You know, sometimes it’s good to stop and think for just a moment about something more than the next meal or what I will do when Friday comes. I would like to suggest that the time for a bit of deeper thought has come upon us now. Along with you, I am very conscious that we live in a world that is quite characterized by trouble and we endure personal lives in that world that are unpredictable, worrisome and often painful. Because of this, we wonder about life and particularly do we ask the question as to why there is such a thing such as evil in the world. There’s a particular line of reasoning which leads to that question. Which is the reason why the question is most frequently asked by the logical, the thoughtful, the people who consider reality.

The line of reason starts with the fact that we know that there is a God. The universe could not have made itself and so there has to be a supreme being behind it all. Then we hear from the Bible and from the message of Christianity that God is good, God is loving, God is even merciful. Having thought this far, we ask “How can a good, a loving and a merciful God allow such pain, such suffering, such war, such poverty, and really evil things in the world?” A pressing question indeed.

One possible answer to that question is that God is helpless, He is impotent to prevent evil. The world is beyond His control. Instantly we realize that this possible answer is preposterous because the sun still shines, the rain still falls and the atoms and molecules of our physical existence hold together. Therefore infinite carefulness, detailed control, wise management still exists in the universe.

Then the question still continues to complicate itself when we remember that God could do something. He could do anything. He could for instance destroy the world and that would be that. Or, He could destroy all the sin and all the sinners in the world and that still would be that. Such a course would end existence for us all, and that really would be that.

Remembering then that God could do away with evil, we must arrive at the conviction that there is a loving, wonderful, purposeful reason why He allows it to exist. In that we do not always see that reason in this world, people still die in pain and poverty, we must conclude that this life is the prelude to a more wonderful life which is to come.

If you have come to that conclusion, I congratulate you because that is exactly the conclusion to which the Bible comes. The Bible says that God causes the wrath of man to praise Him and the remainder of wrath He will contain. Therefore not one thing in the universe happens which is outside of the permissive will of God. He allows it to happen so that He may take out of this world a people who will be escalated to the place where they are executives of the universe, involved in the management of the eternal worlds to come.

These people, as you may suspect, are Christians. They are the ones who are the object of God’s design in the midst of the problems of this world which design is described in the Bible as “bringing many sons into glory”. We who are Christians extend to you a cordial invitation to become a Christian as well. Becoming a son of God, you will then be able to understand, indeed to do something about evil in this world and what’s more, out of that contest between good and evil you will develop the strength, the eternal character to distinguish yourself for eternity. I promise you that when you become a Christian, a sense of resentment will give way to a sense of adventure. The greatest thrill that there is is to live for Christ in a challenging world like this.