Link to the Site
 |
| Herbert W Armstrong |
But is there a devil? According to most Christians the Bible is supposed to each that the devil is the god of this world. Indeed it does teach that!
The Bible pictures the whole world under the sway of an invisible devil. Where did he come from? Did God create a devil to tempt us and to try to lead us astray? And then to punish us if we follow the devil?
God Is CREATOR of ALL!
So, let's look back to the very beginning. Open your Bible to Genesis 1:1. "In the
beginning God." God was before all. The next word is "created." "God created." He created the heaven and the earth.
But the very next verse says this: "The earth was without form and void." The Hebrew words for "without form and void" are tohu and bohu. Translated into English theymean chaotic, in confusion, waste, and empty. When God created the heaven and the earth, did He create this earth originally in a state of confusion? Did He create it all topsy-turvy and chaotic?
World NOT Created in Chaos. We read in I Corinthians 14:33 that God is NOT the author of confusion. God is the author of peace. God is the author of order and of law.
Notice Job 38:4-9. God says there that the angels shouted for joy when He created the
earth. It must then have been a perfect creation, not a creation that was in chaos and
confusion!
Why would He create it in disorder and then have to straighten it out? That doesn't
make sense! Dr. Bullinger, the Hebrew authority, says that the Hebrew word for
"created," used in Genesis 1:1, " implies that the creation was a perfect work." That
very word "created" implies a perfect and a beautiful order and system, not chaos or
confusion!
Then how did it become chaotic?
In Genesis 19:26, the same Hebrew word is used which is translated "was" in Gen. 1:2.
And there it is translated into the English word "became." In the first three chapters of
the Bible, and many other places where you find the word "was," in almost every case
it is denoting a condition that was different from a former condition. In other words, it
"BECAME" or "was made" that way. It had not always been that way. The Earth BECAME Chaotic
Plainly the word "was" has the meaning of "became." The Rotherham translation of
Gen. 1:2, out of the original Hebrew language, is this: "Now the earth HAD BECOME
waste and empty." It hadn't always been that way.
In Jeremiah 4:23, in Isaiah 24:10, in Isaiah 34:11, and in other places in the Bible, you
find the same words, toha and boha, meaning chaotic and in confusion. In every case
that condition is a result of sin.
No Chaos Originally notice Isaiah 45:18. "Thus saith the Eternal that created the heavens, God himself that
formed the earth and made it, He hath established it, He created it not in vain." "In vain"
is an incorrect translation. In your Bible, if you have the marginal references, you will
find in the margin the proper translation "waste."
The original Hebrew word there is TOHU. This Hebrew word is the identical word used
in Gen. 1:2, meaning confusion, or emptiness. or waste - a result of disorder, a result of
violation of law. In Isaiah 45:18 we have the plain statement that God created the earth
not "toho," that is, not in confusion, not in disorder. But in Genesis 1:2, the earth was,
or the earth BECAME - as it ought to he translated - chaotic and in confusion!
Then it became that way after it was created. Now, what could have caused that
confusion? - that disorder? What sin could have wrecked the earth and brought it into
the condition in which it was found in Gen. 1:2?
Life Before Adam?
Now, what was the sin then that caused this physical destruction to the earth? It was
not a sin caused by humanity, because there had been no man on the earth until the
sixth day of that re-creation or that re-making. So it was not a sin of man. Adam was
the first man. We find over in I Corinthians 15:45 that Adam is called the first man on
this earth. In Genesis Eve is called the mother of all living human beings. There was no
other race prior to Adam and Eve.
So the sin which brought chaos was not caused by man. And yet life must have
populated the earth because a sin had occurred on the earth that brought it into a
condition of chaos and confusion by breaking the laws of God.
What kind of life could it have been? It wasn't human life. What was it that populated
this earth prior to the second verse of Genesis, the first chapter?
In Genesis 1:28, speaking to the man whom He had created, God said this: ''Be fruitful
and multiply and replenish the earth." What does that word replenish mean? To plenish
is to populate. To replenish means to repopulate - to populate all over again. Those
very words imply that the earth had been populated before!
Immediately after the flood in Genesis 9:1, God spoke to Noah. He blessed Noah and
his sons and said unto them: "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth."
