When I woke up this morning I was thinking about my ex-husband's uncle. In my sleep I had dreamed up a very special hell for him. I imagined him being thrust into a huge oven like a pizza, and seeing his face and body melt like so much cheese. I guess that's very un-Christian of me. I should be all about forgiveness. But I can't forget what my despicable ex-husband's uncle did. Can't help it. I'm a Christian...but not perfected yet...
Being very close in age, my ex looked up to him like an older brother. The uncle would have been single-handedly responsible for ruining my marriage. But my ex was an extremely fractured individual to begin with. First from abuse, which the uncle may have played a role in...secondly from leading my ex onto evil pathways, particularly devised to ensnare and deceive.
What made it worse was that the uncle was a backslidden preacher, ordained in the Four Square Gospel Church in Los Angeles. But he himself told me he had communicated directly with the Devil, whom he said spoke over the car radio to him. Now he may have been nuts, but nowadays anything can happen, considering the times we live in.
My ex-husband worked for his uncle who had his own business. He took my ex on so-called "business trips" out of town, and then took him to whorehouses. Even while I was pregnant I found condoms in the center compartment of my ex's company Ford Explorer. I asked my ex why he needed condoms, seeing as how I was pregnant with our son. He made up a quick excuse and looked away. I knew what he was up to. I wasn't dumb. I should have left him long before.
When his uncle dragged my husband and myself (reluctantly) to Las Vegas, he had big-time plans for he and my ex. He planned to rent a room with a tall, blond prostitute right next to the rooms where his wife and he, and my husband and I were staying. Whether he actually did rent the unfortunate woman, I'm still not sure.
On another trip, the uncle insisted on the fifteen-year old baby-sitter, probably already sexually accommodating him, to come along to watch his two sons. Before we left, I saw her put her hands around my ex but then husband's waist and knew she was probably having sex also with him and probably at least one of his other four brothers as well. I pitched a fit. I don't think she accompanied us on the trip, looking back over the many years since.
Previously, I had never understood his uncle's wife's cynical attitude toward everything. Oh she was a good and dutiful wife. She cooked, sewed, cleaned, attended to her husband's every need. But I should have guessed when she bought the Doberman and trained it to sit at her feet, guarding her, what the deal was. I confess I was still shocked the day I heard she couldn't show her face because of all the horrible bruises her husband had pounded upon it. Then the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
The uncle had always bought the least carcinogenic cigarettes he could find. I remember sitting at their kitchen table looking at the pack of short, "lite" cigarettes and wishing his one fear would overcome him. Lung cancer. His father had died of brain cancer... a horrible death.
My ex decided to quit the uncle's employ, while I was still pregnant with our son. And the uncle told him he had to forfeit all his shares of company in the stock, worth thousands of dollars that as a young married couple, we desperately needed. I realized just how evil the man truly was.
My ex-husband partly confessed his errant ways, leaving out the worst details. But he gave me enough info to know the uncle was totally without conscience or morals. How in the world he could have ever been an ordained minister was beyond me. Or perhaps it was his fall from grace that was so utterly complete. Nonetheless, I apologize but I honestly haven't matured in my Christian walk yet enough not to be happy that the man died young of - of all things- his dreaded lung cancer.
Later, when my ex emulated his uncle's ways, and started beating on me, I realized my ex had been trained in a way of life he could not separate himself from. I learned his father and all four brothers beat their wives. It was a chain that would never stop without a miracle. But I had to get away. Thank God I did.
But it left me pondering questions about the nature of evil. I felt helpless in its face. Was unable to do nothing during my ex-husband's abuse. I did all the "Christian" things. Prayed, fasted, asked him to get "counseling", stayed the dutiful, faithful wife. One day I realized that things weren't going to change. For the my safety and the health of my little boy, we left. A decision I will never regret. And finally, as a man, my son acknowledged yesterday, after so many years, it was the only choice I truly had.
Whether there is a God or not, and I truly believe THERE IS, normal humans have an internal compass that senses good and evil. Relatively well-adjusted human beings, let's say "the norm", in a moderately well-fed society, whose basic needs are fulfilled, and where time and ability allows them to think beyond the meeting of basic primal needs, realize there IS or SHOULD BE a certain balance to the Universe.
