Choosing the East Side of the Jordan

Posted on May 4, 2026 by russellmckinney

Numbers chapter 32 provides us with a fascinating twist in the history of Moses and the Israelites. The twist involves the tribes of Reuben and Gad as well as half the tribe of Manasseh, and it holds multiple metaphorical lessons for us in regards to the spiritual life. That’s why every Christian should understand the story.

As the story opens, Moses and the Israelites are in the final stages of their forty years of wandering in the wilderness regions surrounding the land of Canaan. Those forty years had been God’s judgment upon the people for being too unbelieving and cowardly to cross over the Jordan river, go to war with the inhabitants of Canaan, and take the land forty years earlier (Numbers chapters 13 and 14). But now a new generation of Israelites was preparing to right the wrong of that previous generation.

God had already decreed that Moses himself would not be the one to lead the nation in its conquest of Canaan. A certain sin that Moses had recently committed at Kadesh had cost him that opportunity (Numbers 20:1-13). Joshua (Moses’ right-hand man, successor, and military General) would be the one to lead Israel in the conquering of Canaan. In the run-up to that full-scale invasion, certain territories on the eastern side of the Jordan river had already been conquered (Numbers chapters 21 through 31).

That set the stage for the events of Numbers chapter 32. As part of those recent victories, the Israelites had conquered the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead. Basically, this was all the territory between the Arnon river and the Yarmuk river (Joshua 12:1-6). What made those lands particularly appealing was the fact that they were perfect for raising livestock. This appeal hadn’t gone unnoticed by the Israelite tribes of Reuben and Gad, both of which owned large herds of livestock, most of which were the spoils of a recent plundering of the Midianites (Numbers chapter 31). The appeal of the lands caused the leaders of the two tribes to think, “No matter what the other side of the Jordan river holds for us, it can’t be better than what we have right here.”

So, the leaders of the two tribes went to Moses and asked if he would give them the lands as their inheritance and allow them to settle there (32:1-5). They even said, “Do not take us over the Jordan (v.5, N.K.J.V.) But Moses’ response, not unpredictably, was one of fury. He accused the two tribes of being cowards who wanted to remain in safety while their fellow tribes went to war in Canaan (32:6-7). He also told them they were acting like their ancestors had acted forty years earlier in refusing to take Canaan (32:8-14) and called them “a brood of sinful men” (32:14).

It was at this point that the leaders of the two tribes explained to Moses that they had no intention of not taking part in the fighting to settle Canaan. Was their response a “plan B” explanation they devised on the spot when they realized how appalled Moses was at their request? Perhaps. At any rate, their proposed plan began with them first preparing their requested lands by building pens for their livestock and cities for their women and children (32:16-17). Once those projects were completed, the fighting men from the two tribes would then take their place in Israel’s army, cross over the Jordan with the rest of Israel, and continue the warfare until Canaan was completely conquered (32:18). They would even take point by going “before” the children of Israel (32:17). Only when the land was conquered would they return to their families and herds by crossing back over the Jordan river (32:19).

After hearing this explanation Moses agreed to the request, but he warned them that they had better live up to their part of the deal (32:20-24). If they didn’t God would judge them harshly. Since Moses already knew that he wouldn’t be around to ensure that everything got handled correctly, he called in Eleazar the priest, Joshua, and the heads of all the tribes and explained the agreement to them (32:28-32). At some point, half the tribe of Manasseh got in on the deal as well because they also had livestock and liked the looks of the lands (32:39-42). A full listing of the lands and the cities that ultimately either got built, rebuilt, or conquered on the “safe” side of the Jordan river is provided in Numbers 32:33-42.

In the end, the fighting men from Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh did make good on their agreement with Moses, and they did return to their lands and settle there. Joshua 13:15-33 tells us that the tribe of Reuben settled in the southern portion of the lands, the tribe of Gad settled in the northern portions, and half the tribe of Manasseh settled furthest north in Bashan. (According to Joshua 13:1-7, the other half of the tribe of Manasseh settled in its allotted portion of Canaan.) 

All this brings us to the question: “When all the dust was settled from the centuries that would follow, was the decision of the two and a half tribes to settle on the east side of the Jordan river a good one?” The answer to that is, no. Consider the results of the decision:

  1. By agreeing to join their fellow Israelites in the war to conquer Canaan, the men of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh were forced to remain away from their wives and children for the length of the war. That turned out to be a period of seven long years.
  2. By settling on the eastern side of the Jordan river, the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh forfeited the natural protection of the Jordan river and left themselves susceptible to attacks from the east.
  3. In 732 B.C., the Assyrians invaded Israel from the east. And who were the first tribes they defeated and carried off as prisoners of war? Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (1 Chronicles 5:1-26).

So, what spiritual lessons can we Christians learn from this story? Well, here are a few, and I offer them as the close to this post. Consider each one carefully and take heed that you don’t fall victim to it:

  1. We must resist the temptation to place prosperity and easy living above obeying God’s plan for our lives. As James Mays writes in The Layman’s Bible Commentary, “The promise of prosperity loomed larger than the promise of a destiny as the People of the Land.”
  2. We must resist the temptation to succumb to the fleshly temptation of what looks good in our eyes. Just as those members of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh gazed lustfully and longingly upon those lands of Jazer and Gilead, Lot had once cast the same look upon the plain of Jordan, that plain where the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were located (Genesis 13:10-11). The results of Lot’s look, of course, proved similarly disastrous (Genesis 13:12-13; 14:1-17; 19:1-38).
  3. We must resist the temptation to settle for anything less than God’s fullest and best for us. As Merrill Unger writes in his Unger’s Commentary on the Old Testament, “How easy it is for God’s people to get so near to what is God’s purpose for them and yet be diverted from it by what is expedient from a worldly standpoint.”
Posted in Backsliding, Business, Choices, Commitment, Contentment, Courage, Covetousness, Deception, Decisions, Desires, Discernment, Disobedience, Faithfulness, Fear, God's Will, God's Work, Lust, Obedience, Patience, Prosperity, Rebellion, Reward, Temptation, Trusting In God, Waiting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Will Explain Later

Posted on May 2, 2026 by russellmckinney

In his day, Dr. Thomas Guthrie was one of Scotland’s most popular and respected preachers. On the subject of the Christian life oftentimes being difficult, perplexing, and downright confusing, Guthrie said:

A man standing on the summit of a lofty mountain commands a wider landscape and sees things that on the plains below would have been quite invisible. So many things unknown, incomprehensible to us on the plains of earth will be all visible on the mount of Heaven.

