Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico says he wants to renovate one the most dangerous stretches of highway in the state. Locals call the highway the “Highway to Hell.” Richardson wants to change the number of the route, which is officially known as Highway 666, because of the association of the triple sixes with Satan.

The highway is in poor condition, and has some of the highest fatalities per mile of any road in New Mexico. The bumpy two-lane road runs 160 miles through the sparsely populated northwestern portion of the state. The highway attracts slow-moving tourists as well as motorist traveling at high speeds through rural mountain valleys. The combination is often deadly. In 2000 and 2001, a total of 21 people were killed and 144 injured in accidents on Highway 666.

It received the 666 designation in 1942, when authorities gave it that number because it was the sixth major highway to branch off of well known Route 66. Rhonda Faught, New Mexico’s secretary of transportation says her office will apply to federal authorities for a name change for the road. She says, “It has a negative connotation. We don’t want it to be associated with our state.”

—Reuters, New Mexico wants to fix ‘Highway to Hell.’, January 27, 2003, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.

1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 NIV “Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”

Hospital Chaplain Norris Burkes went on full alert when he heard that a family of stab victims would arrive at the emergency room in a few minutes. Chaplains deal with tragedy and death on a daily basis, but it never becomes routine. They are a special breed of minister who prefer to spend their time immersed in the suffering of others, and representing God and His people to hurting traumatized people. They extend grace & hope in hopeless situations every day of their life-this was one of those occasions.

The family was entertaining a friend in their home who had a dark secret-he was a crack addict. The tranquil visit turned into a nightmare when he ran out of crack and lost his sanity. He demanded money from his hosts, and when they wouldn't comply with his request, he began stabbing them.

Big sister was in the best shape physically, but emotionally she'd entered the twilight zone. As the doctors worked with those needing medical attention, Chaplain Burkes took the ten year old girl into the chapel to pray.

Her prayers began very innocent, like you'd expect to hear from a little girl. She asked God to help her family recover and that everything would be OK. Then her prayers lost their innocence, as she had that night, and became brutally honest. "She demanded to know why God let her father die," Chaplain Burkes said, and "she had a few choice words for her houseguest as well."

Rage got the best of her, she swept the candles off of the altar and began overturning chairs in the chapel. The Chaplain called for the nurse supervisor, who held the child in her arms and took her back into the ER to give her a sedative.

Shouldn't His love have stopped this man from ravaging her family? Shouldn't his love have stopped this man from becoming addicted to crack? Shouldn't His love have stopped the drug pushers from selling drugs?

And that's the rub. When we analyze what we expect of God's love, have you noticed that it always goes back to limiting man's choice or to negating the consequences for choices? Because of man's free will, the man had a choice to kill or not to kill, to buy drugs or not buy drugs, to use drugs or not use drugs. Is it God's fault that he chose to sin? Is it God's fault that the man's sin carried consequences?

God has chosen to allow evil and good to grow next to one another. People choose which path they take, either they follow God, or they follow Satan.

Matthew 13:25-30 NASB "But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. [26] "But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. [27] And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' [28] And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' And the slaves said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?' [29] But he said, 'No; lest while you are gathering up the tares, you may root up the wheat with them. [30] Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'" (NASB) In this world, good and evil will co-exist.

God's love was in the prayers and the presence of the Chaplain. His love was in the arms of the nurse. His love is in the girl's ability to forgive and to heal. God's love is in the likelihood that this little girl will one day be a "wounded healer" and help others.

This wasn't the first wounded child Jeannie, the nurse supervisor had taken in her arms. A year before it was her own son. Chaplain Burkes said, "She placed her arms around that child in much the same way I'd seen her place her arms around her own son who was paralyzed in an auto accident the year before."

Where is God's love? No, He doesn't keep evil from happening, but he makes sure that evil doesn't stand alone. He sends His people, and his Spirit to comfort the afflicted and heal the wounded.

How can a loving and all powerful God allow evil to run rampant in the world? That's a question for the ages. No matter how long we ponder it, I doubt if we will be able to adequately answer it to everyone's satisfaction. In her book, Making Your Faith Your Own, Teresa Turner Vining struggles with that question. She wrote:

"I have gone from secretly resenting God for allowing this fallen world and all the pain it entails to harboring a reluctant but increasing appreciation for the grandness and ingenuity of his plan to redeem the world from evil—allowing us to be part of the process. I used to struggle with how the Fall fit into God's plan. I viewed Adam and Eve's world as God's original plan for us and the world we live in now as a less-than-optimal plan B. But how could an omniscient God have a plan B? Finally, it struck me that perhaps this is plan A. God knew what we would do, he knew what his response would be, and he knew that somehow what is to come would be worth it all. This way raises the stakes, intensifies the conflict, but also exponentially compounds the reward."

Though I'm not ready to say that the events of 9-11-01 were in God's perfect plan, I do know that God giving people the option to choose evil over good is. If we cannot choose evil over good, then we will never be able to choose good over evil. The potential for horrendous evil will always exist in this world. But so will the potential for amazing good.

