This presentation discusses where human evil came from, its reality, and ultimate cure.

1. Deliver Us From

2. Anthropology and

3. Do you want God to rid the world of evil?

4. What if He starts with you?

5. Is Humankind

6. ―As far as I know we
just don't have any
intrinsic instincts for
evil.‖
– Abraham Maslow

8. ―The gas chambers of Auschwitz
were the ultimate consequence of
the theory that man is nothing but
the product of heredity and
environment, or as the Nazi liked
to say ‗of blood and soil‘. I am
absolutely convinced that the gas
chambers of Auschwitz were
ultimately prepared not in some
ministry of defense in Berlin, but
rather at the desks and lecture
halls of Nihilistic scientists and
philosophers.‖
- Victor Franko

9. Old Testament Survey on Moral Evil
"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that
every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.‖
(Genesis 6:5)
― The fool has said in his heart, ―There is no God.‖ They are corrupt, they have
committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good. The Lord has
looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who
understand, Who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have
become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.‖
(Psalm 14:1-3)
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.‖
(Psalm 51:5)
"Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who
never sins.‖
(Ecclesiastes 7:20)

10. ―I do not find
that…evil is inherent
in human nature‖
– Carl Rogers

11. New Testament Survey on Moral Evil
―For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries,
fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.‖
(Matthew 15:19)
"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,‖
(Romans 3:23)
"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)
"If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth
is not in us.‖
(1 John 1:8)

12. Did Jesus Think Mankind was Evil?
―Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened
to you. ―For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who
knocks it will be opened. ―Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks
for a loaf, will give him a stone? ―Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake,
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to
will he? ―
your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to
those who ask Him! ‖
(Matthew 7:7–11)

13. ―If each one of us is born without a
sinful nature, how do we account
for the universality of sin? If four
billion people were born with no
inclination to sin, with no
corruption to their nature, we
would reasonably expect that at
least some of them would refrain
from falling. . . . But if everybody
does it, without exception, then we
begin to wonder why.‖
- R. C. Sproul

14. ―The doctrine of
original sin is the only
empirically verifiable
doctrine of the
Christian faith.‖
- Reinhold Niebuhr

15. What does it mean to be

16. ―The words ‗image‘, ‗appearance‘,
and ‗outwardly‘ are crucial to
understanding the morality of the
evil. While they seem to lack any
motivation to be good, they
intensely desire to appear good.
Their ‗goodness‘ is on a level of
pretense. It is, in effect, a lie. This
is why they are the ‗people of the
lie‘.‖
- M. Scott Peck
People of the Lie

17. Is Evil a Genetic Defect?
John Wayne Gacy was put to death by lethal
injection in the early morning hours of May 10,
1994 for the rape and murder of 33 young men and
boys, 29 of whom he buried in the crawl space
beneath his own Chicago home between the years
of 1972 and 1978. After his death, he was
delivered into the hands of Dr. Helen Morrison to
perform a very unique autopsy. Dr. Morrison had
previously interviewed Gacy, along with many other
serial killers, in an attempt to isolate personality
traits that were common among such ruthless
murderers. Now at the request of Gacy‘s family,
Dr. Morrison was going to remove the brain of the
notorious serial killer in hopes of discovering some
sort of physical abnormality that would provide
answers for why Gacy destroyed so many innocent
lives.

18. "He is a serial killer
when he is a fetus,
even as soon as sperm
meets egg to create
the genes of a new
person‖
Dr. Helen Morrison

19. Is Evil a Genetic Defect?
What were the results of Dr. Helen
Morrison‘s examination of the brain
of John Wayne Gacy?
Simply that he had a normal male
brain.
No defects.
No abnormalities.
No excuses.

20. ―One of the most disturbing facts
that came out in the Eichmann trial
was that a psychiatrist examined him
and pronounced him perfectly sane.
We equate sanity with a sense of
justice, with humaneness, with
prudence, with the capacity to love
and understand other people. . . .
And now it begins to dawn on us
that it is precisely the sane ones who
are the most dangerous.‖
-Thomas Merton

21. Total or “Radical” Depravity
Diaphtheirō: ―To cause someone
to become perverse or depraved,
as a type of moral destruction—‗to
deprave, to pervert, to ruin, to
cause the moral ruin of‖
Total depravity doesn‘t mean we
are as evil as we can be, but rather
we are as bad off as we could be.
Depravity effects ever aspect of
us. ―Radical depravity‖ may be a
better term. ‗Radix‘ is Latin and
equates to ‗Root‘, which describes
our depravity. It is at our core.

