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whom administer God's government
in obedience, and another third who
are in a state of rebellion.
Let's notice the very first
encounter of a human being with
the world of spirit. God said: " Let
us make man in
our image,
after
our likeness: and let them have
dominion ..
." (Gen. l :26). God
had created man to be
like him-to
develop character and ultimately
share eternity with God in the very
Family
of God.
Shortly after this relationship was
established, Satan appeared to our
first parents as a cunning serpent.
Notice his approach: " Yea, hath
God said, Ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden?" (Gen.
3: l ) .
Immediately, Satan began put–
ting questions and doubts in the
first woman's mind: " H as God
real/y
withheld something from
you ?
Perhaps God is noc fa ir. "
Then after hearing the woman
tell of the
death penalty
for sin,
Satan told the woman:
"Ye s hall
noc surely die:
for God doth know
that in the day ye eat thereof, then
you r eyes shall be opened, and
ye
sha/1 be as gods.
knowing good and
evil" (vs. 4-6).
So now, Satan was in effect call–
ing God a
liar- accusing
God of
withholding the forbidden fruit in
order to keep man down and
pre–
venc him f rom becoming
"as
gods."
Satan is the accuser. He is also
the "father of líes." So he will often
accuse God or God's true ser–
vants- whom Satan hates- of
be–
ing guilty of the very thi ngs that
he, Satan, is guilty of.
In his deceptive approach to the
first human beings, Satan
/ied.
He
accused
God. And he also appealed
to physical lusts· - the tree looked
appealing. Satan appealed to intel–
lectual and spi ritual vanity:
"Y
e
sha/1 be as gods.
knowing good and
evil." The devi l
very often
tries to
impart the feeling that you are jus–
tified in trying to "get" what you
want
right now.
You don't need to wait unt il you
can properly
prepare,
for example,
for marriage, work and save enough
money for the new motorbike or
car. Jus t ·'get it " any way you
can--according to Satan's reason–
ing. " Get ' sex without real !ove,
commitment, preparation and mar–
September / October 1982
riage. "Get" material things by
stealing them, buying them on time
payments you can't really afford,
borrow money to buy them. But
"gel" them and get them
now.
"You owe it to yourself," Satan
says. "You
deserve
this vacation."
Ever hear that kind of adver–
tising before? Who do you thi nk
really started this philosophy?
But
most of a/1,
Satan wants to
oppose
God's plan for mankind.
The devi l thinks he can defeat
G od's plan for man if he can
deceive
man into believing that he
is the true God and that the devil
and demons don't exist.
The Oevil and Job
l
n the first two chapters of the
book of Job we have a remarkable
account of Satan's act ivities and
method of operation.
Notice! When God pointed out
to Satan that the patriarch J ob was
a good and upright man, what did
Satan do?
Satan wanted to
tear down
and
destroy
Job and all that he had.
Satan
resented
Job's character and
therefore his promised destiny to
rule under God over the earth and
to " judge" the angels and Satan's
demons
(1
Cor.
6:3) .
So be immediately s ta rted to
accuse
God's servant Job. Satan
implied that J ob had wrong motives.
Satan challenged God : " But put
forth thine hand now, and touch all
that he hath , and he will curse thee
to thy face" (Job
l: 11 ).
God responded : " Behold, all that
he hath is in thy power; only upon
himself put not forth thine hand. "
Then foll ows the account of how
Satan
smote
and
destroyed
virtual–
!y all that J ob had. No wonder one
of Satan 's names is "the
d e–
stroyer"!
Later, Satan gained permission
and began to
d es troy
Job 's
health-bringing him to despair
and to the brink of death. Yet ,
notice that Satan can only go as far
as God
allows
him. He can do
nothing
without God's permission
(Job 1: 12 and 2:6).
But how did Satan become what
he
is~satanic?
Long Before Star Wars
The popular, award-winning movie,
Star Wars.
obviously had its gene-
sis in biblical themes.
Does Lord
Darth Vader live?
Yes, in a sense, he does live. He
lives in the person of a brill iant,
powerful , supe rarchangel , com–
monly called Lucifer, who rebelled
against his Creator and led off one
thi rd of the hundreds of mill ions of
angels in a literal
Star Wars
type of
battle in space (see Isaiah 14:12- 15
and Revelation 12:3-4). This gar–
gantuan battle-and there is anoth–
er one coming up just befare the
end of this age-simply dwarfed
the
Star Wars
scenario. Because
these battles in an unseen world
were and are
real-they
affect your
li fe,
your ultimate destiny
and the
future of whole nations (see Daniel
12:1 for an example).
In Daniel 10:10- 14, God gives usa
brief glimpse into
b~hind-the-scenes
spirit
BATTLES
that determine the
well-being and destiny of entire
nations and peoples. Here, an angel
or messenger from God to Daniel
was obstructed by the power of
Satan for three weeks until the arch–
angel Michael carne to his aid!
1
n Revelation 12:12- 14 , it is
revealed that after Satan's second
final massive assault agains t God's
throne, the devil himself will be cast
to earth with his
total fury
concen–
trated against the true Church of
God- the Church that keeps God's
commandments and has the test imo–
ny of J esus Christ (verse
17) .
In the months and years immedi–
ately ahead , God's true command–
ment-keeping Church is going to be
accused, harassed and assaulted by
Satan in
every possible way.
And
God's birthright people, the Ameri–
can and British peoples, are going to
be hated , harassed and eventually
brought to thei r knees through a
Satan-i nspired, fi nal religiopolitical
restoration of the Roman Empire.
Unless our nations
totally repent
and begin to
keep God's command–
ments,
God wi ll permit this coming
time of national trial to teach us les–
sons that we seemingly cannot or
will not
learn any other way. Even in
the darkest hours of the years just
ahead, remember that Satan cannot
go
one inch
farther than the great
Goo allows.
Never forget that!
" God of this World"
Satan is called the " god of this
world" in 11 Corinthians 4:4. He is
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