The Existence of the Evil One

I just love the wisdom of one of the ladies I co-lead our young adult Bible study with. Almost every week—after we’ve discussed each subject, gone around and around, sometimes drawing conclusions, sometimes not—inevitably, Marsha will make a very down-to-earth point that really pulls it all together. She’s one of the wisest ladies I know, and I respect her deeply.

Today, we discussed the idea that our great and loving God, whom we would never ascribe evil to, historically has acted in ways that seem to contradict his compassionate and forgiving nature. When we read the Old Testament specifically, there does seem to be a true dichotomy between that and the benevolent, Salvation-oriented manner in which He conducts Himself in the New Testament. We discussed the idea that until the Israelites were in captivity to Babylon, the Israelites had no word for, nor idea of Satan. Hence, inevitably they attributed calamity and misfortune to God in the same breath that they attributed compassion, grace, and Salvation.

We went back and forth on the issues, discussing both sides of the coin, so to speak. Then Marsha spoke up and said something to the effect of [and I’m paraphrasing what she said], “It really bothers me when people make the comment that ‘God caused this to happen.’ Humanity is so quick to blame God when most of what they face on a daily basis is a consequence of their own personal choices. There’s a lack of personal responsibility that our society refuses to recognize. If we did so, we would quickly start making wiser decisions and listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives moment by moment.”

Marsha, I couldn’t have said it better myself. You are a brilliant woman. You have a knack for boiling things down to the very core of the problem and just saying it. God has gifted you that way.

In many ways, our society is quickly becoming much like that of the ancient Hebrews, aren’t we? We almost refuse to recognize the work of Satan in our world. While we recognize mentally that there may by an evil one at work, there are times it seems that we just don’t really buy it. The charismatic movement has long appreciated the work of Satan in the world, yet those of us of more conservative movements almost shun the charismatics as being “too out there to be normal.” Shame on us. Because of our self-imposed blindness, we almost have forgotten that Satan exists. Instead, our society has turned to pointing the finger at God when bad things happen.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating calling everything that goes bad the work of the enemy and demons. A flat tire, for example, can easily be the fault of improper care, poor inflation, and lack of rotation of one’s wheels on the car (again with the personal responsibility issue). However, I am curious how our society’s view of God might change if we truly recognized that Satan exists.

What say you?