So often we read or hear about the certainty of something evil occurring in our lives, caused by factors such as heredity, age, food, the economy, etc. The word evil also tends to loom large, dark, and threatening in our thoughts about the world. War, a pandemic, climate change, natural disasters, and hate conjure up something that appears prevalent, powerful, and unavoidable, against which we may seem powerless.

But Christ Jesus cast a different light on the nature of evil. His numerous healings show that it is not inevitable. And he explained why. Referring to the devil—a word representing the personification of evil—Jesus says: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).

By whatever name evil is called—Satan, Lucifer, serpent, dragon—and in whatever way it may manifest, one thing we can be sure of is that it doesn’t abide in the truth. Is this assertion naïve, or even dangerous? Not if we understand that Truth is God, all-powerful and always present. This actually makes evil’s destruction inevitable. Revelation 12 uses imagery to depict this, describing evil as a dramatic-looking but old dragon. It is cast out by Christ, God’s true spiritual idea.