Today is September 11th, the day that will live on in American memories forever. For my generation it is the equivalent to Kennedy's assassination. I remember exactly where I was on that fateful day. I remember where I was on the following September 11th because I was at Todd Beamer's grave side with my friend. The happenings of that tragic day are something that cannot be quantified or qualified, except as evil. We live in a world where evil has permeated every facet of our existence. It is seen everyday in our news, in our international relationships, but even more distinctly in our own faces.
We all have the capacity for every form of evil. The human nature present within me is the same nature within you. We could never say that we would never do something as horrid as murder. However, the truth is evident that indeed we can.
One of the problems with this thinking is the pervasive idealism of humanity. Beginning in the 19th century humanity became the end all of everything. There is no need for a spiritual world. There is no such thing as sin. There is no need to look back. Progress was the rallying cry for all of humanity. This was true in at least America and Europe, which then spread to every corner of the earth due to the Industrial Revolution and military might. So it was progress, progress, progress. Technology, science, and even theology was seen in the positivity of progress. Forget the past for we are forging on to the future of humanity.
The "-isms" of the day centered on the progress of humanity and replaced God with human will. We were no longer made in his image but rather we were our own image. Thus, we had Nazism, Marxism, racism, nationalism, and Darwinism. All had replaced the spiritual reality of God with the physical human.
Enter in the 20th century. This was the fleshing out of all these ideologies. The result? More death and destruction that ever seen before. The progression of humanity meant the survival of the fittest at the expense of the weak. At the core of it all was the rejection of the image of God seen in human beings. And when you replace the image of God with our own, it ends up in death. Look at every atheistic ideology and see how it manifested itself. Death everytime.
This short history lesson is just to point that even the most prestigious, educated, well off person is capable of evil. It is at our core of being because of sin. But this isn't the way it has to be.
If today has done anything it is to remind me that this isn't the way it's supposed to be. There is more. Evil has to come to an end. There has to be another force that will rid this world of the evil which controls everything, including me.
His name is Jesus. His kingdom began its reinstitution with his incarnation. All his miracles point to this. The entirety of Scripture points to this. His name is Jesus. He will put things back to how they are supposed to be. He will win.
His name is Jesus.