Chapter 13
The origin of evil
At the outset, I must explain that after reviewing many historical sources and evidence, I came to the conclusion that the most sensible description of the creation of evil, and thus the fall of good human civilization, is provided in the Bible. Of course, like any religious book, it does this "unscientifically" and symbolically. Therefore, essenceism, based on proven tools, decided to read the vision of good and evil contained in it in a similar way as it is done in the parables of Jesus Christ. This means that essenceism evaluates only the didactic value of biblical records, not their literal content. Thanks to this approach, it is possible to understand how good was destroyed and why evil arose. Knowing what Jesus does is even more fully understanding. His enormous efforts paid for with a martyr's death, although they did not change the bad human civilization, showed clearly how evil arises and how it can be possibly eliminated. His plan to bring about the creation of the world under God's sovereignty was not realized only because people did not help Him. Below I present the genesis of evil made by essenceism based on the analysis of the Bible.
The introduction of the concept of death in the Garden of Eden, which essenceism understands as evil, suggests that a boundary has been established beyond which neither the Jurisdiction of God nor His Omniscience exists. I remind you that it is about spiritual death from the Creator's point of view. It is a state of non-existence outside the reality shaped by Him and not perceived by His Personality. Meanwhile, we, the co-creators of this state, perceive it as evil, because such a state actually exists for us.
Thus, based on a logical examination of the biblical records, it can be concluded that we are still in a state of spiritual death. This can affect the misunderstanding of the current situation in relation to the one prepared by the Creator. Man's spiritual death is a situation where a man falls out of His Reality, i.e. a state of good. His signaling of the possibility of spiritual death as a result of breaking His law in the Garden of Eden means that evil is something beyond Him, beyond His Identity and Personality. In that case, evil is the only condition that the Creator does not know.
Everything indicates that right at the beginning of their existence, people died to God, although it is a spiritual death, not a physical one. This evil destroyed hope for the emergence of an ideal world created by the Original Being. By the ideal world, I mean the so-called Kingdom of Heaven, that is, the human environment under the authority of God. It should be eternal, perfect, and good, just like Him. Of course, there is no such thing at present. We have the opposite rather than the promised Kingdom of Heaven, or Hell.
When looking for the sources of evil, one must therefore reach to the beginning of the formation of all things. I assume, according to the concept of this study, that at the beginning, that is, long before the appearance of man, there must have been a certain causal state. This state should be able to be logically described, as it could not be an undefined nothingness or chaos. I mean a well-thought-out act of creation. I also assume that this original state was complemented by the presence of certain laws and principles that had the ability to shape the "environment" thanks to the elements of intelligence, will and emotionality contained in them. They could only come from the Creator. Here I come to His necessary attributes, that is, I begin to talk about His Original Intelligence, Will and Emotionality. In other words, the source, or rather the core of everything, are His Knowledge, Good and Love. Of these three, as St. Paul, in his hymn about love (1 Cor. 13: 1-13), the most important thing is Love. It is not only a feeling, but also a powerful force, or Divine Power. It has a very important attribute: the direction, which is the fundamental "vector" of the development of creation. This direction was, of course, set by the Will of the Creator. His behavior means good. Direction contrary to His Will means evil.
The Creator bestows His omnipotence with love, although to a different extent to people and to everything else. This love, by constantly maintaining its direction given to it from the beginning, leads us to perfection. God is perfect and never changes its direction or destiny. One who is made "in the image and likeness of God" while being perfect like Him should not change its direction and destiny either. Unfortunately, as you can guess from the biblical records, a being not fully perfect, just on the way to perfection, may possibly change the direction of love. Then evil appears, i.e. a state inconsistent with the concept of the world created by the Original Being.
Still, an important question arises. Why did God not create man that is perfect right away, so that the good cannot be destroyed? After all, we treat God as someone who is completely perfect. It is obvious that only such a Creator could begin to create the universe and man.