The gist of Guthrie’s words is that in Heaven the Christian will at last have access to God’s perspective. If life on earth is the low valley where visibility is limited, life in Heaven will be the mountaintop where visibility is total. “Why did this happen?” “Why didn’t that happen?” “Why did God cause such a thing?” “Why did He allow such a thing?” “Why did He send me B when I asked for A?” All these questions will be answered in Heaven. Not only will they be answered, each Christian will even be able to truthfully say, “I see the wisdom in God’s course of action.”

Another notable preacher, America’s Vance Havner, used to say, “God marks some things, ‘Will explain later.’” When will this “later” be? In some situations we get our explanations after only a few hours, days, or weeks. Other explanations, however, take longer, and we only receive them after many months, years, or even decades have passed. And then there are those really elusive ones, those that remain forevermore out of our reach in this earthly life. Those, unfortunately for us, must wait until Heaven.

Why does God treat His servant this way? The answer is that He knows that if He gave you all the answers at one time and laid out your whole life’s course in one setting, you would grow spiritually complacent. You’d stop asking Him for guidance and looking to Him for help in understanding because you would already have all the answers. This would inevitably cause you to become spiritually sloppy and, even worse, spiritually cocky. After all, it’s a humbling thing not to have all the answers.

So, Christian, do you currently feel as if you are stumbling around in the dark? Do the recent events of your life have you as confused as a goose in a hail storm? Have you grown frustrated with God because He hasn’t given you that answer you need? Well, I wish I could promise you that your answer will arrive soon. The fact is, it might. But then again, that answer might just be on that list of ones that you aren’t slated to get until Heaven. And if that’s the case, the question will then become a very simple one: “Will you continue to trust in the Lord and faithfully serve Him even if you never receive that answer in this life?” Ah, now that’s a good question, and the answer to it is one that only you can provide.

Posted in Adversity, Commitment, Depression, Disappointment, Doubt, Eternity, Faith, Faithfulness, God's Guidance, God's Omniscience, God's Sovereignty, God's Will, Heaven, Impatience, Loneliness, Patience, Persecution, Problems, Salvation, Suffering, Trials, Trusting In God, Waiting, Wisdom | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s Hard to Be Still

Posted on April 30, 2026 by russellmckinney

Be still, and know that I am God… (Psalm 46:10, N.K.J.V.)

Royce was our child who couldn’t sit still. He was hyper, fidgety, squirmy, active, and all sorts of other wiggly. He could sit and play his PlayStation for hours, but he had to be constantly changing positions to do it. One minute he was sitting in his beanbag, but the next minute he was lying in it. Ten minutes later he was sitting on the floor, but five more minutes found him stretched out on the bed. He was the man of a thousand positions as he held that controller in his hands.

Then every so often he would jump up like a sprinter coming out of the blocks, bolt out of his room and into the kitchen at 100 miles per hour, grab a snack by way of a skill that would make NASCAR pit crews envious, and bolt back into his room. The whole event wouldn’t take 20 seconds. And the older he got, the faster time he made.

When he was just a little fellow in school, my wife Tonya literally had to say to his teachers, “Don’t expect Royce to sit perfectly still in a chair; if he did, he would die.” Of course, that same problem evidenced itself in church as well. Somewhere along the line, though, Tonya figured out that if she let him keep something in his hands while he was sitting in his pew, something he could toy with in order to release some of that ocean of energy he had inside him, he could make it through a sermon. Interestingly, what we discovered was that he could remember large portions of my sermons even though he never looked up to make eye contact with me. He was the opposite of the church member who could keep eye contact with me for an entire sermon and fifteen minutes later not remember a thing I said.

Truth be told, most of us have a little “Royce” in us when it comes to being still and knowing that God is God. Tell me, as you read Psalm 46:10, do you take those words “Be still” literally? If you do, then my question to you becomes, “When was the last time you actually sat down, ceased all motion, calmed yourself to the point of serenity, and spent some time one-on-one with God?” If your answer is, “It’s been a while” feel free to take your place in a long line.

Actually, however, those words “Be still” don’t have to be understood in a literal, physical way. Think about it, you can be physically still and yet your mind be anxiously racing a million miles per hour, right? For example, have you ever spent a night lying physically still in your bed even as your mind was racked with worry? Or how many of us have gone on vacation to try to get away from it all, only to find that we carried it all with us?

This is why I say that “Be still” can also be understood in a way that is less literal and physical. What I’m talking about is you intentionally ceasing from your plotting, planning, and scheming. Rather than try to jump three moves ahead of God you just focus on doing what He wants you to be doing today, right now, this very second. To me, this kind of “Be still” is every bit as important as the other kind.

Along these lines, do you know what most everyone misses about the words, “Be still, and know that I am God”? It’s the fact that those words are found within a Psalm that is all about God’s ability to provide deliverance and protection. As evidences that this is the heartbeat of the Psalm, consider the following excerpts (all from the N.K.J.V.):

God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. (verse 1)

Therefore we will not fear… (verse 2)

The Lord of hosts is with us…. (verse 7 & verse 11)

You see, while having quiet times of inactivity and prayer can be extremely helpful, the Psalm isn’t advocating that kind of “Be still” so much as it’s advocating resting confidently in the promise that God has your back. Really, when we get right down to it, the “Be still” the Psalmist has in mind is something akin to the phrase “Let go and let God.” The idea is, you don’t have to have all the answers and you don’t have to hack your way through that jungle you call a life. Instead, all you have to do is get in step with God, obey Him in each and every decision, and find your rest in Him rather than in your circumstances.

The word we are looking for here is TRUST. You trust God to protect you. You trust Him to sustain you. You trust Him to meet your needs. You trust Him to guide you. You trust Him to handle your enemies.

But such trust doesn’t come easily for us, does it? No, what comes easily for us is worrying, plotting, planning, scheming, being impatient, and being anxious. We’ve got to be active, on the move, doing something. In this way, we are the polar opposite of, “Be still, and know that I am God.” Consequently, we do untold damage to ourselves mentally, emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually.

Therefore, I challenge you right now to allow God to retrain you, teaching you how to truly be still and know that He is God. Hey, all you’ve got to lose is a ton of stress and a few points off your blood pressure, right? It’s a case of less being more. The less includes less worry, less strife, less nervous energy, and less fear, while the more includes more peace, more calmness, more contentment, and more joy. That sure sounds like a great tradeoff, doesn’t it? So, why don’t you take God up on the offer? I really don’t think you will regret it.

Posted in Adversity, Attitude, Children, Church Attendance, Comfort, Contentment, Courage, Depression, Doubt, Dying To Self, Faith, Fear, God's Love, God's Omnipotence, God's Omnipresence, God's Guidance, God's Omniscience, God's Provision, God's Sovereignty, God's Will, God's Word, Impatience, Joy, Needs, Parenting, Patience, Peace, Personal, Problems, Revenge, Spiritual Warfare, Trials, Trusting In God, Worry | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

If in This Life Only…

Posted on April 28, 2026 by russellmckinney

Sometimes you’ll hear a preacher make the statement, “Even if there is no heaven, the benefits you receive in this life make it worth it to follow Jesus.” I remember saying this myself a time or two in my younger days as a preacher. Unfortunately, however, the apostle Paul would strongly disagree with the statement.

