THE DEVIL, SATAN One of the most important keys to understanding the Bible is found in Revelation 12:9, which tells us that we have all been deceived by the devil. “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Satan deceives everyone in the world. Everyone. Nobody is exempt from Satan’s deceptions. Everyone you talk to or get information from is deceived by the devil. When you watch television, you are watching and listening to people who are deceived, and who are passing their deceptions on to you. If you go to school, you receive instruction from teachers who are deceived. If you go to college, you are taught by professors who are deceived. When you read the newspapers or the news magazines, you are reading the opinions of authors who are deceived by Satan. The only hope we have of penetrating this wall of lies and deception which Satan has built around us is the Bible, the standard for truth in our world. Remember that God cannot lie. (Titus 1:2). How do you deceive someone? If you always tell a person the truth, will you be able to deceive him? No — you must lie to him in order to deceive him. Does Satan therefore lie? In John 8:44, Jesus says, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” There is no truth at all in Satan; he is a liar. Satan therefore deceives the entire world by lying. He is the grand master of subtlety and deceit. His lies are, for the most part, so subtle that human beings do not recognize them as lies; they accept them as truth. Thus they are deceived. Satan, however, does use the truth to deceive; for if a person were told something that is completely false, he often would be smart enough to recognize the lie. On the other hand, if some of what he is being told is the truth, he is less likely to detect the part that is false; he will accept the lie and be deceived. Consider how this process of deception works to make people believe so many lies that they are unable to accept the truth. The truth, in fact, seems so strange to them that they immediately put it out of their minds as being completely wrong. What happens when a person is raised in an atmosphere of lies? Suppose, for instance, to use an actual example from history at the time of Columbus, that when a person is a small child he is told that the earth is flat. All during his childhood his parents, teachers, and friends always refer to the earth as flat. In college his professors tell him that the earth is flat. Then, should someone come along and tell him that the earth is not flat, but round like a globe, contrary to what everyone else has told him, what would he think? He would think that the person telling him the truth was totally in error. He would not be able to accept the truth, for the truth would seem so strange and impossible to him. This point is of extreme importance; for until we realize that we have been raised and educated in an atmosphere of lies and are largely deceived, we will not be able to accept the truth. This is the situation in which mankind finds itself here on earth. We have been told Satan’s clever lies from birth. They have been so ingrained in us, they so deeply affect how we think and act that, for many, accepting the truth is almost impossible. Satan deceives the whole world, for he is much more clever than any man. Man does not stand a chance against him without the grace, the power, and the Word of God. One of the most successful of Satan’s deceptions is the promulgation of the belief that he and his angels are not here on the earth, but in hell. As has been shown, the Bible makes it clear that Satan and his evil angels are here with us on the earth right now and that they are indeed real personalities, real beings, engaged in a life-and-death struggle. Satan does not want us to realize this, for our ignorance on this point makes us much more susceptible, much more vulnerable to his lies and deceptions. Why does Satan work so hard to deceive the world? We read in Revelation 12:12: “Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” He is angry, “having great wrath.” Why? Because he knows that he has only a short time left. He knows that he is going to die, and he knows that he will be ashes on the surface of the earth. (Ezekiel 28:18). Consider what must be going through the mind of Satan, the most beautiful and the most intelligent being of all God’s creation, who was the manager of the entire universe, second only to God Himself. As a result of the war in heaven, Satan was cast out of heaven to the earth. He was not cast out to hell. He lost his exalted position in heaven and is now on the earth with the angels he deceived into following him, and he knows that he is going to die. Satan, naturally, does not want to die. He remembers the beauty of his heavenly home. He remembers the glory of the unfallen worlds. He remembers the delightful companionship he enjoyed with God and with all the host of heaven before he sinned. He remembers the glory he had as he stood beside the throne of God. And he knows he has but a short time left; he knows he is going to die. This is why he is angry. He is angry because he lost the war; he is angry because he lost his position and everything else he had in heaven; and he is angry because he does not want to die. He will do anything in his power to prolong his life, and the angels who were cast out of heaven with him will help him in his purposes because they do not want to die either. James 2:19 tells us that Satan and his host of devils tremble as they contemplate the fate that they will one day experience. “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” How can Satan and his evil angels prolong their lives? God must wait for a specific event to develop here on earth before He can bring to a close this drama of the ages and end the suffering, misery, pain, and death so prevalent in our world. Most of the events and situations that occur on earth, therefore, are designed by Satan for only one purpose: to keep him