At the heart of Christian dogma lurks a paradox that defies
resolution: The Paradox of the origin of Evil.
The dualistic doctrine of Good and Evil is a core plank in
Christian theology. From it is derived the teaching that Mankind fell from
perfection into a hopeless state of sin, and that redemption through salvation
is necessary in order to avoid eternal punishment in Hell.
However, the belief in dualism faces an insurmountable
logical hurdle, for it clashes with the presuppositions of God’s absolute
sovereignty and the principle of free will.
Much of the theology regarding Evil is drawn from the Old
Testament. First we have the story of Adam and Eve being seduced by Satan and
eating the forbidden fruit, thereby falling into sin. Buried in several other
passages are references to Satan’s true identity and background as Lucifer.
The purported origin of Evil is touched on in Ezekiel 28,
ostensibly targeting judgement against the King of Tyre, but clearly a thinly
disguised commentary on Lucifer’s fall:
“You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and
perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious
stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and
jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
and crafted in
gold were your settings
and your engravings.
On the day that you were created
they were
prepared.
14 You were an anointed guardian cherub.
I placed you; you
were on the holy mountain of God;
in the midst of
the stones of fire you walked.
15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day you
were created,
till
unrighteousness was found in you.
16 In the abundance of your trade
you were filled
with violence in your midst, and you sinned;
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and I destroyed
you, O guardian cherub,
from the midst of
the stones of fire.
17 Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your
wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
I exposed you
before kings,
to feast their
eyes on you.
18 By the multitude of your iniquities,
in the
unrighteousness of your trade
you profaned your
sanctuaries;
so I brought fire out from your midst;
it consumed you,
and I turned you to ashes on the earth
in the sight of
all who saw you.
19 All who know you among the peoples
are appalled at
you;
you have come to a dreadful end
and shall be no
more forever.”
Amazingly, Lucifer is described in splendid terms at first,
as in “You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in
beauty…You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created…until
unrighteousness was found in you”.
So whence did Evil originate? As the above passage mentions,
and much extra-Biblical mythology supports, Lucifer was once a beautiful
creature, filled with goodness and light.
How could a thoroughly good creature turn evil? Isaiah 14
further describes Lucifer’s fall:
12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the
nations low!
13 You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to
heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my
throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches
of the north,
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself
like the Most High.’
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches
of the pit.
16 Those who see you will stare at you
and ponder over
you:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
who shook
kingdoms,
17 who made the world like a desert
and overthrew its
cities,
who did not let
his prisoners go home?’
18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory,
each in his own
tomb;
19 but you are cast out, away from your grave,
like a loathed
branch,
clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword,
who go down to the
stones of the pit,
like a dead body
trampled underfoot.
20 You will not be joined with them in burial,
because you have
destroyed your land,
you have slain
your people.
The paradox is simply stated thus:
One core presupposition is that God is completely good.
Another core presupposition is that God is totally
sovereign, such that nothing in the universe can occur without God causing it
to happen.
Thus, in order for Lucifer to rebel and become Evil, God
would have had to cause it. In order for Lucifer to have anything else but
goodness to choose from, God would have had to create it.
So this logic leaves no choice but to conclude that God
created Evil. If we manage to accept that, then tremendous repercussions follow
regarding the nature of God: God must be part Good and part Evil, or dualistic!
The alternative is to believe that Evil somehow popped into
existence without God’s cause or consent. That takes God off the hook for being
Evil, but then totally undermines God’s sovereignty. If God was not sufficiently
in control to prevent a major rebellion that supposedly involved a third of his
kingdom, then how much else is uncertain?
Neither of these two conclusions are satisfactory, for they
completely undermine key Christian doctrine regarding salvation.
If God created Evil, then the whole thing is a farce! We are
exhorted to oppose Evil and refrain from doing Evil, and threatened with
eternal punishment for being Evil.
Then the entire Free Will doctrine is a joke as well. Choose
between two paths? Both paths created and sanctioned by God, yet one will get
you eternally punished? (Some Christians still debate among themselves whether
Free Will even exists because having ability to choose supposedly negates God’s
sovereignty).
If God is not sovereign, then who is really calling the
shots? How can we count on anything else that Christianity asserts?
As I said, there is no resolution to this paradox. I
struggled with it during my Christian years, and eventually this opened the
door for me to question much more. Eventually I arrived at my present
understanding of Spirituality.
The Hermetic view of God has no such contradictions or
paradoxes. A single consciousness pervades the universe. Separateness is but an
illusion, as is duality. Light and darkness are balanced, such that light casts
shadows, and the absence of light is necessary for defining light.
There is no paramount struggle between Good vs. Evil. All
that is, simply is.
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