In 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, Paul offers a hypothetical description of what life would be like if Christ’s resurrection hadn’t really happened, if the whole story was a lie, a sham, a hoax. Here’s the list of how that description reads:

  • All preaching about Jesus would be empty (v.14).
  • All faith in Jesus would be empty and futile (v.14, 17).
  • Paul and the other apostles would be false witnesses proclaiming an untruthful message (v.15).
  • Christians who think they have been forgiven of their sins would still be in their sins (v.17).
  • Dead Christians would have perished rather than going to heaven (v.18).

After listing all these things, Paul then ends his hypothetical description by making the summary assessment:

If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. (1 Corinthians 15:19, N.K.J.V.)

Why would Christians be the most pitiable of all people? It’s because we Christians are known to actually make personal sacrifices for the Savior we serve. We spend time in prayer, Bible study, and church attendance, thus sacrificing our time. We give monetary offerings to church, thus sacrificing our money. We turn the other cheek, thus sacrificing our right to revenge. We forgive our enemies and pray for them, thus sacrificing our right to hold a grudge. We live lives of personal holiness, thus sacrificing the pleasure of participating in worldly, fleshly activities. We don’t cheat on our income taxes or engage in shady business dealings, thus sacrificing our opportunity to make an easy dollar. We play by the rules, thus sacrificing our chance to gain a competitive edge.

Even worse than all these things, if Jesus is a fraud who didn’t truly show His divinity by resurrecting from the dead, we might as well be serving Santa Claus. If you think the idea of Santa Claus is silly, try building an entire religion around the foundational concept that believing in Santa Claus is the only way to get into heaven. Try getting up every Sunday and telling a crowd of people that Santa Claus is the answer to all of life’s problems. Try writing books that proclaim the greatness of Santa Claus. Try buying television and radio time to tell the world about Santa Claus. Try devoting entire websites to Santa Claus. If someone did that, wouldn’t you classify that person as worthy of pity?

Therefore, let’s put a permanent ban on the statement, “Even if there is no heaven, the benefits you receive in this life make it worth it to follow Jesus.” No, they don’t. If this life is all there is, and if we Christians are getting up every day and living for, sacrificing for, and trying to get other people to believe in a Savior who is no better than a fairy tale, that doesn’t make our lives better. Much to the contrary, it wastes them and turns us into fools.

Posted in Belief, Bible Study, Christ's Resurrection, Church Attendance, Discipleship, Doing Good, Dying To Self, Eternity, Forgiveness, Heaven, Missions, Money, Pastors, Prayer, Preaching, Revenge, Reward, Sacrifice, Salvation, Service, Stewardship, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Give God All There Is of You

Posted on April 24, 2026 by russellmckinney

William Booth was one of the most famous ministers who ever lived. When he became a Christian at the age of 15, he wrote in his diary, “God shall have all there is of William Booth.” He then spent the next 68 years making good on that promise.

Booth was a successful pastor in the early part of his ministry, but he found that a permanent ministry at one site didn’t suit him because evangelism was his true passion. In particular, he loved sharing the gospel with the poor and ministering to them. He became best known as the founder and “first General” of the Salvation Army, which in Booth’s time was recognized as one of the leading evangelistic organizations in the world. When Booth died at the age of 83, his body laid in state for three days at the Salvation Army’s Clapton Congress Hall in London. 150,000 people attended his viewing. His funeral was later held at London’s Olympia and was attended by 40,000 people, including Queen Mary.

In the latter years of his ministry, Booth struggled mightily with his eyesight. In 1909, he began a planned six-month tour of the United Kingdom, but the tour was ended prematurely when it was discovered that he had gone completely blind in his right eye and was greatly limited by cataracts in his left. In August of 1909, a surgeon removed that right eye altogether. A few months after the surgery, in 1910, Booth resumed his ministry by embarking upon a tour of the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Following his return to England, he embarked upon a motor tour of that country, a tour that proved to be his last.

The story is told that when Booth’s eyesight began to leave him, his son Bramwell said to him, “Dad, you are going to be permanently blind.” Booth responded, “You mean that I am going to live the rest of my life in physical blindness?” Bramwell answered, “I fear that you must reckon with that fact.” “Shall I never see your face again?” Booth asked. “No,” said Bramwell, “probably not in this world.” Booth then moved his hand slowly forward until he found Bramwell’s hand. He grasped his son’s hand and said, “I have done what I could for God and for the people with my eyes. Now I shall do what I can for God and for the people without my eyes!”

That story from Booth’s life should inspire all Christians to follow his example by giving God all there is of us. We should do this when we are young, middle-aged, or elderly. We should do it when we are in great health, declining health, or poor health. As the old hymn says, “Jesus gave it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow.” Since our Savior gave His all for us, can we do any less for Him?

Posted in Adversity, Aging, Christ's Death, Commitment, Complaining, Disappointment, Discipleship, Doing Good, Dying To Self, Evangelism, Faithfulness, God's Work, Human Life, Ministry, Missions, Obedience, Persecution, Perseverance, Problems, Sacrifice, Salvation, Sanctification, Service, Submission, Suffering, Trials, Witnessing | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Does Heaven Have a Wall?

Posted on April 22, 2026 by russellmckinney

A few years back, as the political debate about illegal immigration was in full blaze, a certain meme started making the rounds on social media. There were different variations of the meme, but most of them featured a picture of either Heaven’s gates or a wall, along with the caption: “Heaven has a wall with strict immigration policies. Hell has open border policies.” Needless to say, the meme was heavily promoted by those who were in favor of the United States making it much harder to come across our southern border.

While I myself don’t claim to have all the answers concerning what should be done about illegal immigration, that isn’t the purpose of this post anyway. My purpose here is to clarify what the Bible teaches about Heaven. I can’t fix social media, but if I can help just one person get their thinking straight about Heaven’s “wall,” I will have done some good here. So, let’s get started.

The “Heaven” that has a wall around it is the heavenly city of New Jerusalem that is described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. New Jerusalem’s wall has twelve gates cut into it. That’s three on the eastern side, three on the northern side, three on the southern side, and three on the western side (21:13). Each gate is one solid pearl (21:21), while the wall itself is solid jasper (21:18). There is an angel posted at each gate (21:12), and each gate goes by the name of one of the twelve tribes of Israel (21:12).

