Satan: Part IV(b) – Completion of the Series :: By Denis Bowden
The Commencement of Satan’s Hatred of Man:
Now, when God created man in ‘His’ own image and set him to rule the earth, Satan became enraged. And in consequence, his relationship with God was about to become much worse. We can only ponder the unwritten question that Scripture does not elaborate upon. As Satan witnessed Creation, did his vanity extend to the belief that God might permit ‘him’ to rule it?
After all, he had been ‘Lucifer,’ Chief of the cherubim, until conceit led him to stage a rebellion against God, which had ended at an undisclosed time prior to the Beginning of Creation. And though God had subsequently banished Satan and those of the angelic host that had been complicit in the rebellion, Satan still had access to God. The Word of God does tell us what he can and cannot do, as is commented in blueletterbible.org
Edited Quote from blueletterbible.org:
We must be careful not to attribute to him abilities and honors that belong to God and Him alone.
- Satan is not the opposite of God. God is all-powerful, everywhere, present, and all-knowing, but Satan is none of these. He does not have unlimited power and cannot be everywhere at once. He exists only because that is the will of God.
- Satan is not the equal of God. He is a subordinate being created by God.
- Satan cannot tempt man, nor could he attempt to tempt Jesus without God’s permission.
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil” (Matthew 4:1).
And he couldn’t tempt Job without God’s Permission.
“And the LORD said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.’ So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD” (Job 1:12).
- Satan cannot influence nature without God’s permission.
“And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your power; only upon himself put not forth your hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord…. While he [a servant] was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell you. And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell you” (Job 1:12, 16, 19).
- Satan cannot physically harm anyone without God’s permission.
“The LORD said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ Satan answered the LORD, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ The LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.’ Then Satan answered the LORD, ‘Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.’ The LORD said to Satan, ‘Very well, he is in your power'” (Job 2:2-6).
- Satan cannot kill without God’s permission, but he is capable of warping the human mind, and if someone is already spiritually blinded by the sin of denial, he can make that mind more susceptible to the idea of self-harm or even to harm some other person. (end quote)
Satan’s punishment had been drastic. He had suffered the total loss of the prestige he previously held before God as he stood in authority between God and the angelic host. And then, God had banished both Satan and the angels that had been complicit in the rebellion. All fell from the Third Heaven of Holiness wherein God rules in Majesty.
So it was that battle with God was re-joined as Satan conceived the plot that he believed would cause God to reject man. He approached the woman in the guise of the serpent and successfully tempted her to eat of that which God had expressly forbidden. And as God’s Holy Word teaches that Satan cannot tempt without God’s permission, it must be that our Heavenly Father knew that Satan would attempt Eve’s temptation and that this also was an expression of God’s will that the man and woman be put to the test.
Adam then became complicit as he was also persuaded to partake of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Clearly, this was the worst type of disobedience he could have committed. God had been most explicit in His command that neither should eat of this tree on pain of death.
- Was their sin caused by the absence of wisdom that tends to grow out of maturity?
- Did they not understand that certain knowledge had been denied them for their own good?
- And shouldn’t the offense have led to the punishment of Eve alone?
Whichever way ‘we’ poorly attempt to apply the limitations of human reasoning, God ruled that it was Adam who bore the direct responsibility for the actions of both of them.
God had created Adam from the dust of the earth, and it was he who carried the seed of all future procreation.
Eve was taken out of Adam, and God had ordained that woman is ultimately responsible to her husband: he is head of the household and is directly responsible to God.
The price for their consumption of the forbidden fruit was immediate. God decreed that the seed of man would henceforth carry the stigma of the sin nature. They who had not known sin were now sinners. Both had sinned: both were expelled from the Garden of God. And as God promised, both would taste death.
This is the true beginning of Satan’s rule of the two worlds which have since existed. One, long-swept to oblivion by the Flood, the present world awaiting its demise in equally horrific circumstances.
And our present world is withering before our eyes as it suffers the relentless attack of orchestrated evil. Within the limits and authority that God has permitted him, Satan ‘performs’ as the Maestro under whose baton are both satanically possessed humans and a host of unclean spirits. They are conducted in their performance of the foul symphony that we know as ‘denial of God.’
The unclean spirits described themselves to Jesus, crying, “We are legion.” They are innumerable in number and enter the sin nature of those in denial of God almost at will. Indeed, you can be possessed by more than one unclean spirit.
There is also a vast multitude of souls in denial upon whom these foul sprites of evil can prey.
In Mark 5, Jesus visits the region of the Gerasenes and is immediately confronted by a demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs, cut himself with stones, and could not be kept in captivity (Mark 5:1-5). When Jesus asked the demon what its name was, the demon replied, “My name is Legion… for we are many” (verse 9).
