3 Unveiling the Origin of Suffering
Understanding the Origin of Suffering: A Biblical View
This post is based on the transcript of my YouTube video.
I want to thank Michaele Hamilton for proofreading and editing it.
You can access the PDF of our study guide here.
Welcome to my Prophecies of Hope series. This is episode 3. If you miss the first two, you can find them on our YouTube channel, but it's okay. This one stands just fine on its own.
We're taking a practical look at Bible Prophecies. The Bible will be our main source of information, our main guide in these studies. I hope you have a Bible and can follow along as we go through today's topic.
Today’s topic is How Evil Entered our World. Why is there so much suffering? I'm excited that you decided to join us for this journey. If you like this video, if you find the content helpful, if it adds value to your life, please give us a thumbs up. Subscribe to our channel if you would like to see more content like this. Leave me comments below. If you have any questions, if there's something you like, if there's something that you don't like. Just gimme some feedback. I'm always looking to improve.
Before we jump into today's study, let's bow our heads and pray. Father in heaven, this is a big topic and we want your guidance and your wisdom ss we study the Bible. Please send Your Holy Spirit Lord to guide us into all truth. We understand that spiritual things are spiritually discerned, so we ask that You please be with us in this study. Take away any distractions. I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
I hope you have your Bibles with you. We will tackle this large, difficult, challenging topic. In light of a loving, all powerful God, Why is there suffering in the world? Well, we will be looking through the Bible and seeing what it has to say on this topic.
We're going to start with the book of 1 John. This is not the Gospel of John. This is closer to the end of the Bible. If you go to Revelation, come back a little bit. This is a verse you might have heard before. 1 John 4:8. It says, He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
The Bible says this and I believe it. You have probably heard it before. God is not only a loving God, He IS love. A challenge that we have is, we read that God is love so we take our personal definition of what love is, and then we imprint that onto God. We see God according to our definition of love, and the truth is, most of us have no idea what love is.
We have experienced some form of love in our lives. Sometimes we have experienced a healthier form of love or maybe a more toxic form of love. We're not sure what love looks like. I would caution you, and this is also for me. I'm always thinking how not to impose my view of love on God, but rather to allow God to shape my understanding of what love is. How does love behave? How would a loving person handle a situation? I turn to God and learn from Him as opposed to expecting Him to behave according to my personal definition of love.
I believe this is the journey of the God. A God fearing person. If you believe in God, if you want to follow God, you believe in Jesus, you believe the Bible is the word of God, then you must allow it to challenge your views, your positions, your perceptions, and your way of thinking.
I hope this is what we can do through this journey. We turn to the Bible and allow it to challenge us in our lives. But you can say, Marlon, how can you say God is love? I look around me and I see all this pain and all this suffering and all these issues.
That's what we're going to discuss in this study. I just want to start off by establishing that God is love. Because what happens is that people see the suffering in the world and they begin to question whether or not God really is loving or whether or not God really is powerful.
These are big questions. I don't think we'll cover all of the points in this study, but hopefully I'll give you a good, solid foundation to start from. Then you can go deeper and I can go deeper also in a future video. Let me know in the comments.
Speaking of God being love, and for consistency's sake, let's go back to Genesis, the very first book of the Bible and see if there's evidence for these claims. We just read something in the New Testament, almost at the end of the Bible. 1 John 4:8. Now we will go back to Genesis 1, the creation account.
Genesis 1:27 says, So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.”
Now, I want you to pay attention here. God says, I'm giving you every tree. Keep that in mind.
“Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
A couple of interesting things. The Bible says that everything God saw that He had made, and indeed it was very good. Not okay. Not just like, eh, no, it's good enough. No, it was very good. It was perfect. We also see there is no death in this world. Humans and animals, everything that is alive, feed on plants.
Interesting thing for us to consider. There is no death in the world when God created the world. It's perfect. There is no room for evolution. There is no need for evolution. I'm not talking about micro evolution or adaptation. I'm talking about a jump from one species to another, and we can talk about that in a different video. Just leave me comments if you have questions on that.
