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Folks, I probably agree with everything everyone else said on this thread.

As I see it, this is a vivid illustration of several points:

1. Evil does indeed exist. Where does evil come from? This is a very deep question that philosophers and religious teachers and believers have struggled with for thousands of years. It's quite clear that Evil with a capital "E" means darkness - the darkness of heart and mind that attends utter rebellion against the merciful and absolute authority of the Supreme God. Those who want to get closer to God through obedient loving serving draw closer and closer to His light, His love, His wisdom - bathing in His presence.

OTOH, those who want to usurp His position of Lordship, of course can never do that, as His powers and eternal enegies are unassailable. So in order to forget His existence and omnipresence and omniscience, they have to turn their backs on Him. With the result that their minds, hearts and intelligence all become saturated with the thick gloom of darkness. What is that darkness? It is the darkness of God's absence, which is called Evil. Those who hate God worship their own minds and desires. Everyone has to worship someone or something; those who hate God worship themselves or another like them.

And such people, by Nature's (and Who is Nature's Author?) arrangement, fall lower and lower into the abyss. Evil is not stationary.

2. This also illustrates the terrible result of appeasement. Trying to appease evil has the exact result that Europe experienced when Neville Chamberlain practiced appeasing Hitler. The result will be total war. Those who chose Evil want to dominate, control and ultimately annihilate all opposition. And what is the opposition? All who believe in God.

One of their methods is to infiltrate religious organizations, either by consious stealth or sheer moral blindness, and then shape it to their will. We see that everywhere.

So what will be the outcome? Fortunately, those who choose Evil have only their own strength and the strength of other enemies of God to protect them. We have the all-powerful Supreme God to protect us. And such protection is often manifested in our own hearts, a fortress that is not perceivable with the eyes.

Think of previous martyrs and saints who were actually killed by those who chose Evil. Were such martyrs defeated? Not at all. Their earthly bodies were left behind like the useless shells they were, and the souls who inhabited them are now in peace and happiness, personally seeing and serving the Lord they were faithful to.