For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
(Rom. 3:23)

"How could anyone do such a horrible thing?" we ask ourselves as a terrorist commandeers a plane and with full intent and knowledge of what he is doing plows into a building or a packed sports stadium killing thousands of innocent people? Whether it is a mall in Manila, a pizza restaurant in Tel Aviv, or the World Trade Center in New York City, when horror strikes, our hearts are filled with anguish, fear, and questions. "Why?" we ask. It's essentially the same question that has been asked from the day that Cain, filled with anger, asked his brother to go out into a field with him and attacked and killed him.

"Why? How could anyone do such a terrible thing?" we continue to ask ourselves generation after generation. Is there an answer? There is, and in facing that answer we also see reflected some of our shortcomings and failures. This is an issue which science can't address by analyzing the brains of terrorists, scanning them with computerized axial tomography or injecting isotopes into the blood stream to see how their thought patterns differ from ordinary peace-loving people.

Neither does psychology give us an answer unless it accepts the reality that man is a spiritual being and that something terribly wrong has happened in the heart of man, something that the Bible calls sin. The issue is not political but spiritual whereby a terrible evil possesses the minds of people who are willing to sacrifice their own lives in a belief that justifies the slaughter of the innocent.

Today, however, few understand what evil is unless you look at the devastation of broken bodies, of children in the arms of a rescue worker, or the tear-stained faces of family members whose tables will be missing a loved one forevermore. Sin is the terrible evil which accounts for murder, violence, lust, terrorist attacks, immorality and the vices which tear families apart.

In 1974 Billy Graham said, "I believe there are two strains in prophetic Scripture. One leads us to understand that as we approach the latter days and the Second Coming of Christ, things will become worse and worse…. But I believe as we approach the latter days and the coming of the Lord, it could be a time also of great revival." ("The King is Coming," Decision, November, 1974).

Is he right? If there is one thing which the writers of Scripture affirm with one voice it is that the days will grow darker and more violent as the end of the age approaches. Science and technology have become a two-edged sword which, wielded by the hand of an evil, hate-filled terrorist, becomes a very lethal weapon.

Suddenly the terror of what was envisioned only by science fiction and animated graphics producing horror films becomes a reality. Evil which is endemic in the hearts of men brings into focus the void, the moral bankruptcy in human beings and the emptiness of lives which have pushed God and His direction for humankind from their thinking.

It also brings into focus the reason God's son left heaven and was willing to bear our sin and estrangement from the Father in His body on the old tree. As Paul explained, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21).

When you look at the mud and filth caused by evil, you can also see a reflection of hope from above. Remember the words of the angel to Joseph long ago who said, "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (Matt. 1:21). And therein lies hope for all who will bow the knee and ask for forgiveness.

Resource reading: Romans 3:21-31.