Articles
Calling Evil Good, and Good Evil
What Isaiah said some 2700 years ago has remarkable relevance for 21st century America:
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20 NASB).
Isn’t God the one who determines what is good and what is evil? This seems so obvious it shouldn’t even have to be said, but it does have to be said. It all begins and ends with God.
If God says something is good, then it’s good. If He says it’s evil, it’s evil—and God always has the last word (2 Samuel 11:27; 12:9; Psalm 51:4). What the Bible says on good and evil should settle the matter once and for all.
It can never be what you or I or anyone else thinks or feels about it, but rather what God has said. If there is no objective standard, then how can we make sense of the following: “Seek good and not evil, that you may live . . . . Hate evil, love good . . .” (Amos 5;14-15).
Our task is “to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14), not to redefine good and evil. And yet the redefining goes on—with a vengeance. What is the ultimate source of all this redefining and relabeling? It is Satan, the father of lies, the great deceiver, the master of disguises.
Charles Malik said it well: “. . . it is the devil himself when you are denied the firmness and certainty of being, when everything is made dependent on you. For then the mind becomes so blurred and blunted in its judgment that it fails to see the real, given distinction between things” (“To Know the True from the False,” Reader’s Digest, August 1972, 84-85).
If good and evil are only a matter of individual choice, then chaos reigns, and Satan laughs.
“WOE to those who call evil good, and good evil . . . .” It’s not going to go well for them, God says.
And unless and until our nation wakes up to this fact . . . .
