Belief in Two Powers: Knowledge of Good and Evil

Note: This contemplation should be read before reading “Should I See a Physician” and “Dare We Trust God for our Physical Well-Being?”

 

In the beginning God (Genesis 1:1), the God who is love (1John 4:8,16) and therefore good. And all that He created was very good (Genesis 1:31). This God is referred to in Scripture as the Almighty at least 57 times and is called the Lord God omnipotent in Revelation 19:6.

So we can conclude that there is only one power in the universe and that it is good. That being the case, the power that we call evil is no power at all; it is just a belief manifested which has no power except that which we (who have dominion) ascribe to it. See God Omnipotent.

When God warned man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Genesis 2:17), He was telling them not to believe in two powers —or any power apart from God who is good. Taking on this belief is what Paul calls carnal mindedness, the result (or wages) of which is death —just as God said it would be.

Romans 8:6 

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Romans 6:23 

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The serpent was not a being outside man, but rather his own mind suggesting to him that he was not like God already (having been generated out of God —see Declaring His Generation), but needed to take on this belief in two powers —one of good and another of evil.

Genesis 3:4-5 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

And that is precisely what happened. Man began to know (or experience) both good and evil —though, in reality, there was only one power (the Lord God Almighty).

This is why we read in Isaiah:

Isaiah 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD [the I AM–see What Is the I AM? ] do all these things.

We know that this verse is not referring to God Almighty, because John tells us that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all (1John 1:5). Man was given dominion in the beginning. This means that he has the power of God invested in him to use however he wishes. Although that power itself is good, it can be used to manifest (create) that which appears to be evil. (See Consciousness Manifested and God Omnipotent.)

The key word is appears. It is we, not God, who judges this or that to be evil and thereby ascribe to it the power to affect us adversely. God’s eyes are too pure to even behold evil (Habakuk 1:13). In His kingdom all the animals feed and lie down together (Isaiah 11:6-7); they are not feeding upon one another. There the children play with snakes (v 8) and no one experiences pain or sorrow (Revelation 21:4).

No, all the evil experienced by man is of his own creation. As my understanding of this increases, my experience of evil decreases. He [God’s power which is good] must increase, but I [my belief in the power of both good and evil] must decrease (John 3:30). Then I am eating of the tree of Life, not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I am increasing in my knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10), thereby lessening the appearance of evil in my life.

This is what the Psalmist refers to as dwelling in the secret place of the most High and abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. In that place I may see a thousand fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand without ever having all that evil come near me (Psalms 91). That entire chapter is a beautiful description of the one who has ceased to eat of that tree of the knowledge of both good and evil, who has ceased to believe in two powers. Evil has only the power you give it by believing in it as a reality.

Jesus also had the devil (serpent; carnal mind) speak to Him during His temptations in the wilderness. See The Temptations of Jesus. When tempted to prove He was the Son of God by performing the supernatural act of jumping off the temple pinnacle, His carnal mind brought to his remembrance Psalm 91, tempting Him to count on God’s good power to overcome the evil power which could cause Him to be hurt when He made the jump. But Jesus remained without sin (Hebrews 4:15) by not listening to that carnal mind and responding, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. We have thought that to mean that we are not to do stupid things, expecting God to protect us. That is certainly good advice. But I believe Jesus was speaking to the devil (His own carnal mind) and telling it not to tempt the Lord thy God —which would be Jesus Christ Himself (My Lord and my God —(John 20:28)).

Remember, immediately before these temptations, Jesus had revealed to Him that He was the beloved Son of God (Matthew 3:17). Now His carnal mind (human consciousness which came from His being born of a woman) was tempting Him not to just accept this revelation, but to prove it. And the final temptation was for Jesus to fall down and worship His own human consciousness (carnal mind). His response to that was, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Jesus was instructing His human consciousness that it had to bow down (submit) to His God consciousness —His recognition of His own divinity (I and my Father are one (John 10:30); he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father (John 14:9)). He had to cease believing that He was a separate self from God, the very belief that caused man to want to become like God and introduced the belief in two powers —good and evil.