Comment:
As we contemplate these spiritual attacks, the prophetic clock is now chiming the warnings of the passing of this world as the ‘birth pains’ of its destruction strike the earth like hammer blows.
– As God did with the temptation of Job, Satan is permitted to challenge man through our sin nature.
– He has that authority, not of himself but from God (Ezek. 28:12).
We have no reason or created right to question the eternal wisdom of God. His every action is both pure and just.
Christians humble their nature before the will of God. Through faith in the grace purchased by the blood of Jesus, we bow to His omnipotence and accept that “thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven!”
The Reality of Satan as He Rules Our World:
Satan is not now, and never has been, human. As a created being himself, he rules the spirit world of the Second Heaven. From there, he is able to manifest himself in our world and anywhere else he desires. He has limited dominion and power over all deniers. However, we must not lose sight of the fact that the gift of atoning grace bestowed by Jesus always remains open to deniers if they seek the forgiveness of God through His Son. Perhaps then, Satan’s easiest prey remain those who question the Word of God out of their own conceited denial. In the latter, I include those who will remain lost if they wilfully deny God’s Holy Spirit and/or scornfully deride Him.
Both this world and the first world (destroyed by the Flood through which God spared Noah that the seed of man would continue) were creations of man’s sin nature, and Satan simply transitioned from one to the other. Just as angels can move through time and space because of their spiritual nature, so Satan, who is of the same genre, can do likewise.
The Immediate Implication & Consequences of Adam’s Disobedience:
ALL that had existence in the Garden reflects the Creator’s power and might. God’s authority is divine. As the Garden’s creator, His authority certainly superseded the authority of everything He had so far gifted Adam.
WHEN Adam took of himself, a portion of that to which he had been specifically denied access by the authority of God, he compromised God’s authority. In punishment for such blatant disobedience, Adam immediately developed the nature of sin within his own flesh.
And though banished from Heaven, it is the will of God that, for now, Satan rules this fallen world as he puts denial to the test. He is empowered to access and misuse all of our fallen nature and capacity for rational decision-making against ourselves.
‘To Be or Not to Be’? That Is the Question (Self-Governance)
- Should all things in both Heaven and Earth submit to God’s governance?
- Should man attempt self-government rather than submit to God?
The Word of God clearly reveals the consequences already paid by man in the absence of grace.
Without the atoning grace of Jesus, our continued denial invariably reaps the wages of sin, which is the death of our flesh. And upon our resurrection, the eternal torment of our living souls.
“I did it my way!” pretty well summed up the life of a well-loved entertainer. He was typical of all those who attempt to govern themselves without the oversight of the Holy Spirit. From my own life’s experience, I can personally vouch that there is no better recipe for personal disaster. Denial leads to a spiral of evil conduct. More often, it is ‘rewarded’ with brokenness and despair as unclean spirits enter the soul.
Compare self-governance to the moral compass provided through the grace of God. The Christ-centered family is justified through the atoning grace offered by Jesus, the Son of God. His Spirit is the sheet anchor that helps them avoid the shoals of sin. When the husband and father assumes his responsibility of direct obedience to God, and his wife accepts her responsibility to support her husband in the Godly governance of his family, the holiness of grace is their dual beacon.
- ‘God’s way’ results in eternal life.
- ‘God’s way‘ comes with the obligation to submit ourselves to God.
- ‘God’s way‘ requires walking in the path of Jesus in obedience to God’s commandments.
- ‘God’s way’ means working to overcome our human weaknesses when we know they do not rise to Christ’s standard of sinlessness.
And the Good Works we perform after coming to God through Jesus, well please our Father as they flow like a river before the majesty of His throne. Dear friends, ‘One day we shall gather at that River as it flows by the Throne of God.’
Satan’s Way:
‘Satan’s way’ lies in the consummate evil of his nature as he seeks to persuade us to ‘do our own thing’ and to usurp God’s prerogative in defining right living. Our sin nature, which lies in vassalage to Satan, then finds it easy to doubt God and reject the way of the cross. And as his tactics succeed, we become amenable to explore the forbidden, such as:
– Esoteric cults
– Bizarre ‘religious’ practices
– Pseudo-physiological improvement such as the practice of yoga, which stresses mantra and our meditation upon unGodly things
– Psychological analysis to explore such nonsense as hidden memories of things that supposedly have served to warp our lives
– The exploration of that which purports to be our own spirituality. (Look, I don’t go to church. I’m not religious – but I’m really a very ‘spiritual’ person.) “Really? Have you ever heard such a nonsensical statement?”
