Posted October 25, 2007
Dealing with this question of evil in our world continues to challenge the skeptic and believer equally.
As I looked closely into my guide's eyes, I could see the lingering pain and the unanswered question. Although she was much closer to the situation than I was, she still had no answer after many years.
It was my third visit to Yad Vashem, Israel's memorial to the Jewish dead of the Holocaust. Of all the world's memorials to this catastrophic break with civilization, Yad Vashem is most poignant in what it offers within the setting of the ancient land of Israel. You are sobered and shaken after a walk through the grounds.
The first stop for a visitor is the memorial to the children who perished in the camps and ghettos. One and a half million children perished in the Holocaust. The Hall of Candles, where the light is infinitely reflected through a display of mirrors, makes one think of God's promise that not one little one would be lost or forgotten. God holds their memories in eternity, waiting the day when He will renew their lives in a better world with better promises. Every time I walk through this memorial I am reminded of the hope of the resurrection for the "dead, small and great" (RevelationThe disclosure of God's Word and plan to mankind. In the Bible this refers to making obscure things clear; bringing hidden matters to light; causing especially called individuals to see, hear, perceive, know and understand the things of God; the unveiling of biblical mysteries (Romans 16:25). 20:11-12).
The new Holocaust museum at Yad Vashem is more than one can absorb in one visit. On this recent trip I focused on fewer exhibits, taking in the layout of the building and the story it tells. Immediately upon entering, you see a wall of moving images from a vanished world—that of the Jews in Europe in the 1930s. You see children, young couples, old men and women going about their lives in places like Warsaw, Berlin and Prague. These would become the victims. They laugh, they sing and they live on the eve of a great tragedy. They did not know what was coming. We look back in time and struggle not to forget.
From this beginning you walk through rooms that tell the story. It is a raw and visceral tale. Here you see the roots of anti-Semitism from the writings of Augustine. In another room you see evidence of the complicity of Poles, Czechs and Ukrainians in the extermination. No one is left out; no one is exonerated. The guilt and shame is spread among all who took part. At one point you stand over a collection of shoes taken from those about to perish. Dark, cracked leather is all that is left of lives that once harbored hope and possibility.
The last room you visit in the museum is the Hall of Names, designed to be a repository for biographies of every man, woman and child who perished. Over two million names are recorded here, with room for more than six million. Pictures and pages of testimony are part of a cone that reaches to the ceiling, reflected in a pool of water resting in the bedrock of the mountain on which the memorial stands.
From this room, as you exit the memorial, you ascend a short rise and come out onto an open-air platform that causes you to look to the sky and the tops of the trees on the hillside below. It is a cleansing, refreshing pause before moving on with the present. You have to pause and remember, and promise to God that you will never forget.
The pain I saw in my guide's eyes is obvious. The question is one for the ages and for all peoples who have suffered. Why did six million Jews die in the Holocaust? We could also ponder why Armenians were slaughtered in 1915. Why did tens of millions of Russians and Chinese die at the hands of their own leaders in the middle of the 20th century? Why is there evil and suffering?
God does not leave us without answers or solutions. That is the good newsThe good news of God's everlasting kingdom to be established on earth after Christ's return and how we may be a part of that kingdom. This message was central to the teaching of Jesus Christ and the apostles. The term is used about 100 times in the New Testament ., the gospel. The bad news is this world continues to see war and terror bring pain and death to the innocent and guilty, the weak and the strong. And the BibleThe books (Greek, "biblia" ) that are acknowledged as canonical (authoritative) by the early Christian Church. It includes both the books of the ancient Hebrew prophets and those of the apostolic witnesses to Jesus Christ. foretells a time of greater suffering for the nations in the years directly ahead of us.
This article in The Good News reveals the source of evil in the world and lays it squarely at the feet of Satan the devil. If you have a problem reconciling the truth of a just and loving God with the evil and suffering in this world, then you should read this article. You need to settle this most important of questions in your mind. It is a vital key in understanding the mind and purpose of a just and merciful Father. Once you have this knowledge, you can learn to love and honor this God, a far different God than the one so many think they know.
Dealing with this question of evil in our world continues to challenge the skeptic and believer equally. Each day the headlines bring us the latest stories of tragedy. You can have the answer and it can provide great comfort and relief. Our publications are designed to give you the moral and spiritual framework to understand the pain of the world around us, as well as that which is within us. Our literature is rooted in God's Word, the only sure word of hope and light in a dark and difficult world.
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