A Story of Good and Evil

Once upon a time, the fallen angel Satan called his minions to the conference table in Hell Headquarters.

Looking around the room at his anxious underlings, he said, “Guys, we have a problem. Three days ago, Jesus, the son of God, died on a cross for the sins of the world.”

Well, the news put the demons in an uproar, because they knew that the way of salvation had been secured through Christ’s blood.

But Satan quieted them and said, “It only gets worse. This morning, Jesus rose from the dead.”

At that announcement, there was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, because the demons knew that many of the people they were trying to lure to Hell would be saved.

“So what are we going to do,” Satan asked, “to turn men and women away from God?”

Much discussion ensued among them until finally several demons suggested, “We need to make them suffer! We need to make them suffer and curse God and die!”

And Satan said, “Now listen, you knuckleheads. We already tried that. Remember Job? Remember how we had those foreigners kill all his servants and steal all his cattle and livestock? And then we sent that great wind to kill off his seven sons and three daughters? And what about that skin disease that covered Job in sores all over his body? Remember how we took everything away from him except for his nagging wife and those three useless friends? But what did that accomplish? Job just went on trusting God and in the end God restored to him twice as much as he had before.”

And the demons said, “Oh yeah.”

So they talked among themselves for a little while longer and a little bit of eternity passed. But finally Satan himself exclaimed, “I know what we’ll do! We’ll get people to destroy themselves with evil.”

The demons looked perplexed. “Well, what do you mean, boss?” they asked. “People aren’t stupid, you know. So how are we going to do that?”

And Satan said, “It’s simple really. Very simple. All we have to do is make the evil look good.”