What possesses a young man to viciously open fire on defenseless movie-goers in Aurora, Colorado? Why did James Holmes intentionally create a bloodbath of horror, killing twelve people and injuring scores of others? Would anyone in his right mind do that?
What possesses an old football coach at Penn State University to sexually molest grade school boys? Why did Jerry Sandusky recruit fatherless children through a foundation promising to help them and then abuse them?
We are perplexed about the motivation. We’d like some kind of explanation. Is it insanity? Demon possession? Drug addiction? Is it brainwashing from watching violent video games or graphic pornography? What’s prompts people to perform such horrendous deeds?
THE REALITY OF EVIL
The prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The core problem is the inclination to sin that dwells in every human heart. Since the fall of Adam, every person is afflicted with the sin virus. David wrote, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” (Psalm 51:5) The Apostle Paul wrote, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature.” (Romans 7:18)
The Bible teaches that we are corrupt at the core of our being. In our hearts we have an insatiable attraction to sin. We are instinctively in rebellion against the commands of God. We crave independence and don’t want God or anyone in authority telling us what to do. If you don’t believe that then you’ve never told a two year old, “Don’t touch!” or taught a class of 5th grade boys. Psalm 10:4 says, “In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.”
THE NEED FOR RESTRAINT
When we reject God’s authority over us and our sinful nature is left unrestrained each of us are capable of committing horrendous crimes. In recent years we’ve taught our children that they have unlimited potential for good. But there is another side of the coin; they also have unlimited capacity for evil.
That’s why God gave the Old Testament law – to restrain the sin nature. That’s why He established parental and governmental authority -otherwise there would soon be total chaos just as there was in the days of Noah when, “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence” (Gen. 6:11)
The postmodern mind has difficulty acknowledging that there is such a thing as evil. The secularists insist there are no absolutes and everyone should be free to make up their own rules and do their own thing. But that philosophy crumbles when evil is fully exposed at a bloody massacre in a movie theater or the cruel exploitation of boys in a shower stall.
THE ESCALATION OF EVIL
When God’s authority is removed from a culture the potential for evil rapidly increases. When permissive parents, educators and lawmakers lower standards and when the carnal nature is stimulated by drugs and alcohol or enflamed by entertainment that glamorizes violence and perversion, the end result is anarchy. Satan rules and he loves to, “…kill, steal and destroy.” Dostoievsky, the Russian philosopher, wrote, “If there is no God, then anything goes.”
The Bible warns that as we near the end evil will worsen. Jesus said in the last days, Because of the increase of wickedness, “the love of most will grow cold.” (Matt. 24:12) He said “as it was in the days of Noah so it will be in at the coming of the Son of Man.” (Mat. 24:37)
The Apostle Paul predicted, “Mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God – having a form of Godliness but denying its power”. (2 Tim. 3:1-5)
THE ONLY SOLUTION
Is there anything we can do? Yes. Begin by surrendering to the authority of Jesus Christ in your own life. He died on the cross not only to atone for your sins but to transform your heart. The prophet Ezekiel promised, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
So swallow your intellectual pride, repent of your rebellious nature and humbly acknowledge that Jesus is the only source of truth, the only way of salvation the only hope for eternal life. (John 14:6) The Apostle Paul promised, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” – 2 Cor. 5:17
Max Lucado wrote, “Gods’ plan for you is nothing short of a new heart. If you were a car, God would want control of your engine. If you were a computer, God would claim the software and the hard drive. If you were an airplane, he’d take his seat in the cockpit. But you are a person, so God wants to change your heart.”
