Where does evil come from? The answer from Jesus is simple: the human heart. Surface level things do matter, but they need to be kept in perspective. In the end, we need to recognize the root cause ("The Beast is us" as Simon says in Lord of the Flies) in order to combat it. Thankfully, Jesus is both the great physician who correctly diagnoses the disease, and the cure.
This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
Showing posts with label Lord of the Flies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lord of the Flies. Show all posts
Sunday, February 7, 2021
Monday, April 15, 2013
Paradise is Lost and it isn't coming back on its own
My wife and I spent the afternoon hiking in Oil Creek State Park, enjoying God's wondrous creation and spending some quality time alone. It was just the sort of thing I need to recharge my batteries and begin another week of ministry. As we drove home from the park I switched on ESPN radio only to hear the President talking about some bombing. Moments later the news of the Boston Marathon bombing confirmed once again that evil has no bounds, nor does it understand pity or mercy. Once again Mankind's inhumanity was on display, the peaceful woods and babbling streams were forgotten, replaced by an act of terror. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims of this senseless violence and to their families.
As my wife and I talked about today's act of terrorism, I commented that this sort of thing is never going to go away. Even if 99.99% of the world is convinced that such acts are cowardly and evil it only takes the 0.01% to kill. There's no going back to the days we thought of as innocent. But were they really; was the Cold War more civil than the chaos we see on display now, has humanity ever set aside war to choose peace?
Last night I was watching the Vikings on The History Channel. For the people of Medieval England, the terror lay across the sea, with the unknown barbarian peoples. No villager, ignorant of what lay more than a day's walk from where he grew up could feel confident that a marauding horde was not on its way. In a sense, terror lay outside of the known, it was the unknown that caused fear.
In our world today there are no longer any barbarian peoples, the edges of the maps have all been filled in. We can no longer blame the inhumanity on display each day on "them". Terrorism isn't simply international, it is also domestic. The words of William Golding continue to ring true from The Lord of the Flies, "the beast is us".
And so I begin another week of striving to mend what others have broken, a week of helping the weak and powerless, a week of bringing hope through forgiveness. If I did not have confidence that Christ would one day rectify this world's evils, that a final judgment will indeed come, how could I continue trying to do my small part against the "reckless hate" (to steal a line from Theoden in Two Towers) that no longer hides beyond the edges of the map? But we do have hope, we do have faith, this world is not all there is, God will bring judgment upon those who do such evil, in this world or the next.
As my wife and I talked about today's act of terrorism, I commented that this sort of thing is never going to go away. Even if 99.99% of the world is convinced that such acts are cowardly and evil it only takes the 0.01% to kill. There's no going back to the days we thought of as innocent. But were they really; was the Cold War more civil than the chaos we see on display now, has humanity ever set aside war to choose peace?
Last night I was watching the Vikings on The History Channel. For the people of Medieval England, the terror lay across the sea, with the unknown barbarian peoples. No villager, ignorant of what lay more than a day's walk from where he grew up could feel confident that a marauding horde was not on its way. In a sense, terror lay outside of the known, it was the unknown that caused fear.
In our world today there are no longer any barbarian peoples, the edges of the maps have all been filled in. We can no longer blame the inhumanity on display each day on "them". Terrorism isn't simply international, it is also domestic. The words of William Golding continue to ring true from The Lord of the Flies, "the beast is us".
And so I begin another week of striving to mend what others have broken, a week of helping the weak and powerless, a week of bringing hope through forgiveness. If I did not have confidence that Christ would one day rectify this world's evils, that a final judgment will indeed come, how could I continue trying to do my small part against the "reckless hate" (to steal a line from Theoden in Two Towers) that no longer hides beyond the edges of the map? But we do have hope, we do have faith, this world is not all there is, God will bring judgment upon those who do such evil, in this world or the next.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
"the world was not worthy of them" - Hebrews 11:38a
That was the conclusion of the writer of the book of Hebrews after listing all of the persecution faced by the servants of God. It raises an interesting point. We know that this world remains very much in God's interest, he created it, he sent his Son to redeem humanity, and he intends to renew this world (Rev. 21:1) at the culmination of history. Certainly, God has gone to a lot of trouble for this world despite the clear fact that the people who inhabit it have often proven themselves to be anything but God-like. There have been times when optimism for our civilization has overshadowed the darkness lying underneath, but just as it does in Lord of the Flies the Beast within always rises up with another massacre in mockery.
