"Evil is the most powerful word in the language and the most elusive." So claims Time essayist and author Lance Morrow. Remember the reaction Ronald Reagan got, Mr. Morrow asks, when he called Russia an "evil empire"? And remember the emotion George W. Bush evoked when he lumped several countries into an "axis of evil"? There is power in the word "evil."

Yet it is a hard word to pin down. Just think of all the questions that pop into your mind whenever the word "evil" is mentioned: How do you define it? Where did evil come from? Why does God allow it to mess up His beautiful world? Will evil ever be eradicated? These are questions most people think about at one time or another, I would imagine. And yes, the answers do seem to be elusive.

With the advent of suicide bombings, on-the-spot media coverage of natural disasters, and a statistical rise in the number of national and Christian leaders who have fallen into sin, evil has become a hot topic. People want answers. Not just any answers. They want answers that make sense.

Enter Christian author Alister McGrath. "God gave us this world," he said in an interview in World magazine, (August 21, 2004), "and only God can make sense of it." But where does one go to get God's perspective on evil? you ask. To the place Christians have been going for centuries, I believe: the Bible. It is the only book where you will find such complex issues dealt with in depth and with accuracy you can trust.

Between Genesis and Revelation there are almost 600 references to evil. You will find the word associated with people, deeds, desires, and spirits (among an assortment of other things). God's choice of this particular word lends gravity to what might otherwise be described as simply "bad," "tragic," or "wrong."

As we go to the Bible, though, it helps to remember that the Scriptures do not reveal everything we may want to know. There are "secret things" that God keeps to Himself (Deuteronomy 29:29). So in a study as weighty as this one, we have to be prepared to leave some of our questions unanswered. We have to settle for the fact that when the finite tries to understand the infinite, there is only so far the finite can go.

The good news is that there are many things God has revealed. Those revealed things we are expected to master. So with this admonition in mind, let us begin trying to make sense of evil God's way, praying as we go that the Lord will open our eyes that we may see "wonderful things" in His law ( Psalms 119:18 ).