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'Evil Does Exist': Franklin Graham Responds to Murder of Couple That Thought Evil is 'Make-Believe Concept'

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A young American couple was brutally murdered by alleged ISIS terrorists while biking along the Afghan border.

Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan quit their jobs last year and commenced a journey to see the world by bike. Austin wrote in his personal blog that he was tired of his ordinary life and wanted to see the beauty of the outdoors.

 "I've grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige. I've missed too many sunsets while my back was turned. Too many thunderstorms went unwatched, too many gentle breezes unnoticed." he wrote. "There's magic out there, in this great big beautiful world."

The couple went on a 369-day trip that took them from Cape Town, South Africa, all the way to Tajikistan. While in Morocco, Austin wrote on his blog that evil does not exist.

"You watch the news and you read the papers and you're led to believe that the world is a big, scary place. People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil. People are ax murderers and monsters and worse...I don't buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we've invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own," he wrote.

Tragically, on July 29, the couple and two other cyclists were stabbed to death by terrorists on the Tajikistan/Afghanistan border.

CBS News reported that, "ISIS followed an initial claim of responsibility in print with a video showing the five purported attackers pledging allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi."

The New York Post released a grainy video of the incident.

A Daewoo sedan passes the cyclists, circles back around and runs them over. Then, men get out of the cars and stab them. Two days later, the Islamic State released a video of the attackers sitting before an ISIS flag vowing to murder "disbelievers."

Evangelist Franklin Graham believes this couple's tragic death is an important lesson for everyone – there is in fact evil in the world and it is alive and well.

"This is evil. Be assured, evil does exist in this world; God warns us in His word that Satan is prowling like a roaring lion and we are to be on guard. My deepest sympathy to the families of those who were so tragically slain," he wrote in a Facebook post.
 

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About The Author

Emily
Jones

Emily Jones is a multi-media journalist for CBN News in Jerusalem. Before she moved to the Middle East in 2019, she spent years regularly traveling to the region to study the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, meet with government officials, and raise awareness about Christian persecution. During her college years, Emily served as president of Regent University's Christians United for Israel chapter and spoke alongside world leaders at numerous conferences and events. She is an active member of the Philos Project, an organization that seeks to promote positive Christian engagement with the Middle