Evil is a Privation of Good

The idea that evil is the absence of goodness has been shared and discussed by various authors, in various places.

Therefore, I cannot cite one person as being "the one" who arrived at this thought. 

However, who came up with it isn't as important as the idea itself, because I believe that this definition of evil as being the absence of something is the only definition of evil that even comes close to making any sense, or perhaps more appropriately, explains why "bad" things happen to "good" people, or why negative states of being can exist at all. 

Norm Geisler looks to Aquinas to formulate a conception of evil:

"Aquinas is quick to note that privation is not the same as absence. Sight is absent in a stone as well as a blind person. But absence in a stone is not privation. Privation is the lack of something that ought to be there. Since the stone by nature ought not to see, it is not deprived of sight as is a blind person. Evil then is the deprivation of some good that ought to be there." Norm Geisler

Author Keith Ogorek, in his book, A Clear View, expounds on the above:

"Evil is not something, but is rather a privation of a good thing that God has made."

He goes on to show how the following conclusion--drawn by many and used often in their opposition to God--is flawed:

1. God is the creator of everything.
2. Evil is something.
3. Therefore, God is the author of evil.

This is incorrect, according to Ogorek, in that evil is not a thing and therefore God did not create it.

"It is vital to have a right definition of good (because) it clarifies our understanding of evil. Recall that we said evil is a privation of good. Therefore, if we are unclear as to what is good, we will be unsure of what is evil." 

He goes on to make a great point about pantheism:

"This is the idea that the universe taken or conceived of as a whole, is God. So God is not an independent being. Rather the combined materials and forces that make up the world constitute God. In this view, God's nature is diminished while material nature is elevated, for we and everything around us possess some degree of 'goodness.' This view also suggests that God is not immutable or unchanging, for as matter decays, so does God." 

Jesus makes clear that all goodness derives from God--that nothing in and of itself is good (Mark 10:18). 

And if pantheism were true, that the world and people in it are inherently good, then logically speaking, why would evil even have a chance? This innate goodness would win the day, wouldn't you think? But when posed with this question, people don't have an answer because they can't comprehend a lack of goodness in anything, including themselves.

Scripture supports the view of evil as presented here by Geisler and Ogorek:

"Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good." Romans 12:9b

Because just as evil is the privation of goodness, goodness is the privation of evil. When we cling to goodness, we deprive evil a foothold.

"Never pay back evil for evil to anyone." Romans 12:17a

Because the only way to curtail or to end evil, is to stop it in its tracks. 

Evil as a lack of goodness directed at us ends when we do not retaliate. To lack goodness for the express purpose of creating evil, even when directed at a person who would legitimately seem to deserve it, only circulates more evil.

And I will say, justice (one of God's attributes) is not the dishing out of evil. A prison sentence, monetary fine, or a divorce granted due to the abuse (evil) perpetrated by a spouse are righteous consequences for a lack of living out goodness--in other words, for the living out of evil by choice. 

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Romans 12:21

Do not be overcome by a lack of goodness, but overcome a lack of goodness with good.



copyright Barb Harwood

C.S. Lewis: We Fear Because We Struggle

I came across this quote of C.S. Lewis today, a day on which I am once again at odds with God in regard to His peace, which I had received from Him earlier in the week regarding a matter, but which my wandering mind has managed to mess up. 

Here is the quote:

“Though we struggle against things because we are afraid of them, it is often the other way round—we get afraid because we struggle. Are you struggling, resisting? Don’t you think our Lord says to you ‘Peace, child, peace. Relax. Let go. Underneath are the everlasting arms. Let go, I will catch you. Do you trust me so little?’” C.S. Lewis

What do we struggle against, thereby instilling fear?

Family gatherings? Our being the scapegoat or outcast in our family? Holidays? Winter? Sickness? Gaining weight? Having an accident? Rejection? A political outcome which we don’t agree with and believe we cannot live with?

Think about it: because we struggle so in our attempt to prevent something coming true, the very daunting nature of our struggle infuses us with a fear of the outcome. 

We struggle, which can be a form of wanting and needing to control. 

The struggle becomes one of self versus another entity or person, and creates fear because we’ve put a value on either our ability to influence outcomes, or the very outcome itself (which can be magnified, in turn, by our sometimes dramatic imaginations and craving for excitement, even negative excitement). 

