The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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Who would you say is the most evil person in history? Leading candidates include:

Adolf Hitler, Germany’s chancellor from 1933 to 1945 and Fuhrer of the Nazi Party. Intelligent and creative, this talented young artist became the figurehead of a brutal regime whose actions, including the Holocaust, resulted in the deaths of more than fifty million people.

Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1953. The former robber and assassin reigned with terror and violence, killing friends and enemies with impunity. He once said, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is simply a statistic.” Even so, he was twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.

Vlad the Impaler, also known as Vlad Dracula. He reigned as prince in Wallachia three times between 1448 and 1462, and he managed to kill one in every five persons he was sworn to protect, mostly through sadistic means that ended with impaling.

Ivan the Terrible, the first tsar of Russia, a brilliant but mentally ill ruler in the sixteenth century. As a child, he was known to throw animals from the top of tall structures, but his preferred acts of brutality included impaling, beheading, burning, strangling, frying, blinding, and disemboweling people. 

Maximilien Robespierre, architect of the French Revolution, whose role as an advocate for a better life for the French people morphed into a sadistic obsession with the guillotine. His ten-month reign of terror resulted in forty thousand heads lost and cemented his belief that killing is always better than forgiveness.

We could mention others: Genghis Khan, emperor of Mongolia from 1206 to 1227, whose expansionist campaigns led to at least twenty million deaths; Mao Zedong, China’s brutal dictator from 1943 to 1976; Emperor Nero of first-century Rome; the family of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un, which continues to brainwash, starve, and terrorize the people of North Korea after seventy years in power; Leopold of Belgium, who killed half the population of the Congo Free State; and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, who liked to video his tortures and watch the replays.

Not to leave out women, we could include: Mary I of England, also known as Bloody Mary, whose efforts to restore Catholicism to England resulted in the burning of more than three hundred Protestants accused of heresy; and Hungarian Countess Elizabeth Bathory, whom Guinness World Records considers the most prolific female serial killer of all time, accused of torturing, mutilating, and killing an estimated six hundred fifty women between 1585 and 1610.

These examples illustrate that certain men and women have used their intelligence, creativity, and persuasive gifts to unleash terror in their corners of the world. Some of these human monsters died horrific deaths – Robespierre lost his head in the guillotine he so freely used on others – while others died of natural causes. Few are known to have recanted or repented. Some went defiantly to their deaths, like Saddam Hussein, who was hanged in front of video cameras. In every case, these people emerged as monuments to unrestrained evil. 

The Bible records the names and deeds of many evil people – from Cain to Queen Jezebel to the antichrist of the last days. But behind them all is a personality who birthed evil and who inspires it in all people, especially those who willingly become his instruments of malice. Of course, we’re talking about Satan, whom Scripture often calls the evil one. While all humans are responsible for their actions, and stand in final judgment one day before Jesus, the evil one holds the top spot on the list of the world’s most evil beings.

Next: What is evil?