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SATAN THE DEVIL
So alike has been the course of the nations which for four thousand years have successively dominated the affairs of this world
that historians have advanced the theory that "history repeats itself" . The way in which world powers had their beginnings, rose to prominence as world powers, and then declined to a state of obscurity is noted as common to all . Wars were featured by each. Oppression and intimidation were their stock in trade. Religion was an influential part of each.
Observing this similarity of experience down into our modern world, thinking men have voiced the questions, "Is it possible that a common invisible power has dominated all nations? Has the same guiding force been responsible for their similar acts of violence? Why should history seem to repeat itself? Will it always be thus?"
There is no point in guessing at the matter when the Bible, God's written Word, makes the evidence so plain. In the history of man, dating from his very creation, God proves that the idea of some intelligent superforce of wickedness in-fluencing both men and nations is no idle imagination. It is a fact. Consider the occasion of Christ at the beginning of his ministry here on earth. We are told, at Matthew, chapter 4, that immediately after his baptism in Jordan river Christ was led by the spirit into the wilderness "to be tempted by the Devil". Part of that tempting took the form of three proposals by the Devil to Christ, the third of which was as follows : "Again the Devil took him along to an unusually high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him : `All these things I will give you if you fall down and do an act of worship to me .' "-Matthew 4 :8,9.
From this it is unreasonable to think anything else than that all world governments were the Devil's property. How else could he have offered them to Christ? He was the invisible ruler of them . For that reason Christ was compelled to say : "My kingdom is no part of this world." "The ruler of the world is coming . And yet he has no hold on me." (John 18 :36 ; 14 :30, NW) The Devil's attributes of greed, cruelty and selfishness have characterized every government on earth . He is "the god of this system of things" . -2 Corinthians 4 :4, NW.
From where did Satan the Devil come? Why has a righteous God let him remain to influence men to wickedness? Will it always be that way? Is there no way for honest men to keep from under that influence? The one now the Devil was not always such . Time was when he enjoyed a high position in God's family. He was a spirit son of God . Contrary to the opinion of some, he was not an ugly creature with horns and tail, but was beautiful . The Bible figuratively describes him at Ezekiel 28 :12,13: "Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God ; every precious stone was thy covering ."
In keeping with his being a son of God, he was given a position of great trust and responsibility : that of overseer of humankind . The designated term for this office was, as stated in the Bible, at Ezekiel 28 :14, "the anointed cherub that covereth ." God had placed the perfect human pair in the garden of Eden, and it was the spirit cherub's duty to help them keep God's requirements and to educate them in their proper relationship to their Creator. That is why it could be said of him, "Thou hast been in Eden ."
:"For a time all went well in the universe and there was perfect peace throughout that righteous world. But it did not last . Greed and avariciousness entered in . The covering cherub had great visions. He saw a race of human creatures on a perfect earth, all with one accord giving their every devotion to Jehovah and acknowledging him as the great King and Giver of everything good .
He wanted that devotion and worship for himself, and so his heart became malicious . He rebelled against the theocratic arrangement . This is indicated by the new name given to him, namely, Satan, for that name means "opposer" .-1 Chronicles
21 :1 ; Job 1 :6-12.
So the covering cherub fell from his perfection and innocence . Why? God's sentence of destruction against him says : "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till unrighteousness was found in thee . Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty ; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness ." -Ezekiel 28 :15,17, AS . His self-admiring, self-seeking heart condition was first manifested by his cunningly and stealthily introducing sin into the world . God had told
the perfect human pair not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they might not die. The covering cherub, however, induced Eve to disobey . Through his visible mouthpiece, the serpent, he said to her: "Ye shall not surely die ." That was the first lie. It branded the cherub as the "father of the lie" .-John 8 :44, NW.
Although God pronounced sentence of death upon the cherub rebel, the wording of that sentence indicated there would be a long period of deferment before its execution : "I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed ; he shall crush your head, and you shall lie in wait for his heel ." (Genesis 3 :15, GB) The cherub rebel must have time to bring forth
some seed. From this point on in the Bible he is referred to as Serpent, Satan, Devil and Dragon . -Revelation 12 :9.
He turned the first pair away from God in disgrace, and he now reasoned that he was able to turn all human offspring into rebellion against Jehovah's universal sovereignty . He now appeared to have grounds for tauntingly addressing God and challenging him with the words : `Jehovah, you are not able to put on earth men whom I cannot by some means turn away from you .' '" Those words do not actually appear in the Bible, but the evidence that he said them in effect is clear and unmistakable. For such evidence, turn to Job 1 :6-11 (AS) and read : "Now it came to pass on the day when the sons of God came to present
themselves before Jehovah, that Satan also came among them. And Jehovah said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And Jehovah said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? for there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and turneth away from evil . Then Satan answered Jehovah, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? . . . thou hast blessed the work of his hands . . . . But put forth thy hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will renounce thee to thy face ."
That conversation discloses an issue of long standing between God and Satan . God's question, `From where do you come, Satan?' and Satan's reply, `From walking up and down in the earth,' indicated a license or permission on Jehovah's part to Satan to have a free hand to produce his seed or children from among men . In addition to disproving Satan's claim of ability to overthrow Jehovah's universal sovereignty, the issue included the matter of man's keeping integrity toward his Creator.