alive. If Satan can prevent this one event from occurring, or delay its occurring, he can prolong his life. The destiny of the world is at stake as mankind, ignorant of these facts, rushes headlong to destruction. Satan’s plans for keeping himself alive as long as possible include a supreme effort on his part to keep people from learning and understanding the Bible. He and his angels expend enormous amounts of energy deceiving the people of earth in order to keep them from understanding the truth about him and about this great controversy which he has created. The situation for which God is waiting and the plan behind Satan’s efforts to continue living will be explained in great detail in following chapters. So serious is this deluge of lies and deception that God has warned us to be constantly on the alert. First Peter 5:8 tells us to “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” An adversary is an enemy. Satan is our enemy, and his deceptions turn many away from the truth. The devil has been able to lead dedicated church members, for instance, gradually to compromise the pure truth of the Bible. The devil, working through human agents, brings about a slight change in doctrine, and the people, not wanting to cause trouble, fail to protest. They accept the change even though they may not like it, simply to keep peace. Of course, after a short while the change doesn’t seem so bad, and the devil is ready to institute another tiny change. After twenty or so years of this, if the people of the church wake up to what is being done to them, they will find themselves not a little out of line, but way out of line. This subtle tactic could be called “patient gradualism.” We must always be alert, for the devil never rests. Remember, he does not want to die. He is fighting for his life. Satan uses people to achieve his ends, but he has no love for the people he deceives into serving him. In fact, Satan looks with utter contempt upon the inhabitants of earth, for they are far inferior to him in intelligence, physical strength, and stature. Also, the fact that man was created in God’s image rankles him. We get a further understanding of the extent of our deception in 2 Corinthians 4:4, which explains that Satan “hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of The Messiah, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” Satan makes it impossible for unbelievers to see and understand the truth of God. Satan blinds them to the truth and then substitutes his lies and deceptions. Unless a person makes an earnest effort to find, understand, and accept the truth, Satan will so completely confuse him that truth will seem as foolishness to him. Proverbs 16:25 tells us that “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Why does the wrong way seem to be the right way? The way seems right because Satan has deceived men into thinking that what is wrong is right. The way seems right when we believe the lies that Satan has spread so profusely throughout the world. The devil is the grand master of subtlety and deceit, for he knows perfectly how to deceive human beings without their realizing it. Satan makes his lies sound reasonable and true. In order to know the right way, we must accept exactly what God tells us in the Bible no matter how strange it may seem. We must disregard our feelings and believe only what the Bible says, for God, remember, cannot lie. We have to realize that our intuition cannot be relied upon to lead us correctly, for the wrong way often seems right to us. Just as man’s wisdom is foolishness to God, man in his pathetic ignorance treats the things of God as foolishness. First Corinthians 2:14 says, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him.” Take a look at some other verses of Scripture which warn us of Satan’s almost overwhelming power to deceive. In Matthew 24:24 Jesus Himself warns that “There shall arise false messiah, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” The Messiah is warning here that false messiahs will appear performing miracles and that even true Israelite will almost be deceived. It is hard for the human mind to imagine this almost overpowering deception. One of these false messiahs will, of course, be Satan himself. For every truth of the Bible, Satan has, or will have, his counterfeit in the world. He has given the world counterfeits that are so close to the genuine, so close to Bible truth that millions of people are fooled and deceived. He has used this technique very successfully in the past, is using it today, and will use it in the future to deceive the entire world. Satan is going to counterfeit the return of The Messiah, and millions will be deceived because they have not studied the Bible enough to be able to detect the counterfeit. They have instead listened to pastors and ministers who preach the propaganda which is preparing the world to accept the devil’s greatest counterfeit. Remember that Satan is the most beautiful and the most intelligent being that God ever created. Human eyes have never beheld an angel in all his glory, and when Satan walks the streets of the cities and towns of earth, performing miracles and claiming to be The Messiah, practically the entire world will fall down and worship him. Satan will raise his hands in blessing the people, and the people will prostrate themselves before him, worshiping him, believing that he is The Messiah. Almost everyone will be hypnotized by the overwhelming glory, beauty, and power which the devil will display. He will repeat in a soft, comforting voice many of the words which The Messiah spoke when He was on earth. He will heal the sick and perform other miracles and great works, claiming that he is The Messiah. His demonstration will be thoroughly convincing to virtually everyone on earth. In chapter five the return of The Messiah is covered in detail; if we know exactly how The Messiah will return, we will not be fooled as the devil wants us to be. Consider 