This week's 'thought' comes to you
from Franklin
Graham and is entitled, "The Problem of Evil." It
is found in "Decision" magazine, June 2013 issue.
I found his
thoughts interesting (though I doubt they will ever be
popular) because he points out that so many today look for the cause
of evil behaviors in a person's past experience. They look
at that person's upbringing, or for some type of abuse, or to some present
situation of being bullied -- anything they
can point to -- except the possibility that human nature is
just plain flawed from the start. Unpopular as this thought is to the
contemporary mind, Mr. Graham handles it well. Enjoy.
The
Problem of Evil
"After
the tragedies of the Newtown school shooting and the Boston Marathon
terrorist bombing, cultural observers and commentators were at a loss to
explain what could have possibly caused such horrific violence. Could
these murderous and wanton acts spring from the misguided influence of friends
or family? Was there any behavioral evidence or traits that might have
predicted the kind of deeds that shocked a nation?
Not
surprisingly, in a society that increasingly rejects moral absolutes and
personal accountability, the search turned to conjecture about genetics. Is it
possible that "evil" genes are to blame?
After
the rampage in Newtown, scientists at the University of Connecticut were asked
to analyze the DNA of Adam Lanza to look for a genetic explanation for his
coldblooded brutality.
A
May 2011 article in the Wall Street Journal speculated about the chromosomal
connection with violent behavior: "It's presumably neither ethical nor
practical, but supposing that somebody could sequence Osama bin Laden's genome,
which genes would you want to examine to try to understand his violent
desires?"
Well,
the Bible is clear on the cause of evil, and it doesn't have anything to do
with gene sequencing. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked." When sin entered the
world with Adam and Eve's rebellion against God, it brought death, destruction
and evil.
The
Psalmist David, who himself was responsible for plotting the egregious murder
of his loyal soldier Uriah, said "surely I was sinful at birth, sinful
from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). David clearly
understood that he was directly responsible for his heinous deed, and because
of that he confessed his sin and sought God's forgiveness. "For I know my
transgressions, and my sin is always before me" (Psalm 51:5).
Evil
lurks and resides in the heart and soul of man, and its link to behavior is
directly connected to rebellion and disobedience to the Lord and His commands.
Jesus said: "What comes out of man is what makes him 'unclean.' For from
within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft,
murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit … All these evils come from
inside" (Mark 7:20-23).
Gene
therapy can't save anyone from sin. The only cure is to come to Christ and His
cross, where God's wrath and punishment for sin was meted out by the Father on
His Son, who bore our foul iniquities in our stead. It is only in the Person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ that man can find forgiveness and deliverance
from sin and its evil work in our hearts.
When
we come to Christ in repentance and faith, we are given new hearts that are no
longer fully controlled by sin. "I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart
of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my
decrees" (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
Yet
even the believer, fully forgiven of his sin, still struggles with evil and its
effects in the world. We have an evil adversary, the devil, who maliciously
works his woe, but as we trust in the triumph of Christ, we can increasingly
and daily experience ongoing victory.
One
day--soon I believe--evil will be eradicated once and for all when Christ
returns for His own. Sin, death and Satan will be done away with, and God's
justice will prevail for all eternity. Sinners will be judged and punished in
an eternal hell, and the righteous-those who have trusted in Christ for
forgiveness of sin-will live in eternal fellowship with the
Savior. How I look forward to that day."
People today (and this
unfortunately includes many Christians) want to believe (contrary to
Scripture) that people are born innocent, with a totally clean slate and no
innate stain of sin or inbred proclivity toward evil. In
this way any issues that a "deviant" person might
struggle with can be attributed entirely to dysfunctional parenting,
some type of abuse, getting in with the wrong people, etc., etc.,
etc. Anything that can help behavioral scientists say that as opposed to the rest
of humanity, this was why so-and-so did what he/she did.
The Bible tells
us otherwise. As Mr. Graham rightly points out quoting Psalm 51:5, the
bent toward sin is in us from conception. When two full-grown sinners
come together sexually the product of their joint union is a new
baby sinner! The sin may not be as apparent in the
little one, but it is there.
As Jonathan Edwards once
stated speaking of John the Baptist's rebuke of the Pharisees as a "brood
of vipers" -- children are "little vipers." That is, the gland
that will one day produce the venom which adult snakes use to injure or
immobilize their victims is in the little snake (in a smaller
quantity) from birth. The baby snake doesn't become a viper by some fluke
of nature, or hurtful experience, it is born a viper and thus
simply grows to be what it is. "We are not sinners because we sin," as R.
C. Sproul says, "we sin because we are sinners."
In fact, in relation to any sin
(even the ones I think myself incapable of) a friend once told me to say
to myself: "There, but by
the grace of God, go I." I frequently do, lest I inadvertently succumb to the
sin of self-righteousness more than I'm already inclined to do so!
In Christ my Savior, Pastor
Jeff
