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| The answer to Evil in the World |
Date: 2026-09-13
Whenever you talk about only true living God who is holy and loving with non-believers, most of them determine that God does not exist because of all the evil there is in the world. Because if He would exists, He would intervene. Most even forget how evil they are themselves in the Eyes of God, but non-believers mostly don't see that because they consider themselves to be good. Me and my wife were once on holiday in France in the beautiful beach town of Noir Moutier and we met an older couple, and the lady of this couple has once been an army nurse, while the husband was a retired commander of a British aircraft carrier.
Exactly the same response came from her on the account that God cannot exist because there is so much evil in the world, and that she had seen of a lot of suffering as a nurse because of it.
Nevertheless, the God of the Bible is viewed by non-believers as such or as a God to be portrayed as evil, which is actually to the God of the Bible blasphemy. Seculars, liberals, non-believers do not expect an answer back to the question of "God and evil in the world" because it is also a challenge to most Christians who do not know what to say about this subject. But reading the Bible you already should come up with some answers.
I could also narrow it down with this video of John MacArthur at 2007 Ligonier Conference pastoring the sermon: The Problem of Evil. It is a little more than an hour. John does a very good job here in explaining why there is evil. I think rather there is not "The Problem of Evil" - but as there is a good answer to it, how we going to explain this in short? This might be the real problem as most walk away from lengthy explanations. As Christians we are in the prime directive of saving people who actually want to hear, so I will make an effort, at the end to write the answer in short.
What I will not do is going through John's different theodicies that are also in the video, I'll keep it as general as I can without digging too deep. Otherwise if you are interested, follow the video link above.
The central question will be: How can God be loving and allow massive evil to dominate the world?
John MacArthur used what he called a flow to what is known to the Christian and what is reality:
- Evil exists.
- God Exists.
- God allowed evil to exist.
1. Evil exists
Evil exists, this is a mere fact. But there are few things to understand first about God and the origin of evil:
- The Bible, in which God reveals Himself for His Glory, is not the author of evil neither the approver of evil. God is Holy and Good. He is the only Sovereign, He is in full of control of everything and God is omnipresent and righteous among other of His Holy character properties.
- Evil originated from heaven, as God created the Angels, and some of them began to rebel against God. Pride was the first sin of Lucifer because he was proud of all his accomplishments and self-pride does not give God glory, but yourself. And God created Lucifer, back then also nicknamed the morning star, so God should get the Glory for everything. And self-pride also invoked jealousy, Lucifer became jealous of God and God's glory. Lucifer wanted the glory for himself.
See how much pride there is in society today. The fallen are even parade pride of their shame. The beginning of self-pride was the root evil. And see what you get from it. All of which show's no pride to God. And God is the only One to be proud of because God is good. Understand that God made you and everything around you what you can see, and what you cannot see. Nothing, but nothing you have is earned. All what you see, feel, have eat, hear etc... all of it was given by God, the Word and the Holy Spirit - all of Whom are God. So God is the only One is to be praised for everything, for nothing is or exists without Him. And God owns all that exists and is Sovereign over all that exists.
So, proud of yourself? Really!
John MacArthur gave a list of several kinds of evil:
- Natural evil
- Moral evil
- Supernatural evil
- Eternal evil
Natural evil is all the evil that comes with the fall, every thing is breaking down, there are dangerous bacteria and viruses, really bad weather, droughts, famines etc. The increasing frequency of natural disasters we experience nowadays was already predicted in Matthew 24 on the big sermon of the mount. Lots of earthquakes, disasters etc in the end-time. According to what we know and of the passing of years the signs the end-time is now in full progress. Important of this sermon is that everything bad will increase in frequency - and will get worse and worse.
Moral evil is something the devil does not need to exploit because that is sin of the flesh, man is quite capable to sin morally which involves transgressions, wickedness of all sorts and sin. And God has seen that not one human is good, not one, see Romans 3:12.
Supernatural evil is the devil's work and his demons. This works in a way of we cannot see but only notice. The devil can put ideas in your head and then you have to choose. If you choose the devil idea's you will be sinning. Then there are events that are described in the book of Job. Here you see that God allowed Satan to go after Job's family to show that Job will not turn his back on God when misfortune hits him. God ordained it, but Satan was not allowed to decide what to do for himself. In the end Job never knew why it all happened (, see Job 38-42,) and he did not question the Creator.