– The belief that Tantric sex practices by allegedly prolonging orgasmic release, will unleash ‘your inner being’
– Denial of God by replacing true worship of Him with the latter-day gods of science and technology
– Availing oneself of every form of personal self-gratification so as to stimulate and satiate the senses to achieve ‘completeness’
– The use of mind-altering drugs to alter perceptions of reality in the belief that by doing so, you expose true reality because ‘normal’ life is only a façade. (Well, that’s actually true, but Satan’s interpretation applies it for all the wrong reasons.).
What a ‘wonderful’ array of tools we have placed before The Old Dragon. Satan will entice us to use any such enticement in order that ‘we’ destroy ‘ourselves.’ Such practices divert attention away from God and the grace offered by Jesus. Eventually, the soul is stifled, and spiritual blindness becomes permanent.
The focus of Satan is to see mankind deny God so that, upon our resurrection, God will judge our denial through the yardstick of our deeds, and we will be eternally separated from Him within perpetual torment.
Romans 8:7 “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”
The Legions of Satan:
Satan is now actively worshiped in the mainstream of community life. Many offer him reverence. He can call upon legions of both human beings and unclean spirits. Jesus rightly identified them. He called them out as ‘unclean spirits.’ Satan uses both the deluded who offer him homage and the spirit world of the unclean to exploit the sin nature. His goal is the destruction of mankind and the repudiation of Creation.
Many now wait at the ‘door’ that leads to the pit of eternal torment.
The Arrogance of Denial:
“If God exists (and mind you, I’m not saying he does), why should He have the right to exercise His will over mine?”
I recently watched the rant of a famous celebrity. This person, full of self-conceit and a ‘whoopee’ cushion that expels the noise of his own arrogant denial, hates God. He is personally affronted by the suggestion that God would condemn any of his lifestyle choices. How strange? On the one hand, he denies God and believes He does not exist – but if he does – he hates Him!
Jesus ended Satan’s hold over death, revealing the path of atonement for sin that leads to eternal life. Many still continue to seek this wonderful gift, but the mass of humanity refuses. They spit upon it as did certain of the Legionnaires attached to the Roman Crucifixion Detail spit upon the face of our Lord – the beauteous bud of Eden’s bower.
During the Tribulation’ end times,’ most of mankind will die unreconciled to God. They will face His throne, having refused every opportunity to seek the grace of atonement offered by Jesus. They will have missed the ‘cut’ and failed the test.
Sadly, we cannot exclude the deaths of those who were justified after Tribulation commenced. These are they who missed the Rapture. Most will be martyred.
This video will provide you with all the relevant Bible prophesy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5W32Z8NmRE&ab_channel=TiffShuttlesworth
COMMENT:
Jesus has already won a great ‘harvest’ of saved souls. These souls will stand before God in their resurrected, translated bodies. They are cleansed of their sin nature forever and are to receive the crowns that reward the lives they gave to God since coming to Him through Jesus. And, they will sing Him psalms of praise, offering God the glory which He is entitled to receive.
Satan cannot prevent the now imminent ‘snatching away’ of God’s redeemed harvest. Many millions from diverse backgrounds/religions and race have called upon God to forgive us through the grace offered by Jesus. Together, we await the trumpet call to rise: our judgment is complete.
“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thess, 4:16-18).
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal [must] put on immortality“ (1 Cor. 15:51-53).
KJV: “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
That day will be a day of wrath— a day of distress and anguish, a day of trouble and ruin, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness— a day of trumpet and battle cry” (Zephaniah 1:15–16).
Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Edited quote from bibletools.org – John Rittenberg
Satan is far wiser in an evil way than you are pure in a good way.
The world is asleep. Do you know what put us to sleep? The world did and this world is ruled by Satan. Does the parable in Matthew 25 say that we all went to sleep—all the virgins? However, God in His mercy has recently begun to shake us awake. So, go fill your lamp with oil and trim its wick, for the Bridegroom is at the door.
Romans 8:5-8 “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”
This terminally ill world is filled with self-appointed voices, all of whom prophesy an unlimited and glorious future because man always finds the ‘right’ solutions. Right now, the big idea is the globalization of commerce and politics and religion. But God says this spirit is deceitful above all things and incurably sick (Jeremiah 17:9).
Can Satan repent? He cannot. His is the spirit that drives and motivates all who deny God, and he exists at this time for that purpose.
In order for us to be saved, we have to be given an entirely different spirit. But that old unclean spirit of evil remains, and it keeps driving us on. (end edited quote: sermon by John Rittenberg)
Dear friends, to defeat Satan, we require KNOWLEDGE. Knowledge is power, and the power to overcome him lies in the Word of God, and we exercise that power through prayer.
Satan is a being that was created by the will of God. As a created being he is not and never will be, God. Therefore, it is the will of God that Satan is what he is.
Let us then, with reverent hearts and joyous tears, praise the LORD, for He is Our Most Holy God.
Amen.
(End of the Series – Coming to God I-IV)
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