All the talk about judgment coming upon God’s people in the form of disasters, which turn out to be created by a ruling elite of evil, has always against my grain. Who is the accuser of the brethren? It isn’t God. If you’re listening to any of the modern day, self appointed “prophets” and hearing about God’s impending judgments on his people, please take a few minutes and consider this article, written by my dear friend, Renette Vermeulen. She does a wonderful job examining these claims in light of scripture.
Unbanned Bible Publications | Renette Vermeulen
Satan, not Jesus, is the dual god of both good and evil:
Some people teach that God is the One Who sends destructive disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes to kill thousands upon thousands of people. They misquote and abuse Old Testament verses like Isa. 45:7, “I form light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity. I, the Lord, do all these things…” And Isa 54:16, “I created the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire, who brings forth an instrument for his work; I have created the spoiler to destroy.”
This proves the great danger of reading verses out of context! In the verse just before Isa. 54:16, (verse 15,) God said to Old Israel, His physical situation, (and His statement also describes the state of His New Testament “Israel:” Jesus’ spiritual body of believers:) “Indeed, [your enemies] shall surely assemble, but not because of Me, [not because I made them evil or sent them.] Whoever assembles against you shall fall for your sake… [and in verse 17:] No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you shall condemn every tongue that rises against you in judgment… [because I have created that man, the blacksmith who now, by his own decision, forges weapons of war against you. Therefore I will also protect you against his evil schemes and deliver you from his intended harm.] This [protection] is the heritage of [the personally and Scripturally born again children] of the Lord…” – Isa. 54:16-17.
Yet, ignoring the wonderful meaning of Isa. 54:15-17 by abusing just one verse, (verse 16,) a most evil man who calls himself a ‘prophet’ had the audacity to say publically, “Those godless Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus who died in those destructive tsunamis [of 2004,] were already evangelized. They had their chance to accept Christ but they rejected Him; so God killed them.”
However, even in the context of Old Testament truth, God described His New Testament Covenant in Christ, His Covenant of GRACE, as follows, “As I live, says the Lord God, I have NO pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live,” (Ezk. 33:11-12.)
Satan slowly suffocates little penguins in tons of oil, not God:
God has never been into the destruction of His own creation and creatures. He has never, and in fact can never create anything that is evil because He is the All-good God! The apostle John wrote in 1 Jn. 1:5, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you: that God is light and in Him is NO darkness AT ALL…”
Thus, God would never have created Satan as an evil entity. God created Satan as a mighty, most beautiful and extremely intelligent, holy angel. Although Satan fell from glory by his own proud and rebellious design, the devil is still just as powerful as that day when God created him, for “the gifts and calling of [our All-good] God are irrevocable!”
Because the self-willed, mighty devil cannot touch the Almighty God, he turned his fury on the vulnerable creation of God, (Rom. 11:29; Ezk. 28:15-17; Rev. 12:12.)
Sadly, not disobedient unbelievers only, but also God’s natural world – the elements, animals and vegetation – are still under the destructive rule of the evil one. Paul wrote in Rom. 8:18-24, “…The creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption… For the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs… (meaning extreme pain before final deliverance from pain.)”
Although God CAN and DOES overrule Satan on many issues and in ways we cannot begin to comprehend, He still allows Satan to control all those, whom Satan has stolen by means of deception.
Were those who died in tsunamis and other disasters worse sinners than all the others?
The lion ate grass and lay next to the lamb in Eden; now it’s lust for blood and flesh is insatiable. Only “mist watered the ground” in Eden, but now the ‘god’ of this world, (by the power that the True God allows,) turns God’s nature into elements of mayhem and destruction! – [Mt. 8:25-27;14:24 -33.]
Fact remains, God is NOT the Creator of evil, death, and calamity! 1 Jn. 1:5 proclaims, “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God IS light, [He does not merely ‘give’ light; He Himself IS Light and the Source of all light,] and in Him is NO darkness at all.”
The One, True LIGHT, JESUS CHRIST, is ALWAYS all-good, all-powerful, and all wonderful!