Blame
- God was surprised when evil came into play
- God has no power over evil or He choose not to interfere with evil
- God has limited power
- God has limited knowledge
- God is a learning God, He does not know what happens next, He learns more as time progresses...
All of this is mumbo-jumbo. If these so-called evangelicals would care to read the Bible - then they'd know they all of these are countered by the Word.
God saw the beginning and the end of creation, read Isaiah 46:8-11. What does that mean exactly? That means in my humble interpretation that He Who Is and always was and Who is forever, all powerful and timeless, could see the beginning and the end of creation before creation itself. The Bible says that God knew you before you were (Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 139:13-16, Ephesians 1:1-6). That should give you a big hint. So, God has already been through everything seen everything, knows every outcome, knows what we are going to do and knows before hand what He is going to do. But we are still experiencing everything in this thing He created for us: space-time. Strange huh? And in the Ephesians reference above you'll see a doctrine that is because of this reason not well understood: the Doctrine of Election. If God says Himself that He know you before you were, and saw the end of the beginning, that means to me that He knows everything before it happens. That is why God knows before hand who He will accept to His Kingdom and who will not be accepted. So, can He say He elected people from the foundation of the world before they were? Yes of course! It is that simple, but yet hard to grasp for us that God is way ahead while we are in the middle of it.
Make no mistake, just because God has seen every outcome and does His will in the mean time, does not mean that you are not responsible for your actions. Because those are the choices you made, or about to make. God just has seen it already, but your actions, your thoughts, the choices are still yours.
So what shall we say about evil? God is not the author of evil. The human heart is. And before creation, Satan was (then Lucifer). Through Lucifer and Adam and Eve death came into existence knowing good and evil. But death was not the end of creation. It was the merely curse of sin. Because the wages of sin is death. And God foresaw all of this. But God saw also the beginning and the end knowing not all will perish, and therefore God setup a redemption plan where He Himself will bring salvation to the world for whomever believes in Him. And He came as the Messiah, as Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, the Word, He Who has spoken everything into existence. Without the Word, Jesus Christ, nothing is made.
The highest gift of all for all is free will. And, boy, do we mostly choose for other things then for God. And that why there is so much evil in the world. Because people are evil by birth and we are of the devil - as the Bible says. Only when you repent, when you choose God to be your Father, only then you will see how evil you were yourself and how evil the world is. For real Christians it is a struggle every day as we are confronted by the Father and Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
2 God Exists
3 God willed evil to exist
1 Cronicles 29:10-14 David's Prayer:
10 David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, “Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.
11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
12 Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.
13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.
The Short Answer
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| SHORTS: Forrest Gump - Satan is as Satan does |
Date: 2026-08-09
Forrest Gump
In 1994 the movie Forrest Gump was released and I watched it back then I thought it was a beautiful movie. It kind a hurt to see if Forrest was called stupid in that movie. But then he'd say: Stupid is as stupid does. And that cought me. Because here we talk personality. Not a flattering one but personalities are formed from the heart, I think. The Bible says of what the heart is full of the mouth speaks. And also people's deeds are conforming to what the heart is like.
Like a greedy heart, tries to buy all kinds of stuff, or steals.
So in the light of religion, we have the evil one, who is all evil. And Satan and his demons puts evil ideas in the minds of everyone to keep them from getting saved. If a secular gets killed he cannot be saved anymore. Then the score, as it were, is for Satan. So he's a murderer, a liar, an adolitrer, a thief, a deceiver... all the evil you can think of is of him. He puts the ideas in the minds of people.
While in fact the Bible clearly says the Law of God, which is good, knowing also good and evil, is written in the hearts of men. That means that everyone knows good and evil for a fair extend. We have free will but the devil tempts you in doing the things that are his. He cannot make you do things that are his. He tempts you in all kinds of ways.
I think that no one can deny that good and evil is rooted in the hearts of all of mankind. But that is just a sense of the first kind. The better sense is having the Holy Spirit to indwell you because He will battle Satan for you if you choose the path of Jesus in every decision you make. Call upon the Name of the Lord and all demons will flee from you. There is a Spiritual battle going on and people have no idea, because you can't see it, hear it or smell it. But it is in your thoughts, your mind. That is being battled over almost constantly. Because if the mind is turned often enough the heart follows.
