First,
Who, what is Satan? Second,
What part or purpose does he play in God's plan? Third, What is his
fate?
Who,
What is Satan?
Satan's biggest deception (in modern Western nations)
is that he doesn't exist at all. Thus the Western modern industrialized
world is blind to Satan's reality. A careful study of the Word of God reveals a
lot of interesting things about
Satan which Christians are totally unaware of.
They often read over some of the Scriptures I will
go through, not taking in their full intent and meaning.
Let's see what the Bible has to say about Satan
(and his demons, which number one third of all the created
angels).
Revelation 12:9 states that Satan is "that
old serpent", meaning literally, old,
ancient. Satan is very, very old. He has been around from before the beginning
of creation, which took place anywhere from 4 to 6 billion
years ago [now astronomers with the aid of the Hubble
Space Telescope, think it's close to 13 billion years
old!]. God did
not create physical matter first.
What do you think was God's actual first "creation",
was it physical matter, or something else?
Where would we look, Genesis 1, or somewhere else?
If you say 'Genesis 1', you are wrong.
The actual first beginnings of creation are to
be found in John 1:1, which reveals a prior existence
before physical matter and the universe were formed. Let's read it. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him [the
Word] was not anything made that was made" (John 1:1-2).
In Hebrews 1:3, we find the Word created "all things",
which is translated in the Moffatt translation as "the
Universe." The
entire Universe was created by the one called the Word. Who was the Word? In verse 14 of John 1 it identifies the Word
as Jesus Christ, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
The Word was none other than Jesus Christ, born
over 1900 years ago in Bethlehem of Judea. So we find ALL THINGS--the entire physical universe--were
made by this "Word", who was none other than Jesus Christ
in his pre-existent, glorified form, the 2nd
personage of the Godhead. In Ephesians 3:9 it states God.created ALL things
by Jesus Christ." Jesus
was also constantly reminding his disciples that he only
spoke what the Father told him to.
So what about the first creation? The Godhead (Elohim, for our Hebrew scholars)
did not create matter first as many might assume. The laws of radioactivity reveal with absolute
certainty that there was a time when all matter did not
exist. So what came first, the chicken or the egg?
What came first in God's great creative plan?
God the Father through the Word first designed
and created SPIRIT BEINGS--angels. Each angel was an individual creation, because
angels cannot reproduce.
They were completely composed of spirit--not physical matter. They were given immortality at the time of their
creation, eternal life.
God created within each one of them immensely intelligent
minds, with the power to think and reason and make choices
and decisions on their own. This brings us to the next question of supreme
importance in the realm of God's kingdom and presence--Godly
character, holy, righteous character that is present in
God the Father, God the Son (the Word), and the Holy Spirit.
God created all of the angels, but how does he
create godly character in each and every one of them?
The actual creation process was merely an engineering
design problem compared to this one, because perfect godly
character is something that must be developed over time,
and it requires the free choice of the being in whom
this character is being developed.
Holy and righteous character can be defined as
the ability of a separate being to come to discern the
true and right way from the wrong or false, and make the
voluntary choice to follow the true as opposed to the
false or wrong way--to determine even against temptation
or self-desire to live and do the right as opposed to
the wrong. That's
character. What about the angels? 1.) God created them with minds capable of thinking,
reasoning, making choices and decisions, all on their
own, and 2) God revealed very clearly to them his true
and righteous way, as opposed to the wrong way to live.
But God also allowed them free moral agency to
accept the right or wrong way, ways of their own devising.
Although this is pure conjecture at this point,
ask the question: 'What was God's ultimate objective for
the angels?' Could
it have been the development of godly character in them?
If so, the Bible indicates, as we shall see, one
third of all the created angels rebelled against God,
under the deceptive inspiration of one of the greatest
angels ever created, Lucifer, who became Satan. All this occurred before the creation of man. The actual rebellion may have occurred after
the original creation of the heavens and the earth, but
most definitely before the creation of human beings. [To learn more about this time in the dim pre-history
of man, log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/dinosaurs/dinosaurs.htm.] The original
Hebrew words (the words actually written by Moses) imply
a perfect creation in the first verse of the Bible.