2 Corinthians 11:14,15. “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” Here we see that Satan will have his ministers standing in the pulpits of the churches of the world preaching his very cleverly designed counterfeits of the true message from God. Our world is inundated with lies from the devil, and as we see here, his lies come from places from which we would not expect them. The devil puts his agents into positions where people naturally put their trust, and then it is relatively easy for him to deceive them. People trust their ministers and readily believe what their ministers tell them. From Satan’s ministers, standing in the pulpits of many of the churches of the world, comes the propaganda required to condition the people of earth to accept his counterfeits of Bible truth so that they will believe his impersonation of Christ returning to earth. “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, WHICH DECEIVETH THE WHOLE WORLD: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:9). Of course not all ministers are Satan’s agents. Satan puts his ministers wherever he can and in as many places as he can. How, then, can we know whether a particular minister speaks the truth or not? Isaiah 8:20 tells us, “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” The test is the Bible. If they teach anything which disagrees with the Bible, we see that there is no truth (light) in them. When a minister teaches a doctrine that disagrees with the Bible, you will know that he is not on the Lord’s side but is working for Satan. Of course these false ministers claim to be preaching according to the Bible, but it is the responsibility of each of us to search the complete Scriptures for ourselves to see if what they say is correct, remembering that there can be no contradictions in the Bible. Matthew 7:21-23 talks about dedicated church members whom Satan has been able to deceive so extensively that God cannot take them to heaven. They think they are serving the Lord, and they work diligently doing many wonderful works; but it is all in vain because they have gotten too far from Bible truth. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” What better way for Satan to keep people out of The Messiah’s true church than to create the confusion of some 500 false religions (denominations)? When The Messiah was on earth 2000 years ago, He established his true church, one church, not 500 different churches. Most people give up in despair their attempt to find the right one. They convince themselves that it does not matter which one they attend, but God will never accept any of Satan’s counterfeit religions. One of the most powerful deceptions which Satan uses against the inhabitants of earth is the tactic of psychological group pressure. If he can get a group of people to believe one of his lies, he will use that group to pressure others into accepting the lie. It is extremely difficult for one person to stand up for the truth when nearly everyone else is against it. Most people are not strong enough to resist the pressure to conform. People reason that if the majority believes something, it must be right; yet the Bible indicates that everyone is deceived. When the Bible tells us something that most people disagree with, we must have the faith to accept what the Bible says regardless of the tremendous pressure which Satan can bring to bear, for the Bible is true. Another tactic of Satan is to put his agents into positions of leadership and authority in various organizations, churches, and government, and have them appear to be true Israelite. These agents can lie and do practically anything else necessary to further Satan’s cause, and the people seem unable to realize what is taking place. Consider next the pain, suffering, and sickness in the world. The Bible says that God is loving, gentle, meek, and kind. Would a god like this cause pain and unhappiness to His creatures? No, of course not. Then where do all the disease germs come from? Where do all the things that cause pain and discomfort such as poison ivy, mosquitoes, etc. come from? These things are not as God created them. God never put thorns on the rosebush or on the berry bushes. When God created the earth, it was the ultimate in beauty. There was nothing to cause pain, discomfort, or suffering. Isaiah 11:6-9 describes how all of God’s creatures will relate to one another in His new earth, which He has not yet created. These are the same conditions that existed in the beginning before sin destroyed the paradise of Eden. “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Beresheet/Genesis 1:31 tells us that “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Everything was in perfect harmony with everything else. None of God’s creatures ever hurt another or made another unhappy. Where, then, did these obnoxious things come from? Where do the diseases from which mankind suffers come from? Why do animals and human beings hurt and kill one another now when they did not do this originally? Why does the lion eat other animals now instead of straw like the ox, as it did before? Consider the experience of the apostle Paul. A dedicated soldier of truth for the Lord and writer of many of the books of the New Testament, Paul had a physical infirmity. In 2 Corinthians 12:7, he tells us where his infirmity came from. “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” Paul says that his problem was from Satan. He also says that he was given the problem so that he would not become proud because of the abundance of God’s revelations to him. God revealed to Paul the whole truth concerning Satan’s rebellion, and it is easy to see that this privilege might have tended to make Paul proud. You see, God did not afflict Paul, but He allowed Satan to do so. Another text that shows that the devil is the cause of pain and suffering is Luke 13:11. “And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.” Here a woman is described who was