Yes, There is Real Evil

On Monday I read this article on Fox News about a Polish engineer beheaded by the Taliban in Pakistan. My heart grieves for the victim of this tragedy and his family in mourning. As I thought about this story, I wondered how I as a Christian ought to respond to such a story. Surely many such stories happen every day, not to mention the larger scale acts such as 9/11.

There are many ways for a Christian to respond, but the one that stood out to me as I pondered this story was that affirmation that evil is real and horrible. Just about everyone in our society can see this. Hardly anyone would read a story like this one out of Pakistan and say, 'Well, those killers were doing what felt right for them, and there is no point in trying to impose our view of morality on them. What they did was right for them.' No one talks like that! Instead they say, 'This was a horrible act of evil; it should be stopped, and those men should be punished.'

This is a very important insight to keep in mind as we interact with people who do not share our beliefs and worldview. In our postmodern world it is common to hear people say that moral absolutes are relative, and it is foolish and unloving to try to make someone else conform to our particular view of morality. But the people who say such things do not really live that way. Instead, when a polish man is beheaded in Pakistan, they say 'This is evil!'

Thus, these grievous, horrible acts of wickedness around the world may actually serve to give us an opportunity to expose to others the shallowness of their worldview when they say things like, 'It is narrow-minded and bigoted to say that your way of living or your view of truth is the right way.' If that is true, then nothing evil happened in Pakistan the other day, and nothing evil happened on 9/11.

Let us affirm and impart to others that evil is real and horrible. Because only when we see the horror of evil will we be able to marvel at the glory of Jesus Christ, who will one day heal the world of all its misery, evil and corruption.