----------Man: Basically Good or Evil?---------

Have you ever heard the statement that man is basically good and it's the devil who makes him bad? Is this an accurate statement? What does the bible say about it?

Satanic statement number seven states: Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development,” has become the most vicious animal of all!

Satanism claims that because of man's spiritual and intellectual development he has become an animal more vicious than all the beasts. Many eastern religions, and even the theory of evolution, maintains that mankind continues to get better with the passage of time because of their "spiritual and intellectual development".

What Anton Lavey understood about human nature is that we are not basically good but are really basically an evil creature who thinks only of himself. The founder of the Church of Satan made the mistake of blaming it on our "spiritual and intellectual" development instead of the true source of the problem: sin.

Does the bible support the statement that mankind is basically good? Not at all. In fact, God paints a very different picture of the human race. Roman 3:10 states 10 As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.

The bible says no one is good. If no one is good, then that means we are all evil. We read stories about serial killers and call them monsters who deserve to rot in hell. That hell-bound monster could just as easily be you or me. Every single one of us has it within them to do great evil. Anton Lavey witnessed that first hand as he was a crime photographer who saw the monstrous evil acts that mankind does somewhere in this world every single day. He blamed God for these acts but the truth is that it's mankind's rejection of God that leads to great evil.

So how does a person keep himself from being the most vicious animal of all? Learning to fear God is the first step. This is not the fear that you experience when you are afraid because a python just crawled out of your toilet. This is actually a reverence for God with an understanding of what He can do to you because of disobedience. This is the same fear that you would have of a beloved parent. You obey the parent because you respect him or her and you don't want to be punished for something they either told you not to do and you did anyway or something they told you to do but you didn't. It is not the whipping that hurts the child. It's knowing that he or she disappointed someone they love that hurts them the most. Every child wants to please their parents.

When we are born and in the early stage of our life, we think only of ourselves as our very nature is only selfishness. Our attitude at that time is me, me, me, and as long as you meet my demands you are fine. That is the sin nature that all of us have been exposed to right from the start of our lives. Children can be vicious animals to each other yet they can forgive one another instantly. They have to learn to deny their sin nature by learning to share and think of others.

Why are we such animals? When we truly give into our sin nature, we become worse than animals because even monkeys don't kill their unborn children. Adam's disobedience to God subjected him and all of his descendants to Satan's authority. Because he chose Satan rather than God, we have all paid the price. However, there is a way to conquer our basically evil and animalistic behavior.

God gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gift of His son to give us power over sin through His sacrifice on the cross and the imparting of the Holy Spirit when we choose to trust in that sacrifice. It is because of our intellectual development that we can consider the story of Christ and reason for our ourselves if He is indeed who He says He is. When we reason that He is indeed our Savior and accept Him and the free gift of pardon He offers us, then He gives us the Holy Spirit which empowers us to think of others rather than our ourselves. This is clearly spelled out for us in Romans Chapter 5

18 Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.

It is because of mankind's spiritual and intellectual development that he can find the tools he needs to overcome his animalistic, selfish self and become far more than a vicious animal. To say that man's spiritual and intellectual development turns us into creatures that belong in horror movies is an outright lie. We shouldn't be surprised. Satan is the father of lies and Anton Lavey, who is now dead, is experiencing that personally.

Copyright 2005 by Gary Goodworth