The Grand Demonstration is a small book with quite an agenda. The purpose of the book is to address the so-called "problem of evil," which runs like this: Given a world which contains evil, if God is good, then He cannot be all-powerful. If He is all-powerful, then He cannot be good. The assumption upon which this argument rests is that a God who was good and all-powerful would not tolerate evil for an instant. But because evil is tolerated in our world, then those who believe in God must take their pick — goodness or omnipotence? A cosmic Wimp or cosmic Fiend? A benign God, wringing His hands over us, or a sadistic God, laughing at our misery?
Adams argues that Christians who struggle with this problem do so because of hidden humanistic assumptions about God; the problem is nothing more than a result of compromise.
So why then, does evil exist? Adams shows from Scripture that evil exists because God decreed that it would. And why, the questioner persists, would He decree such a thing? Adams demonstrates that this question is directly answered in Scripture. God created a world in which evil exists in order to display two of His attributes which otherwise could not be displayed. Those two attributes are wrath and grace.
In a world without sin, it would be impossible for creatures to see God's wrath against sinners. In a world without sin, it would be impossible for creatures to see God's incredible mercy to sinners. And this is precisely what Paul tells us: What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that he might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles (Rom. 9:22-24)?
So in this book, the "problem" of evil is solved through a willingness to take some of the hard words of Scripture at face value. Of course this willingness to do so generates many of the standard objections to biblical teaching on God's sovereignty, and so a good portion of the latter half of this book is devoted to answering such objections from the Word.
This is a fine book; we highly recommended it.
The story is set in the small town of Ashton, where a twotiered battle brews: a local pastor fights against New Age cult members while corresponding angels fight demons in the heavenly realm. The saints' prayers fuel the angels in their fight against evil spirits. Peretti's book has motivated many to pray more; we commend him for this. He also reminds us that the celestial realm is very real. Unfortunately, the book is also marred with two serious theological problems: an unbiblical message about the source of sin, and an exaltation of man above where God has placed him in relation to celestials.
Regarding the source of sin, we remember the teaching of Christ: For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man `unclean' (Mk. 7:2123). This Present Darkness suggests that the source of sin is outside of man. This idea is especially reflected in the names that Peretti gives his demons (eg., `Lust'). Contrary to this, Scripture teaches that confession and repentance not demon exorcism brings deliverance from sin (1 Jn. 1:9). A few of the episodes in this book might lead us to believe that the real problem in some sinners is demon possession. The Bible teaches that a sinner's problem is a rebellious heart, and that driving out demons is no solution to sin (Matt. 12:4345).
The spiritual warfare passage in Ephesians 6, from which the book's title is taken, points to prayer as an essential element in spiritual warfare. But the model for combative prayer suggested in This Present Darkness is not found in Ephesians 6. There Paul tells us that the Christian duty against spiritual powers is to put on the whole armor of God (v. 13). He adds that we must pray in the Spirit on all occasions, for all the saints (v. 18). Does praying for the saints include hedges of angels and demon binding as Peretti would lead us to think? Ephesians 6 teaches that when we pray for the saints, we should be praying about their armor, not about angels and demons. Furthermore, Jude 810 suggests that it is dangerously presumptuous of humans to boss around creatures who are greater in station and splendor than themselves.
This Present Darkness challenges the false notion that there is no one out there besides us. For excitement, Peretti's book can be read and enjoyed, but do remember that it is fiction.
