Our Age of Calling Evil Good and Good Evil
Updated: Sep 20, 2022
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20).
C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters writes,
The greatest evil is not done now in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is not even done in concentration camps and labor camps. In those we see its result. But it is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.
This describes the same “Banal Evil” that men who became Nazis and produced the Holocaust ascribed to.
Today in America and around the world humanity once again rebels and in our sin call what is evil good and what is good evil. You see it across the board in America in our politics, religion and yes in Christianity, business, health care, education etc.
You and I are complicit in this. We first allow these sins and evils to go on unabated and sometimes we even support them. How? We either don’t disagree because that would cause conflict. Or tacitly approve because agreement provides for a transactional quid quo pro.
What do I mean?
Narcissists for example tend to be sexy because they spend so much time on their image.
We seem to now love narcissists in our culture and society.
We get something from them
Narcissists often seem incredibly open and forthcoming, even disclosing unbelievably bad past acts, including having cheated with their ex-spouse’s best friend, or leaving the scene of a car accident because they did not want to get caught drunk driving. They may instead see their disclosures as showing how desirable, adventurous, and clever they are. Honest people may give narcissists the benefit of the doubt when exploitation begins.
In our politics today many Christians are willing to bargain with a foolish politicians for political gain. This is hypocritical to say the least.
In our culture today “villains” and “anti-villains” are in great demand.
We glorify sin in entertainment through murderers, drug dealers, cannibals, mob bosses, serial killers, serial adulterers. No boring good guys and two-dimensional villains; increasingly we prefer our heroes more in our own image than in God’s.
Have you ever considered how bad it is that WE like murder and cruelty as entertainment?
This speaks to the depravity of our hearts that we would like such things.
The Joker movie for example beautifully and movingly and compels us to embrace, ever so slowly, what God hates. We are very clever to recast the story to favor the wicked. We indulge evil by smiling at it. We call evil good and imply that we can have freedom and pleasure in the darkness of our sin.
The world, the flesh and yes, the devil gets us to applaud the sinful evil as a victim. Movies like this, anything like this is evangelism for an evil worldview. If you remember a deranged man inspired by the movie gunned down people in a movie theatre premiere of Dark Knight Rises, even as he announced he was the Joker.
Sin is not psychology. Sin is not a sickness.
Moral relativism gives us the freedom to walk toward destruction and evil without any conflicting thoughts of turning back to God.
“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord” (Romans 12:19).
Reaching for grenades, handguns and causing anarchy is evil. God stores up wrath against the unrepentant (Romans 2:5). We are not the avenger; God is.
All of us play the villain in our hearts or out in the world. Our sin natures find an appetite that is feed by the culture.
God sent his Son to be brutalized and tortured to give us a new life.
We often find reality unexciting, and boring, while the world of R-rated and X- rated films holds the real intrigue and excitement. We have made what is evil good and what is good evil.
“The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth” (Romans 1:18)
Christ is supreme in all things.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds . . . (Colossians 1:19–21 ESV)
The problem with the world is you and me. The problem is that we start with ourselves as the measure of all things. We judge God based upon how well he carries out our agenda in the world, and we believe in the supremacy of “I” in truth and overall things.
We desire a God who is omnipotent but not sovereign. If God is omnipotent but not sovereign, I can manipulate his power. But if our God is omnipotent and sovereign, we are at his mercy.
We have one allegiance in this world and that allegiance is to Jesus Christ. We have one kingdom which is the kingdom of heaven and our one mission is to make disciples.
Our leaders will not save us. We cannot make a deal with hypocrisy and sin for what we think is godly or virtuous.
Repent if you have become drawn into our culture of evil, calling evil good and good evil.
Use your influence to advance the gospel, serve your local community, and live out your calling with a Gospel centered, Bible centric perspective on the world and everything in it.