This first verse of the Bible actually speaks of
the original physical universe, including the earth, perhaps
billions of years ago--and it does so as a perfect creation,
both a beautiful and perfectly finished work. Other passages place angels on the earth prior
to the creation of man. When man was created, Satan and all his rebellious
demons were already residing on planet earth! Genesis 3 is not a fairy tale. If you accept Genesis 1 and 2 as the creation
account, you must also accept Genesis 3.
How did Satan get into the Garden of Eden? Answer, he was already on the earth, and God
let him into the Garden of Eden.
The big question that very few Christians seem
to ask, is why? And why would God create the species of man on a
planet inhabited by billions of demons invisibly roaming
all around it?? We'll get to that question a little later,
but keep it in the back of your mind.
Revelation 12:9 states that Satan is "that old serpent", meaning literally "old, ancient". He has been around from the beginning of the
physical creation, which took place anywhere from 6 to
13 billion years ago, as estimated from the latest calculations
based on the Hubble Space Telescope. By all the indications given by the record of
the rocks (geology), the earth and heavens were created
long before man was created, along with all the "modern"
life-forms that man is familiar with (read that dinosaur
link I gave you, it's quite revealing in the realm of
paleontology). What
happened in that distant past?
Let's see. First turn to Revelation 12 and we'll start
reading about this time in the distant past of earth,
before the Garden of Eden was created.
Revelation 12:3-4,9.
"Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red
dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns
[this "seven heads and ten horns" description is symbolic,
showing he's the actual spiritual leader of the beast
empire to come out of Europe, cf. Re13 & 17].
His tail swept a third of the stars out of the
sky and flung them to the earth."
[stars in prophetic Bible
language often symbolize angels.] Jesus saw this rebellion and casting down of
Satan and the angels who fell as a result of Lucifer's
deception. This section of Scripture indicates there was
a prior war in heaven, accompanying this deception that
lead to total rebellion by one third of the created angels.
This is very strongly implied by Jesus direct statement
that he saw Satan cast down to earth.
In Luke 10:18, Jesus states "I saw Satan fall like
lightning from heaven."
Revelation 12:9, "The dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole
world astray.
He was hurled down to the earth, and his angels
with him." Revelation 12:1-4 and also verses 7-12, denotes two wars that occur
in heaven, where Satan attempts to throw God off his throne. The first war has already occurred, in the dim
past of antiquity, before man was created.
It states in Job 38:4-7, "Where were you when I
laid the earth's foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions?
Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set, or who laid its
cornerstone--while the morning stars
[angels] sang together and all the angels shouted for
joy?" So we see that this was a perfect creation,
and all the angels where witnesses of it, they were right
there as the physical matter--the heavens and the earth--were
created. They were watching it all happen. It was such a perfect creation that it caused
the angels to sing out with joy.
It is now thought that parts of the universe were
created as long ago as 13 billion years ago, and that
earth is at least 4 billion years old [from radioactive
decay percentages of uranium into lead].
Scripture
shows us that sin entered the picture before the creation
of man. The first
sin wasn't Adam's but Lucifer's and the demons.
II Peter 2:4-5 states, "For if God spared not the
angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [Greek: Tartarus, a place
of restraint, like a prison], and delivered them into
chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and
spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person,
a preacher of righteousness, bringing the flood on the
ungodly." The verses
above place the sinning of the angels prior to the sins of the human world
at Noah's time that started with Adam and Eve's first
sin. Lucifer's sin of rebellion where he drew one
third of the angels into this rebellion occurred prior
to the creation of man.
Sin does not exist without law, and this would
prove God's law existed on earth before the creation of
man (1 John 3:4). Apparently
these created beings had been given dominion over earth,
and Lucifer went nuts, and deceived the angels that were
with him, apparently administering the earth. It is these angels that went with him and attempted
to throw God off his throne in the third heaven, described
in Revelation 4. The universal sin of the angels ended
up causing the universal destruction of the planet earth.
