Then War Broke Out in Heaven

One thing that few people will bother to make an argument about is the idea that there is good and evil in this world. They will argue which things qualify as good and which things qualify as evil, based on whatever cultural, religious, or political viewpoints they subscribe to, but the majority of people find it necessary to admit that there are two distinct forces at work in the world around us. The hot debate begins when you start talking about why this is the case and what or whom these forces actually are.

According to some, these are simply forces of nature, balancing the circle of life with a give and take. Evidence tells me that is actually enough to satisfy some apparently not-so-curious minds. But for others, that ceases to be good enough when we come face to face with forces are so obviously higher and more powerful than ourselves. A theory that is somewhat related to this thought process is Moral Dualism. This is the belief that there are two separate and independent powers or forces at work in the universe, and that these powers have opposing character: one of them is good, and the other is evil. That's fairly logical, and isn't too incredibly far off from what the Bible teaches. Dualism and Christianity deviate however, at the point where Dualism says that these powers are essentially equal. Neither one has more authority than the other, and neither one was created by the other. I don't think very many people actually claim to be "Dualists" but in a way this theory matches with the popular idea that good and evil have always been a natural part of life and we just have to deal.

The very fact that what we perceive as evil actually exists is one of those issues that has tripped up countless thinkers and has sadly many times led to the rejection of the possibility of a God who claims to be so good. The permission of such monstrous wickedness in this world is a difficult fit with a God who claims to be love by definition. It's a fair objection; I believe in asking questions, raising inquiries and not accepting fluff as truth worthy of basing your life around. But the Bible doesn't seem to have much favor for fluff either, as it doesn't leave us with surface level explanations, but rather it hands us the pieces to a bigger picture. 

"How you are fallen from heaven

O Lucifer, son of the morning"

Isaiah 14:12

"You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering...

The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes 

was prepared for you on the day you were created.

You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you;

You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones.

You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,

'til iniquity was found in you."
Ezekiel 28:12-15

"Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty,

you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor..." 

Ezekiel 28:17

"For you have said in your heart, 'I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High.'"

Isaiah 14:12-14

 "Then war broke out in heaven. 

Michael and His angels fought against the dragon, 

and the dragon and his angels fought back.

But he was not strong enough and they lost their place in heaven."

Revelation 12:7,8

"So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, 
called the Devil and Satan,who deceives the whole world;
he was cast the the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
Revelation 12:9

"Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! 
For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, 
because he knows that he has a short time."
Revelation 12:12 

We feel the pull of good and evil daily around us because there was a war in heaven. And there was a war in heaven because one extremely high ranking angel decided he would rather be worshiped than to worship the King. And there has been no end to the string of consequences that have unfolded since that decision. This is where Christianity triumphs where Dualism cannot: the God of the Universe is more powerful than the rebel, and has promised a total eradication of the sin problem if we will only hold fast until He comes back. 

"Affliction shall not rise up a second time."
Nahum 1:9

Great honor always comes with great risk, even in the throne room of the King of Majesty. God does not, and did not, create or condone evil, but he also has no interest in creating robots either. The freedom to decide is one of the most beautiful gifts God could have given His creation, but also one of the most dangerous. The freedom that allows you to decide how you wish to live your life and where to place your priorities and loyalty is the same freedom that allowed Lucifer to open rebellion against the King of Heaven. And rather than immediately eliminate the trouble maker from existence, God allowed His character to be placed on trial and has given us the right to decide with whom we wish to place our loyalty. ...Because God is love by definition, and it's not love any other way.

Not Without Evidence

I don't watch a ton of movies. You'd be surprised how often I'm that person staring blankly at people when they quote a line from a mainstream hit or try to make a clever reference to some ten year old "classic" that everyone who's anyone has seen. I guess that's because I read more than I watch, and also because I would rather see a great movie ten times than ten okay movies. I have to think there's an insane amount of wasted brain power involved in that whole industry, but I do love a good action or sci-fi movie if it has an interesting plot. 

The types of movie plots that a lot of people, including myself, seem to be drawn to are essentially based on victory in unlikely circumstances. We love to see a strong, confident main character that is somehow sharp enough to sense that there's more going on than what's out in the open; a hero who won't stop until they uncover what's been hidden and then take action to revolutionize the circumstances. Then by the end of the movie, seemingly against all odds, they manage to pound the schemes of the bad guys right into the ground. Bad guy pounding always creates that great emotional response in the audience and experiencing that triumph, on whatever level, is what makes the whole movie worth watching.

People put a lot of time and money into the movie industry, and the reason for that is not complicated: because it's interesting. It offers an escape from reality into a pretend world where we get to "experience" something different. Living vicariously through these screen characters for a couple of hours feeds our inward longing to be someone important, someone heroic, and someone with a real mission in life. Then when the credits roll we look around and admit that whatever we have going on in our mundane existence back here in reality is significantly less interesting than what we just visually experienced.

But the way I see it, reality isn't actually that much less interesting than those movies we're so enthralled with...

If we look around, we find ourselves in a world that is positively overrun by the bad guys. We experience opposing forces practically battling it out in front of our eyes on a daily basis. But we're told that this is just the way life is, and that over-thinking it is a waste of time. Something doesn't seem right though, it never does. Somehow in the most honest corners of the back of our mind, we always sense that there must be more to the story. We're drawn to characters in fictional movies that keep searching and fighting for answers against ridiculous odds, even alone if they have to, but the important question then becomes whether or not we will do that in reality when it actually matters. 

Just like a character in a movie that uncovers some information of crucial importance that has to power to change everything, we have not been left without sufficient evidence to understand even some of life's greatest mysteries. The purpose of the Bible is not to be a charm for people who call themselves "Christians" to carry around. It IS that pivotal collection of evidence that leads to the answers and defines our role in this cosmic war between the God of the Universe and the Great Deceiver. We've been admonished that this war is no game so we better get our armor on (Ephesians 6:11) because we're wrestling with some dark and dangerous forces (Ephesians 6:12), but we're also encouraged that the ultimate victory has already been won (John 16:33). According to the Bible, we are all in this story with a role that matters. What we have to decide is if we're willing to fight for truth like our much admired movie heroes in a battle where our choices could hold eternal significance.

I've heard quite a collection of reasons why people are either uninterested in Christianity or give up on it, and pretty high on the list is that there are too many unanswered questions, too many reasons for doubt. If there is a God of the Universe, they say, He would have revealed Himself in a much more absolute and definite way, making everything about Himself so obvious that we would have to acknowledge him as Lord. 

...I'm not so sure. 

Jeremiah 29:13 says, "And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." The idea of seeking and searching implies that finding truth is something that takes a level of effort on our part. We were not left here empty handed and without a way of finding truth. We were given a book full of immeasurably valuable information and clues about the war being waged around us, the identification and mission of the enemy as well as how he operates, and hope in the victory of Jesus Christ, being confident that the way things are now is not the way they will be for the conclusion. We will not uncover every answer right now, but what we can do is keep our eyes open and seek after truth to understand the bigger picture ...one piece at a time.