Each one of us is aware that there is a fair amount of trouble and disappointment going in the world. Behind it, however, the world is beginning to ask a deeper question, which you and I should take a moment to think about. I am quite confident that each of us will admit that we have faced enough concerns and disappointments in life so that we begin to wonder if there isn’t something else than just coincidence behind the difficulties which come upon our world. The question boils down to, “Is there such a thing as evil in the world?” “This person called the devil—does he really exist?”

What is it that takes the smile of youth off the face of a young man and turns him into a derelict before he is 21 years old? What is it that takes a beautiful, young lady and destroys life and purpose for her before life, itself, has really gotten underway? Why do men and women stagger down the skid rows of our cities without one remaining gleam of hope in their eyes? Is this just happenstance?

I say to you that it is not. This is a very good time for each of us to remind ourselves that the Bible says, “Be sober, be vigilant, your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour.” Behind the bad things that take place in the world, therefore, is a malicious being whom the Bible calls Satan. He is active in the propagation of a disease which is called sin. About this, the Bible says, “Sin, when it is finished working in the individual, brings forth death.” We must face the fact that we live in a world which is in a great conflict between good and evil and even the fact that there appear to be times and areas in which evil seems to prevail. Otherwise, how shall we explain the growing number of suicides a year in America? How shall we explain all the murders each year in this land of ours, or the nearly millions who have dropped or are dropping into the pit of alcohol? Shall we say that the millions of divorces every year constitute merely a sociological phenomenon? Or, even looking across our world, shall we say that terrorism is simply people doing what comes naturally? Of course not. The world is infected with evil and there is a malicious being called the devil who continues to work.

When thinking of this, however, it is good to remind ourselves that Jesus Christ has come into the world in order to destroy the devil and deliver them who are in bondage to him. One of the essential messages of Christianity is that human sin has been atoned for by the finished work of Christ on the cross. No person, therefore, need be victimized by the awful activity of the devil. Rather, by believing on Christ as personal Savior, we are delivered from sins’ penalty and power and given citizenship in another world which is soon to come. The name of that world is heaven. Yes indeed, evil is real in the world, but salvation in Christ is the ultimate, the presiding reality. Make sure that that salvation has become yours. And one final clue. When you become a Christian, the Bible gives you the opportunity to join the battle. (Eph. 6)