Does this world deserve the saints who have bled and wept for it? The writer of Hebrews is correct that it does not. Just as we were in no way deserving of the blood that Jesus Christ poured out for us at Calvary, so too the mercy and love shown by those who follow him. Then why does God commend it, encourage us to give more to this world? For the same reason that God rescued Noah despite the utter evil of the world in his day, the same reason that God sent Jonah to Ninevah, the same reason that God saved a murderous Saul on the road to Damascus or John Newton after a life of slave running: In Newton's own words, Amazing Grace. Grace, undeserved mercy and love, is the basis for our relationship with God. If not for God's willingness to stoop down and rescue humanity, the darkness that threatens our world each day would reign supreme. You see, the world may not be worthy of them, but it still needs them desperately.
Does this world deserve the saints who have bled and wept for it? The writer of Hebrews is correct that it does not. Just as we were in no way deserving of the blood that Jesus Christ poured out for us at Calvary, so too the mercy and love shown by those who follow him. Then why does God commend it, encourage us to give more to this world? For the same reason that God rescued Noah despite the utter evil of the world in his day, the same reason that God sent Jonah to Ninevah, the same reason that God saved a murderous Saul on the road to Damascus or John Newton after a life of slave running: In Newton's own words, Amazing Grace. Grace, undeserved mercy and love, is the basis for our relationship with God. If not for God's willingness to stoop down and rescue humanity, the darkness that threatens our world each day would reign supreme. You see, the world may not be worthy of them, but it still needs them desperately.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games movie was just released this week after years of sales of the trilogy of books by Suzanne Collins. The moral effort made by Collins in her books, and in this movie version of the first book, are to be applauded. The books and movie are a blend of Lord of the Flies,and The Gladiator, with a sprinkling of The Runing Man, Survivor, and The Truman Show. The combination of Roman style gladiatorial fights to the death with modern reality television works well as a commentary upon our society's willingness to entertain itself with the misery of others. Our morbid fascination with violence can be seen in the countless Youtube videos of street fights, the growth of the UFC and other extreme fighting shows, and the violence filled video games that children and adults love so much.
The emotional impace that The Hunger Games is able to have is due largely to its use of children as the fighters (as opposed to the adult slaves being used in The Gladiator or the classic Spartacus). With each death of a child competitor our own innocence is further lost a bit unless we reject (as Collins hopes we will) such trivialization of life. It isn't good enough to say that this is the world we live in; to throw our hands up and admit defeat. As in Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Andrew Peterson (the Wingfeather Saga), there are things worth fighting for. To defend the weak and the innocent against the strong is a noble pursuit, but to simply revel in violence for its own sake, for entertainment, or for cynical political purposes (as the government in The Hunger Games does) is to begin walking down a path that leads back to mankind's oldest obsession: self-destruction.
