Jeremiah 17:9-10 — The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

There are those who claim evil does not exist. Consider these remarks by a gentleman called Enoch Tan writing on a website called mind reality.com:

Good and evil does not exist. At a fundamental level, there is really no good and evil in the universe. Everything just is. It is perception that frames reality. Good and evil is based on perception. Therefore the perception of good and evil depends on the one perceiving it. If you perceive something as good, then to you it is good. If you perceive something as evil, then to you it is evil. We can choose our own frame of reality or we can choose to follow the frame set by another in his perception of good and evil.

I beg to differ. From time-to-time I hear of events so horrific that I am convinced once again of the reality of evil. Child abuse, human trafficking, murder … Our view of these is surely shaped by more than perception. Today we heard of the shooting down of flight MH17 over Eastern Ukraine. The murder of 295 innocent people in a Malaysian Airlines flight on its way to Kuala Lumpur cannot be a matter of perception. It is evil.
“But”, some will argue, “how can evil exist in the same reality as an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good God?” That sounds good, doesn’t it? It’s one of those fluffy-looking comments that sounds like it ought to be true … but it isn’t. It’s a failure to understand the real nature of evil.
Biblically, evil has several aspects — misfortune, corruption and wickedness. But whatever the form, it has its root in the disobedience and rebellion of the human race against God His will starting with Adam and Eve in the Garden if Eden. Evil occurs if ever God’s will is not fulfilled.
There is still this question. “Did God create evil?” That would be incompatible with His nature. The Bible resolves the issue by telling us that God made mankind with the ability to choose sin, of doing evil. He never leaves us struggling with temptation without providing an escape route — but He does us the honor of leaving us with freedom of choice … It is our wrong choices that create (or amount to) evil.
So don’t listen to anyone who tells you it’s just a matter of perception. Evil is real, and the problem is us.
I’m praying tonight for the comforting of the families of the passengers and crew of MH17. Don’t tell them evil isn’t real.