Saturday 22 November 2008

Background

Long before Bilbo Baggins went in search of the dragon in TheHobbit, or people began playing Dungeons and Dragons,fire-breathing monsters have been part of human stories. In chapter12 of Revelation a great battle breaks out in heaven as St Michaeland his angels fight against a powerful dragon.

The dragon has angels of his own but Michael defeats them and thegreat dragon is thrown down. He is described in the passage as"Satan, the deceiver of the whole world". Here at the end of humanhistory the victory over sin and death is made final. John (thewriter) hears a voice proclaiming that the authority of the Messiah(Jesus Christ) is victorious. Satan of course had a key role in thevision of creation that a much earlier writer shared in the book ofGenesis (chapter3). So it is fitting, tidy even, for the representative of allthe evil in the world to be despatched in this vision of the end oftime.

Identifying evil in the person of Satan is the other side of thecoin from the identifying of all good in the person of Jesus. ManyChristians and people of other faiths identify with a personal Godwho is all-good and see Satan as a source of evil. Others believethat if God created all things and all things are good, how canthere be a being that is evil. If that being was not created byGod, then by who or what? Here is one of the very difficultquestions of faith. How did evil come to exist in the world?

All John's hopes lie in the person of Jesus Christ; he is thecentre, the heart of the powerful drama of Revelation. TheChristians in John's time expected Jesus to return very quickly andovercome the wicked and powerful authorities of the world. Thefigure of the Roman emperor was to be worshiped by all citizens ofthe Empire, according to Roman decree. It is easy to imagine thatthe dragon represented the emperor and that the Christians lookedto the time when the power of Rome would fail.

To Ponder

How do you respond to the question 'how did evilcome to exist in the world?'

In what ways is it helpful (or unhelpful) tobelieve that all wrong in the world can be blamed on one being?