Living as Christians in the Age of Fulfillment
This is Heart of the Matter Short and I’m your host, Shawn McCraney here in Salt Lake City, Utah. And we are talking about living as Christians in the age of fulfillment.
Show 23s: Where is all of this evil coming from?!
Taped March 14th 2021
Aired March 15th 2021
One of the biggest more repeated objections I hear to the biblically supported teaching that Jesus has already returned and taken His bride is one that deals with evil and Satan. See, those who know their scripture know that if Jesus HAS indeed come back and taken His bride (as I maintain) then they also know that Satan has been defeated – and so their question is, “Where is all this evil coming from?”
See, the traditional view is Satan came and took hold of the earth and has ruled and reigned ever since, stealing souls and dragging them to hell forever – still! I mean in the face of Yeshua’s victory most Christians believe that this is STILL going on! Which directly implies that Jesus is still losing souls to Satan. But as I said, those who know the scripture also know that when Jesus returns, Satan will have been cast into the Lake of Fire and will be no more. So, the rejection is, if or since I maintain that Jesus has returned and had the victory over Satan, all-death and the grave, how and why is the world so awfully evil?
Sources of Evil
I suggest strongly that there are three possible sources of evil that could be at play in our world today. First, and sort of in a chronology, let’s talk about the Fall where Satan obtained the title deed to the world which gave Him then power to capture souls. When Jesus, the second Adam, came and defeated Satan first in the wilderness, then through His obedience, then His sanctified life, then on the Cross, then through his resurrection in overcoming the grave, then by ascending to His Father above and finally in returning out of the Holy of Holies to take His bride, Satan was fully and totally defeated.
However, in this physical, material world, vestiges of his domain remain. And what I am saying here is Jesus’ victories had little to no bearing or material effects on the Fall. His Kingdom is NOT of this world and His victory over things was entirely SPIRITUAL. He set captives free from sin, but people still are enslaved, commit crimes and go to prison, don’t they. He healed the soul of Man, but human beings still get sick and die of ailments. He gives new life, but the former man continues to reign in the flesh.
And this is a really important point – even in His overcoming death and the grave, the resurrected bodies all people will receive are spiritual, not physical, because His victories are always spiritual, and not aimed at the physical. So, while Jesus had a victory over Satan and His spiritual impact on the world, the dark vestiges of His material reign continue to thrive in this fallen world. That’s the first place from which evil emanates.
Human Nature and Evil
Then James gives us insight into the second way that evil and sin exist, saying in James 1:14: “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” This capacity for humans to have their own lust is evident all the way back in Genesis where Eve, though tempted, fell before having fallen! Ever think of that? So, our innate human construction allows for evil to be desired – just as Satan, an Angel of Light, was tempted by something other than himself, causing Him too to fall from goodness and light.
The third way in which evil is present in the world, and this is my conjecture, is that perhaps while Satan is certainly gone, those motivated by the power of darkness, who exist after their lives outside the Kingdom of God above, are somehow free to wander, free to encourage others to lives of death, free to do dark deeds. I mean, just because Satan is gone does not mean Darkness is, and this view is somewhat substantiated by those who claim to see demons and dark souls that have come from beyond the grave.
Bottom line, the fact that the biblical character known as Satan with his angels, have been thrown into the Lake of Fire at the victory of Christ over this earth does NOT in any way, suggest that dark evil does not, and will not, continue to exist.
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