Showing posts with label Religion. Show all posts

Where Can There be More Evil?

More evil in the hearts of religious and political leaders

Evil is evil when done evilly. Justice is injustice if rendered impertinently. The Bible tells us that where justice is, there is also evil.

ECCLESIASTES 3:16 
And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

This does not apply to everywhere in the universe. The verse tells us it is “under the sun” or on earth. Of course, this is not the case in heaven where God reigns. It is one of the intentions in the prayers taught by the Lord Jesus Christ to His apostles “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

MATTHEW 6:9-13 
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 
10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 
11 Give us this day our daily bread. 
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

If only God’s will will be done in the entire earth as it is in heaven, the earth will surely be a very nice place to live in.

There are places on earth which can be considered hostile to live in, physically and spiritually: Physically, because they are plagued with crime and moral decadence; and spiritually because of governmental and religious corruptions.

I am a septuagenarian and had lived with awareness in almost every aspect of human life for half a century. In my native country, about four decades ago, you can walk on the main thoroughfares of any metropolitan area with confidence and feeling of safety. Of course, there are isolated cases of misdeeds, especially among drunken standbys, but they are almost negligible. Just run as fast as you can, when, by chance, they want to make you a plaything of their drunkenness, and you are saved! I experienced this incident once in my forty years of roaming around Metro Manila streets, even in the wee hours of the morning.

Now, as I look around me, I see my people fighting and killing one another. I see them raping our own women; butchering our own children; and destroying our own homes. What possible power could have deprived them of this decency that they will now violate the sanctity of Filipino women? What possible power could have twisted the hearts and minds of our people that they will now fight and kill each other? In sheer desperation, I tried to find answers from the Holy Scriptures and these are what they have to say:

PROVERBS 29:2 (RSV) 
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people groan.

The Hebrew word translated “groan” is:

אנח 
‘ânach 
aw-nakh’ 
A primitive root; to sigh: – groan, mourn, sigh.

This is the Biblical reason why people of my country, even those who had left in search for greener pasture groan and sigh.

But what makes wicked rulers?

Partiality and bad influences!

EXODUS 23:8 (RSV) 
And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the officials, and subverts the cause of those who are in the right.

DEUTERONOMY 16:19 (RSV) 
You shall not pervert justice; you shall not show partiality; and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.

But what can influence a ruler to show partiality and subverts the cause of the righteous? They are religious leaders and influence peddlers.

In our country religious leaders use their flocks to influence the power-hungry politicians. In blatant defiance of our constitution, religious leaders dictate whom to vote upon their members in threat of being excommunicated if they disobey.

II PETER 2:1-3 
1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. 
2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 
3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

These religious leaders exploit their members as their ‘merchandise’ and ‘medium of exchange’ to crooked officials to gain favor and respect. Biblically, religious leaders are agents of hell and satan who are the most venomous makers of evil people.

MATTHEW 23:15 
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

Religious leaders are the most influential corruptors of people in government. It is highly logical because even these political leaders have their religious leaders too.

Nothing is more evil than doing evil in utter awareness that what you are doing is evil with an evil intent!

JUDE 1:15 (NKJV) 
to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

But where can there be more evil? In the minds and in the hearts of leaders: political or religious.

JEREMIAH 17:9-10 
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 
10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

And what is the root of these evils that plagues the minds and hearts of ungodly leaders? Money and power!

I TIMOTHY 6:10 
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

To stay in power, Herod ordered the butchering of children upon learning the birth of the King of the Jews.

MATTHEW 2:1-2, 7-8, 16 
1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, 
2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. 
7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. 
8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also. 
16 Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.

To stay in power, somebody hungry of power may go to the extent of murdering people.

May God Almighty save and bless my country!

Sincerely in Christ,

Brother Eli
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The Special People that are the Jews


Dear Mr. Soriano, 

I love reading books from fiction to historical ones. I often encounter authors who would say that the cause of social ills today globally was brought about by the Jews, from wars to economic crises, due to its vast network of influence that manipulates the string of world events. Nevertheless, these people are the most hated among races deemed inferior by the racist stocks. My question is does the Bible say anything about this present plight or status of the Jews? Thank you and more power! Respectfully,

Atty. Alberto Bernardo 
Office of the President 
Malacañang Palace

Dear Atty. Bernardo, 

I am glad to hear from people in Malacañang Palace asking questions to me. I have heard, sometime ago, that there was a ‘black propaganda’ against me in Malacañang. There are people in Malacañang belonging to the group of Manalo trying to malign my person, even in the Office of the President. I believe this is true because the Manalistas are doing it publicly on television. Anyway, I will be very glad to answer your question.

