Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Oh no, a nevil!

Evil is simply good in the wrong place or at the wrong time. It is not an eternal entity independent of the good gods as it is in most of the religions of the Ancient Near East. Even the snake of Genesis 3, which many interpreters equate with Satan, the Accuser, in Job is nothing more than a creature of God. Yahweh created everything that exists, so if you find something or someone acting contrary to God’s will, it is not because there is an independent evil force over against the creator God and in eternal conflict with Him. In the Old Testament, if something exists, no matter whether it is good or evil, God made it. But the reality is that evil is something that was originally good.— Lectures in Old Testament Theology, page 60

<idle musing>
The post title is taken from The Magician's Nephew in the Chronicles of Narnia. Aslan has just created their world and an evil creature has already been set loose in it. But, the creatures a just created and don't know what evil is. They assume it is a creature, so they interpret it as "a nevil." OK, I guess it doesn't really fly, but I thought it was appropriate...
</idle musing>

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