The emotional impace that The Hunger Games is able to have is due largely to its use of children as the fighters (as opposed to the adult slaves being used in The Gladiator or the classic Spartacus). With each death of a child competitor our own innocence is further lost a bit unless we reject (as Collins hopes we will) such trivialization of life. It isn't good enough to say that this is the world we live in; to throw our hands up and admit defeat. As in Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Andrew Peterson (the Wingfeather Saga), there are things worth fighting for. To defend the weak and the innocent against the strong is a noble pursuit, but to simply revel in violence for its own sake, for entertainment, or for cynical political purposes (as the government in The Hunger Games does) is to begin walking down a path that leads back to mankind's oldest obsession: self-destruction.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Herman Wouk and the Holocaust
I've been rereading Herman Wouk's WWII novels this spring, Winds of War and War and Remembrance, and coupled together with teaching Lord of the Flies this spring (and watching Schindler's List with that class), I've spent a lot of time thinking about the nature of humanity. Questions such as: Why were people blind to the Final Solution while it was happening? Herman's novel, and Spielberg's movie make it clear that most of the Jews of Europe couldn't imagine that the Nazi intended to murder all of them. I pointed out to my class each time a character in the movie says, "this is the worst"; sadly, it happens over and over until the train mistakenly rolls into Auschwitz. Throughout the novels, various characters try to understand how such evil could take hold in Germany, but each theory falls flat because the Holocaust wasn't the only example of hatred and persecution of the Jewish people; until the mass killings began, it wasn't even the worst example (the Inquisition leads the list, but also episodes during the Crusades and Black Plague, among others).
So how could this happen and how could people have been so blind to it?
The short answer is: human nature
We are capable of unspeakable evil because humanity is rotten to the core. The few examples of "good" people who have done the right thing in history cannot blot out the casual evil that exists each and every day in our world.
We are also at times blind to that evil because humanity, as a whole, isn't interested in facing the truth. We'd much rather believe that we're civilized, that we've risen above the primitive nature of our ancestors and somehow fixed the problems of the ancients through education, psychology, or laws. We haven't, the only thing that modern man has achieved is to convince ourselves that our problems can be fixed, despite the vast evidence to the contrary. Not convinced? Consider the vast amounts spent on education in the world today (certainly a higher percentage of people in the world today can read/write, etc. than ever before), and yet the genocides continue despite 24/7 coverage on CNN. Psychologists and Sociologists can diagnose mental issues, can help some people to overcome their problems, and yet the world's prisons are full (and then some) of men and women guilty of every type of inhumanity. America is the most prosperous nation in the history of the world, and yet our teens flee to drug use and reckless sexual behavior to escape their hollow existence. (I could continue, but the point is made)
Where is the hope, where is the peace??
The Gospel is humanity's only hope, and transformation of individuals by the power of the Holy Spirit is the only solution. We will never fix the problems in our society until we begin to transform lives one at a time. The Holocaust happened because mankind IS that depraved. After WWII the slogan was, "never again", but that didn't last very long. {see Pol Pot in Cambodia, the Serbs in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, the Sudan, Somalia, 9/11 etc.}
Is remembrance important? Very much so, but it won't stop us from walking down the path to another Holocaust. Humanity doesn't need a make-over, it needs an overhaul. Only Christ has the power to save us from ourselves.
So how could this happen and how could people have been so blind to it?
The short answer is: human nature
We are capable of unspeakable evil because humanity is rotten to the core. The few examples of "good" people who have done the right thing in history cannot blot out the casual evil that exists each and every day in our world.
We are also at times blind to that evil because humanity, as a whole, isn't interested in facing the truth. We'd much rather believe that we're civilized, that we've risen above the primitive nature of our ancestors and somehow fixed the problems of the ancients through education, psychology, or laws. We haven't, the only thing that modern man has achieved is to convince ourselves that our problems can be fixed, despite the vast evidence to the contrary. Not convinced? Consider the vast amounts spent on education in the world today (certainly a higher percentage of people in the world today can read/write, etc. than ever before), and yet the genocides continue despite 24/7 coverage on CNN. Psychologists and Sociologists can diagnose mental issues, can help some people to overcome their problems, and yet the world's prisons are full (and then some) of men and women guilty of every type of inhumanity. America is the most prosperous nation in the history of the world, and yet our teens flee to drug use and reckless sexual behavior to escape their hollow existence. (I could continue, but the point is made)
Where is the hope, where is the peace??
