by Pastor Mark Downey
What if there was a bumper sticker that said ‘I brake for evil’? Think about it. When confronted with evil, how many people slow down to avoid a collision? Good and evil banging into each other! I’d say that most people don’t want to deal with evil directly. After all, most people aren’t dragon slayers, muckrakers or whistle blowers. And the Bible says, “Have no thought for tomorrow, [because] each days own evil is sufficient” Mt. 6:34. Isn’t that the truth!
Have you noticed that we get a steady diet of ‘breaking news’ almost every day and it’s usually something evil? If a reporter said, “Evil is breaking out everywhere… film at eleven”, it would hardly raise an eyebrow, because we are saturated with it. We have been conditioned and programmed and thus brainwashed to be oblivious or silent about evil. It’s interesting that the proverbial ‘hear no evil – see no evil – speak no evil’ are monkeys. Some Christians still speak out and confront the evil of our day, but “The harvest is huge, and the reapers are few” (Mt. 9:37).
I borrowed the title of this message from a TV show called ‘Breaking Bad’, which is essentially a morality play, a drama between good and evil. ‘Breaking bad’ means going from a Mr. Jekyll to a Mr. Hyde; going from a normal law abiding citizen to a malevolent serial criminal. In this story, an average high school chemistry teacher gets terminal cancer and through a turn of events, wanting to provide for his family financially after he dies, becomes a big time methamphetamine manufacturer. In a lot of ways the characters in this story represent America going down the slippery slope of making bad decisions and turning into despicable, reprehensible persons. It starts with the mental perspective of thinking they are bad people, undeserving of Christ’s sacrifice for the remission of sins, and therefore devote the rest of their lives to being the best bad person they can be. Evil is put in motion when something goes from bad to worse. This, no doubt, is how mass murderers in government justify their actions; followed with cover-ups and lies. It’s what BP is doing right now in the Gulf of Mexico.
Shakespeare makes the poignant observation that, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” When a person becomes evil, they have to put on an act and pretend to be good in order to further their ambitions for more dirty deeds. Did you know that the original meaning of a hypocrite was an actor in a play on a theatrical stage? The ancient Greeks knew it was just pretend and even wore masks to emphasize comedy or tragedy. But, hypocrisy transferred to real life and Jesus accurately identified them: the Pharisees, the lawyers and the scribes.
They give Academy Awards to the very best liars in the entertainment industry. But, the recognition should really go to presidents and politicians. It’s no accident that Reagan, Schwarzenegger or Fred Thompson moved to higher callings. They just weren’t divine callings. It’s a fact that the Lord cannot lie (Titus 1:2) and said He was not of this world, meaning the world of lies and deception. Just by being a Christian, you call into question the truths and values of the world around you. Those who are not Christian do the same thing with us. They call into question our moral laws. You can see it with the explicit animosity towards our faith in the media, in public policy and even in the churches where you see church law superseding the Mosaic moral law. They talk about God loving everybody, except for racially aware Christians. They don’t love us; we’re the exception to the rule. You can’t believe the hate mail I get from these hypocrites. All of the sudden, the lovey-dovey mask is taken off and their anger and disdain for anybody deemed a racist or antisemite is cast into Dante’s ‘Inferno’.
Do you remember hearing about the young lady who was the class valedictorian giving her commencement speech at her graduation, expressing her faith in Jesus Christ and was halted from speaking and physically escorted off the stage; and her diploma was withheld until she wrote an apology for the mere mention of Christ. But, to her credit, she refused to recant. The world is hostile to the Word. “Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” James 4:4. Now there’s a warning to ‘”Abstain from all appearance of evil” (I Thes. 5:22).
God isn’t interested in play-acting and doesn’t want pretenders or defenders of pretenders. If we had anything good to say about interracial marriage or homosexuality or abortion, we would be liars, especially if we said, “God loves them.” We are bombarded every day with reports of doom and gloom. Wasn’t the Bird Flu supposed to be a worldwide pandemic that was going to kill millions? Get yer shots! And now this volcano of oil in the Gulf of Mexico is supposed to be the greatest ecological disaster in history and will kill off all life in the oceans and then us… worst case scenario.
