 |
|
Billy
Graham
|
Billy
Graham on Confusing Evil With Good
By Billy Graham
• February
12, 2012
Many
of our news magazines carry stories of immorality. Theologians and pastors are
quoted as condoning sexual immorality under certain circumstances. The Bible
says through Isaiah the prophet: “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).
Humanity
has always been dexterous at confusing evil with good. That was Adam and Eve’s
problem, and it is our problem today. If evil were not made to appear good,
there would be no such thing as temptation. It is in their close similarity
that the danger lies.
Modern
social righteousness often differs from the righteousness of the Bible. Someone
has said: “A wrong deed is right if the majority of people declare it not to be
wrong.” By this principle we can see our standards shifting from year to year
according to the popular vote! Divorce was once frowned upon by society, and
laws against fornication and adultery were strictly enforced. But now divorce
is accepted by society, and fornication is glorified in our literature and
films.
The
Bible says: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.” God has not
changed. His standards have not been lowered. God still calls immorality a sin,
and the Bible says God is going to judge it.
Honesty
was once the hallmark of character. But it has been set aside with an “It’s all
right if you don’t get caught” philosophy. Only when we are in court are we
required to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Evil
worms its way into our lives by presenting a harmless appearance, such as the
full-page, full-color ads of “the man of distinction,” dressed impeccably,
sipping a glass of whiskey with his friends in the warmth of a well-appointed
room. Such ads say nothing of the new alcoholics that are being made every day,
nor of the problem of excessive drinking that is eating at the heart of our
civilization. Of course it wouldn’t be in good taste to show a picture of a
“man of distinction” on Skid Row who began his drinking on Fifth Avenue but is
ending it in the Bowery. It wouldn’t be in good taste, but it would be honest.
“Woe to those who call evil good!”
The
young couple, though they have been warned of the psychological and spiritual
dangers of premarital intimacies, sit in a parked car and flirt with tragedy,
all the while calling the experience heavenly. That which is heavenly within
the marriage bond can become a hell of remorse to those who indulge in it
outside of marriage. “Woe to those who call evil good!”
How
do we get our values so mixed up? How do we fall into this trap of Satan? For
one thing, we’re shortsighted. We look for shortcuts to happiness. Our lust for
immediate pleasure prompts us to think of evil as good.
In
one of novelist John Steinbeck’s books he has a character saying: “If it
succeeds, they will be thought not crooked but clever.” In our desire to
achieve success quickly, it is easy to get our values mixed up and call evil
good and good evil.
Another
way to call evil good is to say that morals are relative. Someone has said: “As
the occasion, so the behavior.” We have changed our moral code to fit our
behavior instead of changing our behavior to harmonize with our moral code.
Nothing is firm today. We are not on solid ground. Young people are shifting
from one side to the other. Morally, they are drifting aimlessly without
compass or guide.
Still
another way that evil is called good is for the conscience to be perverted, and
certainly our consciences today are perverted. But right is right even if
nobody is right, and wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong. God does not
change the moral law to suit our behavior.
Hazen
G. Werner, who served as a United Methodist bishop in Ohio, Hong Kong and
Taiwan, once said: “There is no more startling phenomenon in our day than the
respectabilization of evil.” We accept in stride the false promises of
politicians, the misrepresentations in advertising, the everyday dishonesties
of Mr. and Mrs. John Doe, the cheating on exams, the usual exaggerations in
conversation and the common immoralities of our times. We no longer blush, and
we’re no longer shocked by the immorality that’s going on around about us. “Woe
to those who call evil good!”
The
modern conscience has been twisted and distorted so badly that it is difficult
to tell what is genuine and what is false.
Self-centeredness
is another reason we are so inclined to call evil good. When something brings
profit or pleasure to us we are inclined to call evil good, even though we know
it is dead wrong. “But it’s what I’ve always wanted,” or, “It’s good for me,
although I know it’s wrong” are the alibis we have manufactured to justify evil
and call it good.
If
we could only focus our eyes outward instead of inward and heed the words of
Jesus: “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these
things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
Our
trouble is that we say about Christianity what we say about everything else:
“What’s in it for me?” In our selfishness, we think of God as we think of
everyone else—in terms of what He can contribute to us personally. In other
words, we want God to be our servant. “Woe to those who call evil good!”
Also,
through a popular technique called rationalization we find it easy to call evil
good. How easy it is to place the blame on others, on circumstances or on fate.
From Adam, who said: “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the
tree, and I ate,” to a member of the Senate who says: “I did nothing that a
thousand other men would not have done,” we excuse ourselves. We call evil
good.
Our
Lord was impatient with our tendency to rationalize our evil and call it good.
In Luke 18, He told of the self-righteous Pharisee who stood and prayed: “God,
I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or
even as this tax collector” (verse 11). The Pharisee kidded himself into
thinking he was something when he was not. He was skilled in the ancient—and
modern—art of rationalization.
But
the tax collector, whom the Pharisee looked upon as the most sinful of men, saw
himself as he was, and said: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (verse 13).
Jesus said: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than
the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles
himself will be exalted” (verse 14).
How
can we get our values straightened out? How can our warped judgment be brought
into line? How can we stop calling evil good?
Some
tell us that education is the answer to these questions. Prove to people that
crime doesn’t pay, that illicit sex is psychologically harmful, that excessive
drinking is harmful to the body and brain, that honesty is the best policy.
“Let knowledge redeem them,” they say.
Others
say that science is the answer. Science can make a clean bomb. Science can make
a harmless cigarette. Science can cope with the problems of alcohol. Science,
they say, can tap the brain of man and alter his desires and make him
civilized. Science, some proclaim, is the answer to the problems of man.
But
the Bible, which has withstood the ravages of time, tells us a different story.
It says that we possess a nature that wars against us, that seeks to destroy
us. The Apostle Paul said: “I find then a law, that evil is present with me,
the one who wills to do good” (Romans 7:21). Evil is present in us disguising
itself as good, controlling us and deceiving us. Sin is why the atonement was
necessary. Christ died on the cross to make us one with Him—dead to
sin and alive to righteousness.
Man
without God is a contradiction, a paradox, a monstrosity. He sees evil as good
and good as evil. That is why some people love evil and hate that which is
good—they are still in their sins. For them, life’s values are confused. Paul
found the cure for his violent, destructive disposition, not at the feet of
Gamaliel or in the culture of Greece, but on the Damascus Road when he met
Jesus Christ. Later he wrote: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2).
Before
his conversion, he saw Christ as the greatest evil and breathed out “threats
and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). But after he
encountered Christ on the Damascus Road, he loved what he had so fervently
hated. At last he could see evil as evil and good as good, and, according to
Acts 9:18, “there fell from his eyes something like scales.” His values were
straightened out because his nature had been changed by the redeeming grace of
God.
Christ
can do the same for you. When Paul heard the voice, he said: “Lord, what do You
want me to do?” (Acts 9:6). Jesus Christ is calling you out of a world of delusion
and deception in which evil is called good and good is called evil. Only if the
scales fall from your eyes can you acknowledge Him as Lord. You must have a
personal encounter with Jesus Christ.
At
our Crusades we have seen thousands come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. The scales have been lifted from
their eyes. They have found new life in Jesus Christ. It could happen to you
today. Wherever you are, you can say yes to Christ. This can be your Damascus
experience. Life’s values can be reversed. They can be changed until you call
good good and evil evil. And your life can have a new dimension and a new
power. ©1964 BGEA
Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New
King James Version.
OTHER
LINKS:
No comments:
Post a Comment