The Gospel is humanity's only hope, and transformation of individuals by the power of the Holy Spirit is the only solution. We will never fix the problems in our society until we begin to transform lives one at a time. The Holocaust happened because mankind IS that depraved. After WWII the slogan was, "never again", but that didn't last very long. {see Pol Pot in Cambodia, the Serbs in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, the Sudan, Somalia, 9/11 etc.}
Is remembrance important? Very much so, but it won't stop us from walking down the path to another Holocaust. Humanity doesn't need a make-over, it needs an overhaul. Only Christ has the power to save us from ourselves.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Osama Bin Laden and the Lord of the Flies
One of the world's most famous villians, a man who cared nothing for the murders of innocents and celebrated their deaths in his twisted vision of the future, is dead. Will terrorism die with him? Could the death of this one man put a stop to the global Jihad that has been declared against the West and Christianity?
The short answer is no. That isn't what everyone wants to hear, but it's the sad truth. There are still plenty of evil men (and some women) in our world eager to commit similar acts of sin against their fellow man. When Hitler envisioned the destruction of the Jewish people he would have been just another racist if there weren't millions of "good" Germans willingly joining in the killing. Remember, Hitler was elected by popular vote before he took power in Germany. Osama Bin Laden too was very popular among the millions of young Muslims who share his hatred.
How does any of this relate to William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies? In the book, the character Simon seeks to explain to the boys who have been stranded on the Pacific island with him that "mankind's essential illness" is what they have to fear. The boys on the island have been growing increasingly afraid of an imaginary "beast" whose existence they have tried to deny, but the fear of which continues to grow just the same. Simon explains that there is no external beast to fear, but rather "the beast is us". The only evil they have to fear is the evil within themselves. Humanity's essential flaw is that we are depraved. We are mired in sin and unable to live together in peace.
As shocking as it may sound, the evil in men like Osama Bin Laden and Adolf Hitler is not different in kind from the evil that resides in humanity as a whole. It is certainly different in degree; most people never approach such scale in the evil that they do, but as Romans reminds us, "all have sinned". We have all fallen short of perfection, we have all commited sins against ourselves, our neighbors, and our God. We have all taken steps down the path that leads to Hell.
Is it a good thing that Osama Bin Laden is dead? Certainly. Did he deserve to die because of his crimes? Absolutely. Will terrorism cease now or in the future? Sadly, no, this form of evil may be new, but the depravity that spawned it is not. So what should we do if the battle that we're fighting cannot be won? Even if we cannot win a battle against evil in our world, we must still support and honor those who try to protect the innocent and administer justice. We must all strive to instill virtue in the next generation, work to protect the innocent as best we can, and tell the world that the only cure for our self-destruction is the saving grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The short answer is no. That isn't what everyone wants to hear, but it's the sad truth. There are still plenty of evil men (and some women) in our world eager to commit similar acts of sin against their fellow man. When Hitler envisioned the destruction of the Jewish people he would have been just another racist if there weren't millions of "good" Germans willingly joining in the killing. Remember, Hitler was elected by popular vote before he took power in Germany. Osama Bin Laden too was very popular among the millions of young Muslims who share his hatred.
How does any of this relate to William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies? In the book, the character Simon seeks to explain to the boys who have been stranded on the Pacific island with him that "mankind's essential illness" is what they have to fear. The boys on the island have been growing increasingly afraid of an imaginary "beast" whose existence they have tried to deny, but the fear of which continues to grow just the same. Simon explains that there is no external beast to fear, but rather "the beast is us". The only evil they have to fear is the evil within themselves. Humanity's essential flaw is that we are depraved. We are mired in sin and unable to live together in peace.
As shocking as it may sound, the evil in men like Osama Bin Laden and Adolf Hitler is not different in kind from the evil that resides in humanity as a whole. It is certainly different in degree; most people never approach such scale in the evil that they do, but as Romans reminds us, "all have sinned". We have all fallen short of perfection, we have all commited sins against ourselves, our neighbors, and our God. We have all taken steps down the path that leads to Hell.