The idea that the Bible gives us, when God finished creating, the world was perfect. It was very good. All the living things that were here were not eating each other. They were eating plants, fruits and trees that bore fruits were available for humans. There is food available that does not involve the killing of animals. There's an interesting thought.
A side note. There is a theory that people did not eat vegetables in the perfect world because to eat a root vegetable, you must kill the plant in order to eat the vegetable. Instead, you eat the fruit of plants that allow the plant to live so it doesn't involve death. So, just an idea, for those of you who maybe don't like vegetables, who knows, in Heaven, maybe we won't have vegetables either. Just an idea.
Back to the story. Genesis 3 tells us of what changed. In the beginning, everything was very good, but we know that right now, things are not very good. They can be pretty terrible. So what changed? Genesis 3, starting with verse 1. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
A quick note here. God had given every tree and then in chapter 2, there is one tree that God says not to eat. Genesis 2:15. It says Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, 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.”
The original Hebrew here says dying. You will die the day you eat this fruit. The death process will begin. So, you can eat of every tree, just don't eat of this one tree.
Now the serpent is asking, did God say you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? This is the typical temptation. Satan uses the same approach to this day to portray God as someone who withholds good things from us. If you disobey God, then you will truly be happy. If you steal and you cheat and you commit adultery, then you would truly be happy. God is withholding good things from you.
Did God really say you can't eat of every tree? This is exactly the opposite. God said, you can eat of every tree. Genesis 3:2. And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” She is explaining, no, God says it's just this one tree that we can't eat.
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Now, this is interesting. The lie is that you are not going to die, but then the serpent mixes some truth in there. Your eyes will be open. You will know good and evil. It is true that God was withholding something from Adam and Eve. God was withholding the knowledge of evil. They only knew good. They only knew pleasure. They did not know shame. They did not know pain. They did not know regret. They didn't have any negative emotions. They never experienced that before. How dare God withhold those things from them. Somehow the serpent makes it seem like it's a good thing.
So when the woman saw, verse six, that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened
The serpent spoke truth, right? They were open and they knew. What kind of new knowledge did they gain?
and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.
Why are they covering up suddenly? They experienced shame and guilt that we will see as we read on. Verse 8, And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Now they know fear. Now they know shame. Now they're covering themselves. Now they're hiding from God. This is what God was preventing them from. Interestingly, the serpent said, your eyes will be open, and yes, your eyes are open. But now everything that they're seeing and experiencing that God was keeping from them is all negative
I think the same thing holds true today. When we go against the will of God, we experience negative things that He tries to protect us from by giving us certain guidelines of how we should live our lives. But we'll talk more about that in the future study. Jesus also makes a reference to this in the New Testament.
If you want to check that a doctrine is solid and biblical, you go through the Bible and see if it holds true throughout scriptures. We see that God is love. We see that God created a perfect world. We see that Satan shows up in the form of a serpent and tempts the woman, she eats the fruit and she's experiencing shame.
It becomes clearer to us that God who is good and loving, but there's also this other player, this enemy, and Jesus makes this clear in Matthew 13. Matthew 13 has several parables. One in particular begins in verse 24, The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares.
This is Jesus speaking. Matthew 13, starting with verse 24 says Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
Jesus gives this parable, this story, to help us understand the problem of evil in the world. But maybe you're wondering what does this parable mean? I could tell you what I think it means, but I think it's even better if we read from the Bible what Jesus said this parable means.
Let's skip to verse 36. It says, Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field.”
I love when the Bible explains itself. I could try to come up with some explanation, but here we get to read Jesus's explanation of what His words meant, how to interpret them.
He answered and said to them: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.
Here we have from Jesus's own lips. In this world there are people who are sons and daughters of the King of the Kingdom, and also there are sons and daughters of the wicked one. Some people are Children of God, of the Kingdom of God. Some people are children of the wicked one, the enemy that was in the parable, sowing the tares.
The enemy, oh, here we go. Verse 39. “The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.”
