How Evil Turns Good

Isaiah cried, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20). We see many examples of this confusion today, from referring to abortion as a “women’s health issue” to calling biblical sexual ethics “cruel and intolerant.” We know Isaiah was right. The world turns morality upside down. 

But how does it happen? 

Good doesn’t become evil overnight. Morality—our sense of right and wrong—changes only with great difficulty. To turn good and evil on its head, someone would have to follow a clever scheme. And he would have to be patient. It takes time to convince someone that everything they’d been taught was a lie. 

A friend of mine recently shared a quote that gives a plain explanation about how evil gets turned into good. It was attributed to Dwight Longenecker, who posted it to Twitter in 2019: 

“First we overlook evil.
Then we permit evil.
Then we legalize evil.
Then we promote evil.
Then we celebrate evil.
Then we persecute those who still call it evil.” 

Tolerance leads to desensitization, which leads to permissiveness, which leads to policies, which leads to promotion, which leads to the persecution of those we once honored as good people. 

It’s not hard to understand. We live in a time where this scheme unfolds right under our noses. 

Paul said that he would not be outwitted by Satan because he wouldn’t allow himself to be ignorant of his “designs” (2 Cor. 2:11). Watch how Satan turns evil into good and good into evil. Do not be deceived.

Drew Kizer