Evil of the flesh
There is evil and evil. There is some evil that Satan does not really have to battle over, and that is evil of the flesh. We are made of flesh and we can sin from the flesh. Like eating and drinking too much is a sin, it is gluttony. Then there are sexual sins etc.
That is why all of man is in emnity with God, because we were built this way and we have Satan and his demons indwelling everyone to do sin. No one can say, I have never sinned or never done any evil. Therefore we are doomed from the start. The Bible says if you have not repented, read also "have the Holy Spirit indwell you", you are of your father the devil. The point here is, you cannot change to a good person according to God without Godly help. As God is the opposite of the world. So any good you think you did or how good you think you are because of your works means nothing to God - because you are not familiar of what is Godly-good.
The curse of the law is, if you do not repent you will be judged by the law. And all your sins will accumulate to an everlasting punishment. So if you want to be adopted by The Father who made you. You have to choose Him. And by rebirth you'll be forgiven by the Grace of God and renewed over time and then The Father is your Father.
Evil is as evil does
So if we come to the equation Satan is as Satan does - and Satan == evil, then evil is as evil does.
And that totally personifies Satan. Then how is it even possible to say that in some religions, and we know which, you can lie, rape, be a child molester, abuse women and murder etc in the name of your god - and call it "good". It goes even against the simplest rules of the Law written in the hearts of men.
This is blasphemic to the real Living God, because you are not good and your father is still Satan. And Satan knows his verdict already, but the same is for all his followers. I would recommend to take a good look at good and evil before you go on believing what you are believing.
Even worse are people who don't even know what they believe. They just say that they are of some religion but if you confront them with aspects of their religion they become violent or angry like they are being insulted, but you just point out to their own scriptures. But these people just don't look any further to look for the only and True Living God. Just because you are born into some religion does not make you less guilty for not questioning your belief.
Measure your belief at least to what is wrong or right. You may not know of all what is sinful, but at least you have sense of good and evil. Abusing women is wrong, and the God of Abraham says that we are to love our women, then know what kind of doctrine you are dealing with. All of which is not of God is of demons, so its a devine doctrine or a doctrine of demons.
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| SHORTS: Who Is My Neighbor? |
Update: 2026-08-25
Background
This question arises often on how Christians are to handle others like Muslims or Buddhists and seculars. This is a learning point for Christians because we know how evil some of these are. But also for the Jewish religious establishment back in the day of Jesus Christ. Because this question was answered by Jesus by telling the story of the good Samaritan to a Jewish Lawyer or someone who knew the Law very well. See Luke 10:25-37. Here you read that the Lawyer knew the law because Jesus asked what the law said.
But as Jews despised Samaritans because the Jews were convinced they were better, the Lawyer asked the question: "Who is my neighbor?".
And the man answered right in verse 27:
27 The man said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart. You must love Him with all your soul. You must love Him with all your strength. You must love Him with all your mind. You must love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
But Jesus knew the hearts of men, because this man did not consider a Samaritan as his neighbor. And that is why, right on the spot, Jesus attacked his heart's condition by giving an example of the Law. The story of the good Samaritan. You have to take in mind that in that story, you'll see a Pharesee and a Levite passing the beat up man left for dead. And the thing is that these Jews rather not touch this man because of their cleansing rituals to become clean again. Also they had a strong belief that if you were not righteous, these things would happen to you. I wonder why these Jews did not consider the story of Job.
Jesus attacked this behavior too, while putting the Law above all other things.
Who is my Neighbor?
To come back to the question of who is my Neighbor. The answer is everyone is. Because everyone needs to be saved. Everyone needs to be loved like you love yourself. That is the love of the real living God. No other religion on this planet supports this. Rather in other religions they murder, rape, steal and lie in the name of their belief - and they indeed say that they are righteous and good, while they know at some point in their life that it was not so, because the Law of the real living God is written in their hearts. But when later on the heart is hardened they no longer are alerted or have any compassion.
