The Return of Evil?
I haven't written in quite a while. But, in light of yesterday's tragic events at Virginia Tech, I felt compelled to post something about it.
As I hear and watch the news reports, I am greatly grieved and saddened. My heart goes out to the families and friends of those who died in this brutal attack. I cannot comprehend the sense of frustration and hopelessness many of them surely feel. But I can pray for them.
Pondering yesterday's events, my thoughts go back to something that happened to me here at work last week. I was in a company-wide, mandatory "Mutual Respect Training" class (a.k.a. "Harassment Training"). At the very beginning the instructor asked the class this question: "Why do we have laws?"
I immediately shot up my hand. The teacher called on me, and I answered: "To restrain Evil." The class, including the teacher, broke out in laughter. I even heard one woman snicker, "Evil!" sarcastically under her breath. I nervously muttered something about "well that is the right answer, people," but the battle was lost, and the course moved on. (Incidentally, the "correct" answer to the question was: "to prevent unfairness.")
When I discussed the incident with my friend Brant the next day, he wisely observed that in America today, we generally live such a life of ease that we rarely come into contact with Evil. So we have largely come to believe that Evil doesn't exist. And to a large extent, I think Brant's right.
But, hopefully, yesterday's massacre at Virginia Tech is a wake-up call. After witnessing such "senseless" brutality, many people will again correctly label the killer's actions as "Evil." Down deep in our souls we all have a profound sense that these events were objectively "not good" (to say the least). We recognize that this sort of behavior is more than simply "unfair." We are forced to recognize the once commonly-held belief that there is objective moral Good and Evil.
And people, as they always do when tragedy strikes, will begin to ask the question: "Why?" Apart from the existence of God, there can be no answer (or even any meaning) to this question. Those committed to atheistic humanism will be compelled to blame handguns, the university administration, the killer's parents, and even the killer's genetic make-up. While any of this might provide a tiny bit of cathartic relief, it ultimately doesn't help to answer the question.
If the questioners dare to suppose (for the sake of argument) that there might be a God, their thinking, then, often goes like this: "If God is all good and all powerful, a tragedy like this could never happen." Therefore, either God is good but impotent to stop the evil, or He is all powerful but chooses not to stop the evil because He is capricious. Either way, you end up with a being that is less than God--some sort of lesser-deity, something like a mythical Greek god.
On the surface, these questions sound reasonable and logical. But their presuppositions create a false dilemma. As the philosophers say, there is a tertium quid (a third option). And this is the answer we deduce from the pages of the Bible: God is both all powerful and all good; and yet, for reasons unbeknownst to us, He allows evil to continue for now; but He will vindicate Himself and will one day judge all men for their evil deeds; and that justice will be 100% right and good, according to His own perfectly righteous character.
The honest skeptic (if there were such a thing) has to at least grant that this is possible. The false dilemma he creates does not offer the only possible answers. And of the four possibilities offered (God does not exist, God is good but impotent, God omnipotent but not good, God is both omnipotent and good), the only one that truly offers any hope to those in grief is the fourth--the answer found in the Bible.
The Bible provides us with more insight into this tragedy as well. We all tend to assume that we somehow deserve a life of pleasure and ease. We think that when tragedy befalls us, somehow God is shortchanging us, that we have received an injustice. The fact of the matter is that all mankind are sinful and in rebellion against their creator God. As such, we have plunged the world into a downward spiral of misery, sickness, and death. And, if we continue in rebellion against God, He will justly give us what we want: eternal separation from Him and His goodness.
The very fact that any of us live one day more on this earth, that we have food to eat, clothes to wear, and houses to cover our heads, is due only to the sustaining graciousness of God. Theologians call this God's "common grace" because it is "common" to all men--even those who persist in rebellion against Him. As Jesus said, "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Mt. 5:45).
Christians are just as guilty of this mistake as non-christians. We need to remember that if we were to get more of what we deserve, the world would be even more full of murderous thugs, famine, pestilence, and calamity. It is only the restraining hand of a good and omnipotent God who ultimately keeps this from happening. We deserve sickness and death; but God is merciful.
Ultimately, the greatest expression of God's mercy and grace are offered for the sake of the people He came to save. That God became a man, suffered and died innocently under the cruel hands of sinful men is a great mystery. But He died and rose again to set sinners free from bondage to their sins and rebellion against Him, and to give them a new life. Those who put their trust in Him will one day be free of the pain and misery they have brought upon themselves because He has taken it upon Himself in their place. And one day, Justice will prevail, and all will be right with the world.
