Have you ever heard
someone say to you
in light of a
terrible tragedy,
“Why would God allow
such evil to exist
in the world?” Many
who turn away from
God and disavow Him,
as they cannot
understand how there
can be evil in the
world, and a Holy
God that co-exists
or allows such evil.
Many disbelieve in
God, as they cannot
understand how this
can be, so they
theorize “There is
no God.” They try to
get their mind
around a word that
identifies this
problem for them,
and the word is
“Theodicy”. What is
theodicy? According
to the dictionary
the meaning is thus:
Theodicy
from Greek theos
- "god" + dike
- "justice") is a
theological and
philosophical study
which attempts to
prove possible God's
intrinsic or
foundational nature
of omnibenevolence
(all-loving),
omniscience
(all-knowing), and
omnipotence
(all-powerful). The
fundamental dilemma
of theodicy is the
problem of evil: its
continuing existence
and God's apparent
inability or
unwillingness to
eradicate it.
(Wikipedia)
They do not
understand when they
say, “why does God
allow, if there be a
God, evil in this
world?” and another
“why does God not
make men that do not
sin, if He’s so
powerful?”. Do they
not understand that
He has made such a
creature. They are
called cows and
horses. Do you want
to be a cow or a
horse? Of course
not, we are men, and
God gave us one
thing that we are
endowed by our
Creator, LIBERTY also called “free will choice”. You
will find this
concept in an
unlikely place which
defines what we
enjoy and adhere to.
It is found in the
pledge of
allegiance.
“I
pledge allegiance to
the flag, of the United States of America:
and to the
Republic, for which
it stands, one
nation, Under God,
indivisible,
with
liberty and
justice for
all” The two are
intertwined and
cannot be separated.
IN THE BEGINNING
In the beginning,
God made man with
free will. He was
made with a free
moral character to
choose either to
following God, the
Creator, or the god
of this world. In a
nutshell, he was
free to choose
between good or
evil. But on the
heels of what men
chooses in liberty,
there is enacted
righteous justice.
Men believe
erroneously of a god
of their
imagination, not the
clearly defined God
of the Bible. They
do not understand
the distinction of a
God of judgment, a
God of justice, nor
a God of consuming
fire that is a
direct result of
that liberty.
Liberty
to do Evil
Let us go back and
examine several
groups of people who
by their own free
will did evil and
reaped judgment for
their actions. I
will try and show
the error of their
ways and how it
applies to us, even
today. In the time
of the Moses and
before, the Hebrew
people became a
great nation. Fear
fell upon the heart
of Pharaoh and the
leaders of
Egypt
to deal with a
growing problem.
They were
fearful that the
Hebrew nation would
become so large that Egypt
would be overrun by
them and eventually
the Egyptians could
be defeated in
battle by their
alignment with an
invading army.
You’ll find this
story in Exodus
chapter 1, but let’s
look at a few
defining verses:
1:15 And
the king of Egypt
spake to the Hebrew
midwives, of which
the name of the one
was Shiphrah, and
the name of the
other Puah:
1:16 And
he said, When ye do
the office of a
midwife to the
Hebrew women, and
see them upon the
stools; if it be a
son, then ye shall
kill him: but if it
be a daughter, then
she shall live.
But the midwives
feared God and did
not do as the
Pharaoh had ruled,
but saved them
alive. Then in verse
22, Pharaoh decreed
this:
1:22 And
Pharaoh charged all
his people, saying,
Every son that is
born ye shall cast
into the river, and
every daughter ye
shall save alive.
What the Egyptians
did was to cast
every male child
that was born, or
some believe that it
included any of an
age under two, to be
cast into the
Nile for
the crocodiles. Why
was this allowed to
happen? Our God is a
God of imparting
liberty. If man is
not allowed to do
evil in the name of
liberty, then he is
not free at all, but
judgment was coming
and it started with
the first plague
given to Moses
against the
Egyptians. Exodus
chapter 7:
7:20 So
Moses and Aaron did
even as the LORD had
commanded. And he
lifted up the staff
and struck the water
that flowed in the
Nile, in the sight
of Pharaoh and in
the sight of his
servants, and all
the water that
flowed in the
Nile
turned to blood.
