Picture this: an entire movie theater is packed with people from all walks of life to see a popular western. The hero in the movie is a man on a white horse who is dressed in all white and toped with a white, wide-brimmed cowboy hat. The villain in the movie is a man who rides a black horse, whose attire is all black, including his pinched front black cowboy hat. Tension remains high throughout the movie as the hero seeks to capture the villain in different scenes on the dusty open roads only to seemingly be outwitted by the villain. Then in a twist of fate, the hero ambushes the unsuspecting villain and successfully apprehends him. The entire movie theater erupts with loud cheers from the movie goers, popcorn flying everywhere as many people jump to their feet in elation. Justice is a universal desire all people want.
The human desire for justice stems from the innate awareness of a moral code. That statement alone is enough to spark deep conversations about the Moral Law Giver and the existence of God. Yet, any honest human being will have to admit they have an innate desire for what is good and right and a natural disdain for that which is bad and wrong.
What a person believes to be good or bad is impacted by culture. This perspective is known as Cultural Relativism. It essentially means that moral values and beliefs about right and wrong are relative to the norms and standards of a person’s society, and can vary significantly across different cultures.
As you no doubt realize, the whole topic of Cultural Relativism opens doors for spirited debate motivated by a variety of personal reasons. Rather than debate cultural differences, let’s simply consider the universal human desire for justice. Whatever we believe to be true, good and right, we are universally willing to promote. Whatever we believe to be false, wrong and bad we are universally willing to defeat. This reveals the universal desire for justice.
Since early 2020, the whole world has been caused to wake up to the existence of evil, which has caused many people to reconsider their conclusions about the existence of God and the existence of an evil counterpart, the Bible calls Satan. This is good. For far too long people have been content to simply live their own lives seeking to gratify their carnal desires with no serious consideration for the existence of spirit beings who personify good and evil. Vast numbers of people have merely accepted their immediate culture’s claims, without thinking issues through to their natural conclusion. The fact that we have been caused to wake up to the existence and extent of evil in our midst, has been very good.
The first step in eradicating an evil is the awareness of its existence. Only when we become aware that something bad, wrong or deceptive is in our midst, can we act to defeat it. This is true for us to defeat what is bad in our cultures and what is bad in our personal lives.
What would you like to see defeated in the culture you live in? What would you like to see defeated in your personal life? Allow me to walk you through some essential considerations to help you overcome evil, albeit from a Christian perspective.
The first step in eradicating evil is to acknowledge both good and evil exist in our lives. All good comes from God who is the Creator of all that exists. He is not only good, He is holy and cannot lie to commit any evil of any kind. All life comes from God and His ways. All evil comes from Satan who is the Father of all lies. He is not only bad, he is pure evil and cannot tell the truth or commit any good of any kind. All death comes from Satan and his ways.
God and Satan are not equal in power or in any other way. God created Satan as an angelic being who being given free-will choice had the opportunity to live in loving peace and harmony with God and all created beings. Among all angelic beings Satan was most beautiful of all of God’s creation. Ezekiel 28 tells us that Satan was “the anointed cherub.” These statements by God referring to Lucifer (Satan) show him to be the most exalted creature that God created. God says of him, “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.” Satan was the wisest creature God ever created. No other angel, no other being was created with the intelligence and beauty that God gave to him. The Bible tells us that this creation is “perfect in beauty.” Apart from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Lucifer was the highest being created.1
Until God decided to make mankind in His image to be in loving relationship with Him, Lucifer basked in his own beauty above all other creatures. When Satan learned of the elevated position of mankind over the angels, he realized he would no longer be the highest exalted. At this point he turned against God and all that was and is important to God.
Ezekiel 28:17 reveals: “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.”
Ever since God cast Satan out of heaven, Satan and his evil angelic followers have sought to corrupt the earth, and all that God created on earth, especially mankind.
Like angels, human beings were created by God with free-will choice. Certainly God knew the risk He was taking when He created angels and mankind with free-will. However, love and devotion are only of value when freely given. God has revealed to angels and humanity what is good and leads to life, and what is bad and leads to death. Additionally, God continues to appeal to us humans to choose life, no matter how far away from God and His ways we have drifted.
God has many ways of appealing to us, one is to give us over to our own reprobate choices, to experience the downward spiral that results. At some point, most people will realize what their own choices have produced and they will come to their senses, and call to God in repentance. When they do, God immediately washes them in His forgiveness and restores them to Himself–He justifies them by the blood of Jesus–their eternal spirit is utterly transformed just as if they had never sinned. Sin is a word that collectively refers to any and all thoughts and actions that are contrary to the good and perfect will of God.
Satan on the other hand, has no ability to repent. First because repentance is a just act–an act for good–which Satan cannot do. Second because there is no mechanism for atonement available to Satan to make forgiveness possible. God took on human form in the person of Jesus, who was born and lived a sinless life in order to become the only substitute sacrifice to die for human sin, providing a way for human atonement. Satan and his followers knew the consequences for their rebellion was eternal separation from God and all that is good yet they acted on their own accord. The first man and woman, on the other hand, were enticed by Satan. For this reason God gives humans a second chance, but not fallen angels.
God is love. God is good. God is just. For the reasons of all God is, He must judge all that is not good to bring justice for all that is good.
We are living in the most extraordinary times in the history of the world, where we are seeing God impart justice wherever evil and corruption exist. The evil world we have known all of our lives, is in the process of being judged, not unlike the Great Flood of Noah’s day. God’s judgment and eradication of evil’s extent, will prepare the atmosphere for us to experience God’s glory, not unlike the Great Exodus of Moses’ day. Through His prophets, God has revealed this is the year the prodigals will realize the error of their way and willing return to relationship with God the Father.
Get ready for a happy ending (for now) and enjoy the popcorn!
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