God does not author evil, he resists itIn the Lord's Prayer, we are taught, "Do not put us to the test, but deliver us from evil." What do you think that means? It means that we are to constantly ask for the protection of God against evil. We are on a battlefield. It is as if there are two armies, one of good and one of evil, and we are in the middle. But Satan cannot do anything about God; he is far too big. And Satan has a limited sphere of activity within which the only way he can get at God is to do evil to God's creatures. I'm saying all of this to you because evil is real. And we have to understand that. We also need to know that God is against it and that he has set the means in place to protect us. God's angels are all around us. Jesus says in Matthew 18:10, when he is warning against offending little children, "Their angels continually see the face of my Father in heaven." Their angels. Jesus was very concerned about little children. He knows the terrible things that can happen to them. They are so precious to God that his care is over every one of them. Now, when children grow up and become old and ugly, like I am, maybe the angels just walk off. Do you think that's how it works? Well, I believe that they stay right there. God resists evil. He is not the author of it. He stands against it. We are in the arena of human history, in which the good purposes of God are to be accomplished. From The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus. Copyright © 2015 by Dallas Willard. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers. |
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