“I just can’t live with outcome A,” we say.

“Life will never be the same with outcome B.”

“I will never get relief from this situation. Everything I do fails. I'm running out of ideas.”

“So and so needs to listen to me or else such and such is sure to happen.” 

“The struggle regarding such and such is so difficult, I am afraid…..(fill in the blank).

To say “let go and let God” is no remedy and I wince every time I hear that phrase so patly tossed into the air like so many rose petals at a wedding. 

What C.S.Lewis is advocating is a relationship with God that is built up over years of going through thick and thin together, of growing in the knowledge of who, exactly, God is and the experiencing of personal transformations which God alone is capable of bringing about. 

In this context with God, we one day find ourselves trusting Him implicitly.

We no longer desire to trust ourselves, our situation, our country, our government, our family or our friends for what God alone is capable of: and that is our peace. 

I can confide in a dear friend. I can cry with my spouse and share my deepest frustrations. I can vote. I can advocate. 

But none of that can provide the peace that goes beyond understanding and removes fear: the peace of God that arrives with our trust.

When fear is removed through His peace, struggle, too, disappears, replaced by perseverance and confidence. 

We trust Him in the moment, and live those moments out, one at a time.

copyright Barb Harwood

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30.

Attitudes Change First Before Lasting Change is Realized

A familiar saying emblazoned on many greeting cards and bumper stickers reads,

"Be the change you want to see in the world." 

Since I've noted this credited to more than one person, I will refrain from providing its authorship. 

This gimmicky phrase, I've come to believe over the years since I first quoted it myself back in the early 90's, now falls flat as a warped and shallow platitude. After all, one man's change could be another man's being held back. I believe it also pits individual against individual in a quest for "change as I identify change," all in a context of self-aggrandizement.

But the slogan also misses a crucial point: that one cannot have change without a transformation of attitude. 

And attitude itself must also have a criteria in order for it to allow for the mutual respect required in order for the majority of folks to go forward in actual goodwill.

Paul Tournier, in his 1948 book, Escape from Loneliness, writes:

"The pressure of public opinion is everywhere toward division, competition, opposition...We realize therefore that individual efforts cannot suffice unless supported by a radical reform in popular attitudes. The whole philosophy of our age produces in modern men an independent, possessive, and vengeful spirit that sets them against one another...the result is the accumulation of suffering in discord..."

If the cause is attitude, and the solution is attitude, what then? 

How do we change from the attitude of cause to an attitude of solution? 

I would think it would be to adopt the opposite of what Tournier mentions above as being the cause: 

An other-centered attitude vs. a self-centered attitude
A non-threatened and non-easily-offended attitude vs. a possessive attitude
A forgiving, non-transactional attitude rather than a vengeful attitude

To get from the cause-of-problems attitude to the solving-problems attitude, we can ask ourselves, "Why?" 

Why am I controlling, critical and constantly self-justifying, never admitting where and when I, too, have been at fault? 

Why is it the other person, the other group, the other community, the other political party that is to blame? Why is it never, apparently, me? 

And why do we feel the need to assign blame before we can move on?

Answer honestly, and our attitudes begin to change. 

And as they do, so much of life will also begin to change, morphing into healing words and acts constructive of vibrant new beginnings and enduring grace-filled progress between mankind. 


copyright Barb Harwood

Reading to Learn Vs. Reading to Confirm What We Think We Already "Know"

The quote cited below not only applies to our approach to reading, but also to our listening and interacting with other people, and prompts us to ponder honestly whether we: 

Tend to think the worst of someone first, "confirming" our biased conclusions? 

Only surround ourselves with like-minded individuals, and expose ourselves only to like-minded journalism and social media so as to never feel challenged or perhaps threatened in the way we've always assumed things? 

Take the time to seek out original sources and scholarship based on the study of original sources, or curtly begin and end with what is easy, sounds good, or allows us to continue on feeling justified in how we have always lived and thought, or want to continue to live and think?

And finally, whether we, when all of the above is said and done, only read-into our material or person we are listening to our own stubborn "yeah butts," self-protective biases or excuse that "it just doesn't make sense" when in reality we are just lazy to do the muscular work of exploring an idea further so as to understand it.

