THE DOOM OF SATAN'S LIE . A strange and mysterious struggle is going on within our world.

                     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 handiwork.
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 anointed 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)

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