"Hear O Israel, the lord our God is One."
This statement in Deuteronomy 6 contradicts all notions of Dualism.
Dualism developed in ancient Persia and influenced Judaism during the Persian Empire.
It states that God and the devil are equal co-creators of reality.
This was a primitive theory developed to explain our experience of the world.
But there are other explanations.
For example evil in our world can be attributed to the ignorance and fear of human beings with free will.
There is no need for a supernatural explanation of evil.
This means that the only supernatural force is God.
And God is good.
So we are not surrounded by shadows and evil.
We are surrounded by God's Love.
It is evident in creation.
And it is evident in the Life that is all around us.
But that is not to say that there is no evil in the world.
Evil exists in the form of people who have rejected the image of God as a harsh punisher and judge of humankind.
They have turned to the devil and do evil in the world.
Or so they believe.
Rock stars, entertainers, and sporting heroes have sold their souls for fame and fortune and a rock star reception.
But the image of God which they have rejected is not the true image of God.
Jesus said that the world did not know God.
By this he meant that the standard image of God as a harsh punisher and judge of humans was not what God is like at all.
God does not punish us.
And God does not judge us.
God is our loving Father.
And He loves all his children.
"Even the darkness is not dark to you,
the night is as bright as the day,
For darkness is as light to you." Psalm 139:12 (NRSV)
"God is light and in him there is no darkness at all." 1 John 1:5 (NRSV)
"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is One."
[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.]
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