In a way, this parable has an apocalyptic feel to it, an apocalyptic dimension to it. By that I mean, a reference to the end of the world, to the book of Revelation. Jesus is describing there will be a judgment. In the end, the tares and the wheat will be separated at that time. There is an enemy. The enemy is the devil. There is going to be a harvest, which is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. We talked about this last time when we looked at Matthew 24. Jesus talked about the angels gathering the people at His second coming, the elect. You can go back and read that or watch the second video in our series, “Signs of the End? - A study of Matthew 24“
Matthew 13:40. “Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness,”
Interesting. We will talk more about this in the future. Everybody that practices lawlessness or goes against the law, or acts as if there was no law, they will be gathered by the angels “and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear! “
Is that clear? Jesus is saying, the field is the world. The son of man is sharing, sowing the good seed. The children of God are the good seed, but then there are also tares. Then the servants come to Jesus and say, should we separate them now? Jesus says, no. Let them grow.
I take this to mean, it's not my place. It's not your place to judge who's saved, who isn't, who belongs to the kingdom of God, who doesn't. Jesus says, leave it alone until the time of the harvest, until the day of judgment. That's not for us. It's for God to judge. Jesus does explain this reality. We have in the world God's children and the children of the enemy growing together until the time of the harvest or judgment.
What's the deal with the devil? What about him? What's going on with this guy? Where did he come from? Well, there's a bit of a mystery, but I think the Bible tells us enough that we can have a pretty good idea of what happened.
So if we look at Ezekiel 28:12-17. Let me just read it and then we will talk about it. Ezekiel chapter 28. I'll start with verse 11.
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD:
“You were 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:
The sardius, topaz, and diamond,
Beryl, onyx, and jasper,
Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes
Was prepared for you on the day you were created.
We have here a description that doesn't seem to quite fit the king of Tyre. Scholars argue over this. I'll give you my interpretation. The King of Tyre is being used by the devil at this point and in this prophecy. It starts off making a reference to the king of Tyre. But then we clearly see, in the description, this has gone beyond the king of Tyre. He was not in the Garden of Eden, he was not created beautiful of these precious stones.
There are many who believe this is a description of the devil, an angel of light that was created by God and was perfect in all of his ways. Let's continue reading and then you let me know if you agree with me or not. Just leave me a comment in the video.
“You were the anointed cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
I will stop here for a moment. The anointed cherub who covers. We are aware that there are two that stand in the presence of God and we see a description of this in Isaiah 6, if you want to check that out later. When the Tabernacle was being built by Moses, after the children of Israel came out of Egypt, there was the Arc of the Covenant. If you've ever watched Indiana Jones, he is searching for the Arc. That is the arc I'm talking about. There are two cherubs or cherubim, the plural for cherub, on the cover of the Arc. They are bending down and their wings touch in the middle. We have this biblical description of angels in the presence of God. There was one of those angels, the highest ranking angel in Heaven, right there in the presence of God.
Ezekiel 28:15, this is an important verse. If you have your Bibles, this is one I would highlight. I have highlighted my Bible. It says, “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, Till iniquity was found in you.”
The devil was not made as an ugly, angry, scary angel, and because he was created ugly and angry, he continued to be ugly and angry. The Bible describes the creation of a perfect angel, a perfect being. However, at some point, iniquity was found in him. I am going to read a couple more verses.
“By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the fiery stones.
Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;
I cast you to the ground,
I laid you before kings,
That they might gaze at you.”
Now, this is prophetic language. Ezekiel is a prophetic book. We are doing a series on prophecy, and I believe that these verses that we just read give us an idea of what happened with Lucifer. What happened with the devil? Where did he come from? According to this text, he was a perfect angel, a beautiful angel. As a matter of fact, so beautiful, so perfect that because of his beauty, his heart was lifted up, he was corrupted, his wisdom was corrupted because of his splendor, and God cast him out.
It seems that pride sprung up in the heart of this perfectly created being. Now we will go to Isaiah and read a little bit more. The book of Isaiah also has some references to Satan or the devil or Lucifer. Let's read, Isaiah chapter 14, starting with verse 12. It describes the fall of Lucifer, starting with verse 12.
Isaiah 14:12 says:
“How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
For you have said in your heart:”
Now here is the problem we heard before, right? Because he was beautiful. Because he was perfect, he became corrupted. Now Isaiah gives us a little bit more insight.
These were his thoughts.
“For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High. ‘
Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.”
