The World and the Word

                                 The Devil's Dilemma

The Bible (KJB) declares the Devil to be very clever but also very stupid. Genesis 3:1; Genesis 3:14. Total evil results in self-destruction. Proverbs 8:36. Total evil clings to certain false systems of ideas that it knows, or should know, cannot be true. It believes that innocence is weak and stupid and deserves to be exploited. It believes that righteousness can only be temporary, that it all can be corrupted, that everyone has his price. Whenever evil people achieve positions of authority, they exempt themselves from having to obey the rules because they consider themselves to be very special people. Titus 1:15.

Even though God throughout human history has consistently defeated the Devil on every one of his false beliefs, total evil persists in adhering to them. Jesus is the Truth. John 14:6. A holy and righteous and innocent God knows everything that is worth knowing, and through the greatest possible expression of Love which became His self-sacrifice and resurrection, He will purge all total evil and sin from His universe and recreate it all to be righteous. John 15:13; I Corinthians 13:8; II Peter 3:9-13.

Jesus took all the sins of all humanity on Himself on the cross because sin weakens humans to the point that the Devil can inject spiritual death, which is total evil, into them. All humans inherited this condition from the fall of Adam and Eve. Psalm 51:5. Evil in humans, in turn, causes humans to sin. Romans 5:12. Jesus did a thorough job and got rid of it all. Humans sin because of their weakness. God knows that humans cannot avoid sin. All through the Bible (KJB), God displayed compassion, or at least tolerance, toward sins of weakness. God to some degree ignored Samson's sins of weakness until he deliberately disobeyed God by getting his hair cut. Humans can also deliberately and willfully sin against God, and that is the practice of evil. Numbers 15:27-31.

The Devil just could not give up his opportunity to attempt to murder God. God knew he would. Human sins of weakness did not nail Jesus to the cross although He bore them all. It was their evil desire to keep their sins and get rid of God that nailed Jesus to the cross. In that evil desire, humans became complicit with the Devil. Acts 4:25-28. And yet, Jesus prayed from the cross that His Father would forgive every evil human that nailed Him there because, being in the evil grip of the Devil, they did not fully realize what they were doing. Luke 23:34.