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The following article is what I refer to as an impromptu article. In other words, it is not something that I planned to write. It is a spur-of-the-moment, inspirational piece; meaning that what I write here came moment-by-moment as I was inspired to write. Sometimes, this is the best way to write, because I honestly don't know what I am going to say, or what will come next. Believe me; as you will see in a moment, some of this -- especially what you read in part two -- is pretty wild stuff; yet it seems to make perfect sense to me. You decide for yourself.

As some of you will know, over the past few weeks, I have been rather busy writing some brand new articles and series, and updating a few old ones as well. As is often the case while I am writing, I will get some ideas, or certain Bible verses will pop into my head, which I will want to use somewhere in my article or series. Over the years, I have learned through experience, that due to my age, if I don't stop and open a new BBEdit text editor window, and type in whatever those thoughts or verses happen to be, I may lose them. This has happened quite a few times before, and good ideas have been lost due to my procrastination.

While this has been a good practice for me to follow, it can result in my getting sidetracked from the article or series that I am currently working on. Again, this has happened a lot of times as well; which is exactly why I now have dozens of unfinished articles and series piled up on my hard drive. Some of them have been sitting there for literally years, just begging for my attention. Who knows. Maybe I will get back to them all before I am dead. Humor intended folks; I think.

You see, the problem is that sometimes when I jot down those ideas or Bible verses in a new BBEdit text document, a few more will then come to me, so I will type them in as well. Then, after that, I will suddenly realize that rather than include the new material in the current article or series that I am working on, it would be much better suited as its own standalone article. The next thing I know, I find myself working on yet another brand new article, while the one I was working on is shoved to the side for the moment. However, as I just said, that moment oft times turns into a very long moment, even years. At any rate, that is how the article you are now reading came into being. I just thought that you might find this little factoid interesting. So let's move on to the main attraction.

As I was writing my series entitled "When Was Satan Cast Out of Heaven?", I was faced with the question of where the Devil is located at this current time in Earth's history. Is that subtle, lying serpent and accuser of the brethren still freely roaming the Earth, walking to and fro in it, walking up and down in it, and continuing to stir up trouble against God and God's people wherever and whenever he can, as I describe in that article, and as we see in the following four verses that are found in the Book of Job?:

"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it."


"Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it."


Or is it possible that the Great Deceiver and Father of Lies has already lost the war against the Archangel Michael and the Angelic Host, and has been thrust into and confined to the dark bowels of the Bottomless Pit for a thousand years, as we read in the following verses that are found in the twelfth and twentieth chapters of the Book of Revelation?:

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."


"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season."


Finally, is it even possible that God's great archenemy, that rebellious, fallen Angel and destroyer of men's souls, has in fact already been cast into the Lake of Fire where he is being tormented for eternity, as we see by the following verse, which is also found in the twentieth chapter of the Book of Revelation?:

"And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."


While I have been acquiring a greater understanding of the Scriptures with each passing year that I continue to study God's Word, I must still humbly confess that there are yet many things which I do not fully understand concerning the same. Satan's current status would have to be included as one of them. While I obviously have some ideas about this issue, I can't say that I know with absolute certainty; and I view this as a good thing. As I point out in a variety of my articles, such as "Humility in Our Understanding of God's Word", we all need to be very careful that we don't become so filled with Biblical knowledge, that we become boastful and lifted up in our pride. I am reminded of verses such as the following two that were written by the Apostle Paul:

"Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth. And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know."


As many of you will know, the Book of Revelation is written in such an esoteric, symbolic and even allegorical manner, that it can be extremely difficult for us to separate those things which should be understood in a very literal manner, from those portions which should not be. As such, I am not ashamed to admit that I've struggled with the issue of fully grasping the meaning of that amazing Book for many years now, and I continue to struggle with parts of it, despite my best endeavors to get everything straight and sorted out. Maybe someday God will grant me even greater clarity regarding the parts which I still don't fully understand.

In fact, the entire Bible is such an amazingly profound Book with so many different twists and turns written within its pages, and such a multitude of secret passageways that are just hidden from our view, and such a wealth of untold buried treasures of truth concealed within its fertile depths, that for anyone to claim that they have deciphered it all, and that they have got it all down pat is really quite a foolish and ludicrous statement to make. However, it seems that some people are just so proud, that they will do it anyway. I am reminded of the following verses:

"If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself."


"Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."


"As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:"


"And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction."


"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."


"Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number."


"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"


But returning to our discussion regarding Satan's current status, some of you may be wondering to yourselves "Well, how can you even contemplate the possibility that the Devil has already been cast into the Bottomless Pit for one thousand years, or that he has already been cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity, when there is still so much violence and evil occurring in the world today? We read about it in our daily newspaper; browse stories about it while surfing the web; and hear it on the nightly news without end. There is always some kind of evil happening in some place in the world -- and oft times in many different places in the world at once -- every single day. Isn't all of this wickedness just the Devil's fault?".