We can’t stop the intrusion of fear into our minds when we hear the news or breaking news or breaking evil. We can’t avoid the imposition of fear, whether it’s real or imaginary. And if that’s not enough, there’s a whole genre of disaster and horror movies; a theater of lies that becomes a microcosm of the world. The problem is when we become so absorbed in it and allow our minds to fear something seemingly beyond the control of God. Let me assure you that God is in control always and that the only way to avoid the culture of evil is to marinate your soul in the goodness of the Word of God. We need to be so well grounded in the Word that we see things from God’s perspective of promises and covenants to His elected representatives upon the earth, not the perspective of Caesar or Pharaoh or Obama.
If we are to reject anything it should be from the world of wicked imaginations, jewish fables and false authorities. You see, the Word of God is not naturally understood by anybody. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit and it’s imparted to those who immerse themselves in reading, believing and obeying it with prayer and meditation. “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” I Cor. 2:14. If we focus on the divine authority over our lives, we discover that the world around us is lying, that there is no truth in the jews news.
When the annual ‘This is what Christmas is all about’ stories inundate our five senses with an orgy of media mind control, the world is confessing that they cannot and will not believe or honor the gospel of Jesus Christ. The world is then calling God a liar and all who believe Him are in deed, enemies of the world. The world confesses its faith by speaking against us and trying to silence our confession. There’s a name for those who don’t really believe what they confess to believe. It’s called a ‘hypocrite’. They call God a liar by daring to pretend to be who they are not, one of God’s people Israel. Is God mocked? Not for very long. They don’t believe that God can see through their charade or that it really matters to Him or that they will face divine judgment for the evil they have perpetrated. “For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light” Luke 12:2. “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil” Eccl 12:14.
We have a negro fraud in the White House all because of a pack of lies carefully orchestrated by a conspiracy of religious and political hucksters. Jeremiah 27:14 told us then and now, “Hearken not unto the words of the prophets [teachers] that speak unto you saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they [the false prophets] prophesy a lie unto you.” Obama sure ‘acts’ like he’s the king of Babel. But, it’s not so much his fault as much as it is people that want a king like the other nations, instead of God. Doesn’t God promise that if we should believe a lie, He will send strong delusion? I would think that would be a strong enough incentive to have a love of the truth. Who wants to be delusional? Who wants to be a mindless slave?
The first step in overcoming evil is not standing on a public soapbox, but taking a stand in your mind to resolve an issue of right or wrong. None of us is perfect in our understanding, but we can move ever closer to proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God by not conforming to this world. We can stand together perfectly by understanding that we are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are “Fitly framed together.” The absolute truth is the love that God has for us in the context of the church, the ecclesia, the called out ones. I may be wrong about this or that, but I’m open to correction. But one thing I know for sure; my life is not my own, it was purchased on the Cross, to rid my life of evil.
I love the following verses. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” Romans 8:28-34.
Several years ago we had a pastor who went sour on us. He was ‘breaking bad’ or ‘breaking evil’, because of his chronic, habitual lying. I came to the conclusion that this guy was really evil. Some people thought this was too harsh of a charge against him. I think this was so because people don't really understand what the word 'evil' means biblically. The word ‘evil’ is bandied about in such a pervasive secular fashion, that it renders it much differently than the biblical term. Evil is not just simplistically being bad or a nondescript badness. The Bible helps us to identify evil with many examples. It is not the Hollywood version of a mad scientist concocting a doomsday machine. It's a little closer to home and everyday life. It has to do with sin, which is the transgression of God's Law. We all do it with a variety of motives.
The difference between sin and evil is that sin is a verb and evil is an adjective. Why do we sin? Does it hurt us? Is there an immediate physical pain or electrical shock? No. There is pleasure in sin. Sin is pleasing to self. It feels good to indulge in something bad (momentarily). But, do we sacrifice or dedicate our lives to evil or God? By evil I mean self-imposed adversity. Satanists or jews dedicate their lives to self-indulgence and the promotion of evil. Why do our enemies not want us to do good? Proverbs 4:16 tells us it's because they can't sleep until their mischief causes someone to fall. Our enemies take advantage of our deportment and courteous nature. This idea of Christians being nice in order to be Christian is hogwash and a misguided myth. For we see that the word nice means pleasing and agreeable. To be agreeable to ourselves first? So we can be indulging in nice things and be in sin?
