Learning to Call Evil, Evil

I struggled for a long time with the question of whether to deliver a sermon that in some way addresses the events of September 11th 2001 or whether to continue preaching from Ephesians.

What eventually persuaded me was the consideration that one of the duties of Christians in general and Pastors in particular, is to examine events through the lens of Scripture. The great events of our time need to be biblically analyzed, and if we do this, not only will we be able to understand them better, we will be better equipped to react to them, and to discuss them with others.

After all, as believers, God's word the Bible should inform and direct every part of our lives, not just those parts of our lives that we would think of as specifically religious. In saying "Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path." The Psalmist did not mean, "Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path…ON SUNDAY. Every other day of the week I'll do whatever seems right to me." No, Psalm 119:105 means that the Word of God should guide you every moment of every day.

As I'm sure you've heard me pray before, the Word of God is a great gift to us, it is a sure rule and guide for all of our faith, life, and practice and therefore it is very necessary that we consult God's word if we are ever to properly understand and respond to God's providence.

Now, my sermon today will not be yet another installment of "Where was God on September 11th 2001?" I firmly believe that most if not all of you, already know the answer to that particular question.

We read the following in Acts 7:55-56 about Stephen the first Martyr of the New Testament Church as he was being stoned to death by wicked men: "But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, "Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

I have no doubt that the faithful Christians who were Martyred by wicked men on September 11th of last year had the same beatific vision as they entered the presence of their Lord. The God of all Creation was not absent on September 11th, and even those acts of monstrous evil will ultimately be turned to good by our Lord, for you know "that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose" as Romans 8:28 assures us.

If you are wondering how something as evil as a terrorist attack could possibly work for good, stop a moment and consider that the greatest of all evils, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, was ultimately used to bring about the greatest good – the salvation of sinful men. Have faith and know, because God's word assures you, that nothing is beyond the control of God, there is not one errant molecule out there that the Lord is not firmly in control of. His divine purposes, are surely being brought to pass and as Isaiah wrote: "For the LORD of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?"

But what, when we look at those events of September 11 as we look at them in the light of God's word, should we learn? There are many answers to that question, but I hope in particular, that this would be a stark reminder to us of the biblical command to call things what they are, and in particular to call that which is Evil, Evil.

The word EVIL, like the word SIN, is something that people in the modern world tend to shy away from. The reason for that, of course is that it implies a judgment call. And we are told whatever we do, we mustn't judge. After all, what makes one person's opinion right and another person's opinion wrong? Who has the right to call some things good and other things evil?

Who has the right to do that? GOD DOES!

The verses we read, are taken from a list in which the Lord is pronouncing judgments on the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem for their wickedness. Listed amongst their sins is calling Evil, Good and Good, Evil. That is when someone did something, that the Lord had pronounced evil, such as getting drunk, or dispossessing the poor and the weak, taking bribes, worshipping false gods, and even sacrificing their children to them, the people and their leaders would say that was good. He was not drunkard, he was the life of the party. He didn't dispossess and enslave the poor and the weak, he was a sharp businessman. She didn't worship false Gods, she was a very spiritual person.

In each case, they were doing things that the Lord had condemned in His word, and which He was warning them they were going to be judged for, and at the same time declaring that they were good things, and encouraging each other to do them. Their society had turned God's standards on their head and was encouraging each man to ignore the objective standard of God's word in favor of their own personal opinions. They were wise and prudent in their own eyes, but in actuality they were being foolish and imprudent by embracing evil and calling it good.

Worse yet, those things that were good, they called evil. While false religions were encouraged, zeal for the true worship of the Lord was frowned upon. Not to accept many different idols was "intolerant" and unacceptable. Not to go along with corrupt practices of the leaders was considered stupid and certainly anyone who tried to expose the corruption would be silenced one way or another. Not to be willing to party with the rest was to be a bore and a puritan, and would open you up to ridicule.

Whenever Man sets his shifting opinions of right and wrong ahead of God's infallible judgment, the inevitable outcome is a descent into evil and chaos. At the very end of the book of Judges for instance, we read that the hallmark of the Chaos and sin and disorder that the tribes of Israel had fallen into was that "everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

Now I would be genuinely surprised if you weren't already making applications of this subject to our own society. Certainly as a culture, we have been guilty of cutting ourselves adrift from God's Word with its infallible pronouncements of right and wrong and choosing instead to do what was right in our own eyes. And in many cases the result of this has been that we have called evil, good, and good, evil.

Today we commonly hear that Abortion is not evil, it is Good, and that it is opposing abortion that is Evil. We even claim that Abortion is a "right" and is so doing we forget that all of our genuine rights are derived from God, and we are nowhere given a right to disobey his Word. In our society every kind of sexual immorality is held out to us as something good, and that if it makes us happy, then it can't be bad. If it feels good, do it, we are told. Every day, the list of taboos in that field gets a little shorter. Meanwhile educators and the intelligentsia argue that it is opposition to sexual immorality which is wrong, and is in some cases a "hate crime". Organizations simultaneously campaign to introduce homosexual indoctrination into schools, and to ban programs that teach abstinence.