James wrote in Chapter 1:17: “Every good and EVERY perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is NO variation or shadow of turning.”
In God there does not even exist a shadow of darkness and evil at all! (1 Jn. 1:5.)
God is completely single-minded – without ANY doubt or “turning.”
Everything God does and gives is perfect and without remorse!
God is completely and utterly Good! (Jam. 1:13-17.)
God does not simply love, He Himself IS Love!
God does not simply speak the truth, He IS Truth! (1 Jn. 4:8; 5:6.)
God did not simply create light; He IS Light: THE Light, (Jn. 1:9; 8:12.)
Although every man is a liar, God IS True! (Rom. 3:4.)
Every person has sinned, turned aside, did nothing good, and deserved everlasting damnation, yet “God SO loved the WHOLE world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did NOT send His Son into the world to condemn [or destroy] the world, but that the world through Him might be saved!” (Jn. 3:16-17; Rom. 3:9-18.)
Peter wrote in 2 Pet. 3:9-13, “The Lord is… longsuffering toward us, [His attitude toward humankind is that He is] not willing that ANY should perish, but that ALL should come to repentance.”
Jesus asked in Luke 13:1-5, “Do you suppose that these Galileans [who were killed by Pilate] were worse sinners than all other [people,] because they suffered such things? Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, NO; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish [in your sins, without hope of salvation.]”
God commanded in Heb. 13:3, “Remember those who are in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner, and those who are ill-treated, since you also are liable to bodily sufferings.” And in Rom. 12:15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” This Godly love includes our enemies! And GOD loves His enemies so much more than we do. Why would He kill them and leave all other sinners to flourish in sin — isn’t He a completely unbiased, righteous Judge?
Because God does not desire that “any should perish,” that’s why.
A heart sold to mere religion, however, will know little mercy and show little Godly love, compared to a heart immersed in Jesus, God’s New Testament Grace. Jesus commanded us in Mt. 5 to live by the New Testament Law of Truth, Mercy, and Love, as “God makes his sun rise on the evil AND on the good, and sends rain on the just AND on the unjust…”
Texe Marrs also confirmed the patient, saving, New Testament grace of God over all people in ‘Dark Secrets of the New Age,’ when he stated, “False gods are a bizarre blend of evil and good… Vivekananda, a Hindu guru… taught that because the Mother Goddess Kali is all, all is one, and all is cyclical, God is both good AND evil… Likewise, Lucifer is said to be neither evil nor good. He simply IS… But the Bible warns: ‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil,” (Isa. 5:20.) God has no relationship with evil or with darkness… Attributing both good and evil to God is an occult and Satanist tactic to mock God…’”
The god of the occult, Satan, in whichever form he is worshipped – is ALWAYS a dual god. He is both yin and yang or Chinese duality; love and hate; truth and lie; good and evil; light and darkness; male and female, etc. While under the power of this dual god/goddess, no one can ever be certain about anything. He/she can turn his/her promises into lies at a whim. He/she can love the one moment and hate the next. When this god has a bad hair-day, he kills his subjects by the thousands. His worshippers always try to appease him with continual and escalating sacrifice of all sorts, but they never know what really pleases him. Should their sacrifices be acceptable, he bestows ‘good luck’ upon them. If not, he sends ‘bad luck’ to impoverish, destroy, maim, and murder them. [Read about animal and human sacrifice, and offering to the ancestor gods in the book ‘Witchcraft – (pagan & Christian,) What is That?’]
Remember, ‘good luck’ always pertains to the so-called ‘blessing’ of Lucifer – the god of false ‘predestination,’ chance, fate, or destiny; while Scriptural blessing comes only through the God of the Bible, as defined by His New Testament Covenant, written in the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, “Who became a curse so that [ALL] sincere believers could [FREELY] inherit [not earn!] ALL the blessings of [Old Testament] Abraham,” – Isa. 65:11; Gal. 3:10-14.
