Question of Radical Evil - Philautia, Darkness, Nothingness

Today most professional philosophers may divide evil into two categories namely the categories of Natural Evil and Moral Evil. Today many professional philosophers define Natural Evil as evil caused by nature like in the case of a earthquake; moreover, many professional philosophers then go onto define Moral Evil as being evil that is caused by moral agents (in other words evil cased by rational choice). The problem is that both the categories of Natural Evil and Moral Evil are often used to clarify or classify evil as if to suggest that evil is not one thing that is presenting itself in various ways. The point is that many people make the case that Natural Evil has one cause and explanation while Moral Evil has another cause and explanation, but I find all evil to be without cause because it is not created and I call this the nothingness.

Adam and Eve

If for example we consider the story of Adam and Eve carefully in regard to the question or Radical Evil as seen in the second and third chapter of Genesis, then we find that evil did not have its origin with Adam, Eve, or even the snake. Evil had its origin in the fact that God went away from Adam and Eve, and when he was gone then evil crept into the garden to cause the snake to tempt Eve to cause Eve to eat the fruit that caused Eve to give the fruit to Adam that also ate it. Even though scripture never says that God went away from Adam and Eve we know that he left Adam and Eve prior to Adam and Eve eating the fruit because scripture records him as having come back to Adam and Eve after the fruit was eaten as noted as follows, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, 'Where are you?'" Genesis 3:8-9 (NIV)

Putting the blame on God for the Fall is well noted as the worst conclusion for being contrary to the Christian faith, and when the text is evaluated in depth we find that the tree had the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil as this tells us that evil preexisted the tree that was created and thus evil preexisted creation. The fact that the first chapter of John refers to the Word of God as being the light that entered into the world that the darkness had no comprehension of suggests that the darkness is evil, and in the first chapter of Genesis we read, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness." Genesis 1:1-4 (NIV) The point is that God's word is what made the light and then God observed that the light was good as if to suggest that God's speech was making good things out of utter and complete evil, and what we learn is that scripture points this out time and time again in the creation account because scripture repeats the phrase, "God saw that it was good" about seven times.

Evil is Nothing

The point to be made is not that evil is in itself something, but instead evil is the absence of real existence. The fact thus that God created all reality out of nothing suggests that before God's creation all that existed was evil (in other words nothing existed). Darkness thus is used by the scripture to make the elusion to the nothingness of evil, and every false truth for example is like a empty bag in that it is a distortion of reality to point back to the nothingness known as evil.

God for example need not be everywhere in evil because evil is in itself nothing. If God could be everywhere in nothing, then nothing would no longer be nothing but instead it would be something because it would contain God in its context. What is clear from my description of evil is that evil has no intelligence or design associated with it, so at this point the fall of Satan is brought into question. Overall, before considering the fall of Satan consider the testimony of God concerning evil and God's work in contrast as described in Job chapter thirty-eight.

Job 38

During the time that God handed Job over to Satan, the Lord actually spoke to Job as follows, "Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said: 'Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?'" Job 38:1-2 (NIV) In other words God's counsel is like light, and darkening God's counsel would be like turning his counsel into something evil by diminishing its correspondence to reality.

The Lord continues with his testimony as he describes the fact that when creation of the earth was happening, then at the same time the angels had been involved. "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. ...while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy? 'Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb'" Job 38:4-8 (NIV) Not only do we learn from this that the angels had been created prior to the rest of creation, but we also learn that God has something like a womb that creation is produced from and this indicates that what God needed for creation he took from within himself.

