…He was a
murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in
him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the
father of lies. – John 8:44 NIV
Please note: he was a murderer from the beginning. Yes, he is a liar and the father of lies, but
he also was a murderer from the beginning.
Evil is and has been very real in
the world of homo sapiens ever since Eve encountered the devil in the Garden of
Eden.
The devil himself, also known as
satan and lucifer and the evil one, was as we know from scripture a very
important high ranking angel. And a very
beautiful one. And obviously a very
proud one, for he decided to rebel against God and in doing so led many many
angels to join him.
His fate is sealed. In these very days in which we live, he knows
his time is exceedingly short. At the
end of the Tribulation period when the Lord leads an army of his holy ones into
the battle of Armageddon, the devil is seized and locked in a deep pit for a
thousand years. That is going to happen
pretty soon now, and you can be assured the devil knows all those prophecies in
the Bible about these last days. Nothing
says he is stupid; just vain and proud and crazily ambitious. You know he has read the Bible.
In these last days he and those
who follow him are wreaking all sorts of havoc.
They are active throughout the earth sowing discord and lies and leading
all sorts of terrible things to happen.
How else can you explain ISIS, or Al Qaida, or Boko Haran, or any of the
other violent terrorist groups? How can
you explain the massive growth of horrible drugs and their impact on humanity? How all those millions who blindly follow
false gods and doctrine? How else these
maniacal leaders we see in so many places.
And on and on.
These people do not know God,
they have not been born again, they do not know scripture, they cannot protect
themselves from the attacks and false leading of the devil and his minions. Any lost person who does not know the Lord is
a ready subject for the plans of satan.
The Bible advises us not to give the devil an opening, a foothold. But anyone who does not know the Lord has
given the devil his entire body as an opening, a foothold.
That’s what we have now. That’s what we see in these evil and
apparently blind or ignorant groups operating in such outrageous ways.
And that is what happens to
individuals who suddenly in the world’s analysis must have cracked up, or must
have a screw loose, or must be under the influence, or must be just plain
nuts. Well, part of that is true. They are under the influence…of the devil. That influence may come directly or through
illicit drugs or other openings. But
these sad people have no way to defend themselves. They don’t know the truths we have written
about regarding God’s tools for protecting ourselves.
Remember, all you believers, as
spelled out in Ephesians 6:12, our battle is not really against flesh and
blood. And we do not use the weapons of
the world but rather spiritual weapons to fight with. Paul was explicit about this in 2 Corinthians
10:3-7.
(You can look up our writings on
how to protect yourself in several of our past newsletters, such as the ones of
February 2017, December 2016, and October 2015, or watch our television
programs titled Fighting Evil on
YOUTUBE or the ministry web site, or get the CD by that name.)
There really is evil. It has been here as long as this human
species. It is active now. It has been active in the past to be
sure. Remember Hitler and the Nazis and
the gas ovens? Remember Stalin? Remember…well, ugh, who wants to recount all
the horrors of human existence. Not me.
That man who shot all those
people in Las Vegas. Think he was evil? Certainly he was under the influence of evil. To be sure.
Influence of what? Of the
devil. Doesn’t matter what human terms
are used to explain it all. They are
pointless.
This is the effect of real
evil. It is the same evil some of our
military have encountered in fighting in the Middle East and unfortunately are
not prepared to deal with. The same evil
no doubt that some others hoping to do good encounter when they go to desperate
places. Unless they are born again and
baptized in the Spirit, they don’t have the gifts, the skills to discern and
recognize and take appropriate action.
Evil is real. It has always been thus for the human
society. Thank God, it does not win in
the end. But it does provide a lot of
horror and pain along the way to that end.
************************************
PS - To
read more on evil, go to our blog. To
get there, click on John’s blog in the menu column of our website. Or go directly to johnnewlin.blogspot.com. Once in the blog, enter the word
evil in the search block at the top left and click on the search button. The first two articles that come up are: Waking up to the Realities of Evil and The Cosmic Battle of Good and Evil in our
Time.
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(October
2017)
Copyright © 2017 by John
Newlin
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