The Face of Evil

Angel of Light

I have seen the face of evil and it is beautiful.

I’ve read a little about yin and yang. I’ve considered the differences between black and white. Life is full of opposites. No matter where you are or what you are doing there is almost always a choice. Up or down. Right or left. Stop or go. Awake or asleep. The list goes on and on. The biggest choice, however, is between good or evil.

We tend to think that good is beautiful. Flowers in spring, a gentle rain, the face of a mother looking at the newborn baby in her arms. Good is, well – it is good!

Evil on the other hand, is viewed as ugly. Scars, accidents, predator and prey, horrible devil and demons. Evil is, well – it is evil!

But, evil can also be beautiful. So often we are fooled by the face of evil because it does appear in the form of beauty. The Bible tells us that Satan masquerades as an angel of light.

I have seen the face of evil and it is beautiful. Charming. Appealing. It says, “Trust me.” The right ‘talk’ is there, up to a point. Ah, but even the demons know who Christ is.

There are times when I think back on my life 20 years ago and I think: how simple and uncomplicated my life was then. Oh, I faced evil in my homeland, too. Yet most of the time I knew that I was facing it. And sometimes it didn’t really seem all that bad. Like a narcotic it lulled me into a sense of complacency, dulled my senses to a point, didn’t look so evil because it was just a “little” sin. A little sin in my culture, a little sin in myself. No big deal – we’re all sinners after all, right? No worries, mate! I’ll get a handle on it sooner or later. Or – those guys in Denver/Washington, DC are to blame and we are all victims of the evil around us.

I know better now. Mel has said many times that one of the reasons God has ordained missions is because He has to take us out of our own culture so we can see our own culture more clearly and see the idols in our lives. And yes, we all have idols. He puts us into a different culture so that we through our cultural differences and ‘mistakes’ can make people there aware of the idols in their lives. Cross-cultural missions is not just about spreading the Word of God around the world, it is also about Christians learning about and then dealing correctly with their own sin. Ah. God is good.

I have seen evil in a new way here. One part of me is frightened, another part of me is relaxed and confident in my Lord. Satan works in different ways in different cultures, finding ways and means to enslave people in sin, hold them in deep fear and bondage. In deepest Africa of old, in South America and other places today, the witch doctor holds the office of Satan’s human puppet. It seems that here in Europe he uses charismatic personalities that gain power over a few people, then more and more until suddenly they are in control of whole countries. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and more. Those leaders in power today, right this minute, controlling countries sometimes blatantly, sometimes more subtly.

Evil works in the lower levels of society, at the local levels, as well. Power hungry men or women who want control over money, people, property. Hungry for recognition. Often having a form of godliness that is not true. These people are most often beautiful. Charming. Appealing to others. Working their way by fair means or foul, up the ladder of power and ‘success’ until they reach they position they crave. Often only those close to them know the truth of their character until the power is in their hand. Oh, and then it is so ugly, so awful, so terrible. Those closest to them suffer, usually in silence due to fear of losing their job, their home, their family, their life. I’ve seen people associated with this kind of power hungry person beaten down, afraid, trapped and as helpless to extricate themselves as a heroine addict is to stop cold turkey by himself.

But mark this: there will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.
II Timothy 3:1-7

I read these words and I wonder – are we living in ‘the last days?’ It seems that people have always been this way, haven’t they? Yes, but so much more now, all around the world. The part of these verses that has always scared me is “having a form of godliness but denying it’s power” and “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” The apostle Paul wrote in Phil. 2:10 that we are “to work out our salvation in fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” I must rest in that – it is God who works in me. I have to trust that He is also working in those around me.

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angle of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”
II Corinthians 11:13-15

So, when I see the face of evil, beautiful and charming, and I see those who are trapped in the web of that power and desire for more – I have to trust that God’s true children in that situation are also in the process of God working in them. The evil has a form of godliness, yes, but God knows who His true children are. He is the one who will keep them safe, who is working in them to will and to act according to his good purpose.” For now, I pray for their protection during this time. I pray for our protection, for our loved ones protection.