If you happen to entertain these kinds of questions, then my response may surprise you a bit. It seems that we humans -- and in particular, we Christians, being as nonbelievers don't actually believe in the Devil anyway -- have this built-in propensity for automatically blaming the Devil for every foul and evil thing that happens upon the Earth, and in our own lives as well. The minute that something bad happens, what is often the automatic reaction? "Oh, it was the Devil!" Some of us act like trained Pavlov dogs when it comes to this issue.

In fact, some of my older readers will no doubt recall that back during the late 1960s to early 1970s, there was a very popular -- albeit, very silly, in my view -- comedy show that was called "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In". On this particular show, there was one quirky character named "Geraldine Jones" -- who was played by comedian Flip Wilson -- who popularized the catchphrase "The devil made me do it". This phrase became so popular, that almost fifty years later today, when people are caught in an embarrassing moment where they are possibly doing something wrong, what do they say? "The devil made me do it." After all, it is so much easier to just blame Satan, isn't it?

However, in thinking about this particular issue, a few Bible verses immediately came to mind, and I made an interesting observation concerning them, which I hope that you will see as well, when you read the following Scriptures:

"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."


"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?"


"And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."


It is kind of hard to miss, isn't it? But if you did by some chance happen to miss what I was hoping you would see, let me tell it to you straight. Not one single time in those six key verses which describe man's evil nature, is Satan mentioned or blamed. In every single instance, we are clearly told in a very straightforward manner that it's our own evil, deceptive and wicked heart that is the real root of the problem; and the blame is placed squarely on our own shoulders, and not on the Devil's shoulders at all.

Now, of course, you can suggest that we do these evil things because the Devil is influencing our hearts, just as he also influenced foolish Eve in the Garden of Eden to induce Adam to sin as she had done, as we see by the following verses:

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."


"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."


"Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression."


In fact, Genesis chapter three does make it rather clear that God held Satan in large part responsible for what occurred that day in the Garden of Eden, as we can easily determine by the following two verses:

"And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."


On a side note, the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman did in fact become and continued to be enemies down through the ages, as is plainly revealed in the following verses. In these verses, Jesus firmly and fully exposes the existence of the violent, murderous seed of the vile serpent during the First Century. That seed was the self-righteous and legalistic religionists who persecuted and killed the Prophets of old, as well as Jesus Himself and His faithful followers:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar."


"I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God."


Following are some additional verses which further reveal the sins of the murderous seed of the serpent, who were in fact the unbelieving Jewish legalists themselves. If you are wondering why I am including verses here which describe the harsh judgment against, and destruction of, Babylon the Great, quite simply, it is because I am thoroughly convinced that Babylon was the code name which the Apostles used for murderous Jerusalem herself, who killed the Prophets, Jesus and His followers. This topic is more thoroughly discussed in the article entitled "Who is Babylon the Great?":

"Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD."


"I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me."


"And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy."


"Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth."


Let me also remind you that God told Eve that the serpent "shall bruise thy head." I lean towards the belief that just like the rest of what the Lord said that day in Eden, this was also a far-reaching prophecy regarding how the seed of the serpent would one day crucify Jesus for the sins of the world. After all, as the following verses reveal, Jesus is in fact the Head of His spiritual Church, who is the Bride of Christ. Furthermore, exactly as it is stated in the Book of Genesis, the Prophet Isaiah uses the very same word, and informs us that Jesus "was bruised for our iniquities":

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."


"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God."


"Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,"


"But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:"


"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body."


"And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence."


"And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:"


"Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,"


Returning to a point we were discussing earlier, while I can obviously agree that the Devil was at fault when it comes to being the catalyst behind the commitment of the original sin, which ultimately led to all of humanity being born in sin, and thus destined to die a mortal death, nevertheless, that is not what any of those previous six verses actually say. To reiterate, they state that wickedness is an integral part of our own evil hearts. They do not implicate Satan any way in the matter. We need to purposely twist their meaning in order to arrive at that conclusion.

"Wait a minute!" you may retort. "Are you saying then that the Devil never attacks us, that we really don't need to worry about him, and that the problems in the world, and in our own lives as well, are just all our own fault?" No, not exactly. After all, not only does the Bible inform us that Satan and his evil minions constantly bother us, attack us, tempt us, and try to hinder us, but we are likewise told that we must resist him as well, just as Jesus did during those forty days that He fasted in the Jordan River Valley, prior to beginning His public ministry. Consider the following verses:

"And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."


"But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."


"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren."


"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."


"Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices."


"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."


"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ . . . And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."


"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:"


"Neither give place to the devil."


"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."


"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:"


"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."


"Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee."


"And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren [Satan] is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."


Please go to part two for the conclusion of this article.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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