James H. Cagle
“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil . . .” (Isaiah 5: 20 KJV).
Woe unto us because we call evil good, and good evil. The morality of a people is at an all time low when they call obvious evil good and obvious good evil.
God is good or Goodness and all He created was good. Evil came about through Adam’s disobedience, when he partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and spoiled the good God had created. That is what evil is; spoiled goodness. Adam used his power of choice or free will given to him by a good God to sin and spoil his goodness and the goodness of the natural world and the goodness of the race. Evil is the result of goodness gone bad.
Good and evil are not a matter of opinion, but an object of knowledge. God has let us know what is good and what is evil. He has given us an objective foundation; His Word, to show us what is really good and really evil, and a model of goodness in His Son Jesus Christ. The written Word and the Living Word are the reference point and guide we must follow if we would be good and do no evil.
Whenever we call evil good and good evil we’re guilty of reversing God’s standard of morality. When we call evil good it’s because evil pleases us and when we call good evil it’s because it displeases us. This has been the trend in society and this is why things are getting worse and worse.
Society is having sin legalized. When have we more obviously called evil good and good evil than when we legalize, to govern men by, that which is evil? Abortion and same-sex marriage are considered good by some and legal, but that doesn’t really make them good. By legalizing them we are calling evil good, but they are still evil and an abomination to God.
Though sinful man may substitute God’s standard and example of good for one that is evil and more pleasing to his sinful nature, it will be God’s standard and example of good that ultimately judges him.
There is both good and evil; two distinct moral realities presented to us in God’s Word. Only in our imagination and in this life can we reverse them to make them mean something they don’t. And this we do to our own ruin.
