WHY DOES EVIL EXIST?
By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.     
Norwegian Misssionary Nurse Bodil Biørn saw and
witnessed unspeakable atrocities inflicted on the 
Armenians in 1890, 1895, 1909, 1915 & 1916. She
took multiple pictures to document the slaughter.
 The Armenian Genocide was the systematic evil
extermination of 1.5 million Christian Armenians
within the demonized  Muslim Ottoman Empire 
  from 1914-1923. The judgment of God awaits 
 those wicked, inhumane perpetrators!

MUSLIM OTTOMAN EMPIRE KILLED CHRISTIANS
DURING 30 YEARS OF STARVATION & GENOCIDE 

 Turkish Moslem Genocide of Armenian Christians

Roman Catholics massacred 70,000 Protestants

on St. Bartholemew's Day in France

3,000 Protestants butchered in Paris alone!

Nazi burying dead & dying Jews at Bergen-Belsen

HITLER'S NAZIS KILLED 
6 MILLION JEWS, 1933-1945
   “We must never blame God for the evil in the world. Ultimately we are to blame, for we live in a world that is in rebellion against Him. As the Bible says: “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil.” (James 1: 13) – Billy Graham

      We are always shocked when we read of the atrocities committed by mankind, ever since the disastrous and treacherous rebellion of the archangel Lucifer against Almighty God.

    The treasonous Cosmic Rebel enlisted a host of God’s holy angels to join him in his evil, wicked and perverted pursuits against His Maker, which led to his expulsion from Heaven!

    The Bible states: “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

     “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee…and thou hast SINNED: therefore I will CAST thee as prophane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub from the midst of the stones of  fire” (Ezekiel 28: 14- 16)

      “And there was war in Heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in Heaven.

    “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:7-11)

                         SATAN IS TO BLAME!

     I blame the devil! He alone was the instigator of the Revolt against Almighty God, our Heavenly Father!  He is totally EVIL and the creator of SIN, unrighteousness and Evil! There was no sin until Lucifer sinned!

    Jesus said: “Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a LIAR and the father of lies.” (John 8: 44; 1 John 3:8)

     Hell was prepared for the devil. It was not created in the beginning but prepared for him after his rebellion: “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good…Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” (Genesis 1:31; 2:1)

    Hell is such a horrible place because the presence of God is not there. It is the presence of God that makes the earth livable because Jesus is the light of the world, giver of life, and life itself. He causes the sun to shine and gives us oxygen to breathe and everything else we need for life. He alone gives eternal life!

     St. James states: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” (James 1: 17)

     “Then shall He say also unto them on His left hand, depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (Matthew 25: 41)

               NO SIN IS ALLOWED IN HEAVEN!

     How is it possible for sinners like us to be allowed into the holy, pure and perfect place called Heaven where God dwells? Only through the sacrifice of God’s Son Jesus on the CROSS, where He fully paid for our sins through the shedding of His precious blood and His resurrection from the dead, is that possible.

    He makes us ready for Heaven through the New Birth. He gives us a clean heart, places His Holy Spirit within us and adopts us as His very own children. O, what a Saviour we have. Glory to His Name!

     The Bible says: “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (forgiveness) for sin.” (Hebrews 9:22); “It is the Blood that maketh atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11); “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light… the Blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sins. (1 John 1:7).

    “…He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” (Ephesians 1: 6,7)

    “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3: 16, 17)

    “Who (Jesus) gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. To whom be glory forever an ever. Amen.” (Galatians 1:4)

                 ADAM’S SIN IMPUTED TO US!

    Adam’s sin was imputed to the human race! We were born in sin and therefore sinners by nature and by choice. The Bible states: “Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) SIN entered into the world, and death by sin; so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12)

     The Bible states: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it.” (Jeremiah 17:3); “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3: 23). There was no way out. We were all lost

                      GOD’S AMAZING GRACE!

    Then, by God’s amazing grace Jesus entered into the situation and rescued the human race through His vicarious death for us all: “For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ.

