Today’s world is experiencing the result of unleashed evil resulting from human beings who were created in God’s image to love and serve others. As a culture and as individuals, we have rejected God and rebelled against His commandments of living peacefully on this earth. We have ignored His moral codes, and as a result, we are seeing atrocities from human to human that are so evil there are no words to describe such horror. When humankind does what is right in their own eyes and rejects God’s laws, then evil, chaos, hate, and rebellion follow and we are left wondering if there is any hope for peace ever again.
Where is God amid such evil? Is He incapable of fighting against Satan’s schemes? Is evil winning the war over the hearts and minds of those following Christ? Is God unwilling or unable to wipe evil from the earth?
God is more than capable of doing all things. He is aware of every act of good and evil happening in the world every moment of every day. There is nothing hidden from God and nothing that He could not stop. Several verses in the Bible describe God’s attributes that support His Sovereignty, power, and control.
“I am the Lord. I have spoken; it shall come to pass; I will do it. I will not go back; I will not spare; I will not relent; according to your ways and your deeds you will be judged, declares the Lord God” (Ezekiel 24:14).
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21).
“I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).
The evil in this world came about through man’s choice. God did not create puppets but rather human beings that can choose to love and obey God or to reject Him. Adam and Eve, the first created humans, rejected God’s truth and yielded to living life according to their whims. When God’s truth and moral laws are dismissed, we unleash the evil we experience in our lives and the evil we see in the news. Those who mutilating and kill the innocent will receive the wrath of God; consequences will be grim for the offenders.
All humans have a sinful nature, and we always will have until Jesus comes for us. Many want God to wipe evil from the face of the earth. In doing that, there would be no one left. We all sin, which is evil in God’s law. Yes, He loves us, but our hearts are wicked and capable of hurting others. Our only hope of peace is in Jesus Christ, the world’s Savior.
“The heart is deceitful above all things And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts” (Romans 1:21).
The Old Testament laws were to show what God expects and what no man can obey! Thus, God uses His laws to indicate that all of us are sinners. God was preparing the hearts of sinners to yearn for forgiveness of sin through the coming Messiah. Only a Savior could obey all the laws and pay the price for all the world’s evils. Those sinners who have rejected Jesus Christ as their Savior will spend eternity separate from God in torment.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out” (Mark 9:42-430
“These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:46).
“Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, For what he deserves will be done to him” (Isaiah 3:11).
By rejecting God and His principles governing our lives, including those who are in authority of our country, there can be little doubt that we are heading for greater evil. With that comes unrest, increased anxiety, confusion, and the hope for God’s intervention. In the meantime, what can we, as followers of Christ, do to ease the fear of evil in the news today?
We need to pray for believers to be safe as they live out Christ and share the gospel with those whom the Holy Spirit directs us to go. We must pray for the unsaved to be open to God’s saving grace. We need to understand that we have no control over what is happening, but Jesus Christ, whose Spirit lives in all who trust in Him, knows all and has the power over all evil. In our anger toward the evil ones, we thank God that He promises to judge and condemn those who are evil toward others. We all need to know that evil is temporary, and we need to believe Jesus when He tells us that a time is coming when He will create a new Heaven and Earth where there is only love, joy, and peace. There will be no evil, no hurt or pain. There will be no sickness or death.
As we patiently wait for God’s return, let us not give up on God and blame him for not preventing all evil. Instead, let us do what God tells us to do: Go into the world and tell others about Jesus and the hope that we can all have in Him. We need to be about the cure: Jesus Christ, His love and forgiveness, and the forgiveness He freely extends to all seeking Him.
“…all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:35)
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).