To me, the question then becomes, "why interact with life at all if we've already made up our minds about it?"



E.D. Hirsch, Jr. writes, 


"It is pointed out that the main reason for studying texts, particularly, old ones, is to expand the mind by introducing it to the immense possibilities in human actions and thoughts--to see and feel what other men have seen and felt, to know what they have known. Furthermore, none of these expansive benefits comes to the man who simply discovers his own meanings in someone else's text and who, instead of encountering another person, merely encounters himself. When a reader does that, he finds only his own preconceptions, and these he did not need to go out and seek."
E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Validity in Interpretation, pp. 25-26.




copyright Barb Harwood

When We Become Frustrated With Ourselves Over the Pace of Our Progress

How many times have we thought that we were "over something," only to experience a situation where we realize that clearly, that is not the case. 

In those times, I stop and ask myself, 

"But did this affect you less or differently than it did before? Did you handle yourself less dysfunctionally than you did at an earlier time?" 

The answer, although many times "no" for me, can increasingly be "yes" as we do not lose heart and choose determinedly to press on, as Paul encourages us to do, for the prize (Philippians 3:12-16) .

To help us in this slow contest for spiritual maturity and integrity in Christ, we must maintain, in the corner of our eye, the successes and victories now finalized because they no longer haunt or trip us. 

For me, one completed victory is that, in October, it will be 20 years that I have been free of alcohol, thanks to Jesus coming into my life at that time. 

I have also made huge strides in coming to inner peace with people from the past and present: people who have no clue that I was working hard with God to be at peace with them. 

Indeed, make no mistake, I have left, as I always like to say, "a trail of busted stuff" (Dave Matthews) in my wake, mostly in the form of having had to pull away from my past in ways that were pretty flat-footed and abrupt at times. But coming off of an addiction, from a very poor launch pad of secular immaturity, it was the best I could do. Although Christ had indeed been the release, it would take years to learn and establish His new way of interacting and responding.

And so the times of regeneration began, what for me felt like an earthquake of realizations thundering under my feet.

In those years, I was--had to be--more concerned with the need to be free of alcohol and the reasons behind it and with setting up a healthy pattern for my kids and marriage, than worrying about the hurt feelings of others. 

Many folks never recover from an addiction because they are more concerned with conforming to the peer pressure of family and friends and the mentality "this is how it's always been" than with getting healthy.

And so the maturity we seek in Christ is not always easily won. 

His Spirit in us is not some Ouiji Board that leads us like automatons into righteousness, suddenly having instant grace to always say and do the very right and best thing. 

We fail, we step on toes, we embarrass ourselves, we take a stand that is good for us but that others find remote and uncaring. We can even be obstinate in our early, immature Biblical worldview.

Certainly, twenty years into this walk, I look back and see that, had I earned, through the constant wrestling between God and myself, the understandings about Christ, myself, and other people, earlier, I would have gone about things differently--more in line, of course, with how Christ would have conducted Himself.

But God in His all-encompassing wisdom, does not set things up that way. Which is why He is totally okay with our stumbling, fumbling attempts at transitioning from secular, me-centered life to one of faithful Christ-centeredness.

God knows our hearts, and thus, our motivations. 

I have, over the past twenty years, realized that my selfish and self-protective motivations were often mixed up with and confused with God's motivations. I've had to parse between those over time, discerning which motivations to be entirely mine, which to be His, and which a little bit of both. 

I have repented of the often vindictive milieu I made of it. 

But that's the road: isn't it.

That's the cost we don't even realize we are weighing at the time we surrender ourselves to Christ: this finding out, this really blinding oh-my-gosh I'm really not a very nice person quite a bit of the time, and then turning to God in shame and thanking Him that we don't want to be this person any more.

We no longer want to be hateful, prideful, jealous, insincere, transactional, petty. 

Mortified by the revelation of all of these things in us, we beg God to cleanse us, while at the same time knowing that the only requirement is agreeing that we will, humbly, go about it His way. 

And so, in God's transformative creation of us following our conversion, we might expect it initially to be quick, because after all, although whether one accepts that God created the earth in seven days or not, the point is, God could have. 

