Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:16 pm Post subject: Views Concerning Evil by Religious Leaders & Authors
Ezra Taft Benson American church leader
One day in the middle of an important examination in high school, the point of my lead pencil broke. In those days we used pocket knives to sharpen our pencils. I had forgotten my penknife and turned to ask a neighbor for his. The teacher saw this; he accused me of cheating. When I tried to explain, he gave me a tongue-lashing for lying; worse, he forbade me to play on the basketball team in the upcoming game. I could see that the more I protested the angrier he seemed to become. But again and again I stubbornly told what had happened. Even when the coach pleaded my cause, the teacher refused to budge. The disgrace was almost more than I could bear. Then, just minutes before the game, he had a change of heart and I was permitted to play. But there was no joy in it. We lost the game; and though that hurt, by far the deeper pain was being branded a cheat and a liar. Looking back. I know that lesson was God-sent. Character is shaped in just such crucibles. My parents believed me: they were understanding and encouraging. Supported by them and a clear conscience, I began to realize that when you are at peace with your Maker you can, if not ignore human criticism, at least rise above it. And I learned something else - the importance of avoiding even the appearance of evil. Though I was innocent, circumstance made me look guilty. Since this could so easily be true in many of life's situations, I made a resolution to keep even the appearance of my actions above question, as far as possible. And it struck me, too, that if this injustice happened to me, it could happen to others, and I must not judge their actions simply on appearances.
Ezra Taft Benson
Last edited by God's Warrior on Fri Nov 09, 2007 6:48 pm; edited 2 times in total
Catherine Marshall American author, wife of US Senate chaplain Peter Marshall, wrote "A Man Called Peter"
Without realizing what was happening, most of us gradually came to take for granted the premises underlying the philosophy of optimism. We proceeded to live these propositions, though we would not have stated them as blandly as I set them forth here: Man is inherently good. Individual man can carve out his own salvation with the help of education and society through progressively better government. Reality and values worth searching for lie in the material world that science is steadily teaching us to analyze, catalogue, and measure. While we do not deny the existence of inner values, we relegate them to second place. The purpose of life is happiness, which we define in terms of enjoyable activity, friends, and the accumulation of material objects. The pain and evil of life - such as ignorance, poverty, selfishness, hatred, greed, lust for power - are caused by factors in the external world; therefore, the cure lies in the reforming of human institutions and the bettering of environmental conditions. As science and technology remove poverty and lift from us the burden of physical existence, we shall automatically become finer persons, seeing for ourselves the value of living the Golden Rule. In time, the rest of the world will appreciate the demonstration that the American way of life is best. They will then seek for themselves the good life of freedom and prosperity. This will be the greatest impetus toward an end of global conflict. The way to get along with people is to beware of religious dictums and dogma. The ideal is to be a nice person and to live by the Creed of Tolerance. Thus we offend few people. We live and let live. This is the American Way.
From its very inaction, idleness ultimately becomes the most active cause of evil; as a palsy is more to be dreaded than a fever. The Turks have a proverb which says that the devil tempts all other men, but that idle men tempt the devil.
Evils in the journey of life are like the hills which alarm travelers on their road - Both appear great at a distance, but when we approach-them we find they are far less insurmountable than we had conceived.
We are prone to magnify weaknesses and to imagine vices in others that do not exist. We chew the cud of slander with satisfaction - slander, "whose whisper over the world's diameter, as level as the cannon to its blank, transports his poisoned shot." Talk about battles yet to be fought! Backbiting and evil speaking head the list!
He taught, and modern physiology and psychology confirm, that hate and jealousy and other evil passions destroy a man's physical vigor and efficiency. What a man continually thinks about determines his actions in times of opportunity and stress. A man's reaction to his appetites and impulses when they are roused gives the measure of that man's character. In these reactions are revealed the man's power to govern or his forced servility to yield.