7:21 The
fish that lived in
the Nile died, and
the Nile became
foul, so that the
Egyptians could not
drink water from the
Nile.
And the blood flowed
through all the
land
of Egypt.
This was the
beginning of
judgment upon a
people who had
killed innocent
babies who were
thrown to the
crocodiles and God
gave them blood to
drink, and it was a
sign of judgment
upon this evil. God
gave the Egyptians
ample time to repent
of their sins and
turn from their
ways, but Pharaoh’s
heart was hardened,
as justice was being
done, and judgment
had already been
decided against Egypt for their evil in God’s eyes.
During the final
plague against
Egypt, a messenger
from God, a death
angel, came into the
streets of Egypt and
killed all first
born male children
that were not
protected by the
blood of a lamb upon
the post and lintels
of their doors.
Exodus chapter 11:
11:4 Moses
said, "Thus says the
LORD, 'About
midnight
I will go out into
the midst of
Egypt,
11:5 and
all the firstborn in
the land of Egypt
shall die, from the
firstborn of the
Pharaoh who sits on
his throne, even to
the firstborn of the
slave girl who works
behind the
millstones; all the
firstborn of the
cattle as well.
11:6 'Moreover,
there shall come
forth a great cry in
all the
land
of
Egypt,
such as no one has
ever heard before
and such as shall
never shall come
again.
Then in Chapter 12
of Exodus, the death
angel came, as God
told Moses, but the
children of Israel were saved, because of the
blood:
12:12 'For
I will go through
the land of Egypt on
that night, and will
strike down all the
firstborn in the
land of Egypt, both
man and beast; and
against all the gods
of Egypt I will
execute judgments--
I Proclaim myself
the LORD.
12:13 'The
blood shall serve as
a sign for you on
the houses where you
live; and when I see
the blood I will
pass over you, and
no plague will
befall you to
destroy you when I
strike the land of
Egypt. (the blood
was a foreshadow of
the sacrifice of our
Lord Jesus Christ).
You ask, why didn’t
God just whisk these
Hebrew people out of
the
land
of
Egypt,
instead of killing
all the Egyptian
first born? The
answer is justice.
Judgment had been
passed on
Egypt
for the crimes
against their fellow
man and the murders
of the innocent.
Because of their
free will, God
allowed them to have
liberty, to do good,
or to do evil, but
in His righteous
judgment, He enacted
justice.
JUDGMENT AGAINST ISRAEL
This is a story that
I cannot fathom, but
it happened. After
all the acts of God
and His
righteousness, the
people of
Israel
became ensnared with
the evil of this
world, and by having
liberty, did evil in
the sight of a Holy
God. But judgment
came, as Jeremiah
prophecies to them,
and it came to pass.
You may find this
sad state of affairs
in Jeremiah chapter
19. Jeremiah had
been instructed by
God in a two way
conversation to
bring the elders and
the priest down to
the Valley of
Ben-hinnom. This was
a place of 24 hour
fires burning
refuse, and dead
bodies. It was like
their city dump.
There Jeremiah
prophesied what God
was about do to them
for their evil:
19:4 "Because
they have forsaken
Me and have made
this an alien place
and have burned
sacrifices in it to
other gods, that
neither they nor
their forefathers
nor the kings of Judah
had ever known, and
because they have
filled this place
with the blood of
the innocent
(babies and
children).
19:5 and
have built the high
places of Baal to
burn their sons in
the fire as burnt
offerings to Baal, a
thing which I never
commanded or spoke
of, nor did it ever
enter My mind;
19:6 therefore,
behold, days will
come," declares the
LORD, "when this
place will no longer
have the name
Topheth or the
valley of
Ben-hinnom, but
rather the valley of
Slaughter.
