Thursday, February 26, 2009

Treasures

Anthony was a rich young man who fell in love with Jesus and threw aside his wealth for a life in the desert. He spent 20 years alone, learning to ignore attacks from evil while submitting to God.

Late in life, he was interviewed by Athanasius, who wrote an account of his life in the mid 300’s. Here’s a quote that intrigues me:

“…as we rise day by day we should think that we shall not abide till evening; and again, when about to lie down to sleep, we should think that we shall not rise up… But thus ordering our daily life, we shall neither fall into sin, nor have a lust for anything, nor cherish wrath against any, nor shall we heap up treasure upon earth.”

I don’t yearn for his lifestyle but I find his wisdom breathtaking. What do I cherish in my life? And am I devoting myself to that? We assume infinite tomorrows but am I devoting myself to that which is precious to me?

Some say that we do what we want to do. But I think we do what we think is important, whether we want to do it or not.

Do I know what I treasure? Am I living that way?

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

For the small ones

This is a fascinating speech from a 12-year-old girl in Canada who first wasn't allowed to give her speech because it dealt with abortion and mentioned the Creator. However, once she had permission, she won the speech contest. Please take time to hear her.


Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Titus on Crete

Titus is such a short book that it’s tempting to skip over it, but it is full of important information for us.

Paul wrote this letter late in his ministry. Because he was probably in prison, he couldn’t go to the island of Crete where he’d left Titus to organize the church there. He had to write a letter of instruction instead.

Crete had a rich history and had been important in earlier Greek times. By the time the Romans had conquered the civilized world, Crete had lost some importance but was still a strong trade area. The island was not a wild uncivilized place but had large cities and much culture.

Many Jews lived on the island and were among those listed to be in Jerusalem during the Passover. (Acts 2:11) Since many became Christians at Pentecost and took the good news home with them to start new churches, the same thing probably took place on Crete, too.

We’re not sure if Paul planted a church in Crete or simply discovered Christians there and sent Titus to help with some problems on the island.

Because Paul calls Titus a “true son,” we know that they are very close friends. And it’s likely that Paul had shared the gospel with Titus and been part of his conversion to Christianity.

They had probably traveled together and Paul obviously trusted Titus enough to leave him on the island to clear up some matters there.

This letter was written to give Titus some pointers. One of the keys to understanding the book is to remember that the culture was trying to tear the believers away from the truth of Christianity. How could Titus teach the body of believers to live differently than those who were not believers.

Since that's slightly relevant to us today as well, we’ll be studying those differences in our weekly study of Titus.

Next week: titles

Monday, February 23, 2009

Peacemaking

Charles believed his ministry was stirring up trouble. And he was good at it, pointing out every chink in a new idea and submarining most church ventures.

Doris liked to carry the flag for the traditions of her church. If someone dared ask, "why do we continue to do this activity year after year?" it was Doris who swooped on the scene to squash the questioner.

I've been thinking a lot about church dynamics since reading Leading Women Who Wound and have more thoughts I want to share with you.

I grew up in the church, and I've known people like Charles and Doris all my life. In their own heart, they believe they are defending the faith.

They are, in reality, corrupting the foundation of the body and need to be confronted. However, most of us would rather file our teeth down than confront someone. Even if it means letting unhealthy people tear apart what God has put together.

Think of conflict like this. When two people first are aware of their differences, they are still close enough to punch each other, figuratively speaking. But as the conflict grows, they move father apart and start hucking rocks at each other. Then they move further back so they can lob hand grenades and eventually get enough distance to blast each other with bazookas and heavy artillery.

Wouldn't it be better to get a bloody nose, so to speak, and end the conflict early, before the big guns come out?

So, after you read Leading Women Who Wound, I want you to check out the Peacemaking Ministries of Ken Sande. His basic premise is that, because God has reconciled himself to us, we can be reconciled to other Christians.

Peacemaking Ministries equips Christians to respond biblically. Rather than letting conflict rip a church or relationship to shreds, conflict can be faced head-on early and a body
strengthened. He has practical tools that we should all know and use frequently within the body of Christ.

Check it out.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Surviving Financial Meltdown

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

This is a very timely book, obviously, as many are facing a financial pinch - and sometimes much more. How can we navigate? Ron Blue is well-known as a Christian financial adviser and he presents some practical advice for Christians who want to avoid total financial meltdown.

Today's Wild Card authors are:



Jeremy White

and the book:



Surviving Financial Meltdown

Tyndale House Publishers (January 20, 2009)


ABOUT THE AUTHORs:


Ron Blue has been a financial planner and consultant for over 30 years. He currently leads an international effort to equip and motivate Christian financial professionals to serve the body of Christ by implementing biblical wisdom in their lives and practices, resulting in financial freedom. Ron has appeared on national radio and television programs and has authored 13 books on personal finance, including the best-seller Master Your Money.

Visit the author's website.

Jeremy Whitehas been a Certified Public Accountant since 1988 with financial experience in public accounting and industry. He’s currently practicing as a partner with Blythe, White & Associates, a certified public accounting and consulting firm in Paducah, KY. Jeremy is a qualified member of Kingdom Advisors. He has coauthored or assisted with four other best-selling financial books including The New Master Your Money, Splitting Heirs, and Your Kids Can Master Their Money.

Visit the author's website.

Product Details:

List Price: $12.99
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers (January 20, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414329954
ISBN-13: 978-1414329956

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:


Riding Out Financial Storms

How to Prepare for Economic Uncertainty

Plunging home values. Declining stock market. Vanishing credit. Rising gas prices. Ongoing war against terrorism. Failing banks. Soaring food costs. Falling value of the dollar. Swelling budget deficits. (Suggested cover story for the next Money magazine—Best Investment Now: Antacids!)

If you’re worried, you’re not alone. You’re not the only one feeling the uncertainty. Consumer confidence measurements have reached their lowest level in decades.

Most of the world would still leap at the chance to trade economic situations with you. You realize that. But you’re still nervous and searching for answers.

It’s easy enough to present our case that economic times are challenging. The daily headlines back us up on that. Our challenge in this book is to prepare you so you have less fear and more financial peace.

We want to help you develop a common-sense financial strategy to weather the economic storms of today as well as those in the far-off financial future. In times of economic uncertainty, the strength of your strategy will determine whether you thrive or survive.

Let’s get started with a reminder of how you prepare for tough times: Prepare in advance.

Don’t Let Your Dreams Be Washed Away
The aerial photo is startling: An attractively designed yellow two-story home stands alone on highly sought-after real estate along the Texas Gulf Coast. Just a few days before, that house was part of a thriving community. Now, it is surrounded on every side by the wreckage of about 200 other homes and buildings. A private helicopter pilot, flying over the area after it had been slammed by Hurricane Ike, had taken the photo.

Not long after he posted the image on CNN’s iReport site, the buzz started. Viewers began debating whether the photo was a fake. After all, how could one home withstand 110 mph winds and a storm surge while every other building around it had been pulverized? The speculation ended when the sister of the home’s owners identified it and provided another photo of the house taken just a few months earlier.