James is really saying the same thing. When man is in his God consciousness, he cannot be tempted with evil, for he doesn’t even recognize its existence as a reality. There would not even be a tempter (or human consciousness) if man had retained his original knowledge that he was begotten of God and was one with God.

James 1:13-14 God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

God [or man in his God consciousness] cannot be tempted with evil because there is no evil —except in the human consciousness. That’s why Jesus told us to resist not evil (Matthew 5:39); there is no evil to resist, except that which we manifest by believing in and empowering it.

Jesus has yet another encounter with the devil:

Matthew 16:21-23 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

This was the same Peter who recognized Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matthew 16:16). This Satan was the carnal mind of Peter that wanted to save Jesus from the death of the cross —from the evil that was to come to Jesus. Jesus could not afford to think carnally minded about the cross. For it was on the cross that Jesus took man’s mistaken identity (his belief that he was a separate self from God which had to do something to become like God) to the death; it was there that this body of sin (carnal mindedness) was destroyed (Romans 6:6; Hebrews 2:14). And that was a good thing, a very good thing, though it was meant for evil by those who crucified Him. Had they known the good that was being accomplished, they wouldn’t have done it (1Corinthians 2:7-8). The good power of the God who is good was being exercised on behalf of all mankind.

So Jesus instructs us:

John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

When I look upon a person, situation or condition and judge it to be evil according to the appearance, I thereby endow it with the ability to bring harm to me.

But since I know that there is but one power —God— and that this power is always good, that God’s will toward me is always good (Jeremiah 29:11-14 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity.), I judge righteous judgment: I know that what appears to be evil cannot bring harm to me.

Luke 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

It may harm others who believe that appearance to be a reality, and I may see them fall as a result of that belief in two powers. But no evil shall befall me because I have made the Lord (the one and only power which is good) my refuge, the most High my habitation (Psalms 91:9-10).

We see this playing out in the life of Joseph. Even when his brothers meant to do evil unto him, he could only experience good (Genesis 50:20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.) because he didn’t judge that appearance to be evil.

It is even clearer in Jesus’ crucifixion. We’ve already noted above how He reprimanded Peter for even thinking of saving Him from the cross. But when Peter actually tried to save Him by cutting off the ear of the High Priest’s servant, Jesus let Peter know that had He viewed the cross as evil, He could have summoned twelve legions of angels from His Father and escaped the crucifixion altogether (Matthew 26:51-53). He knew that no evil person or circumstance could take the Life from His body, that He Himself would lay it down and also take it up again when He chose.

John 10:17-18 I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

And He chose to lay it down not only to destroy the human consciousness (body of sin) but also to demonstrate the unreality of that which we consider to be the worst of all possible evils, that last enemy which is death (1Corinthians 15:26). In truth, He abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light when He went to the cross (2Timothy 1:10). How good is that!

Jesus knew, as we must also come to know, that all power in heaven and in earth was given unto Him by His Father (Matthew 28:18). He knew that there was but one power (not two —one evil and the other good) and that it was always good.

Paul knew this too. When he was stoned and left for dead, he got right back up and kept on preaching (Acts 14:19-20) the good news of the good God who is all powerful. And when a poisonous viper bit him on the hand, he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm (Acts 28:3-5) because Paul gave no power to that evil appearance. He was aware only of the God power, the power of good, that was so much a part of his consciousness that

Acts 19:12  … from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

That was why Paul could assure us with such confidence that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose (Romams 8:28). We are demonstrating our love for God when we fulfill the purpose of our being sent into this world —to bear witness unto the truth— the same reason that Jesus said He was born (John 18:37).

To bear witness to the truth. we have to stop partaking of the lies of the human consciousness (the devil) which never abode in the truth because there is no truth in him (John 8:44). One of those lies is that there are two powers, one good and the other evil when, in truth, there is only one —and it is always good.