Genesis 1:1 denotes a perfect creation.
Genesis 1:2 denotes something else, tohu and bohu, Hebrew for emptiness, waste, void
are the words used to describe the world after the initial
creation described in Genesis 1:1 and Job 38:4-7, where
the angels sang for joy over its beauty.
Then in Genesis 1:2, just days before the creation
of man, we find the Spirit of God was moving across what
would appear to be dead seas, seas that had long been
dead. The Word of God in verse 2 of Genesis 1 says
the whole world was empty, void, waste.
That would mean that even the seas the Spirit of
God was passing over were dead seas, even to the microscopic
level. Geologists
and paleontologists tell us that the living ecosystem
on earth and all its dinosaurian population had died 65
million years previously in a massive cataclysm.
[Read about it at http://www.unityinchrist.com/dinosaurs/dinosaurs.htm
if you haven't yet. The
proofs given in this linked article are pretty conclusive.]
Combine that event with Luke 10:18, where Jesus
stated "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."
Satan was the very first created being to "go crazy"
(mentally) in his mind. When you start to sin you start to go crazy.
When and to the extent that you obey God's law,
you are sane. [And
true obedience can only be achieved by God writing his
laws into the hearts and minds of his believing Christian
and Messianic children, by the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, empowering our feeble attempts to obey--and this
far from perfect obedience of ours in no way buys or pays for our
salvation--only the perfect sacrificial death of Jesus
Christ does that.] Do the holy angels that didn't sin have God's
Spirit in them? I
don't know. That's a good question, one which we should
ask Jesus later after he comes back to earth. We can only be sure of what the Bible tells
us, and even then our own individual interpretations often
cloud what the Bible is actually saying.
All this will be cleared up in the future as well,
when Jesus returns.
Satan actually tried to throw God off his throne,
and Revelation 12:7-12 shows he will actually be stupid
enough to try it again, driven nuts more than likely by
us Christians in our final efforts to evangelize the whole
world. When you
put verse 7 in context with verses 10-12, it becomes evident
that verse 7 of Revelation 12 is referring to a war in
heaven that has not yet occurred. But let's read a little more history about the
first rebellion and war in heaven.
It must have been a "Star Wars" type battle. Regardless of what some other Christians may
believe, the record of the rocks do
not lie. So Satan, with the help of
one third of the created angels, actually tried to throw
God off his throne in what must have be a colossal Star
Wars type of battle. For some reason, unexplained as yet by God,
God chased Satan and all his demon cohorts back through
our galaxy, back through our solar system, and threw them
back down to earth. We read what Jesus remarked of this event in
Luke 10:18. Now
let's look at Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-17 and
learn a little more about this event. Isaiah 14:12-15, "How are you fallen from heaven,
O morning star, son of the dawn!
You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven,
I will raise my throne above the stars [stars: a symbolic
term for angels in Bible language] of God; I will sit
enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights
of the sacred mountain [KJV: sides of the north].
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will
make myself like the Most High.'
But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths
of the pit." Ezekiel
28:12-17, "Son of man, take up a lament concerning the
king of Tyre and say to him: 'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'You were the model of
perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden,
the garden
of God; every precious stone adorned you:
ruby, topaz, and emerald, chrysolite, onyx and jasper,
sapphire, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for
so I ordained you. You
were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery
stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day
you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled
with violence, and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the
fiery stones. Your
heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you
corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor.
So I threw you to
the earth.'"
Let me clear something up right here--man
never co-existed next to dinosaurs--that silly interpretation
of some Christian people who are not qualified paleontologists
and have attempted to say they have seen human footprints
next to dinosaur footprints imbedded in a stone slab has
been proven to be totally bogus by real paleontologists.
Had man dwelt alongside dinosaurs, that
would have put man on earth at or before the time of Satan's
rebellion, which is un-Scriptural.