Reporters quickly located the home’s owners, Warren and Pam Adams. Just three years before, the Adams’ home had been destroyed by Hurricane Rita. Because they loved the beach, the couple wanted to rebuild rather than leave the coast. So they did—but with the knowledge that their new home might also be in the path of a hurricane some day.

The couple hired an engineering firm to oversee the contractor as their new residence was built. The builder put the house’s bottom floor on wooden columns that raised it above the surrounding houses. The foundation was made with reinforced concrete, and builders followed the latest hurricane building codes to the letter.

Despite its solid construction, the home did sustain some damage in Hurricane Ike. The first-floor garage and a wooden staircase on the home’s exterior were destroyed. The interior suffered some water and mud damage. Yet unlike their neighbors, who returned to their former home sites hoping to find a few personal belongings among the rubble, the Adams can repair their home.

The precautions the couple took when rebuilding their home after Hurricane Rita may have seemed extreme to some. Yet their foresight appears brilliant now after the town sustained a direct hit by a hurricane. In fact, after Aaron Reed, a spokesman with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, confirmed that the Adams’ home was the only surviving home on that side of the beach, he added, “I thought, if I were ever to build a house on the coast, I’m going to contact the guy who built this.”1

In fact, the couple simply displayed common sense. They knew that their home had been destroyed once by a hurricane and that it could happen again. Of course, others along the Gulf Coast knew they faced that threat as well. The difference was in how they responded to that risk.

Like some Gulf Coast residents, many of today’s investors build their financial houses without much of a strategy. When you build something you want to keep, common sense dictates that you build it according to a plan and with materials that will last. This strategy works for all types of construction, from putting together a financial portfolio to building a house.

Warren and Kay Adams can’t prevent a hurricane from smashing into their home on the coastline. They can’t control which way the wind blows. They can, however, build their house to withstand the wind and water.

Mr. Blue Goes to Washington
Palms sweating and heart racing, I (Ron) remember climbing the granite steps of the Capitol building to testify as an expert witness before a Senate subcommittee. I entered the chamber room where the hearings took place. I had often seen it on television. It was impressive yet intimidating. The senators were seated higher than the witness table and the visitors’ gallery.

I recognized many of the senators’ names on the plaques at their table and took a deep breath. I reminded myself that I wasn’t in trouble—even though the room had the feel of a courtroom. The Senate subcommittee was holding hearings on “Solutions for the New Era: Jobs and Families.” I was one of several “experts” from various economic and social fields. Other participants on the panel pressed for more social programs.

When my turn to speak came, I was hoping my voice wouldn’t crack. Could I live up to my introduction as a financial expert? Leaning in toward the microphone on the table, I began to answer a senator’s question about what the average American family should do in the current economy to survive and thrive. I said I believed the American family could benefit from following a four-part financial plan:

1. Think long-term with goals and investing

2. Spend less than they earn

3. Maintain liquidity (or emergency savings)

4. Minimize the use of debt

The Senate chamber room fell silent for a moment. I was expecting laughter to reverberate among the marble columns and high ceiling at the simplicity of what I said. The committee chairman, Christopher Dodd, looked down at his notes. He furrowed his brow and pursed his lips. He recited the points back to me. Instead of chuckling at me, he then said, “It seems like this plan is not just for the family. It seems it would work at any income level.”

“Yes,” I replied with some relief. Now I was the one doing a bit of chuckling as I added, “including the U.S. government.” We went on to have an engaging conversation about how the senators could exercise strong leadership through wise financial practices.

Four Principles of Financial Success
I had prepared my four-part answer to the senator’s question over many years. In fact, I heard that same question over and over. After a presentation to a large audience or in response to a call-in radio program, people often ask how to get out of a financial mess—or avoid one. Often the questioners hope that I’ll provide a dramatic, one-time solution for their financial difficulties. Though they may be disappointed to hear my commonsense strategy, I know this time-tested, biblically supported answer works.

Let me briefly expand my explanation of these principles here:

Think long term. The longer term your perspective, the better financial decisions you’ll make. Set goals in writing for the future. Invest for the long term and worry less about short-term ups and downs in your 401(K) or investment portfolio.

Spend less than you earn. To accomplish this, you need to know what you’re earning and what you’re spending. Make a spending plan (or, if we dare use that loathed term: a budget). Monitor how you’re doing. Develop the self-control to avoid overspending. If you spend less than you earn consistently over a long period of time, you will do well financially.

Insert Sidebar 1 here

Maintain emergency savings. A reserve set aside will help you ride out the surprises life throws at you. You must spend less than you earn to build savings. Savings will then help you avoid debt. These principles work together.

Minimize the use of debt. Debt increases risk. It may allow you to do more or have more now, but debt will reduce your ability to have more in the future. I know of few cases of financial disaster occurring without debt. Financial problems are magnified with debt.

These four financial principles are so simple that they may easily be overlooked. Yet they have stood the test of time. They work when the economy is in a recession, depression, or boom times. They work despite inflation or deflation. They apply when gas prices or real estate values are rising or falling. They were outlined thousands of years ago in the Bible. Many rich people—and many poor ones—can attest to their truths.

Some technical professionals, such as doctors and engineers, initially think these principles are too simplistic. They want to make succeeding financially as technically challenging and sophisticated as their fields. But you can’t go wrong if you follow these steps. What kind of financial trouble would you ever get in if you spent less than you earned, minimized debt, kept savings available, and thought about the long term?

When Do I Apply These Principles?
Warren and Kay Adams prepared for possible disaster before it happened. The best time to apply these four steps is before the financial storms come.

Insert Sidebar 2


You may be thinking, Well, it’s too late for that. I’m in the midst of a financial crisis. The hurricane has already hit. Now what do I do? Here’s hope. You start with these four principles of financial success. If you haven’t done them before, then start now. You can’t lay a solid financial foundation without these four steps. They will lead you out of a crisis—and prevent many future ones.

Perhaps your financial crisis has already happened. You may have lost your job. You may be getting calls from creditors. Perhaps you fear a possible foreclosure. You’re picking up the pieces and trying to rebuild. What do you do? Same answer. You start with these principles.

Perhaps you don’t currently face a financial crisis but are anxious because of all the economic bad news. The Adams’s house is a great illustration that may motivate you to prepare for storms in advance. You can take great comfort in these transcendent principles that apply before, during, and after the crisis.

In fact, some positive results can come from our country’s current economic downturn. We’ve learned that a crisis can sharpen our focus. It helps us think more rationally. When gas prices rose significantly, consumers started moving from large sports-utility vehicles and oversized trucks to more fuel-efficient vehicles. This is rational. But even when gas was less expensive, was a Hummer ever a sensible purchase for an urban dweller?

People ask us, “Now that _____________ (you fill in the blank) is happening, what should I do?” we always give the same advice: follow these four principles. If you set long-term goals and invest accordingly, if you spend less than your income, if you have available savings, and if you eliminate debt, then you’ll be as prepared as possible.

No Surprise Ending with This Book—But Keep Reading
We suppose this would make a poor novel. No mystery or suspense here. We’ve already revealed the four principles of financial success and told you the ending of the story. The punch line came before the setup of the joke.

However, we hope you haven’t missed the paradox: these principles are easy to understand but they’re often hard to do. We’ve stated the principles but not yet helped you understand how you can begin doing them. In the coming chapters, we’ll explore these principles in greater detail. You’ll discover how to approach the future—any future—with financial peace of mind.

