“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD,
thoughts of peace and not of evil,
to give you a future and a hope.” (Jer 29:11, NKJV)
It is very interesting to see how the world’s greatest religions engage with the manifestation of evil in our everyday lives. In his book The Creators Daniel Boorstin points out that the Buddhists show little interest in origins or endings, and are thus not very concerned with where evil originates from or what is needed to deal with it – their religion is centered around escaping from the evil of this world and the problems it creates through meditation.
Hindus and Muslims subject themselves to the reality of evil prevailing by living exemplary lives of good deeds, a desperate contra-measure to balance things out. Like the Christians the Jews share a history where our forefathers were confronted with the darkness that has kept the world in a firm possessive grip. In 1 John 5:19 this is spelled out – “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” The Jews do however have the hope that the Messiah will still come, and all the prophetic promises surrounding His coming to a great extent directs their perpetual struggle of dealing with the all-confronting evil. (There are also few other peoples groups who, throughout the ages, have had to endure such a furious onslaught – the Second World War is still a deep, black swore on the human conscience.) But like all other religions even they have become tired of waiting, and have increasingly ventured into mysticism and formulaic religion, two extremes that only serve to repackage the old evil.
On the pavilion of life we find the agnostics and atheists mumbling, in agreement, from Macbeth – “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Unfortunately it is true that most Christians also display this type of nihilism or despair. They constantly have to defend their “good God” in the light of an evil world, which never passes up an opportunity to question His existence and supposed benevolent character. Throughout the ages Christians have always been embarrassed when great spirits, as diverse as John Lennon and Stephen Hawking, insult God in degrading language so harsh that a sea of faith would hardly be able to eradicate the abuse. The unbridled anger directed against God, and the accusations brought against Him and the “failed experiment of cruelty” which He has subjected us to, often leaves us with no counter-argument, despite the fact that we know the Messiah.
Philip Yancey, the eternal pleader of hope, has a different suggestion – that Christian have an innate instinct that our faith plays a role in the salvation of the world. Time is important to us, so is history, and so are individuals. We are moving toward something, to a making of something good, to salvation. The Christian narrative, Yancey says, persists that history is moving to an end point, to that day of which Paul writes, where we and the world will no longer be “subjected to futility”, but that we, in the words of Rom 8:20-21, “will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God”.
- Sela: Pray Jer 29:11.
- Read: Joshua 1; Job 36; Isa 17
- Memorise: Isa 18:7 (proclaim over Africa)
- For a deeper understanding: Read chapter 20 of Yancey’s Reaching for the invisible God.
