Don't try to understand evil

To all people who use their social media platform to "expose" the evil ideology of Islamism, DON'T try to understand the demonic works of the devil, but destroy it! Instead of trying to comprehend evil and poisoning people's minds with demonic ideology, it ought to be resisted, fought or destroyed, but not to be understood. We MUST focus, expose and preach the Word of God solely! 

The Word of God says: “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15) It does not teach us to preach the works of the devil! We MUST wholeheartedly refuse to entertain the devil's agenda and have NOTHING to do with it!  Refuse to listen to it, refuse to have any share in it and refuse to try to understand it! To understand evil, you must become evil and that will have a lasting, even permanent, effect, so don't do it! 

Yes, in Ephesians 5:11-12 the Word of God says: "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them." Apostle Paul instructs us to expose these deeds, because our silence may be interpreted as approval. God needs people who will take a stand for what is right. Christians must lovingly speak out for what is true and right. However, as God's children, filled with the Holy Spirit, and blessed with divine wisdom and discernment, we can recognise evil without requiring to know much about it - so we ought to strive to understand our calling, God's Word and His will much more diligently than we try to understand evil. Yes, we need to know about evil sufficiently to resist it - but that is all! "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)

It is NOT God's will for us to desire to understand evil, to make sense of it, to try to wrap our heads around it, find explanations for it, and then… do something about it! It is as if we are telling ourselves… "If I could just understand where it came from, why it’s happening, and the ultimate purpose for it, I could be at peace." The Bible never truly makes sense of evil so that we can understand it  and for a very good and important reason. 

It is a fundamental human drive to understand things. The creation narrative shows that we have been put into our created environment to master and subdue it, which implies gaining understanding of it. Our rationality is in itself a dimension of being made in the image of God. We were created to think! So then, to understand things means to integrate them into their proper place in the universe, to provide a justified, legitimate, and truthful place within creation for everything we encounter. We instinctively seek to establish order, to make sense, to find reasons and purposes, to validate things and thus explain them. 

As human beings made in God’s image for this very purpose, we have a natural drive, an irrepressible desire, and an ability to organize and order the world in the process of understanding it.Therefore, when we encounter this phenomenon of evil, we struggle to apply to it all the rational skill; philosophical, practical, and problem-solving, that we so abundantly and successfully deploy on everything else. We are driven to try to understand and explain evil. But it doesn’t work. Why not?

God with His infinite perspective, and for reasons known only to Himself, knows that we finite human beings cannot, indeed must not, "make sense" of evil. For the final truth is that evil does not make sense. "Sense" is part of our rationality that in itself is part of God’s good creation and God’s image in us. So evil can have no sense, since sense itself is a good thing.

Evil has no proper place within creation. It has no validity, no truth, no integrity. It does not belong to the creation as God originally made it nor will it belong to creation as God will ultimately redeem it. It cannot and must not be integrated into the universe as a rational, legitimated, justified part of reality. Evil is not there to be understood, but to be resisted and ultimately expelled. Evil was and remains an intruder, an alien presence that has made itself almost (but not finally) inextricably "at home". Evil is beyond our understanding because it is not part of the ultimate reality that God in His perfect wisdom and utter truthfulness intends us to understand. So God has withheld its secrets from His own revelation and our research. Personally, I have come to accept this as a providentially good thing. 

The Bible does seem to answer other questions, like… How does God feel about evil, what has He done about it, what is He doing about it, and what will He do about it in the future? Answer: God hates evil! He has promised to rid the world of all evil, then He sent His ONLY Son, Jesus to face evil as a righteous human, and He will eventually cleanse the world of all evil and all wickedness will be destroyed once and for all! 

So, how should we, as Christians respond to evil? Our position toward evil MUST ALWAYS be the same as God’s. We hate it too and we avoid it! We cry and lament when we see it and when it comes near to our lives.We prayerfully cry out to God, agreeing with Him that something should be done about it because it just doesn’t fit with how things ought to be, we ask for His protection and may God's will be done! Then we fight against it in partnership with God, and we do so by putting on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, we may be able to stand our ground (Ephesians 6:13-17). We do not try to understand evil because it is not understandable!  If we could truly understand it, we could control it, and we can’t. It is… EVIL!

Today, more than ever, there's an URGENCY of knowing, understanding and having a personal relationship with the ONLY Living God, Father of Jesus Christ NOT the devil! Romans 10:17 says clearly that faith in Jesus Christ comes by hearing, and hearing the Word of God. Please, do not use this precious time to educate people on the works of the devil but  preach the Gospel for it has the power to save people's souls (James 1:21). 

May the Lord bless you, in Jesus name! AMEN!