We realize that it’s not just a matter of doing four simple steps in a vacuum. You’re part of an overall economy. You can’t avoid feeling some of the effects of our nation’s economic downturn—but it doesn’t have to be as great as you fear. You hear things that make you anxious. Money issues carry with them emotions, baggage from the past, and uncertainty about the future. You probably don’t have a degree in financial management. When it comes to handling your own money, you’re probably in unfamiliar territory. So we’re going to begin by exploring what causes financial fears in our economy. Then you’ll identify your particular fears.

You can do this. You can learn to manage your finances wisely. It’s not too late. Reading financial how-to’s is like exercising or eating healthy food. You know you’re supposed to, but will you do it? You can. People with less education, less talent, less income than you have done it. Financial peace of mind can be more than just a future hope. It can be your expectation. In the pages ahead, you will learn how to take this expectation and make it a reality in your life.



Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Christian home burned

The persecution of Christians continues openly in India. Hindu extremists tried to force a Christian family to leave a village and, when the family refused, burned down their house. Police couldn't be bothered to follow up.

Read the full story here.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Leading Women Who Wound

If you want a real catfight, put two agitated women together.

And, sadly, that is especially true inside a church.

I’ve been involved in ministry in churches for many years and haven’t even begun to tell the stories of some of the conflicts I’ve seen. Hurting, unhealthy people are drawn to Christ for healing and hope.

But they are in the process of healing (hopefully) and they bring their baggage with them.

Sue Edwards and Kelley Mathews have written an honest book, Leading Women Who Wound: Strategies for an Effective Ministry, that is a new resource for those in ministry.

These women know the inside of ministry. Their advice is laced with many authentic stories, the kind where I said, "that reminds me of Jane Smith."

They are candid in diagnosing issues and quick to take blame for their own failures. Their advice is scriptural and yet very practical.

Would you think of inviting your adversary into a room that you have lovingly arranged to make her feel most comfortable?

If you’ve ever ministered in a church, especially if you work with women, this is a valuable new tool to read and keep. It will give you fresh understanding on how to grow through conflict and emerge as a peacemaker. Conflict is not something to avoid at any cost, but to meet and embrace.

You can find Leading Women Who Wound on Amazon here.

Also, check out Kelley and Sue’s website here.

Kelley Matthews writes a blog. You can see it here.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Dancing with tambourines

I’d be dancing with a tambourine if I had one.

Jamaica has hovered on my imagination for several years and I thought this was the year to go. Until last week.

I told you last fall that God has asked me to pray about joining a team going to Jamaica. I did pray and I expected to go, but God never gave me the go-ahead. When the deadline came to buy plane tickets, I didn’t feel God’s permission and I didn’t go.

The team went last week and I stayed home, praying for them.

A week ago, a small ache began in my cheekbones and I assumed I had a sinus infection setting in. But by Friday, I was sitting in a dentist’s chair getting a root canal.

The week had been painful and uncomfortable.

When I realized that I could have spent the week in Jamaica with a horrible toothache, I began thanking God.

But why did he ask me to pray about going if he knew I shouldn’t go?

I think this is why: to be sure I noticed what he had done.

If he hadn’t asked me to pray about the trip, I wouldn’t have seen the overlap of toothache and trip.

He didn’t give me the toothache but he set the stage to keep me in the right place to deal with it. And to notice that listening to his words protected me.

He reminded his people before: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” (Jer 31:3)

But here’s the tambourine part: “Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful.” (Jer 31:4)

Even without a tambourine, I’m dancing with the joyful for such a Father.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Paul's answer

We've been discussing a question that the Corinthian church had apparently asked Paul: “can we eat the meat after it’s been sacrificed to idols?” (See 1 Corinthians 8:1)

Some said that since idols were nothing, with no power, they were free to eat that meat. Others said eating the meat caused them to think back to their own idol worship and they didn’t want to eat the meat.

Who was right?

Paul gave them an answer they may not have expected. In verse 9, he asked that those who were free not becoming a stumbling block to the weak. He places some labels in the verses to follow: those who exercise freedom and those with weak consciences.

Maybe you think that Paul has now announced who is right in this controversy. But he hasn’t.

Instead, he admonished those in freedom to care for their weaker brothers. "When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." (1 Cor 8:12)

Some in the church understood that gods are nothing. But when they were seen eating the meat, they put a temptation before their weaker church members. Those who did not know that gods are nothing could be drawn back into their idol worship.

Paul did not declare, in this chapter, which side of the controversy was correct. Instead, he urged each side to be considerate of the other side. The issue for Paul wasn’t the food, but the heart of the church.

Notice what he declared for himself: "Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall." (1 Cor 8:13)

In America, we believe in individual freedom. But Paul was urging the believers to set aside their individual freedom when it caused another to fall. That’s a challenge to Americans but we need to hear Paul’s words.

He was willing to give up that which could cause another to stumble. That’s love for others above love for self and that was his answer to the Corinthians’ question: love others above your own knowledge and rights.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

On the other hand

Kerry cringed everytime she saw black leather. She’d once been part of a gang that wore black leather jackets while they held ugly satanic ceremonies.

After Kerry left the gang, she had been afraid for a long time and now she wanted nothing to do with black leather. It reminded her of the gang and their false gods.

When her sister mistakenly gave her a black leather purse for Christmas, Kerry threw it away.

“But it was a purse,” her sister protested. “And an expensive one, too. It had nothing to do with your old gang.”

“It makes me think of that old gang and I don’t want to,” Kerry said.

We can be sympathetic to Kerry.

Paul was faced with the problem of Kerry vs. Mtoto, so to speak, in Corinth. We've been discussing the dilemma this week.

There were those in Corinth who, when seeing the meat from the sacrifices to false gods, remembered their old gods and, like Kerry, wanted nothing to do with it.

There were those who, like Mtoto, knew the meat had not been tainted because the gods were nothing.

Paul made a fascinating statement in 1 Cor. 8:8: "But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do."

Were the Corinthian believers worse off if they avoided the sacrificed meat? Were they better off if they ate the meat? No, in both cases.

Isn’t this puzzling? The first time I read this chapter, I wanted to know which side Paul was on. But he reveals his answer to the Corinthians at the end of the chapter and we’ll look at that tomorrow.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

They are nothing

When the little statue of the god fell from Mtoto’s shelf, he was terrified to see that the head snapped off as it hit the floor. Sick to his stomach, Mtoto knew he had cursed himself and his family.

Should he hide the statue? He knew his father would notice that it was missing.

Mtoto sat for a long while staring at the broken clay pieces and then a thought came to him. Surely if this god could protect his family’s crops, it could heal itself.

So Mtoto carefully picked up the two parts of the broken statue and put them back on the shelf, tenderly nestling the head back onto the body. He felt excited to think that the little god would soon mend itself.

But as the days went by, and no curse came upon the family, Mtoto noticed that the crack in the statue remained.

The little god had not healed itself. Mtoto came to learn what Paul told the church in Corinth: an idol is nothing at all. (1 Cor. 8: 4)

We opened a discussion this week about a question from the Corinthian church regarding eating meat sacrificed to idols. Paul opened the discussion of idols in 1 Cor. 8:4-6.

