C. Can we go further and learn God’s plan relative to Satan, the tempter?

A.—Our only source of information on the subject is the Bible, and its accounts, while brief, are to the point, and furnish us all requisite information. Scriptures refer to evil spirits as “legion,” or a multitude under a head or prince called Satan. They were at one time angels of God. 2 Peter (2:4) and Jude (6) speak of them as–“The angels who kept not their first estate” (of purity and sinlessness) whom God “cast down to Tartarus and delivered into chains of darkness.”

It is a fundamental law of God’s universe, governing all his creatures, that “The soul (being) that sins, it shall die“– that, in a word, God would supply life to no creature that would not live in harmony with his righteous laws: and though in conformity to this universal law, all the rebel angels were from the moment of rebellion doomed to die, and must ultimately die, yet God, who we are told “makes the wrath of man to praise him and the remainder (of man’s wrath) he will restrain, has acted upon the same principle with the rebel angels.

He uses them as his agents in the sense that they accomplish (probably unknowingly) a part of his plan, and give mankind the knowledge of evil and its bitter results–sickness, pain, and death of mind and body. And because of this work which they are designed to accomplish, God, the Father, “who only hath immortality” (1 Tim. 6:16) — life in himself (Inherent life)— The fountain of all life continues for centuries to supply life to these, condemned to death.

I presume that the rebel angels thought that they were immortal beings, and that while God could give life to any creature, he could not take it away again, and probably with pride engendered by this thought of their own hold on life and their supposed inherent greatness, they may have meditated and attempted “a usurpation” of God’s authority.

B.–We can see the folly of presuming that he who created and gave life, could not by the same power remand any of those beings again to the same elements from which he created them.

A.—Their rebellion was followed not by death, but by an expulsion from God’s presence [to “Tartarus“–which probably signifies our earth, more particularly the earth’s atmosphere]. This we can imagine a source of trial to the sinless angels. If God had said sinners should die, and these having sinned did not die, it would appear as though God had been misrepresenting his power. He had power to cast them out of his presence, but apparently lacked power to destroy them. Here was apparently a rival government nearly as strong as God’s, and any who loved evil might desert Jehovah’s hosts and join those of Satan.

When MAN was created and placed in Eden, a marvel of perfection and beauty, but on a different plane of being from any previous creation, and with one power possessed by none other — the power to propagate his own species, can we wonder if Satan felt disposed to capture this wonderful creation for allies and subjects?

This he did attempt, and approached as a friend who was truly interested in them, and desired their welfare, saying —Why not eat of the “tree of knowledge of good and evil,” and be very wise?

They said that God had charged them not to eat of it, and had cautioned them that if they ate they would die–lose life and return to the dust from whence they were taken. Ah, my dear friends, says Satan, be not deceived; God has told you an untruth (a lie); let me assure you, that you will “NOT SURELY DIE;” you are immortal beings and can no more die than God himself.

Let me assure you that God is deceiving you, because the Lord God doth know that you would become as gods, knowing good and evil; therefore, he seeks to prevent your progress and knowledge by this threat of death. Then Satan ate and died not, and this seemed to corroborate his statements and to make God a liar. I doubt not that Satan thought he told the truth when he said man had immortality and could not die. His own experience had evidently been such as to lead him to suppose God could not withdraw life when once given. And the fact that Adam, after sinning, was shut out from fellowship and communion with God, but did not instantly die, seemed but a corroboration of Satan’s own previous experience.

It was not long, however, until death made its appearance, and gave evidence that man was NOT Immortal, but “mortal” (Job 4:17), proving the word of God true and Satan’s statement false. We can imagine the awe and terror of the rebel angels as they saw lifeless Abel, and realized that their theories as to the endlessness of life were thus proved false. As they began to see the power of God to destroy as well as to create, they realized that the penalty against them as sinners (death) would sometime be fulfilled. That they now realize that their end is destruction, is evidenced by the words of the legion to Jesus–“We know thee….Art thou come to destroy us?“–Luke 4:34.

Though now convinced of God’s power, they are still his enemies, and use their power to oppose God’s plan, etc.; and they are permitted to exercise great power, and seemingly to triumph over God’s plans and people, but it is only for a time, thank God, and their power is limited; so far can they go and no further.

Continued with next post.