Hatred and the Unholy Trinity

This past week the UCCB readings included Jesus’ teachings on the world’s attitude toward Christians (John 15:18-26); a world of overt hatred.  This hatred is aimed at God, his followers, and all that is good. 

You may have heard the phrase “unholy trinity.” It consists of three anti-God components: the flesh, the world and the devil.  All three of these, all the time, stand diametrically opposed to God.  The flesh, is not our blood and bones, rather it is our fallen spiritual nature which has also impacted our physical being (e.g. our bodies die).  The devil is a powerful spirit being, and together, humanity and the devil comprise the “world” referenced in Sacred Scripture; the third component of this unholy trinity.

The unholy trinity is not without beginning.  Some religious constructs say that Good and Evil are equally eternal, like two divine wolves struggling for power.  This is false.  In the beginning there was God, who is Good, and only through his creation of rational beings was evil introduced into reality.

In creating rational beings, God imbued them with the freedom of will, that is to say, the ability to choose.  This is not true with the rest of creation.  The planets cannot choose to leave their orbits no more than my tulips can say, “Today, I will not open.”  Some have said that God is the author of evil because he created humans and the devil, but this is untrue.  All creation was originally good.   Lucifer was good, until, as a rational spirit being he chose to rebel against God.  Rational humanity, in the form of Adam and Eve, were created good, until they too chose to disobey God.  The responsibility for evil lies at the door of the doer.

The fall from grace was completed when these two rational and spiritual entities became subject to this planet; subsequently contaminated. Satan was cast down from heaven and our first parents were cast out of the perfect garden, and here we are today.  We live in a world that is subject to physical and spiritual death, and is temporarily controlled by Satan, the “Prince of the Power of the Air” (Eph. 2:2), and the “god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4), and for this reason the “whole world lies in wickedness.” (1 John 5:19).  It is not the planet earth, nor is it everything living in the world that dwells in wickedness – trees and bees are not evil – it is the mixture of evil human and spirit beings which define this world’s wickedness, though this planet has paid an undeserved price as well. With everything tainted by the unholy trinity, does this mean that there is no good in the world?  No.  God is here, and he is good, but what we do see of “goodness” outside of God is a heavily qualified “good.”   We see this in Matthew 7 where Jesus states that an evil person knows how to give a good gift to their children.  Notice that the gift is good, but the giver is still considered evil.

God is good.

Satan is evil.

The dynamics of the world, currently under the influence of Satan, is evil.

Humanity, though born into a hereditary fall from grace (original sin), still has a choice. And herein lies hope. From the beginning we were not fated to destruction.

Joshua told the children of Israel, “Choose you this day whom you will serve…but for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  And while we have the freedom to choose, the choice itself is not an option.  One cannot say “I want neither the world nor Jesus,” for Jesus said, if you are not with me, you are against me.  If you cannot decide, Jesus will decide for you.  As for those who choose Jesus, that stand comes with a price – being hated by the unholy trinity.   

Jesus told us that this world hates him, because it hated God.  He also told us that, as believers, we have a target on our back.  No one wants to be hated, well, with the exception of Caligula who said “Let them hate me as long as they fear me,” but exceptions like his are rare.  Yet Jesus told his followers, “I have chosen you out of the world, the world therefore hates you.”  That is not an exception, but the rule which he followed up with “the servant is no greater than his lord.”  (Jesus was nothing if not brutally honest with his followers!)  

Hatred, as bad as it is intrinsically, is not the ultimate end-game for the unholy trinity, but the step just prior to the apex of destruction.  We see an example of this when Jesus called the Pharisees “children of the devil,” because they refused to believe the truth. Filled with hatred towards him, what was their response?  To kill Jesus.  And destruction is not just for those who side with Christ.  Satan wants to destroy everything, including those who follow him wittingly or not.   

During the first century AD, when a succession of tyrants had taken hold of the Roman Empire, we read of reigns of wickedness and destruction, and not only against Jews, Christians, and barbarians, but of their own citizens as well.  Glance at Tacitus, Suetonius or Plutarch and see how these rulers, without benefit of trial, would accuse and murder Roman senators, soldiers and commoners – as well as their servants and slaves. One emperor after another murdered his own family, friends, colleagues, and even ordinary citizens because, no matter how the reason was masked, they ruled in the image of their father, the devil. 

The devil’s own attack and devour one another because their master is bent on annihilation. 

While we may understand hatred to an extent, the reason why destruction is so enthusiastically embraced by Satan may not make sense to us.  Utter destruction is counterproductive even in the eyes of fallen humans, for how often have we said or heard related to a horrible act, “Why would they do that?!”  Jesus explained why.  He said that the devil is a murderer from the beginning, who did not abide in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  The DNA of Satan is a twisted mass of hatred, deceit and destruction aimed at God and his creation.  Yet truth prevails.

No matter how hard this world tries to hide or deny the truth of God, it remains.  It is in us, in his Written Word, and in his Church.   God himself provided the light of reason and faith to illuminate our darkened minds, and this is but one more reason the devil hates.  He knows we have a choice and will do everything in his power to dissuade us from good. Saint Peter called him a roaring lion who constantly searches for his next victim.  When we see the overwhelming hatred in this world, the abject cruelty in the news on a daily basis, the destruction of life, the propensity to pride, greed and malice – we are looking at the very soul of fallen nature under the orchestration of the devil.  But be not dismayed, his days are numbered, rather, be of good cheer!

We who are baptized and follow Jesus are on the victorious side of all creation and eternity.  We have the Word of Revelation, the Holy Spirit, the Church whom the “gates of hell” will not prevail against, and we have God on our side, for “If God be for us, who can be against us?”  God has not only equipped us to survive this world, but to thrive and pursue all that is good.  Yet, sometimes this is difficult.

Almost daily I feel like this life is under a persistent dark cloud.  I mourn for justice and peace and tell the Lord how much I hate this world, and how I wish he would come back soon.  That sounds positively negative, doesn’t it?  Yet, there is nothing spiritually negative about it.  To long for God, to desire peace, to crave justice, to love mercy, and yes, to “hate this world,” all show me that I am on the correct path. This is why – no matter the outcome of the day - I am able to smile when I say, “Jesus, I trust in you!” 

Flee the Unholy Trinity and you will find yourself wrapped tightly in the arms of God!