In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1 NASB). God saw all that He had made, and it was very good (Genesis 1:31 HCSB). The LORD God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the midst of the garden, as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:9 HCSB).
The Bible tells us that in the beginning, everything was very good. There was no evil, and no knowledge of evil. Adam and Eve knew what good was, but they knew not evil. There was no dukkha.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:1-6 ESV)
The serpent packaged evil as something good to have, an exclusive wisdom currently only known to God.
Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. (Genesis 3:7 ESV)
The first knowledge of evil was shame. They were naked! But that was just a small part of evil. With evil come suffering, injustice, imperfection and more importantly, death, which is separation from God.
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned - (Romans 5:12 NASB)
...by the transgression of the one the many died... (Romans 5:15 NASB)
...by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one... (Romans 5:17 NASB)
...through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men... (Romans 5:18 NASB)
Because of the disobedient act of one man, death came to all. That is the injustice of evil.
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles. (Romans 1:18-23 HCSB)
Sin in men made progress. First, men suppress the truth about God in their sin.
Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. (Romans 1:24-25 HCSB)
Then they exchanged truth for lies. Then they started worshipping creatures instead of the Creator.
This is why God delivered them over to degrading passions. For even their females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. The males in the same way also left natural relations with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. (Romans 1:26-27 HCSB)
And their idolatry degraded into depravity.
And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know full well God’s just sentence - that those who practice such things deserve to die - they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them. (Romans 1:28-32 HCSB)
As their standard of morality slide, they set up their own standards of righteousness, declaring evil as good. And they encourage others to join in.
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