The wall has twelve foundations, and upon each foundation is written the name of one of Christ’s twelve apostles (21:14). Each foundation is made from a different type of precious stone: jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, etc. (21:19-20). The size of the wall is 124 cubits (approximately 216 feet, 72 yards), which most likely refers to its width rather than its height (21:17).

If you wonder how a wall can be that thick, let me point out that the city it surrounds is approximately 1,400 miles squared (Revelation 21:16). That means the city is 1,400 miles long in not only length but also width and height. That adds up to over two million square miles, enough territory to take in most of the entire eastern portion of the United States! If you are going to have a wall around a city that size, the wall had better be big!

New Jerusalem is made of pure gold, but it’s not the kind of gold that we know. It’s a gold that is transparent enough to look like clear glass (21:18). The city’s street is made of this same type of gold (21:21). By the way, that’s not a typo on my part. The city of New Jerusalem has one street (singular), not many streets (plural).

The transparent clearness also extends to the river that has its source at the throne of God and runs through the city. This river is described as being clear as crystal (22:1). The city has a tree of life, too, a tree that yields a different type of fruit each month (22:2).

One thing the city doesn’t have is a temple. It doesn’t need one because God the Father and God the Son are literally present on the scene (21:22). It has no sun or moon either because the glory of God illuminates it (21:23; 22:5). Try to imagine all of God the Father’s glory and God the Son’s glory bouncing off not only all that clear gold but also that clear river. It’s no wonder the city doesn’t have any lighting problems!  Oh, and did I mention there is no night there (21:25; 22:5)?

There is, however, an important fact about those twelve gates inside that wall around that city, and this fact gets to the heart of this post. Those gates are never closed (Revelation 21:25). That throws a definite monkey wrench into the comparison between New Jerusalem’s wall and any border wall the United States might ever build. Furthermore, New Jerusalem is a city in which all kinds of different nationalities walk (21:24; 22:2). That throws a definite monkey wrench into any segregated “nationalist” thinking.

Look, I’m not writing this to choose a side between the Republicans and the Democrats. Let’s keep politics out of this. All I’m trying to do is help us keep our thinking straight when it comes to using certain Bible passages to make questionable analogies about current events. As Christians who take the Bible seriously, we have to be better than that. Is illegal immigration a major issue in 21st century America? Absolutely. But, please, let’s stop trivializing the Bible just so we can get a bunch of likes on social media.

For the record, the city of New Jerusalem is not even the Heaven that Christians go to now at death. That Heaven is described in passages such as Isaiah 6:1-3, 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, and Revelation 4:1-11, and no mention is made of it having walls or gates. A ton of Bible prophecy has to take place before the city of New Jerusalem comes front and center in God’s plan, and I’ll list the order of those prophetic events as the close to this post. Again, I just want us to understand scripture properly. If we can do that, it will take care of most of our meme problems. So, as a means to that end, the order for God’s prophetic plan goes as follows:

  1. the Rapture (1 Corinthians 15:50-58, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11)
  2. the seven-year tribulation period, ending with the Battle of Armageddon (Revelation chapters 6 through 19)
  3. Christ’s 2nd Coming (Revelation 19:11-21)
  4. Christ’s 1,000-year reign upon the earth (Revelation 20:1-6)
  5. Satan’s final rebellion (Revelation 20:7-10)
  6. the Great White Throne judgment (Revelation 20:11-15)
  7. the passing away of the old heaven and the old earth (including the old city of Jerusalem), and the instituting of the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1-8)
Posted in Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Return, Current Events, Eternity, God's Timing, God's Word, Heaven, Politics, Prophecy, Racism, The Bible | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Will Tartarus Ever Be Emptied?

Posted on April 20, 2026 by russellmckinney

We get the noun “Tartarus” from the Greek verb tartaroo. That verb is used in 2 Peter 2:4 in reference to a certain group of fallen angels that God has cast down and delivered into chains of darkness. Most translations (K.J.V., N.K.J.V., N.I.V., N.A.S.V., E.S.V., etc.) use the generic term “hell” in that verse. However, if your Bible (regardless of what translation it is) provides center-column notes or bottom-of-the-page commentary notes for 2 Peter 2:4, those will always specify that the “hell” in question is literally “Tartarus.” As a matter of fact, a few translations (the Holman Christian Standard, Young’s Literal Translation, Wuest’s Expanded Translation) just go ahead and use “Tartarus” in the verse instead of “hell.”

So, what is this strange place called Tartarus? It’s a place created exclusively for the incarceration of certain fallen angels. The place has absolutely no bearing on human beings. As I pointed out in the post Are Hades and Hell the Same Place (post #1), the New Testament also uses the terms “the deep” or “the abyss” (Luke 8:31, Romans 10:7) and “the bottomless pit” (Revelation chapters 9.11.17, and 20) in reference to Tartarus. For example, in Luke 8:31 a group of demons (fallen angels) beg Jesus not to command them to go out into “the abyss” (N.K.J.V.). Undoubtedly, every fallen angel is terrified of Tartarus.

As for the angels who are currently imprisoned in the place, the Bible provides only one explanation for who they could be. They are the “sons of God” (note how the same term is used in reference to angels in Job 1:6 and 2:1) whose sin is recorded in Genesis 6:1-4. Their sin was that they married earthly women and produced offspring.

The questions raised by this sin boggle the mind. How can a fallen angel and a human woman have sex? And how can that sex produce a child? Perhaps the most logical explanation is that the fallen angels did their marrying and their procreating by demon possessing the bodies of earthly males. That would account for the male reproductive seed that is required to produce a child.

Whatever the exact details of the event were, one thing is for certain: God was sorely displeased with the whole mess. It’s certainly no coincidence that the three verses that follow the story, Genesis 6:5-7, find God determining to destroy the whole earth. The angelic sin, coupled with the low moral state to which mankind itself had descended in the wake of Adam and Eve’s sin, was enough for God to send the great flood. 

But you can’t kill a fallen angel, can you? Humans can drown, and half-human/half-fallen-angel offspring can as well, but angels are immortal. How, then, could God punish those Genesis 6:1-4 angels for their sins? The answer is, Tartarus (the deep, the abyss, the bottomless pit).

Jude verse 6 says of those angels:

And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; (N.K.J.V.)

You see, if we undermine the story of Genesis 6:1-4 by saying that the “sons of God” described there are something other than fallen angels, we are left to wonder why some fallen angels are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness while all the others are free to roam the earth and demon-possess people (Job 1:6-7; Job 2:1-2; Matthew 12:43-45; Ephesians 6:10-12; 1 Peter 5:8; etc.). Therefore, Genesis 6:1-4 must refer to fallen angels, fallen angels who blurred the lines between angels and humans and paid a steep price for it. Basically, these angels fell twice.

