The Bible Explained, part 28/40: Life and Death of Satan

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THE BIBLE EXPLAINED

A Guide to the Holy Bible
for Parents and Teenagers

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Where did you come from?
What is your purpose?
What happens when you die?

These questions--and more--are answered in 'The
Bible Explained', which is based on the teachings
of the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible is a collection
of ancient books which claim to be the word of the
one and only God. This one and only God claims to
be the sole creator, owner, and sustainer of all
things; he further claims to hold the one and only
key to eternal life. Are these claims true? Get
the facts and then decide for yourself.

This document is meant to be understood by everyone,
and is therefore written in plain, simple language,
avoiding complex religious jargon.

Understand the Bible like never before.

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Introduction
Quest for Truth
The Holy Bible
Origin and Destiny
The Big Picture: Good and Evil
The Story of Man
The Purpose of the Earth
The Standard and the Test
Work: The Key to Success and Life
Pyramid Society
Failure of Man
Male and Female
Family Relationships
Marriage and Family
Sexual Immorality
The Value of Life
Multiplication and Overpopulation
Racism
Creation and Evolution
Government
Politics
Justice
Words, Speech, and Censorship
Church Matters
Monotheism, Jews, and Christians
Temptation
The Nature of Evil
Life and Death of Satan
Reincarnation
The Rapture
The End Times
The Near Future
Preparing for the Future
Groups and Labels
Understanding Judgement
Preparing for Death
Conclusion
Appendix A: Questions and Answers
Appendix B: The Ten Commandments
Appendix C: Marriage

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TITLE: "The Bible Explained"
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Life and Death of Satan

Satan is a created spirit being who opposes his creator: God. However, he was not always God's adversary. He was created perfect, but later rebelled against God. Before he rebelled, he was known as 'Lucifer' -- a holy angel (servant) of God.

Lucifer: Before Satan rebelled against God he was known as Lucifer, son of the morning, the anointed cherub who covers, the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Goaded by pride in his perfect beauty, Lucifer corrupted his wisdom, considered himself better than God and sought to overthrow him, thereby transgressing the first and greatest commandment: "You shall have no other gods besides Me." [Exodus 20:3] Thus, Lucifer became the first sinner and the source of evil (destruction). By his action, he earned the titles the Adversary, the Devil, and Satan -- and was sentenced to death. Satan is not yet dead, but will die eventually. God keeps Satan alive in order to teach man the ways of good and evil (life and death), so that men may choose one over the other. Good leads to life; evil leads to death. After Satan has served his purpose, God will destroy him -- and his followers -- forever.

Satan's Desire: Although Satan has been sentenced to death, he does not want to die; he wants to live forever. The only way he can live indefinitely is to destroy mankind: God desires a certain number of humans to inherit his divine nature (see Revelation 6:9-11). When this number is complete, God will destroy Satan, since he will have no further use of him. If Satan can prevent said number from being fulfilled, he can extend his life indefinitely. Thus, Satan's desire is to destroy man, thereby preventing the number from being fulfilled. However, God prevents Satan from directly destroying humans, so he must destroy them in a roundabout way, which he does by dividing them into groups and then setting the groups against each other -- that they may destroy themselves. In summary, Satan's greatest desire is to destroy mankind in order to preserve his own life.

Satan's Argument: After Lucifer sinned, he put forth this argument: 'It is impossible to live in accordance with every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. Therefore, though I have sinned, I am not worthy of judgement or death.' Thus, the only one who can defeat Satan is the one who can nullify his argument by living his entire life in accordance with every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. Stated another way, the only one who can defeat Satan is the one who can prove his argument to be false by living his entire life in accordance with every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God -- thereby nullifying Satan's argument.

The Only Perfect One: God's creation was initially perfect; however, as a consequence of Adam's sin, all of creation fell into a state of decay (imperfection). If God is to nullify Satan's argument, he must find a perfect being who is willing to live his entire life according to God's law. Since all of creation is in a fallen state, God must look outside his creation for such a being; but the only thing outside of God's creation is God himself. Therefore, if God is to nullify Satan's argument, he himself must subject himself to the laws of his own creation and remain sinless during his submission thereto.

God in the Flesh: The law of God is perfect; that is, there is no sin in the law of God, since it is the product of truth. No man is perfect and, therefore, no man can keep the law all the days of his life. "No one is good but One, that is, God." [Matthew 19:17] Thus, no man can defeat Satan, since every man is conceived a sinner, inheriting the blood of Adam the sinner. (Remember: man's life is in his blood: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." [Leviticus 17:11]) If a man is to live a perfect life, he must be the product of perfect seed/sperm -- not from Adam but from God (remember that God alone is perfect); and he must live his entire life in accordance with every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God. In summary, only God can defeat Satan; if God is to defeat Satan, he must come in the flesh from the seed of God and he must live his entire life in the flesh in accordance with every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, as it is written: "Man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD." [Deuteronomy 8:3]

Qualified to Judge: God has appointed a Day of Judgement -- in which all men, except the saints, will be judged by his standard (the Ten Commandments). In the Day of Judgement, one may seek legal exemption from judgement by offering the following argument: 'You, O LORD, are not qualified to judge my time in the flesh, since you have never lived in the flesh.' If this legal loophole exists, then the Day of Judgement will be null and void, since no one will be qualified to judge humans. Can God be so foolish or so ignorant as to have overlooked said loophole? If not, then he must have come -- or will come -- in the flesh. Furthermore, while in the flesh, he must abide by the same standard by which he will judge those in the flesh. If he fails to keep the standard, then said standard becomes null and void -- and the Day of Judgement becomes powerless. Thus, it is imperative that God come in the flesh: for God must come in the flesh -- and remain sinless while in the flesh -- in order that he may gain authority over the flesh, so that he may be qualified to judge the flesh: "For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son (Jesus) to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgement also, because He is the Son of Man." [John 5:26-27]