Paul, in verse 5, referred to idols as "so-called" gods but made it clear that there was only one true God.

Other gods had no power because they did not exist. There is no God but the true God and false gods are nothing, Paul said in verse 4.

That may appear to be Paul's response to the Corinthians' question about eating meat sacrificed to false gods, but there's more still to come. We'll discuss that tomorrow.

"Yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live." (1 Cor 8:6)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Corinthians postponed

I forgot I had committed to the book review for today (and it's an important book to consider, by the way), so will post part 2 of our look at the Corinthians' issues with meat tomorrow.

Book review: The God I Don't Understand

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!


Today's Wild Card author is:


and the book:


The God i Don’t Understand

Zondervan (January 1, 2009)


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


As the successor to John Stott, Dr. Chris Wright is the current international director of the Langham Partnership International. John Stott Ministries is the constituent member of LPI in the United States.

Dr. Wright, as the youngest of four children born to missionary parents, learned early that, “All our mission should be grounded in theological reflection, and all theology must result in missional outworking.” His words are a reflection of a lifetime of commitment to the strengthening of the church in the developing world through fostering leadership development, biblical preaching, literature, and doctoral scholarships.

With a degree in theology and a PhD in Old Testament ethics from Cambridge University, Dr. Wright felt a call to teach and followed that call in a high school in his birthplace, Belfast, Northern Ireland. His background includes pastoring a local parish church and teaching at a leading evangelical seminary in India—Union Biblical Seminary—and at All Nations Christian College, England, where he served as dean and president for more than thirteen years.

He and his wife, Liz, live in London and have four adult children and five grandchildren.


Product Details:

List Price: $19.99
Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Zondervan (January 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0310275466
ISBN-13: 978-0310275466

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:


The Mystery of Evil

It’s all very well to say, “Turn to the Bible”, but you can read the Bible from cover to cover, again and again, looking for a simple, clear answer to the question of the ultimate origin of evil, and you won’t find an answer. I am not talking here about the entry of evil into human life and experience in Genesis 3, which we will think about in a moment, but about how the evil force that tempted human beings into sin and rebellion came to be there in the first place. That ultimate origin is not explained.


This has not stopped many people from trying to come up with an answer for themselves and dragging in whatever bits of the Bible they think will support their theory. But it seems to me that when we read the Bible asking God, “Where did evil come from? How did it originally get started?” God seems to reply, “That is not something I intend to tell you.” In other words, the Bible compels us to accept the mystery of evil. Notice I did not say, “compels us to accept evil.” The Bible never does that or asks us to do so. We are emphatically told to reject and resist evil. Rather, I mean that the Bible leads us to accept that evil is a mystery (especially in terms of its origin), a mystery that we human beings cannot finally understand or explain. And we will see in a moment that there is a good reason why that is so.

Moral Evil

However, in one sense, there is no mystery at all about the origin (in the sense of the actual effective cause) of a great deal of suffering and evil in our world. A vast quantity – and I believe we could say the vast majority – of suffering is the result of human sin and wickedness. There is a moral dimension to the problem. Human beings suffer in broad terms and circumstances because human beings are sinful.

It is helpful, I think, even if it is oversimplified, to make some distinction between what we might call “moral” evil and “natural” evil. This is not necessarily the best kind of language, and there are all kinds of overlaps and connections. But I think it does at least articulate a distinction that we recognize as a matter of common sense and observation.

By “moral” evil is meant the suffering and pain that we find in the world standing in some relation to the wickedness of human beings, directly or indirectly. This is evil that is seen in things that are said and done, things that are perpetrated, caused, or exploited, by human action (or inaction) in the realm of human life and history. To this we need to link spiritual evil and explore what the Bible has to say about ‘the evil one” – the reality of satanic, spiritual evil forces that invade, exploit, and amplify human wickedness

By “natural” evil is meant suffering that appears to be part of life on earth for all of nature, including animal suffering caused by predation and the suffering caused to human beings by events in the natural world that seem (in general anyway) to be unrelated to any human moral cause – things like earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes, floods, etc., that is, so-called “natural disasters”.

In the case of moral evil, sometimes there is a direct link between sin and suffering. For example, some people directly cause other people to suffer through violence, abuse, cruelty, or just sheer callousness and neglect. Or sometimes people suffer directly the effects of their own wrong actions. Someone who drives too fast or drinks too much and ends up killing themselves in a road accident suffers the direct impact of their own sin or folly. Or we may suffer the punishment of the laws of our society for wrongdoing. Being put in prison is a form of suffering and in that respect it is an evil thing. And yet we recognize that some form of punishment for wrongdoing is a necessary evil. More than that, we have a strong instinct that when people are not punished when they are guilty of wrongdoing, that is another and even greater evil. Punishment, when deserved as a part of a consensual process of justice, is a good thing too.

But there is also a vast amount of suffering caused indirectly by human wickedness. The drunken driver may survive, but kill or injure other innocent people. Wars cause so-called “collateral damage”. Stray bullets from a gang fight or bank robbery kill innocent bystanders. A railway maintenance crew goes home early and fails to complete inspection of the track; a train is derailed and people are killed and injured. Whole populations suffer for generations after negligent industrial contamination. We can multiply examples from almost every news bulletin we see or hear. These are all forms of moral evil. They cause untold suffering, and they all go back in some form or another to culpable actions or failures of human beings.

Somehow, we manage to live with such facts, simply because they are so common and universal that we have “normalized” them, even if we regret or resent them and even if we grudgingly admit that humanity itself is largely to blame. But whenever something terrible on a huge scale happens, like the 2004 tsunami, or the cyclone in Myanmar in 2008, or the earthquakes in Pakistan, Peru, and China, the cry goes up, “How can God allow such a thing? How can God allow such suffering?” My own heart echoes that cry and I join in the protest at the gates of heaven. Such appalling suffering, on such a scale, in such a short time, inflicted on people without warning and for no reason, offends all our emotions and assumptions that God is supposed to care. We who believe in God, who know and love and trust God, find ourselves torn apart by the emotional and spiritual assault of such events.

“How can God allow such things?” we cry, with the built-in accusation that if he were any kind of good and loving God, he would not allow them. Our gut reaction is to accuse God of callousness or carelessness and to demand that he do something to stop such things.

But when I hear people voicing such accusations – especially those who don’t believe in God but like to accuse the God they don’t believe in of his failure to do things he ought to do if he did exist – then I think I hear a voice from heaven saying:

“Well, excuse me, but if we’re talking here about who allows what, let me point out that thousands of children are dying every minute in your world of preventable diseases that you have the means (but obviously not the will) to stop. How can you allow that?

“There are millions in your world who are slowly dying of starvation while some of you are killing yourselves with gluttony. How can you allow such suffering to go on?

“You seem comfortable enough knowing that millions of you have less per day to live on than others spend on a cup of coffee, while a few of you have more individual wealth than whole countries. How can you allow such obscene evil and call it an economic system?

“There are more people in slavery now than in the worst days of the pre-abolition slave trade. How can you allow that?