One doesn't have to have a malicious spirit or a violent temperament or obnoxious personality to sin. One can be very benevolent and peaceful and nice and pleasing and friendly to sin. If one is going to habitually sin, doesn't that sinner appear happy and satisfied with themselves because they emotionally feel good? Didn’t rock music get rolling with the phrase: if it feels good, do it? When people call good evil and evil good, this logically becomes a reversal of gods. But don't fret. "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Mt. 5:11-12). The enemy puts forth an erroneous judgment or punishment based on false accusation, bearing false witness. We survive whatever persecution the enemy can throw at us, because we have the grace and mercy of a God who baptizes His people with a refiner’s fire.
What exactly is evil other than just the opposite of good? The first mention of evil in the Bible is in Genesis 2:9 where God made every tree that was pleasant, or nice, to look at, and good for food, except for this one tree and that was the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And they were prohibited to indulge in it because it would bring death.
The only power the adversary has is the power we give to it, keeping in mind that all power is given unto Jesus Christ. Consequently, the divine delegation of power to man is not void of accountability. If we attribute good or evil to the wrong source, we become our own worst enemy. If the truth will set us free, we must know what the truth is. We must prove all things and hold fast to the good (I Thes. 5:21). Likewise in the following verse (v. 22), we must avoid all appearance of evil.
The adversary is saying that you can be free to believe anything you want, as long as you don't impose it on anyone else. Well, excuse me, but the whole point of the Bible and Christianity is an imposition of divine revelation so that we don't live in perpetual adversity.
The word ‘evil’ from Strong's Concordance is #H7451, the Hebrew word 'ra', and comes from #7489 and means to spoil (literally, by breaking to pieces). Rigor mortis is a molecular breakdown. Spoilage is death and decay. The unity of a church can rot from within because of a few bad apples. A person who spoils the unity of a fellowship is evil. Achen’s wedge of gold is an example of ‘sin in the camp’, that cost Israel dozens of lives. Figuratively, #G7451 means to make (or be) good for nothing (physically, socially or morally); much like the parable of salt in Mt. 5:13. "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt has lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." The spiritual application is adulterating the word of God. That is to say, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book" (Rev. 22:18-19).
The description of evil, Strong's #H7451, is adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, displease, distress, grief, harm, hurt and vex. In the New Testament Greek, evil is #G4190 and means hurtful in effect or influence, derelict, vicious, malice and mischief. The Bible is about cause and effect. Let's read about the effects in Mt. 7:16-20: "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. "
We are not only fruit inspectors, but root inspectors to identify the cause. What is the root of all evil? According to I Timothy 6:10, it is the love of money. In 1913 the US Congress planted a money tree with artificial fertilizer called usury. This tree, the Federal Reserve System, is the mothership of tares planted among the wheat in a field. The field is the world and today we have a ‘World Bank’ and an ‘International Monetary Fund’. It was sold to us as a good tree that would bring forth good times and good fruit. The Bible knows about this scam. “The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares [an evil weed] among the wheat” Mt. 13:24-25.
As the evil money tree grew, its roots became entangled with every aspect of our economy and we’ve had a major depression, world wars and no-win wars, a roller coaster of inflation, deflation and recession cycles and now these insane bailouts to save the rampant propagation of thorns and thistles. “The field is the world” (Mt. 13:38) and this money tree grows a fruit that tastes funny… funny money that is so corrupt and worthless that men cannot chop this tree down until supply and demand for it comes to an end. According to John 15:6, “If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch is withered.” Do usurers abide in God’s Law? Don’t banks have branches? And all banks are limbs of the Federal Reserve?
When the herbicide ‘Roundup’ is sprayed on weeds, they whither. Somebody had a sense of humor and may know their Bible as the tares are “gathered” or rounded up. The evil seed will whither when there is no confidence in it existing any more. The root of all evil will be eradicated when we get to the root of the tares. What is it? It’s the greed of an entire group of people that never should have taken root in our Christian society. There’s going to be all kinds of wailing (oy vey) and gnashing of teeth, maybe, against a well-known wall for wailing.