All the footprints are those of dinosaurs in that
questionable slab of stone, and they are rather poor imprints
of dinosaurs at that, which unqualified laymen have interpreted
as those of a human walking next to a dinosaur.
This "theory" has been thoroughly debunked by real
qualified paleontologists.
Theologians would be very wise if they would keep
their noses out of real science, and leave that to qualified
geologists and paleontologists, and combine properly what
the geologists and paleontologists say with Scripture
to get a true interpretation.
They do a very strong disservice to the gospel
by throwing monkey-wrenches into the Word like this.
Many educated people who may have been able to
be drawn to Jesus have been turned off by bad interpretations like that. [Be sure to read the article
about "The
Day the Dinosaurs Died" at http://www.unityinchrist.com/dinosaurs/dinosaurs.htm if you want to read some real evidence. If you would like to research some more scientific proofs,
log onto http://www.sciencediscussion.com
.] After this "War",
no life existed on the planet, not even plankton.
The asteroid belt has the mass of a planet about
the size of earth. The moon and other planets who's
surfaces we can view are all covered with huge crater-blast
marks. The human mind can snap in similar ways as Satan's
did. Apparently,
God began to plan for man out of the ashes of his experience
with Satan and his demons.
According to the record of the rocks, God took
about 65 million years to plan for his next creation,
which is described in Genesis 1:2-31.
Second:
What Part or Purpose Does Satan Play in God's Plan?
Understand
Satan's influence. Ephesians
2:1-3, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions
and sins, in which you used to live when you followed
the ways of this world and of the ruler
of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work
in those who are disobedient. All of us
also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings
of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.
Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."
(NIV). Now in the king James Version, "And you hath
he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience: among whom also we all had our
conversation [conduct] in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others." Satan
works in this world, as its unseen leader, providing unseen
spiritual inspiration, which equates to attitudes of wrath.
A full description of the attitudes Satan broadcasts
powerfully into the air can be found in Galatians 5:19-21.
But wrath is the chief of these attitudes, because
Satan is a wrathful creature. Notice also, he's called the prince of the power of
the air.
He is powerful, and he powerfully broadcasts these
attitudes into the minds of mankind all over the world.
These broadcasts are more powerful than any radio
station we could ever make, and they are all tuned to
the "frequency" of the human spirit God has placed into
every human brain, giving it human intelligence (see 1
Corinthians 2:9-12). Let's
take a look at the list of attitudes Satan broadcasts
into our minds. Galatians
5:19-21, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which
are these; Adultery, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I
tell you before, as I have also told you in time past,
that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom
of God." The unseen, unheard broadcasts
of Satan into the human spirit wave-length produces
that laundry list of sins.
Satan cannot make anyone sin, but
he can influence people to sin by his powerful broadcasts
into their minds. That
is his chief method for deceiving the world, bringing
the human world down to his level. God's level is found in the next two verses
of Galatians 5 for anyone who's interested.
Notice what Satan's aim is, in the last part of
verse 21. Paul says "they which do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom
of God." So we have seen that Satan works in our minds,
trying to disqualify mankind from inheriting the kingdom
of God, eternal life in that kingdom--that's Satan's ultimate
aim. Let's look at a few more passages in Scripture.
1 Corinthians 2:11-12, "For what man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in
him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but
[by] the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world,
but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God." There is a spirit component that God gives to
each human mind, probably at conception, or when the brain
forms in each human a few short months after conception.
This "spirit of man", or human spirit, gives human
beings physical intelligence and comprehension--such as
the ability to understand the world and creation around
us. Things mere
animals can't understand, like physics, astronomy, mathematics,
electronics, chemistry, poetry, writing, complex languages,
the arts, you name it. Human mind is far superior to the most sophisticated
animal brain. The
output of a human mind compared to the nearly physically
equal brain of a dolphin, chimp or elephant is so far
superior that famous brain scientists have admitted (quietly)
that there must be a non-physical component to the human
brain--they just can't explain the vast difference in
output for the almost identical brains of man compared
to those of chimp and dolphins. Satan has access to the frequency this human spirit operates
on, so to speak, to put it into understandable terms. The "frequency" the Holy Spirit operates on,
thankfully, can't be hacked into by Satan or any of his
demons. How much of the world is deceived by Satan?
