2018-11-30. Why Revenge is Wrong
São Carlos – SP, Brazil, November 30, 2018.
Teacher: Prolotheos.
Subject: “Why Revenge is Wrong.”
Received by Valdir Soares.
Prolotheos: “Some things are easy to classify as either right or wrong and others are not. When a recognized good, generous public figure, is accused, condemned and sentenced to death for a fictitious crime like sedition, as the Judaic authorities did to Jesus of Nazareth, it is not difficult to see the injustice of such a judgment. When, the case for example is to classify as wrong an act of revenge which even agrees with the old commandment — ‘an eye for an eye’ — it is not so easy. However, Jesus, left no doubt that, revenge, although acceptable in the olden days, is unacceptable in the Kingdom of God. He taught: ‘do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.’ Therefore, revenge is wrong; but why is it? Revenge has at least three mistaken assumptions:
Mistaken Assumption #1: Anyone is Entitled to Revenge.
“If everybody were entitled to hand out justice of their own accord, you would have returned to barbaric times, and your civilization wouldn’t have progressed thus far by means of Law and Order. There is much diversity, perversion of divine values, and ignorance of origins in humanity to trust the sense of justice of each individual. A time will come (in a distant age yet) when individuals will be trusted to be the law unto themselves, but that time has not yet come. Humans are imperfect beings and so are their institutions. Still, even as imperfect as these institutions are, they are the best you have; the alternative is chaos. Besides, revenge presumes you own other people’s lives to dispose of them as suits you. Truthfully, you don’t even own yourself. No, no one is entitled to revenge.
Mistaken Assumption #2: One Evil Cancels Another Evil.
“Revenge is no less evil than the offense originally committed. Malice, the evil’s motivation, is present at the root of both of them. Therefore, as in math, two negatives just add to each other and what really cancels a negative value is to add a positive one to it. Evil only produces more evil. Only when you add love to the mix can evil really be canceled. As violence generates more violence, revenge will only bring more revenge to an evil cycle. Revenge is dull, love is smart; revenge is a virus (uncontrollably destructive), love is a life seed that grows with order and purpose. No, evil does not cancel evil; love does.
Mistaken Assumption #3: Justice is About Punishment.
“Human beings by misusing the gift of Personality and Free Will, can put themselves beyond redemption. Human justice believes punishment will make things right. In fact, it doesn’t. Punishment, even if eternal (Hell, if it would exist) can never pay for the offense or redeem the offender; not even the punishment of an innocent instead of the guilty one can. In God’s perfect Justice, beings who by their own choosing put themselves beyond God’s Mercy, will unfailingly agree with their own annihilation, and will be as if they never existed. That makes things right for comparatively few beings who do not want to follow the will of God, and for all others who do. No, punishment doesn’t make things right, but God’s Justice does.
“Therefore, my pupil, revenge is wrong because it is the product of malice and evil as much as is the original offense it tries to make right. Entitlement to revenge presupposes you have a right over others when you are injured — which no one has. Finally, revenge, by punishing in return does not make justice, because an offense can’t be undone, but certainly by love can be pardoned, and in God’s Justice the offender may be rehabilitated or if rehabilitation is rejected (by comparatively few), annihilation intervenes. I am Prolotheos, your teacher-tutor on High. Peace be with you and with all.”
