Lesson Two

(For audio recording of this lesson click here)

1. Understanding Satan’s Kingdom of Darkness

a. Question: If God is so good, why does he allow evil? And if Satan is the ultimate source of all the evil in heaven and earth, why doesn’t God not just snap his figure and get rid of the devil?

b. Brief Biblical Survey of the Devil

i. Job 41:1-11 – Most Powerful Created Being, The Devil

ii. Isaiah 14:12-20 – Satan’s prophecy of his destruction

iii. Ezekiel 28:11 – Fall of Satan from Heaven

iv. Luke 10:1-20 – The Kingdom of God vs The Kingdom of Satan

v. Luke 11:14-22 – Binding the Strong Man prophecy

vi. Matthew 25:41 – Hell is prepared for Satan and his angels

vii. Ephesians 2:1-2 – Satan described as the Prince of the Air

viii. 1 John 3:4-10 – Son of God destroyed the works of the devil

ix. Hebrews 2:14-16 – The death of the Son breaks the power of Satan, who holds the power of death

x. 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12 – Devil will be destroyed in Parousia

xi. 2 Peter 3:8-9 – Why God delays his final judgment

c. When you put all these scriptures together, you can answer the question above:

i. God did not create the Devil; he created Lucifer (morning star). He was a good angel who lead heaven into worship (archangel) like the four living beings. But Lucifer was just one of the top created being. He was the top created being (aside from Christ who is God).

ii. Job 41 points to the fact that there was no one stronger nor wiser than the Leviathan than God. This Leviathan was Lucifer. This highly exalted position got to his head. Lesson: The more we move up in power, privilege or blessing, the harder it becomes to resist pride.

iii. When pride filled Satan’s heart, he got the idea to manufacture his own kingdom, abusing his creatural advantages over other created beings. And because no creature could top his, Satan would always be the king of the hill.

iv. In doing this, Satan created the first pyramid scheme, causing many to climb the rat race to the top at the expense of creation and each other by any means necessary. This is called sin. Satan became the Lord of Sin. Anyone who sinned is under his domain or power. He held the keys of death over creation.

v. Satan could do this because (like humans) God gave angels the freewill to obey him or not. There reason why is because angels (like humans) are worshiping beings. And worship can only be genuine when you have free-will. Otherwise, worship is not genuine love for God but robotic service to God. This is why, when Satan fell, he took with him one third of the angels of heaven.

vi. One of the reason why God did not destroy Satan right away is because to do so would mean to destroy everything that his under his kingdom of darkness, including all of humanity. So before God could destroy Satan, God had to devise a plan to help release humans from under the grip of Satan’s kingdom.

vii. This is what led God to send his Son on the Cross. This was the victory Jesus one over the devil. Satan tried his hardest to get Jesus to sin; he threw everything at Jesus worst than Job. Satan even used his greatest weapon, death itself. But little did Satan know that when he killed Jesus on the Cross, it sealed Jesus humanity as a sinless humanity. As long as Jesus was alive in his human form, there was hope in Satan to make Jesus sin. But when Jesus died on the cross, it made Jesus the perfect antidote to the cancer of Satan’s kingdom. Satan had no power over Jesus because Jesus had no sin in his life. This allowed Jesus to set up another kingdom that defies Satan’s kingdom. The Cross is where Jesus defeated and disarmed Satan. The Cross is V-Day (Victory).

viii. And anyone who receives Jesus’ sacrifice, can escape Satan’s kingdom and living according to Jesus’ kingdom. The cross is breaking people free from Satan’s Kingdom. And why God has not destroyed Satan as yet is because God is still waiting for more humans to set free before they become destroyed with Satan. So God delays his destruction of the Devil because of his love for humanity, wanting no one to perish. But there is coming a day when the V-Day of the Cross will become to D-Day (destruction) for Satan. And when Jesus Christ returns, Satan and his kingdom and any humans that choose to remain under his kingdom will be destroyed and Jesus Kingdom will be left standing in the World.

ix. Understanding how the kingdom of darkness works and what Jesus did to disarm it helps to shed some light on why all the celestial beings in heaven were so excited in Revelation 5