Revelation 12:9, " The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called
the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray."
(NIV). "And the great
dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world." (KJV) Satan has the whole world deceived. That includes the people who are a part of dead
or dying Christian revivals who
are now part of older denominations that have "lost their
saltiness" as Jesus pointed out in Matthew 5.
Satan does all in his power to destroy genuine
Christian revivals, weakening them over time. He's patient, he does his dirty work over hundreds
of years, imperceptibly changing attitudes and doctrines
within a revival-turned-denomination, until the entire
population of those denominations are merely born-into church members and not born-again church members.
[Refer to the introduction to the church history
section for more on this theme, at http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/IntroChurchHistory.htm
, as well as Charles Stanley's article on saving
faith at http://www.unityinchrist.com/faith/whatis.htm
.] The rest
of mankind are deceived both
religiously and politically, under the various religious
and political systems we find on the earth.
I won't name names, it's not politically correct
anymore, not that I am politically correct (nor was Jesus).
The saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross was
to save us from this evil world, and to bring us into
spiritual alignment with the kingdom
of God
as well as make us heirs to that kingdom, if we hold fast
to our profession. Galatians 1:3-5, "Grace and peace to you from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according
to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for
ever and ever. Amen."
We saw in Revelation 12:9 that Satan has the whole
world deceived. Obviously
he has deceived it with his form of human governments
and the many false religions we see in the world today.
Satan did make the offer to Jesus in Matthew 4:8-9,
"Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you
will bow down and worship me.'"
Satan could not offer what is not his to offer,
and you'll notice Jesus didn't say these kingdoms of the
world weren't Satan's to give. He criticized Satan for asking him to worship
him instead of God. The
kingdoms of this world are Satan's to do with as he pleases,
for now. After Jesus returns, as Revelation 11:15-18
shows, 'the kingdoms of this world become
the kingdoms of Jesus Christ.'
But
what is Satan's major deception, what has he blinded mankind
to that is far more significant than his ruling over mankind
with false forms of government as opposed to God's government?
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 gives us a big clue.
"And if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those
who are perishing. The
god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers,
so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God." Satan does this in two ways, 1) with false religions
that are not Christian (or Messianic Jewish). 2), Satan tries to pervert the gospel of Jesus
Christ with false doctrine or by watering down the gospel. We see this where the apostle Paul goes on in
2 Corinthians 11 to condemn the false apostles of his
day (and we have similar ones today).
But he makes a statement about how they appear
as angels of light, just like Satan appears. It is worthy to take note of what Paul said.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15, "For such men are false
apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles
of Christ. And
no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of
light. It is not
surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants
of righteousness. Their
end will be what their actions deserve."
Now Paul wasn't talking about the pagan religions
all around him, but false Christian apostles, who were
flying the banner of Christ, saying they were Christian,
and deceiving those under them with false doctrines, twisting
the Scripture to suit them.
This is one way that Satan works. But Satan's main method of deception is to simply
deceive mankind in general, blinding them to the message
and opportunity of the gospel of Christ, the gospel of
salvation. Satan's biggest deception in the modern industrialized
western nations is that he does not exist. "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.
There's no afterlife, no God, no devil, it's all
a lie. You evolved
from green slime." That's
Satan's biggest deception to the masses within the industrialized
western nations. The one billion plus in India believe
in god's, hundreds of thousands
of them. Muslims believe in Allah, but they don't believe
in Jesus Christ as God the Son.
Each group or major population group in the world
has been deceived with a different deception.
But it's all deception.
Jesus talked to the Jews of his day, and told them
because they didn't believe in him as the Son of God,
that their spiritual father was really Satan.
John 8:42-45, "Jesus said to them, 'If God were
your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and
now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.
Why is my language not clear to you?