Job was an actual character of history . He was a great-grandnephew of Abraham and lived about 1,700 years before Christ, or some 2,300 years after the rebellion at Eden . All those 2,300 years men were given opportunity to prove their integrity to the Most High God. The issue was not new in Job's day
PROVED A LIAR
The pages of the Bible are full of accounts of those who failed their Creator under attack by Satan. On the other hand, there were those who, like Job, were able to take all that the adversary offered and by their course of action under such conditions prove him the "father of the lie" and entirely incapable of being a universal ruler like the Most High God. The Jews gave a national example of failure . When they, as a nation, made conscientious effort to serve Jehovah and keep his commandments he was with them, fought their battles for them, and gave them economic prosperity . When they succumbed to the Devil's offers and fell for the popular practices of the heathen nations round about them, Jehovah withdrew his protection and as a nation and as individuals they suffered at the hands of Satan.
At no time, however, has Satan the Devil succeeded in turning all creatures away from the Creator. At every period of history from Abel on there have lived faithful men and women whose integrity to God was above reproach and whom the Devil did not succeed in turning away from the true worship . It was so with Christ Jesus . Although he died an ignominious death at the hands of Satan's agents, Satan was unable to prove by him that keeping integrity toward God was not possible for human creatures under any condition that the Devil might bring .
It was Christ whom the Scriptures showed to be the promised Seed to bruise the Serpent's head ; and at Revelation 12 :7-9 (NW) appears the vision of his taking steps toward that act immediately upon coming into his kingship : "War broke out in heaven : Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven . So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth ; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him ." The evidence is plentiful that this vision was realized during A.D. 1914-1918 .
Although history has appeared to repeat itself at intervals, it must be agreed that present unsettled conditions of the world exceed anything previous in scope and magnitude . The reason is that Satan no longer has access to heaven but has been cast down to this earth, and all his wicked angels or demons with him . He is still the unseen spirit ruler of disobedient humankind, and despite
his fall he is determined to rule or ruin .
After his fall the cry rings out : "Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time." (Revelation 12 :12, NW) We are in that short period of woe right now. Satan, knowing his time to prove his claims is limited, now turns his fury on all . In every field of endeavor he influences leaders and common man
alike to acts of greed, selfishness and violence, and all the world is in confusion. Many embittered people are doing just what Satan intended : turning away from God, who they think is bringing the sorrows, but who is in fact only permitting Satan to prove, if he can, his boastful claims of supremacy and man's inability to keep integrity . The time limit for his attempts at proof is about up, and the Devil and his demons know it . They must shudder at the thought. "You believe there is one God, do you? You are doing quite well. And yet the demons believe and shudder." -James 2 :19, NW.
So subtle has been his attack over the thousands of years that today many people doubt the existence of either Satan or his wicked demons . To them sin, wickedness, and evil are merely abstract conditions inherent in humans. One way he blinds people to his existence is explained at 2 Corinthians 11 :14 (NW) : "Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light ." His
devices for fooling the people appear very innocent . A United Nations and other world security organizations, united church movements, and the like, are all his schemes to blind people to the real remedy. But it will not always be that way . Revelation 20 :1-3 tells us of the time when the archdeceiver will be completely restrained from his activity. He will be bound and abyssed for a thousand years, to mislead the nations and peoples no more until it is God's time to loose him for a little while . In the meantime deceit, lying, and hypocrisy continue .
Where do you stand in this matter of integrity? Are you by your course of action lending support to Satan's contention? Many meek persons are seeking Jehovah's approval and by faithful conduct are proving the Devil a liar . One way of gaining God's approval is stated at 2 Timothy 2 :15 (NW) : "Do your utmost to present yourself approved to God, a workman with nothing to be
ashamed of, handling the word of the truth aright ." It is God's Word which tells us of the subtle machinations of Satan, and by handling it aright we are able to withstand him . "Oppose the Devil, and he will flee from you."-James 4:7, NW. This does not mean we can now come to the point where we are immune from assault by the Devil. Until Satan is completely restrained that
will never be. It does mean, however, that we will not be misled into supporting Satan's side of the controversy . Our principal fight now is against unseen forces. "We have a fight, not against blood and flesh, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places."-Ephesians 6 :12, NW. "The ultimate end of Satan is complete annihilation. This is made sure by Christ's words to those who have been deceived by the wicked one : "Be on your way from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels ." (Matthew 25 :41, NW) What is destroyed by everlasting fire is preserved nowhere, but is consumed for everlasting.
The "lake of fire and sulphur" into which Satan is finally cast means everlasting death . "This means the second death, the lake of fire ." (Revelation 20 :14, NW) Christ Jesus will see to it that Satan the Devil does not live forever, for we read, at Hebrews 2 :14 (NW) : "He also similarly partook of the same things, that through his death he might destroy the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil ." Jehovah God also says to Satan, the unfaithful "covering cherub" : "I will destroy thee, 0 covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire . . . . and never shalt thou be any more ." (Ezekiel 28 :16-19) Then the god of this system of things will no longer be able to control mankind and invisibly dominate them . Satan will be dead!
So, be armed with knowledge . Inform yourself. "Keep your senses, be watchful . Your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone . But take your stand against him, solid in the faith, knowing that the same things in the way of sufferings are being accomplished in the entire association of your brothers in the world."-1 Peter 5 :8, 9, NW.