      “Therefore as by offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” (Romans 5: 17-19)

     “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a NEW creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.; That is that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them…” (2 Cor. 5:17-19)

     When Jesus Christ became our Substitute, our sins were imputed to Him. He paid the penalty which we should have paid. Then, His righteousness was imputed to us! We are now Free!

                      HOW TO RECOGNIZE EVIL!

 The Massacre of upwards to 70,000 French Protestants on St. Bartholemew’s Day on August 24 and 25, 1572. Here is a report of that unbelievably wicked DAY of INFAMY:

    Shortly before dawn on August 24 the bell of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois began to toll and the massacre began. One of the first victims was Coligny, who was killed under the supervision of Henry de Guise himself. Even within the Louvre, Navarre’s attendants were slaughtered, though Navarre and Henry I de Bourbon, 2nd prince de Condé, were spared.

     The homes and shops of Huguenots were pillaged and their occupants brutally murdered; many bodies were thrown into the Seine. Bloodshed continued in Paris even after a royal order of August 25 to stop the killing, and it spread to the provinces.

      Huguenots in Rouen, Lyon, Bourges, Orléans, and Bordeaux were among the victims. Estimates of the number that perished in the disturbances, which lasted to the beginning of October, have varied from 2,000 by a Roman Catholic apologist to 70,000 by the contemporary Huguenot Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, who himself barely escaped death. Modern writers put the number at 3,000 in Paris alone.

                MARK TWAIN IN PALESTINE, 1869

     The same evil spirits that had possessed the Roman Catholic Church for 500 years and Muhammed, continued their evil work in Palestine against Christians!

     A newspaper funded Mark Twain’s voyage to the Mediterranean, which he recorded in his book, ‘Innocents Abroad’, 1869. Bill Federer wrote: “In ‘Innocents Abroad’, 1869, which established his reputation as a writer, Mark Twain described Syria under the Ottoman Turkish Empire:

     “Then we called at the tomb of Mohomet’s children and at …the mausoleum of the five thousand (5,000) Christians who were massacred in Damascus in 1861 by the Turks. They say those narrow streets ran blood for several days, and that men, women and children were butchered indiscriminately and left to rot by hundreds all through the Christian quarters, they say, further that the stench was dreadful.

     All the Christians who could get away fled from the city, and the Mohammedans would not defile their hands by burying the ‘infidel dog’. The thirst for blood extended to the highlands of Hermon and Anti-Lebanon, and in a short time twenty-five thousand (25,000) more Christians were massacred and their possessions laid waste….”

                      HOW THEY HATE A CHRISTIAN!

      Mark Twain added: “How they hate a Christian in Damascus! – and pretty much all over Turkeydom as well. It hurts my vanity to see these pagans refuse to eat of food that has been cooked for us; or to eat from a dish we have eaten from; or to drink from a goatskin which we have polluted with our Christian lips, except by filtering the water through a rag which they put over the mouth of it or through a sponge!.... These degraded Turks and Arabs.

      Mark Twain wrote in ‘Innocents Abroad’, chapter XL11: “If ever an oppressed race existed, it is this one we see fettered around us under the inhuman tyranny of the Ottoman Empire.

     In chapter LV1, he wrote: “Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies… about whose borders nothing grows but weeds, and scattering tufts of cane, and that treacherous  fruit that promises refreshment  to parched lips but turns to ashes at the touch…Palestine is desolate and unlovely…”

     In ‘Innocents Abroad’, chapter L111, Mark Twain described the conditions of Jerusalem under Ottoman Muslim rule: Rags, wretchedness, poverty and dirt, those signs and symbols that indicate the presence of  Moslim rule more surely than the crescent-flag itself, abound…

       Jerusalem is mournful, and dreary, and lifeless. I would not desire to live here…The Moslims watch the Golden Gate with a jealous eye, and an anxious one, for they have an honoured tradition that when it falls. Islamism will fall and with it the Ottoman Empire. It did not grieve me any to notice the old gate was getting a little shaky.”

