When Evil Walks In
I used to live in Amish country in northwest Indiana and my wife taught Amish kids in gradeschool. At night we we would often lie awake and listen to the clip clop of their horses going by on the road across the lake out our back yard. They are a good people with many good values in a modern world that does not often appreciate values.
The Amish maintain a separation from the world as they seek to hold on to their way of life. Yet, the world creeps into their society in many ways and they find they have to deal at times with some of the same challenges as the rest of us. The shootings this week in a small schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania tragically shows that the worst elements of society can seek them out in their separation.
The shootings came on the Biblical Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur to the faithful Jews. A major teaching of this high holy day is the revelation of the source of evil in the world. Satan the devil, a very real spirit being is shown to be the author of evil and on the final fullfillment of this Day of Atonement, his influence over the entire world (Revelation 12:9) will be terminated. Until then we will continue to see the tangible result of his malevolent spirit manifested in random acts like this one as well as larger acts of terror and war.
Mark Bowden in today's Wall Street Journal visits this age old question of evil in an article entitled "The Six Million Person Question". He is answering the question of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about whether six million Jews really perished in the Holocuast, and if so, why not focus on the sixty million others who perished in World War II.
A core thought expressed by Bowden is the inability to explain why Nazi Germany had its break with civilization in the 1930's and started a war and systematic extermination of a large portion of its popualtion. Here is what he says:
The Holocaust disturbs us so deeply because it demonstrates that none of the things we associate with the advancement of civilization -- peace, prosperity, industrialization, education, technological achievement -- free us from the dark side of the human soul. Just as there is evil in the heart of every man, there is evil at the heart of even the most "civilized" human society. It is a humbling recognition. Man and society are both capable of the most appallingly depraved behavior. Only in the case of society, it occurs on an industrial scale.
Indeed, we are disturbed at the past and the potential for an even larger conflict in the future should terrorist states develop and use nuclear weapons to enforce their world view on others. Unspeakable horrors would ensue, along the lines of the time predicted by Christ in Matthew 24:21. What Mr. Bowden, and the world in general, do not understand is the unseen evil spirit that works in people and nations to spread chaos and destruction.
Read more about this in our two booklets, Is There Really a Devil and God's Holy Plan.
