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To: Star Traveler; Uriel1975; Jerry_M; the_doc
If I sent you a letter with a substance that caused you to get sick, would I be doing something evil?
117 posted on 10/18/2001 12:09:33 PM PDT by CCWoody
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To: CCWoody; Uriel1975; Jerry_M; the_doc; junebug54
CCWoody wrote --

If I sent you a letter with a substance that caused you to get sick, would I be doing something evil?

It depends on several factors. First -- as you should have been able to "ferret out" in that last post (#110), it depends on what your meaning of "evil" is -- in terms of how you're using it. There are different meanings (as we see from Webster's Dictionary and as we see from the "theological side" of things, too).

If you were to mean "unrighteousness" -- for the meaning of evil, then we would go to the next item upon which it depends, in order to answer that question. Would your actions have been intentional for the purpose of causing harm? If that was the case, if it was a moral evil that you were intending, then by definition, that would be unrighteousness and an evil action in that context.

However, if you were to send something to me with some harmful substance in it, and did not do so with intent or moral evil in mind (let's say by not knowing that it was in there), then this would not be unrighteousness on your part. It would be "evil" (with another definition of "evil") in terms of "trouble and calamity" on my part -- but not unrighteousness on your part. It wouldn't be the moral evil and/or unrighteousness.

BUT, as is always the problem here -- when talking about God -- which all those other comments in post #110 should have made clear, God is not defined by human actions and understanding and moral character. So, to define God in terms of "evil" -- on the basis of "human actions" is to subvert the meaning and character of God. God defines His own character, and not in comparison to us.

Very simply put, God commits no moral evil at all -- none whatsoever. And He never commits unrighteousness. By His own word, that particular definition of evil never pertains to God -- which is why it is rendered as "calamity" in the other translations -- thereby leading to a more accurate understanding of what is being said there, in Scripture.

Since people attach a wrong meaning to the word "evil" in regards to God in that particular verse -- it does not lend itself to the proper understanding. And that's exactly the type of subversion that you're trying to do here. But, it won't work because there are ample commentators and other Bible scholars who make it very clear that God is never the author of evil (in the definition of unrighteousness or moral evil). That is never the case.

You're continued desire and insistence to show that God is the author of unrighteousness -- simply shows your own misunderstanding of Scripture, and who know what other heresies or errors.

126 posted on 10/18/2001 12:42:50 PM PDT by Star Traveler
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