Participants:
Series Code: CR
Program Code: CR001931A
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00:02 I'm John Carter in Moscow.
00:04 In Havana, Cuba. 00:07 Now in Kiev, the Capital of Ukraine. 00:10 I'm John Carter in Petra. 00:13 Right here in Communist China. 00:16 Reporting from India. 00:18 Hi, I'm John Carter in the Solomon Islands. 00:21 I'm John Carter in Soweto. 00:23 From El Salvador. 00:26 I'm John Carter in Sydney, Australia. 00:29 In today's lesson, John Carter guides us 00:32 through "The Origin and the End of Evil." 00:37 The topic today is 00:38 "The Origin and the End of Evil." 00:43 After 9/11, some philosophers in North America said, 00:47 "Hey, maybe there's evil in the world." 00:52 They said, "Maybe there's bad in the world." 00:55 Well, of course, you see, if there's no God, 00:58 if you're going to be absolutely logical. 01:01 If there's no God, then there's no good either. 01:05 And today we're going to talk about 01:07 the origin of evil and the end of evil. 01:12 We're going to answer the question, 01:14 "Are there evil spirits?" 01:18 Are there beings who are actually in existence 01:22 who are evil spirits?" 01:26 You know who a philosopher is or what a philosopher is? 01:31 It has been said that a philosopher is a man 01:35 who was in a round room 01:38 and has got no windows, and has got no doors, 01:42 and has got no light either. 01:46 And so, here's this man in this round room, 01:50 no doors, no windows, no light, 01:55 and no sight, 01:59 and he's looking for a cat. 02:02 He's looking for a cat that doesn't exist. 02:07 That's what a philosopher really is. 02:09 A person who is grasping and trying to find something 02:14 and he has no real sense of reality. 02:18 I believe today that we need an infallible source of truth. 02:25 Something you can depend on. 02:28 And I believe this is it. 02:30 The Bible, or the Word of God. 02:33 We believe it is not man's word, it is God's Word. 02:37 I want you to take your Bibles please and turn with me 02:40 to the Prophet Ezekiel 28:12-13, 02:46 please. 02:47 We're going to have a lot of text. 02:49 We're gonna talk today about the origin and the end of evil. 02:55 Ezekiel 28 verse... 02:58 Let me see verse 12. 03:01 You got it? 03:02 "Son of man..." 03:04 Listen to the text. 03:05 "Son of man, 03:07 take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre." 03:10 Just remember this, the king of Tyre. 03:14 "And say to him, thus says the Lord God, 03:18 you were the seal of perfection, 03:21 full of wisdom and perfect in beauty." 03:26 Verse 13, which seems completely absurd. 03:29 It says, "You were in Eden, the garden of God. 03:34 Every precious stone was your covering. 03:37 The sardius, topaz, and diamond, 03:41 beryl, onyx, and jasper, 03:43 sapphire, turquoise, emerald with gold. 03:47 The workmanship of your timbrels 03:49 and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created." 03:55 And this... Listen, bit amazing. 03:59 Because it's talking about a being 04:03 who was in the very presence of God in the Eden of God. 04:09 And He was a perfect being from the day he was created 04:14 and calls Him the King of Tyre. 04:18 Have you read this text before? 04:21 The king of Tyre was a human being. 04:25 But the person we're talking about in this text 04:28 is not a human being. 04:30 Because behind the king of Tyre 04:34 was an evil spirit, 04:39 who was made, not as an evil spirit, 04:42 but a great personality, who was made by God. 04:47 Look at Ezekiel 04:50 28:14-15. 04:54 And we're going to read down the page, 04:58 a little bit, verse 14 and 15. 05:01 "You were the anointed cherub who covers." 05:04 So this person is an angel, behind the king of Tyre. 05:08 I wonder why the world is in such a mess. 05:10 Because behind many rulers are evil spirits. 05:16 Hey... 05:17 "You are in the holy mountain of God, 05:19 you walked back and forth 05:21 in the midst of fiery stones," it says. 05:24 I mean, this is sort outstanding. 