Evil is Good Spoiled

I grew up in a time when rock 'n roll was referred to by some as "devil music" because of something obscurely referred to as an "evil beat."  I have heard all sorts of strange ideas, like the rapid drumming places people in a trance-like state or the music had a possessive and controlling capacity.  As a kid I bought music played by Christian artists, or at least tapes supplied in Christian bookstores next to the Chick tracts.  I was particularly fond of metal, much to the chagrin of one of my Sunday School teachers.  I supplied her a cassette complete with lyrics so she could determine for herself if it was sinful or not.  "The lyrics seem fine but I still think it's got that evil beat," was her response.

There are no doubt evil musicians in the world whose explicit aim is to make the most evil music they can, and many have succeeded with their blasphemous efforts.  Yet music, in itself, is not and cannot be a bad thing.  People have taken a good thing and made it wicked, vulgar, sensual, filled with violence and hate.  I am convinced a rhythm, minor key, or chord progression is not evil in itself, but even catchy music is no better than the message it proclaims and what (or who!) is behind it.  In The Quotable Lewis, C.S. Lewis wrote something which relates to music and many other things God has created to be:

"The truth is that evil is not a real thing at all, like God.  It is simply good spoiled.  That is why I say there can be good without evil, but no evil without good.  You know what the biologists mean by a parasite - an animal that lives on another animal.  Evil is a parasite.  It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse." (Martindale, Wayne, and Jerry Root. The Quotable Lewis. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2005. Page 265)

What Lewis asserts is very sensible, as God is only good and existed before all things.  He was good without any evil being in existence, and when this world is dissolved our righteous God and His redeemed saints will embark on an eternity marked with purity as at the beginning.  All God made was good, but man has sullied what God made pure; man has made crooked what He made straight.  What God has given us to enjoy man hoarded for himself, drank himself drunk, and removed sex from the strict boundaries of marriage.  The goodness of the original may be obscured, but through God it is retained.  From God's Word and the indwelling Holy Spirit we can instantly recognise heresy in a philosophy or in a song.  God made people able to think with their brains, and in man's supposed wisdom he has outfoxed a need for a Creator and thus God's existence is as a vestigial organ, a transitory fix for slow-witted superstitious simpletons of a less developed age.  God made both angelic hosts and man to sing:  some of these voices praise God and others curse Him without shame.

Evil is a parasite, and thank Jesus it need not pollute our minds or spoil our praise because He has made us righteous by grace through faith.  We ought to be discerning of the things we eat, drink, watch, or listen to, knowing if we sow to the flesh we will reap corruption.  But let us not condemn as evil what is not evil in itself - like calories, music beats, instruments, meats, or drink.  In Christ all is lawful, but not all is helpful.  Being slaves of Jesus Christ we are not to be brought under the power of any, nor place a stumbling block in the way of another.  People might be offended by music others enjoy, but it is our fault if we censure them for their firmly-held convictions.  Let each be convinced in their own mind, knowing it is before God we stand or fall.