Your guess or presumption about what the Bible says concerning the Jews is correct. The Jews really are influential people because they are the ‘chosen people’ of God.

ROMANS 9:4-5 
4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

Of all the nations that exist during the time of Moses, the Jews or the Israelites were the only people on earth acknowledged by God as His people.

DEUTERONOMY 7:1, 6-8 
1 When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;
6 For thou art a holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
7 The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people:
8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Although the fewest and the poorest, the Israelites caused a great trouble and defeat of the most powerful empire in the ancient world — the Egyptian empire, which enslaved them for four hundred years.

EXODUS 12:40-41 
40 Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. 
41 And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.

The defeat suffered by the Egyptians from the Israelites is suspiciously not recorded in existing manuscripts in the history of their empire. As it is a shame for an empire to be defeated by their slaves, we can safely presume that the authorities of Egypt intentionally did not cause it to be written, as it was well elaborated in the Bible; thank goodness a piece of papyrus called “Ipuwer Papyrus” discovered in the early 19th century revealed what happened in Egypt during the days of the Israelites.

PSALMS 83:3-4 
3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. 
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.

In the early 19th Century a papyrus, dating from the end of the Middle Kingdom, was found in Egypt. It was taken to the Leiden Museum in Holland and interpreted by A.H. Gardiner in 1909. The complete papyrus can be found in the book Admonitions of an Egyptian from a heiratic papyrus in Leiden. The papyrus describes violent upheavals in Egypt, starvation, drought, escape of slaves with the wealth of the Egyptians, and death throughout the land. The papyrus was written by an Egyptian named Ipuwer and appears to be an eyewitness account of the effects of the Exodus plagues from the perspective of an average Egyptian. 

http://ohr.edu/yhiy/article.php/838

This papyrus further affirms the authenticity of the records of the history written in the Bible. God’s favor to the Israelites started from the time of their father — Abraham — to whom God pronounced His promises.

GENESIS 17:5-7 
5 Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
6 And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

They were exceedingly loved by God because of Abraham.

ROMANS 11:28 
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.

God dwells in them as a people.

2 KINGS 5:15 
And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.

PSALMS 22:3 
But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

But they were not ‘favored’ without conditions. God, in His sense of justice, demands their obedience to His laws and statutes.

MALACHI 4:4 
Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

If they be willing and obedient, they will enjoy God’s blessings.

DEUTERONOMY 28:1-2 
1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

But if they will break the covenant, they will be cursed.

DEUTERONOMY 28:15 
But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

Because of their utter disobedience, God left these people sometime after the death of Moses.

2 CHRONICLES 15:3 
Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

Many times, they lost God’s favor, and were made captives by neighboring kingdoms like Babylon.

MATTHEW 1:17 
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

During the time of Christ, the Israelites were under the authority of the Roman Empire.

JOHN 11:48 
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.

The same fate happened to the Israelites time and time again because of their disobedience.

JEREMIAH 32:31-33 
31 For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face,
32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 
33 And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction.

What happened in the Holocaust to the Jews is just a repetition of what had happened to their forefathers many times in the past — and these are all because of their neglect of God and disobedience to the covenant.

During World War II, Nazi Germany and its collaborators murdered approximately six million Jews. The Holocaust is the name used to refer to this systematic, bureaucratic, and state-sponsored campaign of persecution and murder. Beginning with racially discriminatory laws in Germany, the Nazi campaign expanded to the mass murder of all European Jews 

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143

ECCLESIASTES 3:15 
That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

The Jews are surely influential people. They have carved their mark in the history of humanity. They have caused blessings and curses to other people.

GENESIS 12:3 
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Some Jews are totally separated from God because of their unbelief in Jesus Christ, the begotten Son of God: the Messiah. They did not accept Jesus and His preaching when He was sent by God the Father in the 1st century of our common era, instead, up to now they are waiting for a messiah.

JOHN 1:11 
He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

They do not acknowledge the authenticity of the New Testament, neither, the books of the New Testament. They believe in the books of the prophets, but they do not accept what the prophet Jeremiah said.

JEREMIAH 31:31-32 
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

Their ‘rejection’ of the books of the New Testament or the New Covenant is utterly a rejection of the prophecy of Jeremiah, which they claim to believe.