The creation of various beings had to take place in the space-time of the world, that is, at a specific time and according to specific laws of development. The various stages required the transition from the initial state to the full implementation of the creative plan. This means that the path to perfection ran through a period of imperfection. It was only at the end of this path that the creative act could deserve the statement: "... God saw that they were good" (Genesis 1:12). The statement of the Creator described in the Bible means that perfection confirmed by Himself has been achieved.
Such a dynamic creative process imposes sections of a state of imperfection which, by principle, are beyond the direct control of an already perfect Creator. It is about stages of growth within the laws and principles established by Him. For all beings and creatures other than man, the path to maturity was automatic based on these established principles and laws. Meanwhile, in the case of man, yet another quality had to be introduced, greater and more important than the creative force, i.e. the power of love. The analysis of essenceism shows that it derives directly from the Center of the Personality of the Original Being, because there the concept of a man - a child of God was born. Essenceism calls this Center the Heart of God, the condition of which, together with the power of love, is inherited by each of us. This is to lead us to union with God, that is, to love Him as Heavenly Father.
Therefore, in the period of development to perfection, we remain beyond God's control. The first people were to be supported in this period by Archangel Lucifer, because they did not have "earthly" parents. It was to him that the Creator gave the responsibility for raising His children. Of course, during the period of growth, people also had their own independent part of responsibility for themselves. Thus, the task of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was to reach the level of maturity set by the Creator, based on their responsibility to Heavenly Father and with the help of the Archangel's teachings. Thanks to this, they could become His true children. The driving force on this path was the love flowing from Him. It was it who was to make people masters of the world of angels. During their growth, the Creator could only instruct them that they were in a state of imperfection (as evidenced by the prohibition of eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the meaning of which I will explain later in this study) and give them the Archangel who supports them. In this way, God wanted to enable His developing children to gain knowledge about the created universe and become His heirs. On the other hand, the attainment of personal perfection would be made aware to them at the moment when the Heavenly Father would be directly involved in their lives. At the same time, this moment would be a permission to "eat the fruit", that is, the union of Adam and Eve by sexual act. Unfortunately, mainly through the fault of the Archangel, and also partly on their own, the first people "ate the fruit" prematurely.
In God, the power of love is the driving force, and therefore it surpasses the creative power, that is, the power of principles and laws. So in practice, the power of love can work with more power than the power of laws and principles. Since God is perfect, these two forces complement each other in harmonious unity in Him. By creating man in His "image and likeness", the Creator gave people both these forces, because it could not be otherwise. Unfortunately, when going through the state of imperfection, the stronger one could break the weaker one, endangering the lives of Adam and Eve. Therefore, to protect the first people, God gave them an extremely important instruction about "not eating fruit" and made sure that they understood it as a prohibition on changing the direction of love. Against the Archangel, this prohibition created an impassable barrier between the position of angels and people. Toward Eve, it was about not directing love in any other direction except Adam, which was equated with creating good. Another direction, that is, to the Archangel, was evil. Hence, Eve can be called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. For Adam, this prohibition was about not giving up life until his love had reached the level of full maturity foreseen by the Creator. Hence we can call it the Tree of Life. Thanks to this, we can understand the existence of these two unusual trees in the Garden of Eden.
The importance of the prohibition of eating "fruit" and the awareness of God's children about the consequences of eating it is evidenced by the statement of the still innocent Eve: "We can eat fruit from the trees of this garden, only about the fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God said: You must not eat out of it, and even touch it, lest you die". (Genesis 3: 2-5). The knowledge of Adam and Eve was therefore sufficient not to make a fatal error. Knowledge was open to the first people, but with an exception. It concerned the knowledge of giving life and inheriting the Divine Personality for the next generations. They were to transmit this gift together with the Creator. For such joint action, however, an appropriate level of human perfection was needed, including, of course, the highest state of love that Heavenly Father destined for His children. God is perfect, so His partners must adjust their level to Him. Adam and Eve could not prematurely and independently begin transmitting something they had not yet fully achieved. They had to wait for an invitation to collaborate from their Father. For he, on his part, gives each person the "breath of life", that is, a spiritual person, while parents give a natural person. Unfortunately, the first people, inspired by their educator, who wanted the highest love like them, prematurely severed their relationship with God. It was the use of immature love for the act of creating a new man, as well as the premature acquisition of a new spiritual person from the Creator. This can be called picking the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or simply original sin. Lucifer took the place of God in this system, and people stopped in development at a much lower level than was established by the Creator.