We see here that Lucifer had an eye problem. I want to be like God. It was not enough for Lucifer to be just a created being, just a beautiful, perfect angel that lived and worshiped right there in the presence of God. He wanted more and this became the problem. It was the pride that Lucifer had that became an issue.
Now you say, okay, yes, you quoted from two prophetic books in the Old Testament. Is there more support for that?
Thank you for asking. As a matter of fact, there is, so let's go to the New Testament now. Luke chapter 10, starting with verse 17 through 18. It says, Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” And He said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
What Jesus says here is in line with what we read in Ezekiel. It's in line with what we read in Isaiah. He says, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Jesus gave his disciples power over the enemy.
Historically, over all, these things are pretty amazing. We have seen in the Old Testament some prophets do similar things. Then if you read through the book of Acts, there's more to that. Also, if you go to Luke 4:1-13, it talks about Jesus being tempted by Satan. Satan talks as if the earth belongs to him. I will give you all of this if you bow down and worship me. He still wants the same thing. He wants to be worshiped like God.
Now, you may ask why. Why does Satan seem to have so much power and be in control here on Earth? I have a theory, my personal theory. You can disagree with me if you want, but I'll give you the reason why I have this theory, and maybe you'll be inclined to agree with me.
I believe when the earth was created, Adam was the representative. Adam and Eve were the first humans and they had the responsibility of caring for the planet. However, when they chose to believe Satan, the lie, the serpent, over the word of God, they became followers of Satan as opposed to following God. God said, do this, don't do this. Satan said, no, don't do that, do this, and they followed Satan. It seems to me that at that point, Satan became a representative of Earth as opposed to Adam.
Where is the support for that? I think there is something here in the Bible that could be seen as support for that in the Book of Job. Let's go to Job chapter one. By the way, there are many people who believe Job was the first book to be written in the Bible, not Genesis. Job is possibly the oldest book, according to many scholars, that we have in the biblical Cannon.
Job 1 and 2, tell us this story about an interaction between God and Satan. I will go to verse six.
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”
Now, little curious point, I have a little note here in my Bible that I wrote with pencil in very small print, Genesis 13:14-17. This is when God tells Abraham to walk to and fro in the land that He's giving him. This expression, I was there walking around it, seems to indicate ownership in the language of the time and the culture of the time. Satan says, walking back and forth on my planet where the people worship me. I was there on earth. God says, oh yeah, you were there on Earth. Did you see my servant Job? That gives us this interesting idea that even though Satan has some power here on Earth, not everybody has chosen to follow him. Job has not. Job follows God. This is really interesting. I'll read a little bit more.
Verse 8. It says, Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
Here's the thing. Even though Satan is hanging out on earth and claiming it, God says, did you see Job? Satan's says, of course, you have blessed him. You're protecting him.
Here is what I take away from this text. Satan has a degree of power here on earth. He walks around freely as if he owns the place. He offered to give Jesus all the things so he sure behaves like it's all his. We see pain and suffering that I believe are caused by him. God said, if you eat the fruit, this whole death thing is going to start, and it has been going on ever since. However, here on Earth, there are men and women who follow God. God is able to put a hedge of protection around those who follow Him. Satan cannot touch them. Satan could not touch Job. We will see what happens as the story progresses.
Verse 11. “But now, stretch out Your hand”, Satan is talking to God. ”and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
What do I learn from this? What do you learn from this? What I take away is that even though Satan is here, his power is limited and he cannot touch someone who serves God. Before he can touch anyone who serves God, he needs to get permission from God. God sets limits. You can touch Job's, belongings but you cannot touch Job.
Now, the language here is also interesting. Because Satan says in verse 11 “now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has”, Satan is saying to God, touch what Job has. God's reply is “Behold, all that he has is in your power”. What will happen following this does not come from God, it comes from Satan, but God gave him permission.
In the Hebrew mind, the two are interchangeable. God allowing something to happen or God doing something is the same thing. It couldn't have happened without God allowing it. I like to nuance that with what we see here in this story. God allows it, but Satan is the one that causes the pain, the suffering, the death.