22. Radical Depravity Effects
Spiritual Death Physical Death Eternal Death
―And you were dead ―Therefore, just as "Then death and
in your trespasses through one man sin Hades were thrown into
and sins,‖ entered into the the lake of fire. This is
(Ephesians 2:1) world, and death the second death, the
lake of fire. "And if
through sin, and so
anyone‘s name was not
death spread to all
found written in the
men, because all book of life, he was
sinned‖ thrown into the lake of
(Romans 5:12) fire.‖
(Revelation 20:14-15)

23. ―We are the wild animal.‖
- G. K. Chesterton

24. How Did We Become

25. A Monster’s Conclusion
In Mary Shelley‘s (who was not a Christian) book Frankenstein is the
doctor who creates a perfectly benign and peaceful being. The more the
creation observes human behavior, the more it begins to mimic human
behavior and starts to become evil. The creation confronts the doctor and
tells him that when he was brought into this world, he didn‘t understand why
people needed government and controls and police, but as he observed
people and read history, he turned away in horror at what man was capable
of. People could be kind, but also evil. Why both – where does that
capacity come from? The creation concludes this: you were created in the
image of a perfect being, and you‘ve fallen away from it.

26. ―That children generally lie and steal
and cheat is routinely observable.
The fact that sometimes they grow
up to become truly honest adults is
what seems the more remarkable.
Laziness is more the rule than
diligence. If we seriously think about
it, it probably makes more sense to
assume this is a naturally evil world
that has somehow been mysteriously
‗contaminated‘ by goodness, rather
than the other way around.‖
- M. Scott Peck
People of the Lie

27. Rousseau’s Conclusion
Jean Jacques Rousseau was an 18th
century philosopher, writer, and
composer of Romanticism. His
political philosophy heavily influenced
the French Revolution.
He believed that mankind was
naturally good; his terms for each
person born was an ‗innocent savage‘.
Rousseau claimed it was society that
corrupted people.
What is the problem with that
thinking? What are societies
composed of? People…

28. Man Created in God’s Good Image
"Then God said, ―Let Us make
man in Our image, according to
Our likeness; and let them rule
over the fish of the sea and over
the birds of the sky and over the
cattle and over all the earth, and
over every creeping thing that
creeps on the earth.‖ God
created man in His own image, in
the image of God He created
him; male and female He created
them.―
(Genesis 1:26-27)

29. Man Falls in the Garden of Eden
―The Lord God commanded the man,
saying, ―From any tree of the garden
you may eat freely; but from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil you
shall not eat, for in the day that you
eat from it you will surely die.‖ ‖
(Genesis 2:16–17)
―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 desirable to make one wise, she
took from its fruit and ate; and she
gave also to her husband with her, and
he ate. ‖ (Genesis 3:6)

30. The primal sin in
humanity consisted in
putting the knowledge
of good and evil before
the knowledge of God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

31. Fallen Man begets Fallen Man
―When Adam had lived
one hundred and thirty
years, he became the
father of a son in his
own likeness, according
to his image, and named
him Seth. ‖
(Genesis 5:3)

32. Fallen Man begets Fallen Man
"Behold, I was brought
forth in iniquity, And in
sin my mother
conceived me.‖
(Psalm 51:5)

33. Moral Evil Begins its Journey
―So it came about in the course of time that
Cain brought an offering to the Lord of the
fruit of the ground. Abel, on his part also
brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their
fat portions. And the Lord had regard for
Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for
his offering He had no regard. So Cain
became very angry and his countenance fell.
Then the Lord said to Cain, ―Why are you
angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
―If you do well, will not your countenance be
lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is
crouching at the door; and its desire is for you,
but you must master it.‖ Cain told Abel his
brother. And it came about when they were in
the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his
brother and killed him. ‖
(Genesis 4:3–8)