During this period, God could not interfere in human activities in accordance with the principle that man himself goes the path to perfection in order to reach the perfect God and reach His level at its end. Therefore, the Creator does not bear any responsibility for the fall of man. Unfortunately, as the biblical account shows, His instruction was to no avail. It happened because of the deviation of the Archangel and the misdirection of love by the participants of the fall.
Most theologians, not only Christian, see the reasons for the fall of Adam and Eve in the fact of the state of freedom in the human personality and the free will that derives from it. They claim that God has given people free will, which he does not interfere with. This means that in the Garden of Eden, God left his children the choice between eating and not eating "the forbidden fruit." Since they chose to "eat the fruit" and disobeyed the prohibition against eating it, a fall ensued. Hence the conclusion that free will, or simply human freedom, led to his fall. This concept clearly contradicts my claim that the cause of the fall was a misdirected force of love.
Freedom is a certain state of functioning, that is, the sphere in which a person who exercises his free will moves. So it is not a force that can cause a fall. What is the reason why freedom was not the cause of the fall?
First, freedom can only create a state of readiness to make a decision leading to a fall. However, ultimately making such a decision requires a force that is not freedom. For example, we can freely approach the edge of the abyss, but crossing its edge ends all freedom, because the force of gravity begins to act, which pulls man into the abyss.
Second, the consumption of the fruit by Adam and Eve was a deliberate act. For God, as a caring Father, took care to explain to them the dangers of the forbidden fruit. Since Adam and Eve knew that eating the fruit would bring them death, they were committing something like suicide. You can call their deed so, since the first people made a decision against the knowledge of the threat of death. Suicide, however, is not committed in a state of freedom, but in the absence of freedom. Then there may be pressure that drowns out the existing knowledge or pressure stronger than finding a different solution to the situation.
Third, if there was a kind of suicide, it must have been caused by a force greater than the force of preserving life, that is, the force of love. I don't need to remind you how many suicides resulted from a failed love. It is also worth mentioning the fact of giving your life out of love for other people or in defense of your homeland.
There are also theologians who see the events in the Garden of Eden as a kind of trial or test on the part of God. I do not agree with that. In defense of my concept, I will add further arguments on the origin of evil. They clearly oppose claims that the Creator tested His children or put them to a free-will choice. It would seem like a completely redundant test of loyalty or obedience.
First, after creating His work, God does not test it, as it would appear to test Himself. God is perfect and does not make mistakes, and only things or conditions that are in doubt are tested.
Secondly, after being created by God, Adam and Eve were innocent and did not know evil, because they came "from the hand" of the perfect Creator, who does not know evil and did not create it. God does not test such pure beings created by Himself, because He would have to suspect the existence of evil in them, and this does not correspond to His Personality and perfection.
Third, If God is All-Knowing, so He doesn't use tests, knowing the results of each of them in advance.
Fourth, God, as a loving father, would not expose his children to a possible negative test result, the more so since this supposed test was "for life and death" ("When you eat it, you will surely die" - Genesis 2:17). Probably every loving father, as a rule, tries to protect his children from the dangers that threaten them, and not to subject them to death tests; and God is the most perfect Father.
These are the arguments that must be taken into account before adopting an overly superficial way of explaining what happened in the world created at that time by the Original Being. Therefore, I invariably claim that the fall of Adam and Eve and the fall of Archangel Lucifer were caused by the wrong orientation of the force of love. This situation also affects the explanation of the so-called angels' rebellion, which is mentioned in the Bible.
