December 5, 2011
Dear Fellow Travelers,
As you remember, God
was very succinct and clear with Adam & Eve regarding their eating the
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—DO NOT EAT IT! IF YOU DO
YOU WILL DIE. IN FACT, YOU WILL DIE THAT DAY! They ate and they died—eternally separated
from God, on their own to do what they could NOT do—period.
Obviously, the serpent knew something that Adam & Eve
did not know: those who know good and evil are members of a very exclusive club—The
Triune Godhead. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are the ONLY persons in the
entire universe who know good and evil, and for very good reason: to know good
and evil is to be like them and, therefore, to be responsible not only for
managing good and evil, but also for determining who will live and who will die
(which determination falls well-within the pay grade of those so endowed).
Sadly, most Christians honestly believe that they know good
and evil and, consequently, they have become managers of good and evil not only
for their own lives, but also for the lives of everyone else. Pastors and other
church leaders seem to be the self-appointed “Chiefs of Police” for “good and
evil” for their congregations. (I could give you many examples!)
There is an obvious flaw in this mindset: No two groups define good and evil the same
way, yet each group is convinced that they are correct in their assessment. The
Methodists have one opinion, the Baptist another, the Presbyterians another, the
Episcopalians another, and the . . . well you get the point. Amazingly, each of
these groups is positively convinced that their assessment of what is good and
what is evil is correct.
Maybe
I am just nuts, but it seems to me that, those who desire to be managers of
good and evil, would all want to be in agreement as to what is good and what is
evil but, that is not the case, nor will it ever be. Yet, most Christians
continue to insist that they know good and evil and, therefore, they continue
to attempt to manage good and evil in the lives of everyone. Sadly, most allow
them to do so and believe it is a good thing. Interestingly, God said it would
NOT be a good thing—ever.
The real tragedy of this terrible mindset is that the
people who believe they know good and evil and, therefore, have the what they
believe is the God-given responsibility of managing good and evil in the lives
of others, also believe it is their responsibility to decide who lives and who
dies. Remember: the fruit of sin is death; whereas, the fruit of righteousness of
life.
What that means is this: as long as you choose that which
is good (according to the manager’s opinion), and reject that which is evil (according
to his opinion), you can live, but should you choose the evil and reject the
good, then you are sentenced to death and placed under the manager’s guillotine
and beheaded. If you do not believe me, I could provide you with a rather long
list of those whom the managers of good and evil within the church have literally
destroyed. I won’t, but I could. They all avoid the church like the plague,
anyway, and I don’t blame them.
You see, God never meant to give any of us the
responsibility that belongs solely to the Triune Godhead, and that, my dear
friend is a good thing—a very good thing. What He did for us what quite
remarkable: He sent us the Holy Spirit. And by the way, He does know good and
evil (and the Three of Them agree as to what that is!) and, therefore, He is quite
capable of convincing you of righteousness, convicting you of sin, and
revealing truth to you.
Tell me, when you have Him, why do you continue to subject
yourself to those self-righteous bigots, who are so deceived that they honestly
believe they know good and evil, and, therefore, as supposed to police your
life—even decide whether you live or die?
This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has
sent" (John 6:29 NASB).
