Monday, September 5, 2011

September 5, 2011

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Jeremiah 17:9

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11 it is helpful reflect on lessons learned from that tragic event.

I begin with a lesson that seems the most obvious to me - HUMAN NATURE IS EVIL.

For decades humanists have taught that people are basically good and just need to be educated and placed in the proper environment. Supporting this belief is the Utopian notion that man is capable of creating his own paradise. The lie behind that idea is that there is no God other than man himself.

 Such teaching is blatantly contradictory to the clear teaching of the Word of God. Biblical truth is summarized in the theme verse for this article - "the human heart is deceived in its thinking and evil in its intentions".

So, you have one belief that man is essentially good and God's teaching that humanity is sinful and evil. Which will you believe? Will you trust the claims of morally flawed men OR those of a Holy and all-wise God? That IS the question.

Vivid nightmares of passenger jets flying into skyscrapers provide horribly convincing proof that evil does exist. How can people who basically good commit such heinous acts? When you watched those jet liners explode into those towers were you thinking, "Wow! Those are good people flying those planes!" I don't think so. The obvious thought is the right one, "Those are men whose hearts are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked!"

There are some mis-guided bleeding hearts who insist the terrorists are the innocents and the US got what it deserved because of our policies around the world. But the argument that their evil was a response to our evil only strengths the point.

Since the horrific events of 9-11 it has been hard to deny the existence of evil. That is good because the only way to overcome evil is to confront it, confess it and turn to Christ.

Evil is real and it is real dangerous. Don't deny it, turn to a Holy God to defeat it and destroy it!