Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor: We're going to be talking about one of the most important subjects. Amazing Facts is working right now on a script for a special presentation that answers the big question people say, "If God is good, if God is love, if God is powerful, then why does He allow suffering? Why do innocent children die? Why do all these innocent people die in war? Why doesn't God make it stop? If there's evil in the world, did God make evil? If there's a devil, why would a good God make a bad devil?"

There is so much confusion on this and once you understand this subject from the Bible perspective, it can change your whole worldview and make it easier for you to love God. Some people are angry at God because they don't understand all the suffering in the world. By the way, this is the big question that is addressed in the book of Job. But our lesson tonight is talking about the birth of evil.

I'll give you a little amazing fact to start with. I don't know if you'd ever heard of Sidney Reilly. His real name was Sigmund Rosenblum. He was called the Master Spy of Spies. His life was the inspiration for Ian Fleming writing the 007 James Bond books. Sigmund Reilly was able to speak in about half a dozen languages. He could speak English, French, Russian, Spanish, Yiddish, Japanese, Italian without an accent.

He could switch identities and go from a businessman to a cook, to a dock worker, to a doctor, to just about anything, seamlessly. He was able to infiltrate governments and change his identity and just the master of the whole cloak and dagger experience. It made me think about somebody that is able to switch identities so quickly.

He actually infiltrated the Russian government and tried to overthrow the Bolshevik Revolution. But there is somebody else who is a master deceiver. Now, Sidney Reilly, he was an agent to be admired, but deception is the devil's art. We're going to find out why would a good God make a devil, or is there even a devil? What do the people on the street have to say about this? So we took our cameramen out. Let's find out what they have to say.

Guest (Male): I think there's so much evil in the world because us humans are sinful and we make bad decisions.

Guest (Female): I think it's because people get to make choices and they're not very good at it.

Guest (Male): If you don't have the ability to choose to do evil, then there is no true free will and unfortunately, we humans just take it way too far.

Guest (Male): We simply live in a world that just started to normalize evil.

Guest (Female): I think there is a devil out there. I think everyone has a little devil on their shoulder once in a while. So yeah, I believe there is a devil out there.

Guest (Female): I strongly believe there is. There is an enemy of God that wants to make Him, God, seem like He is the one that it's wrong, but in reality, there is an enemy which is called the devil that wants to destroy us and wants to hurt us because he is the enemy of God.

Guest (Male): Probably, I'm going to say no.

Guest (Male): Think there is a devil, but the way we think it looks like is not what we see, not what it seems.

Guest (Female): Well, probably for balance in this world.

Guest (Male): I think it's a whole part of the free will thing and I believe He will destroy him at some point in time or at least put him in hell.

Doug Batchelor: Well, there you have it. People are wondering if there is a devil, why does a good God not destroy him? Some people question whether there really is a devil. What does the Bible say? Now, if you're going to go by the Bible, there's no question about it. Old and New Testament tells us there is a power of evil. Satan is mentioned all the way from the Garden of Eden to the book of Revelation where he is sometimes called the dragon, the serpent, the devil, and Satan.

The word devil, all you do is you take off the word D and what do you get? Evil. And Satan means adversary. He is the adversary of God. He is the consummate archvillain behind the scenes. Why would God make a devil? Did God make a devil? Let's find out what the Bible says. We're going to be using our question-answer format to make sure we cover the high points in the Bible with these questions.

Number one: What was the name of this rebellious angel in heaven and why did he rebel? You read here in Isaiah chapter 14, "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning." Isaiah 14:13, it says, "For you have said in your heart, I will be like the Most High." Originally, he wasn't the devil. He was a beautiful angel, the highest of God's creation.

His name was Lucifer and we don't know how long he lived before he began his rebellion against God, but he may have lived millions of years. If you knew him back then, you would have loved him because everything God makes is good and he was good back then. But he went bad and we'll get to that in just a moment.

You can read in Ezekiel 28:14, "You, Lucifer, were the anointed cherub who covers." Now, before I finish this verse, the covering cherubs, if you know something about the sanctuary in the Holy of Holies of the sanctuary, the inner sanctum was the ark of the covenant. That's all that was in there. In the ark were the Ten Commandments. Above the ark they called it the mercy seat.

There were two cherubim that were looking, they were made of gold and they were made to look as though they were looking within. This is a miniature of a very real picture of God's throne in heaven. Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah sees in vision God on His throne. He says there, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and lifted up on His throne, and the train of His robe filled the temple."