The Lord continues with his testimony as he says the following, "The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its features stand out like those of a garment. The wicked are denied their light, and their upraised arm is broken." Job 38:14-15 (NIV) The point that is being made is that once creation originates from God to create a reality, then God shapes that reality like in the example of clay under a seal. The seal that is being spoken about is called a archetype, and this is something that God can change the parameters of in order to 'stamp' out a new variation of the same type of thing. Overall, ideally God's words being spoken would speak things into creation by issuing a 'master seal' that would stamp out in the 'clay' other 'seals' that would perhaps stamp out even other 'seals' until the 'seals' would be specific enough to stamp out all of creation using the 'seals' from the 'clay'. The wicked are however denied their light in that they are not being transformed by every word from the mouth of the father like in the case of the bread that Jesus spoke to Satan about when Jesus was tempted by Satan, and this means that the Word of God is the potter for the clay that transforms the clay by the seals as he lives by every word from the mouth of the Father.

The Lord continues as he says the following, "What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!" Job 38:19-21 (NIV) The fact that light is described as having a abode while darkness is simply described as residing suggests that one has a shaped reality associated with it while the other just simply resides.

The chapter of Job thirty-eight ends with, "33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's dominion over the earth? ...36 Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind? ...41 Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?" (NIV) The fact that the experiences that the Lord was addressing all occur when Job is suffering from being tormented by Satan tell us that God is introducing or clarifying himself and his ways in the midst of Satan as if in contrast, and what we learn is that heaven has laws, God has dominion over the earth that laws of heaven work on, God endowed the heart with wisdom and gave understanding to the mind, and most importantly God makes intercession in the example of providing food for the raven when it cries out to God. I will attempt to demonstrate how the fall of Satan shows how Satan could not satisfy Job 38:33, 36, & 41.

The Fall of Satan

Ezekiel 28:13-17 makes elusion to the fall of Satan as follows, "You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings." (NIV) The point to be made is that according to the testimony of scripture evil entered Satan through something like a Philautia also known as self love or pride, and this pride alienated Satan from God because his self love eliminated his ability to be the guardian cherub that he was ordained to be and to thus make intercession and as a result violence through an exchange of hatred instead of love occurred.

Consider the following, "How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'" Isaiah 14:12-14 (NIV) We can further see that the self love that Satan felt would have propelled him to ascend to heaven to be like God in such a way that he would make everything of God's enter into his domination of his own self love, so all of creation would serve the self love that Satan had for himself.

Conclusion

The point to be made is that God made everything in the midst of darkness, and that darkness is the absences of reality otherwise known as evil. In order for reality to be sustained it must not exist independent of God because when it becomes independent of God, then evil enters into it as the absence of God begins to flourish. Self love alienates a person from God by withdrawing the love expressed to God and others and concentrating that love into one's own self, and this is what causes intercession to stop as reality becomes darker and darker in a person's own dominion. The fact however that God went away from the garden just prior to the Fall tells us that God withdrew himself first, and this would have cased darkness to set into creation (self love would have resulted).

The reason why we should not blame God for evil is because it existed as the nothingness prior to creation, and evil is like nothing more than the absence of God. By God withdrawing himself (by the light withdrawing) darkness forms not because God creates the darkness but because darkness is the nothingness that sets in from the absence of God. What I am talking about should be obvious at this point because every false truth is like a distortion that has no reality to substantiate it other than the fact that it refers to an idea that is incorrect.

Evil cannot make anything, but love invested into others can make everything. The fact that God is love and that he would take from himself in order to make creation tells us that the investment of love produces and maintains all things, but if Satan only invests love into himself then that would at best only produce his own survival. Overall, today competition, survival of the fittest, and doctrines of exclusiveness often get perpetuated in a way that either produce self love or case a person to be enslaved by someone else that is self loving.

The crucifixion of Jesus Christ shows that he was not self loving like Satan, but instead Jesus Christ poured out all of his love from the cross despite the fact that he had flesh torn off of him and was in agony. Christ made intercession thus for people, and this love got invested into many. Since the love of God comes from God and goes into creation thus all of its reality eventually has its origin with God, but Satan and many others that are alienated from God through self love cannot trace their existence back to God as easily because they become darker and darker while being transformed into the nothingness (this is how sin when full grown produces death).