This makes the question: “Will they ever be released from Tartarus?” And the answer is: Yes. When will this happen? It will occur sometime in the first half of the seven-year tribulation period that is prophesied to come upon this earth. The proof text is Revelation 9:1-3, which says:

Then the fifth angel sounded: And I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke rose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. (N.K.J.V.)

The “star fallen from heaven to the earth” is none other than Satan. As evidence of this the “star” is referred to as “him.” And the bottomless pit is Tartarus, the entrance to which is clearly located somewhere on planet earth. How else could the smoke that rises up out of the place temporarily block out the sun? God gives Satan the key that opens the lid to the place, and Satan wastes no time using it to free his old buddies.

Someone might say, “But the passage says that locusts come up from the pit, not fallen angels.” Yes, it does, but in the same way that Satan is called a star, there is symbolism here. These locusts surely don’t look like any locusts we’ve ever seen! They have hair like a woman and teeth like a lion (9:8). When they fly the sound of their wings sounds like a large throng of horses and chariots thundering the ground (9:9). And these angels also have tails, tails that sting like scorpions (9:10).

Oh, and these angels have a king (a head angel) over them. This fallen angel is referred to as “the angel of the bottomless pit” and his name is Abaddon in the Hebrew and Apollyon in the Greek (9:11). Both names mean “Destroyer.” He must be exceedingly mighty, perhaps only outdone by Satan himself and the archangel Michael. Evidently, this Destroyer was the leader of those “sons of God” who caused all that trouble in the pre-flood days.

For five long months (9:5,10) in the first half of the tribulation period, Destroyer and these other fallen angels will torment the lost people of the earth (9:4). The torment they inflict will be so bad that in those days men will long to die but be unable to do so (9:6). In God’s plan, even Destroyer and his group won’t be allowed to literally kill anyone.

To get back to our question, though, the release of these angels will empty Tartarus (at least for a few years). The situation will change, however, at the end of the tribulation period when Christ returns for His Second Coming (Revelation 19:1-21). At that time, Satan himself will be locked up in Tartarus, and he will remain incarcerated there for the duration of Christ’s 1,000-year reign upon the earth. In addition to Satan being imprisoned there, all the other fallen angels will be as well. Isaiah 24:21-22 speaks of this by saying:

In that day the Lord will punish the fallen angels in the heavens and the proud rulers of the nations on earth. They will be rounded up and put in prison until they are tried and condemned. Then the Lord Almighty will mount his throne on Mount Zion. He will rule gloriously in Jerusalem, in the sight of all the leaders of his people. There will be such glory that the brightness of the sun and moon will seem to fade away. (New Living Translation)

And would you believe that Satan and all the other fallen angels know all about this coming day when they will be imprisoned? Not only do they know about it, they dread it. In Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, and Luke 8:26-30, the Bible gives us the story of how a large group of demons who were living inside the bodies of two men asked Jesus, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” What “time” did they have in mind? We find the answer in Luke’s account of the story, where the demons implore Jesus not to cast them into “the abyss” (Luke 8:31, N.K.J.V.). This leaves no doubt that the “time” those fallen angels fear is the time when they, along with Satan, will be imprisoned in Tartarus for the 1,000 years of Christ’s millennial reign.

Now, in closing, let me finish all this up by explaining what will happen to Satan and the other fallen angels following Christ’s 1,000-year reign. According to Revelation 20:7-9, Satan and the other angels will then be released from Tartarus, and God will permit Satan to mount one last spiritual offensive upon the earth. Satan and his angels will go out into every corner of the earth and deceive millions of people into aligning with them in an assault upon Jesus in Jerusalem. Who will all these deceived people be? They will be the offspring of the saved people who lived through the tribulation period and went into Christ’s millennial reign in their earthly bodies. By the time those 1,000 years are finished, those offspring will total in the millions, and, tragically, they will chose the side of Satan in his final battle against God.

And how will that battle end? Revelation 20:10 says that God the Father will send fire down from heaven, and that fire will devour all of Satan’s followers. So much for Satan’s last coup attempt! It is then that Gehenna (the eternal lake of fire) will come into full play as Satan and all the other fallen angels will spend eternity there. As a matter of fact, Jesus taught that Gehenna was actually created to be the place for the devil and the other angels (Matthew 25:41).

What a shame it is, then, that so many billions of people who lived and died over the course of history will end up spending eternity in there as well (Revelation 20:11-15). A rebel is a rebel, I suppose, and in God’s program for eternity all rebels, whether they be angels or humans, will share the same place. That’s why my advice to anyone is: Stop playing the role of the rebel and give yourself over fully to Jesus Christ. He is, of course, the one who died for your sins so that you wouldn’t have to spend eternity with Satan and his crowd.

Posted in Angels, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Return, Coming Judgment, Demons, Disobedience, Eternity, God's Wrath, God's Judgment, Hell, Prophecy, Salvation, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are Hades & Hell the Same Place? (post #2 of 2)

Posted on April 17, 2026 by russellmckinney

In my previous post, I offered the first half of my answer to the question, “Are Hades and Hell the same place?” I won’t rehash every last sentence of that information, but here are the highlights:

  • Hades (a Greek word from the New Testament) is the same place the Old Testament Hebrew calls Sheol.
  • Hades/Sheol was the afterlife realm of the dead, the place where all the souls (saved or lost) from the entire Old Testament era and the pre-crucifixion/resurrection New Testament era went at death.
  • Hades/Sheol was divided into two sections. The bliss section housed the souls of the saved. The torment section housed the souls of the lost.
  • Hades/Sheol is mentioned in scores of passages from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, but the passage that provides a vivid depiction of it is Luke 16:19-31, which is Christ’s story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. The Greek word that gets translated as “hell” in Luke 16:23 of the K.J.V. is Hades.
  • For forty days following His resurrection, Jesus (in His resurrected, glorified body) made unannounced, random appearances to His followers (Acts 1:1-3). At the end of the forty days, He ascended to heaven (Acts 1:4-11). As part of His ascension, He gathered all the souls who were in the bliss section of Hades (Sheol) and formally entered into heaven with them (Ephesians 4:7-10). This emptied the bliss section of Hades (Sheol) and permanently closed it for business (2 Corinthians 5:1-8).

Okay, so at this point the question becomes, “Will the torment section of Hades ever be emptied and closed for business?” And the answer is, yes. Just as happened with the bliss section, there will come a time when the souls in the torment section will all be transported to another place. That time will be after Christ’s 1,000-year reign upon the earth, and the place into which all those souls will be transferred is called in the Greek language Gehenna, or as it is more commonly known “the lake of fire.”