Really the Jews are influential people both physically and spiritually. Salvation comes from them.

JOHN 4:22 
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

They were the first to inherit the promises and salvation.

ROMANS 1:16 
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Biblically, their transgressions explain the causes of unrest that beset the people of Israel.

After all things have been said and done about them, the Jews, for me, are not inferior people, but a special people.

GALATIANS 3:29 
And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Sincerely in Christ,

Bro. Eli Soriano
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Scrutinizing the World’s Greatest Religions


Not all great things are good or of God. (Revelation 17:5)

“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

It is clear in the verse that this great Babylon is the mother of all abomination upon the earth.

There are gangs and illegal organizations that grow to be international, traversing boundaries of continents and countries, heavily guarded by armed authorities. It may be a paradox in this world wherein fundamental laws and mouths of powerful people condemn evil.

The irony is so clear: that while human society condemns evil in the open, evil grows to be “great” in the underworld.  The Bible has the explanation.  In Psalms 37:35 (ASV) it says,

“I have seen the wicked in great power, And spreading himself like a green tree in its native soil. "

Why does it grow to be great? The answer: evil has the power to influence — even the good. (I Corinthians 15:33, ASV)

“Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”

The aggravating factor is that while most world’s leaders condemn evil by mouth, they approve or tolerate it by heart. (Romans 1:32)

“Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

Killing a person mercilessly — or mercifully — is against the scripture. (Matthew 5:44)

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”

If we love our enemies, we will not kill them.  In fact, we are obliged to feed them when hungry and alleviate their thirst when thirsty. (Romans 12:20)

“Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.”

The logic is clear:  if we can love our enemies by heart, the more we can love our relatives and friends — and even ourselves!  It is marvelous that while the Catholic Church professes to be the only true religion in the world, it has in its known history, records of murder and mutiny of heretics and innocent people.



Biblical records reveal that Christians were murdered, but were never murderers!  Murderers are of the devil. (John 8:44)

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

In the time of the Israelites, only condemned people were being put to death mercilessly. (Hebrew 10:28-29)

“He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”

It is God’s command to His people to execute His judgment unto these condemned people. (Deuteronomy 17:2, 6)

“2 If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the LORD thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD thy God, in transgressing his covenant, 
6 At the mouth of two witnesses, or three witnesses, shall he that is worthy of death be put to death; but at the mouth of one witness he shall not be put to death.”

God is the giver of life... (Acts 17:28)

"For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. "

…and is the only one who has the right to take it back. (Deuteronomy 32:39)

“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.”

The commandment, “thou shall not revenge for vengeance is mine,” is a vivid indication that even His people aggrieved by their enemies cannot take life by themselves.  How can now the “great” Catholic Church claim that they are of God and vindicate their crime biblically?

The order from their highest authorities to burn manuscripts of the Bible translated by Wycliffe in the language that can be understood by people, and to burn Tyndale alive for translating the Bible into English are acts proving the satanic power behind the Catholic Church.  The only credible truth to be believed and to be accepted wholeheartedly is the word of God. (John 17:17)

“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.”


Whatever make-up or camouflage anybody may attempt to cover up the crimes they have committed against humanity is not acceptable to a thinking mind. The Mormons cannot deny their unchristian doctrine of bloodshedding:

But under certain circumstances there are some serious sins for which the cleansing of Christ does not operate, and the law of God is that men must then have their own bloodshed to atone for their sins. Murder, for instance, is one of these sins; hence we find the Lord commanding capital punishment. Thus, also, if a person has so progressed in righteousness that his calling and election has been made sure, if he has come to that position where he knows “by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of the Holy Priesthood” that he is sealed up unto eternal life (D. & C. 131:5), then if he gains forgiveness for certain grievous sins, he must “be destroyed in the flesh” and “delivered unto the buffetings of satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God.” (Doctrines and Covenants 132:19-27)

The Christian era is very much different from the Mosaic times of God’s people.  While God uses His people to condemn people to death in the olden times, Christ commanded His disciples to be merciful even to the most bitter of their enemies. (Hebrews 9:10; 8:13; 7:12)

“Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” “In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.”

I may, for a while, say that those religions who do not know Christ (like Confucianism) are better than the Mormons that claim to be Christians and teaching cruel, unchristian doctrines.  (II Peter 2:21)

“For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.”

Having said this, I also disagree with Confucianism…  To be continued.
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