(288) – THE RESTORATION OF SATAN

288 – THE RESTORATION OF SATAN

According to the gospel preachers Satan, or the devil, is bankrupt. James in his universal epistle tells us:“Submit, therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” James 4:7). How can this be? Satan, who is the devil, according to Rev. 12:9, the destroyer of the human race, who violated the Garden of Eden without permission, and by his cunning and wisdom overcame the man Adam and established his kingdom of death, which remains until today, now runs from the Christians like a coward? It is obvious that Christians will argue that Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary narrowed the devil to this miserable state. The apostle John describes this truth, saying: “They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death” (Rev. 12:11).

According to the New Testament and especially the book of Revelation, Satan will be forever destroyed. John, in Revelation, explains that there will be a time of a thousand years, in which an angel with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; then he will be released for a short time (Rev. 20:1-3).

“And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison, and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. They went up over the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. Fire came down out of heaven from God, and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:7-10). What is the lake of fire? The same John explains.“Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14).

It is thus very well explained and very clear that Satan will be done with and condemned forever. This is the way Jesus Christ expresses himself concerning the final destination of Satan and those that follow him in evil. “Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).

The Old Testament describes a completely different destiny for Satan. According to the Old Testament Satan will be restored to his old function. After falling into sin, Eve accused the serpent before Jehovah, saying that she had been deceived “Jehovah said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward” (Gen. 3:14). It is obvious that the serpent is Satan (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). And what is the meaning of the dust? David answers: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death” (Ps. 22:15). Dust is death, and to be dust is to be Satan’s food, for Satan has an empire: the empire of death. In the letter to the Hebrews, we read: “Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15).

What Christians do not notice is that death reigned until Jesus, and therefore Satan ruled sovereign over all, the kingdom of Jehovah, which is Israel, included. “For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). The Jews were all dead. “Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead’” (Matt. 8:21-22). And life came with Jesus Christ. And he said: “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). If the one who believes in Jesus goes from death to life, it follows that all are dead. The Jews did not believe in Christ; on the contrary, they condemned him; therefore they are dead as the rest of the men that did not believe (Rom. 5:12). They are all dust, Satan’s food, and members of his dark kingdom.

When Jehovah made the promise to Jacob, he said: “Your seed will be as the dust of the earth” (Gen. 28:14). Jehovah was making the revelation that the seed of Jacob would be an offspring of dead people. It is enough to consider that the Arabs, Ishmael’s offspring, son of Abraham, are over a billion people, and the Jews, remnants of Isaac, Ishmael’s brother, are 14 million. The rest died; they all became dust. Germany alone, in the Great War, killed six million Jews. This tragedy is called the Holocaust.

Now, Jehovah revealed that he is going to create new heavens and a new earth. The text says: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; FOR THE CHILD SHALL DIE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD, AND THE SINNER BEING ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD SHALL BE ACCURSED” (Is. 65:17-20).

In the new heavens and new earth that Jehovah promised to create there will be curses. Will there be death? And this will be for all eternity, for the verse 18 declares that that new heaven and the new earth will be perpetual, that is, eternal. Unbelievable, but Jehovah will establish curse and death in his future kingdom and in his new created earth, therefore eternal curse and eternal death. The text ends with the following words: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; AND DUST SHALL BE THE SERPENT’S FOOD” (is. 65:25).

It is obvious that, death being present, dust will be Satan’s food, for he feeds on death, as we have seen above. Be amazed, readers, for Satan is part of the future kingdom of Jehovah and will eat dust for all eternity. In text of Isaiah we get to know that Satan will not be cast in the lake of fire, as it is written in the book of Revelation. To Jehovah, Satan will be restored to the old function he had in the Garden of Eden, for all eternity.

 

by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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