Why do you believe evil exists and where did it come from?

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I take the meaning of the word ‘evil’ as given by the eminent Emanuel Swedenborg, whose ideas are amongst the best reframing of the human condition since Jesus Himself. I want to take the long way there, through ancient Judaism and the resultant Christianity. So bear with me here.

The ancient Hebrew position on good and evil can be found in the Old Testament. Many many stories are written to articulate the finer points of their views. The road to evil is rather long, and individual humans aren’t typically portrayed as evil.

Rather, evil was, to the Hebrews, what we today would call culture. A culture of rot that starts at the top and permeates its way down through a society. Ancient Judaism had these people in it called prophets, whose jobs were largely to prevent the rot from setting in. Generally people wouldn’t listen once, but if he sent enough prophets enough times, His chosen people would listen to him and cut out the rot.

Evil is defined in the Bible as a state of affairs in which goodness cannot survive. Individuals cannot be evil, you call individual action against God sin, and no number of sins will make you evil, and the Hebrews had different words they’d use to describe states of affairs that went against God.

Christianity changed all of that, by demanding that you be personally accountable for living a more godly life. The old Hebrew covenants were pretty loose, ordinary life would never lead to the kinds of sin that couldn’t be forgiven through the normal process of animal offerings. But at its core, sin was action, good was action, and evil was when people who wanted to do good actions could not do them.

The covenant Jesus made with humanity was predicated not on action but on faith. This isn’t because actions can’t be against God, but rather that you couldn’t make a code of behavior that would actually stand the test of time. It’s impractical. So what tells humans what is right and what is wrong? Jesus’ answer is a little complicated. He wants you to follow the old rules, not by the letter, but rather by their spirit. This focus on essence and spirit of God’s relationship with humanity permeates the New Testament.

How can you know whether you’re following the spirit of the laws? There are lots of examples in the New Testament that outline the principles. But it’s just, well, really really difficult. The old laws are, well, crufty. It gets harder with every single century that passes to see God’s spirit in those old laws. A new understanding of God’s relationship with humanity is needed, not because the old one was wrong or anything, but simply because the signal gets hard to read in all that noise.

Enter Swedenborg. Swedenborg was, among numerous other things, a politician and a scientist. One day he had what happens to many many people the world over, a near-death experience. Only, while most people’s near-death experiences don’t last, his did, until the end of his Earthly life.

Swedenborg got to see the other side of the veil, how the spiritual world described by Jesus actually worked. Since he was a scientist, he was able to relate all those understandings back to us in a rational form. He was able to finally, affirmatively state how good and evil worked and how morality ultimately operates. These lessons are useful not just for those looking to secure a spot in Heaven, but also if you just want to improve your daily life.

The basic gist of it is this, while this world operates according to physical laws, the spiritual one operates primarily by the basic principles of truth and love. God is the source of these principles and position in the spiritual world is measured by proximity to God as determined by how much truth and love you can embody.

You don’t have to believe in the metaphysics in order to appreciate the elegance of the framing. Or to see how evil on Earth parallels them. One bad act doesn’t make anyone evil. Sin isn’t evil. These things haven’t changed. But there’s a relation to evil in there. If not one sin, how many sins? How do we get from sin to evil? Jesus left the question unanswered.

Swedenborg answers the question extremely elegantly. Evil isn’t about truth, it’s not predicated on true facts. We want to know the truth of the matter because the physical world is predicated on truth.

But evil isn’t about truth, it’s about love. When you commit an action that unnecessarily harms a person, that’s sin, predicated on the true fact that that action harmed the person. But if you love committing actions that unnecessarily harm people, that’s evil. The love for torment pushes you away from God, the source of truth and love.

This also gives an elegant answer to our purpose here on Earth and how it relates to God’s plan for humans. We’re here on Earth in order to find out what we love, in a realm that is governed by truth. If what we love is evil, we will eventually find ourselves in Hell. If what we love is good, then we will find ourselves in Heaven.