The Doom of Satan's Lie

A strange and mysterious struggle is going on within our world. It affects our whole Society, not for Good but Evil.

What is happening? A struggle is going on between God and Satan, Between the Holy Spirit and evil spirits, between Christ and anti-christ. The battle is for the total man -- Spirit, Soul and Body. The conflict revolves around two sets of opposites set out in the Bible, the Truth and the lie.

We know that Jesus Christ is the truth personified. He said "I am...the truth." (John 14:6) We know further that Satan is the lie personified. Jesus said "When he speaketh the lie he speaketh of his own [self]." (John 8:44)

Stated in simple terms, the lie is the denial of God the Creator and the self-deification of the creature. Whenever a created being abandons his Creator, he is controlled by the Lie.

At no time in man's earliest history was he without a witness of God. (Acts 14:17) The psalmist wrote, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament showeth His handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." (Ps. 19:1-3) But man denied his Creator and deified the created being; he dared to believe he didn't need God. (Rom 1:21-23) The true and biblical concept of God as the eternal, self-existent, omnipotent Creator was exchanged for the false concept that man could become his own god.

This is the BIG LIE. But where did it come from ? The lie was conceived in the mind of Lucifer, an angel in the spirit world. He was not the devil when the thought first came to him. He was an unfallen angel, one of God's created beings.

Lucifer was a creature of rare beauty. (Eze. 28:17) He became self-occupied and proud. "I will be like the most High," he said. (Isa.14:14) As far as we know, he was the first created being to reject God and deify himself. In his imagination he did not need God. Satan advanced his new religion by enlisting other angels. (Jude 6;2 Peter 2:4) The lie began to spread. But Satan was not content with conquests in the spirit world, so he invaded the world of man. The Genesis account of Satan's assault on earth with the lie is amazing. He began by asking a question which made Eve doubt God's goodness.

"Yes, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden," he probed. (Gen 3:1) In substance he was asking, "Has God really put restrictions on you? Won't He allow you to have what you want?" He was making God appear severe, unfair. This was his softening-up process in preparation for the lie.

And then it came. "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." (Gen 3:5)

This is the lie ... "You don't need God. He'll only tell you what you can and cannot do. Deny Him. Eat the fruit and you will become like God yourself." Satan's lie led Eve to believe that partaking of what God had forbidden would be rewarding. But was it?

Liberty is freedom to do right, not wrong. Our society is under Satanic delusion. The person who rejects God's truth and accepts Satan's lie becomes the slave of Sin. (John 8:34) The final form of Satan's lie will appear in a man called, "that man of sin ... the son of perdition." (I Thess. 2:3) That devil-man is described as one "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God."(verse 4)

If my understanding is correct, the lie will not reach it's peak on earth until after the church has been caught up in heaven. Before Satan's man can dominate, the One restraining him will be removed from earth. This is the Holy Spirit (v. 7), who presently indwells the Christian individually and the church as a whole. Once the Holy Spirit is removed, the Lie will do it's worst. That period is in the future when the lie dominates the earth, when Satan's man occupies the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, claiming to be God, is called in the scripture the Tribulation. (Matt. 24:21,29; Rev. 7:14)

Today it appears that the stage is being set for the coming of Satan's man. Millions are professed worshippers of the Devil. The apostle John writes that in that day of Satan's domination "all that dwell on the earth shall worship him." (Rev 13:8) Refusal to worship him will bring the penalty of death. Satan will have reached the zenith of his earthly power.

We have a foretaste in America and elsewhere of these things to come. Many have accepted Satan's lie. They defend indecent and immoral behavior as an acceptable way of Life. And conditions will become increasingly worse. Before the climax the world will see a time when the lie will be suppressed. Speaking through the apostle John the Holy Spirit reveals that Satan will one day be imprisoned for a thousand years. This is the period referred to as the Millennium. During this wonderful era Christ will reign in person from Jerusalem. The moral and social ills which now plague society will be unknown because, for the time, the lie will be held in check and the truth will reign. All men will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the lie has been responsible for all social and moral evil

At the close of the Millennium, Satan will be loosed. (Rev. 12:7) His thousand years of incarceration will not have changed him, nor will the thousand years of Christ's reign have changed the heart of man. Thus Satan will "go out to deceive the nations which are in the earth" (Rev 20:8), and many will follow him.

Here is the final rebellion of Satan and man against God. It will demonstrate that, even under the most favorable of conditions, some men will follow the lie and not the truth if left to their own choice. But Satan's freedom will be short-lived. John writes, "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." (Rev 20:10)

The lake of fire has been prepared for the devil and His angels. (Matt 25:41) He will not be annihilated, but will remain alive and conscious for all eternity. What a tragic end for the one who was once "the annointed cherub!" Hell is both a place and a state of fire and brimstone, of Conscious torment. It is the place where all must go who reject the truth. "and whosoever was not found written in the book of Life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev 20:15)

Christ, the truth, is also the life. Satan, the lie, is the destroyer of life, a murderer. God's desire for man is that he possess eternal life; Satans design for man is that he suffer eternal death. It is a life and death struggle - the truth verses the lie.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. (Acts 16:31)