Identically the same words that He spoke to Adam!
In Noah's case we know He meant repopulate the earth. Then didn't He mean the
same thing when He used the identical words to Adam: "Be fruitful and multiply and
replenish the earth?" Certainly here is indication that the earth had been populated,
and that it was to be populated once again. Then what kind of life had populated the
earth prior to Adam, prior to the week called "creation week"?
Next, let's turn to II Peter 2:4: ''For if God spared not the angels that sinned.'' Here is
the sin of angels mentioned. Sin of Angels!
Now read the next verse, "And spared not the old world," between Adam and Noah,
''but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood
upon the world of the ungodly." There it mentions the sins from Adam to Noah, and it
mentions the physical destruction to the earth as a result of the flood, a chaotic,
physical condition brought about on the earth by the sins of those men.
Was there a chaotic condition brought about on the earth as a result of the sins of
angles? The sin of the angels is mentioned first, and it occurred first! There was a devil
already there in existence by the time Adam was created. So the sin of the angels
happened before the creation of man.
Now read II Peter 2:6. ''Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, [God]
condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example to those that afterward
should live ungodly."
Universal sin was in those two Canaanite cities. Physical destruction came to the entire
part of the surface of the earth which those people occupied as a result of that sin.
Then didn't such a destruction come to the earth as a result of the sins of the angels
which occurred before Adam?
Now quickly turn over to Jude. In the sixth verse, you read this: "And the angels which
kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation [they had a place where they
lived, a habitation, an estate, and they left it], God hath reserved in everlasting chains
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." Notice! It is the sinning angels
who are reserved in those chains under darkness, restrained from light, restrained from
truth until the judgment of the great day.
Angels Possess the Earth!
How plain! They had an estate which they didn't keep. In Hebrews 2:5 we read this:
''For unto the angels hath God not put in subjection the world to come of which we
speak." In other words, The World Tomorrow, the Kingdom of God, will not be under
subjection to angels. The present one is under subjection of fallen angels. The
demons, and the devil who is their head, rule this present earth and sway its
inhabitants. The Bible everywhere indicates and affirms that very fact.
How did they obtain their dominion? How did they acquire their power? How did they
maintain their control? Where did the devil get the power to control and to lead and to
rule this world?
The devil is the leader of fallen angels, as you will find in a number of places ( John
12:31, John 14:30, John 16:11). In II Cor. 4:4 the devil is called the god of this world.
He is the king or the prince of the evil world that we live in today. Let's see something
about the origin of the devil.
Turn to Isaiah 14, beginning with verse 4, "'Thou shalt take up this proverb against the
king of Babylon, and say, 'How hath the oppressor ceased the golden city ceased!'"
Here is a king of Babylon.
This account continues to tell how he had disrupted the earth. He was an invader, a
conqueror. He was a war monger, trying to take away from others and trying to acquire
all he could. He had just the opposite philosophy from that of God. In other words, he
had the philosophy of the devil. He represented. the devil. The king of Babylon was the
devil's instrument and tool.
Now we find in verse 12 that this lesser human type lifts to the great anti-type - the
devil - whom he represented and whose tool and instrument he was. Rebellion of Lucifer.
Things are said about the great former cherub, the devil, that could not be said about a
human being. God says, "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer." Lucifer means
shining one, or shining star of the dawn. God names things or people, or beings what
they are. Lucifer was originally a shining "star." Stars represent angels (Rev. 1:20). He
was a great cherub whose duties were represented by the bright morning star. He was
a light bringer. In other words, one who had great knowledge and truth and light, and
who was to give it to those who were placed under him. He was placed in a certain rule
and authority over angels.
Continuing in Isaiah 14: "How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the
nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, 'I will ascend into heaven.'" Then he must
have been BELOW heaven. He must have been ON THE EARTH.
He said, "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars (that is, the
angels] of God." I want you to notice he had a throne, but he wasn't willing to be
content with his jurisdiction. He was out to rule the universe.
Now notice what else Lucifer said: "I will ascend above the heights of the CLOUDS. I
will be like the most High." "I'm going to be god myself," he said.
