Two young women aged 20 and 25 years respectively – one in a mini-skirt and one in a top that left her entire breast almost exposed, were molested by a large group of men in Cameroon.

Eyewitness say a group of men gathered in front of the shop the girls had entered. As soon as the girls came out, the men followed them,sexually molested and stripped one of the girls naked and started taking photos with their cellphones.

Her friend who tried to assist her was then also abused. The girl who wore the mini-skirt was eventually rescued by police, who escorted her home, whilst the other was saved by a businessman, and was also later escorted home.

Do you think they deserved what they Got?

The Sin of Lucifer and the Origin of Evil

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[This article was taken from chapter two of our book Don’t Blame God! A Biblical Answer to the Problem of Evil, Sin, and Suffering.]

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.

If you like what we are doing and you would like to help us continue to spread the Gospel all over the globe, please consider sowing into our ministry.

Asafa Powell wrote:

Last brain teaser for the morning. Lets have some fun, so please try not to google the answer. Question; A father’s child, a mother’s child, yet no one’s son.
Who am I.

From Dudus’ cell: Convicted gangster pours out his heart in letters
Man can never hurt my soul, Dudus tells cousin
BY COREY ROBINSON Sunday Observer staff reporter [email protected]
Sunday, June 10, 2012

CHRISTOPHER ‘Dudus’ Coke, the convicted gang leader who the United States Government described as a drug kingpin, spent much of the past two years since his extradition in June 2010 writing letters from behind the bars of a small cell which, he said, was called “the hole” .
Some of the letters, shared with the Jamaica Observer yesterday by his cousin Tanisha, gave insight into Coke’s frame of mind while awaiting the conclusion of his trial.
Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke’s cousin Tanisha (right), and two residents of Tivoli Gardens in West Kingston, scan through letters written by Coke who was sentenced to 23 years in US prison for drug and gun charges on Friday. Sections of the letters are shown below. (Photos: Marlon Reid)
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In one of many letters to her over the course of 2011, Coke spoke of the conditions of his incarceration, saying that when he wasn’t writing he spent most of his time reading sports magazines, his Bible and transcripts of his case.
Throughout these letters the man whose name drove fear into the hearts of many, and who had been blamed for violent crimes, made repeated references to his faith in God and how he believed that God had used him for ‘good’.
“It’s really wonderful to hear that I’m love and missed by many people and to know that I make a difference and touched so many people life, to God be the glory for all that he was doing through me,” Coke wrote in one letter, which showcased a tendency to stray from standard English in some instances.
“I’m just taking things one day at a time and hoping, praying and keeping my faith in God for him to help me so that I can gain my freedom and be out soon… I’m very happy to know that everyone is doing alright, so let us give God the glory for taking care of the family,” wrote Coke.
This faith appeared at times to offer some semblance of emotional refuge for the convicted gangster in the long months of his trial before a US court.
“Man can hurt only the body and heart, but they can never hurt my ‘soul’. My ‘salvation’ comes from God ‘only’ and to him ‘alone’ salvation belongs to. So you see, I don’t ‘worry’ when I can ‘pray’,” he continued.
Coke added that memories of the time he spent with relatives and friends also helped to him to cope when he was unable to listen to his radio or use the computer, which he was only permitted to do for a single hour daily.
At other intervals, he wrote, he spent his time pacing his cell.
“I do exercise in my cell which I have not done for a couple of months now, but I still walk back and forth in my cell although it’s about five steps or six steps the most from one end to the other,” said Coke.
“My cell is about ten feet long and eight feet wide. I’m in a single cell they call the hole. There is no TV, I’m locked down twenty four hours every day,” he continued.
Coke was extradited to the United States on June 24, 2010 after eluding members of the security forces for about a month following military action in his Tivoli Gardens stronghold and other communities in West Kingston.
At least 70 persons, including a soldier and policeman, were killed in the two-day operation which saw heavily armed thugs engaging members of the security forces in brutal gun battles.
The US issued the extradition request for Coke following telephone calls in which Coke was overheard giving directives regarding drug and gunrunning operations in and out of the United States.
In one of his letters to Tanisha, Coke wrote that he feared that US prosecutors would use false evidence against him.
“I need a fair trial to gain my freedom because things are not as bad as it seems to be but based on my assumptions it look like they are planning to use false witnesses against me,” he said.
However, he added in a later letter following his guilty plea in August last year: “I have come to the end of my court battle the worst way. I came over here to prove my innocence and ended up plea(ding) guilty — that’s ‘crazy’.
“With less than three weeks before my trial the prosecutors gave my lawyers materials that they were going to use as evidence against me, saying they have twelve witnesses to testify against me that I committed several crimes,” he continued.
Probably the most difficult period of Coke’s incarceration, however, was the death of his mother, Pauline ‘Patsy’ Halliburton, on August 22 last year. Coke wrote then that her death had been hard to accept.
“Right now I am hurting real bad because of the death of my mother, it’s ripping me apart but I’m doing my best to stay strong, so I’m just taking the time to mourn the death of my mother which is so hard for me to accept,” he said, urging relatives, many of whose names he listed, to stay strong.
At other intervals he wrote copiously, weighing in on issues facing other relatives; urging some of them to behave themselves, and expressing joy at the accomplishments of others.
In one letter he wrote that he was elated that one relative in Jamaica had given her life to God, and that a young child, Kimora-Lee, had started walking.
Throughout his letters, he urged family members not to worry about him.
But even when things seemed their most grim, Coke seemed to never let go of his optimism of being freed of his charges.
He even allowed himself flights of fancy and outlined plans for vacationing on Jamaica’s north coast with his family, once he was vindicated of crimes he had been accused of.
“I’m keeping myself fresh for the reunion,” he said in one letter.
Yesterday, as the reality that Coke had been sentenced to 23 years in prison became real to Tanisha, the woman recalled a court hearing in March in which his sentencing was put off due to lack of evidence.
“The judge was asking the prosecutors for evidence because they had nothing on him (Dudus). He requested that if they don’t have any proof the next time then he would know what to do. So now they came with false proof,” the woman insisted, obviously siding with her beloved cousin.
Tanisha said Coke was elated to see her and other relatives at that particular hearing which followed his birthday on March 13, as she had flown to New York to see him.
“He was happy because we were shouting out ‘happy birthday!’ and he was shouting back and blowing kisses at us. The only thing was that he was a bit slim,” she said, adding that Coke had lost a lot of weight while incarcerated in the US jail.
Yesterday, just one day after his sentencing, Coke’s old community remained unusually inactive, a sombre mood hanging over the area.
According to residents, persons had been hurt by the severity of the sentence meted out to their ‘don’. One male claimed that at least five elderly persons had passed away due to depression brought on by Coke’s extradition.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/From-Dudus–cell–Convicted-gangster-pours-out-his-heart-in-letters-to-cousin_11655304#ixzz1xUq2v0bx