The word Gehenna literally refers to a burning “city dump.” The word occurs twelve times in the New Testament’s original Greek, and in each instance the K.J.V. translates the word as “hell.” The passages are: Matthew 5:22; 5:29; 5:30; 10:28; 18:9; 23:15; 23:33; Mark 9:43; 9:45; 9:47; Luke 12:5; and James 3:6.

Gehenna is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew Ge-hinnom. An English translation of Ge-hinnom would be “valley of Hinnom.” The valley of Hinnom was a deep, narrow valley to the south of Jerusalem. It was here that the Jews, in some of their most wicked Old Testament times, sacrificed their children to the god Molech. When the practice was stopped, the site became the “city dump” for Jerusalem. The bodies of criminals, the carcasses of animals, and all sorts of trash and filth were cast into the valley. The constant burning and smoldering of the refuse caused a continual smoke to rise up from the valley. Jesus, the master illustrator, chose the site as a symbolic representation of eternal judgment.

Jesus described the afterlife Gehenna as a place where “their worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:43-48). In each instance of the K.J.V.’s use of the word “hell” in Mark 9:43-48, the Greek word is Gehenna. The phrase “where their worm dies not” hearkens back to the “city dump” that was the valley of Hinnom. Those who took their trash out to the site could always see worms feasting on the waste, especially on the corpses and carcasses. The worms lived at the site without being annihilated by the flame and heat of the place. Again, Jesus is using the earthly valley of Hinnom to illustrate the afterlife Gehenna (the lake of fire). Other Bible passages that teach that the punishment of the wicked is eternally unending, in contrast to annihilation, are: Daniel 12:2, Matthew 25:46, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, and Revelation 14:10-11.

As for the afterlife’s Gehenna also being referred to as “the lake of fire,” the passages are: Revelation 19:20; 20:10; 20:14; 20:15; and 21:18. The Greek word that is translated as “lake” in these verses is the common Greek word for a lake. It is the same word that is used in reference to the famous “lake of Gennesaret” (the Sea of Galilee). This means that the best way to envision the afterlife Gehenna is to think of a literal lake, but rather than being a lake of water it is a lake of everlasting fire.

In Matthew 25:41, Jesus speaks of an “everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” The Greek language doesn’t use the word Gehenna in this verse, but the Bible makes it clear that Jesus was talking about Gehenna. For one thing, the Bible never depicts Satan as being in Hades (see Job 1:7, Job 2:2, and 1 Peter 5:8). For another, the Bible plainly says the lake of fire, not Hades, will be Satan’s eternal dwelling place (Revelation 20:10). So, obviously, Jesus was referring to Gehenna when He talked about an everlasting fire that has been prepared for the devil and the other fallen angels. Sadly, though, despite the fact that the place was specifically prepared for fallen angels, lost humans will spend eternity there as well.

But just when will Satan be cast into Gehenna? Well, there is a distinct order to how Gehenna goes from being unoccupied (which it is now) to being occupied. The order is as follows:

  1. Jesus will return for His Second Coming to this earth. He will first set foot upon the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4), after which He will slay the enemy soldiers in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:1-3; 12-15) and then make His way to Megiddo to slay the enemy soldiers who are gathered for the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19:11-19).
  2. As a part of Christ’s resounding victory at Armageddon, the Antichrist and the False Prophet from the seven-year tribulation period will be cast into Gehenna, the lake of fire. These two men will be Gehenna’s very first occupants and they will never get out of the place (Revelation 19:20-21).
  3. Immediately after this Satan will be chained up in the bottomless pit, which is the place 2 Peter 2:4 refers to as Tartarus (see previous post). And Satan will remain there in Tartarus for the 1,000 years of Christ’s reign upon this earth (Revelation 20:1-6).
  4. At the end of these 1,000 years, Satan will be loosed for a time to mount one final rebellion against God (Revelation 20:7-8). God the Father will put down that rebellion, and Satan will then be cast into Gehenna, the lake of fire (Revelation 20:9-10). There he will join the Antichrist and the False Prophet, who will have already been in there for the 1,000 years of Christ’s earthly reign (Revelation 20:7-10).
  5. Immediately following this will come the Great White Throne Judgment where all of history’s lost people will stand before Christ. For this awesome judgment the torment section of Hades will at last be emptied so that all those lost souls can be formally transported into Gehenna. Revelation 20:12-15 says of this time:

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. (N.K.J.V., emphasis mine)

As I begin to close, let me say one last word about those souls who will be called forth from the torment section of Hades (Sheol) to stand before the Great White Throne Judgment. For that judgment, each of those souls will actually be reunited with the bodies he or she once inhabited. This explains why Revelation 20:13-14 speaks of not only Hades delivering up its dead but also Death delivering up its dead. The teaching is that Hades will deliver up the lost soul, and Death will deliver up the former body.

Obviously, this will require those bodies to experience some type of resurrection. However, this resurrection won’t be a resurrection unto glorification akin to the resurrection that the bodies of Christians will one day experience. Instead, it will be some type of general resurrection. In John 5:29, Jesus speaks of these two distinct kinds of resurrection and refers to them as “the resurrection of life” and “the resurrection of condemnation.”

Along the same lines, in Matthew 5:29-30 and 10:28 Jesus talks about the lost person’s whole body being cast into “hell” (Greek word Gehenna). That, of course, can never happen unless the lost person’s body experiences some type of resurrection at some point. As we’ve said, all those resurrections will occur just prior to the Great White Throne Judgment.

And so, in the end, when all the dust has settled from all the prophesied events, there won’t be one soul (saved or lost) left in either section of Hades (Sheol). Likewise, there won’t be one body left unaccounted for by either the “resurrection of life” or the “resurrection of condemnation.” It is then that God’s program for the human race will be completed and eternity is all that will be left. Satan and his fellow fallen angels will be imprisoned in the eternal lake of fire, as will all of history’s lost people. As for all of history’s saved people, they will be at home in the eternal, colossal, heavenly city of New Jerusalem that is described in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. Christian, you should familiarize yourself with those chapters and find out all you can about your future city. I dare say that after reading about it, you’ll be ready to say what John said: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

Posted in Angels, Christ's Second Coming, Christ's Resurrection, Coming Judgment, Death, Demons, Eternity, God's Wrath, God's Judgment, Heaven, Hell, Human Life, Prophecy, Resurrection, Salvation, Satan, Spiritual Warfare, The Devil | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Are Hades & Hell the Same Place? (post #1 of 2)

Posted on April 15, 2026 by russellmckinney

For centuries the classic King James translation of the Bible was the favored one for the English-speaking world. Many of us grew up reading the K.J.V. and memorizing its verses, and it is undoubtedly a solid translation for the most part. Unfortunately, the way it uses the word “hell” has been a longstanding problem.

