So, why do we think that God allows evil to exist in the world?
Why do those devastating natural disasters happen, are they really God's fault?
The Chinese have a saying about "living in interesting times", but these times are more interesting than i can handle. Our country is coming to terms with the loss of Madiba. I think that he died a very sad man, considering all of the corruption that abounds in the country particularly at government level. Corruption is almost our National Export.
But can we blame God for this? Where did it all start?
In Genesis 1:31, we read: "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was very good."
So, God was happy with his creation, He even took a day off pleased with how it all turned out.
What went so terribly wrong?
The Evil one, in the guise of a serpent, had a "chance" meeting with Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan (meaning the deceiver ) tempted Eve into eating a delicious apple from the tree of knowledge. She, in turn, passed the apple to Adam who also took a bite. From there it all went downhill. Having lost their innocence and knowing the difference between good and evil, they were asked to leave the garden, and we lost the opportunity to walk and talk with God in the cool of the evening.
Shortly after that we read of the first sibling murder with Cain killing his brother Able. And things got even worse, culminating in the story of Noah having to build an ark to save a remnant of the human race as God flooded the world and wiped the slate clean.
Noah and his sons repeopled the world. But, with delusions of grandeur, the tower of babel was attempted. Again God had to step into the affairs of man.
Much later in Job 1: v6 we read " Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them". and in verse 8: And God said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" So what is going on here? God having a meeting, and Satan attending. That there is evil in the world to which God admits.
I think that God is the creator owner, and Satan is the landlord of the Earth. In the continuing discussion Satan suggests that Job is only good and upright because God has given him everything, take it all away and surely Job will change his mind. To which God agrees. Satan returns to the Earth and devastates Job's family and possessions, leaving him with only the clothes on his back.
Job still finds a way to praise God.
Satan, again appears before God and gets permission to attack Job himself, but not to take his life. Job, as a God fearing man has God's protection, but God allows Satan to attack Job and his possessions. Beginning to sound familiar.
We fast forward to that sunny day near the Jordan River where Jesus' cousin John (the baptist) was preaching. Satan must have got a twitchy feeling in his water when the Spirit, in the form of a dove, came down and settled on Jesus' head as He rose up at his, Jesus', baptism.Jesus immediately isolated himself, by retiring into the desert, to pray and think.
I know that if i had just received that much power i would also want time to think about what i could do with it. Just think, the power to move mountains. No more travelling to the berg for a holiday, just bring the mountain to you. But what about all those who rose up each day to see the sun rise on it's slopes, only to see it not there. A natural disaster?
Satan, as the Earth's landlord, needed to see what Jesus would do with His new found power, so he set about tempting Jesus to join him and together rule the Earth. It was not to be. Jesus, as the son of God, came here to carry out God's master plan.
So for the last two thousand years we have been living in Satan's world, subject to all of his tempting devices. Just think how hollywood has pandered to bad taste, to the dark world of the zombie and the glitzy attraction of the sex industry. Truly these are the end times.
With Jesus' active participation of His Death on the Cross, His descent into Hell and His triumphant rise to Heaven, Death and Satan have been beaten. Satan is merely living out the termination of his lease agreement. The final showdown is well documented in Revelation ( the last book of the bible) where we read: in Revelation 21: v1 " Then i saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." and in verse 22: " And I saw no temple in the city, for it's temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the Glory of God gives it light, and it's lamp is the Lamb. By it's light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory to it, and it's gates will never be shut by day _ and there will be no night there there. They will bring into it the glory and honour of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life."
We have sadness and pain to measure the good times by....
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