The highest Law of the one and true living God is the most difficult for any man or woman to follow, how to love people who are evil to the core and rather say nothing then to save them because hell awaits them for sure, which is part your revenge. Even when God does His revenge on the un-repented, He may still be telling you that you did nothing to save those that needed to hear His Word.
Who is my Brother or Sister?
Here is it were you need to be very picky because everyone maybe your neighbor but only few are your brother or sister. And in todays developments of religion Satan is very busy right from the beginning to contaminate the Christian churches with doctrines of demons. The question is how can you really see that you are dealing with a false church or a person of a false church?
The first direction to look at is yourself. If you are convinced that you are indwelled with the Holy Spirit you have the signs that show that you are saved. Check out this article God of Hearts, the list in the rebirth section.
Let's just say you are a saved Christian, if you are dealing with unsaved people, these could be pretending Christians as well, they will draw you to the things that are not of God. And herein lies sometime the trouble in discerning the things of God and the things of this world. And for anyone that is different on how far you matured in the faith since your rebirth. But no matter, when you have doubts you can always consult the Bible on how to deal with certain aspects.
So what you'd been looking for is that will draw you into the arms of demons:
- They want me to go to concert with them but they sing things that are evil.
- A person who says he's a Christian says I am saved if I only pray as certain prayer.
- A person who says he's a Christian says if I send him money I will prosper, and get even more in return.
- A person who says he's a Christian says that God talked to him in a bilateral sense...
- A person who says he's a Christian preacher but never reads from the Bible in church gatherings sessions.
- A secular person wants to spend time with me doing a workshop but the work bears no fruit.
In short:
A person who confesses Christ as our Lord and Savior and follows Him in words and deeds, living by Scripture and obeying the commands of God. He or she is your brother or sister. This how you test spirits, angels and persons.
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| SHORTS: God of hearts |
Update: 2026-08-28
The Assyrians
When you read the Bible you'll see in the old and new testament that God knows the hearts of men. It is something to take in concern all the time because it explains a lot. For instance, when you read about that God uses literally the Assyrians to punish His own people. Now when you read that at first glance you first think like, that is not fair, is it? Because when the Assyrians came they slaughtered a lot of Jews.
You would almost think that it isn't even their doing. But hell, it is their doing. God made a covenant with the Jewish people and He also warned them what would happen if they turned away from Him. And that explicitly means when His people are turning to evil. So they would be punished for that.
Now, the fact that God gave the Assyrians a target does not mean the Assyrians are not guilty of anything. Because in their hearts they were already evil. Probably evil with no hope of salvation. God sees through the hearts of men. And because God is righteous He would not put a righteous man in the lead for punishing the Jews. ( If there were any righteous men... ).
So, yes, those Assyrians are guilty and on the day of Judgement they will be held accountable and punishment from God will be according to His Righteous Judgement. But also the Jews who turned their backs on the Lord, they will also receive what is due to them.
Today's governments
Even in this day, especially now with Iran and Israel prophecies are being fulfilled. But let no-one in government who uses evil think he is righteous because he maybe doing a part in God's plan. So we have to think again before drawing conclusions. Iran and its proxies are being used for evil because they are evil to the core. They have genocide in their minds and they did not make secret of it. In fact they openly said it in the UN - Israel is to wiped from the chart they said.
All of what is happening on the world stage is for the Glory of Jesus Christ in the first place, and secondly for the redemption of Israel. The sad part is the evil minded do not know they are being used. Because a chance for ever lasting life is for all who are walking around on this planet. But if the heart does not want the light, it stays in the dark.
Rebirth
Another example of maybe something that is misunderstood is the assumption that once you are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost you are saved. But that can't be that simple. Because birth in itself is not controlled by you. And so there is no ritual that can enforce Holy Spirit to indwell you. In this case it is a devine decision and a devine event that comes when God sees fit, (if at all). We can consider that first thing we had to remember:
- What is the condition of the heart?
If you want to be baptized, but you are not ready to give up idolatry or some other sin, God may not give you rebirth at all, unless you are ready to be done with sin, even the ones you do not know of. Sadly in false churches people think they are saved while they are not. Satan mixed things of the flesh with the Bible in those churches, therefore you see things happening in those false churches that are totally off because their leadership is evil and has no indwelling of the Holy Spirit - and therefore Satan is their father, and so it is with all their followers. Therefore read the Bible and pray for revelation to see the Truth. Because the truth is hidden or obscured for those who do not want to repent.