"And on His right and on His left were two seraphim, and they had six wings. With two they covered their face, with two they covered their feet, with two they flew. And they cried one to the other, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.' And the posts of the door trembled at the voice of them that spoke." Here you've got this picture that he had in vision of God on His throne with these two prominent angels on the right and the left.

Lucifer held one of those positions as the highest of all created beings, the highest of His ministering spirits, Hebrews tells us. But something went wrong and he rebelled. It says, "I established you. You are on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones," the stones of glory. He lived in the presence of God. But something went wrong.

You can read here in, and this is the verse I just gave you in Isaiah 6, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne with His robe filling the temple and the seraphim flew on the right and the left of God there. What was the problem? Ezekiel 28:17, "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. Your wisdom was corrupted for the sake of your splendor."

Now, there are two principal passages in the Old Testament that give us a lot of great information. By the way, I want to remind you, Pastor Ross shared a little earlier, but there is a lesson and we have a lot of scriptures in the lesson. We can't cover them all in the presentation. We encourage you to either get them here at your location, download them, but these studies, it explains the most important question about why is there evil in the world. Why doesn't God end it right now? Why do innocent people suffer? When you understand this, it's going to make a big difference. So I recommend that.

Go in your Bibles, let's start with the book of Isaiah chapter 14 and you start with verse 12. Now, when you're reading these prophecies, Isaiah, Ezekiel, even in Revelation, they start out talking about an earthly power, a king. Then they transition in their prophecy to the power behind the power. Starts out talking about the king of Babylon, but then you get to verse 12, Isaiah 14.

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer." Where did he come from? Son of the morning. He's not talking about the king of Tyre or Babylon. "How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you said in your heart, 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.'" Stars in Revelation are symbols of angels.

"I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north," that meant the top of the top. "I will ascend into the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High." He wanted the position of God. "Yet you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit." Jumping now to Ezekiel chapter 28, he starts out talking about the king of Tyre.

But listen to what he says. "Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'Son of man,'" I'm in verse 11, Ezekiel 28. "Son of man, take up this lamentation for the king of Tyre." Tyre was the capital of the Phoenicians, an island off of Lebanon. "And say to him, 'Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.'" Not talking about the earthly king.

Notice: "You were in Eden." Was the king of Tyre in Eden? No. Was Lucifer? Yes. "You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper." He was greatly adorned as the highest of the angels. "Sapphire, turquoise, emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and your pipes," speaking of his voice, the music that came from him.

"Were prepared in you on the day you were created." The king of Tyre was born. He was not created. Adam was created. Angels are created. See what I'm saying? He's talking about Lucifer here. Beautiful voice. If anyone knows music, it's the devil and the power of it. "You were the anointed cherub who covers." Is it clear who he's talking about here?

I just want to make sure you're still here with me. "You were the anointed cherub who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created." Did God make a devil? He made a perfect angel who chose to be a devil.

How many of you have known parents that have six kids and five of them turn out great and one of them just is the black sheep and you think, how could the same family, same genetics, same environment, same schools produce such a different child? It's called freedom. One of the people on the street got it right, freedom of will.

Until iniquity was found in you. Lucifer began to resent the power that God and His Son had, the power to create in their own image, and he began to campaign that he might have that power. God said, "No, that's not your appointment." God dealt with him for a long time, but the more that Lucifer harbored this resentment that he didn't have all the power of God, it was pride he was nurturing.

Something began to change in his heart by his own choice. He began to think, and I don't want to say too much because I sure don't want to glorify the devil, but don't underestimate how powerful the devil is. Look at how powerful angels are. He was the chief angel. You read about in the book of Job, Lucifer goes out from the presence of the Lord and he sends storms and he sends fire and he sends tornadoes.

He even has some power over the elements. When there's a disaster, what do people say? The insurance companies call it an act of God. We forget that the devil can send storms. The flooding, that's some tragic flooding here in Texas and all those girls and people passed away and people say, "Why did God?" And we don't understand that this world is a war zone between good and evil.

When Adam and Eve chose to listen to the word of the devil instead of the word of God, God had given dominion of this world to our first parents. When Adam and Eve said, we're going to listen to the devil, the devil said, "You'll be like God if you obey him," they handed the keys of dominion to the enemy. Jesus called the devil the prince of this world.

Christ is intervening to save as many as He can, but we must choose, we must ask. That's why we pray. He knows what you need before you pray, but you've got to ask him because he is coming into enemy territory when he came into this world. Look at what happened to Jesus on the cross. There's a war between good and evil in this world and God cannot force His love upon us. Is this starting to make sense?