34. Why Won’t God get Rid of Moral
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35. ―[Let‘s say] you‘ve been rock climbing
and have sustained injuries to your
knee. You mention it to a physician
friend, who predicts the pain will leave of
its own accord. Meanwhile, he says,
there‘s nothing he can do, short of
amputating your leg above the knee to
remove the pain, Now the pain in your
knee is an evil state of affairs. And it is
within the power of your friend to
eliminate this evil. Does his failure to do
so mean that he is not a good person?
Of course not; for he could eliminate
this evil only by bringing about another,
much worse evil.‖
- Alvin Plantinga
www.confidentchristians.org

36. ―It is entirely possible that a
good person fail to eliminate
an evil state of affairs that he
knows about and can
eliminate. This would take
place, if, as in the present
example, he couldn‘t eliminate
the evil without bringing about
a greater evil.‖
- Alvin Plantinga
www.confidentchristians.org

37. ―Such is the generosity of God‘s
goodness that He has not
refrained from creating even that
creature which He foreknew
would not only sin, but remain in
the will to sin. As a runaway horse
is better than a stone which does
not run away because it lacks self-
movement and sense perception,
so the creature is more excellent
which sins by free will than that
which does not sin only because it
has no free will.‖
- Augustine
www.confidentchristians.org

38. The Worlds God Could Have Made
1. No creation at all
2. Created a world where there was no good or evil
3. Created a world where we would only choose good and not evil
4. Created this world – a possibility of choosing evil
This world may not be the best possible world; it may be the best way
to get to the best possible world
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39. ―If only there were evil people
somewhere insidiously
committing evil deeds and it
were necessary only to
separate them from the rest
of us and destroy them. But
the line dividing good and evil
cuts through the heart of
every human being. And who
wants to destroy a piece of
his own heart?‖
- AlexanderSolzhenitsyn
www.confidentchristians.org

40. What is the cure for human
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41. Step 1: Be Born Again
―Jesus answered and said to him, ―Truly, truly,
I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot
see the kingdom of God.‖ Nicodemus said to
Him, ―How can a man be born when he is old?
He cannot enter a second time into his
mother‘s womb and be born, can he?‖ Jesus
answered, ―Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. ―That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. ―Do not be amazed that I
said to you, ‗You must be born again.‘ ―The
wind blows where it wishes and you hear the
sound of it, but do not know where it comes
from and where it is going; so is everyone who
is born of the Spirit.‖‖
(John 3:3–8)
www.confidentchristians.org

42. ―True religion, in
great part, consists in
holy affections.‖
-Jonathan Edwards
The real miracle of the new
birth is not that a person does
different things, but that they
want to do different things.
www.confidentchristians.org

43. Can Sin now vs. Can’t Sin now
―For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to
do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do,
I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the
one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me,
that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin
which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who
wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I
see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind
and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man
that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? ‖ (Romans 7:14–24)
VS.
―No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God. ‖ (1 John 3:9)
www.confidentchristians.org

44. Step 2: The Glorified New Body
―So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body,
it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in
glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural
body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is
also a spiritual body. ‖
(1 Corinthians 15:42–44)
―Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the
image of the heavenly. ‖
(1 Corinthians 15:49)
―Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as
yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like
Him, because we will see Him just as He is. ‖
(1 John 3:2)
www.confidentchristians.org

45. Step 3: The New Heavens and Earth
―But the day of the Lord will come
like a thief, in which the heavens will
pass away with a roar and the
elements will be destroyed with
intense heat, and the earth and its
works will be burned up. ‖
(2 Peter 3:10)
―And He who sits on the throne
said, ―Behold, I am making all things
new.‖ And He said, ―Write, for these
words are faithful and true.‖ ‖
(Revelation 21:5)
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46. Conclusions
• If God were to wipe evil completely
off the map, He would have to
remove us as well
• To remove evil would be to remove
human choice and freedom
• Being evil means we are radically
depraved; it goes to the core of our
being
• The cure for moral evil is to be
born again by the Spirit of God,
receive a glorified new body, and
be free of the corrupted world
www.confidentchristians.org

47. Anthropology and
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