19:7 "I
will make void the
counsel of
Judah
and Jerusalem in this place,
and I will cause
them to fall by the
sword before their
enemies and by the
hand of those who
seek their life; and
I will give over
their carcasses as
food for the birds
of the sky and the
beasts of the earth.
19:8 "I
will also make this
city a desolation
and an object of
hissing; everyone
who passes by it
will feel astonished
and hiss because of
all its disasters.
19:9 "I
will make them eat
the flesh of their
sons and the flesh
of their daughters,
and they will eat
one another's flesh
in the siege and in
the distress with
which their enemies
and those who seek
their life will
distress them."'
19:10 "Then
you will break the
jar in the sight of
the men who
accompany you
19:11 and
say to them, 'Thus
says the LORD of
hosts, "Just so will
I break this people
and this city, even
as one breaks a
potter's vessel,
which no one cannot
again repair; and
they will bury in
Topheth because they
can find no other
place for burial.
19:12 "
I will treat this
place and its
inhabitants like
this," declares the
LORD, "so as to make
this city like
Topheth.
19:13 "The
houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become defiled like the
place Topheth,
because of all the
houses on whose
rooftops they burned
sacrifices to all
the heavenly host
and poured out drink
offerings to other
gods."
I spoke of this in
past sermons that
Israel
erected pagan idols
and
Asheroth poles,
even in the very
Temple
of
God
and had taken on the
practices of Baal
worshipers around
them by killing
their sons and
daughters on pagan
altars and deluded
themselves that this
was an acceptable
way of giving
Jehovah praise and
worship. God had
given them liberty
to do this evil, but
being a God of
long-suffering and
allowing men free
will, there came a
time when judgment
and justice was
enacted on this evil
amongst a nation
that was designed to
be an example to all
other nations around
them, or a nation of
priest, a holy
nation. How far did
they fall from their
glorious intent of
Almighty God? They
fell to the pit and
their eventual
destruction as a
nation.
FLASH FORWARD TO
MODERN TIMES
There is coming a
day, that may not be
too far off, where
evil men will do
even more evil to
good people. There
has been, recent
history, of many
instances of
atrocities coming
against good people
by evil men who were
given the liberty to
do this evil. The
coming period I
speak of is known as
the Tribulation,
which flows into the
Great Tribulation.
Each combined to be
a total of 7 years.
In Revelation we see
a picture of evil
that has slain many
Christians from time
innumerable.
Revelation chapter
6:
6:9 When
the Lamb broke the
fifth seal, I saw
underneath the altar
the souls of those
who had become slain
because of the word
of God, and because
of the testimony
which they had
maintained;
6:10
and they cried out
with a loud voice,
saying, " How long,
O Lord, holy and
true, will You
refrain from judging
and avenging our
blood on those who
dwell on the earth?"
6:11
And each of them
received a white
robe; and they
learned that they
should rest for a
little while longer,
until the number of
their fellow
servants and their
brethren who would
suffer martyrdom
even as they had
been, would come to
completion also.
There have been good
men and women down
through the ages,
that have died
because of their
faith and judgment
has been withheld
for their crimes.
John speaks of a
time when more
people will be
killed for the
profession of the
Name of Jesus
Christ. As the
verses and chapters
progress, seal after
seal is broken.
Trumpet after
trumpet is blown,
and bowl judgment
upon bowl judgment
is poured out on
this earth in
preparation for the
coming
Kingdom
of
God.
One thing I wish you
to ponder, does the
blood of people
slain only apply to
Christians who were
slain? Is not the
destruction of many
innocents, as was
done in the
preceding examples
describe what is
going on right now
in our own land of
the free? There is a
wholesale
destruction of whole
class of people, the
unborn. Is the USA ripe for judgment and divine
justice? I believe
we are on the cusp
if right now. You
read about the
plight of whole
groups of people who
die in martyrdom in
other lands around
the globe, but are
we not doing the
exact same thing
that Jeremiah
prophesied to the land of Israel,
or Moses to the
land
of
Egypt?