That from the heart come good thoughts and bad thoughts is the message of the Savior. By the right choice, and through application of thought, man ascends to divine perfection; by the abuse and wrong application of thought, he descends below the level of the beasts. Between these two extremes are all the grades of character and man in their maker and master. Jesus taught that from within the heart of man come evil thoughts, sexual vice, acts of theft, murder, adultery, greed. When men commit these crimes individually or collectively, they trespass upon human rights and, of course, bring misery into the world. A noble and godlike character is no thing of favor or chance, but is a natural result of continued effort and right thinking, the effect of long cherished associations with godlike thoughts.
David McKay
Dietrich Bonhoeffer German Protestant theologian, hanged for plot to overthrow Hitler
The Book: First-hand accounts from his family, friends, and students give intimate insight into the struggles, growth, and motivations of Bonhoeffer in a way that will make you ask anew what it means to be a Christian today.
By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered, and confidently waiting come what may, we know that God is with us night and morning, and never fails to greet us each new day. Yet is this heart by its old foe tormented, still evil days bring burdens hard to bear; Oh, give our frightened souls the sure salvation for which, O Lord, You taught us to prepare. And when this cup You give is filled to brimming with bitter suffering, hard to understand, we take it thankfully and without trembling, out of so good and so beloved a hand. Yet when again in this same world You give us the joy we had, the brightness of Your Sun, we shall remember all the days we lived through, and our whole life shall then be Yours alone.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) English missionary to China
Hudson Taylor went to China as an English Missionary at the age of twenty-one.
Taylor resigned from his Mission Board to live on faith, trusting God to supply all his need, and determining not to ask anyone other than God for money. He founded the China Inland Mission on the same principles.
By the time of the Boxer Rebellion, half of all missionaries in China were from his organization.
At the time of his death, the CIM included 205 Mission stations with over 800 missionaries and 125,000 Chinese Christians.
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We are not only to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth. We tell people the world is vain; let our lives manifest that it is so. We tell them that our home is above and that all these things are transitory. Does our dwelling look like it? O to live consistent lives!
The lives of the women of the Bible made patterns of light or of darkness. . . . Watch for the phrase in Kings and Chronicles, "And his mother was . . ." This is usually followed by the phrase, "And he did that which was good in the sight of the Lord," or "And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord." In placing the name of the king's mother and the evaluation of his reign side by side, the Hebrews showed how powerful they regarded the role of a mother.
We are not only to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth. We tell people the world is vain; let our lives manifest that it is so. We tell them that our home is above and that all these things are transitory. Does our dwelling look like it? O to live consistent lives!
James Hudson Taylor
As stewards of God we must be truly appreciative of the things we receive. One has said that, 'Ingratitude is a crime more despicable than revenge which is only returning evil for evil, while ingratitude returns evil for good.' You remember that of the ten lepers healed by Christ, only one returned to give thanks. A beautiful legend tells the story of two angels that were sent forth throughout the land, each given a basket, one to gather up requests and the other thanksgivings. The angel of requests came back with her basket running over full. The angel of thanksgivings came back with her basket practically empty. So it is in life. It seems that all have requests to make, but few of us think to return and give thanks.
Heber Q. Hale
Frederick William Robertson English Anglican clergyman
It is the law of our humanity that man must know good through evil. No great principle ever triumphed but through much evil. No man ever progressed to greatness and goodness but through great mistakes.
Frederick William Robertson
. .
The path of duty is the only path of safety. It is the only path wherein we can walk and have the assurance of God's continued blessings, of his continued deliverances. Any other course does not carry with it this assurance. Any other path leads to darkness, to contention, to evils of many kinds; for it leads away from the truth and the right. But if we continue in the path that is marked out for us by divine instruction, trusting implicitly in God, then shall we be delivered from all impending evils that are sought to be brought upon us, no matter what they may be; and the nearer we live to God the greater will be the blessings showered upon us, and seeming evils will be changed to blessings of untold worth.
George Reynolds
John Calvin (1509-1564)
French Protestant theologian of the Reformation
Assuredly there is but one way in which to achieve what is not merely difficult but utterly against human nature: to love those who hate us, to repay their evil deeds with benefits, to return blessings for reproaches. It is that we remember not to consider men's evil intention but to look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.
John Calvin
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