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The Devil Appears In
Person
Study 5
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The first four trumpets
will reduce life on earth to total chaos. The
religious coalition that forms in response to
God’s judgments (Babylon) will make a
desperate situation only worse by tormenting
people with laws that have severe penalties for
disobedience. After a period of two and a half
years, the fifth trumpet judgment occurs.
(Revelation 9:1-12) The first four trumpets are
curses that are directed at the physical elements
of Earth and the remaining three trumpets are
curses (or woes) that are directed toward defiant
people. (Revelation 9:12) In my opinion, the
curse of the fifth trumpet is far worse than the
physical destruction caused by the first four
trumpets. The fifth trumpet marks the appearing
of the Antichrist. The Antichrist is not an
ordinary man. The Antichrist is a fallen angel
and he will physically appear before the
inhabitants of Earth. That ancient serpent, the
devil, which deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden,
will appear in the clouds with all his angels.
Clothed in brilliant light and masquerading as
God, the devil will appear in all the great
cities of Earth, one at a time. Daniel
11:45indicate he will establish a throne in
Jerusalem. Many orthodox Jews anticipate the
arrival of Messiah and many Palestinians
anticipate a Deliverer, so what better place
could the devil choose “to initiate a reign
of peace on earth for 1,000 years!” The
devil will say many blasphemous things and make
outrageous claims in order to deceive the people
of Earth. When Satan appears, he will be more
resplendent than anything human beings have ever
seen and he will claim to be the “Savior of
the World.” Think about this, when he
appears, the world will be in a desperate
position and cries of suffering will be
everywhere. The father of lies and misery, the
enemy of all humanity, will feign sympathy for
the terrible human suffering he sees. To make his
deception believable, he will perform great
signs, such as healing the sick and feeding the
hungry. (1 Thessalonians 2:9) Many people will be
duped into believing the devil is Almighty God.
Who is the Devil?
According to the Bible,
the devil once had an exalted name. His name was
Lucifer, which means, “Light bearer.” A
review of Isaiah 14:12-17 and Ezekiel 28:12-18
reveals that Lucifer was once an anointed cherub
in Heaven. Eventually, he became arrogant and
self seeking. He became dissatisfied with
God’s kingdom, God’s laws, and the way
God was running the universe. Because of his
hatred for Christ, he recruited one-third of
Heaven’s angels to join him in rebellion
against Christ. Thus, Lucifer is the original
“anti-Christ.” The Father did
everything possible to divert Lucifer’s
course of action, but the devil would not relent.
According to Isaiah 14:12, Lucifer and his angels
were cast out of Heaven because of rebellion.
Jesus told His disciples, “I saw Satan fall
like lightening from Heaven.” (Luke 10:18)
Angry and embittered by
his fallen state, Lucifer focused his wrath on
Christ’s special handiwork – planet
Earth. The devil went to the Garden of Eden and
he led Eve to disobey God. Then, Eve seduced Adam
and he disobeyed God. The devil did not stop his
work there, Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve,
became a murderer. As time went by, human beings
became so defiled by sin that God was grieved
that He had even made man! (Genesis 6)
Consequently, God washed the Earth clean of sin
with a flood of water, sparing just eight people
– Noah and his family. The flood may have
slowed the devil down for a few years, but Peter
tells us the devil is going about like a roaring
lion seeking that he may devour! (1 Peter 5:8,9)
Satan
Allowed to Live
Many, many people have
asked the question: Why did God allow the devil
to live? Why didn’t God exterminate Satan
and his evil angels right away and spare the
universe a great deal of grief? God’s ways
are perfect and the answer to this question is
both simple and profound. Consider the following
issues:
- What
message would God have given to the
angels if He immediately annihilated
every angel that disagreed with Him? If
God had destroyed Lucifer as soon as
Lucifer sinned, surviving angels would
have concluded that God does not tolerate
anyone who has ideas that are contrary to
His. How could intelligent angels love
and trust God if He immediately
annihilated His opposition? Should
angels’ love God because God is fair
and reasonable, generous and forgiving,
or should angels submit to Him because to
do otherwise would mean sudden death? If
God had killed Lucifer and his followers
right away, the remaining angels would
have been forced to conclude that God was
an omnipotent bully ruling over the
universe.