Because you are unable to hear
what I say. You
belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry
out your father's desire.
He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding
to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language,
for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Yet when I tell you the truth, you do not believe
me!." That is what Jesus had to say about Satan, and
that he was then at that time the spiritual father to
the Jews, as well as to the rest of the world (Rev. 12:9).
What has Jesus rescued us from?
Colossians 1:13-14, "For he has rescued us from
the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom
of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sins." [To read an awesome expository study that explains the gospel of salvation
in detail, log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/romans/introduction.htm
. This awesome
gospel message is what Satan is trying desperately to
hide from the world!]
Warnings
about Satan:
1
Timothy 5:14-15, "So I counsel younger widows to
marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to
give the enemy no opportunity for slander.
Some have in fact already turned away to follow
Satan." Have any
of you been watching Dr. Phil lately?
Have you seen and perceived what Satan has done
to the families in America and the
western world? He's
all but destroyed the family.
Dr. Phil has been focussing on this lately.
Check out his new book Family First at http://www.DrPhil.com . Is Satan a danger to Christians? Let the apostle Peter answer that one. 1 Peter 5:8-9, "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion looking for someone to devour.
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because
you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing
the same kind of sufferings."
Attitudes
Satan loves to work with and through: Unforgiving attitudes are one of Satan's devices.
If we have an unforgiving attitude toward someone,
Satan can gain an advantage over us. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11, "If you forgive anyone,
I also forgive him. And
what I have forgiven--if
there was anything to forgive--I have forgiven in the
sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might
not outwit us. For we are not unaware of
his schemes."(NIV)
verse 11, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of
us: for we are not ignorant of his devices." (KJV).
Spiritual
Warfare:
When we
become Christians or believers in Yeshua, we enter into
active warfare with the Satanic
realm. Ephesians
6:10-13 plainly states, "Finally, be strong in the Lord
and in his mighty power.
Put on the whole armor of God so that you can take
your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the powers of this dark world and against spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore
put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of
evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and
after you have done everything, to stand." This is active warfare. But Satan and his forces are very subtle, and
can be very patient. They
work tirelessly over the centuries, weakening the various
Christian denominations, gradually inspiring the introduction
of doctrines into them that will spiritually weaken them
over time--lots of time, centuries. Satan also introduces legislation aimed at weakening
the nations that are (or were) Christian, in his ultimate
aim of bringing them down (witness the "hate crime" laws
Senator Kennedy has passed in the U.S. senate that will
muzzle what Christians can say or print, even passages
from the Bible, if it speaks against the homosexual lifestyle,
which the Bible clearly condemns). Reread Isaiah 14:12
again. "How you have fallen from heaven, O morning
star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth, you who once
laid low the nations!"(NIV) "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
son of the morning!
How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst
weaken the nations!" (KJV) In a
democracy such as exist in the industrialized western
nations, it is quite easy, once a simple majority are
non-believers, to introduce anti-Christian legislation
which will ultimately bring the nation down--promoting
and legislating certain
lifestyles that destroy the family--and the family is
the very fabric that makes for the strength of a nation
and guarantees it's continuance. [read http://www.unityinchrist.com/counterattack/counterattack1.htm
.]
Introducing laws that protect those family-destroying
lifestyles, and even allowing
for their free encouragement will ultimately bring any
nation down over time. It is said that of all the empires that have
ever existed, none have survived for more than a few generations
that have destroyed the fabric of the family.
The activists that cause the passage of these "laws"
don't realize they are pawns of Satan and his demonic
realm, but they nonetheless are pawns, Satan's very agents,
promoting the legislation of laws he wants passed. So we can see how Satan and his demonic realm
works to weaken Christian churches,
whole denominations, and even Christian nations, making
them post-Christian. To
learn more about this spiritual warfare all active Christians
are engaged in be sure to log
onto: http://www.unityinchrist.com/ephesians/eph6armour.htm
and http://www.unityinchrist.com/ephesians/putonarmour.htm
and http://www.unityinchrist.com/evangelism/1.htm
. These three link sections should fill in some
of the gaps in your understanding which this article doesn't
have space to provide.
