Discourse on Evil, Sin, and Iniquity 

When the Apostle Thomas asked Jesus, “What is evil?” Jesus explained the difference between the concepts of evil, sin, and iniquity.

In his discourse, Jesus emphasized that the human condition is not that of a child of the devil, doomed to sin, but that of a child of God who is at the very beginning of his ascent to perfection. We do not have to seek adoption by God as would a stepchild or a foreigner. He cited the errors in the belief that Adam's sin had doomed humans to a sinful existence.

Jesus counseled Thomas regarding the erroneous belief that Adam was the first man, citing Biblical references, and assured him that our trajectory is not downward into sinful destruction but upwards toward God and ultimate perfection.

Jesus had occasion to define the concepts of evil, sin, and iniquity when the Apostle Thomas asked, “What is evil?”

Jesus first told Thomas that he should not equate evil with that personality who we call “the devil” or “the evil one.” In the case of our planet, that person is Caligastia, the betrayer of our world, who cast his lot – and ours – with the leaders of the Lucifer rebellion, thus plunging our world into spiritual darkness. Many think of Satan and Lucifer as devils. But Jesus defeated Caligastia and all of the other evil rebels that day on Mount Hermon during the event that has come to be known as the “great temptation.” Even so, there is no equal and opposite force of evil in the form of a devil that is in opposition to God. Since Pentecost, all “devils” are servile to the protective ministry of the Spirit of Truth that was bestowed by Jesus when he ascended from our world.

Although the acts of Caligastia were certainly evil, the concept of “evil” is somewhat generic and has a fairly simple definition. Jesus defined it as follows: “Evil is the unconscious or unintended transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will. Evil is likewise the measure of the imperfectness of obedience to the Father’s will.”

In other words, evil can be a deliberate offense against God’s will, as in the case of Caligastia. However, it can also be unconscious – an act that is ungodly but not necessarily premeditated or even realized as actual evil. One example might be gossip, a practice that is hurtful and harmful to the one who gossips, the listener who entertains gossip, and the subject of such gossip. Many people enjoy gossiping about others, and they do it casually and unconsciously, not realizing that what they are doing is actually evil and not in harmony with the Father’s will. Another example might be lying. All of us have had occasion to tell a lie, whether a “little white lie” seen as harmless, to a major denial of truth. Many times we tell a lie without realizing that lying is evil. We see gossip and lying in our daily culture. And there are other examples of everyday evil that we can all recognize (e.g., hatred, revenge-seeking, bullying, and envy).

The important thing to remember about the concept of evil is that it is often embraced in an unconscious way. This is not to say we should condone unconscious evil in ourselves. However, by striving to become more God-conscious, we can more effectively avoid the pitfalls of unconscious evil.

Jesus went on to illuminate the concept of sin. He clarified: “Sin is the conscious, knowing, and deliberate transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will. Sin is the measure of unwillingness to be divinely led and spiritually directed.”

Mortals are more subject to the influence of evil inherent in the natural order of existence on an evolutionary planet. This kind of imperfection that may be part of our experience is not sinful; we are just in the beginning of our striving towards perfection and God understands that we are not always conscious of wrongdoing.

It is only when a person knowingly and deliberately embraces the pathways of sin and makes evil practices an ordinary part of their life that they become sinful. Sin is an attitude of conscious rebellion that was brought to this world by those who fell from spiritual light into gross darkness. Evil is a state of incomplete or partial perfection, but sin is a conscious offense against the will of God.

Next, Jesus explained the concept of iniquity, saying: “Iniquity is the willful, determined, and persistent transgression of the divine law, the Father’s will. Iniquity is the measure of the continued rejection of the Father’s loving plan of personality survival and the Sons’ merciful ministry of salvation."

Therefore, iniquity is a more serious transgression against God because it is a state in which conscious sin becomes habitual and a way of living. It is a total rejection of participation in the Father’s plan of life after death and Jesus’ saving ministry to our world. We see iniquity in the continued efforts of Caligastia to disrupt the will of God on our world, and his persistent rejection of God’s mercy for his transgressions.

Our faulty understanding of the relationships between evil and sin is partially explained by our traditional beliefs concerning Adam and Eve and their “original” sin against God’s law. Jesus told Thomas that while mortals may be subject to evil, man is not the child of the devil and is not innately sinful. While the re-birth of the spirit is an essential part of being delivered from evil and entrance into the kingdom of heaven, this does not in any way take away from the fact that mankind is the child of God, no matter what Adam did.

The traditional belief that Adam was the perfect original man who committed a sin against God, thereby condemning all successive generations of mankind to a life of sin, led to the belief that all men are born innately sinful because of this “original sin.” Jesus indicated that this Genesis story of Adam and Eve is in error. He pointed out that the story of Cain going into the land of Nod to find a wife can only be grasped through the understanding of this error. Likewise, the meaning of the account of the sons of God finding wives from the daughters of men has a meaning that indicates a far older history of mankind than that of the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis.

While there is a material part of the human father in every earthly child, there is a spiritual part of the heavenly Father in every faith son of the kingdom, the indwelling spirit of God. Mortal beings are not step-children, foreigners, or aliens to God. God does not require that we seek to be adopted by him, just as we would never treat our own children this way. Our misunderstandings of evil and sin arise because we do not yet understand the loving and parental nature of the heavenly Father. Jesus cited several Scriptures that corroborate this eternal truth of the love of the heavenly Father for his children on earth.

For centuries, people have been taught that mankind began in godly perfection (with Adam) and is inevitably descending towards destruction because of Adam’s sin. But Jesus assured Thomas: “I have come to show that man, by entrance into the kingdom, is ascending certainly and surely up to God and divine perfection. Any being who in any manner falls short of the divine and spiritual ideals of the eternal Father’s will is potentially evil, but such beings are in no sense sinful, much less iniquitous.”

Jesus requested that Thomas not share this knowledge with the other apostles until he had “returned to the Father.” Consequently, Thomas did not tell anyone of this exchange with Jesus until after he left our world.