Is it a good thing that Osama Bin Laden is dead? Certainly. Did he deserve to die because of his crimes? Absolutely. Will terrorism cease now or in the future? Sadly, no, this form of evil may be new, but the depravity that spawned it is not. So what should we do if the battle that we're fighting cannot be won? Even if we cannot win a battle against evil in our world, we must still support and honor those who try to protect the innocent and administer justice. We must all strive to instill virtue in the next generation, work to protect the innocent as best we can, and tell the world that the only cure for our self-destruction is the saving grace of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Monday, April 25, 2011
The Lord of the Flies and Schindler's List
In a few day my students will begin writing an essay on the nature of humanity. They've been reading through William Golding's excellent "Lord of the Flies" in which he seeks to show through the total breakdown of the society of a couple of dozen boys stranded on a small island that the evil that mankind confronts comes from within. We can't hide from it on a island because we brought it with us when we came there. Despite the best efforts of some of the book's characters, a meltdown into violence and chaos follows...Last year I used the heart-wrenching true story contained in "Schindler's List" as a way to further the theme and allow my students to write about human nature. After watching the unspeakable inhumanity of the Holocaust, is it possible to still see good in man? Can the redemptive acts of Oskar Schindler and Itzhak Stern stand up against the casual evil of Amon Goeth and the countless "good Germans" who didn't give a second thought to the massacre of innocents in their midst?
This is no small question, and one that occupies the minds of many Christians as well. The level of evil in our world should, at the least, give us pause and send us back to Scripture seeking answers. With Easter just ending, we are all aware of the injustice and inhumanity displayed when Christ was crucified. This is nothing new. God was disgusted with humanity in the day of Noah. We haven't changed much. The absolute reality of evil requires us to throw ourselves on the mercy of God and trust wholly in the Blood of the Lamb to save us from ourselves.
In the end, this is why the Love of God isn't enough. {Sorry, but it's the truth. Love alone fails, without Christ we would all be doomed despite God's unchangeable love for us}To simply say that God loves us and it'll be ok doesn't cut it. God cannot have any part in the evil that engulfs our world. Holiness and sin do NOT mix. There is no remedy for our desperate situation apart from Christ.
What will my students write? How many of them will choose to see the courage of Oskar and the crazy Hope of Itzhak as proof that there is hope in humanity? How many will recoil at the evil of children murdered simply because they were Jewish and conclude that humanity is beyond hope?
Is humanity evil? Yes, none of us are free of guilt.
Are we beyond hope? On our own, yes.
Thanks be to God for the nail-pierced hands that gave us hope.
This is no small question, and one that occupies the minds of many Christians as well. The level of evil in our world should, at the least, give us pause and send us back to Scripture seeking answers. With Easter just ending, we are all aware of the injustice and inhumanity displayed when Christ was crucified. This is nothing new. God was disgusted with humanity in the day of Noah. We haven't changed much. The absolute reality of evil requires us to throw ourselves on the mercy of God and trust wholly in the Blood of the Lamb to save us from ourselves.
In the end, this is why the Love of God isn't enough. {Sorry, but it's the truth. Love alone fails, without Christ we would all be doomed despite God's unchangeable love for us}To simply say that God loves us and it'll be ok doesn't cut it. God cannot have any part in the evil that engulfs our world. Holiness and sin do NOT mix. There is no remedy for our desperate situation apart from Christ.
What will my students write? How many of them will choose to see the courage of Oskar and the crazy Hope of Itzhak as proof that there is hope in humanity? How many will recoil at the evil of children murdered simply because they were Jewish and conclude that humanity is beyond hope?
Is humanity evil? Yes, none of us are free of guilt.
Are we beyond hope? On our own, yes.
Thanks be to God for the nail-pierced hands that gave us hope.
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