But one of the saddest examples of that Evil is Good and Good Evil trend, has to do with our societal reaction to terrorism since 9/11. In some cases we can't even employ biblical terminology in describing the terrorists themselves. So we often hear that the men who flew fully loaded planes into buildings were sick, or brain-washed, but rarely EVIL or WICKED, and certainly their actions are never described as SINFUL.

What's worse is our inability to call EVIL, EVIL in regards to Islam.

Since September 11, Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son, has become one of my heroes. Immediately following the attacks Franklin Graham made the following statement regarding Islam: "I don't believe this is a wonderful, peaceful religion. When you read the Koran and you read the verses from the Koran, it instructs the killing of the infidel, for those that are non-Muslim." He went on to say "It wasn't Methodists flying into those buildings, it wasn't Lutherans, it was an attack on this country by people of the Islamic faith."

His remarks unleashed a firestorm of criticism in the press, and in the political arena, and to the shame of the Christianity community, he didn't even get much support from Evangelical leaders. But still he has stuck to his guns and put honoring Christ ahead of man pleasing.

As someone who studied Islam and the life of Mohammed and the history of Islam since its founding, I can tell you that Graham is absolutely right. When society looks at Islam and pronounces that this Evil is Good it is ignoring the judgment that God's word places on a religion that teaches what Islam does.

Since the Seventh century Islam has an ongoing and vicious war of expansion and conquest on all its neighbors. The prosecution of that religious war, known as Jihad is actually one of the pillars of Islam. The false prophet Mohammed, who commanded his followers to kill his enemies and promised them salvation for it, unleashed upon the world a blight that has caused unimaginable death, destruction, and suffering. That legacy continues to the present day, with even the New York Times, which is hardly an evangelical paper, reporting that followers of Islam "started most of the wars being fought in the world today." That's not surprising when you consider that the Koran divides the world in two, the Dar El Islam, the nations of Islam, and the Dar El Harb or nations of War.

You are told to believe that the responsibility for the rampant terrorism and bloodshed that we see throughout the Islamic world, and now unfortunately in our own nation, lies with a few extremists and not with the religion that they believe and act in the name of and in accordance with.

This is rather like saying that during World War Two our fight was against some Nazi extremists, but not against Nazism per se. You see the problem was that Hitler and his cronies had a radical interpretation of Nazism.

But the truth should be apparent to us, if as is claimed, Islam was a peaceful religion, then people who take their Islam to extremes would be extremely peaceful. But Brothers and Sisters, you are being sold on a lie. I receive a magazine each month called Voice of the Martyrs. Every month my heart breaks as I read the stories of Christians who are being literally slaughtered around the world in country after country, not by Al Qaeda, or Hezbollah, or organized terrorists, but their Muslim neighbors. We pretend that this is a peaceful religion but we know full well that the penalty for conversion to Christianity in Islamic nations like Saudia Arabia is DEATH.

We Call this Evil Good, and it is like the Abused Woman who keeps getting beaten by her husband and yet keeps saying that at "heart he's a good man" and telling everyone, "I fell" and refusing to file charges, until one day he kills her.

So how do we respond to Islam, by killing all the Muslims? No! When Christians wage aggressive wars or attempt to convert by the Sword we are going against the teachings of Christ. The Koran may enshrine the Jihad, but the word of God does not.

We respond to Islam first and foremost by calling this violent, Christ-less, works centered religion exactly what it is, an Evil and False religion. Islam is no less of abomination in the eyes of the Lord than Baal worship was in the Old Testament, or the Pharasaism that Christ condemned. We do not do this out of our own authority, but rather we simply acknowledge and proclaim what the Word of God says about all false religions and the practices that Islam endorses.

But then we also must be ready willing and eager to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to the Islamic world. The Muslim is no more unworthy of salvation and certainly no more lost than we were when God called us to faith in Jesus. Christ can do what no Laser Guided Bomb can accomplish, while they have the capacity to destroy the body, only Christ can change hearts. Franklin Graham is right, its no coincidence those terrorists where not Methodists or Lutherans, and the incentive for terrorism will only end when for every place there was a Mosque, there is now a Church.

We must also pray. Pray for the safety of soldiers and sailors and airmen who safeguard our lives, and pray for the success of those who carry the gospel to the nations under darkness.

Finally, another lesson we must learn from Sept. 11 is the display of our mortality, "For man also does not know his time" and we need to remember that someday we will all die, and that sooner than we think, and then be called to judgment. I pray that in that hour, you would go not as the Atheist without a hope, or the Muslim who goes with a false hope in his own good works, but like Stephen with a sure hope through faith in the risen Lord Jesus:

 Home |  Visitors  |  Sermons  |  Essays  |  Search  |  References  |  Feedback