Have we not spilled
the blood of the
innocent who had no
right to choose?
It’s enough to make
a person rise up to
take vengeance. I
understand the
emotions of people
who wish to stamp
out abortion clinics
with blowing it up,
but is it our place
to enact vengeance.
My bible says it is
not. Romans 12:19 (ASV):
Avenge not
yourselves, beloved,
but give place unto
the wrath `of God':
for it is written,
Vengeance belongeth
unto me; I will
recompense, saith
the Lord.
And vengeance is
what is coming as
spoken of in Romans:
1:18 For
the wrath of God is
revealed from heaven
against all
ungodliness and
unrighteousness of
men, who hold the
truth in
unrighteousness;
1:19 Because
that which may be
known of God is
manifest in them;
for God hath shewed
it unto them.
1:20 For
the invisible things
of him from the
creation of the
world are clearly
seen, being
understood by the
things that are
made, even his
eternal power and
Godhead; so that
they are without
excuse:
Again, a warning in
Revelation chapter :
6:15 And
the kings of the
earth, and the great
men, and the rich
men, and the chief
captains, and the
mighty men, and
every bondman, and
every free man, hid
themselves in the
dens and in the
rocks of the
mountains;
6:16 And
said to the
mountains and rocks,
Fall on us, and hide
us from the face of
him that sitteth on
the throne, and from
the wrath of the
Lamb:
6:17 For
the great day of his
wrath is come; and
who shall be able to
stand?
Never underestimate
the coming judgment.
It is blossoming in
all its unspeakable
horror all around
us, and it will only
get worse.
“
Galatians
6:7 Be
not deceived; God is
not mocked: for
whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall
he also reap.
6:8 For
he that soweth to
his flesh shall of
the flesh reap
corruption; but he
that soweth to the
Spirit shall of the
Spirit reap life
everlasting.”
All who have
committed evil in
the sight of God
will meet sure and
righteous justice.
Christians, make
yourself ready to
meet thy God:
Psalms
50:1 The
Mighty One, God, the
LORD, has spoken,
And summoned the
earth from the
rising of the sun to
its setting.
50:2 Out
of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone
forth.
50:3 May
our God come and not
keep silence; Fire
devours before Him,
And it is very
tempestuous around
Him.
50:4 He
summons the heavens
above, And the
earth, to judge His
people:
50:5 "Gather
My godly ones to Me,
Those who have made
a covenant with Me
by sacrifice."
It speaks of
sacrifice. Have you
made a sacrifice to
God? If you have
accepted Jesus as
your personal
Savior, been
baptized, and follow
His example, then
you have made the
perfect Sacrifice
before God. You that
have accepted Jesus
Christ as Lord of
your life, you have
been covered with
the blood, which God
imparts
righteousness to
you, because of Him.
We wait for the
adoption process to
be completed. We
have the down
payment of God’s
Holy Spirit residing
with our spirit, but
we wait for the
adoption, to be born
of the Spirit.
How do we know this?
Romans chapter 8:
8:16 The
Spirit itself
beareth witness with
our spirit, that we
are the children of
God:
8:17 And
if children, then
heirs; heirs of God,
and joint-heirs with
Christ; if so be
that we suffer with
him, that we may be
also glorified
together.
8:18 For
I reckon that the
sufferings of this
present time are not
worthy to be
compared with the
glory which shall be
revealed in us.
8:19 For
the earnest
expectation of the
creature waiteth for
the manifestation of
the sons of God.
8:20 For
the creature was
made subject to
vanity, not
willingly, but by
reason of him who
hath subjected the
same in hope,
8:21 Because
the creature itself
also shall be
delivered from the
bondage of
corruption into the
glorious liberty of
the children of God.
