This is going to be a short post that should hopefully provide lots of thought. I can't really believe that I have to explain this, but here goes. The motivation for this topic is the gradual uncovering of the many occult beliefs that have permeated society, culminating with so called Satanic worshippers and horror rap, etc., such as that Sam guy who is accused of murdering four people. He poses with religious icons and graves to degrade them, etc. This has shocked some people who are "in the know" enough to at least admit the widespread problem in the comment sections of news articles, etc. So I'm going to now "spell it out for you" whether God is tolerating this evil or not, and help you to understand his timing.
First of all, you must understand something right up front. No one "gets away" with evil and living lives full of sin. No one. Why? Because God's "batting average" is one hundred percent to send them to hell for all eternity when they die. It really is as simple as that.
Somehow these past two generations have decided that if God does not zorch on the spot someone who sins or "disrespects him and his" that God either doesn't exist or does not mind, or is powerless. That is so lame, stupid and wrong that it would be laughable if it wasn't so serious for the millions and millions (imagine a very big number) of evil people AND chronic sinners who now occupy hell. They all thought they "got away with it" until they died and woke up in hell, thrust there by God's avenging angels. No, they do not get to "argue their case" in front of God: they wake up in hell, forever (Luke 16).
That's why I mentioned my combination of boredom and dismay several years ago when kids made Internet vids kind of daring the Holy Spirit and God by stating their disbelief and blasphemy. They should have stated their youthful stupidity instead. The Bible and the Qur'an make perfectly clear that humans lead lives filled with their own crap and own free will, and then when they die, rather than be "free and clear" and "getting away with it," they awake in hell with no dialogue, no appeal to God, no nothing but "There you Are!"
The second point is that the Bible and the Qur'an make clear that God does indeed smite when he chooses to do so, either in temporal (while alive) punishment of some sort or in actually striking down a person or even a country. God usually does so by "raising up an enemy" against the sinners, rather than actually striking the blow out of the blue, miraculously. Why? For the mercy, duh. He, who is ALL Knowing, intervenes when certain points that only he knows are reached in his patience. You can trust that since he knows all that will ever happen, he smites when there is a maximum chance of those who observe and likewise sin to come to their senses, while at the same time doing minimum "loss of patience" intervention.
For a reminder of that read the section of Genesis, recently blogged about here, where Abram (Abraham) negotiates with God (who appears as an angel) about how few good people who might exist in Sodom and Gomorrah would be enough for God not to strike down the entire city. This will help you to understand that God knows all the "numbers" in advance, obviously, yet he allows even one human being to try to speak up for the rest and change the free will that humans exercise. So when God hardens his heart and lets someone evil or sinful fall on their own sword, or, as he will do, directly smite them, you can trust that it is because he knows the best time to do this so that 1) those around the persons will get the point and maybe, just maybe, actually repent and convert and 2) future evil that the persons he smited will either perform willfully or enable is minimized. Sometimes God pulls the plug for just that reason. Think of King Solomon, much loved by God, who lived to an old age, but could have lived a lot longer if he had not started to worship idols brought in by his many wives and concubines. God curtailed his life rather than 1) allow him to throw away all his grace and mercy and risk hell and 2) so that he not continue for more years to lead many souls of his people into idolatry.
Only God can do that, as I have repeatedly reminded and warned people. No human can "decide" in kind of "star chambers" who is "good" and who is "not" and thus who should be "contained" or "harmed" for the greater good. Nazis thought that and believe me, they obviously 1) did a lot of damage and 2) there is a lot of screaming done in German in hell. The analogy I've been using is that if people who think they "know who is good" and believe they can "defend" "people" from "evil forces," would have been the first to kill Saul (who persecuted Christians, them doing so in "self defense" you know) before the resurrected Christ converted Saul to, yes, St. Paul. It is absolutely forbidden in the Bible to have even evil and judging thoughts about another person, say nothing of taking God's place in judgment and thus gravely sinning, even to murder. Seen a lot of that recently.
Regardless if someone evil or a completely incorrigible sinner or enabler of sin seems to live out his or her life and is does "OK," believe the Bible and the Qur'an, and the testimony of Jesus himself (Luke 16) that those people, to their astonishment, wake up on their death in hell, one hundred percent. There is no debate or conversation with God, St. Peter or anyone else, for those who God will send to hell for their deeds: they wake up there without any argument or advocacy.
Finally, I really hope that kids (and adults) who are punked out and who think that hell really can't be all that bad a place and that Satan will "take care of them there," wise up and grow up. The Qur'an is helpful in letting you know that God ups the punishment in hell to the totally unbearable for all eternity, not Satan. Satan despises the people he fools and torments them even worse.
Why and how do we know that? Because the more Satan leads astray the sooner the End of Times and the full wrath of God will descend, and when the earth is destroyed Satan is stuck without his main home and now has to spend all of his time in hell. Duh! In the Bible you read how Satan roams the earth. Do you think he wants to be in hell? DUH! If he thought the people he fools (allegedly, since most people are wicked all on their own) are such awesome company and he could turn the thermostat so that it is cooler, why would he spend all his time on earth and dread being chained into hell with the losers?
If you actually read the Bible and/or the Qur'an, it is amazingly helpful.
Remember, no one "gets away" with evil or unrepentant continual sin and enabling: it is one hundred percent to hell for all eternity, regardless of the lack of obvious smiting any individual (or country) may experience up until that day of personal death.
Sleep well!