God's not causing it. He is permitting it. There is another agent, an enemy, as Jesus calls him, and he is the one that does this. But remember, Jesus has power over demons and Satan cannot tempt Jesus. He fails at that. Jesus gives His disciples power over evil spirits. We see that God is more powerful. Satan still has a degree of power but God always sets limits to how far he can go.
Let's continue this story. If at any point you can just pause the video if it's too long and come back to it later, but I don't want to skip this.
Verse 13 says, Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; Job had lots of kids. This is all described in chapter one. The first 5 verses give us a list of all that Job had.
Verse 14. And a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Only one man survived and the reason why he survived was to come and tell Job the bad news. The moment God removed his protection, Satan attacked in this case. He's used the Sabeans to come and take and kill and steal.
Verse 16, While he was still speaking, so this guy is still talking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
The servant saw fire from heaven coming down, consuming everything. He's the only one that survived and when he tells the story, he blames whom he says, this is the fire of God. Yeah, the fire of God fell from heaven. We know it wasn't God. We know it was Satan. But everybody that's on earth witnessing this stuff, they say, well, this looks like the work of God.
How can we know it's not the work of God?
It tells us that God gave Satan the freedom, the opportunity to do this, allowed him to do it. And we see that Satan is the one causing this. For me, the way that I tell if something is from God or from the enemy, I look at whether it is in line with God's character or in line with Satan approach. This is a complex topic, but that is something that might help you navigate some of this. Hopefully you find this helpful. Leave me comments.
Let's keep reading. While he was still speaking, verse 17, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”
Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the LORD.”
Satan said to God, Job only worships You because You give him everything that he wants. God says, okay, take his stuff away and see what happens. Satan did and Job continued to worship God. I know this is not the main point of this message, but, it just makes me wonder, do we still worship God when Satan attacks us? Or do we get angry with God and walk away from Him, proving Satan right, that we only follow and worship God because He gives us nice things, because He protects us from the attacks of the enemy, because He gives us everything that we want.
There are some versions of Christianity that are not biblical that will preach exactly that. Follow God and He will give you everything that you want and you'll become rich and powerful and nothing bad will ever happen. That's not what the Bible teaches.
The story continues. Satan goes back and God says, Hey, you see, like I told you, Job didn't turn away from Me. And Satan says, of course he's healthy. He can just win everything back. And God says, okay, touch his health. And Satan does, and Job still does not curse God.
Even Job's wife, who Satan left alive, comes to him and says, just curse God and die. And he says, no, you're crazy. I can't curse God. There's a whole chapter of Job where Job and his friends are going back and forth, discussing the character of God. Why is there evil and suffering? Really interesting reading. Really difficult reading. This is ancient wisdom. We have these ancient men describing theology. There was no reference to Abraham. Job is described as someone from the east. We're not sure how far east, but it seems like he was not Jewish, not an Israelite, but yet he had this relationship with God.
This opens up all kinds of other discussions about God being revealed to people in different places in different times. Maybe we'll do a future video on that also, but let's go to the New Testament. We're looking into Satan interacting here on Earth and with God and going back and forth and all these things happening.
Now let's go to the Gospel of John. We go Old Testament then New Testament. Like I said, good theology should be consistent throughout the Bible. Let me know what you think about this one.
John 14:30. Jesus is speaking here and Jesus says “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
Who is Jesus talking about, the ruler of this world? I think it's the same guy that showed up at that meeting in heaven when God was meeting with his sons. Same person, the enemy, the one that sowed the bad seed, the tares, Satan. The one who tempted Adam and Eve in the garden in the form of a serpent. The one that was created as a perfect angel.
Jesus refers to him as the ruler of this world, but Jesus also says that he has nothing on Him. If you want to make a note. Ephesians 2:2 also references this.
Let's go to the Book of Revelation. The Book of Revelation has a way of pulling back the curtains and giving us a glimpse of what's happening in the invisible world that is behind. Invisible to us what's behind the curtains.
Revelation 12:7. And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
Taking this verse, I would say that Satan was created as an angel and the demons that are here, demon possessions and demonic activities, I would interpret that to be these angels that were cast out with Satan. They had the option of following God or following Satan and decided to follow Satan, rebel against God, and they were kicked out and they were cast to earth.
Verse 10 says, Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.