Satan's Dilemma: When God visited the earth in the flesh as Jesus the Passover Lamb, Satan -- the god of this world -- had two choices: kill him or let him remain alive in the hope that he would eventually sin and die: "The soul who sins shall die." [Ezekiel 18:4] (Remember that Jesus was the Ten Commandments in flesh and, as there is no sin in the Ten Commandments, it was impossible for Jesus to sin.) Thus, Satan had to make a difficult decision: if he permitted Jesus to live, Jesus would eventually take the earth away from him and reign and rule forever, since good always triumphs over evil; if he kills a sinless Jesus, he would nullify his own argument and seal his fate in death eternal, since the only way Satan's argument can be nullified is for one to live a sinless life in the flesh. Satan's decision to kill Jesus merely plunged the world back into darkness and resulted in his reign being extended for a time. Since Satan failed to get Jesus to sin, he is left with only one way to prolong his life: destroy mankind in order to prevent the number of Revelation 6:11 from being fulfilled.

Satan's Authority: Notice that Satan had the authority to kill Jesus's flesh (but not his spirit). How did Satan get this authority? 2 Corinthians 4:4 tells us that Satan is the god (master) of this current world (age). Question: How did Satan become the god of this world? God created the earth and gave it to Adam, who then gave it to Satan. How? In the Garden of Eden, God gave Adam a command not to eat a certain fruit, which was countered by Satan (see Genesis 3); Adam then had to make a decision: Which voice would he heed -- God's or Satan's? The one he heeds will become his master: "For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage." [2 Peter 2:19] Adam chose to heed Satan's voice, thereby making Satan his master: thus, Satan gained authority over Adam and the earth. Because the devil caused Adam to sin (and die), he thereby gained power over death -- to kill whomever he desires. Since Jesus's flesh was made of earth, Satan had authority over it -- to kill it.

Grace Period: If Satan has power over death and his desire is to destroy mankind, why does he not instantly kill all humans? Because God has granted humans a grace period in which they may choose to repent of their sins so that they may receive life eternal. Consider God's law of death: "And the LORD God commanded the man (Adam), saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'" [Genesis 2:16-17] The penalty for sin -- 'you shall surely die' -- is better translated as 'dying (decaying, ageing) shall you die'; that is, there is a decaying (ageing) process which leads up to death: When a person is conceived, he does not start living; he starts dying -- a gradual process which takes about 70 years. In summary, death is not instant because God has granted humans a grace period in which he expects them to repent of their sin so that they may receive life eternal in his presence.

Power Transfer: Because the devil caused Adam to sin (and die), he thereby gained power over death -- to kill whomever he desires; however, God has a law regarding death: "The soul who sins shall die." [Ezekiel 18:20] Thus, Satan has the legal right to kill sinners, but he does not have the legal right to kill the sinless. When Satan killed Jesus, he violated the law of death by killing a sinless man, thereby revoking his power over death. Because Satan misused the law of death, he rescinded his authority over death -- just as a human judge is removed from office if he violates the law which he is obligated to uphold. "Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He (Jesus) Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." [Hebrews 2:14] Since Jesus was the one who was unlawfully violated, he lawfully gained authority over death: "I (Jesus) am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death." [Revelation 1:18] Jesus now has authority over death -- he is free to raise the dead whenever he pleases.

Prolonging Life by Destroying Humans: As stated earlier, Satan's desire is to destroy mankind in order to preserve his own life. Satan has traditionally used various temptations to set humans on the path to destruction; however, there is a more efficient way to destroy mankind: Satan can change man on an elemental level by corrupting the pure seed/sperm of Adam (the son of God) through cloning and/or genetic manipulation. Once man has been changed on a genetic level, he will no longer be the pure son/seed/sperm of God, will no longer be the image of God, and will therefore be disqualified from inheriting the nature of God, since the door to life eternal is open only to the pure seed/sperm of God through Adam the son of God. It is probably noteworthy that the fallen angels once tried to corrupt man's pure Adamic stock by copulating with women, thereby producing a hybrid race of giants, which God destroyed in the global flood of Noah's day -- around 2350 B.C. (see Genesis 6-8 for details).

Death of Satan: Satan will fail to destroy mankind; the number of Revelation 6:11 will be fulfilled; and Satan will die when Revelation 20:10 comes to pass: "And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." [Revelation 20:10] The 'lake of fire' is symbolic of hell (permanent death). It should be noted that hell is not a place; hell is a state: hell is death eternal. Torment is to be out of the presence of God; to be tormented forever is to be forever out of the presence of God -- in other words, to be eternally dead.

-----<availability>

The above book is available for purchase at:

http://www.amazon.com

Search for:
TITLE: "The Bible Explained"
AUTHOR: "Arrant Knave"
ISBN-10: "1468197061"
ISBN-13: "9781468197068"

Or try this direct link:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Bible-Explained-Parents-Teenagers/dp/1468197061

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The above excerpt from 'The Bible Explained' is copyright
2010 by Arrant Knave. All rights reserved. No part of this
document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system
or transmitted in any form or by any means without the
prior written permission of the publisher, except by a
reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be
printed in a newspaper, magazine, or journal.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are
taken from the New King James Version (R). Copyright (C)
1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.

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