In the wake of 9-11, we're grieving the evil we've seen and the pain we've endured. But we're also grateful for the amazing good shown by the rescue workers and people of good will around the world who've donated for the victims.

—Making Your Faith Your Own: A Guidebook for Believers with Questions by Teresa Turner Vining. Chapter 12, "Contending with a Tragic World," pages 137-148, Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Krista Van Gorp-Carnet

In her book, Making Your Faith Your Own, Teresa Turner Vining wrote, "Sometimes I have wished for oblivion. Sometimes the world seems so oppressive and difficult and humanity so capable of suffering that it's easy to wonder if it would not have been better if God had not created at all. At such times I have asked why, if God is all-wise, he chose to create the world knowing the hatred, terror, starvation, slaughter and agonizing grief that would result."

What God created was good. The creation narrative repeats that assessment several times. God looks at his creation, and calls it good. Evil does not exist because God created the world. It exists because sinful man takes God's good creation and turns it to evil.

Ephesians 2:2 NLT "You used to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God." (NLT)

In her book, Making Your Faith Your Own, Teresa Vining wrote, "No discussion of the fall, though, is complete without a discussion of redemption….Somehow in the same way Adam and Eve's sin gave us death, Jesus' death gave us life….Ironically, the evil choices of people played a key role in the events that led up to Jesus' crucifixion."

We believe that God is good, loving and all powerful. Standing alone, all of those attributes make perfect sense, but in combination they don't always. If God is good and powerful, then how do you explain the presence of evil in the world? Wouldn't his goodness motivate Him and his power enable him to stamp out evil and keep atrocities like 9-11-01 from happening? To ask the question in another way: how could God create a world pregnant with evil?

In her book, Making Your Faith Your Own, Vining wrestles with that and other questions. She wrote: "When God created the world, everything in his creation, including humanity, was completely good. However, one of the good things he created was our ability to love him and each other, but by the very nature of love this also included the possibility of choosing not to love…."

Good and evil will co-exist with one another until that blessed day when the trumpet sounds and evil will be separated from good and will be cast into the lake of fire. Until that day when good triumphs over evil they will both be a part of the human experience.

Zookeepers were astonished to find a gruesome scene when they first arrived for a day of work at Alice Springs Reptile center in Australia. The Zoo’s main attraction had been devouring many of the other animals who had apparently staged a breakout only to fall into the alligator’s enclosure. Surveillance video however revealed the horrible truth. A seven-year-old boy had somehow broken in to the reptile house and bludgeoned many of the animals to death. He then went on to throw the corpses into the alligator habitat where the animal feasted on the remains. The Zoo is looking to press charges on the parents.

--MadMike’s America- http://madmikesamerica.com/2011/04/7-year-old-slaughters-animals-at-australia-zoo/ Illustration by Jim L. Wilson and Miguel Martinez

Genesis 6:5 (ESV) The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

In Cambodia, a ten-story platform holds hundreds of skulls of victims of the killing fields. Security Prison 21, now the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh holds the torture chamber where many met their death.

In Vilnius, Lithuania the former Soviet KGB prison has been turned into a museum. “You can walk through the torture room and into the execution chamber where those who worshiped government rather than God efficiently murdered more than 1,000 prisoners over two decades beginning in 1944.”

There are just a few of many other places in our world where one can see evidence of the depravity of humankind divorced from the Love of God.

It is easy to look at such depravity and feel smug because, “I am not like that.” It is important to remember that we are all sinful. There is none righteous, not even one. --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Romans 3:9–11 (HCSB) “What then? Are we any better? Not at all! For we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, 10 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. 11 There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.”

The stories on Tonight’s nightly news will likely contain the accounts of person on person violence. It is so prevalent that it does not startle us anymore. However, on a recent Monday in New York City not a single person was shot, stabbed, or murdered over a 24-hour period. Police officials cannot remember this ever happening before. --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

In 2013 at the Newtown shooting hearing, an emergency medical technician and a first responder to the tragedy Brian Shimer commented, "Neither the size of the magazine nor the style of the rifle will affect the actions of evil, . . . Those wishing to do harm to those wishing to do good will never be swayed by the laws of men." – Jim L. Wilson and Steve Lennertz

Only a transformed life surrendered to God will curb behaviors that bring about death.

If a person wants to reject God, their mind isn’t changed no matter the circumstances. Mark Brandon Reed, an Australian criminal is thought to have killed as many as 19 people. He disputes the number but not the accusation. Last month doctors diagnosed him with liver cancer and he has but a few months to live.

Thinking about his end he was asked, “Have you thought what will happen when you meet your maker?” Reid who spent 24 of his 58 years in jail replied. “If anything, I’m owed an apology. I don’t think God was very fair with me. There’s no one I owe an apology to.”

