Let’s continue with the discussion I opened up yesterday. The problem is…evil. There are many today who say that evil, with a capital “E” simply doesn’t exist. They hold that we are, after all, only a product of our environment, our history, or our genes: Or that there may be evil on a macro or corporate level, but not on a personal level. But from my personal level, I consider that a grave error. I have seen evil and been affected by evil. I’ve seen too many people of the same genes, history, and environment make different decisions from each other, some going on to good and successful lives, others to painful, destructive, hate-filled lives. Those who consider evil an abstraction need to spend time in federal prisons, or in state hospitals, or in ghetto areas…or in suburbia, where sexual and physical abuse are growing, drug use is rampant, and where relationships can be just as destructive and painful as elsewhere.
I think philosophical and theological discussions of the problem of evil are a side issue. Even Jesus didn’t indulge himself in such. Instead he said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,REPENT, and believe the good news!” His awareness was that all of us need a change of life, a new direction, in order to be ready for the complete and redemptive rule of God in our heart and soul.
I’ve found that when it comes to reality, the arguments aren’t worth much. When a child is raped and murdered, the parents are not apt to take much comfort from the explanation (better than most) that since God wants man to love him, man must be free to love or not to love and thus free to rape and murder a child if he decides to.
Christian Science solves the problem of evil by saying that it does not exist except as an illusion of mortal mind. Buddhism solves it in terms of reincarnation and an inexorable law of cause and effect whereby the raped child is merely reaping the consequences of evil deeds it committed in a previous life.
Christianity, on the other hand, ultimately offers no theoretical solution at all. Instead it points to the cross and says that, practically speaking, there is no evil so dark and so obscene—not even this—but that God can forgive and turn to Good.
Evil is a given in our world. Each of us must deal with inexplicable and destructive decisions either we or someone close to us makes. All of us are affected by the sins of others as well as our own sins. But those decisions, those consequences, are not the last word. The Kingdom of God is here and God’s forgiveness is vastly more powerful than any exercise of evil in our lives. It is his will and his irresistible intention to redeem his fallen creation. He is the last word.
Prayer: “Merciful Father, I am a sinful and fallen man. I have intended to do good and have too often failed. Even at my best I know my weakness is ever with me. I love your law with all my heart, but I am unable to live it with all my life. I am powerless before the sin in my life. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, but restore me to your salvation. And give me a willing spirit to sustain me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”