Mike Robinson, "Apologetic Analyst & Researcher", says in his Amazon review of Brannon Howse's book "Grave Influence":*
"Without God, nothing can supply the paradigm for universal moral absolutes. Society needs an absolute moral law to evaluate what is good, or it will fall into barbarism. Without God, moral choices are unclear and unintelligible. God is the only precondition for moral absolutes. The true God is inescapable. Men try to escape His moral decrees, but without them, life can only lead to despair and pain."**
I believe every person comes into the world with an innate sense of justice.*** It drives our need to know there is a Supreme Being. For Who Else can right the wrongs beyond our own ability to correct? Who else can set to rights the Divine Order of the Universe? ****
Men and women may be able to fight injustice in our own ways, but when the imbalance is so far out of whack we can only turn to a Supreme Being to balance the equilibrium when it exceeds our ability to do so.
And what about the other ones? The ones who cause or create the imbalance? What about those who perpetrate the evil? The ones who beat, rape, kill, steal and destroy? 1
Were they made thus by training by flawed parents? Or lack of training? Or lack of parents? Or could it be the culture that surrounds them?
Children are now largely distanced from close communication and normal socialization with others. How? They spend inordinate amounts of time in front of computers and game consoles playing violent video games. Even the simplest computer games for preschoolers make a treat of dissolving the characters in the video. No wonder children are confused.
Many parents never even check the violence level of the games. By the time they are teens, the kids have been brain-washed for years by participating in violence. They have been conditioned to believe that human life is worth nothing, since many of these games take violent killing of others for granted...in fact the players are rewarded since death is the object of the game. It's only a tiny jump to act out what they've learned in the real world.
No wonder we have mass killings at schools, movie theaters, malls, and other public places. Why is no one focusing on this horrendous evil in our society?
Ever heard of the now classic movie..."Clockwork Orange" 2 by Stanley Kubrick? It depicts a society where home invasions are the norm. Also, gangs of restless teen killers stalk the streets looking for elderly or helpless to prey on. Baby Boomers beware, your grandchildren may consider it obligatory to euthanize you.
Are those who carry out despicable deeds formed into monsters by evil done against them? Or were they born that way? With a lack of internal monitor to sense the difference between good and bad? Conditioning is everything. Our societal norms in the United States seem to be dropping lower and lower.
I knew a man who was sexually abused by his mother. It turned him into an incredibly confused human being. As Freud would have put it, his sexual libido was "inverted".3 That means "upside-down." He wanted to dress as a woman, copying his mother.
This may not be the only reason for that particular phenomenon, but other men whom I've known who wanted to wear women's make-up or clothing had unusual mother-attachments, as well.
But what could possibly possess a mother to use her own child sexually? That is beyond my ability to understand. Was it insanity? Was it a desire to control? Was it a demonic spirit? Whatever it was, it overcame the normal, instinctive maternal desire to protect. I can't imagine anything that could do that - except EVIL.
I am grateful for the warriors who protect our nation. Those who have shed blood to protect what few liberties we have left, are admirable men and women who deserve to be honored and loved.
But what about the horrors committed during war? Say for example documentation of war abuses during Viet Nam? What drives men to rape the conquered nation's women? What motivates the utter brutality of the sheer killing?
They of course have been trained to kill. But once the training kicks in, some humanity switch must shut off inside a person's soul to enable them to do so. Is that not some senseless driving force?
I understand that there are times when it is absolutely necessary to defend a nation. I can certainly understand killing for the sake of self-defense, or the defense of one's family. But when soldiers are conditioned to kill merely to satisfy some territorial imperative, such as to protect the available oil supplies, or to dominate the land mass which produces the supply, under cover of public excuses such as "weapons of mass destruction", are these human minds twisted for an evil end? (That is not to say that there were not weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East before our nation went into Iraq. There were traces of yellow chemical compounds found in certain ares, that could easily have been used to create WMD.)
Yes, I truly believe after 9/11 our nation had to respond strongly to show our strength. But did we go to the right location to fight back? We had to act. We did. It is now water over the bridge, so to speak. But we still face the continuing threat of violence on American soil by those coming from abroad to do us harm. Take for example the incident at the Boston Marathon.
The dear troops, bless their hearts (and families), go overseas with the noble aim that they are protecting our nation...going to war against the enemy. But who will acknowledge who the enemy truly is?
They come home, often scarred, wounded and their families, hopefully, rally around them. But so many will never be the same; (Without the saving, healing grace of Jesus Christ.) And kudos to Wounded Warriors,4 as well.
And what of the inexplicable desire to blow oneself up in order to murder a group of people around one? How can anyone explain a mother teaching their child that suicide bombing is okay, because it gains one an entrance to paradise among celestial virgins? Utter insanity? Or utter Evil?
There has to be a driving force behind it all!