The Light in the midst of the darkness:
God is the Almighty Creator of His entire universe. Thus, God is, and always will be the sovereign Owner, Protector, Ruler, and Judge of His entire creation. Everything and everyone, even all the angels, Satan himself, and all the demons are subjected to Him. The True God of the Bible has no beginning of days nor ending of life. “He has His being of Himself, and therefore all His perfections must be boundless. He is therefore the rightful OWNER and RULER of all, and must be concluded to have an absolute power over all and an all-sufficiency to help His people in their greatest straits. Doubtless, He is still, and always will be as able to save His believers in Christ as He was at first to make the word. There is no searching of His understanding, so as to countermine the counsels of it and defeat its intentions.” [M.H. Commentary.]
Even the mighty devil, who poses as the god of this world, has no power except that which God allows him from above, (1 Jn. 5:19-20.) Therefore God can and does restrain the evil forces (as, how and when He sovereignly chooses,) which Satan launches against His vulnerable creation, and in particular, against His true believers. It is for this cause that God the Father sent His only begotten (not created) Son into the world to SAVE the world, (or those who personally choose to believe, accept and follow His true Gospel;) thus destroying the works of the evil one! (Jn. 3:16; 1:11-13.)
Eventually, on That Day of final judgment, (and NOT before then,) ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord.’ However, for now, and for the following reason, God still allows Satan to be the ‘god’ or actually, the ruler of this unbelieving, disobedient world.
Because the king AND queen of Eden, (Gen. 2:27-28,) sold the vast kingdom, (the entire earth) which God had entrusted to them for a measly fruit and Satan, the murderous liar and thief became its ‘legal’ ruler, not it’s owner. Therefore, “we know that we [sincere believers] are of God, and the WHOLE world lies under the sway [or in the deceptive power] of the evil one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may KNOW Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. THIS is the TRUE GOD and eternal life,” 1 Jn. 5:19-20; 2 Cor. 4:3-4.
Simply because God gave all His creatures the immense power and privilege of free choice, He still allows Satan to rule this unbelieving world so completely. Why, the devil even had the audacity to declare to his Almighty Creator, Jesus God Himself, “ALL these kingdoms of the world AND their glory I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” – Mt. 4:8-9.
ALL the billions of deceived people in the kingdoms of the world are indeed under the rule of Satan; he won power over them in a deceitful battle, that day in the Garden when he lured Adam and Eve into disobeying God – 1 Jn. 5:19.
Since that day of the fall, the WHOLE deceived world has been in complete spiritual darkness.
Then, at the inauguration of the New Testament Covenant, God Himself became a man living in the midst of Satan’s spiritual kingdom of darkness. Jesus Alone IS the Light of the whole world, ‘Who shines in the darkness. But [those who live in] darkness did not understand it. [Most of the Jews, just as all unbelievers today, rejected Him and crucified The Light.] But as many as received Him [as their personal Light in the darkness,] to them He gave the right to become [the light bearing] children of God,’ [while the rest of the disobedient world remains in spiritual darkness under the rule of the evil one,] (Jn. 1:5, 12-13.)
Hence, God Himself became a Man to redeem OUT OF Satan’s dark and destructive rule, all those who willingly choose to accept and follow Him as their personal Savior. Jesus Himself explained His almighty work as follows in Jn. 12:31, “Now, [at Calvary,] is the judgment of this world; now the RULER, [Satan, the imposter-king] of this world will be cast out [of every blood-cleansed heart of all those who willingly choose to accept and follow The Light.]” – 1 Jn. 3:8b; 5:19; Rev. 13:8; Gal. 1:4.
Light-bearers became squatters in the darkness of the world:
On a physical level, light-bearing disciples of Christ have to keep on functioning as human beings in this world. Consequently, ‘the chosen generation and royal priesthood’ of Jesus became spiritual ‘sojourners and pilgrims,’ [sub-farmers and squatters] in this Satan-ruled dimension. Although they are still surrounded by the kingdom of spiritual darkness, they were “called OUT OF darkness” into God’s spiritual Kingdom of light. The kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Light are two vastly separate and different kingdoms; existing together on God’s physical earth.
One cannot belong to both. One either belongs to the Light, or one belongs wholly to the darkness.