Secondly look at the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus in John 3:1-21. With emphasis to this:
7 (Jesus:) You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
So you do not know when exactly you are born of the Spirit. This confirm it. The Holy Spirit does not say: "here I am"... You just can't know.
The spiritual rebirth in essence means to be converted to be like Jesus Christ. And that needs a new heart, and that is what Jesus promised. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make pace with you to change your heart. And when that happens YOU are really changing. Because if you change for the good of God, it is not your work!
Understand the moment you are saved is the moment when God decides to have His Holy Spirit indwell in you. That moment in itself is mostly not known by anyone at all. But when the Holy Spirit indwells you are immediately starting the process of sanctification. And that takes time. There are certain tells that verify your salvation is granted and that you are working on sanctification:
- You have a great thirst to know all about Jesus Christ, the Bible
- You want to learn more about how to live like Jesus
- You are beginning to see much more evil around you then you are used to, you begin to hate the world
- You are beginning to see evil in yourself that you did not see before you were saved
- You are seeing answers poring in various ways for the questions about the Bible that you prayed for - you'll see this is not coincidence anymore, the Holy Spirit helping you!
- You are beginning to deny yourself more and more, to do the things of God
- Your conscience is ever more troubled with righteousness
The voice of the Spirit keeps you on the right path, because He is the One who troubles your mind when you are about to do something wrong. Don't mistake the term "voice" for that The Holy Spirit is talking to you. There is no dialog here. He troubles your mind or sets your mind to things of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
To me as I understand Scripture, the baptizing event is something that Jesus did and we should do too, but it necessarily does not mean for us that this is the moment that we receive the Holy Spirit. The baptizing is a sort of confirmation event to the church with the intent to become a brother or sister - because from our point view - we simply cannot see if you are saved. Like the people who received the Holy Spirit with Pentecost; they were probably baptized weeks or months ago. But they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost as they were followers of Jesus - and did not forsake Him.
What about you
Are you going to change your heart too? The Bible says, you cannot possibly do it on your own. You are to weak to combat sin, therefore spiritual rebirth is necessary, and by the power of the Holy Spirit you will be changed, a new heart will grow.
It is like a Matrix decision, if you want to go on live you life like you do now, take the blue pill and stay a child of darkness. That is confronting isn't it? Because in your own self-righteousness you think you are good. But not according to God, and He calls the shots - if you want to know why - read the Bible. But I will give you a hint. Just like Adam and Eve - the first disobedience introduced death to all of creation. So if you have never sinned like Jesus Christ, not even in the mind, then you'd be perfect. Like Jesus is, like the Father is, and like the Holy Spirit is. But you are not perfect, are you. For God you cannot erase your sins by helping an old woman cross the street now and then. Guilty is guilty. That is when you face a Holy and Righteous God as your Judge.
Take the red pill and be adopted as a child of light and no-one can snatch from the Father's hand. Your are sealed as a child of God because the Holy Spirit indwells you. You are saved and the Father will forgive your sins because you accepted His Son Jesus Christ whom He let slay as a punishment for our Sins. This means we owe Jesus our lives. And He owns us period, because nothing came to be what exists without the Word - and the Word is Jesus Christ. Amen.
The pill here is the heart and only from the heart God looks if you are sincere, you can't fake anything, only to everyone around you, but not God.
By the way
Don't throw the "God is love" - card at me. It is getting old. God's love is Godly love, Love of the Spirit. Human love is of the flesh. And these are totally not the same. But God's love was showed by the offering of His Son to the world as a substitute for our sins. And He suffered greatly for that. Now that is love. To die on the cross for you! Thus Gods love was already shown, but the hearts of men want to stay in the dark. But know this, Gods love to the world is unconditional - he showed that by the offering Jesus Christ who died for all of us. But to get to heaven is conditional and the condition is Jesus Christ. He is the Messiah the Savior.
If I were you, take the red pill, because the only living eternal God also punishes eternally. Wisdom starts with the fear of God. Amen.
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