But sure to log onto them and read them carefully
if you are an active Christian. (If you aren't an active Christian, but one
who's sort of on the sidelines, then Satan's demonic realm
is probably leaving you alone.)
The last link shows how the promotion of the gospel
of salvation is actually an information war which the
body of Christ is waging against Satan's evil demonic
empire and realm. The first two links apply to how a Christian
can make himself or herself more "combat ready"--putting
on the whole armour of God--essential reading for every
Christian.
Now the
name of this section was "What part or purpose does he [Satan] play in God's plan?" I have not
totally answered that.
I will attempt to answer that question now.
Satan is an integral part of God's lesson plan
for mankind. One
of the big reasons God left Satan and the demons on the
earth when he created mankind has to be that God wants
mankind in general, and that includes all of us, to get
a very good taste of Satan and his evil way of life (which
really equates to the way to death), just so that we all
will NEVER, EVER want anything to do with
it or the attitudes that make up this way. Allowing the
human race as a whole to live immersed in Satan's evil
realm and ways is a major part of God's lesson plan for
mankind, even though most Christian churches and denominations
don't teach much about it. Job chapter one shows God actually using Satan
to try Job, to show Job some major character flaws he
had. God used Satan as an unwitting pawn to bring
these things out in plain sight for Job to see.
Job was pretty impressed with his accomplishments
and obedience to God before all this took place in his
life. So we see
in Scripture God using Satan as part of Job's spiritual
lesson plan, as a teaching agent (although unbeknownst
to Satan at the time). Job 1:6-12, "One day the angels came to present
themselves before the Lord, and
Satan also came with them.
The Lord said to Satan, 'Where have you come from?'
Satan answered the Lord, 'From roaming through
the earth and going back and forth in it.'
Then the Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered
my servant Job? There
is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright,
a man who fears God and shuns evil.'
[Now here's a set-up if ever there was one!
Poor Job.]
'Does Job fear God for nothing?'
Satan replied. 'Have you not put a hedge around him and his
household and everything he has?
You have blessed the work of his hands, so that
his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land.
But stretch out your hand and strike everything
he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.'
The Lord said to Satan, 'Very well, then, everything
he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not
lay a finger.'" (NIV)
The whole book of Job is about how God used Satan
to bring out Job's remaining character flaws through trial
by fire--using Satan as the chief administrator of those
trials.
There
is an obscure prophetic set of beliefs held by some tiny
denominational group of Christians who make up a tiny
part of the whole body of Christ which may give a good
reason why God left Satan and all his demon friends on
planet Earth. (You
don't have to believe this set of obscure prophetic beliefs,
it won't effect your salvation either way whether you
do or not.) See if you can find these beliefs. They're tucked away in an obscure backwater
location of this website (because they're so non-essential
to the gospel of salvation).
Hint:
this obscure set of prophetic beliefs that contribute
to this theme is located in a part of the massive church
history section. Next,
Satan's end. We'll be looking at Leviticus 16 and
Revelation 20:1-3.
Third:
Satan's End:
The time
is approaching when Satan will no longer be allowed to
deceive the nations. God
is the one, as it says in Romans 11:32, who has "concluded
[shut up, literally] them all in unbelief, that he might
have mercy upon all."
In 2 Peter 3:9 God says through the apostle Peter,
"He is not willing that any should perish, but all should
come to repentance." God is omnipotent--all powerful and all-knowing.
As you saw in Job 1, even Satan had to ask God's
permission before he could go after Job. Satan did under-estimate God once and got thrown
back to earth. Revelation
12:7-10 shows he will under-estimate God again, and try
yet once more to de-throne God.
But a time is coming when Satan will no longer
be allowed to deceive the nations. So this very fact that Satan has up until this
point, and is now currently deceiving the whole
world would indicate that this deception has been allowed
by God, sanctioned by God--just as Satan was allowed,
sanctioned by God, to attack Job.
