Beware of those who call good bad, and bad good

Beware of those who call good bad, and bad good explains how wicked, dangerous people twist good and bad to suit their pleasure.

Beware of those who call good bad, and bad good explains how wicked, dangerous people twist good and bad to suit their pleasure.

Isaiah 5:20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Proverbs 17:15 He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD.

While Isaiah 5:20 attacks the problem directly, Proverbs 17:15 attacks supporting arguments that evil people use, that while some are evil, in their hearts they were thinking that they were doing good. There is no other form or action to be accepted of God other than telling the truth, and rejecting lies and falsehoods.

There are people in this world who are wicked. They do bad things because that is what is in their heart. Everybody sins, but these people have a depth of their wickedness that makes them extremely dangerous to everybody else. God sees these people as abominable. They have a special curse from God on them.

But the idea of this is just Satanic. Good is something beneficial to people, desired. The entire concept of “good” belongs to God. “Evil” and “bad” belong to Satan. To flip the values of one to the other is essentially calling Satan god, and God as bad. There are people, groups of people and movements that are doing this, as there always has been. But in the past, these people are publically identified as Satanic. Today, even though the demonic connection is still strongly seen in this, the association with Satanism seems to be lost on people, or even if you tell them this is Satanic, they seem to be unbothered by that fact. This is a sad commentary on our world today.

Luke 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

The key, critical point is that God is who sets values, norms, what is good and what is evil, and He decides what is beneficial to man, not man himself. Every sinner takes this right away from God, and decides for himself what is good and what is not. But that just doesn’t work. Because God is in control of man’s reality, not man himself. Man’s actions have consequences, but man is not in control of his own life. Every person that gets sicks knows this and has to deal with this.

2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 Timothy 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 2 Timothy 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 2 Timothy 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 2 Timothy 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

The point here is that the Bible exhorts all men to reject these kinds of people that seem to pretend to be religious, worshipers of God, but in truth, they are worshiping themselves and Satan, i.e. their god is the same as Satan, his own self.

The problem is ego. We are self-centered, and God and salvation is centered on moral character, which “plays out” in the context of man’s relationship with others. God considers that this as revealing the moral character of each individual.

Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. Mark 12:31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

Note that the question presented to Christ was what is the greatest commandment, and Christ answered that there are two parts, love God, love others. So I have to insist that you are wrong if you interpret Christ’s answer as being in isolation from, or not involving, salvation. Yes it does. But the way I see this is that salvation is moral conversion, a rebirth (John 3) that God wants to see within a person in their salvation. While it is very difficult to see how much or even how you love God, (devotion, respect, saturation of the things of God in the life of the person are places to begin) there is a point we need to understand. God already knows our relationship to Him. He sees the deepest part of our being, of our heart and minds. So God already knows. What God wants is for us to realize how little or much we love Him.

So, thus, the second part of the second part of Jesus’ answer comes into play. We see and can more tangibly deal with our love of God, i.e. our salvation, when we look at how we treat and get along with other people.

1 John 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:12 No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

John says that the essence of God is love. Love is sacrificing on your part in order to benefit somebody else. That action is a spiritual action, that has to come from a moral decision of the person’s will.

So we can discern the world around us, the people, into being “good” and “bad” or “evil”. Those who seek to benefit others as a way of life are good. Those who seek to hurt, maim, abuse, or kill others are evil. Perhaps a policeman will kill a criminal if he is a threat to others, and that is essentially a good person because he risks his own life in order to protect the lives of others. But other than this narrow exception, in general, people fall into one category or the other.  They are good, beneficial to others, or they are evil, harmful to others, show aggression and abuse to their fellow man. Remember, Jesus Christ made this point, love your neighbor.

There are entire religions, like Islam, that are based on hate and desire to murder others. The Muslim does not just hate the Jew, they hate everybody that is not their own brand of Muslim. Muslims often take the same stance of wanting to kill other Muslims that are somehow different from themselves. So the foundational element of their thinking is hating, which is the opposite of “God is love“, and “God wants His children to love others“. (This extends even to loving your enemies, Matthew 5:44 “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.”) So there is a spiritual war going on between the concepts of good and evil, love and hate.