Stay with me, it'll get clearer. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. He was the most beautiful. The other angels adored Lucifer, but you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. Have you ever known someone that was very gifted and beautiful and they became proud of it?

The Bible says a beautiful woman without discretion is like a jewel of gold in a pig's nose. But there are some people who are beautiful on the outside, but they don't let it go to their heads and they're beautiful on the inside too. I heard a pastor say once there's really four kinds of people. You got beautiful-beautiful. Those are people who are physically beautiful and they got a beautiful character.

Then you got ugly-beautiful. They may be homely on the outside, that's most of us, but they've got a winning disposition and a quick smile and they're kind and you want to be around them. Then you got people who are beautiful-ugly, meaning they're beautiful on the outside, but they got an ugly attitude and character and they know they're beautiful and they're very vain and conceited.

I remember a girl once I knew growing up and she was very striking. I mean, she turned heads and but she was so vain. She constantly was opening up her compact, her little mirror and checking herself out. She could not walk by a store window without admiring herself. People used to make fun of her behind her back because she was so preoccupied with her good looks.

Guys might want to date her, but they didn't want to marry her. I heard about two guys that were sitting in church one day and people began to file in and this one guy came in with his trophy wife and a friend elbowed his buddy and said, "That guy's wife always looks like a million dollars." He said, "Yeah, and it's costing him a million dollars a year to keep her looking that way."

Then you got the fourth category, which is ugly-ugly, and nobody needs to be that, right? All of us can be beautiful on the inside. Well, Lucifer, his beauty and the praise, the pride affected him and he began to worship himself. Now, you know what sin is? Let me just break it down, make it real simple. There are two principal motives in the Bible: love, God is what? Love, and selfishness. They are opposites.

God is the very essence of love. Love is giving. It's self-sacrificial. It's always thinking out away from itself, thinking of others. That's how God is. That's how Jesus was. He said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." Jesus was feeding others, teaching others, healing others, encouraging others. It was all about others and self-denial. The opposite side is selfishness.

When Lucifer flipped the switch at some point, the compass needle broke and he spun around and started worshiping himself. He wanted the glory of God. He began to spread the dissatisfaction among the angels and he's very clever. He is a master politician. He was able to persuade one-third of the angels that God is just not fair. He's arbitrary.

If we had more freedom, if we had more power, we should be able to create. Little by little through sowing seeds of doubt, what did he do with Adam and Eve in the garden? He said, "Did God actually say?" Notice how he's planting doubts. He did this with the angels, very subtle, very clever, and he had a long time to campaign.

Now, you might be thinking, "Why didn't the Lord just go 'You're dead' as soon as he started doing that?" God could have wiggled His nose or blinked His eyes and the devil would have just vaporized, right? Couldn't He have done that? But think about this. If Lucifer is spreading insinuation saying, "God's not fair and He wants us to serve Him because of fear and He's arbitrary and He's afraid we're going to have His power and don't ever rub Him the wrong way, He'll snuff you out," and then if all of a sudden God struck Satan with lightning, the other angels would have said, "Okay God, we'll obey."

But it's no longer from love. It's now from fear. God does not want His creatures to serve Him from fear. Now, wanting to avoid hell is a good starting point, but ultimately nobody in heaven is going to be in heaven because they were afraid of hell. He wants you there because you love Him. How many of you want your kids to obey you because they love you? Because what you're asking is for their good.

The Bible says no good thing will God withhold from those that walk uprightly. He loves us. So God had a dilemma. He said, I could just destroy Lucifer and then everyone's going to have doubts about what Lucifer was suggesting. See, Lucifer's saying, "If I was in charge, we'd be happier. If I was God, we'd have more freedom." So God had to allow Lucifer to play out his plan.

Unfortunately, here in this world for the last 6,000 years, you are seeing the product of Lucifer's government. The whole universe is watching. Paul tells us this planet is a theater to the universe and they're seeing the battle between good and evil. They saw it at the cross. The devil's love for power and Jesus' power of love.

So God had to allow it all to play out. By the way, the act is almost over. The curtain's going to fall soon. The angels have seen what Lucifer's really like. So this is why God cannot constantly interfere because the law of life is there are decisions and there are consequences. Sometimes innocent people suffer because of the decisions that wicked people make.

