We have seen that saying that man is essentially good and/or saying that evil does not exist is not enough to solve our existential and philosophical problems. On the contrary, it has led to genocide and consequent violence. The Bible presents a completely different vision of man and the source of evil. It’s the only vision that can explain what we see in our world.

A world good in the beginning but fallen

« In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth » (Gen 1:1) and « God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good » (Gen 1:31). Everything God has created is good, which implies that all Creation is beautiful and good. This explains why we can see so much beauty in the world around us. It’s not forbidden to contemplate nature; on the contrary, it reflects the Creator Himself.

Yet, a few verses later, we see that when sin entered the world, through man’s fault, there is a curse that falls on the whole world: « [God] said to the man: Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground shall be cursed because of you. With toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, and it shall bring forth thorns and briers, and you shall eat the grass of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground from whence you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return » (Gen 3:17-19). Elsewhere, the apostle Paul writes: « Creation waits with eager longing for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own free will, but because of the one who subjected it [Adam], with the hope that it too would be freed from the bondage of corruption, to share in the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Now we know that to this day, the whole creation sighs and suffers the pains of childbirth » (Rom 8:19-22). Everything around us is scarred and wounded by sin. Man himself is evil and does not naturally turn to God.

A man turned towards sin

If in our society we consider man to be naturally good, the Bible makes an entirely different observation: « There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none that hath understanding, there is none that seeketh after God; all are gone astray, all are perverted; there is none that doeth good, no, not one » (Rom 3:10-12), but also « for the flesh [i.e. our sinful nature] hath lusts contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit contrary to the flesh; they are contrary to one another, » (Gal 5:17). If man was created good, his rebellion against God makes him totally fallen: there is not a single aspect of his life that is untouched by sin, he is not capable of doing good without divine help. Every time he does good, he has to fight against his natural desires and go to the exact opposite.

This is a powerful statement, since we can no longer see killers, thieves and the like as simply having psychological problems. We too are capable of such crimes if we give in to our sinful nature. What a great paradigm shift! Our society has so many justice problems right now because it doesn’t recognize this aspect of the Christian faith. Imagine a world where everyone recognized that they were capable of the worst sins, but did everything in their power to fight against it. Wouldn’t our society be better off for it? Instead of educating a whole population by telling them that it’s others (or the system) who are evil and responsible for all evil, we should be encouraging everyone to take responsibility and fight against their own sin.

To stop and say that every man is capable of the worst can be a bit depressing, and fails to show how we can still see many good things in the world. That’s why, in a future article, we’ll look at how God delivers and preserves us from evil.