In the K.J.V.’s New Testament, three very different Greek words describing three very different places all get translated as the one word “hell.” This has caused untold confusion among sincere students of the Bible. The three words are Tartarus, Gehenna, and Hades. I could devote an entire series of posts to explaining what the Bible teaches about each place, but for this post let me just offer the basics.

First, I’ll name Tartarus. Tartarus is a place exclusively for the imprisonment of fallen angels. No human souls have ever been or ever will be incarcerated in Tartarus. 2 Peter 2:4 speaks of a certain group of fallen angels and says that God has “…cast them down to hell…” (K.J.V., N.K.J.V.). The original Greek behind that phrase “cast them down to hell” uses the Greek verb tartaroo, from which we get the noun form Tartarus. (By the way, if you are wondering what those fallen angels did to get themselves imprisoned in Tartarus, you’ll find the answer in Genesis 6:1-4. These angels are the “sons of God” referred to in that passage.)

Just to clarify, though, while 2 Peter 2:4 is the only verse that actually uses the word tartarus (at least the verb form of it), it certainly isn’t the only New Testament passage in which Tartarus is described. Tartarus, you see, goes by a few other names. In the book of The Revelation, it is “the bottomless pit” that is mentioned in chapters 9, 11, 17, and 20. Likewise, it is “the deep” (K.J.V.) or “the abyss” (N.K.J.V., N.A.S.V., etc.) that is mentioned in Luke 8:31 and Romans 10:7. Those terms “the bottomless pit” and “the deep” both translate the Greek word abussos, from which we get the word “abyss.” Putting everything together, Tartarus, the bottomless pit, the deep, and the abyss are all the same place, and it’s a place not built for human souls. It’s a prison for fallen angels.

Second, Gehenna is the infamous eternal lake of fire that is mentioned so prominently in chapters 19-21 of The Revelation. Even though this place is in existence right now, it currently stands as completely empty. Its first occupants will be the Antichrist and the False Prophet from the coming tribulation period (Revelation 19:20). They will be cast into Gehenna in the aftermath of the Battle of Armageddon that ends the tribulation period. Ultimately, though, Gehenna will be the place where not only all of history’s lost people but also Satan and all the other fallen angels will spend eternity (Matthew 25:41).

This leaves us with Hades. Hades is the New Testament Greek’s word for the place, but the Old Testament Hebrew’s word for it is Sheol.  And what is Hades (Sheol)? It’s best to think of it as being the afterlife realm of the dead. As proof of this, I’ll point out that the Old Testament of the K.J.V. translates the name Sheol as “hell” in 31 instances and as “the grave” in another 31 instances. What am I saying? I’m saying that in Old Testament days the soul of every deceased person, regardless of whether the person was saved or lost, went to Hades (Sheol). As scriptural evidence of this, Psalm 9:17 puts the lost souls of the wicked there, but 2 Samuel 22:6 puts the soul of David, who was at the time living under a death sentence from King Saul, dangerously close to being there.

Someone might ask, “But how could God allow the souls of all the Old Testament people to go to the same afterlife abode?” The answer is simple: Hades (Sheol) consists of TWO sections. God designed one section to house the souls of saved believers and the other section to house the souls of lost unbelievers. While the Old Testament certainly hints at these two sections, the New Testament comes right out and describes each one.

The passage is Luke 16:19-31, which is Christ’s story of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus. In the story, the souls of the rich man and the beggar both go to Hades (Sheol) upon death. (The Greek word translated as “hell” in the K.J.V. of the passage is Hades.) The beggar’s soul goes to the bliss section of the place, where he is comforted by the soul of Abraham, an Old Testament believer. But the rich man’s soul goes to the torment section, where there is no comfort. Even though the rich man can engage in a brief conversation with Abraham and Lazarus, a great gulf prevents him from passing over to that other section.

It is this torment section of Hades (Sheol) that people have in mind nowadays when they talk about someone dying and going to “hell.” Just as was the case in Old Testament times, the souls of lost people still go to the torment section of Hades (Sheol). It is a place of torment and flame (Luke 16:24). It is a place of painful remembrance of the events of your earthly life (Luke 16:25). It is a place where all your requests are denied (Luke 16:24, 27-28, 30-31).

And would you believe that Hades/Sheol (both sides) is literally located in the heart of the earth? The Old Testament always speaks of the place in terms of being “down.” For your homework, read the story of how God allowed a medium to conjure up the soul of the deceased prophet Samuel so that Samuel could pronounce a word of doom upon King Saul (1 Samuel 28:3-25). According to that story, Samuel’s soul ascended up out of the earth, not down from heaven. Furthermore, not only is Hades (Sheol) located somewhere in the heart of the earth, the Bible also teaches that the place has gates (Job 17:16, Matthew 16:18).

But here now is where we bring this whole topic into our current era. Please take special note of what you’re about to read: When Jesus ascended back to heaven 40 days after His resurrection, He emptied the bliss section of Hades (Sheol) and took those saved souls into heaven with Him. The passage on this is Ephesians 4:8-10, which reads in the New King James translation:

Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men.” (Now this, “He ascended” – what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

What Paul is doing in this passage is playing off the scene of a Roman general leading a procession through the streets of Rome after a victorious military campaign. The general would be at the front of the parade in such a procession, and behind him would be the “trophies” he had “won” through his military victories. Some of those “trophies” would be people who had been captured as prisoners of war by the general’s army.

And so, using this earthly illustration, Paul describes how Jesus “won” the souls out of the bliss section of Hades (Sheol). First, Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth. (Remember that Hades/Sheol is located somewhere deep in the heart of the earth.) Second, He ascended to heaven with those souls. Third, He marched victoriously into heaven with those souls behind Him. The N.I.V. translation does the best job of conveying Paul’s imagery. It renders Ephesians 4:8 as, “…he led captives in his train…”

You ask, “But why did all those saved souls have to wait until Christ’s resurrection and ascension before they could formally enter heaven?” It was because Jesus had to officially shed His blood in time and history before their sins could be eternally cleansed. Keep in mind that Hebrews 10:4 says that it wasn’t possible for the blood of the Old Testament sacrifices to take away sin. The best such blood could do was cover sin and keep the wrath of God off those believers. It is only Christ’s literal blood that can eternally cleanse sin. As I once heard a Bible teacher say, “Really, the Old Testament believers were saved on credit by looking ahead to Christ’s death on the cross just as we look back to it.”

So what, then, does all this mean for the Christian today? It means that at the moment of death the Christian’s soul goes straight up to heaven. There is now no longer a need for the bliss section of Hades (Sheol). That section does still exist, but it’s empty. It has had its time. It has served its purpose. It is now closed for business and no longer receives saved souls.

