Living in the World
Evil at Virginia Tech

The culture seems to ignore the concept of evil except after events like 9/11 or the horrific carnage at Blacksburg, VA, on Monday. But, for Christians evil is very real and present always. Our self-centered mores allow us to deny evil unless it strikes us directly or when national/international events occur that cannot be ignored. But, notice that the general reaction is not that evil is an inward problem in man but some sort of outward issue. Guns of course are the favorite target. And, then there is the failure of the psycho-therapy that the gunman at VT needed. The shooting was somehow the result of a failure of societal systems.

The world refuses to believe that each of us is capable of evil deeds. Why? Well, first of all we have drunk deeply of the idea that man is basically good. The only kind of person who would shoot 32 people is one with a screw loose or one who is socially maladjusted If only he received the “help” he needed from the health care professionals, this would not have happened. This is the 75th anniversary of the publishing of Brave New World. And, over that span man is still looking for the “soma” that would control behavior. We live in the most medicated society that has ever existed. There are even reports the shooter at VT was on depression medication.

The answer to evil is not in the head but in the heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can understand it? [Jeremiah 17:9]. Modern man cannot accept such a concept. Christianity never ignores evil, unlike secular society. R.C. Sproul in his review of N.T.Wright’s Evil and the Justice of God, (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP, 2006), at www.reformation21.com , explains the Biblical position on evil:
Bishop Wright works from the front backwards in the OT to see how the OT comes to grip with evil. The call of Abraham to be the father of the faithful and to implement God’s agenda of redemption in the world cannot be understood without first looking at the chaos of the building of the Tower of Babel, and even before that, the influenced of the serpents in the Garden. What Wright so astutely demonstrates in the reconnaissance of the OT history is that even with Abraham and his descendents, evil has not been eliminated. The saints of the OT repeatedly seek to build their own towers of Babel an continually find themselves easy prey for the serpent’s temptation. What the OT does, however, reveal is a plan. It is the plan of God to conquer and triumph and redeem evil. The plan reaches its culmination in the cross of Christ.

The Christian has an answer to the problem of evil that is not nay saying it or looking for a social solution. The plan is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus has conquered sin and evil and provides an answer for both in the hearts of those who surrender their will and follow Him. Take all the guns and put everyone on a pill and there will still be sin and evil in the heats of men. And, it will claim victims. So, when man made solutions are floated in the aftermath of this tragedy, remember, as Sproul reminds us:
We live on the other side of the cross, the resurrection and Pentecost, where the power of the Kingdom has been set loose with manifold force.
What the world always needs is Christ changed hearts following Him.