- God
has infinite wisdom and He foreknew that
sin needed time to mature so that the
entire universe could see the deadly and
horrible consequences of sin. By allowing
the devil and his angels to live for a
few thousand years, the universe would
have two governments to study – one
in Heaven (free of sin) and one on Earth
(full of sin). The presence of two
governments will ultimately prove that
God’s laws and principles of
government are best – not because He
claims they are best – but because
God’s ways have been demonstrated to
be best.
- God
gives the power of choice to each created
being. His subjects do not have to obey
Him, love Him, or respond to His goodness
or generosity. Lucifer and his angels
exercised their power of choice by
choosing to rebel against God. Adam and
Eve were given the power of choice and
they chose to disobey God. For 6,000
years, sin has contaminated Earth. Time
has proven that the quality of life
suffers in proportion to our rebellion
against the laws of God. True, sin may
offer pleasure and excitement for a short
time, but it always extracts a price that
is far greater than the brief high of a
cheap thrill. Sin takes us farther than
we want to go, and sin costs us more than
we want to pay. No matter how well Satan
disguises sin, “the wages of sin is
death.” (Romans 6:23)
- God
foreknew the consequences of allowing
Satan and his angels to live. Yet, at
great expense to Himself, God provided a
plan to save everyone who would live on
Earth. He loved the people of the world
so much that He gave His only Son’s
life. Jesus was willing to come and die
in man’s place so the penalty for
sin would be paid! God Himself has paid a
much greater price for the existence of
sin that any human being will ever know!
Incidentally, a plan of salvation was not
offered to Lucifer and his angels because
they willfully committed the unpardonable
sin. (Matthew 12:31,32)
When these four items are
brought together, we discover why God did not
immediately destroy Lucifer and his followers.
The conflict between Christ and Lucifer has been
in progress on Earth for 6,000 years. Today,
Christ and Satan are still striving to win the
affections of people. This struggle will come to
a dramatic end during the Great Tribulation.
Out of the Bottomless Pit
Revelation predicts that
the devil will enter the realm of our human
senses and he will appear physically before our
eyes. Revelation 9 tells us the devil is an angel
king that will come up out of the abyss (or
bottomless pit, KJV)! To appreciate this
prediction and the meaning of John’s
language, we need to review a little ancient
history.
People thought Earth was
flat, much like a large plate or basin in Bible
times. Since they had limited knowledge about the
law of gravity, it seemed logical to the ancients
that Earth was made like a basin – otherwise
the great seas would “drain away.”
Because Earth was believed to be flat, the
ancients concluded a bottomless pit could be
created if a person dug a hole all the way
through the “basin.” Without a bottom,
a person could fall through the “bottomless
pit” and never be seen again. The ancients
also believed the “fires of hell”
burned underneath the basin of Earth and
volcanoes were enormous chimneys that proved the
presence of underground fires. When we understand
John’s view of the physical world at the
time he lived, it helps us understand why God
used this type of imagery in the book of
Revelation.
The transliteration of
the Greek word abussos into English is
“abyss.” Whether it is called
“bottomless pit” (KJV) or
“abyss” (NIV), the idea is the same. In
ancient times, the “bottomless pit”
represented a poorly defined source or origin of
mythological monsters and demons. The ancients
believed surreal creatures lived “under the
basin” of Earth and when the creatures
escaped; they came up through caves or holes that
had no bottom or end to them. When God revealed
last day events to John in 95 A.D., God used
geographical ideas that were familiar to John.
For example, John saw the devil and his angels
ascend from the bottomless pit and John refers to
this event in several places in the book of
Revelation. By putting on John’s sandals and
considering the mindset of his day, we can
understand God’s use of imagery. Many people
are surprised to learn that Revelation predicts
the physical appearance of Satan on Earth before
Jesus returns! However, Revelation not only tells
us when, but it also tells us why!
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