P613:1, 54:0.1
Evolutionary man finds it difficult fully to comprehend the significance and
to grasp the meanings of evil, error, sin, and iniquity. Man is slow to perceive
that contrastive perfection and imperfection produce potential evil; that
conflicting truth and falsehood create confusing error; that the divine endowment
of freewill choice eventuates in the divergent realms of sin and righteousness;
that the persistent pursuit of divinity leads to the kingdom of God as contrasted
with its continuous rejection, which leads to the domains of iniquity.
P613:2, 54:0.2
The Gods neither create evil nor permit sin and rebellion. Potential evil
is
time-existent in a universe embracing differential levels of perfection
meanings and values. Sin is potential in all realms where imperfect beings
are endowed with the ability to choose between good and evil. The very conflicting
presence of truth and untruth, fact and falsehood, constitutes the potentiality
of error. The deliberate choice of evil constitutes sin; the willful rejection
of truth is error; the persistent pursuit of sin and error is iniquity.