Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Are People Our Problem?

Blog »  Are People Our Problem?

Wednesday, August 21, 2013   Jeff Lampl


"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand  your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."
Ephesians 6:13 (NIV)

The Bible tells us that believers will be opposed by spiritual forces of darkness and evil in heavenly places.   Some people think that statements like these are simply unsophisticated holdovers from a primitive worldview that we in the 21st century would be naïve to accept.  

However, if the biblical worldview is correct, we must then somehow respond to that reality.
I find it interesting that most people do believe in the existence of evil, but when they attempt to explain its existence apart from the biblical worldview they flounder.   There appears to an admission that there exists a power of evil that transcends simple survival of the fittest if one is an atheist, or simple self serving sin if one is a Christian.   It is also true, it seems to me, that neither atheism nor Christianity cleansed from belief in objective evil has any power to deal with evil.   Neither of those two worldviews has been successful in muting it’s power.  

Therefore  verse 13 implies that in order to stand strong against evil  we need help.  Our weapons are not our will, our best efforts at trying to be good, better education, a stronger military or better laws, rather they are practices which connect us to God, whose power subdues the power of darkness.   These “weapons” include the simplest and most powerful of things: bible reading, obedience, daily reliance on Christ rather than myself, prayer, knowing and believing the Gospel, trust, faith, and staying tuned into and obedient to God’s “spiritual GPS”. 


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