The Bible is God’s revealed Word recorded and preserved in written form. A collection of sixty-six books (Genesis to Revelation) and broken down into two sections, the Old Testament and New Testament. Approximately forty authors contributed over a span of about fifteen hundred years. The subject matter ranges from the creation of the world to the destruction of the world and the next life. It covers activities of God, Angels, Satan and Man. It speaks authoritatively on all subjects as the authors miraculously worked under the guidance of the Holy Spirit resulting in a divinely inspired text. Its contents include history, science, poetry, allegory, parables, and many other literary devices to convey its message. It expands our minds by revealing God’s attributes, purposes, and glory. The Bible confirms the sinful nature of mankind and magnificently frames Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. Conversely, one of the recurring themes scattered throughout the Bible is the person, power and presence of Satan.
Satan is the adversary of God and accuser of believers. He was originally a Holy Angel who rebelled and suffered a divine judgment. He was not your typical angel. Satan was created as perhaps the most powerful and beautiful angel of all (Ezekiel 28:12). It was this place of authority, wisdom and beauty that led him to sin through a manifestation of pride in which he choose to usurp the throne of his Creator, the Most High God. Satan and an undisclosed number of angels who sided with him suffered a divine judgment apparently prior to the creation of our race. This fall from heaven is not thoroughly explained in the Bible and we must be careful not to add to what has been revealed to avoid falling into error. The fact that Satan exists as a person in the spiritual realm rather than a metaphorical character representing evil is clear. He is a spiritual being who serves as a leader to the army of demons whom he controls. Though retaining some of his original attributes, he has been judged, sentenced and is awaiting his certain destiny in the lake of fire. He is often mistakenly thought of in connection with heinous acts of immorality but these are merely the fruit of man’s sinful nature (Galatians 5:19-21). Satan’s goal was, and is, to be like the Most High God and is manipulating world events to that end (up to the extent that God allows). Satan’s network of fallen angels (demons) executes what must be a vast array of activities that attack God and God’s people on many levels. Satan is destructive to mankind. He is a murderer, destroyer and deceiver (John 8:44) but will rise to become a powerful leader of the world and counterfeit savior to our race. The whole world will fall for his deception and then will be forced to offer him the worship he so badly desires. Eventually the end will come and the Second Coming of Christ will dethrone Satan. While there is not one chapter or book in the Bible that completely describes the history and prophecy regarding Satan, we will review some fragments scattered throughout. To address the overall concept of why an omniscient God would initiate a plan including an evil opponent, we will review the career and destiny of Satan backwards, from the end to the beginning.
Next Section: The Final Destiny of Satan
Table of Contents: The Fate of Satan
Text for this post has been borrowed from my Kindle eBook The Fate of Satan (Book 3 of the Grace and Knowledge Series) by Brother Woody Brohm. Copyright 2016.
All Scripture quoted from:
New International Version (NIV)
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