“There are millions upon millions of people living as refugees, on the knife-edge of human existence, because of interminable wars that you indulge in out of selfishness, greed, ambition, and lying hypocrisy. And you not only allow this, but collude in it, fuel it, and profit from it (including many of you who claim most loudly that you believe in me).

“Didn’t one of your own singers put it like this, ‘Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself.’ ”1

So it seems to me that there is no doubt at all, even if one could not put a percentage point on the matter, that the vast bulk of all the suffering and pain in our world is the result, direct or indirect, of human wickedness. Even where it is not caused directly by human sin, suffering can be greatly increased by it. What Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans was bad enough, but how much additional suffering was caused by everything from looters to bureaucratic incompetence? HIV-AIDS is bad enough, but how many millions suffer preventable illness and premature death because corporate and political greed and callousness put medicines that are affordable and available in the West totally out of their reach? What the cyclone did to Myanmar was horrendous, but its effects were multiplied by the characteristically brutal refusal of the government to allow international aid organizations into the country until weeks later. Human callousness undoubtedly precipitated the death of thousands and prolonged the misery of the survivors.

The Bible’s Diagnosis

In a sense, then, there is no mystery. We suffer because we sin. This is not to say, I immediately hasten to add, that every person suffers directly or proportionately because of their own sin (the Bible denies that). It is simply to say that the suffering of the human race as a whole is to a large extent attributable to the sin of the human race as a whole.

The Bible makes this clear up front. Genesis 3 describes in a profoundly simple story the entry of sin into human life and experience. It came about because of our wilful rejection of God’s authority, distrust of God’s goodness, and disobedience of God’s commands. And the effect was brokenness in every relationship that God had created with such powerful goodness.

The world portrayed in Genesis 1 and 2 is like a huge triangle of God, the earth, and humanity.

GOD







HUMANITY THE EARTH





Every relationship portrayed was spoiled by the invasion of sin and evil: the relationship between us and God, the relationship between us and the earth, and the relationship between the earth and God.

Genesis 3 itself shows the escalation of sin. Even in this simple story, we can see sin moving from the heart (with its desire), to the head (with its rationalization), to the hand (with its forbidden action), to relationship (with the shared complicity of Adam and Eve). Then, from Genesis 4–11, the portrayal moves from the marriage relationship to envy and violence between brothers, to brutal vengeance within families, to corruption and violence in wider society and the permeation of the whole of human culture, infecting generation after generation with ever-increasing virulence.

The Bible’s diagnosis is radical and comprehensive.

• Sin has invaded every human person (everyone is a sinner).

• Sin distorts every dimension of the human personality (spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, social).

• Sin pervades the structures and conventions of human societies and cultures.

• Sin escalates from generation to generation within human history.

• Sin affects even creation itself.


We read a chapter like Job 24, and we know it speaks the truth about the appalling morass of human exploitation, poverty, oppression, brutality and cruelty. And, like Job, we wonder why God seems to do nothing, to hold nobody to account, and to bring nobody to instant justice.


“Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?

Why must those who know him look in vain for such days?

There are those who move boundary stones;

they pasture flocks they have stolen.

They drive away the orphan’s donkey

and take the widow’s ox in pledge.

They thrust the needy from the path

and force all the poor of the land into hiding.

Like wild donkeys in the desert,

the poor go about their labor of foraging food;

the wasteland provides food for their children.

They gather fodder in the fields

and glean in the vineyards of the wicked.

Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked;

they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold.

They are drenched by mountain rains

and hug the rocks for lack of shelter.

The fatherless child is snatched from the breast;

the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.

Lacking clothes, they go about naked;

they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.

They crush olives among the terraces;

they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

The groans of the dying rise from the city,

and the souls of the wounded cry out for help.

But God charges no one with wrongdoing

Job 24:1–12 (my italics)


And then we shudder because we know that if God were to do that right now and deal out instant justice, none of us would escape. For whatever grades and levels of evil there are among people in general, we know that it is something that lurks in our own heart. The evil we so much wish God would prevent or punish in others is right there inside ourselves. None of us needs to be scratched very deep to uncover the darker depths of our worst desires and the evil action any of us is capable of, if pushed. As we try to stand in judgment on God, we don’t really have a leg to stand on ourselves.


If you, Lord, kept a record of sins,

Lord, who could stand?


Psalm 130:3


Answer: Not a single solitary one of us.


And even apart from such latent or overt evil within ourselves, there is also the fact that it is practically impossible to live in this world without some complicity in its evil or some benefit from evils done elsewhere. We have to get on with living, and as we do so, our lives touch hundreds of other human lives – all over the planet – for good or ill. We are connected to the vast net of human experience worldwide. We may not be directly to blame for the sufferings of others, but we cannot ignore the connections.

The shirt on my back was made in an Asian country. I have no way of knowing if the hands that stitched it belong to a child who hardly ever sees the light of day, never has a square meal, or knows what it is to be loved and to play, and who may by now be deformed or even dead by such cruelty. But it is likely too that such wickedness is woven into the fabric of more than my shirt. In the week I write this, several major international companies in the UK are under investigation for profiting from virtual slave labour (a few pence an hour) in the majority world. Doubtless I have bought goods from some of them. Injustice and suffering plagues the global food industry, such that it is probable that some of what I eat or drink today is likely to have reached my table tinged with exploitation and oppression somewhere in the chain. The hands that have contributed to my daily bread undoubtedly include hands stained by the blood of cruelty, injustice, and oppression – whether inflicted or suffered.

Evil has its tentacles through multi-layered systems that are part of globalized reality. We can, of course, (and we should) take steps to live as ethically as possible, to buy fair-traded food and clothes, and to avoid companies and products with shameful records in this area. But I doubt if we can escape complicity in the webs of evil, oppression, and suffering in the world entirely. I say that not to turn all our enjoyment of life into guilty depression. Rather, as we enjoy the good gifts of God’s creation, we must at the same time accept the Bible’s diagnosis of how radical, pervasive, and deeply ingrained sin has become in all human life and relationships.

Only God in his omniscience can unravel such inter-weavings of evil, but the point the Bible makes is that it puts the blame for suffering and evil where most of it primarily belongs, namely on ourselves, the human race. The Bible makes it equally clear that we cannot just draw simple equations between what one person suffers and their own personal sinfulness. Often it is terribly wrong to do so (and makes the suffering even worse, as Job discovered). But in overall, collective human reality, the vast bulk of human suffering is the result of the overwhelming quantity and complexity of human sinning. There is no mystery, it seems to me, in this biblical diagnosis, which is so empirically verified in our own experience and observation.

Where Did Evil Come From?

It is when we ask this question that our problems begin.

It is important to see that Genesis 3 does not tell us about the origin of evil as such. Rather, it describes the entry of evil into human life and experience. Evil seems to explode into the Bible narrative, unannounced, already formed, without explanation or rationale. We are never told, for example, how or why “the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made” (Gen. 3:1). We are not told why it spoke as it did, though the very fact that it did should raise our suspicion that something is not right in God’s good creation. But why such “not-right-ness” was there, or where it had come from – these questions are not answered in the text.

