Dear
Friend,
When
God created the world, He made
everything beautiful and good. But now many things are not beautiful or good.
There is pain, sorrow, selfishness, pride, hatred, fighting, sickness, disease
and death. To find out what happened, let us answer these important questions:
·
What is the most terrible thing in the
universe?
·
What are the two rebellions against God?
·
How does Satan deceive people?
The most terrible thing
in the universe is SIN! Sin
ruined God's beautiful creation. Sin is rebellion against God, followed by
disobedience. The Bible tells us about two rebellions in God's universe.
The
first rebellion began in Heaven, in the
heart of an angel named Lucifer. When
he was created, Lucifer was the wisest, most beautiful, most powerful angel
ever created by God. His name means "Light-bearer." Apparently,
Lucifer was over all the other angels.
For a time Lucifer loved
God and obeyed Him, but pride entered his heart. The Bible says, "You were perfect in
your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity [sin] was found in
you" (Ezekiel
28:15).
Pride
in Lucifer's heart was the
beginning of sin in the universe. The Bible says,
"For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into
heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God… I will be like the most
High [God]" (Isaiah 14:13 ,14).
God saw what was in Lucifer's heart. He changed Lucifer's name
to "Satan," which means "enemy." Satan is God's enemy and
he is our enemy also.
Satan
was the first angel to rebel against God.One-third of the angels
in Heaven followed Satan in his rebellion. These angels are called "fallen
angels," while those who remained true to God are called "holy
angels." Satan and his fallen angels were cast out of Heaven.
Satan
and his fallen angels set up a kingdom opposed to God. Since that time, there has been continual warfare between Satan
and his kingdom of darkness, and God and His kingdom of light. Some day Satan
and his fallen angels and all people who follow him will be forever separated
from God in the lake of fire. But for now Satan and his followers are doing all
they can to oppose God and His people.
Because
Satan hates God, he
wanted to get Adam and Eve to rebel against God just as he had done. But how
could Satan get Adam and Eve to disobey their loving Creator? He would do it by
deceiving Eve.
Satan
is the great deceiver! He
deceives people by his lies; he gets people to believe what is not true. He
tricks people into disobeying God. This is what he did in the Garden of Eden.
Satan came to Eve in the
form of a serpent. He said,"Did God say that
you could eat of every tree in the Garden?"
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Eve knew that God had
told them not to eat of "the tree of knowledge of good and evil." God said, "…for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely
die" (Genesis
2:17b). Eve told Satan this, but she changed God's words slightly. She quoted
God as saying, "You shall
not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die."
Satan then deceived Eve
by telling her a lie. He said, "You shall not surely die. For God knows that in the day
you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods knowing
good and evil" (Genesis
3:4,5).
Satan
deceived Eve into
thinking that she and her husband would be "as gods" if they ate of
the forbidden tree. Eve took the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some of the
fruit to Adam and he ate it. Adam was not deceived. He chose to disobey God.
Adam
and Eve were now sinners. Instead
of having God in their hearts, they now had sin in their hearts. When God came
down in the evening to walk and talk with Adam and Eve, they hid from Him. They
were afraid of God. They knew that they had disobeyed Him.
Satan was pleased that the first man and woman had rebelled
against God. But it was a sad day for God. And it was a sad day for Adam and
Eve. They could no longer live with God. Because of their disobedience, Adam
and Eve had to leave the beautiful Garden of Eden.
How did
sin come into the world? It came
in by the disobedience of the first man, Adam. Adam's disobedience brought sin
and death into the world and into the whole human race. The Bible says, "For as by one man
[Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned." (Romans
5:12)
Adam
was now a sinner. He now
had a sinful nature. Because Adam was the head of the whole human race, he
passed his sinful nature on to his children and to the whole human family. Adam
produced a race of sinners like himself. The Bible says, "For as by one man's
[Adam's] disobedience many were made sinners…" (Romans 5:19).
Satan
is the great Deceiver. All
lies come from Satan. Ever since the Garden of Eden, Satan has been deceiving
people with his lies. Jesus said of Satan,
"… He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in
the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of
his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8:44 ).
Satan
hates the Bible because
it tells us the truth about God, the truth about sin and Satan, the truth about
ourselves, and the truth about how we can become children of God.
Satan wants people to think that the Bible is just another book,
written by men, and containing many errors.
Satan
uses false teachers to spread his lies. God
warns us against teachers and preachers who claim to be ministers of Christ,
and yet deny the great truths of the Bible. (See 2
Corinthians 11:13-15.) They can be religious, attractive, and eloquent speakers; but
the Bible says that they are "ministers of Satan."
One of
the lies used by
Satan to deceive people is that Jesus Christ was a good man and a great
teacher, but He was not the Son of God. If Jesus was not who He said He was,
then He was a liar, and not a good man.
Another
of Satan's lies is that
we are all the children of God, and no one needs to be "born again"
into the family of God. The Lord Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God " (John
3:3).
Satan tells us that all religions
are good and that there are many ways by which we can go to God. But the Lord
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no one comes unto
the Father but by Me" (John
14:6).
Satan
puts wrong ideas about God into
the minds of people. Some people have lived very sinful lives. Satan deceives
these people into thinking that God hates them and that they can never be
saved.
The truth is that God
hates sin, but He loves sinners. He loves them so much that He gave His son,
the Lord Jesus, to die on the cross for their sins. The Bible says that God "…is not willing
that any should perish [be lost forever], but that all should come to
repentance"(2 Peter 3:9).
No matter what a person
has done, he can be saved in a moment by taking Christ as Savior. Jesus said, "… him [anyone] that
comes to Me I will in no wise [by no means] cast out" (John 6:37).
Satan
deceives people about salvation. Some
people are nice moral people who are respected in their communities. Satan
deceives these people into thinking that they do not need Jesus as Savior
because they are nice enough to go to Heaven as they are. The truth is that we
are all sinners, and no one will ever get into Heaven without taking Jesus as
their Savior.
Satan deceives many
people into thinking that being religious and doing good works will get them
into Heaven. But the Bible says, "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should
boast"(Ephesians 2:8,9).
Satan's Big Lie is this: Sin will make you happy, and there are no bad
consequences. In the movies and on television, we see
beautiful people doing sinful things, but we do not see any bad consequences.
This is not reality. This is Satan promoting his Big Lie.
Satan's BIG LIE
Sin will make you happy,
and there are
no bad consequences.
and there are
no bad consequences.
The
truth is that sin will not make you happy, and
there are always bad consequences that come with disobeying God.
Satan
deceives children and teens into
rebelling against their parents and teachers. Satan deceives people into using
drugs, alcohol and tobacco by making them think that these things will help
them make friends and enjoy life.
Satan
is a terrible enemy, and he
has countless evil spirits serving him. Some people mistakenly believe that all
supernatural occurrences come from God. This is not true! Satan and his evil
spirits have power to do miraculous things.
There
is only one way we can
keep from being deceived by Satan: We must know and obey what God says in the
Bible. Jesus said,
"…if you continue in My word [obey My word], then are you
My disciples indeed; And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free" (John 8:31,32).
If you want to have a
happy life, obey the Lord! Jesus said, "If you know these things, happy are you if you do
them" (John
13:17 ). When you are in doubt about something, ask yourself, "Would Jesus like to see me do this?" If He
would not like to see you do it, don't do it!
Satan's
evil spirits are real! Have
nothing to do with books, card-trading games, movies, and TV shows about
witches, wizards, and spirit-beings. Satan uses these things to bring people
into contact with his evil spirits. This has serious consequences. In His Word,
God tells us to have nothing to do with "the unfruitful works of darkness."