This whole planet is suffering now because of Lucifer's rebellion and because of the decision our first parents made. The children of Israel found themselves a nation of slaves. Why? Because of a decision their ancestors made to move to Egypt. A lot of people could blame everybody, but sometimes we're all in it because decisions made and we've got to make the best of what we've got now. Amen.

All right, moving right along. Number two: Did God make a devil when He created Lucifer? We already talked about it. You were what? You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you. People always say, "Who had the first virus? Who had the first cold? Who was the first person with AIDS?" Always try and track down. Some things are a mystery. The Bible talks about the mystery of iniquity.

There is no good explanation for sin except that God makes His creatures free. Here's what Lucifer said in Isaiah 14. Notice: "I will ascend, I will exalt my throne, I will sit on the mount, I will..." Who's he thinking about? Lucifer had I problems. It was all I, I, I, I, I. It's like when the Babylonian ambassadors come to find out about God, they went to King Hezekiah and Hezekiah told Isaiah, "I showed them my treasure and my throne and my glory and my jewels and my..."

Isaiah said, "They came to find out about your God. You just talked about yourself." That's how we are sometimes. Sometimes our prayers, it's all "Lord give me this, give me that, give me this, give me that, take care..." In the Lord's prayer it never says I, me, my, mine, or myself. Give us, lead us, deliver us. Sometimes our prayers are selfish. I'm talking to myself too.

When we are filled with love, we're going to want to think about others. In the middle of pride, Lucifer, and sin, you find the letter I. He was all about I. What finally happened? Revelation 12, "And a war broke out..." Where? It started in heaven between the angels that followed Lucifer and the angels that remained loyal to God. "War broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon."

Who does a dragon represent? Satan, there's no question. These are symbolic names. "The dragon fought and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was his place found for them in heaven any longer." They were evicted. "So that great dragon was cast out, who is he? The serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world."

How much of the world is deceived? "He was cast to the earth," this is where he continues his rebellion against God, "and his angels were cast out with him." In the book of Job, God says to the devil when he comes to this heavenly meeting, "Where did you come from?" He said, "I came from the earth, from walking up and down to and fro. It's my territory."

God came to earth 2,000 years ago in the form of a man. His name was Jesus. He came for three reasons: to show us what God is like, to show us how to live, and finally, to die for our sins that we might be forgiven. But this only works if you choose to accept Him as your personal Savior, confess you're sorry for your sins, and invite Him to be the Lord of your life. His arms are open wide. Why don't you ask Him now?

We're going to talk next to Glenn in Ohio. Glenn, you're on the air with Bible Answers Live.

Guest (Male): Who are the harlots of Revelation 19 and what distinct act of disobedience connects them to the mother church?

Doug Batchelor: All right, well, you find the beginning of the harlots, is found there in Revelation 17. It talks about this principal mother of harlots and the fact that she is a mother of harlots means that she has daughters. So there's multiple harlots. She is symbolized by an apostate church. Now, a woman in the Bible is a symbol of the church and you have Paul saying, "Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church."

In the Old Testament books like Hosea, God compares His church to His bride or a wife. There's a number of examples in the Bible: "I've likened the daughter of Zion," daughter of Zion is God's people, "to a delicate woman." So there's several places in the Bible where God likens His people, Old and New Testament, to a church.

The beautiful, pure woman that you see in Revelation 12 is clothed with God's light. God made the sun, moon, and stars and it says that woman in Revelation 12 is standing on the moon, clothed with the sun, a crown of 12 stars above her head, symbol of God's church. Jesus said to the church, "You are the light of the world."

Revelation 17 you've got this other woman and her daughters. Artificial adornment. It's gold and pearls and she's sitting on a beast that is scarlet and she's wearing scarlet and purple. It says that she sits among seven mountains. So most associate that woman with the seven hills of Rome. If you have any doubt, you go to the last verses of chapter 17 of Revelation and it says, "That woman that you saw is that great city that reigns over the kings of the earth."

Well, the great city that reigned over the kings of the earth when John was imprisoned was Rome. So it's a woman, a church in Rome. You don't have to think very long about who that represents. Clothed with gold and pearls and a golden cup in her hand. The Roman Catholic Church is a very wealthy institution and of course there's many godly Christian people in the Catholic Church.

I'm not condemning them. I'm just saying the church institution fell away from scripture and became worldly and was compromising. We have a lesson and it's called The Beast, the Dragon and the Woman. They'll send that to you, anybody that wants to understand that study. Simply call 800-835-6747 for the free offers. 800-835-6747. Thank you Glenn for your call.