As the Roman Empire expanded its territory and brought eventual peace and protection to those they conquered did the ends justify the merciless killing of the land's occupants? Did this upset or balance the equilibrium of right and wrong in the world? 5
When evil rulers like Caligula, or the present day Syrian leader Assad, kill their own people whom by logic they should only protect, where is the sense of eternal justice? Does such evil beget more evil? Yes.
Those who live under such regimes often come out marred individuals. Where a sense of justice or injustice is so askew that they become rapists, takers and killers themselves, it isn't any wonder. There are known individuals who escaped the horrors of World War II only to become behind the scenes "movers and shakers" with incredibly ignoble plans for all of civilized mankind. Take for example the ultimate genocidal goal of Agenda 21. 6
The miracle is when some people come through such ignominy and become compassionate, forgiving, and determined to help fellow human beings.
But what of the average American watching a TV show such as Game of Thrones?7 Surely it must incite the same blood lust as the ancient Romans experienced watching dueling gladiators compete in the Coliseum. One would think we would easily tire of such gratuitous violence, especially after so many of our young men have so recently come home from the horrors of war. But no. The show is a tremendous hit. Everyone is talking about it. Summaries of the latest show appear immediately on the Internet. Even professing Christians declare it the greatest thing since "sliced bread".
Where does mankind's inherent capacity for evil come from? It is written that every man is born with what is called a "carnal" nature8a Carnal comes from the root of the word "carnivorous" or meat-eater8b. It certainly depicts the image of a primitive man, face blood-smeared from eating a raw carcass after the hunt, gorging himself on the captured animal. Is it merely an exaggerated instinct for survival that causes human beings to act like animals, at times depraved?
I have seen so many lives changed after an acknowledgement of Jesus Christ's atoning work on the cross. When people accept His Blood-sacrifice in exchange for their own wrongs and evil ways.9 Then I've seen others, who say they've accepted Christ, and yet they continued on in their same old errant ways. To the point that they become insane by way of their allowance of evil to overcome their entire personality.10 Why are some changed and not others? Why do many never even want this welcome deliverance from wrongdoing? Do they love evil so much that they would prefer to wallow in a sinking sandpit that drags them ever downward?
My only conclusion can be that there are greater forces than us, mere men, at work in this universe.
Physicists have now concluded that there are what they may call "parallel universes", or simply put, other "dimensions" existing invisibly alongside our current reality.11
Even "hard" science based upon numerical values such as physics has finally come full circle and acknowledged the existence of something perhaps "greater" than mankind.12
"What some scientists have concluded...is that the principles of a holographic unity at play in our universe and in this transcendent domain, everything is intricately connected to the mind and bodies which are also operating on holographic principles."13
An invisible parallel existence, possibly inhabited by other living beings.
Extraterrestrials or "Aliens" would not be sufficient to exceed the force for evil in the universe, even if those aliens had superior technology or moral development. Because aliens would be merely products of creation as we ourselves are. 14
No. There has to be some Being vastly superior, that exceeds the boundaries of this Universe. One who resides above everything...with such vast unlimited power, without beginning or end, who knows all, sees all...and can set right all injustice. Conquer all evil. My inner being tells me this. Perhaps yours does too. 15
So even though we finite humans can make the world better in our own way, one person at a time, we can never erase all the evil in the world. Only a loving God can erase evil in the world, and bring about a united, peaceful planet. Only the God whose Son's name is Jesus Christ, who many believe, and prophecies tell 16 thatHe will Return again soon.
Until that time the days will only grow darker and more evil. So believe in Him. Wait on Him. Don't accept any substitutes or Pretenders.17
What do we DO about evil? Don't take "THE MARK". 18
Then OCCUPY Earth until He comes back! 19 All will soon be right with the world.20
FOOTNOTES:
1. . < http:// www.blueletterbible.org/search/translationResults.cfm? John 10:10
"The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(film)
3. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud, Random House, Inc. 1938 pp. 554-620
4. www.woundedwarriorproject.org
5. www.ushistory.org/civ/6c.asp Pax Romana Facts
6. Agenda 21 gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979563156
www.infowars.com/agenda-21-for-dummies-new-world-order...
7. Game of Thrones
www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones_(TV_series)
8. Carnal/Carnivorous: a. Romans 8:7 "For the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is strife, not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
b. www.thefreedictionary.com/carnivorous
9. Hebrews 9:26 "For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."
10. II Peter 2:22 "But it happened unto them according to the true proverb, 'The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.'
I Corinthians 5:5 "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
11. Parallel Universes : Welcome to Explorations in Science with Dr ...
www.biblioteca.pleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_holouniverse05.htm
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Aspect
books.google.com/books?isbn=1599790718
Strongman's His Name II by Drs. Jerry and Carol Robeson