Proverbs 24:24 He that saith unto the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him:

God identifies with truth. Truth is actually just reality. Satan identifies with falsehood and deception. This is fantasy, lies, and gives no confidence to a person. Imagine if you buy a bottle of aspirin for a headache. You take one, but it is a lie. It is not aspirin but poison. Lies hurt. Lies cause us problems, serious problems.

While this is what everybody faces in life, God specially curses those who are a peddler of these lies, who take poison and present it as helpful, as a good solution to a problem of life. That is the principle here.

Ezekiel 22:27 Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. Ezekiel 22:28 And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord GOD, when the LORD hath not spoken. Ezekiel 22:29 The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

God condemns people who use lies, saying that it is God who is speaking. There is the profit motive underlying these things, but in the sense of getting unlawful what is not one’s right to take. A merchant sells a product, and he gets some money for that. That is a legal gain. Dishonest gain is when somebody steals what is not theirs to have.

Typically, these thieves use oppression, abusing the poor and needy, etc. Consider for a moment why the Democrats want illegal or even legal immigration. They say that the manufacturers need workers. No, they do not. There are plenty of unemployed Americans in the country. But the issue is not workers, but cheaply paid workers. So they want foreigners (“strangers” in biblical terms) to work in their factories without getting what an American citizen should get if they were to work there. So the evil people who want “dishonest gain” are “oppressing the stranger wrongfully.” Let’s just put forth a thought. If the Democrat party is the party for the people, and they open the border and let all these people from other countries come into the United States, what is going to be their position and law making as far as giving these foreigners high wages? They will push for high wages IF THESE PEOPLE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS! If they turn Republican, then they will not only pay them the lowest wages they can, they will probably push to deport them! They are abusing people, and fit our profile we are seeing of a wicked person.

Amos 5:12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right

Second Holocaust

Evil people are using the argument that “somebody did something bad to me, so that justifies me doing something worse to them”. While the brutality of Hamas is ignored, the self-defense of Israel is attacked as being immoral. How people twist evil to be good, and good to be evil. If any person in the United States were to have their front door broken down, they kids tortured and killed, making the parents watch, and then the parents are killed, just because of their ethnicity, (for Hamas, this time, it was all Jews), but think, just because you are black, or Hispanic, or from some ethnic group, would you support these murderers?

Matthew 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

God wants us to react to evil and aggression to our persons with love. Instead of “resisting evil”, that is to not respond in kind, we are to respond with good to those who do evil to us. But we are to clearly identify evil for what it is. Hamas killed a lot of innocent people in 2023. That has to be condemned, and it cannot be justified because the Jews did something evil to the Palestinians. There is doubt and debate about any of these accusations against the Jews. But we need to go deeper into the matter. The Palestinians are Muslims that found their religious thoughts (and actual actions) on the premise of hate, kill, murder. Their reasoning is totally wrong because of this foundational belief.

Romans 12:21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Paul accurately described the entire Muslim mindset, they are overwhelmed with evil. Their solution to everything in their lives is evil and more evil. But Paul gives us the solution from the God of love. Do good. A man very wisely once said, “If the Palestinians would just stop their aggression against the Jews, there would be no more war in the Middle East.” The solution to all of this war is within their grasp. But because of their Muslims beliefs in evil and aggression, they will never find peace.

More Articles on the Second Holocaust

Exodus 23:7 Keep thee far from a false matter; and the innocent and righteous slay thou not: for I will not justify the wicked.

God will not justify sin under any circumstances.

Homosexuals, Lesbians and Trans

2 Peter 2:19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

 

Luke 16:15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

 

Beware of those who call good bad, and bad good

Ch35 Bad Pastor or Disobedient Sheep?
explores the issues in conflicts between a pastor and his sheep. I examine both sides of this, with exhortations to both sides.
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Author: Pastor Dave

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