A Great Evil has Pervaded our World
Filed on 02 March 2015 in Food For Thought category. 
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A Great Evil has Pervaded our World
Yes, we’ve seen great evils in the last 100 years – evils that have caused more deaths imaginable. WWI was shocking in its mass destruction of people in ground fighting, trench warfare and cannon fodder and starvation all to satisfy the lust for power, and a squabble between rulers who should have been friends.
Yes, brutality was a part of this.
WWII saw a new evil with its genocide of the Jews and the “less perfect”, the seduction and subjection of the German people, the elimination of those who protested and the display of maniacal power. Unbelievable suffering and millions of untold stories.
The restoration of the state of Israel saw a new playing-out of David and Goliath and the enmity between the sons of Abraham that continues – and enlarges its impact – to this day.
Add to this the evils wrought by Stalin, the subjugation in the guise of freedom for the ordinary people wrought by communism, the evils wrought by Pol Pot, and other genocidal attacks in Asia and Africa and we have enough evil to last for ever. And the West is put in the “damned if you interfere and damned if you don’t” position as to whether to step in and try to rescue.
Ah, peace in our time. We can ignore the minor skirmishes and civil wars and get on with building prosperity. WWI and II are behind us and we can cooperate with other peoples in a way that is new and with the fall of the Berlin Wall we can get on with saving the world, aiding the poor in other countries, explore and conquer space and enjoy the fruits of our hard work.
But we reckoned without the suddenly found power of the oil-rich Middle East, the natural enmity between the Arab tribes – now nations – and the root enmity between the Sons of Abraham. Israel had to be eliminated at “all costs” – even to the death of their own people as life was cheap and martyrs went to paradise anyway.
We see this to the extent now where a 7 year old girl is sent as a suicide bomber into a supermarket, where prisoners of war can be blowtorched to death and the video spread around the world, where 21 Christians are publicly – yes, with more world-wide video – beheaded on a beach and the blood streams into the Mediterranean towards Rome to signify the next target. Here is a new evil where honour has a distinctly different meaning and outcome.
Suicidal terrorism is with us – ready to strike anywhere, anytime, against all ages and colours, seemingly random. OK, we can be struck by lightning, or have a motor accident, or drown but unpredictable terrorism introduces a new aspect of horror and suspense and should drive us to a new level of alertness. Can we let that govern our lives? No, but what do we need to do – as Christians in particular – to live in this new world?
Most importantly, we need to be in mourning, mourning for our society, our nation and our world, but to also have joy, joy for the here and now and joy because Jesus is coming again and all nations will bow before Him.
This framework of our feelings – this attitude – should underlie all that we do and speak. It should make us passionate in our telling others of the Good News that Jesus Christ forgives, heals and restores.
It should inform and set the context of our meeting together, in our services – even the songs we sing – to be desperate in learning and memorising the Bible, teaching and encouraging each other and the next generation, telling the story, telling the great story to our children and grandchildren – telling the story of how He rescued us.
It should govern our time and how we spend it. There may be activities and pleasures that we will no longer want to waste time on. There may be an extended holiday that just seems less important when we realise that which is really important.
There’s more but our attitude will govern the rest including our alertness to the dangers facing us and of the necessity to put on the whole armour of God and be ready.
Lachlan Dunjey 1 March 2015. A Safe Place for our Children.
Thanks for all your work to help bring in the reign of God over all the earth. No matter how bleak things may appear right now, we know that all this will pass away and through God’s perfect will, all things will come together in Jesus.
While the time of His mercy continues, may we do all we can to draw in those seemingly on the broad path to ruin, for His Justice will soon call each one of us to account.