Before man existed the angel Lucifer was the highest order of all Angels. Satan and Devil are titles which mean adversary (of God), accuser (of believers). In fact, he was appointed by God to be the Guardian of his throne. In Ezek. 28:12-15 God describes Lucifer before his fall. “You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, You were in Eden the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering…on the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I (God) placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked in the midst of the stones of the fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you” Eventually Satan used his own free will, became arrogant and desired to rule over the entire universe even to the point of becoming God. Isa. 14:13-14 “But you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the most high.” Rev. 12:4 and 12:9 describes the fall of Satan and one third of the Angels. “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven (angels) and did cast them to the earth.” (12:9) “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and satan who deceives the whole world; he was cast out into the Earth, and his angels (now called demons) were cast out with him.” Satan had a free will to choose for or against God. Satan choose against God. God cast Satan out of heaven to the earth and this caused an immediate conflict between the Elect angels and the fallen angels. Satan “appealed” Gods ruling to cast him out of Heaven.
During his appeal he was cast down to earth and will be cast into the lake of fire at the final judgment along with the unbelievers. Rev. 20:10. “And the devil that had deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.” God, as a demonstration of his fairness to the Elect angels (the ones who choose to stay with God), set up a test. Man was created. He was created perfect and put in a place of perfect environment with a perfect mate. Man was given a free will to choose for or against God just as Satan had been given. Satan tempted the woman and she sinned by eating of the forbidden fruit. The man also sinned because he listened to the woman and ate of the fruit. The woman was deceived and the man willfully disobeyed God because the command to not eat was given to him. As a result they were cast out of the garden into a cursed world. Genesis 3:17-19 “Because thou has harkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee and thou shall eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.” Now man was in a fallen condition like Satan with one exception. John 3:16 “For you see that God loved the world so much that he gave his uniquely born Son so that whosoever believes in him will never perish but have everlasting life.”
Man has a way out of his condemnation but Satan does not. We are the test. Will man believe in a God which he cannot see even against the deceit of Satan? Will man put his faith in Jesus Christ with the whole worlds religious and secular systems against him? If only one person believes in Jesus Christ Gods judgment of Satan is vindicated for all to see. Many millions have come to Christ and each one who does proves Gods judgment fair and Satan’s accusations of God false. The entire period of human history is the appeal trial of Satan. He uses every trick in the book to deceive people. Godless evolution, sexual perversion, false teaching churches and religions, Satanism and demonism, the lust for money, fame, material possessions etc. Satan is very clever. He will twist the truth ever so slightly as to make it seem true so that an unsuspecting person will believe it to be truth. In the case of evolution he has presented a concept that seems plausible on the surface but with further study exposes itself to be not only false but absurd. Many people are deceived by it because they do not seek truth and will not bother to study the matter in depth. Satan with the help of his demons will do whatever it takes to keep a persons focus off of Jesus Christ. He study’s you. He knows your weaknesses. He throws out stumbling blocks at the right time to make you doubt God and his Word. He sets up things such as political correctness to try and force people to say they believe in things which they know are not true so that they will feel like they are “going along with the crowd” and therefore cannot be singled out as a troublemaker by society. He uses these things to break up families so that children will be raised by only one parent. It is usually the woman. The one who was deceived. This is an attempt to have children raised without the wisdom and discipline of a father. Satan works his hardest within the church. He has set up a system which leaves out Jesus Christ entirely. This is where he twists the truth the most. For example, How many times have you heard that to be saved you must “invite Jesus into your heart?” This is a very common statement in most churches even conservative ones. It is, however, a false one. It comes from Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him and he with me.” What is missing here? There is no “invite” or “heart” in this verse. Faith is absent in the phrase “Invite Jesus into your heart and be saved.” A person could say; O.K. Jesus if you are real I invite you into my heart.
Where is the faith in that? In context, opening the door is believing in Christ not inviting. There is a difference in believing and inviting. If I believe in you I accept everything about you. If I invite you somewhere I don’t necessarily believe in you. I could invite an atheist to dinner but that doesn’t mean that I believe what he says or does. Churches are filled with all sorts of false clichés such as weeping tears of repentance at the alter, walking down the isle, making Christ Lord of your life, feeling sorry for your sins, repenting of your sins, turning away from your sins, kicking the devil out, being baptized etc. Satan is at the very heart of these false systems of salvation. Each one has one thing in common; Jesus Christ and faith are excluded. So then, what is the true way of salvation? The very next verse tells us: Rev. 3:21 “To him that overcomes, I will grant to sit with me in my throne…Who is he that overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God” 1 John 5:5 “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8.
