The Evil of Evils
Some things simply do not belong together. Physical examples demonstrate the folly of mixing such things. How much more devastating are the commonplace spiritual mixtures men presume serve for good, which violate the first truth of existence: Our God is a holy God.
There is good mixture and bad mixture – very bad. God hates unwarranted, incompatible mixture more than any other evil. He said to the church of the Laodiceans:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16 MKJV).
In Noah’s day, the sons of God (believers) went in to (had marital relations with) the daughters of men (unbelievers). It was an ungodly mixture with inevitably ungodly results. What did God do about it? He destroyed them and all that they touched.
“Come out from among them and be separated,” says the Lord.
God did not have as much of a problem with unbelievers as He did with the mixture of believers with unbelievers. God does not have a problem with unbelievers marrying, but when believers marry unbelievers, confusion begins. Order is called for automatically. Concerning forbidden mixture, Paul said to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 MKJV
(14) Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship does righteousness have with lawlessness? And what partnership does light have with darkness?
(15) And what agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what part does a believer have with an unbeliever?
(16) And what agreement does a temple of God have with idols? For you are the temple of the living God, as God has said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
(17) Therefore come out from among them and be separated, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean thing. And I will receive you
(18) and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
The God of order does not tolerate things compromised and defiled.
Here is a sordid but valid example: If you see dog excrement on your lawn, you would want it removed because it is unclean; it is unpleasant, it stinks, and somebody may step in it. But is it as imperative to remove the dung from your lawn as it would be if it were on your dinner plate along with your food? Now you are mixing good and bad together. Which is worse, the bad by itself in less troublesome places or when mixed with the good?
Even mixing certain good things together is not good. Do you put ketchup on your ice cream, or chocolate in your chicken soup, or mustard on your lemon pie? While any of these elements are edible by themselves, they are not edible when mixed in certain combinations. Yes, even you hate incompatible mixture of those things that are good in themselves.
The unclean always naturally defiles that which is clean.
Much more should one find unacceptable the mixture of clean with unclean. Repeatedly, God admonishes us to not so much as touch the unclean thing. And what happens if you were to find excrement in your plate? Would you separate and dispose of the excrement and eat the remainder, which is presumably good? You would do so only if you were desperately hungry or confused, but in normal circumstances, you would throw the whole thing out. All becomes repugnant, even though some was once good and apparently still is.
Another thing you well know: The clean never naturally makes the unclean clean, but the unclean always naturally defiles that which is clean. If you have a bag of fruit and one piece in a hundred begins to rot, if the rotting one is not removed, all will rot. The unclean one eventually defiles the ninety-nine clean. (So much for the religious and false doctrine of evolutionists who foolishly think things are progressing and improving. On the contrary, all is breaking down.)
While the defiling needs little or no help from us, “filing” does. Order is ever purposed while disorder happens on its own. A vegetable or fruit garden will be overrun with weeds if left alone, but I have yet to see an untended garden overrun with vegetables and fruits. It does not happen. To clean, we use cleaners. We need no uncleaners; those are automatic in all of life.
In all of creation, we see the folly of unreasonable mixture. There are clean animals and unclean animals. One can use composted cow manure to fertilize a garden, but one does not use dog or cat excrement to do so.
We have men’s and women’s washrooms separated; we discriminate by sex. We do not feed children adult food; we discriminate by age. The very young suckle from their mother’s breasts but outgrow it. We do not allow certain plants, like thistles, in our gardens and fields; we discriminate by species and usage. We keep bathrooms away from eating areas of homes, discriminating between ingestion and excretion. We put substances like skin creams on our bodies while we wash off others like dirt. We try to avoid mixing these things.
Mixture cannot be tolerated.
Evil wins in the end should the unclean be permitted to pervade and continue. For example, the apostle Paul counseled the Corinthians to expel the man who was sinning in their midst lest his influence should corrupt them all:
1 Corinthians 5:1-7 MKJV
(1) On the whole it is reported that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not even named among the nations, so as one to have his father’s wife.
(2) And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, so that he who has done this deed may be taken from your midst.
(3) For as being absent in body but present in spirit, I indeed have judged already as though I were present concerning him who worked out this thing;
(4) in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, with my spirit; also, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ;
(5) to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
(6) Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
(7) Therefore purge out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For also Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
Evil cannot be tolerated any more than a deadly virus in a hospital or restaurant should be ignored, though 99.990% of the institution is clean. Mixture cannot be tolerated. That is what quarantine and sterilization are about.
It takes effort and concentration to control and eliminate evil. Freedoms are not free. Freedoms cost. Alberta is rat-free, the only province in Canada to be so. How do Albertans do it? They employ full-time people to conduct constant, systematic surveillance and ruthless extermination. This is not done with any other animal – discrimination by species and nature. It costs Alberta to do this, but they obviously think it costs less than to do nothing.
They may not be aware of the defilement that spreads destruction.