Jesus told the rich man, “If they won’t believe Moses and the prophets, they won’t believe even if someone returns from the dead.” --Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

John 1:10 (ESV) He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

FBI Director James requires every new FBI special agent and intelligence analyst to go to the Holocaust Museum. He says, “I want them to learn about the abuse of authority on a breathtaking scale. I want them to see humanity and what we are capable of. I want them to see that, although this slaughter was led by sick and evil people, those sick and evil leaders were joined by, and followed by, people who loved their families, took soup to a sick neighbor, went to church, and gave to charity. Good people helped murder millions. And that’s the most frightening lesson of all—that our very humanity made us capable of, even susceptible to, surrendering our individual moral authority to the group, where it can be hijacked by evil.”

We must always be aware that in our humanity we are susceptible to the deeds of the darkness. -- Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

John 3:19 (HCSB) (19) “This, then, is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

$1 million in $100 dollar bills weighs only 27 pounds and fits in a regular brief case. The same amount in $20 bills weighs 135 pounds and would need five brief cases to transport. For that reason, the government is thinking about eliminating the $100 bill making it harder for criminals and money launderers to transport the money.

The way they carry illegal proceeds will make little difference in criminal activity. Criminals are not criminals because it is easy to move money from place to place. We have crime and criminals in our world because such a thing as evil really exists. It begins in the hearts of humans. -- Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell

Jeremiah 17:9 (HCSB)“The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?”

In THANKS! How Practicing Gratitude Can Make You Happier, Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D. writes, “Although there is the problem of evil — why bad things happen to good people— there is the reciprocal problem of goodness — why good things happen, even to “bad” people.” —Jim L. Wilson

Hebrews 12:28–29 (HCSB) “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us hold on to grace. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe, ²⁹ for our God is a consuming fire.”

The Nuremberg trials, which were held following WWII, made the Nazi leaders to account for the atrocities committed before and during the war. British journalist William Shawcross’ father was one of the jurists at Nuremberg. Shawcross says, “Nuremberg’s value to the world lay less in how faithfully it interpreted the past than in how accurately it forecast the future.”

“The Nuremberg jurists, including his father, saw in two World Wars what was in the heart of man—that man’s wickedness “was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5).

Evil didn’t begin nor end with WWII. As the people of God, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ it is imperative for us to continue to call one another and our world to holiness.

Romans 3:10–18 (CSB) “as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

In the first 8 months of 2017, 83 children have detonated suicide bombs around the world. Most of these children were girls, and terrorists forced most of them to carry out the bombings.

Unthinkable! How can parents hate others so much that they are willing to sacrifice their children’s lives to kill their enemies? —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice.

Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan were 28-year-olds who were attempting to ride their bikes around the world. They told their friends they wanted to meet new people and see new places. The couple had a strong belief in the goodness of human nature. On a blog Austin wrote that “Evil is a make-believe concept.”

It was that make-believe concept that took their lives in Tajikistan when an ISIS-inspired terrorist plowed his vehicle into their group of bicyclists killing the couple plus two other riders.

Make no mistake, Evil isn’t make-believe. It is real, it exists in our world, and we must not be naïve. Instead we can fight evil with the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

Operation Finale is a true-life drama about the capture of the Nazi who masterminded the holocaust. Israeli agents, acting on a tip, discovered Adolf Eichmann living in Argentina under an assumed name. After snatching him from the street they held him in isolation, waiting on the opportunity to transport him to Israel. During that time the viewer is impressed with the normality of the man. For a person who authored such a great evil, he was so normal. Nothing in his behavior even hints of one who can be responsible for the deaths of millions of people.

What does evil look like? Sometimes it looks very normal until it comes to fruition. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

The “me too” movement has been responsible for calling out numbers of sexual predators, bringing many to justice. Unfortunately, there have been false accusations and attempts to punish people who are not guilty. In 2018, one of the consequences of the movement was unintended. A survey showed that 35 percent of companies will not hold an office holiday party in 2018. The companies want to avoid “potential liability following the #MeToo movement.” Instead of creating a culture of respect that would make parties safe, they just do away with the party because of something that “might” happen there.

This is similar to a lot of decisions we make as Christians. The apostle Paul warns us that it isn’t enough just to avoid all evil, we should avoid all appearance of evil. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell.

Bitcoin is a type of Cryptocurrency that started as an obscure investment but has developed into one of the hottest commodities in the mainstream market. At first, this currency was the favored currency on the dark web. It was used to buy drugs, murder for hire and other illegal activities. However, the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is beginning to dwindle on the dark web. Because of mainstream adoption of the cryptocurrency, fewer criminals are now using Bitcoin, yet the majority of them are looking for new ways to buy and sell illegal activities. —Jim L. Wilson and Lindsay Robertson

https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-vs-cash-how-the-numbers-stack-up-on-drugs-guns-murders

Luke 8:17 (CSB)“For nothing is concealed that won’t be revealed, and nothing hidden that won’t be made known and brought to light.”