8:22 For
we know that the
whole creation
groaneth and
travaileth in pain
together until now.
8:23 And
not only they, but
ourselves also,
which have the
firstfruits of the
Spirit, even we
ourselves groan
within ourselves,
waiting for the
adoption, to wit,
the redemption of
our body.
You and I were given
God given liberty to
choose the god of
this world, or cast
it off and believe
in the only Begotten
Son of God, who
takes away the sin
of the world. You
who have believed
and exercised your
faith that to you,
it became so simple,
so easy that you
cannot understand
why not all of the
world doesn’t see
it…..very simple
reason,
liberty.
1st Corinthians
chapter 1:
1:18 For
the preaching of the
cross is to them
that perish
foolishness; but
unto us which are
saved it is the
power of God.
1:19 For
it is written, I
will destroy the
wisdom of the wise,
and will bring to
nothing the
understanding of the
prudent.
1:20 Where
is the wise? where
is the scribe? where
is the disputer of
this world? hath not
God made foolish the
wisdom of this
world?
1:21 For
after that in the
wisdom of God the
world by wisdom knew
not God, it pleased
God by the
foolishness of
preaching to save
them that believe.
1:22 For
the Jews require a
sign, and the Greeks
seek after wisdom:
1:23 But
we preach Christ
crucified, unto the
Jews a
stumblingblock, and
unto the Greeks
foolishness;
1:24 But
unto them which are
called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ
the power of God,
and the wisdom of
God.
1:25 Because
the foolishness of
God is wiser than
men; and the
weakness of God is
stronger than men.
You who read these
warning, and
examples of the
vengeance of
Almighty God, where
do you stand? You,
like all of us, have
been given liberty
to choose. Will you
stand for good or
evil, life or death?
To choose this life
and all it’s
trappings of sinful
pleasure, is to
choose death, but to
give your heart and
soul to the Creator
of your soul and
spirit, by believing
on the only Begotten
Son of God, is to
choose life. It is a
free will decision.
God will not beat
you about the head
into submission and
He will not wait
forever.
He wants you to fall
in love with Him and
follow Him out of
your own free will
choice, not out of
coercion, but
because you see Him
as He is, Almighty
God and you long to
be with Him and
return to Him that
gave you life, and
He will grant you
life eternal!
Ephesians 2:8-9
2:8 For
by grace are ye
saved through faith;
and that not of
yourselves: it is
the gift of God:
2:9 Not
of works, lest any
man should boast.
And against, Paul
tell us about what
our Lord did for you
and I in Romans
chapter 5:
.5:6 For
when we were yet
without strength, in
due time Christ died
for the ungodly.
5:7 For
scarcely for a
righteous man will
one die: yet
peradventure for a
good man some would
even dare to die.
5:8 But
God commendeth his
love toward us, in
that, while we were
yet sinners, Christ
died for us.
5:9 Much
more then, being now
justified by his
blood, we shall be
saved from wrath
through him.
5:10 For
if, when we were
enemies, we were
reconciled to God by
the death of his
Son, much more,
being reconciled, we
shall be saved by
his life.
5:11 And
not only so, but we
also joy in God
through our Lord
Jesus Christ, by
whom we have now
received the
atonement.
Take that God given
liberty, your free
will choice and make
that commitment to
follow Him, Jesus
Christ, wherever He
may lead you. Do it
today, as to stand
before Almighty God
without being
clothed in the
righteousness of His
Son, Jesus Christ at
judgment day will
convict you to
receive:
THE VENGEANCE OF GOD
This is Pastor Mike
Taylor, wishing
God’s love in your
life. If you have a
need, a prayer
request, need
counseling in
Biblical Christian
living, visit my
website at
www.churchofgod-usa.org,
or email me at
realteam1999@sbcglobal.net.
God bless you, till
we meet at Jesus
feet.
.