The cliché 'if it feels good do it' usually has a price tag and the cost emanates from evil. What's the most evil thing in the world today, and why can't it be eradicated? It's the idea that 'man is basically good' and that includes just about every biped that can walk. Dead man walking to church; the spiritually corrupt pimping the pulpit. Look at the corner that our society has painted itself into, in elections, voting for the lesser of the two evils. We’ve been brainwashed into a two party system and it’s impossible to discern which is more evil. Breaking news: scandal in Congress, film at eleven.
David Letterman once interviewed Donald Trump, and he jokingly asked him how much cash he could get with just a few phone calls. Trump answered in a serious tone and said, "No cash Dave, but billions in credit." Where do our values go when we give power to the purse? They go down the toilet.
Even back in Noah's day "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continuously" (Gen. 6:5). The word wickedness is also #H7451 (ra), but can be #H2154 as well, having the meaning of a plan, especially a bad one, with the motive of committing a heinous crime; like the advocacy of partial birth abortions or making the sodomite lifestyle socially acceptable, or the jewish world wars of the last century.
There's a saying that says "Evil prospers when good men (or nice guys) do nothing". To that I would have to say that if they do nothing, they are no longer good. What's the healthiest thing to do? Proverbs 3:7-8 tells us "Be not wise in thine own eyes, fear the Lord, and depart from evil, it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones."
Having a high regard for people who are not White or Christian could not be more self evident of evil, than the election of Barry Soetoro er I mean Barack Obama. The race war that’s been going on for the last 30-40 years has been raging on two insidiously evil fronts. It’s not only the astounding black on White crime statistics of murder, rape and robberies, but the loss of our place through political correctness. Before the media generated appellation of ‘White Supremacist’, our people innately knew (to the marrow of their bones) that other races were inferior, because that’s the way God made them. And today? How dare we challenge racial equality and the brotherhood of man! Huh?
When the other races were no longer required to know their place, we lost our place. We are a blessed people when we hearken diligently to the voice of God, but we’re also a cursed people when we turn to evil. “The stranger that is within thee [meaning they don’t belong here] shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low” Deut. 28:43. How the heck could this ever happen? Well, they immigrate, they assimilate and they fornicate to put it bluntly. After a while they think they are our equals and then get us to think likewise. And subsequently, the evil bandwagon goes on a joyride down the slippery slope of destruction – all because we thought we were wiser than God. Didn’t we just read, “Be not wise in thine own eyes”?
It is evil when our own people refuse to hear the voice of God and His wisdom for our race to wit, “Thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, [are you ready for this?] above all people that are upon the face of the earth” Deut. 7:6. But, that’s the Old Testament Pastor Downey. Then let us look in the New Testament for racial exclusion. Romans 9:4 declares, “Who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption [other races cannot be adopted into the families of Israel], the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the services of God and the promises… of whom as concerning the flesh [or race] Christ came.” Adoption doesn’t mean the assimilation of other races into the families of Israel. It means finding our place as the sons of God to be established as the rightful heirs of His Kingdom. It is evil that stands in the way of our destiny, whether from within or without. Jesus didn’t come to accommodate the evils of adulteration, of man spoiling God’s Creation. Jesus came to destroy adulteration. Perhaps now we have a better appreciation when we call somebody or something evil.
I always like to close on a positive note. I know that there are some people who are so absorbed in negativity that they think everything is lost to a world of evil and discount the very concept of hope. Evil should not make a Christian hopeless. I’ve read stories of American POW’s who were subjected to more evil than what we can conceive and they said the only thing that got them through their ordeal was bits and pieces of Scripture that they could remember… and hope. I Cor. 15:19 puts it this way, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” In other words, the rampant evil that brings so much misery isn’t going to last forever. In the Kingdom of God, which is fast approaching, there will no longer be a choice between the lesser of two evils. On the contrary, it will be a choice between a multitude of righteous and holy administrators in the government of Christ.
