Hi folks today, I write and share after a very long time. There is something which I know many unbelievers question. The question is that if God is good and just then why do the wicked prosper?
Yeah I have heard and seen many making a good living by cheating people. If any of you are not even interested in this article then it would most probably mean that you to believe that cheating is a sure shot way to success. May be you are even practicing this idea. Yeah I’ve seen cheaters & what I’ve noticed is that their idea of right and wrong is all knotted up. To them trusting or listening to God is either secondary or God is only to be involved during their ritualistic prayer.
From a Biblical point of view, we are all sinners, right from the most religious of people to the worst of sinners. Allow me to give you 3 Biblical examples of people who have changed drastically just by encountering Jesus.
- Mathew: Before Jesus called Matthew (Mat 9:9) to join Him in His ministry. Mathew was a tax collector. Allow me to tell you, what the job of a tax collector was. A tax collector was a person who collected unpaid taxes from people. The tax collectors of Jesus’ time had the full backing of ruling empire and so they did everything to squeeze the money out of the people no matter what the person’s circumstance was. We don’t have tax collectors today but we have something similar and those are loan sharks. Tax collectors like loan sharks were greedy and took more money than they were supposed to. The advantage that tax collectors had was the ruling empire backing in all that they did. Mathew meets with Jesus and his life is transformed. He goes from “tax collector” to “man of God”. He travels and preaches the good news of free eternal life in Jesus, in places including Jerusalem and Persia & died as a Martyr proclaiming Jesus in Ethiopia.
- Zacchaeus: Zacchaeus too was a tax collector. Allow me to quote from the Bible about Zacchaeus.
Luke 19:1-10
1 Jesus went on into Jericho and was passing through. 2 There was a chief tax collector there named Zacchaeus, who was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was a little man and could not see Jesus because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead of the crowd and climbed a sycomore tree to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to that place, he looked up and said to Zacchaeus, “Hurry down, Zacchaeus, because I must stay in your house today.”
6 Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed him with great joy. 7 All the people who saw it started grumbling, “This man has gone as a guest to the home of a sinner!”
8 Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Listen, sir! I will give half my belongings to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will pay back four times as much.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Salvation has come to this house today, for this man, also, is a descendant of Abraham. 10 The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
- Saul: Saul was hater of Christians. He used to go seeking underground Churches and putting Christians to death. At the time of the early Church, Christians could not practice their faith in the open. A person believing and worshiping Jesus was put to death. This exist even today in a few countries but the Bible says (Mat 16:18) that the gates of hell will never be able to withstand the power by which the Church moves forward. So the Church prevails. So coming back to Saul, one day while he was on his was to Damascus to attack the Church there, on the way a bright light from the sky struck him and turned him blind and from that light Jesus spoke. Allow me to quote once more from my Bible.
Acts 9:3-5
3 As Saul was coming near the city of Damascus, suddenly a light from the sky flashed round him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” he asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you persecute,” the voice said.
Saul is then prayed for by a Christian and his vision returns and he now becomes a changed man. He then goes about many places preaching the free gift of eternal life ready for those willing to believe in Jesus. He is finally beheaded and so dies a martyr for God’s people.
So you these were 3 wicked people are transformed by the person Jesus. I would like to quote some scripture where wicked people and the love of God are concerned.
Luke 6:35
No! Love your enemies and do good to them; lend and expect nothing back. You will then have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High God. For he is good to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Romans 5:6
For when we were still helpless, Christ died for the wicked at the time that God chose.
Being wicked is one thing but not believing in Jesus is something very different. Being wicked is sometime because of how a person is naturally wired or maybe because of the upbringing. Being wicked is something of a helpless situation like that mentioned above in Romans 5:6.
Ephesians 6:12
For we are not fighting against human beings but against the wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.
However rejecting Jesus is something that God will not tolerate. Will you invite someone home and alow him to stay forever, if that someone rejects what your have done and may be even despises you.
Matthew 10:14-15 (Jesus words to His disciples who go about preaching His word)
14 And if some home or town will not welcome you or listen to you, then leave that place and shake the dust off your feet.15 I assure you that on the Judgement Day God will show more mercy to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah than to the people of that town!
Luke 10:16
16 Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
So coming back to how to deal with wicked people, the only solution to deal with such people is “a change of heart”. If you believe in Jesus then invite that person to Biblically sound Church so that he may powerfully witness God during worship & come to know of the abounding love and grace that is in store for him in the sacrifice of Jesus. However, if you don’t believe in Jesus then you may put your trust in that unknown God, the God of all gods and Lord of all lords, that Supreme Being. That unknown God has revealed Himself to me in the person that is Jesus Christ. But for now you may trust in that unknown all powerful God. Ask Him to reveal Himself so that you may know Him. Tell him of your frustration seeing wicked people prosper by unfair means. If you are frustrated it is a good sign because it is means you are putting up a fight against falling into their wicked ways. Be patient but seek this unknown almighty God diligently. You will know that you are in the right direction when a fire starts burning in you to know more. When you pray do not stick to a script, speak your heart out. Let it be you praying and not somebody else using your mouth. Your prayers will be answered.
What I have noticed about people with wicked ways is that in their idle time they are never happy. There is a guilt in them which they cannot hide when they are alone. Among other people they hide their guilt by acting even more wicked, like trying to cover a lie with lie. They would often have a look of disgust, disgust that comes from the way they go about life. For a non believer who complains about wickedness, there is only one way out, he needs to come to Jesus.
John 10:9 (Jesus words)
I am the gate. Whoever comes in by me will be saved; they will come in and go out and find pasture.
It is important to note that it is not a person by himself who decides to come to Jesus; it is the Father in heaven who alone draws people to His Son, so that they may be saved.
John 6:44 (Jesus words)
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him to me; and I will raise him to life on the last day.
There is one thing we must know and understand, the wicked were always destined for hell
Psalms 92:7
the wicked may grow like weeds, those who do wrong may prosper; yet they will be totally destroyed,
1Corinthians 6:9 (Apostle Paul (also know as Saul) to the Church of Corinth)
9 Surely you know that the wicked will not possess God’s Kingdom. Do not fool yourselves; people who are immoral or who worship idols or are adulterers or homosexual perverts 10 or who steal or are greedy or are drunkards or who slander others or are thieves — none of these will possess God’s Kingdom.
But whoever comes to Jesus, wicked or not, are saved (will live forever in heaven in union with Jesus), all their sins past, present & future are all forgiven. Jesus is God & the King of all life changing experiences and when people come to Jesus the Holy Spirit starts to work within them so that on that last of judgment they will stand faultless before God like the 3 examples above.
1 Corinthians 1:8
He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:22
But now, by means of the physical death of his Son, God has made you his friends, in order to bring you, holy, pure, and faultless, into his presence.
So if you want to be rescued from the wickedness of this world then seek and come to Jesus.
Acts 2:40 (Apostle Peter talking to general public on the day of the Holy Spirit Anointing)
40 Peter made his appeal to them and with many other words he urged them, saying, “Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!” 41 Many of them believed his message and were baptized, and about 3,000 people were added to the group that day.
2Thessalonians 3:2 (Apostle Paul’s letter preaching the Gospel of Jesus to the Thessalonians)
Pray also that God will rescue us from wicked and evil people; for not everyone believes the message.
Making known the Defeated Dragon 