EVIL, SIN, AND INIQUITY

^{It was the habit of Jesus two evenings each week to hold
special converse with individuals who desired to talk with him, in a certain secluded and
sheltered corner of the Zebedee garden. At one of these evening conversations in private
Thomas asked the Master this question: "Why is it necessary for men to be born of the
spirit in order to enter the kingdom? Is rebirth necessary to escape the control of the
evil one? Master, what is evil?" When Jesus heard these questions, he said to Thomas:

^{"Do not make the mistake of confusing evil with
the evil one, more correctly the iniquitous one. He whom you call the evil
one is the son of self-love, the high administrator who knowingly went into deliberate
rebellion against the rule of my Father and his loyal Sons. But I have already vanquished
these sinful rebels. Make clear in your mind these different attitudes toward the Father
and his universe. Never forget these laws of relation to the Father's will:

     "Evil is the unconscious or unintended transgression of the
divine law, the Father's will. Evil is likewise the measure of the imperfectness of
obedience to the Father's will.

     "Sin is the conscious, knowing, and deliberate transgression
of the divine law, the Father's will. Sin is the measure of unwillingness to be divinely
led and spiritually directed.

     "Iniquity is the willful, determined, and persistent
transgression of the divine law, the Father's will. Iniquity is the measure of the
continued rejection of the Father's loving plan of personality survival and the Sons'
merciful ministry of salvation.}}

"By nature, before the rebirth of the spirit, mortal man is subject to inherent evil tendencies, but such natural imperfections of behavior are neither sin nor iniquity. Mortal man is just beginning his long ascent to the perfection of the Father in Paradise. To be imperfect or partial in natural endowment is not sinful. Man is indeed subject to evil, but he is in no sense the child of the evil one unless he has knowingly and deliberately chosen the paths of sin and the life of iniquity. Evil is inherent in the natural order of this world, but sin is an attitude of conscious rebellion which was brought to this world by those who fell from spiritual light into gross darkness.

"You are confused, Thomas, by the doctrines of the Greeks and the errors of the Persians. You do not understand the relationships of evil and sin because you view mankind as beginning on earth with a perfect Adam and rapidly degenerating, through sin, to man's present deplorable estate. But why do you refuse to comprehend the meaning of the record which discloses how Cain, the son of Adam, went over into the land of Nod and there got himself a wife? And why do you refuse to interpret the meaning of the record which portrays the sons of God finding wives for themselves among the daughters of men?

     Men are, indeed, by nature evil, but not necessarily sinful. The new birth -- the baptism of the spirit -- is essential to deliverance from evil and necessary for entrance into the kingdom of heaven, but none of this detracts from the fact that man is the son of God. Neither does this inherent presence of potential evil mean that man is in some mysterious way estranged from the Father in heaven so that, as an alien, foreigner, or stepchild, he must in some manner seek for legal adoption by the Father. All such notions are born, first, of your misunderstanding of the Father and, second, of your ignorance of the origin, nature, and destiny of man.

     "The Greeks and others have taught you that man is descending from godly perfection steadily down toward oblivion or destruction; I have come to show that man, by entrance into the kingdom, is ascending certainly and surely up to God and divine perfection. Any being who in any manner falls short of the divine and spiritual ideals of the eternal Father's will is potentially evil, but such beings are in no sense sinful, much less iniquitous.

     "Thomas, have you not read about this in the Scriptures, where it is written: `You are the children of the Lord your God.' `I will be his Father and he shall be my son.' `I have chosen him to be my son -- I will be his Father.' `Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth; even every one who is called by my name, for I have created them for my glory.' `You are the sons of the living God.' `They who have the spirit of God are indeed the sons of God.' While there is a material part of the human father in the natural child, there is a spiritual part of the heavenly Father in every faith son of the kingdom."

Living