Now it is fairly common for a good villain to state they are
anything but. Hitler fancied himself the
“savior of Germany”, not the monster we all know him as. The sad thing about Hitler’s assertion is
that there are a number of facts that would support it. After World War One Germany was crushed, and
the world wanted punishment for the damage it went through fighting the first
war. Hitler’s popularity was in part,
because he offered hope to the German people they could rise again – he rebuilt
manufacturing, restored pride in a rebuilt massive military, and ended
double-digit inflation by quickly winning smaller conquests that re-enriched
the country. Nationalizing Jewish wealth
put a dent the in the deficit, and the German people had a reason to follow him
(at least before he revealed his truly darker nature).
On the show “Lost”, you could debate whether Ben is truly a
good guy. He has done some seemingly bad
things, but he seems to select only the bad people to do them to. He makes a distinction between innocents and
the more guilty folks of his world. When
Satan came to Christ to tempt Him, he did not come as himself. Satan came as an Angel of light. He offered advice and counsel designed to
have the Creator step outside of the will of God, or simply use some the
inherent power of God within Himself to solve an immediate problem. Satan is truly the definition of pure evil at
this point. He has degraded himself from
being the fourth highest entity in the universe, to a picture of the
anti-God. All the good that embodies God
has its counterpart, its opposite, defined in the being of Satan.
But humans are a very different story. Mortality puts a term limit on our
choices. Aging forces us to look at
situations from an ever changing view point.
And the objective standard of Good and Evil (our Bibles), reveal our
nature, our intentions, and our motives – within the actions we do and the ones
we omit. Each human has the immense
capability to become the world’s next “savior of Germany” or the “monster” that
followed. We could learn to inspire hope
in ourselves and in others; or we can default into non-sensible prejudice and
hatred, blaming a few for the deeds of the many. Hitler rebuilt a thing, then destroyed not
only the thing he built, but everything else he touched. Millions died because he made the choices he
did.
Some ask if it was genetic.
Some wonder if in his childhood he was beaten or so injured he simply
could not recover and took out his frustrations on those he blamed for his
suffering. Some wonder if perhaps he was
possessed. It is an interesting
question. After all pure-evil would
benefit the most from the totality of Hitler’s actions and life. If not possessed then at least a close ally
in the war on God. To kill as many of
God’s creations as possible is the goal of the real underworld. In this Hitler was a willing pawn. What he did not kill in war, he murdered in
camps. And morality was Germany’s first
casualty of war. Has it been our first
casualty as well, in our own war on terror?
Most people do not want to accept that within them lies the
potential to become the world’s next Hitler.
But for a quick moment, close your eyes and bring to mind your most
favorite or most often thought about fantasy?
What is it you “wish” could happen?
If you could control everything what would you do? Would there be limits to the power you would
seek, if the only limits were self-imposed?
Where would your seemingly innocent fantasies end up if they were
unrestrained by circumstances, finances, external laws or views of
morality. Hitler ran amuck, because he
could. He was the central power base. His charisma, influence, and history of early
accomplishments made him formidable. He
was hard to oppose and live.
But as hard as it might be to accept the idea that within
each of us lies the potential for great calamity, the opposite is also
true. What if instead of coming to power
and prominence, Hitler chose to spend his life as a humble painter? What if he had lived within the restraints
that bind most of us? The ripple effects
are tremendous aren’t they?
First of all, there may not have ever been a second world
war (though Japan and Italy may still have gone ahead with it). Even so 6 million Jews would still have been
alive, as well as 6 million Gypsies, and 20 million Russians. No European allied casualties of any kind. This means the American war machine might
never have really been started. No
nukes; no women working in factories to replace the men who went to war; no
black army air force pilots from Tuskegee; no CIA (a derivative of a WW2 based
intelligence product); possibly the continuation of the depression. At a minimum the societal impacts would have
been the slowing down of the women’s equality movement as well as the black
civil rights movements. It is mind
boggling to imagine what our world and our nation might look like had we never
gone to war in WW2 with Germany (at the least).
So what makes people become who they are? If in each of us lays Hitler or Mother
Teresa, which is the one we choose to become?
The honest answer is I don’t really know for sure. I am amazed at the potential myself. I am amazed that where it comes to humans,
they are ALWAYS a mix of both good and evil.
While good or evil may present itself as dominant during our lives, the
effects are not guaranteed to last, either way.
The Old Testament has many stories of Kings of Israel who were faithful
in their youth, and fully corrupt at their deaths and vice versa. People can change over time for better or
worse. So in either case the dominance
of evil or good is a struggle. It is
weird to me that killers can love; nasty, vulgar, disgusting women can be
caring, doting, mothers; and all of this within the same person, the same
identity. How we swing the emotional and
moral pendulum back and forth so far in so short a period of time is a wonder.
But I believe that our heredity inclines us to evil as our
natural state of being. And I believe
that evil is an all consuming entity that leaves nothing out, and corrupts
fully. This is the condition that God
set about to undo on our behalf. This is
a state of being He never intended for us to suffer from. Evil may be natural to us, but it is foreign
to the universe as a whole. Evil, being
contained to this world alone, will be short lived by infinity’s
standards. However our disease of evil
was not something we were meant to endure and thus a plan was devised to save
us. Salvation is about ending the evil
in our lives, our hearts, our minds, and our hands. Salvation is about restoring purity in our
lives, and bringing us back into harmony with the purity of our God. Salvation is not eternal life, or golden
streets, or flying at the speed of thought.
That is simply the natural state of being we were intended to live as.
We were intended to live without restrictions as our natural
state was intended to live as good not evil.
Free to love, free to serve, free to learn, free from bondage to self
and self-interests, free from everything evil – that is what Salvation is all
about. Immortality can only support
those who choose this purity, by accepting the gift God has offered us. Our perfection of character is the work we
pursue now with absolute glee, not reluctance.
Learning to surrender to God, to accept His plan, to embrace His will,
and to return His love – these are the pursuits of the saved. Salvation brings with it an ever increasing
distance from evil. Salvation brings
with it Hope, where all human strength has long abandoned hope. Salvation is not from the conditions of this
life that we find ourselves submerged within, but it frees us from the state of
being we are naturally inclined to pursue.
We can learn to live in purity wherever we are, wherever we find
ourselves, in whatever conditions the world sends our way. This is the GIFT of Salvation God has set
about to bring to each of us. All we
have to do is accept. It’s just that
easy.
While the soul and the character may have been created with
an immensely complex design, the answer to every question has been made
infinitely simple – Do we want what God offers or not …
No comments:
Post a Comment