Truly born again, sincere followers of Christ do not belong to the darkness in any way: 1 Pet. 2:9-11.
When Jesus taught us to pray, “Let Your Kingdom come, let Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” He was not giving His believers a mandate to topple the physical kingdoms of this world and to turn them into a physical kingdom of God here on earth. In effect, Jesus was saying, “Father, manifest and extend Your Perfect Kingdom of Light, [the spiritual rule of Christ the King, Who IS Light,] in the hearts, minds and lives of all those who would choose to accept Me, and deliver them from the enemy’s kingdom of deception, eternal death and darkness…”
In answer to this prayer, the only mandate or commission Jesus gave His disciples was to GO INTO Satan’s dark domain, “and make disciples from all the [disobedient and unbelieving] nations…” Each time we ‘go’ to proclaim the True Gospel of Christ, we declare war on the kingdom of darkness by ‘shining forth’ the marvelous Light Who IS Christ. In this way, God ‘lets His [spiritual] Kingdom come and His will is done’ in the human spirits; souls or minds, and lives of all those who choose to believe, accept and follow Him – Mt. 28:19.
Only the return of Jesus will end the present darkness:
John wrote in Rev. 11:15, “The seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have [now] become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”
Even a ‘very good’ judge of a civil court would be a very bad and unjust judge if the lets the rapist and murderer go free unpunished. How much more can God, Who IS righteousness, not punish all injustice? After all, God IS the Just Judge Who will ultimately judge all sin and deal out retribution according to His New Testament dispensation, the Gospel of Grace, (Heb. 12:23; 2 Tim. 4:8.) As Grace can only be found in the atonement of His Son, Jesus Christ, we know that “The Day of the Lord will come as [unexpectedly not secretly] a thief… and both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up… Therefore we look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Pet. 3:10-14.)
Finally, for sincere and obedient believers in Christ, death will be swallowed up in victory:
Until That Day of Divine Judgment, we may believe that God does not torture or kill unbelievers. Mostly, He allows them to live according to their choices, and most die under the harsh hand of their master, (Jn. 8:44.) Whether people are killed in their own folly, or simply because they are caught in the evil calamities of this dark world, God cannot be blamed! Every living creature still has to die someday – physically, that is — unless Jesus returns on the clouds before then.
The victory, which Jesus Christ attained over humankind’s spiritual death already manifested itself at Calvary. Thus, the writer of Heb. 2:1-15 declares, “[At Calvary Jesus] destroyed [or dethroned] him who had the power of death, that is, the devil…” Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:19-28, “The LAST ENEMY that will be destroyed is [physical] death…”
Even if believers suffer in this world together with unbelievers, we must know that it is NOT God that suffers them. It is the enemy, “who walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour… Be therefore sober, [think clearly and according to Biblical truth,] be vigilant… Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world,” (1 Pet. 5:8-9.) Of course God can and does protect even unbelievers; but when the Sovereign God does allow death and destruction in the lives of His children, it is time for the ‘just to live by faith,’ as Jesus declared in Jn. 11:25, “I Am the Resurrection and the Life. He, who believes in Me, though he may [physically] die, shall live [forever].”
Physical death is not the end for the sincere child of God. It is the beginning of a glorious life, which will last for all eternity. Therefore, the ‘last enemy,’ physical death, should not be feared.
Spiritual death should be feared instead. Spiritual death, caused by rejection of Christ and unrepentant sin, is for all eternity. It is a fate far worse than physical death. Someone said that in matters such as calamity, suffering and death, we may simply “allow God to be GOD.” If we could fully understand the all-knowing decisions and Sovereign Reign of God, we would be like Him. We would have no need of Him; no need to trust in Him. However, once we submit to God’s sovereign decisions either to allow or to disallow the destructive works of evil on this earth, we have reached the essence of Biblical faith. Then we manifest dependence on God’s ability to reign over His whole creation as over our personal lives. This is confidence in God that transcends everyone and everything in this physical world. We can be certain that God will honor such unwavering faith in His power to “work together all [these evil] things for good to those who love Him… and are called according to His purpose.” – Rom. 8:28.
