Two quotes caught my attention last week. The first was from Janis Orlowski, a noted spokesperson against gun violence. After twelve employees were gunned down at the Naval shipyard in Washington DC, the frustrated Orlowski pleaded, “There is something evil in our society that we as Americans have to find a way to eradicate”.
The second quote was from an acquaintance of Aaron Alexis, the thirty-four-year-old former navy reservist who had mowed down a dozen helpless victims with a sawed-off Remington shotgun. His neighbor described Alexis as being, “as normal as you and me” and was stunned by his violent outburst.
Isn’t it perplexing how the truth of Scripture can be so obvious and yet still be totally ignored by most people? Janis Orlowski is right – there is definitely something evil in our society. The Bible calls it, “the flesh” – the carnal nature of man. Jeremiah said, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jer. 17:9) The Apostle Paul wrote, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature”. (Rom. 7:18)
The Bible teaches that every one of us has a dual nature. We are created in the image of God and instinctively want to do right. However, we are polluted with the sin of Adam and we gravitate to evil. J. Wallace Hamilton spoke of, “Horns and Halos in Human Nature”. Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about “Dr Jeckyl and Mr. Hide.”
Craig Massey wrote:
“Two natures beat within my breast.
The one is foul, the other blessed.
The one I love, the one I hate.
The one I feed will dominate.”
According to newspaper accounts, Aaron Alexis had been feeding his evil nature by playing violent video games and drinking heavily. As a result he confessed to, “hearing voices telling him to do violent things”.
When there is nothing inside to counter Satan’s messages, even people who outwardly appear normal are capable of horrific crimes. When unrestrained, evil eventually dominates as surely as a small bruise on an otherwise good apple will eventually rot the entire fruit.
The good news is there is a proven way to eradicate evil. It’s not stricter gun laws nor arming every employee at the naval shipyard so they can defend themselves. The only way evil can be cured is through the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us of all sin. The Bible promises,”… if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17)
Intellectual pride immediately scoffs at that solution as, “Oh, the Bible again” and, “There’s nothing new about that”. Well there’s nothing new about water either, but it still extinguishes fire and quenches thirst as well as anything I know.
Jesus told a story about a man who swept a demon out of his house. However, he left the house vacant and soon seven demons worse than the first came in and camped out in that haunted house.
Nature abhors a vacuum. The same is true spiritually. Jesus came that we might have life and have it to the fullest. Without Him our lives are empty and an open invitation to Satan to fill the void. But when Christ lives within, the chains of sin are broken and we are set free to become conformed to His image.
“He who has ears to hear let him hear” Matthew 11:15