05:27 Verse 15, 05:28 "You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, 05:34 till iniquity was found in you." 05:37 Behind the king of Tyre, 05:39 as behind many of the rulers in this world today 05:43 is an evil spirit. 05:48 And this being was in the very presence of God. 05:52 Once upon a time, the Bible says he was perfect, 05:55 he was sinless, 05:57 and this sinless being was made by God. 05:59 People say, "Then God must have made the devil." 06:01 No, God didn't make the devil. 06:04 The devil by his own choice made himself. 06:08 And the devil once upon a time was a beautiful, 06:11 wonderful, majestic, 06:15 overwhelmingly intelligent, 06:20 supernatural being. 06:22 Look at verse 17. 06:24 It says, "Your heart was lifted up 06:26 because of your beauty." 06:28 I can't understand that. 06:30 "You corrupted your wisdom 06:33 for the sake of your splendor. 06:36 I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, 06:39 that they might gaze upon you." 06:44 This is inexplicable. 06:46 I can't understand this. 06:47 So I have some idiom. 06:50 It is unexplainable, if there is such a word. 06:54 This is mysterious. 06:56 Here is a, ladies and gentlemen, 06:59 a cherub angel, 07:01 a spirit being of immense power, 07:04 a created being 07:05 who was to challenge the power of God, the Creator. 07:09 We had a beginning. 07:12 God in the scriptures in the Old Testament is called 07:15 by Tetragrammaton, which is the word Yahweh. 07:20 This is the most sacred word in all of creation, 07:25 even if you go outside our galaxy. 07:29 There's no word that equals this word, Y-H-W-H. 07:33 This is the word for the self existent 07:36 Almighty God. 07:39 He doesn't live in time, time lives in Him. 07:43 Where did He come from? 07:44 He's always there, existed before time. 07:49 And the Bible tells us 07:51 that this Almighty God made of being 07:55 and we shall discover His name. 08:00 God's name means, "I am that I am." 08:06 The self-existent. 08:10 The Almighty One. 08:13 This great angel whom Yahweh Elohim 08:19 created has a name. 08:21 And if you turn with me to Isaiah 14:12-14, 08:27 you find here the name of this created spirit being. 08:33 Now God is a spirit, but God was never, 08:37 never created unlike this being. 08:41 Isaiah 14:12 and onwards. 08:45 "How you are fallen from heaven, O..." 08:50 What does this say? 08:51 "Lucifer, son of the morning! 08:53 How you are cut down to the ground, 08:55 you who weakened the nations! 08:59 For you have said in your heart, 09:01 I will ascend into heaven. 09:04 I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. 09:07 I will sit also on the mount of the congregation, 09:10 on the farthest sides of the north. 09:12 I will ascend above the height of the clouds. 09:17 I will be like the Most High." 09:19 There was this tremendous being 09:21 who was created eons ago, 09:26 who somehow got into his tremendous mind. 09:33 The lustful thought that not only would he be like God, 09:37 not in character but in power. 09:40 Not only would he become like God, 09:42 but he would overthrow God. 09:46 And he would rule the world 09:50 and the universe and other universes. 09:54 His name is Lucifer, 09:58 the shining one, 10:01 the daystar, 10:03 the great deceiver. 10:05 Now let me give you some stuff which is very strong, 10:08 which is very marvelous 10:12 and it's wonderful and it's scientific. 10:16 Listen, just because someone 10:20 or something cannot be seen doesn't mean that mass 10:26 or energy does not exist in a real and powerful way. 10:33 Did you know this, 10:36 that 95% of the universe 10:40 is composed of dark matter or dark energy? 10:46 We could not exist without it. 10:50 To this point of time, nobody knows what it is. 10:57 Now we're not talking about clouds or darkness, 11:02 we're not talking about that. 11:04 I want you to think of the Milky Way system. 11:09 Vast, huge, 11:11 composed of a hundred thousand million 11:17 blazing suns with a great black hole in the center. 11:21 Then we know there are billions of galaxies in the universe. 11:27 NASA has pointed out that the universe 11:30 is now 10 times bigger 11:32 and is made up of 11:34 2 trillion galaxies, 11:40 not stars. 11:42 But systems like the Milky Way system, 11:47 vast, huge 11:51 and it can be seen with telescopes, 11:54 optical or radio telescopes. 11:57 It can be seen. 11:59 We can quickly put pictures of it 12:02 on the screen. 12:04 But that is only... 12:06 That is less than 5% of the universe, 12:10 because the rest of the universe cannot be seen 12:14 because it's composed of a substance 12:17 that we cannot understand. 12:20 How little we know. 12:23 But this substance is called dark matter and dark energy, 12:28 but we know it's there 12:29 because it exerts a force. 12:35 Gravity reacts to it. 12:38 The universe is expanding like this 12:42 because of the dark energy 12:45 that lives on the edges of the universe 12:49 and drives the universe. 12:52 We would not be here. 12:53 Therefore, more than 95% of the universe 12:57 is not the stuff that you can see. 13:00 It is the stuff that cannot be seen. 13:05 Who believes this? 13:07 Because everybody does. 13:10 But there's another universe, cannot be seen. 13:12 In the same way, 13:14 there is an unseen world, 13:19 not just invisible, 13:22 that creatures, 13:25 spirit beings 13:31 that are real and alive, 13:34 have mass and have energy and can do amazing things. 13:42 I have to smile when I read, 13:47 talk to cynics, which I do all the time. 13:49 And they say, "Well, we couldn't believe 13:50 in anything we couldn't see." 13:53 Come on, wake up, 13:56 get out of the dark ages. 14:00 There is an unseen world of spirit beings. 14:06 Look at Hebrews 1:14, please. 14:11 Hebrews 1:14. 14:15 It says, speaking of the good angels, 14:19 and get that, the good angels. 14:22 "Are they not all ministering spirits 14:28 sent forth to minister 14:30 for those who will inherit salvation?" 14:32 These are the good angels, 14:35 but they are spirits. 14:38 You know, they are here, don't you? 14:40 In this television studio, 14:43 Southern California. 14:45 They are here. 14:49 And the Bible teaches there are good spirits 14:53 and there are evil spirits. 15:00 And today we're talking about 15:02 the origin and the end of evil. 15:07 And the Bible says, 15:08 that behind the king of Tyre 15:11 was a mighty evil spirit. 15:16 Now we're not gonna talk about world leaders, are we? 15:20 But when you see what's happening in the world 15:25 and in some nations, 15:28 you're tempted to say, 15:30 "Is this man or is this person 15:33 being controlled like the king of Tyre 15:35 by an evil spirit?" 15:41 We're going to talk today about these evil spirits, 15:46 what they're doing in the world 15:48 and what is going to happen to them 15:51 at the very end. 15:52 Come with me to the apocalypse that is the Book of Revelation, 15:58 dear hearts and gentle people. 16:01 Revelation 12:7 and onwards. 16:07 "And war broke out in heaven." 16:12 You know, we went no further, 16:14 this verse is enough to take your breath away. 16:16 And so evil started not in this planet, 16:19 but started in heaven. 16:23 And this is not just referring to the atmosphere, 16:26 this is referring to the third heaven 16:29 in the very paradise of God. 16:32 War broke out it says. 16:34 "War broke out in heaven. 16:36 Michael..." another name for Christ, 16:38 "and His angels," his spirits, 16:41 "fought with the dragon." 16:43 This is Lucifer. 16:46 "And the dragon and his angels fought, 16:49 but they did not prevail, 16:50 nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 16:53 So the great dragon was cast out, 16:56 that serpent of old, 16:58 called the Devil and Satan, who deceives..." 17:02 What does it say? 17:03 It says, "The whole world." 17:06 So the whole world is being deceived. 17:09 He deceives the whole world. 17:12 And then the Bible says, 17:14 "He was cast to the earth, and..." 17:17 Now there you've got it. 17:18 "And his angels," these spirits, 17:20 "were cast out with him." 17:24 The Bible says, 17:27 very, very long time ago, 17:31 in a way that we cannot comprehend, 17:34 we're just little kids playing around here on the seashore. 17:37 The Bible tells us that they broke out in heaven 17:41 a tremendous war. 17:43 And this being who had stood in the very presence of God 17:48 and who shun with a luster of the stars 17:52 with a mighty mind, 17:55 after God with the greatest intellect, 17:58 and he led a rebellion 17:59 because he was not content to be the covering cherub. 18:03 He said, "I will be like God." 18:08 And so long time ago, 18:15 evil started in heaven. 18:17 What was this war like? 18:21 I don't think there was anything 18:23 like we can imagine. 18:27 For us to try to understand it today, 18:29 it'd be like comparing cyber warfare 18:32 with bows and arrows. 18:34 The people few hundred years ago with bows and arrows 18:37 will not understand cyber warfare. 18:40 We do know that this war involved millions, 18:44 even billions of powerful spirit beings, 18:47 unseen by us like dark matter and dark energy, 18:51 but nevertheless, very real. 18:55 And the Bible says, 18:58 they will cast down to the Earth. 19:03 Now for many, many years, 19:05 as I studied the geologic column, 19:09 which of course, is a fact. 19:12 If you go and if you look at all the layers of the earth, 19:16 you'll find that, embedded in the layers 19:19 there are specimens. 19:23 And when you see the beautiful flowers, 19:24 that's easy to understand. 19:28 But in this column, 19:31 you find creatures 19:32 that are hideous and vicious, 19:36 such as T-Rex, 19:39 this guy here on the screen. 19:45 And people, especially Christians 19:47 have been perplexed by this. 19:50 I know my own mother was, totally... 19:52 She'd say, "John, why did God make T-Rex?" 19:58 My question was, why did God make the devil? 20:00 He didn't. 20:03 I believe that God made life. 20:07 And I believe that there was a mastermind, 20:11 master geneticist. 20:13 And this great mastermind, in His laboratories, 20:19 these supernatural laboratories bred these dreadful creatures. 20:26 I believe the geologic column 20:30 is the evidence of evil 20:34 working in the world. 20:36 Going back a long, long time, 20:40 he took the life that God had created 20:43 and gave it a twist. 20:47 Now I want you to remember this, 20:49 if you remember nothing else. 20:54 God is the author of goodness. 20:58 Satan or Satan, 21:01 Lucifer, is the author of death, cancer, pain, 21:05 suffering, and sorrow, not God. 21:10 Take your Bible please and come to Matthew 13:27-28. 21:14 And Jesus talked about it. 21:18 Jesus, the man who came from another world, 21:21 another universe. 21:23 Matthew 13:27-28, 21:29 look at it in the Word of God. 21:31 Get your Bible, follow me in the Bible. 21:34 Verse 27, 21:35 "So the servant of the owner came and said to him, 21:38 Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?'' 21:43 This is the parable Jesus gave. 21:46 "How then does it have tares?" 21:50 Why is there bad in the world? 21:53 Why is there evil in the world? 21:56 "He said to them, 21:58 "An enemy has done this. 22:01 The servants said to him, do you want us then to go 22:04 and gather them up?" 22:07 Jesus said, 22:09 "It'll be a great mistake 22:13 to a tribute to the Creator, 22:16 the work of the enemy." 22:20 And so in the geologic column, other things in the world, 22:26 we see the hand 22:30 of the great manipulator of genes. 22:34 And the Bible says, 22:36 "He's alive and well." 22:41 Now we come to the most perplexing question 22:44 that one can ever ask. 22:46 Why does a good God permit suffering? 22:52 If God is Almighty, why tell me, 22:56 somebody tell me, 22:58 why does God permit suffering? 23:01 I want you to take your Bible 23:02 and come with me to the first book in the Bible, 23:05 Book of Genesis that explains all other mysteries. 23:08 Genesis 3:1 and onwards. 23:13 Genesis 3:1 and onwards. 23:16 The Bible says, "Now the serpent 23:18 was more cunning," this is Satan, 23:20 "than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. 