God has allowed Satan to deceive the nations of
the world, kingdom after kingdom, empire after empire.
But that will all change.
In Leviticus 16 are found the special commands
about how the Levitical priesthood were
to observe the ceremonial laws having to do with the Day
of Atonement. The Day of Atonement itself is a spiritual picture
of Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice for the sins of the
whole world, mankind.
Leviticus 16:5-10,15,20-22. "From the Israelite community he [the high priest,
Aaron, vs. 3] is to take two male goats for a sin offering
and a ram for a burnt offering.
Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering
to make atonement for himself and his household.
Then he is to take the two goats and present them
before the Lord at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
He is to cast lots for the two goats--one for Lord
and the other for the azazel [ azazel:
Hebrew for goat
of removal]. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to
the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering.
[this goat points directly
to the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.]
But the goat chosen by lot as the azazel shall
be presented alive before the Lord to be used for
making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat
[goat of removal].He shall then slaughter the goat for
the sin offering for the people [this is backtracking
to the first goat, to give some more details for the sacrifice]
and take its blood behind the curtain [of the Holy of
Holies] and do with it as he did with the bull's blood.
He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover and
in front of it.When Aaron has finished making atonement
for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and
the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live
goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion
of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the
goat's head. [Later, this will apply to the sins of the whole
world. At the time
this was penned by Moses, it only applied to the Israelites.]
He shall send the goat away into the desert in
the care of a man appointed for the task.
The goat will carry on itself all their sins to
a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the
desert." Both goats
represent what Jesus did and does for believers.
He died and his blood covers our sins, cleansing
us from all our sins.
He (Jesus) then (symbolized by the live goat) bears
all our sins away. As
king David said in Psalm 32:1-2, "Blessed is he whose
transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not
count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit."
And in Psalm 103:12 David describes what the Lord
does with our sins, which is pictured by the ceremony
with the azazel goat. David says in Psalm 103:11-12, and this is really
amazing, how it fits, "For as high as the heavens are
above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear
him; as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us." But in the final analysis, where does the Lord
place all those sins?
On the head of the 2nd goat. The goat left alive does not so much represent
the Lord Jesus Christ--but what the
Lord does with our sins. He places
them on Satan's head and banishes Satan from having any
access to mankind. We see this prophecy in Revelation 20:1-3.
In Revelation 19:11-21 we find the description
of Jesus Christ's 2nd coming. In Revelation 20:4-6, the Millennial Kingdom
of God has started. But
inbetween these two events, we see that Satan is removed.
It would be hard to have a wonderful millennial
kingdom of God
ruling over mankind with Satan being allowed to walk around
continuing to deceive the nations left alive at Jesus
2nd coming. So Jesus returns to earth (Revelation 19), removes
and locks Satan away (Revelation 20:1-3), and then the
glorious kingdom of God on earth begins (Rev. 20:4-6). So the very next thing listed in time-order
of prophetic events, after Jesus' 2nd coming,
is that we see Satan being bound up, thrown in the Abyss,
locked away for 1,000 years. Revelation 20:1-3, "And I saw an angel coming
down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding
in his hand a great chain.
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who
is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed
it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations
anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short
time." So we see
in this beautiful ceremony in Leviticus 16 that Jesus
first pays the penalty for all our sins, and then he removes
them, and then finally, he places them all on the very
one responsible for inspiring them all--right back on
Satan's head. Revelation 20:4-6 shows the saints ruling in the millennial kingdom of God,
which verse 5 indicates is 1,000 years long.
But then in verses 7-10, God does a very strange
thing. Everyone who survived World War III and lived
on into the millennial kingdom
of God,
they had children and repopulated the earth for 1,000
years. But at the
end of the 1,000 years we see God releasing Satan again
(along with his demons [implied]) for a brief time-span. Now why would God do such a thing? Simply because everyone born
into this blissful period of time in the kingdom age will
never have experienced Satan and his evil way of life. God wants ALL
to experience Satan and his evil ways which lead to death. If