Just like in the story of Job, Satan sins in the presence of God and accuses us of not really loving him, accuses us of being his and not God's.
Now he's been cast down verse 11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb (reference to Jesus' death on the cross) and by the word of their testimony, what Jesus has done for us in our lives) and they did not love their lives to the death.
This is interesting. They were faithful to Jesus to the point of death, but they overcame because of the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.
Verse 12 says, “Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! (That's us) For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”
Satan knows that he's defeated. He knows that Jesus is coming again. He knows that there is a judgment and that he'll be thrown into a lake of fire. He's just here trying to cause as much trouble. As possible. He's just going for distance. How much damage can he cause? How many people can he turn away from God? He knows he's going to lose. He just wants to take as many people with him as possible. Let me clarify that. He knows that he already lost. That's a future study.
There are some that would argue that this war described here, starting in Revelation, starting with verse 7, took place after the crucifixion. When Jesus finally ascends and now He is worthy to be our redeemer because He has died for us. Then Satan is cast out and then he knows that his time is short. He knows he's been defeated. When Jesus rose from the dead, that was it, game over for Satan. Now it's just the final chapters of the history of the planet.
Even though Satan was created as a beautiful and powerful angel. Even though he was perfect in all his ways until iniquity was found in him. Even though he is here with his angels causing trouble, even though it can be scary to have this spiritual powerful being roaming around and we are wondering what he will do, we do know that God limits what Satan is able to do. Satan needs special permission from God to touch the lives of a child of God. God knows our limits. He knows how much we can handle. He always provides a way out. There are Bible verses for all these things. Let me know if you have those questions or if you'd like a video on that. Leave me a comment and I'll consider that and we could possibly do that here in the future.
But I want to end on a positive note. How does this whole thing end? Spoiler alert! We're going to read the end of the book. The book of Revelation tells us in chapter 20, starting with verse 7 says, Now when the thousand years have expired, (oh man, we could do a whole study on the millennium. Let me know if you'd be interested in that.)
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. 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.
And then we skip down to verse 14. It says, Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.
Everything ends for evil. Satan, the angel of death, himself dies, is destroyed forever, eternally, no coming back from that. This is the end of the rebellion against God that was started by Satan. He gathered some angels for support. They were all kicked out to Earth. He found some support. In the end, they're all destroyed.
In chapter 21, we see what comes afterwards. Chapter 21 of Revelation, starting with verse 1 says,
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, (just like things were perfect in the beginning, there is a new creation,) for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, (with humanity) and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
When we study prophecy, we are reminded that God has the victory. These words are true and faithful. These things will come to pass. By studying prophecy, not only do we gain a better understanding for what's happening in the world right now, why is there suffering? where did this come from?, we also know that it is temporary. It will end. We can look forward to eternity with no more suffering, no more death, no more tears, no more crying. A new perfect world going back to what it was like in Genesis. A perfect world. God's original plan.
Romans 3:23-26, it says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
In case you're worried when the lake of fire and the judgment and all of that happens, where will you land? We are saved. Because Jesus died for us, it comes as a gift. We will be talking more about Jesus in a coming video, but I just wanted to make it clear, salvation is a gift that God gives us. He does not want to destroy us, but He will not force us to be saved. If we want to follow Satan and rebel against God and believe the lie that God is withholding good things from us, and we want to do all the things that God told us not to do, we are free to do it.
We are free to follow Satan all the way to his end. But, we are invited to be with God and live eternally in the perfect world with no more suffering, no more sin. Something for us to think about.
The next video will be “One Life that Changes the World. Jesus, the Messiah”. Turns out prophecy is not only about the future things and what's going to happen one day, even though that is part of it, prophecy also helps us understand the present and also helps us understand, is Jesus really the Messiah? Is he really the one? How do you know for sure and how can you tell the real Jesus from false christ and false prophets like we talked about in the last video.
I hope you found this helpful, and I hope you have been enjoying this series. Once again, give us a thumbs up, subscribe to our channel. If you want me to go deeper into any of these things or if you disagree with something, or you don't understand something. Let me know if you have any questions. Let me know your thoughts.
May God bless you, and we'll see you next time.
