Again, the world is faced with the horrible evidence of evil that manifests itself through a person’s sinful heart. As a pastoral counselor for 24 years, I have been asked numerous times, “Why does God allow bad things to happen to innocent people?” The answer is explained in the Garden of Eden when the devil tempted Eve to doubt God’s one ‘do not’ command. The devil questioned Eve. The truth was twisted and a choice was made to disobey God. Eve was deceived. Adam was not deceived. He abdicated his authority. Adam allowed the power of influence through Eve’s lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life to persuade him to disobey God.
The choice to disobey God severed Adam and Eve’s relationship with God and sin entered into their hearts. This choice produced sin, hate, evil, death spiritually and naturally plus all other adversities to the human family. We are all born sinners fallen short of the glory of God.
Satan is the little god of this world. We are living in his territory. We either choose to serve a loving caring God who was our Creator and became our Savior through His death on the cross, or we are serving Satan. It is not guns, knives, bomb, airplanes, cars, hammers, axes, etc., that kill people. It is the choice of a person/people through the evil in the heart that creates the atrocities that we witness in this fallen world.
When a religion preaches hate and death to everyone else who does not agree with a particular religion, it is of Satan. Religion is:
the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods,
- details of belief as taught or discussed,
- a particular system of faith and worship,
- a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance. Muslims are taught that anyone who is not a Muslim is an infidel. Their bible promotes the killing of all infidels.
When a person is taught to hate others, it produces evil. When a person is ruled by evil lust in their heart, it produces evil. It is all about the choice since the Garden of Eden. God allows each of us daily choices. All evil actions come from the sin choice of selfishness based on the lustful evil desires of the heart and mind.
I counsel many people who have been victims of sexual abuse. When the abuser is a family member or trusted friend, it seems unbelievable. The source of all sexual abuse is the evil of lust in the heart. Selfishness is at the root of all evil. It is by selfish choice that people perpetrate evil on others.
If God stopped all evil in the world today, the majority of the world would come to a standstill. Sin and evil is pervasive around the world. God is love and is full of compassion and mercy. But God is also a God of judgment and everyone will stand before Him in judgment. For believers in Christ, we will stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ and be judged by our works and the motives behind our works. Non-believers will come before God at the Great White Throne Judgment. Everything done in secret and in the open will be revealed and God will have the final say.
Our government leaders need to wake up to the truth that evil resides in human hearts and it is the evil that perpetrates evil, not the ‘instrument’ that is used.
I pray God does whatever it takes to awaken people to their need of His saving grace. Life as we know it will be coming to an end soon. Jesus is coming soon to take His people out of this evil world into heaven to be with Him. We must be born again of water and spirit to see and enter into the Kingdom of God (John 3:3&5).
God does not condemn anyone to hell. We will go to heaven or hell by our own choices. We must teach our children about God’s love, His moral law, and principles of godly living from morning to night through daily life (Duet. 6). God paid a high price for our salvation. Our bodies do not belong to us. They belong to God. We are to glorify God in our body and spirit, which are God’s (1 Cor. 6: 18-20).
Carol Clemans teaches God’s truth for churches & conferences. She provides nationwide Holy Ghost counseling by phone/Skype (636) 448-0121 as a Certified Pastoral Counselor for pastors and lay people. www.carolclemans.org- detail bio “About Ministry,” 310+ articles, teaching CD’s & DVD’s, book: God’s Design for Marriage soft cover or eBook: amazon.com. Ministry Refs: Pastor Daniel Batchelor, Dupo, IL & UPCI Supt. David Tipton, Jr., Raymond, MS.