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Unveiling the mystery
Evil is real, and there is only one solution to the problem of sin. This is what the gospel message is all about. Failing to recognize this has disfigured the souls of Canada, the United States, and the world outside this continent.
The Word of God reminds us again and again that the heart of man is wicked and that only God is big enough to change it. Jesus said, "If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:23). When we recognize that our hearts are evil and that we must know the truth, then we will find the answer in the Scriptures.
First we need to know that wickedness is the fact of our existence. It can only be defined in relation to the purpose for which we were created and the character of the Creator. Wickedness does not depend on the whims and fancies of a given culture at a given moment. The deviance is always in the context of why God has made us in the first place. If the purpose of life is not known then wickedness could never be defined! This is why all ethical theorizing runs aground if no consensus is reached on our purpose.
Wickedness also has within it the component of feeling. We all know the inner revulsion we feel when someone does something ghastly. Ravi Zacharias uses the example of C.S. Lewis' book The Abolition of Man, in which Lewis refutes the bizarre notion that feelings are not real. Some things thrill because they ought to. Some things hurt because they must. Some relationships ought to inspire us and do. Witnessing brutality makes us shudder. Then Lewis continues:
"But alas! What have we done to ourselves? We have told a generation that science is real and therefore the human brain is real. We have told them that food is real and therefore our stomachs are real. But we have told them that good and bad do not exist and therefore our emotions have nothing to do with reality." In effect, he concludes, "we have produced a generation of men with brains and stomachs, but no heart. In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise."
The failure to feel emotion is the result of a society that has trained itself not to feel guilty when wrong is committed. King David understood the reality of emotions:
"When I keep silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you... and you forgave the guilt of my sin."
(Psalm 32:3-5)
God has given us emotions to conform to the reality of our sin, the reality of our guilt. The mystery of evil is removed when we see wickedness as God sees it and when we see ourselves the way God sees us. Evil is real. Feelings must conform to what is real. Because each of us represents the face of evil, personal responsibility is necessary in dealing with the problem of evil.
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