Evil is common among men

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”   Romans 8:35-37 (ESV)

Well, as I’m sure the whole world knows, we’ve had another killing of innocent people in a school.  This time a loss of nine lives (includes the shooter) at a small college in Roseburg, Oregon.  Its occurrence and the report of the shooter singling out Christians as his victims reminded me of the above passage.  Of course, this incident has dominated the airways and political punditry (new word) since it’s occurrence. 

I only intend here to add my voice to the cacophony of the various opinions of the cause of this horrific event in a very short manner and that is to remind you that we live in an evil-filled world.  If you’d like to hear my opinion as to why that is I’ll just cite to you some scriptures that form the basis of my opinion.

In Eccl. 6:1 The Preacher, Solomon, tells us that “evil is common among men.”  And, why is this so common anymore?  Solomon provides us with the answer to that question too.  In Eccl. 8:11 we read these so-true words of his: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”

Friends, how many years now have we seen evil tolerated in our society?  And, not only tolerated, but embraced.  Solomon provides me with a simple equation that is the basis for the way I see our current societal situation and that is, the more evil we tolerate, the more evil mankind becomes.

I remembered a couple of things I have in my files that relate to a previous school shooting incident.  You remember Columbine High School in Colorado, don’t your?  One of the things I kept in my files was a poem written by the father of one of the victims of that evil event.  The words he penned then are even more true today as they relate to this latest evil occasion.  His poem was directed towards our government and its administration.  Read his words and tell me if anything has changed since then.

Your laws ignore our deepest needs, Your words are empty air,

    You’ve stripped away our heritage, You’ve outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms, And precious children die,

   You seek for answers everywhere, And ask the question “Why?”

You regulate restrictive laws, Through legislative creed,

   And yet you fail to understand, That God is what we need!

Let me also apprise you of a few thoughts attached to this poem by the author.  He added:   “Men and women are three-part beings.  We all consist of body, soul and spirit.  When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our makeup, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice and hatred to rush in and wreck havoc.  What has happened to us as a nation?  We have refused to honor God, and in doing so, we open the doors to hatred and violence.....”

A great parallel lesson to those words of admonition to the legislature is a little parable spoken by Jesus in Matt. 12:43-45 in which he points out that man’s soul will be filled by something.  It cannot and will not remain empty.  If it’s not filled by God, then it will be filled with evil and will progressively get more evil.

I’m going to close this editorial by providing you with the second of my “file things,” which is a prayer offered before the Kansas House of Representatives in 1996 by one of our brethren.  And again, read it and see if it isn’t  relevant still to our news items of today.  Here’s what he prayed:

“Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.  We know your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that’s exactly what we’ve done.  We’ve lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.  We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism.  We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.  We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.  We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.  We have killed our unborn and called it choice.  We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.  We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.  We have coveted our neighbors’ possessions and called it ambition.  We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.  We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.  Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state.  Grant them your wisdom to rule, and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will.  I ask it in the name of your Son, the Living Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.”

The speaker of that prayer cited a portion of a passage from Isaiah 5:20.  Let me close by citing to you the entire passage and ask you again, does this fit with the condition of our society today?

“Woe unto those who call evil good and good evil; Who put darkness for light and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight!  Woe to men mighty at drinking wine, woe to men valiant for mixing intoxicating drink, who justify the wicked for a bribe and take away justice from the righteous man!  Therefore, as the fire devours the stubble and the flame consumes the chaff, so their root will be as rottenness and their blossom will ascend like dust; Because they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.”

Respectfully submitted,

Ron Covey