose evil is not evil itself, it provides the possibility for evil to exist. And the absence of good defines evil.

Used to think the culture was super interesting. I went out of my way to visit Indian shops and try their food, learn about their culture, etc.

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