Lucifer Becomes the Devil.
So Lucifer became the devil. God changed his name when his character changed. He
tried to make himself God. But we find HE WAS CAST DOWN TO THIS EARTH.
Now, quickly turn over to Ezekiel 28, verse 1. "Son of man, say unto the prince of
Tyrus. . ." The prince of Tyre, or Tyrus, was a very evil man. He was an aggressor, an
invader, a conqueror. He was a tool of the devil. Now, as we come to the twelfth verse,
just as in Isaiah 14, the lesser type lifts up to the great anti-type. We find the devil
himself pictured! Now we find one that is not human at all. For a few verses, it is talking
about the devil himself, and not about a human being.
Beginning at verse 12: ''Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus."
Here is the REAL king that ruled in and through the prince of Tyrus. "And say unto him,
Thus saith the Lord God. Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in
beauty." Here was one who sealed up the sum total of perfection, of wisdom, and
beauty.
Could that be said about a man? Does God speak like that of any mortal man? Never!
He is speaking of some being far greater than man. Notice, "Thou hast been in Eden,
the garden of God." On the earth! Then he said, "The workmanship of thy tabrets and
thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast CREATED." This was not a
human being, who was born.
The prophet continues to say, "Thou art the anointed CHERUB that covereth." If you
will refer to Exodus 25, verses 16-22, you will find the type of the throne of God
described. Included in the earthly type - the tabernacle in the days of Moses - was the
mercy seat which was a picture of the very throne of God. On it two cherubim were
placed. They were made of metals, of course, but their wings stretched out and
covered the very throne of God. They symbolized the two great cherubs whose wings
cover the very throne of God.
Through Ezekiel, God says: "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth." In other
words, one of the two great cherubs ruling over millions of other angels! He was a
created being. He sealed up the sum total of perfection, of wisdom, and of beauty.
Then in verse 14, we read this: "I have set thee so," God said. God had set him in
office. "Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God,'' - Palestine or Eden! "Thou wast
perfect in thy ways from the day thou wast created. Here was a being that was created
perfect UNTIL INIQUITY WAS FOUND IN HIM.
That iniquity was described in Isaiah 14. He said, "I'm not satisfied with what I have. I'm
going to become an invader. I'm going to take God's place and be the God of the
universe." That was the devil's sin - INSUBORDINATION.
How the Earth Became Chaotic
A third of the angels united with Satan in the rebellion. That is what caused the chaos
of this earth. The sin of angels reached into the heavens and brought chaos on earth.
What the geologists and astronomers see is not an evolving universe, but the
wreckage of a titanic battle waged by spirits throughout space - a battle fought before
man's creation.
The earth was created perfect and complete. Then it BECAME chaotic as a result of
rebellion. And in six days, God re-made the earth, re-shaped, re-fashioned it, and
created human beings upon it.
He gave Adam a chance to take the place of Satan the devil. Remember, Lucifer had
been placed in rulership. God placed the great cherub, Lucifer, to carry out His
government on the earth; but Lucifer refused to carry out God's will, God's commands,
God's government. He wanted to substitute his own - So he disqualified himself.
Adam had the chance to supplant him. In the contest to see if Adam would conquer, if
he would obey God, he failed. He obeyed the devil instead, and man became the
property of the devil, and the whole human race was sold down the river to the devil
ever since.
Jesus Christ came 4000 years later and He entered the great contest - the contest of
the temptation on the Mount. He REFUSED to obey the devil. He quoted scripture
correctly. He obeyed God. Finally, He turned to the devil, and He gave Satan a
command. He said, "Get away from me," and the devil obeyed!
From that time on, the successor of Satan has been qualified to take over the rule of
the earth. But Jesus went to heaven for 1900 years. He is soon coming again, and
when He does, the devil will be DISPLACED. Christ will rule the earth; God's laws will
be restored. Order and peace will come at last!
So God did NOT create a devil. He created a cherub, Lucifer - perfect in his ways, but
with the power of free choice - and Lucifer transformed himself into a devil by rebellion
against the government of God! Today, you face the question: Will You obey the ways of Satan, or the LAWS of GOD?
No comments:
Post a Comment