'There is evil in the world.'

‘There is evil in the world’

President Barack Obama – Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech – December 2009

In this, our new twenty-first century, when science and technology have increased and improved at an exponential rate even over the last one hundred years, there are still some profound gaps in our understanding of the way the universe works. Scientists can examine the tiniest of molecules, can trace the passage of invisible neutrinos through matter, can send unmanned rockets ships to the outer reaches of the solar system with pinpoint accuracy – and in time, we are told, when the mystery of the Higgs Boson particle is solved, we shall know the answer to the ultimate question as to how and when matter itself formed in the very first instant.

We can therefore be proud of the achievements of humankind. However, we are still so limited to the confines of our Earth’s time and space. H.G. Wells shone a light on the hopes of mankind to one day transcend our confinement. However, the danger is that by doing so we may become enfeebled, not empowered, as dreams would have us believe. We have the Hadron Collider, but cannot measure the soul or the spirit of man. We do not have the means to see as cats and owls see, do not hear as dogs and bats hear, and in a real sense we could argue that they live in a different world to us, a world that we are blind and deaf towards.

In rare moments some individuals catch glimpses of other worlds, parallel worlds perhaps, and of non-human inhabitants of our world. Some wise man once declared, ‘Demons exist whether we believe in them or not.’ Perhaps it would be wiser to say, ‘God, angels and demons exist whether we believe in them or not.’

In an odd scary way we want and desire the supernatural to exist. We want ghosts, hobgoblins, werewolves, vampires, and forest fairies, but what we absolutely do not want is to encounter the paranormal in its raw evil form, which may cause us harm. Despite circumstantial evidence and folklore, the above creatures probably do not exist. But God, angels, and demons, well, that is a different matter altogether.

If we had eyes to see and an articulate suite of new senses, we might observe the spirit comings and goings all around the planet. Homing in to the city, the town, to the main street of your community, you would be fully cognisant of angels resting, helping, and guarding all of the people and places that God in His wisdom holds dear. You would have a glimpse of another world intimately integrated with ours that is more holy than you could ever imagine. Of course, where there are angels there are their fallen brothers, demons we call them now, not wishing to bestow to any of them any fragment of their once angelic nature. They stick as close to us as we will allow. We are now their reason for existence; they mean to do us harm, and thereby hurt God.

The Psalmist asks, ‘What is man, that God is so mindful of him?’ Man is created a little lower than the angels, but we carry within our genes, in our molecular structure, the wonderful gift of love. Love is the greatest gift of all, but it came at a price, such a high price. In bestowing love and free will, we were given the awesome ability to choose to love or not to love. Sadly, the absence of love can be evil in its most brutal forms. The Bible tells us that we should treat strangers with respect, with love even, for we may be entertaining angels in our midst. However, the good book also says to be watchful and beware, to be discerning, because we just might be inviting a demon into our lives.

‘Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out and the flame of his fire shall not burn’

Bible: Job – chapter 18 v 5.