paralyzed in a bowed-together position, probably with arthritis, for eighteen years. Did God do this to that poor woman and make her suffer for eighteen years? Of course not. God is the ultimate of love and kindness. In Luke 13:16, The Messiah explains who did do this to the woman. “And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” You see, Satan afflicted this woman just as he afflicted Paul and just as he causes sickness and suffering in our world today. Satan is the one who causes all disease and suffering in our world. Satan does not have the ability to create. This is one of the reasons why he became jealous of God. Satan cannot create, but he can and does tamper with what God created. Satan tampers with the biological information contained in the genes of the living cells and causes mutations to occur, which in turn cause variations in God’s creatures. Thus Satan has changed beneficial types of life into the types that annoy or cause damage and sickness. He changed the lion, for instance, which in the beginning ate straw like the ox just as it will do in God’s new earth, into a beast which now kills other animals. As we behold the earth today and everything in it, we are looking at what God created as defiled and changed by the devil. Even human beings have been greatly changed since creation. Why does God tolerate such a thing? The earth as it came from the hands of the Creator was beautiful beyond description. All nature was one harmonious whole, without dissension among any of God’s creatures. There was no sickness, no pain, no misery or trouble of any kind. All the animals trusted one another, and they trusted Adam and Eve. Adam could call to the animals of the forest and they would immediately come to him. He could call to the birds of the air and they would gladly come and sit on his finger or on his shoulder. All nature was in perfect harmony with itself and in perfect harmony with God. But when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, Satan claimed dominion over the earth. God must allow him to have his own way, even though God thoroughly detests all the evil and trouble, for one of the purposes of this drama on earth is to make the entire universe understand completely the vile nature of sin (which, you will remember, is the transgression of God’s law, the Ten Commandments. 1 John 3:4). The purpose of this drama is to show that men cannot “do their own thing” without causing misery, pain, death, and destruction. The purpose of this drama is to show the abominable things people will do when they disregard God’s law. So God allows Satan the free run of the earth to cause all kinds of havoc. God must allow this; for if He did not, Satan could accuse God of restricting his actions. Then when things got worse on the earth, Satan could claim that it was God’s fault because He restricted Satan’s actions. God must allow Satan to run his own show in this theater of the universe as he sees fit; otherwise all this misery and unhappiness on the earth will have been in vain, and the great controversy would remain unsettled. Why do you suppose Satan has changed God’s creation in such a degrading way? One of the reasons is to discredit God. Often when there is sickness or death, when there is a flood, an earthquake, a tornado, or a hurricane, God is blamed for it. The devil is responsible for all the misery, suffering, pain, and death, and the whole world blames God for having created the earth in such a condition. But in spite of the fact that the devil has changed God’s creation so extensively, much of its original beauty remains. Are you beginning to understand Satan a little? Satan is the arch-deceiver, the arch-liar. He has the entire world believing that God’s personality and character are like his. The Bible makes it very clear that God is loving, gentle, meek, kind, longsuffering, and totally just. But Satan has mankind convinced that God is exactly the opposite. In the minds of men Satan has transferred his personality to God, and God is blamed for everything that Satan does. Satan degenerates the wonderful creation of God by his mutations and then deceives the human race into believing that God created all the ills of this world. Today, when people get sick, they try to understand why God makes them suffer. When one of their loved ones dies, they accuse God of taking him. Yet these people say that they love God. How can a person love someone who does such terrible things to him? You see, most people do not even know the God they claim to love. If God were the way they think He is, their relationship to Him would be a pretty sick one. The next chapter will discuss who God is and what His personality and character are really like. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” No, we do not wrestle with men. Our real enemies are the devil and his numerous evil angels. Remember, the devil and his angels are engaged in a fight to the death. We are engaged in a war for our total mind, soul, and, body. Yet most people are completely unaware of this fact. Satan does not want to die, and he will do everything in his power to prevent from occurring the situation for which The Messiah is waiting before returning to this earth. The devil will play dirty. He will use every foul trick imaginable. He will put forth the most believable of lies. The entire human race is expendable to Satan in his efforts to prolong his life. If you can imagine the meanest, most despotic, sadistic, arrogant, ruthless, self-centered, unjust, totally depraved personality possible, you might get some idea of Satan’s personality. And remember, he is the most intelligent being of God’s entire creation. He has been so subtle in his lies and deception that he has fooled the entire population of earth, the actors in this theater of the universe. All Glory to The God of Yisrael...
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 03:24:35 +0000
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