If we needed any further proof of this, the same Paul who wrote about how the resurrected, ascended Jesus entered into heaven with those saved souls from Hades (Sheol) also taught in 2 Corinthians 5:1-8 that now when a Christian is absent from the body, that Christian is present with the Lord. Paul also said in Philippians 1:23 that he desired to depart this earth and be with Christ, which is far better. When he said that he knew full well that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God the Father in heaven. For that matter, just before Steven died his martyr’s death, he saw Jesus in heaven standing to receive his soul (Acts 7:54-60). The obvious implication was that Stephen’s soul was about to enter into heaven, not into the bliss section of Hades (Sheol).

Okay, that covers the fact that Hades (Sheol) has two sections and that Jesus emptied the souls from the bliss section and took them into heaven with Him. That just leaves the torment section open for business. But what about its future? Will that section ever be emptied of its souls? And if so, where will those souls be transported? Well, those answers will take us into a whole other part of this topic, and that’s the part that I will tackle in the next post. See you then.

Posted in Angels, Christ's Death, Christ's Resurrection, Death, Demons, Eternity, God's Wrath, God's Judgment, Heaven, Hell, Salvation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

God & Evil

Posted on April 13, 2026 by russellmckinney

Mathew 5:48 says that God is “perfect.” 1st John 1:5 says: “…God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” James 1:13 says: “…God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.” Genesis 1:31 says of creation: “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good…” Each of the verses speaks to the impeccable character and undiluted goodness of God.

Then we have other verses that affirm God’s complete sovereignty over all creation. For example, Psalm 115:3 says: “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.” In Job 42:2, Job says of God: “I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted” (N.I.V.). In Isaiah 46:9-10, God says of Himself, “…I am God, and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (N.I.V.).

With all this in mind, it is fair to ask, “Why is the world such a hard place in which to live?” Murders. Rapes. Lying. Cheating. Stealing. Drug addiction. Alcohol addiction. Pornography addiction. Droughts. Floods. Blizzards. Tornadoes. Hurricanes. Earthquakes. Cancer. Strokes. Heart attacks. Shark attacks. If God is all good and all powerful, how do we explain things that are decidedly not good?

First and foremost, we have to understand that God’s creation is no longer in its original, pristine condition. Sin has entered into the once idyllic picture, and it has brought death with it. Comparing the current state of God’s creation to its original state is about like comparing a train wreck to a train sitting in a station.

We all know about Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, but the problem of sin actually goes back even further than that. You see, the first sin had nothing to do with forbidden fruit. No, the first sin that ever messed up creation was pride, the pride found in an angel named Lucifer. (As you probably know, he also goes by the name “Satan” and the title “the devil.”)

Lucifer’s sinful pride is described in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:1-19. On the one hand, each of these passages is a prophecy spoken against a literal earthly ruler — the King of Babylon, the King of Tyre. On the other hand, though, each of the prophecies also deals with the fallen angel Lucifer, who is the true power behind every worldly throne. The King of Babylon could never have been described as being “fallen from heaven,” just as the King of Tyre could never have been described as being “the anointed cherub” who was “in Eden” and “perfect” in his ways until the day iniquity was found in him.

And Lucifer wasn’t the only one of God’s created angels who went rogue. Revelation 12:4 symbolically refers to Lucifer as a dragon with a tail and says his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the ground. Clearly, those symbolic “stars” are Lucifer’s fellow fallen angels, which the New Testament also refers to as “demons” or “unclean spirits.” Needless to say, a whole lot of evil is produced by fallen angels.

It was Lucifer who demon possessed the body of Eden’s serpent and spoke words of temptation to Eve. When she and Adam yielded to the temptation by eating Eden’s forbidden fruit, the entire human race became tragically corrupted and crippled by sin. God had decreed that in the day the couple ate the fruit, they would surely die. The Hebrew behind those words literally means “dying you shall die.” This means that even though Adam and Eve did not drop dead the moment they ate the forbidden fruit, the aging process was begun in their bodies, and that aging process would ultimately lead to their physical deaths. The phrase “dying you shall die” also explains why humans are so susceptible to the litany of sicknesses and diseases that we know so well.

Unfortunately, the effects of the human race’s plunge into sin don’t stop there. Because of what went on in Eden, each member of Adam’s race is a sinner from the moment of conception in the womb (Psalm 51:5) and is born “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). And what do sinners do? They do what comes naturally: sin. This throws the door wide open for murders, rapes, lying, cheating, stealing, drug addiction, alcohol addiction, pornography addiction, and any and all others acts of sin that humans inflict upon either themselves or others.

Someone says, “But neither the angelic rebellion nor mankind’s sin accounts for droughts, floods, blizzards, tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes.” Yes, they do. For one thing, Satan killing Job’s children by way of a catastrophic “whirlwind” serves as Biblical evidence that Satan isn’t completely helpless when it comes to creating natural disasters (Job 1:1-19). For another, Genesis 3:17-19 says that Adam’s sin caused God to curse the ground for Adam’s sake, and Romans 8:20-22 takes the matter even further by saying that all of creation was subjected to futility and now groans and labors in bondage. This throws the door wide open for the earth to experience all types of natural disasters including even either meteor strikes or asteroid strikes.

So, to sum up, sin has created scores of angels that are fallen, a human race of sinners for whom sin comes as naturally as breathing, and a creation that, while still retaining much of its original beauty, is groaning and laboring in the bondage of futility. And it is from these three categories that all evil stems. This answers the question, “Where does evil come from?”

As for the question, “Why does God allow evil?” I’ll answer it by saying that God doesn’t want robots either in angels or humans. That’s why He built a moral free will into each member of each group. Even though God could easily make every angel and every human being serve Him perfectly, He has no interest in doing that. He wants volunteers, not draftees. Of course, the price He must pay for Him giving angels and humans the option of free will is the price of Him allowing evil to occur in its multitude of forms.

Even more than God simply paying this price, He actually takes up the challenge of using every act of evil in the accomplishing of His plans. Would you and I chose to handle the problem of evil in this way? No. I suppose we would instantaneously cut out all sin from every fallen angel and every human being and then restore creation back to its “factory” state. But would there be any difference between us cutting out all sin and us mass producing robots that have to act in perfect morality? Not really. That’s why God doesn’t go that route. He’s simply not interested in a setup where submission to Him and servitude of Him are compulsory. He’d rather allow evil to occur and work in the midst of it. That’s what He’s been doing since Lucifer first rebelled.

Posted in Abortion, Addiction, Adultery, Adversity, Aging, Alcohol, Angels, Anger, Bestiality, Creation, Death, Demons, Depravity, God's Omnipotence, God's Sovereignty, God's Work, Greed, Lust, Lying, Man's Freewill, Persecution, Polygamy, Pride, Problems, Racism, Rebellion, Satan, Sickness, Sin, Slavery, Spiritual Warfare, Suffering, Suicide, The Devil, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment