The Sin of Lucifer and the Origin of Evil

Scripture teaches that God is love and, since His character is constant, He has always been love. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. His purposes and His plans are righteous. He is “holy,” meaning that He is separate from His creation. God is not tainted by a sin-stained creation, provided it can be shown from His Word that He is in no way responsible for its having been stained.

What was the decision that God faced “in the beginning” as He contemplated His future creation? It was whether or not to create independent free-will beings with not only the capacity to reciprocate His love, but also the capacity to reject it and turn against Him. One is not possible without the other. As E.G. White put it:

The law of love being the foundation of the government of God, the happiness of all created beings depended upon their perfect accord with its great principles of righteousness. God desires from all His creatures the service of love — homage that springs from an intelligent appreciation of His character. He takes no pleasure in a forced allegiance, and to all He grants freedom of will, that they may render Him voluntary service. [1]

It seems logical that before God made the decision to create living beings with freedom of will, He had to plan for their possible failure. We believe that in His infinitely diversified wisdom He contemplated every conceivable eventuality and formulated a contingency plan for each, with a view toward His desired goal for mankind. He decided to “go for it,” and because God’s nature is pure righteousness, in His acts of creating such beings He knowingly and willingly committed Himself to a totally righteous dealing with all of them, even if they chose to rebel against Him.

As far as we know from Scripture, the first beings created by God were angels (Job 38:4-7). One of the most powerful is referred to in the Bible as “Lucifer.” [2] Although he was an awesome and powerful being, Lucifer was not made morally perfect. That is, he had free will, he could either obey God or disobey Him, and it was up to him to choose between these two alternatives. Speaking figuratively about Lucifer’s beauty, wisdom and ability, Ezekiel wrote:

Ezekiel 28:12-15
(12) Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre [Satan [3]] and say to him: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: “You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
(13) You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared.
(14) You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.
(15) You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you.”

Some will ask, “How could Lucifer have even conceived of evil?” This is a very good question, and we believe the answer lies in the above verses. First of all, remember that God created him with genuine freedom of will. Second, God in His goodness had made Lucifer so magnificent that you could say he had a taste of what it was like to be God.

The question could be asked: Why didn’t God create Lucifer with less ability and wisdom, in order to protect Himself against the consequences of his potential rebellion? The only answer we can think of lies in the phrase “the model of perfection” in Ezekiel 28.

The KJV reads, “thou sealest up the sum,” which E.W. Bullinger translates “thou art the finished pattern.” Lucifer was the finished pattern, or the model of perfection, for a created being. That is, God gave him all the capacity for wisdom and understanding that He could give a created being.

Among all God’s creation, Lucifer was most capable of perceiving God’s nature and goodness, having been made most like Him. But instead of appreciating the grace of this exalted station and enjoying the fellowship available with God, he was lifted up in pride, thinking himself to be deserving of even greater status — that due only the Creator Himself. He was close enough to being like God that he thought equality with God was something he could grab. [4]

Making Lucifer “the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty” was an expression of God’s magnanimity, and to His credit. Lucifer should have been filled with thanksgiving and praise for his Creator, and eager to serve Him in response to God’s blessings. Instead, pride in his own greatness fueled his desire for supremacy. All he ever said was, “I love Lucifer.” His pride finally drove him to attempt to usurp God’s ultimate authority.

Isaiah speaks of Lucifer’s ambitions:

Isaiah 14:13 and 14
(13) You said in your heart, I WILL ascend to heaven; I WILL raise my throne above the stars of God; I WILL sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.
(14) I WILL ascend above the tops of the clouds; I WILL make myself like the Most High.[5]

It is obvious that Lucifer had freedom of will, because five times he said, “I will.” But God will have the last word. [6] The impending doom of the Devil is certain, and many verses attest to that fact. God responded to Lucifer’s pride and rebellion by driving him from His presence and casting him to earth.

Ezekiel 28:16 and 17
(16) Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.
(17) Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. [7]

As a result of his fall, Lucifer became the chief antagonist of mankind. He is called by many names in Scripture. He is called “the Devil” (Rev. 20:2 — diabolos literally means “slanderer”), “Satan” (Luke 22:31 — the Greek word satanas comes from the Hebrew satan, which means “adversary”), “Belial” (2 Cor. 6:15 — it means “worthless,” and is used in connection with filthiness and wickedness), “serpent” (Gen. 3:1 — to emphasize his evil craftiness), “dragon” (Rev. 20:2 — to emphasize his evil and power), “tempter” (Matt. 4:3), “accuser” (Rev. 12:10), “evil one” (Matt. 6:13), “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4), “prince (John 12:31 — ruler; Greek = arche) of this world,” “prince of demons” (Mark 3:22), and “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (Eph. 2:2). As the amount of evil and suffering on earth attests, the Devil is doing an excellent job of living up to his biblical names.

Why didn’t God destroy Satan at the time of his original rebellion? Another good question. We believe E.G. White offers a plausible explanation:

Even when it was decided that he could no longer remain in Heaven, infinite wisdom did not destroy Satan. Since the service of love can alone be acceptable to God, the allegiance of His creatures must rest upon a conviction of His justice and benevolence. The inhabitants of Heaven,… being unprepared to comprehend the nature or consequences of sin, could not then have seen the justice and mercy of God in the destruction of Satan. Had he been immediately blotted from existence, they would have served God from fear, rather than from love. The influence of the deceiver would not have been fully destroyed, nor would the spirit of rebellion have been utterly eradicated. Evil must be permitted to come to maturity. For the good of the entire universe through ceaseless ages, Satan must more fully develop his principles, that his charges against the divine government might be seen in their true light by all created beings, that the justice and mercy of God and the immutability of His law might forever be placed beyond all question.

Satan’s rebellion was to be a lesson to the universe through all coming ages, a perpetual testimony to the nature and terrible results of sin. The working out of Satan’s rule, its effects upon both men and angels, would show what must be the fruit of setting aside the divine authority. It would testify that with the existence of God’s government and His Law is bound up the well being of all the creatures He has made. Thus the history of his terrible experiment of rebellion was to be a perpetual safeguard to all holy intelligences, to prevent them from being deceived as to the nature of transgression, to save them from committing sin, and suffering its punishment. [8]

As we have seen, God’s Word sets forth the role of the Devil in the origin of evil and sin — a most logical and plausible explanation. But some people do not believe that there is any such thing as “the Devil.” Their alternative explanations for evil, sin and suffering leave people without hope or recourse, having to blame God, themselves, their mothers, society or cruel cosmic chance.

We find the biblical evidence for the existence of the Devil completely compelling. Moreover, the evidence of evil in the world around us points to a sinister intelligence behind all the misery and suffering we see. Concerning this, E. W. Kenyon wrote:

There is no explanation for the intelligence and organization that is behind the power of sin, if there be no such a being as Satan. The prevalence, power and malignity of sin compel us to look for a cause. [9]

E.G. White’s perspective is also pertinent here:

While men are ignorant of his devices, this vigilant foe is upon their track every moment. He is intruding his presence in every department of the household, in every street of our cities, in the churches, in the national councils, in the courts of justice, perplexing, deceiving, seducing, everywhere ruining the souls and bodies of men, women, and children, breaking up families, sowing hatred, emulation, strife, sedition, murder. And the Christian world seems to regard these things as though God had appointed them and they must exist. [10]

The sin of Lucifer is most surely the root cause of all evil and suffering, but it is not the only cause. In order to answer the question asked of Jesus in John 9, “Who sinned?” we must look further in God’s Word.

Tivoli triplets win big
FGFS helping sisters who earned scholarships to US university
BY DONNA HUSSEY-WHYTE Sunday Observer staff reporter [email protected]
Sunday, June 24, 2012

THEY complete each other’s sentences. They even dress alike sometimes, and they attended the same basic, primary and high schools. So it was only natural that 18-year-old Tivoli Gardens triplets — Cadine, Colleen and Colliet Bramwell — also excelled academically together, earning themselves half scholarships to St Agustine University in North Carolina, in the United States.
The triplets, who originally received the scholarships through the Rotary Club of St Andrew, earned 31 subjects collectively, with mostly distinctions and credits.
Tivoli Gardens triplets (from left) Cadine, Colleen and Colliet Bramwell are all smiles as they speak about getting scholarships to St Agustine University in North Carolina, USA after earning 31 subjects collectively, with mostly distinctions and credits. The scholarships were given through the Rotary Club of St Andrew and will be taken over by First Global Financial Services. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)
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Recognising the triplets’ need and their potential, First Global Financial Services (FGFS) came on board and provided supplementary financing to complement the scholarships they got from the university.
The Rotary Club, a service organisation with a long history in Jamaica, always seeks areas in which to offer service to the country, and last year they chose education. This mission coincided with that of FGFS and was taken on as a special project by the club’s president Robert Drummond, who is also president of the financial services institution.
According to Drummond, the club wanted to identify 10 students from both traditional and non-traditional schools who would fit the criteria for the scholarships being offered.
As they sat in the editorial meeting room at the Jamaica Observer’s Kingston offices two Saturdays ago, the smiling trio, without being asked, arranged themselves so that they were sitting in the order in which they had been born with Cadine, the eldest, at the far left, Colleen in the middle, and Colliet on the right.
Cadine earned five distinctions and six credits, Colleen earned three distinctions, five credits and two passes, and Colliet earned four distinctions, four credits and two passes.
While Cadine is still unsure which area of study she will be pursuing come August, Colleen is bent on studying medicine and is presently pursuing an 11th subject, Chemistry, which should help her get even closer to this goal. Colliet wants to pursue studies in psychology.
The girls’ attachment to each other was apparent as they spoke of being overjoyed, not only for getting into university overseas on full scholarships, but of taking this journey together.
“Each morning we have conference in our living room and discuss what we want to do and strategies to reach there,” one of the sisters explained.
Despite living in the West Kingston community of Tivoli Gardens, the girls said they were in no way affected by their surroundings.
They attended Denham Town Primary School, then Tivoli Gardens High School, but when they were not in school they could be found inside their house.
“We stayed inside all the time,” Cadine explained.
“Where we are, life is very safe and we feel very comfortable. We know that the violence is there but we are not in direct contact with it,” Colliet added.
“If you asked people in our community who know us they will tell you that we are always inside,” Colleen chipped in, her sister Colliet completing the sentence in unison with her.
This prompted them to burst into laughter as they explained how that uncanny ability to finish each other’s sentences often startled and confused others. At one point their mother gave them strict instructions to break out of the habit.
“We don’t really have a lot to do but sit and talk,” Colliet said. “We talk a lot!”
“Colliet talks a lot, she is the talkative one,” her sisters chirped, again in unison, prompting another round of laughter.
“When we were in primary school our teachers separated us, we were placed in different classes,” Colleen said. “We didn’t come together until second form in high school.”
But the girls said academically they have always done well.
While in grade 11 at Tivoli High, Colliet was made head girl after being voted deputy head girl the year before. Her sisters were prefects.
“Sometimes we would play her role,” Colleen said as they all laughed. “The first formers didn’t know us apart and they would come to us thinking we were the head girl, and we would just play along,” Cadine explained.
Colliet has also been a peer counsellor since grade nine.
The trio was quick to inform the Sunday Observer that despite their similarities, they all have different personalities, and enjoy different hobbies.
Cadine, arriving in the world just minutes ahead of her sisters, was described as shy and quiet, a loner with a passion for books.
Colleen, born second, loves researching food and fashion and the sciences, and is described by her sisters as “friendly”.
Colliet is the extrovert who likes to lead, talk, watch television, cook and “be around encouraging people”.
“I don’t love the books,” she confessed. “But I do it (study) to get ahead.”
She is also the family cook and, like her sisters, said she loves attending church.
“Church is important,” she said. “You have to put God first because He has been good to us.”
The youngest triplet was also a Youth Ambassador to the US under a special programme run by the American Embassy, and is involved in a homework programme set up in Trench Town where she helps to prepare students for GSAT and CXC exams.
The sisters recounted for the Sunday Observer the unusual circumstances leading to all three getting scholarships to study overseas.
Five letters offering to take care of the school fees of needy students wishing to study abroad had been sent to their school by the Rotary Club of St Andrew for the selection of potential candidates. However, staff at the school felt that despite all three sisters performing so well academically, it would have been unfair to give so many opportunities to just one family, so only Cadine was pre-selected to vie for the scholarships.
She received a letter from her teacher about the scholarship being offered and was told that she would have to get through the interview process. She recalled that she received the letter on the same day an essay was to be submitted as part of the qualification process.
With Cadine being the only one chosen at this point for the scholarship, Colleen and Colliet applied to Shortwood Teachers’ College, where they were both accepted.
But after hearing about the situation and assessing the performance of the other two sisters, Drummond, along with other members of the selection committee, decided that all three sisters deserved scholarships.
“The application process was a full-time job,” the First Global Financial Services head said, having personally taken on the role of walking the girls through it. He explained how the nominees had to attend workshops and seminars and score passing grades on their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT).
“The Bramwell girls are the success of the project,” Drummond said proudly. “The Rotary Club of St Andrew designed and saw the project through for this year, but First Global will be taking over the project. They (First Global) have been looking for opportunities in the form of education, and so this is very fitting. First Global will see it through to the completion of their bachelor’s degree. We are fully committed for the next four years. So what started as a one-year project for the club is now a four-year project for First Global.”

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Tivoli-triplets-win-big_11762982#ixzz1ykp303hy

http://youtu.be/ehd3qMB_dZs

KHAGO LOVE JAH AND LIVE,
USE SIMPLICITY TO SURVIVE I AM HOLDING FIRM
I TROD IT ONE AWAY, BE I STRONG, I AM KING IN THIS JUNGLE
I RISE TO THE OCCASION YOU THINK YOU ARE TAKING OVER
YOU WANT TO FIGHT, WHY SHOULD I? I PROMOTE LOVE AMONG MY FRIENDS
I CHOOSE TO PRAISE YE JAH HE GUIDES OVER US
NO TIME FOR MOCKERIES AND PHRASE
WHAT IS IT WORTH? I AM SOLID AS A ROCK
I GIVE THANKS AND PRAISE
SEEK SOME GOOD WAYS, BLESS BLESS !!!!!

‘Dudus’ was always a coward — Adams
Retired crime fighter says Coke got away with ‘chicken feed’ sentence
BY HG HELPS Editor-at-Large [email protected]
Sunday, June 24, 2012

RETIRED Senior Superintendent of Police Reneto Adams has dubbed imprisoned gangster Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke a coward, adding that he got away with a ‘chicken feed’ sentence recently.
“He was a coward. He was always a coward and that was one of the reasons why I was never afraid of him,” Adams told the Jamaica Observer in an interview.
Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke on his arrival in New York in June 2010. (Photo: AP)
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“He had never faced a situation up front, like a shootout. He had always sent his men and when they thought he was there with them he would have gone elsewhere to a hotel or something. I would want to hazard a guess that he was never involved in a shootout with the police,” Adams said.
Coke was sentenced to 23 years in a United States prison earlier this month after he pleaded guilty in a New York court last August to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to commit assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering.
Once the leader of the feared North America-based Shower Posse, which he ran for over 20 years from his West Kingston fiefdom of Tivoli Gardens, Coke was captured in June 2010, following a month-long police search for him that followed a bloody battle in Tivoli between gunmen loyal to him and security forces, which left 76 people — including a policeman and a soldier — dead by police account.
Coke had fled Tivoli during that firefight.
Adams, who left the constabulary force on his 60th birthday — July 11, 2008 — recalled facing the fury of Coke and his men in a blazing shootout in Tivoli Gardens in July 2001, one that left 27 people dead.
Adams maintains that Coke was behind that assault of the security forces, one of whom was killed in the community, but the retired feared crime fighter suggested that Coke was never up front in that battle, which he felt was started after Coke was tipped off that police would be raiding his stronghold.
“It was ‘Dudus’ who was behind it. We got the intelligence that he had called in warriors at the time from other parts of the Corporate Area to help defend the place and we saw them while we were there,” Adams told the Sunday Observer.
“On the day in question that the shooting started, I counted 76 gunmen and none of them had fewer than two guns, usually a long gun and a short gun.
“That’s why I made that famous or infamous statement, that if what I saw today was what Jamaica had become, Jamaica would pay dearly, dearly, dearly,” he said. “I didn’t plan to go down there, but I was sent by the commissioner of police, Francis Forbes. We had a meeting one day with the commissioner of police that guns, drugs, ammunition had come in and were being stored at a house for old people in West Kingston, north of the Denham Town Police Station.
“I was not told the day at the commissioner’s office that I would lead the party, because he had actually selected (assistant commissioner) Arthur ‘Stitch’ Martin to head the team. I don’t know what happened, but I got a late instruction from Commissioner Forbes that I must lead the operation and I was supplied with a written intelligence, signed and stamped by ‘Stitch’ Martin.
“When we got the intelligence, we heard that the guns and the contraband were for ‘Dudus’ and the intelligence suggested that we had to be very, very careful, because this was now attacking the man personally.” Adams recalled.
“We had planned that after we retrieved the contraband, we would have raided his (Coke’s Presidential Click) office, hoping to have him arrested, but we never got around to doing that because he was so heavily fortified,” Adams disclosed.
Adams, now managing director and chief executive officer of Adams Security Management Unit, said that the Government, during the time that Coke and other criminals thrived, refused to implement certain measures which he believed could have worked against criminals like Coke, in the society.
“One of the reasons we could not deal with the crime as it was at the time was that people like me who advocated certain laws and actions were bluntly refused by the Government,” he said. “This would include eavesdropping equipment, which I asked for when I went to the CMU (Crime Management Unit). I asked for certain other equipment to set up instruments covertly and to videotape what was being said, using the technology available at the time. This was refused, as the Administration said that it would be encroaching on the human rights of criminals. That’s one of the reasons why we could not deal with the criminal elements here.
“I was one of those who first asked for the Criminal Enterprises Act. I said to the commissioner of police, how can we have men driving six, seven, eight and 10 BMWs and Benzes around town and they are not working men?”
Adams said that long ago he had recommended to the top brass of the police force that something be done because he had intelligence that guns were being stored at a warehouse on Industrial Terrace in bags of red peas.
“We had information that the containers were taken there and in my own meetings, questions were being asked what evidence I had to show. So I was being bombarded from inside and outside and politically, too,” Adams said.
He also claimed that Coke had connections with politicians and members of the police force, some of whom he claimed were on the convicted man’s payroll.
“They were afraid of him. He had inside connection in the police force, politically, in the civil service, on the wharf, in just about everything, because he was a wealthy man,” Adams charged.
“Many times when we would have gone in search of him, when we had intelligence, some of our people were selling information to him. That was what prompted me to take away policemen’s phones when I was going on operations and didn’t tell them where I was going. If I was going to Constant Spring I would have told them that I was going somewhere else.
“All that had repercussions, too, but I thought that if we were dealing with criminals and we had even one among us, then I had to find solutions to that and who wanted to vex just vex,” stated Adams.
“When he gives instructions, it is stronger than any law that is passed in Parliament and it must be carried out,” Adams said.
As for the 23 years that Coke will spend in unfamiliar surroundings at a correctional facility in the USA, in addition to facing four years of supervised release and US$1.5 million in forfeiture, Adams said that the punishment was not enough.
“When I compared the sentence to (R Allen) Stanford, who stole some money and got over 100 years, it would seem to me that the sentence on Dudus, based on what the evidence has revealed and what I personally know, is a chicken-feed sentence,” said Adams.
“I was looking, not just at Dudus alone, but many of the criminals in Jamaica, for at least 100 years all the time and being kept in underground cells. That is how Reneto Adams recommends that you deal with criminal elements — make laws that will send them away for long, despite what the human rights people want to think, and they have their work to do too.
“Since the capture of Dudus, crime has considerably been cut down in Jamaica. I had already told Jamaica that if we deal with crime in Western Kingston and, by extension, the criminal elements in Tivoli Gardens, crime could be cut down by 80 per cent in the entire Jamaica,” he said.
“At one time, any man in Jamaica who wanted a gun to hire or buy, anyone who committed crime in Westmoreland for example and wanted to hide, they could go to Tivoli and hide out and would be given sanctuary by Dudus,” the former cop said.
“They could get guns too, in other places like Jungle (Arnett Gardens), but Tivoli was the main place. Another problem, too, was that members of the police force hardly knew him, because he was a man who never offered to be photographed by anyone,” Adams added.
“We had a photograph of him when he was about 20. That, for a long time, was the only photograph we had of him. I had people based in Tivoli giving me intelligence, who would send me a photograph of him, but that was highly confidential and not even the commissioner I could have passed that on to, because in Tivoli, if John Brown did something today, they could tell you tomorrow that John Brown did it,” Adams stated.

Fundraiser in support of Nesha Cameron’s Fight Against Breast Cancer

Featuring Special Guest DJs

Contact: Ann Henderson
Phone: 876-483-8539
Email: [email protected]
Date: Sunday June 24

Kingston, Jamaica On Sunday June 24th The Deck will be hosting a breast cancer fundraiser for Nesha Cameron starting at 6pm with a special guest DJ. The fundraiser occurs at Friends on the Deck, 14 Trafalgar Road Kingston 10.

Nesha Cameron is a 37 year old single mother from Kingston, Jamaica. Nesha was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer in October of 2011. As she continues her fight against cancer there is an ever increasing need to supplement her financial needs for treatment. The family is reaching out to the local community for support in a time of great need. Nesha Cameron is going through the healing process so she is slowly winning the battle. Join us in helping Nesha Cameron defeat this opponent!

“If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or fight like hell.” ~Lance Armstrong

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Jason Walker
Host of Caribbean Runnings
1227 Kern Cove
McDonough Ga
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Host of Caribbean Runnings / Co-Host of Cross Over Radio
WRFG Radio Atlanta 89.3 FM / LOVE 860 AM
http://jasonskywalker5.wordpress.com/

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