Thursday, February 02, 2012

The devil (part 2)

There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him (Revelation 12:7-9).

From the very beginning, people have wondered about Satan. Where did he come from? How powerful is he? Why does he hate us?

Some religions paint the devil as God’s equal in power. According to them, God and Satan compete for our allegiance in a massive war of good versus evil. At the end of time, we can only hope that God’s side will be triumphant.

Satan would love you to believe this propaganda. But Holy Scripture reveals the comforting truth. Satan is not God’s equal—the devil is nothing more than an angel, corrupted by his own selfish pride and arrogance. God made the angels, just as He made each of us. Satan made a foolish and self-serving choice—he wanted to sit on God’s throne and be in charge, and rallied support among a portion of the angelic host. As a result, the devil and his followers were banished from heaven; bitter over this defeat, they cause endless trouble here on earth, until the day when Christ returns and sends them to be chained in hell forever.

Many have wondered why God created Satan, if He knew the devil would eventually turn against Him? This is no different than wondering why God let Adam and Eve turn to evil in the Garden of Eden? Wiser men than I have wrestled with this question, but the simple truth is that we don’t know—the Bible does not tell us. We do know that God wants us to love Him, but He never forces the issue—He allows stubborn fools to walk away, even though life apart from God leads to eternity in hell with Satan and his fellow demons. God loves us and wants us to be with Him in His kingdom, but He does not force obedience or compliance.

Satan has one goal—strike at God through us. The devil does everything he can to steal from the Almighty our attention and our affection. The devil knows he cannot win, so he resorts to the cowardly tactics of a common terrorist.

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