    -Taken from Israel & Christians Today

                        GOD WARNS OF JUDGMENT!

      What is Evil and why is God so much against it? What is Sin? How does He deal with sinners and evil doers? Is there grace for those who realize their evil ways? How does an evil doer repent to gain God’s favour? What is the mercy of God and why is He merciful? What is meant by the grace of God and how do we know that He really does love us?

    To get the answer to these questions we go to the Word of God, the lively Oracles of the Lord Most High, Creator of Heaven and earth, Giver of Life Eternal! Before giving His people the Ten Commandments, He told them why they should obey Him and adhere to His commands:

    “I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage.” (Deuteronomy 5: 6).

     He reminded them that it was He, that liberated them from slavery and had kept them alive for forty years in the wilderness! And that He expected them follow explicitly His rule book for continued life, liberty and prosperity:

    The first law was: “Thou shalt have none other gods before Me.”  (Deuteronomy 5: 7). Jesus Christ stated: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” (Matthew 22:37)                    

                       THE GREAT SIN IS UNBELIEF!

    The Holy Bible states: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the Living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened trough the deceitfulness of sin.

      “For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end; For while it is said, Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.” (Hebrews 3: 12-15)

      Evil is an enemy of God and righteousness. Evil is anything that opposes God, the Bible and the work of the Holy Spirit in this world. Satan and all his proxies are evil, and Evil is Satan himself!

    The greatest Sin is rejecting the supremacy of God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the Cross for us all. Unbelief and hardness of heart is a deadly combination. Faith and Repentance are the keys that opens the door for God’s forgiveness, mercy and grace in our lives!

     God’s Word states: “The Fear of the Lord is to hate EVIL: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the forward mouth, do I hate. The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is a foundation of life, to depart from the snares of life.” (Proverbs 8:13; 9:10; 14:27). “And unto the man He said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from EVIL is understanding.” (Job.28: 28)

                          GOD MUST JUDGE EVIL!

      “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them all of their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken unto them.” (Jude 14,15)

     “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great CHAIN in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand.

      “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And I saw a great white throne and Him that sat on it, from whose Face the heaven and the earth fled away; and there was found no place for them.

      “And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the BOOK of LIFE: and the dead were JUDGED out of those things which were written in those books, according to their works.

     “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and Hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

    “And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20: 1,2, 10-15)

        CHRIST'S RETURN: BLESSED HOPE!

    “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

    “So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is the victory?

    “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15: 51-58)

     Jesus Christ said: “And behold, I come quickly: and My reward is with Me, to give unto every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have life to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

    “For without are dog, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

     “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let them that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.

    “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues, that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of His prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this Book.

    “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” (Revelation 22: 12-21)

                       HERE IS THE BOTTOM LINE!   

     Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. (1 Timothy 1: 15); St. Paul said, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” (1 Corinthians 9: 15). The Golden text of the New Testament states: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him should be saved.” (John 3: 16, 17)     

    Here is the final warning: Don’t gamble with your eternal soul and don’t play games with God. Take His warning seriously! St. Paul writes: “If any   love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema. Maranatha.” (1 Corinthians 16:22). What does that mean?

     Anathema (suspended) means that a curse as well as a blessing has its operation in Christ’s Kingdom and rises to its highest power at Christ’s Coming. He will surely come to bless as well as curse.

     “The religious curse of the Hebrews was used as the church censure and  final ex-communication. Why did Paul insert, without translation, an Aramaic formula in a Greek letter to Corinth, where Aramaic was not current? No doubt, it was because Maranatha was a FIXED and widely circulated formula.

     “It was understandably a key expression in the liturgy of the primitive church in Palestine, and from there it was passed into Greek Christendom without translation in fashion similar to Amen and Hosanna.”- anon

   This was an exclamation of the approaching Divine Judgment.  It means that there will be great blessing for believers but a Divine Censure or curse upon unbelievers! Amen.