Some Christian theologians argue that even before the fall of the first humans, there was an angels' rebellion led by Archangel Lucifer. This raises the logical question of why God, being aware of the danger of rebel angels, has not sufficiently protected His innocent children and exposed them to temptation by the fallen Archangel? Has the all-knowing God not taken into account the dangers that threaten His children or noticed the evil "Serpent" creeping into the garden that could cause their death? In connection with the above statement, there is also a doubt that undermines the fact of God's perfection, since the angels created by Him raise a rebellion that destroys the system of His world. But here I must stand up for God and define these claims of theologians as untrue.
First, it seems necessary to understand why the Archangel, subject to the Heavenly Father's sphere of action, found himself in the Garden of Eden together with God's children. There can be only one answer: this Archangel was there according to God's Will as the tutor of His children. Then it is possible to accuse God that it was He who, by choosing such an unsuitable educator, contributed to the destruction of the good world. This would be the case only if the Creator chose an immature and rebellious being as the tutor Adam and Eve. After all, he should have foreseen that this evil educator is intending to deprive him of his supremacy over people and take his place in the created world. I must say that this thinking is wrong. Heavenly Father chose the most appropriate and wisest of his archangels for the most important educational mission. At that time, Lucifer was well-equipped to be the tutor of God's children, and he was perfect in this mission. He was not, however, perfect as Eve's replacement, or positioning, partner for Eve. The final position of the Archangel would be established when Adam, having reached perfection with his support, would recognize him as his permanent protector, that is, someone like the guardian angel. Unfortunately, this did not happen. As I explained before in this and previous parts of essenceism, the misdirected force of love led Lucifer to abandon his mission. This weakened him, made him imperfect as an educator of God's children, and took away his sense of responsibility. This state in turn led him to assume the position of Adam, who was only growing up, that is, he was still an imperfect man. Therefore, assuming his position made Lucifer even more imperfect. In this state, the Archangel continued to desire the highest love, which eventually led him to unite with Eve, that is, to make her "eat" the forbidden "fruit". This can be called not only a fall, but also a rebellion against God.
The "rebellion" of the angels and their fall certainly took place with the fall of Adam and Eve. It is this situation in the Garden of Eden in which the Archangel and the first people broke God's law, led to the simultaneous fall of people, the Archangel and other angels who were witnesses and participants of this bad story. The sequence of events presented above defines the whole tragedy that took place there. Thus, the aforementioned "rebellion" of the angels is the result of the situation that then arose. From that moment on, Adam and Eve lost their relationship with God, the Archangel Lucifer became Satan ruling over people, and his angels were fallen demons. It was just the beginning of the creation of hell - a world contrary to the concept of the Creator. Thus, the first people departed symbolically east of Eden, that is, where you live in a world unknown to Our Creator. From then on, they had a new god, Satan.
Despite the fall of the first people, the Creator is and will remain the Absolute for us, the unchanging Rock and the eternal Ideal. Unfortunately, the fallen Archangel took his place in front of people and it was he who took over the reign over us. This is an illegal situation. It began immediately after the events in the Garden of Eden and continues to function against God's Will. This state of affairs still exists today. The fallen Archangel, based on the position thus gained, "covered" Our Father with himself, that is, he stood between Him and people. Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, instead of taking a position higher than the angels and subjugating the Archangel Lucifer, surrendered to his will and became servants of the servant of their Father.
Thus, Satan, by taking a dominant position over God's children, has become the de facto god to mankind. This was accomplished first through the spiritual domination of Eve and then, through her, also of Adam. This whole situation completely changed the course of human history prepared by the Creator. Until today, it cannot be reversed by any human effort, although significant attempts have been made to rectify the situation. Likewise, the redemptive work of Jesus Christ has not been able to eliminate evil from our planet. Thus, Satan's domination of the physical world continues until today.