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recognised that some infirmities were due to some sin that had been committed by the person who was suffering (John 5:14), but others not (John 9:1-3). We need to recognise the difference (See James 5:15). At the same time we need to see that as a consequence of sin being in the world we have these evils and that in the world to come they will all be put away (Revelation 21:3/4). These evils may be said to be the by-products of sin.

However, what we have said above will not account for all the evil happenings in the world. For instance there are earthquakes, floods, tempests, volcanic eruptions, famines and other things in the non-living physical creation which affect man and cause sometimes great loss of life. Christ can deal with these things as he did when here on earth - stilling the storm on the lake of Galilee, walking on the water (being superior to the storm), multiplying food and healing an injury. One cannot envisage these happenings in the garden of Eden; they affect man because he (Adam) was turned out of the garden where he had been insulated from these things. He was, as another has said, a gardener dismissed and sentenced to hard labour for theft. When the curse on the ground (see Genesis 3:17; 4:12; 5:29) is removed, these violent natural happenings will cease (Isaiah 30:23-26; 35; 51:3; Revelation 22:3).

However, all the evil that is in the world is not entirely accounted for by what has been said above. There is another factor - the presence of Satan, the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4). This has a great effect upon the state of things in the world. He is “the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). Adam started the disobedience and his progeny fell under the power of Satan. Satan can, if allowed to by God, use evil men, the physical elements and disease to bring trouble on man (see Job chapters 1 and 2). Satan himself is said to have been the one having the might of death (Hebrews 2:14).

We know that by one man sin entered into the world (Romans 5:12). However it existed before then, because the devil who caused Adam to fall into it was a sinner himself from the beginning. As is said: “from [the] beginning the devil sins” (1 John 3:8).

If we come down to detail we know that demons of whom Satan is the prince (Matthew 12:24-26) were

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