Powerlessness in the face of evil Essay

Most People view as experienced, at hotshot time or another, the frustration of simply not being qualified to escape a thought. If it is merely a song that keeps going with our mind, or a positive or neutral image, the problem is well(p) that frustration. except when it is an hatred idea, our inability to throw it off, no matter what a person do, whitethorn drive into great inside need. For some bulk, it is a question of envy or jealousy others be tormented by mistrust and spiteful thoughts slake others seem to struggle unendingly with hearty images and ideas. Two things are very important in our life. First, we should remember that we are not al wizard in our struggle. It is easy to forget this, especi entirelyy when our inner struggle is long or intense. The struggle is a universal one, and may be overcome at least in part by sharing it with someone the afflicted person trusts, whether a pastor or priest, a spouse, a mentor, or a close friend. Second, people moldiness r emain reassured that on that point is a way unwrap. Once people give in to the demons of self doubt and fear, the battle has already been lost.It is a general belief that the aromaing of paralysis or impotency in the face of diabolic lies, close to being possessed. It may stock- motionless be possession. iodine needs to exercise caution in using the saythere is a state in which people might feel besieged by evil spirits, yet do not permit them take full possession of us. What the New Testament calls possession comes around when a person is completely dominated by the power of evil. But one must recognize that there are people like a shot in such a condition. In a world where everything is explained forward by psychology and psychiatry, it seems tempting to dismiss the idea of possession. People have a medical label for every ill and, it seems, a cure. provided there are so many people for whom psychiatry is last of no help One has often wondered that would happen if s avior were to cry our overflowing mental hospitals.Suppression Though some evil thoughts set up be easily dismissed (or overcome by a unforesightful prayer), others are much harder to expel. In the case of such besetting evil thoughts, our countryy reaction is often suppression to push the offending idea sustain d proclaim, deep into our subconscious, in order to rid ourselves of it quickly. But that never works. As Freud and countless others have shown, a suppressed thought will perpetually resurface, just like a corked bottle that is pushed below the wet but bobs up again as soon as it is released. The tho alternativeto continue with the picture of bottleis to grasp it and throw it out of the water altogether. In other words, the most effective way to rattling rid our mind of a suppressed thought is to face it straightforwardly and reject it. immortal the Creator and Creation As a weak, despised, persecuted alliance who followed a crucified Messiah, the first delivery boyians knew all too well in their own experience that after Easter Sunday the powers of darkness were still at work in and around them. But because they remembered the power of paragon that embossed Jesus form the dead and made him to be not lone(prenominal) their Lord but the Lord of the whole world, they were sure that however right on the forces of evil may be, however much damage they may still do, they are doomed to failure in their attempt to take a throne that does not belong to them. These Christians, therefore, looked forward to the future with the absolute foregone conclusion that the justice and love of paragon that had been rejoicing would finally be victorious both in their own lives and in the world around them. The too soon Christians memory of Jesus resurrection withal led them to remember the cross of Christ in a new way. It became for them a sign not lone(prenominal) of Jesus (and Gods) powerlessness in the in the face of evil but also a sign of love of Jesus (and God), which was so great that he (and the God who sent him) was willing to bring forth and fifty-fifty die for needy, suffering, sinful people. If the memory of Jesus resurrection meant self-confidence in Gods liberating power over the powers of evil, the memory of Jesus cross meant confidence in the self-giving, suffering love of a Christ (and God) that was beat with them even in the depths of their suffering and dying. It meant that nothing could separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord James Charlesworth, with many others, sees apocalypticism as resulting from a collapse in the world of meaning. The apocalyptic texts are a lament over the failure of ordinary historical process to break human problems. They are a eulogy over an exhausted, worn-out earth and the present age of suffering, and they culminate in a vision of a new age in which the wolf shall live with the lamb and stay will prevail throughout the world. One side of Hebraic apocalyptic ism is peaceable and conciliatorythe nations will finally be at peace with one anotherwhile the other side is warlike and vengefulthe enemies of theologys people (either all Gentiles or some of them) will suffer ultimate defeat and receive punishment for their sins.Reactions to apocalypticism have varied, but a common modern repose is to see it as escapist. It tells that though the present world is filled with incredible evil, there is a trulym beyond where God triumphs, the righteous flourish, and the wicked suffer. Once again, the lines are somewhat foggy in as much as the classical Hebrew prophets all announced that ultimate salvation was Gods work and not a human accomplishment. Apocalypticism is in effect an intensification of the sense of human powerlessness in the face of evil.Discerning the heaven-sent The first Christians remembered Jesus, the tragic and unprejudiced victim of evil who cried, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? only to remember also that Jesus l ater had been raised by Gods power, victorious over the worst that evil could do. Christ is risen From the beginning there were signs among believers that the Spirit of Jesus was inaugurating the kingdom of life in the face of the still present kingdom of death. The reality if resurrection provided a new way of covering the cross of Jesus. More than a sign of Gods powerlessness in the face of evil, the cross became a sign of Gods amazing love that transforms the worst of evil into the fullness of life. Faith in a just and loving God is not based on good or bad experience in the immediate present. One helpful answer to the troubling question Why is there evil if God is good and all-powerful? It is called the logic of love theodicy. This logic presumes that God originally created for the sake of enabling loving relationships, a purpose requiring the granting of real freedom to the created. God will love, but in the process uncivil the door to the potentially wrong use of freedom, wh ich is evil (live spelled backward). Thus, though God does not protect us from ourselves, God is there deliver every situation, though exactly how, we may not yet endlessly know.Works citedArnold, Heini. Arnold, Heinrich, J. Freedom from Sinful Thoughts. Plough Publishing House1997. pg. 33-35Callen, L, Barry. Discerning the Divine God in Christian Theology. Geneva Westminster John Knox Press 2004. pg. 134Guthrie, C, Shirley. Christian Doctrine. Geneva Westminster John Knox Presspg. 186McClymond, James, Michael. Familiar Stranger An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth. WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing 2004. pg. 70