23:23 He said to the woman, has God indeed said, 23:25 you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 23:27 And the woman said to the serpent, 23:29 we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, 23:31 but of the fruit of the tree 23:32 which is in the midst of the garden. 23:34 God has said, you shall not eat it, 23:36 nor shall you touch it, 23:38 lest you die. 23:40 Then the serpent said to the woman, 23:41 you will not surely die." 23:43 God is a liar. 23:45 "For God knows that in the day you eat of it 23:47 your eyes will be opened, 23:49 and you will be like God," like he wanted to be, 23:52 "knowing good and evil. 23:54 So when the woman saw 23:55 that the tree was good for food, 23:57 and that it was pleasant to the eyes, 23:59 and a tree desirable to make one wise, 24:02 she took of its fruit and ate. 24:04 She also gave to her husband with her, 24:07 and he ate. 24:08 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, 24:10 and they knew that they were naked, 24:12 and they sewed fig leaves together 24:14 and made themselves coverings." 24:17 Now this talks about the original 24:21 sin in the Garden of Eden, not the original sin 24:22 because it had happened previously with Lucifer. 24:25 But look at verse 18 and 19. 24:31 Verse 18 and 19. 24:33 "Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, 24:38 and you shall eat the herb of the field. 24:40 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread 24:43 till you return to the earth, 24:45 for out of it you were taken, 24:47 for dust you are and to dust you shall return." 24:51 Listen carefully. 24:54 God gonna stopped it. 24:58 But He couldn't have been God. 25:03 Love is a choice. 25:08 You can't love unless you got freedom of will. 25:13 And so God took... 25:17 If one were using this human thought, 25:21 God took the greatest possible risk. 25:24 And He gave to the angels, 25:27 and He gave to every one of us 25:30 the gift of choice 25:33 or else we would have been robots. 25:38 And robots can't love you. 25:43 Today, we're talking about the origin and the end of evil. 25:49 We're talking about evil spirits. 25:54 And we'll be back very soon 25:58 as we continue this amazing presentation. 26:20 Hello, friend. I'm John Carter. 26:22 Behind me is the great city of Manila, 26:26 the Capital of the Philippines. 26:28 Did you know this is quite amazing? 26:30 There are more people living in this area 26:33 than in New York City. 26:35 And Christ died for these people. 26:37 We came here, oh, long time ago, 26:40 back in 1984. 26:44 What's that, 34, 35 years ago. 26:46 And we came here with a team of young people 26:49 and we came to the PICC. 26:52 It is our intent to come here, 26:54 hire the biggest hall that's available, 26:56 the greatest outdoor stadium, whatever it takes. 27:01 You've got more than 20 million souls out here. 27:06 And I say it again, 27:07 these are people for whom Christ died. 27:10 I'm asking you to pray 27:11 for the people of the Philippines. 27:13 Please pray for the people here in Metro Manila. 27:17 And please write to me, John Carter, 27:20 P.O. Box 1900, Thousand Oaks, California, 91358. 27:25 In Australia, write to me at Terrigal, 27:28 at the address that is now showing 27:30 on the screen. 27:33 We're back in Manila 27:35 and we're back with a message from God, 27:38 that message is, "Christ Died for You 27:43 and Christ is Coming Again Soon." 27:49 Please support us. 27:50 Write to me today, P.O. Box 1900, 27:53 Thousand Oaks, California. 27:55 And also write to me at Terrigal in Australia. 27:59 Thank you for your support and God bless you. 28:18 For a copy of today's program, 28:20 please contact us at P.O. Box 1900, 28:23 Thousand Oaks, California, 91358. 28:28 Or in Australia, 28:29 contact us at P.O. Box 861, 28:33 Terrigal, New South Wales, 2260. 28:37 This program is made possible 28:39 through the generous support of viewers like you. 28:42 We thank you for your continued support. 28:45 May God richly bless you. |
Revised 2019-11-14