What then can we say about this mysterious source of temptation that led Eve and Adam to choose to disobey? It was not God – evil is not part of the being of God. It was not another human being – evil is not an intrinsic part of what it means to be human either. We were human once without sin, so we can be so again. It was something from within creation – and yet it was not a “regular” animal, since it “talked”. And how could such evil thoughts and words come from within a creation that has seven times been declared “good” in chapters 1–2? Whatever the serpent in the narrative is, then, or whatever it represents, it is out of place, an intruder, unwelcome, incoherent, contrary to the story so far.

If evil, then, comes from within creation in some sense (according to the symbolism of the story in Genesis 3), but not from the human creation, the only other created beings capable of such thought and speech are angels.2 So, although the connection is not made in Genesis 3 itself, the serpent is elsewhere in the Bible symbolically linked to the evil one, the devil (e.g., Rev. 12:9; 20:2). And the devil is portrayed elsewhere as an angel, along with other hosts of angels who rebelled against God along with him (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6; Rev. 12:7–9).

What, then, is the devil or Satan?

First of all, he (or it) is not God. Nor even just some other god. The Bible makes it very clear that we are not to fall into any kind of dualism – a good god (who made the world all nice and friendly), and an evil god (who messed it all up). Some kinds of popular folk Christianity do slide in that direction and give to Satan far more assumed power and far more obsessive attention than is warranted by the Bible. And such dualism is the meat and drink of a large amount of quasi-religious fiction, which sadly many Christians read with more frequency and more faith than their Bibles.

But Satan is not God, never has been and never will be. That means that, although the Bible clearly portrays Satan as powerful indeed, he is not omnipotent. Likewise, although Satan is said in the Bible to command hosts of other fallen angels (demons) who do his dirty work, he is not omnipresent. Satan cannot be everywhere at once (as only God can be and is). And although the Bible shows Satan to be very clever, subtle, and deceitful, he is not omniscient. He does not know everything and does not have sovereign knowledge of the future in the way God has in carrying forward his plans for creation and history.

As an angel among other fallen angels, even as their prince, the devil is a created being. That means that he is subject to God’s authority and ultimate control. Like everything else in creation, Satan is limited, dependent, contingent – and ultimately destructible. We should take Satan seriously, but we should not dignify him with greater reality and power than is proper for a creature.

But is the devil personal? Is Satan a person like us? Is he a person like God?

We must be careful in answering this question. It seems to me that there are dangers in either a simple yes or no. On the one hand, the Bible clearly speaks about the devil in many ways that we normally associate with persons. He is an active agent, with powers of intelligence, intentionality, and communication. That is, the Bible portrays the devil as acting, thinking, and speaking in ways that are just like the way we do such things and are certainly greater than any ordinary animal does. When the devil is around in the Bible, it is clear that the Bible is talking about more than just some abstract evil atmosphere or tendency or a merely metaphorical personification of evil desires within ourselves – individually or collectively. The Bible warns us that, in the devil, we confront an objective intelligent reality with relentless evil intent. And the Gospels reinforce this assessment in their description of the battle Jesus had with the devil throughout his ministry. The devil, says the Bible, is very real, very powerful, and acts in many ways just like the persons we know ourselves to be.

But on the other hand, there is one thing that the Bible says about us as human persons that it never says about the devil, or about angels in general, at all. God made us human beings in God’s own image. Indeed, this is what constitutes our personhood. What makes human beings uniquely to be persons, in distinction from the rest of the nonhuman animal world, is not the possession of a soul,3 but that human beings are created in the image of God. The human species is the only species of which this is true. We were created to be like God, to reflect God and his character, and to exercise God’s authority within creation.

Even as sinners, human beings are still created in God’s image. Though it is spoiled and defaced, it cannot be eradicated altogether, for to be human is to be the image of God. So even among unregenerate sinners there are God-like qualities, such as loving relationships, appreciation of goodness and beauty, fundamental awareness of justice, respect for life, and feelings of compassion and gentleness. All these are dimensions of human personhood, for all of them reflect the transcendent person of God.

Now we are not told in the Bible that God created angels in his own image. Angels are created spirits. They are described as servants of God who simply do his bidding. They worship God and carry out God’s errands. The common word for them in the Old Testament simply means “messengers”.[AQ2] Don’t misunderstand: this is not meant in anyway to diminish the exalted status and function that angels have in the Bible. It is simply to note that they are distinguished from human persons. And ultimately it is the human, in and through the man Christ Jesus, who will take the supreme place in the redeemed created order (Heb. 2). Personal qualities are the unique possession of human beings because, as God’s image, we are the only beings in creation who were uniquely created to reflect God’s own divine personhood.

So, among the fallen angels, especially the devil himself, there is no trace of that image of God which is still evident even in sinful human beings. And this is most easily explained if we assume it was never there in the first place. In Satan there is no residual loving relationship, no appreciation of goodness or beauty, no mercy, no honour, no “better side”, no “redeeming features”. And most of all, whereas no human person, however evil and degraded, is ever in this life beyond our loving compassion and our prayers that they might repent and be saved, there is no hint whatsoever in the Bible that Satan is a person to be loved, pitied, prayed for, or redeemed. On the contrary, Satan is portrayed as totally malevolent, relentlessly hostile to all that God is and does, a liar and a murderer through and through, implacably violent, mercilessly cruel, perpetually deceptive, distorting, destructive, deadly – and doomed.

“So, Do You Believe in the Devil?”

Faced with this question I feel the need to make a qualified “yes and no” answer. Yes, I believe in the existence of the devil as an objective, intelligent and “quasi-personal” power, utterly opposed to God, creation, ourselves, and life itself. But no, I do not “believe in the devil”, in any way that would concede to him power and authority beyond the limits God has set. The Bible calls us not so much to believe in the devil as to believe against the devil. We are to put all our faith in God through Christ and to exercise that faith against all that the devil is and does – whatever he may be. Nigel Wright makes this point very well:


To believe in somebody or something implies that we believe in their existence. But it also carries overtones of an investment of faith or trust.… To believe in Jesus means, or should mean, more than believing in his existence. It involves personal trust and faith by virtue of which the power of Christ is magnified in the life of the believer. The access of Christ to an individual’s life, his power or influence within them, is in proportion to their faith. The same use of language applies in the wider world. To believe in a political leader implies more than believing in their existence; it implies faith in the system of values for which they stand and confidence in their ability to carry it through.

The reply to the question should Christians believe in the devil must therefore be a resounding ‘No!’ When we believe in something we have a positive relationship to that in which we believe but for the Christian a positive relationship to the devil and demons is not possible. We believe in God and on the basis of this faith we disbelieve in the devil … Satan is not the object of Christian belief but of Christian disbelief. We believe against the devil. We resolutely refuse the devil place.

… The power of darkness against which we believe has its own reality. Even though it has a reality it lacks a validity – it ought not to exist because it is the contradiction of all existence. Its existence is unthinkable even as it is undeniable. It exists, but for the Christian it exists as something to be rejected and denied.4


That is why Paul urges us to “put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Eph. 6:11 my italics). That is why Peter, as soon as he has warned his readers about the devil’s predatory prowling, urges them to resist him – not pay him the compliment of any form of “believing”: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9).

That is why one of the most ancient formulas of the church, in the baptism liturgy, calls upon Christians undergoing baptism to “renounce the devil and all his works”. That is probably also why, when a popular series of books on Christian doctrines, the “I Believe” series of Hodder and Stoughton, came to the doctrine of Satan, it did not follow the simple formula of other volumes (e.g. I Believe in the Historical Jesus; I Believe in the Resurrection). There is no book in the series with the title, I Believe in Satan, but rather and quite rightly, I Believe in Satan’s Downfall.

The Fall of Angels?

So the Bible tells us that the devil and his hosts are rebel angels. But what does the Bible teach us about this so-called fall of the angels? Well, actually, it doesn’t really “teach” anything clearly or systematically, though we do get a number of hints that point in that direction.

Isaiah 14:4–21 and Ezekiel 28:1–17 are poems that “celebrate” the fall of the kings of Babylon and Tyre respectively. They are typical of the taunting songs of lament that were used when great imperial tyrants were brought low and the world breathed a sigh of relief. Some Christians see in these two songs a kind of symbolic portrayal of the fall of Satan. However, we do need to remind ourselves that they were written originally to describe the defeat and death of historical human kings, and so it is a dubious exercise to try to build detailed doctrinal statements about the devil or the “underworld” upon them. Nevertheless, we may discern the fingerprints of Satan in what is described in these poems, since it is clear that these arrogant human beings were brought low because of their blasphemous pride and boasting against God. Indeed, they are portrayed as wanting to usurp God’s throne. In the poem, such claims are probably metaphorical for the human kings’ hybris, but they have a spiritual counterpart that is recognizably satanic.

Jude, 2 Peter, and Revelation give us some clearer affirmations of the fall of Satan and his rebel angels:


And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their proper dwelling – these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.

Jude 6


God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into chains of darkness to be held for judgment.

2 Peter 2:4

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down – that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

Revelation 12:7–9


That seems to be it, as far as direct Bible references to this matter are concerned. In our curiosity, we ask for more information, such as:


• When did this happen?

• Why did created angels turn to become rebellious?

• Were the angels themselves tempted by something evil, as the serpent tempted Eve?

• If so, how did such evil come into existence?

• Where did the evil come from that led created angels to fall, who then led humans to fall?


But for such questions, we get no answer from the Bible. We are simply never told. Silence confronts all our questions. The mystery remains unrevealed.

Now God has revealed to us vast amounts of truth in the Bible – about God himself, about creation, about ourselves, our sin, God’s plan of salvation, the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the future destiny of the world, and so on. Thus, in light of all this abundant revelation, the Bible’s silence at this point on the ultimate origin of evil seems all the more significant, and not merely accidental. It’s not as if God were now saying, “Oops, I forgot to mention that point, but never mind, they can figure it out for themselves.” No, the truth is that God has chosen in his wisdom not to give us an answer to our questions about the ultimate origin of evil within creation. It is simply not for us to know – and that is God’s sovereign decision, the prerogative of the one who is the source of all truth and revelation in the universe.

Now I think there is a good reason for this, but before we turn to that, let us briefly summarize what we’ve seen so far, so that we can keep track of our reflection.

We have argued that a vast amount of the suffering and evil in the world can be explained in relation to human wickedness, directly or indirectly. Evil has a fundamentally moral core, related to our moral rebellion against God.

But we also know from the Bible that at the point where this entered into human experience and history (the fall as portrayed in Genesis 3), it involved our human collusion with some preexisting reality of evil, a sinister presence that injected itself into human consciousness, invited us to stand over against God in distrust and disobedience, and then invaded every aspect of human personhood – spiritual, mental, physical and relational – and every aspect of human life on earth – social, cultural and historical.

But if we ask, “Where did that preexisting evil presence come from?” – we are simply not told. God has given us the Bible, but the Bible doesn’t tell us.

So then, to return to the title of this chapter, the Bible compels us to accept the mystery of evil. But here’s the key point: we can recognize this negative fact. We know what we don’t know. We do understand that we cannot understand. And that in itself is a positive thing.

Why is that?

Evil Makes “No Sense”

It is a fundamental human drive to understand things. The creation narrative shows that we have been put into our created environment to master and subdue it, which implies gaining understanding of it. To be human is to be charged with ruling creation, and that demands ever-growing breadth and depth of understanding the created reality that surrounds us. The simple picture in Genesis 2 of the primal human naming the rest of the animals is an indication of this exercise of rational recognition and classification. Our rationality is in itself a dimension of being made in the image of God. We were created to think! We just have to investigate, understand, explain; it is a quintessentially human trait that manifests itself from our earliest months of life.

So then, to understand things means to integrate them into their proper place in the universe, to provide a justified, legitimate, and truthful place within creation for everything we encounter. We instinctively seek to establish order, to make sense, to find reasons and purposes, to validate things and thus explain them. As human beings made in God’s image for this very purpose, we have an innate drive, an insatiable desire, and an almost infinite ability to organize and order the world in the process of understanding it.

Thus, true to form, when we encounter this phenomenon of evil, we struggle to apply to it all the rational skill – philosophical, practical, and problem-solving – that we so profusely and successfully deploy on everything else. We are driven to try to understand and explain evil. But it doesn’t work. Why not?

God with his infinite perspective, and for reasons known only to himself, knows that we finite human beings cannot, indeed must not, “make sense” of evil. For the final truth is that evil does not make sense. “Sense” is part of our rationality that in itself is part of God’s good creation and God’s image in us. So evil can have no sense, since sense itself is a good thing.

Evil has no proper place within creation. It has no validity, no truth, no integrity. It does not intrinsically belong to the creation as God originally made it nor will it belong to creation as God will ultimately redeem it. It cannot and must not be integrated into the universe as a rational, legitimated, justified part of reality. Evil is not there to be understood, but to be resisted and ultimately expelled. Evil was and remains an intruder, an alien presence that has made itself almost (but not finally) inextricably “at home”. Evil is beyond our understanding because it is not part of the ultimate reality that God in his perfect wisdom and utter truthfulness intends us to understand. So God has withheld its secrets from his own revelation and our research.

Personally, I have come to accept this as a providentially a good thing. Indeed, as I have wrestled with this thought about evil, it brings a certain degree of relief. And I think it carries the implication that whenever we are confronted with something utterly and dreadfully evil, appallingly wicked, or just plain tragic, we should resist the temptation that is wrapped up in the cry, “Where’s the sense in that?” It’s not that we get no answer. We get silence. And that silence is the answer to our question. There is no sense. And that is a good thing too.

Can I understand that?

No.

Do I want to understand that?

Probably not, if God has decided it is better that I don’t.

So I am willing to live with the understanding that the God I don’t understand has chosen not to explain the origin of evil, but rather wants to concentrate my attention on what he has done to defeat and destroy it.

Now this may seem a lame response to evil. Are we merely to gag our desperate questions, accept that it’s a mystery, and shut up? Surely we do far more than that? Yes indeed.

We grieve.

We weep.

We lament.

We protest.

We scream in pain and anger.

We cry out, “How long must this kind of thing go on?”

And that brings us to our second major biblical response. For when we do such things, the Bible says to us, “That’s OK. Go right ahead. And here are some words that you may like to use when you feel that way.” But for that, we must turn to our next chapter.


Eric Clapton, “Before You Accuse Me”, from the album Eric Clapton Unplugged.

2 It is interesting that the only other time an animal is said to speak in biblical narrative is Balaam’s donkey, and on that occasion an angel is also involved. See Numbers 22.

3 Genesis 2:7 is sometimes said to be the moment when God breathed a soul into Adam. But this is exegetically impossible. The ”breath of life’” means the breath shared by all animals that live by breathing (as in Gen. 1:30 and 6:17), and “living being” is the same term used for all “living creatures” (e.g., in Gen. 1:24, 28). The verse speaks of special intimacy in the relationship between God and his human creation, but not of a “soul” as distinct from animals. The distinguishing mark of the human is being made in the image of God.


4 Nigel G. Wright, A Theology of the Dark Side: Putting the Power of Evil in Its Place (Carlisle: Paternoster; 2003), 24–25 (my italics).

Monday, February 9, 2009

The debate

I might have organized a debate if I’d been given the question that Paul was given.

It seems that the church in Corinth wanted to know what the right thing to do about meat that had been sacrificed to idols. (1 Cor 8:1-3)

In those days, the pagans would kill animals before the gods, to try to placate their unpredictable nature so they didn’t do something bad to the people. Then the meat was sold in the markets at a greatly-reduced price.

The question for Christians was this: could they buy and eat this meat? There had been debate within the church and so they asked Paul.

Those who said “No” argued that they wanted nothing to do with false gods and would not eat the meat. When they ate the meat, they thought about the false gods and felt defiled.

Those who said “yes” argued that false gods were just that: false. There was no god but the true God. Something that didn’t exist couldn’t defile the meat.

Who was right? That’s what the church wanted to know.

But while I’d be organizing the debate, Paul re-defined it. In verse 1, he revealed his viewpoint: “Love builds up.”

That might seem like an odd answer to the question. Paul started talking about knowledge and love instead of just answering the question.

Well, the Corinthians wanted knowledge all right. They wanted a straight answer: “yes” or “no” on the meat thing.

By verse 3, Paul had returned to his point: want to be known by God? Then love others.

Since that wasn’t even what the Corinthians had asked, his answer undoubtedly puzzled them. And us.

And we may wonder what meat in the first century has to do with us.

But we’ll look at this some more tomorrow, because it has a huge impact for us today.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Internet evangelism

April 26 is International Web Focus Day for churches, a change to introduce people to the vast opportunities on the internet.

"I recently discovered that over 500,000 of the population of my home town use the networking website Facebook," writes a surprised computer user. Remarkably, 1.5 billion people now access the Web for a wide range of activities.

A new internet service called 'Twitter' recently enabled eyewitnesses to pass on to thousands of other people their firsthand accounts (with pictures) of the jet that ditched in the Hudson River, well before TV and radio could tell the story. The digital world seems to change every time we blink!

How can Christians use this bewildering mix of technologies to share the good news? One place to find answers is Internet Evangelism Day's website. It provides detailed resources, ideas and strategies to help Christians use what many leaders have called a 'God-given medium'. These include a self-assessment tool for church websites, enabling them to better reach out into their communities.

Internet Evangelism Day - as the name suggests - is also an annual web-awareness focus day. Churches and other Christian groups can build a short focus spot into their meetings on April 26, to explain to their members more about the potential for online evangelism, and how anyone can be involved in this rewarding ministry. A customized presentation (anything from 5 minutes to 50) can be easily created using free downloads from IE Day's website: video clips, Powerpoint, handouts, music and drama.

One surprising fact is that online evangelism is for anyone, not just the technically gifted. "There are many ways to share your faith online, without any technical knowledge at all," says IE Day Coordinator Tony Whittaker.

Church leaders who have already used these materials are excited. "This is a huge help for small churches such as ours," writes a minister from California. "I am glad to commend Internet Evangelism Day," says elder statesman Rev John Stott.

IE Day's website is here.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Prayin' him home

Well, the cat came back. He disappeared yesterday morning and, in our farm environment, could easily have met unfriendly coyotes nearby. We didn't want to think about that.

He is our son's cat, named for a Bionicle and generally unfriendly to us adults. But we still prayed for him last night at bedtime.

Within 5 minutes of that prayer, I looked out the back door and there he was, darting through the light with nervous eyes. He was glad to come in.

The best part, though, was how our son declared shortly afterwards, "See what happens when you pray?"

He noticed what happens and that was worth the whole adventure.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Getting the meaning

Biblical scholar Ben Withington has an interesting (and long) article about biblical meaning. Here is his summary:

  1. Biblical texts have meanings
  2. we need help to understand them
  3. historical criticism is not the bogeyman, it is a good Sherlock Holmsian process that helps us understand the meaning of these texts
  4. we should not listen to those who suggest ‘meaning is in the eye of the behold’ or in the ‘act’ of the reader’, if by ‘meaning’ we mean the plain Biblical sense of the text, not what I would like to find in there
  5. historical criticism is in many ways the best hedge against misunderstanding and misinterpreting the text, and we should be glad for that if we care about the truth of the Word God, and desire to handle it prayerfully and carefully.

Note: when he uses "historical criticism" he does not mean being critical of the biblical texts, but studying them with a discerning eye to get to the meaning.< /b>

But Ben makes strong points about uncovering the meaning of a text rather than simply asking, "what does this mean to you?" which implies too much about the importance of the reader and not enough about the intent of God through the author.

Read what he has to say. Click here.

Monday, February 2, 2009

In the midst

My temperature matched the thermometer outside, which wasn’t so good in Nogales, Mexico in June.

I had come with a team to build a second story room to be used for Sunday school classes in a small church. But the team traveled to the church every day while I slept on a mat on the floor back at our home base.

That was a disappointing week.

But I had come for two reasons: to help with construction and to present a puppet show on Sunday morning to the church people. We’d practiced for weeks with a program that included Spanish music and silent skits.

By Friday, I felt good enough to repair some of the props that had gotten jostled on the trip down. We rehearsed on Saturday and then Sunday came.

As I set up the stage, three of our teenagers rushed by, obviously upset. Before long, I found out that a fourth teenager – a stranger to our team, from another church in another state – had been caught packing drug paraphernalia into her suitcase for the trip home.

“My friends asked me to buy it for them,” she explained.

As you can imagine, there was some chaos in our preparations. I heard reports of angry words and tears, but I wanted to accomplish something on this trip. The show had to go on!

Shortly after that, the lights snapped off. We had no power for our CD player and no music for the puppet skits. First, we sent someone down to a shop to purchase what turned out to be very expensive dead batteries for the CD player.

Then my dear husband rigged up a system which would power the CD player from a car battery. We tested the system and were ready to go.

As he cut wires and taped connections, the puppet team gathered for prayer. It was hard to focus on something as trivial as a puppet show when we were dealing with a teenager who capped a week of veiled rebellion with this mess. We asked God to work where we couldn’t.

And we presented the puppet show. The electricity came on just as we were starting the first song and stayed on throughout the show, blinking once during a needed intermission. After we finished, the pastor talked to the people.

And 21 people came to faith in Jesus that day, coming forward to pray with the pastor.

That’s the story of a mission trip to Mexico, where God ignored my week of disappointment and did a miraculous work in the midst of chaos.