Rats multiply rapidly. That would not be a problem if they were useful, but they are destructive; rats destroy food, carry disease, and present constant trouble and danger. So it is with incompatible mixtures left unchecked; the bad rapidly corrupts the good. As it is written:
“A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (Galatians 5:9 EMTV).
Many have a problem with the way God judges. “Why did God permit this evil to happen?” they ask with indignation. They may not be aware of the defilement that has been spreading its destruction. God sees what man does not, and He has warned us beforehand in order that we should avoid such results. But men do not hear or listen, because they do not believe. He judges with perfect knowledge and justice.
When the Israelites were commanded to take possession of the land of Canaan, they were warned to avoid mixing with the peoples:
Exodus 34:11-16 MKJV
(11) Observe that which I command you this day. Behold! I drive out before you the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
(12) Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the people of the land where you go, lest it be for a snare in the midst of you.
(13) But you shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their sacred poles.
(14) For you shall worship no other god. For Jehovah, Whose Name is Jealous, is a jealous God;
(15) lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice to their gods, and call you, and you eat of his sacrifice;
(16) and lest you take from their daughters for your sons, and their daughters go whoring after their gods and make your sons go whoring after their gods.
The greatest period of glory, peace, and plenty Israel ever experienced was during Solomon’s reign. Alas, Solomon did not heed God’s warning against intermingling with the nations around them. He took of them wives who worshipped other gods and slowly, yet not so slowly, turned his heart to them and away from the God of Israel. From there, it was all downhill for Israel, because of forbidden mixture.
Those inheriting these destructive mixtures of practices and ways would not have known what the pure worship of God looked like – they would have been unaware of their defilement. That is the case today, when many do not know or consider the ungodliness of what they assume to be good or godly practices. Unless they are quickened and raised from the dead, they do not know they have been in death. They say, “We have always done things this way.”
God’s Kingdom is not of this world.
For example, Christmas and Easter are pagan days that have been dressed up as Christian, mixing elements of godliness with worldly self-serving superstitions and practices. The result is an abomination to God that is toxic to its partakers. Read That Devilish Spirit of Christmas and these Diabolical Doctrines: Christmas Is a Biblical Christian Celebration and The Keeping of Easter.
Another example is the use of crosses and pictures of Christ as religious paraphernalia, though these are strictly prohibited by the Second Commandment of God, and with good reason – they are deadly. Read Religious Images, Icons, and Likenesses.
A blatant example of mixture, though hidden to those who cannot see, is “Christian” politics, a non sequitur if there ever was one. Jesus could not have been plainer in His words and example. He said that His Kingdom is not of this world. He did not seek political power or accept it when conferred on Him. How is it, then, that those taking His Name think to use politics to achieve His ends? The answer is they have their own ends, and those do not turn out well. The gate that leads to life is narrow, and few find it. Wide is the gate of mixture.
Today, we see the promotion of ecumenism. We see many and diverse attempts at unity, but will they work? Can Muslims and Christians join together when Jesus says He is the Son of God but Muhammad says God has no son? Can Islam dwell in peace with Christians and Jews when the Koran boldly, unequivocally teaches the subjugation and even the extermination of infidels (non-Muslims)? How can water and fire dwell together in unity? One may have fire in a stove and water in a pot, heating on the stove, but one cannot pour water on the fire and expect the two to get along. It would be an unreasonable mixture, unless it was planned that one would be done away, either the water puts out the fire or the fire evaporates the water.
Read The False Promise of Man’s Unity.
Today, we see men’s laws trying to mix with God’s Law, yet the two are opposed to each other. It creates confusion. People are taught to obey the law; but is it required of them by God to obey man’s law if man’s law contradicts or opposes God’s Law? This is another ungodly mixture that leads to destruction.
There is life in God’s ways and in His Law.
Men today are mixing genes, crossing species and life forms. It will not work; on the contrary, I expect great and evil consequences.
Many mix the worship of mammon with worship of God, justifying themselves, but Jesus said:
“No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24 MKJV).
God has created men and women to join together for procreation and family harmony. He has explicitly condemned men joining with men and women with women in sexual union. It is ungodly mixture, according to both the Scriptures and nature.
Ungodly mixture destroys, no matter how much those who choose these mixtures argue and protest.
Think of the health and power of purity, and know that there is life in God’s ways and in His Law. His Law is an expression of His nature. His Law is our guide, our sustenance, and our assurance of prosperity in all that we do:
“Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people, who do not follow the example of sinners or join those who have no use for God. Instead, they find joy in obeying the Law of the LORD, and they study It day and night. They are like trees that grow beside a stream, that bear fruit at the right time, and whose leaves do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do. But evil people are not like this at all; they are like straw that the wind blows away. Sinners will be condemned by God and kept apart from God’s own people. The righteous are guided and protected by the LORD, but the evil are on the way to their doom” (Psalms 1:1-6 GNB).
Victor Hafichuk