So then, He could transform us quickly as well, could He not?

But when I look at humans, who are not mountains and flowers and beasts of the field, fish of the water, the sun or the moon, I realize that we, being the most complex and relational ones, need more time. Not for God, but for us. 

We are not created at the snap of God's fingers. After nine months of gestation (a very long time in a mother's eyes), we are physically born. And then, as the Where the Wild Things Are story names it: the wild rumpus begins.

And what a wild rumpus it is!

This Christian walk is not something to be undertaken lightly, religiously, smugly or super-spiritually. 

It has scared the living daylights out of me as I experienced daylight as I've always know it disappearing, replaced by the often glaring light of Christ onto every nook and cranny of my being, leaving no stone unturned. 

And for that, once I stopped shaking in my boots, I began to be soberly and quietly grateful, because life finally was beginning to feel doable, stable, content: "normal" in a very healthy sense. 

Coming to and arriving at that place is difficult, but continuing on grows easier in the sense that we now implicitly trust it and even crave it. 

How impossible! Unless it is Christ doing it.

The prize that Paul so gladly gave his life for, while He was still alive--is that, over time, like Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay slowly producing one foot in front of the other as they exhaustedly neared the summit of Everest for the very first time, we, too, have arrived at where we are today at a haphazard pace.

But when we stop and take stock, and look back to where we've come from, we surprise ourselves with our progress in putting distance between who we are today and the shadowy stranger we've been moving farther and farther away from: that old self and all the baggage attached.

We shake our head, look down at our feet, and smile, thinking, 

"Shucks, isn't that something! I didn't even realize, really, how far Christ has brought me, how far we've come together. But He's getting me there. I'm so much closer than before. Yeah, I'm really almost there."

copyright Barb Harwood

“In all of life, there are sequential stages of growth and development…Each step is important and each one takes time. No step can be skipped. 

This is true in all phases of life, in all areas of development, whether it be learning to play the piano or communicate effectively with a working associate. It is true with individuals, with marriages, with families, and with organizations. 

We know and accept this fact or principle of process in the area of physical things, but to understand it in emotional areas, in human relations, and even in the area of personal character is less common and more difficult. And even if we understand it, to accept it and to live in harmony with it are even less common and more difficult.” The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 36-37

“Gradual growth in grace, growth in knowledge, growth in faith, growth in love, growth in holiness, growth in humility, growth in spiritual-mindedness—all this I see clearly taught and urged in Scripture, and clearly exemplified in the lives of many of God’s saints. But sudden, instantaneous leaps from conversion to consecration I fail to see in the Bible.” J.C. Ryle

Conforming to the image of Christ is the refining process known as sanctification. 

In touch.org outlines it realistically:

“Salvation is the first stage.”

To serve, the second.

And the third stage?

“At some point, we notice something isn’t working. This is the start to Stage Three: frustrated inadequacy….

This unpleasant but necessary part of the journey can last varying amounts of time. Without it, we’d undoubtedly experience self-sufficiency and pride. But we should recognize this difficult phase as beautiful because it leads us into the best part of our spiritual lives: total dependency upon Jesus as Lord of our life. And we will be fulfilling our ultimate goal: becoming a reflection of Christ.

Sadly, many Christians don’t reach a point of complete reliance on the Lord. Pride, discouragement and distraction can ruin focus and perseverance. Paul reminds us to fix our eyes on the goal of maturity in Christ (Phil. 3:14). Learning to die to self is painful, but ironically, it’s the only true way to live.” 

Response Thinks First, Reaction Doesn't

"Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose." 
From the book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Checking Ourselves in Our Responses

A quote especially relevant for today:

"Unless our responses are placed under the Lord's authority and directed by counsel from His Word, we leave ourselves vulnerable to extensive damage." Charles Stanley

The Risk of Small Group Manipulation

Dallas Roark, expounding on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's view of confession as that which is to be made to God, writes:

"If there is to be confession, let it be before God. This may serve as a needed corrective to the bent toward spiritual stripteases that occur in sensitivity groups and related psychologically oriented movements in evangelical Christianity." Dallas Roark

I find this quote to speak directly to the small group movement in churches, religious youth groups and on Christian college and seminary campuses where the coaxing and forcing of a person into a posture of "vulnerability" for the sole purpose of outing their secret struggle with a particular sin has become a litmus test for whether or not one is "all in" for Jesus and the "community of believers."

I once was manipulated into this sort of "confession" in the months leading up to a mission trip I was to participate in with the church I attended at the time.

The assistant pastor, who would lead the mission trip, held numerous "get real with each other" sessions in the months leading up to the trip, causing me to question if helping to build a church in Mexico, or these "tell-all" gatherings, was what I had signed up for. Had I known I was going to be required to spill my guts with total strangers as a way to "bond before going to Mexico" I would never have signed up.

In another instance, a youth at a Christian summer camp admitted to me that they actually made "bad" stuff up so as to measure up to other "authentically" sharing and confessing Christians during campfire devotionals.

While the Bible does say to confess our sins one to another, this is not in the context of rote, find-something-to-confess-for-Thursday-night-small-group, or to look more impressively spiritual to one's Christian brothers and sisters.

I point this out because the teaching that we must "love-on each other and live in community via frequent heart-to-hearts" is human ego at work. It is promoted by "leaders" and fellow congregants who are often on a power trip, are extroverted, or have an intense need for human and worldly affirmation because they've never done the personal internal work of gaining affirmation from God.

Ironically, this forced closeness simply cannot sustain itself, and those who finally get it, get out, while those who want to continue to "pour into" folks carry on with new recruits.

Not all small groups can be defined this way, but far too many can.

And to a new Christian, like myself at one time, this "stepping out of one's comfort zone" and into "authenticity" is believed to be what one is supposed to do "in order to be a Christian."

But this joined-at-the-hip mentality is only one person's or group's take on what Christian community might look like. It is not written in stone, and so if it doesn't feel right to us, then for us, it isn't right. 

There is no "one way" to "do" Christian community.

In discernment we must take note of who it is that is asking--or pressuring us--to act, speak or believe in a certain way, and test their requests and motivations against Scripture and our own inner warning system called the conscience, which God alone can either confirm or convict within us.



copyright Barb Harwood

One More Word About Baptism

A few days ago I posted some thoughts on baptism. I did not address the when or where or how of baptism. But Dietrich Bonhoeffer scholar Dallas Roark, whose comments I have been posting the last few days, reveals that Bonhoeffer blamed a cheap grace mentality, when it exists, largely on infant baptism:

“The cheap grace mentality that Bonhoeffer censored came in part from the long-held practice of baptizing infants. Infant baptism became a cultural rather than a religious event which glossed over personal faith and commitment. Religion that begins in the unconsciousness of infancy often remains unconscious.” Dallas Roark

This was true for me in my own infant baptism, and for many that I know personally who were also baptized at birth. 

I thought, growing up and as a young adult, that I was “good to go” simply because of my infant baptism. The Bible was not read or promoted in my household or in the church in which I was baptized. For my family and me, baby baptism was indeed cultural tradition, not commitment to Christ and His discipleship. 

At age 38, when I first discovered Jesus, after years of church attendance at what I describe as liberal-political churches, I did not know the first thing about Christ, the Bible or God. It was at this point that my eyes were opened as to how I had been misled by my infant baptism, and it quickly became meaningless. 

Copyright Barb Harwood

Discipleship: the Discernment of Christ Imparted

Continuing with the theme of discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer scholar Dallas Roark summarizes Bonhoeffer's take on the transformation of natural man/woman into a disciple of Christ:

"In discipleship 'men become individuals.' 
Before this they stood under the facade of responsibilities, duties, and relationships to the world. But the call of Christ demands a break with the world as well as with the past. Christ's call places a barrier between man and the world. Man must forsake the world, but in doing so he learns that he never really knew the world. In Christ he finds a new relationship possible between himself and God, between himself and man, between himself and reality. All relationships now are to be mediated through Christ. Being in Christ, it becomes possible to see how isolated man is from man. It is impossible to know another person directly. Because Christ now stands between man and neighbor, the shortest and most direct way to the neighbor is through Christ." 
Dallas Roark

"This type of individuality is harder, for it is easier to return to the way of direct relationships with people and forfeit our discipleship in Christ." 
Dallas Roark