In Revelation 3:21 Jesus tells those of us living in the final (Laodicean) age of the church (and the world as we know it) that we have two choices relative to the eternal future following His return to earth: 1) to overcome Satan or 2) to be overcome by Him. The Lord Jesus promises those who overcome the devil’s temptations to disobey God that they will sit with Him on His throne in the earthly Kingdom of God. Those who do not overcome him …. Read the Three Resurrections. Key word–Three.

It is important to understand that those who “seek first (to enter into) the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (the characteristic necessary to enter His kingdom) ….” have a very powerful enemy–Satan, the devil–who moves quietly and invisibly throughout mankind’s world, “… seeking whom he may devour” (Mat. 6:33 and 1 Pet. 5:8 respectively). “Devouring” in the physical, natural sense involves pain, bloodshed, terror, etc. No one views this manner of consuming a human being in a positive light. Recall that among early Christians, being devoured by lions was the price many paid for their belief in and obedience to Jesus Christ. It would be difficult to imagine a more horrible way to die than to be eaten alive by a lion. I once saw a picture of a man who had been attacked by a polar bear. He managed to survive, but without a large part of his body. We can only imagine what would have happened had he not had a weapon.

We can prepare for attacks from animals like lions because we know they are in the vicinity by the sound of their roaring. However, the lion Jesus was referring to is not only invisible, he does not announce his presence in an audible voice. Fortunately, God does announce his (Satan’s) presence, along with his tactics and attack plans, which he makes available in His Holy Bible. The key to defeating Satan is to hear God’s warning “voice,” believe it and react accordingly. Doing so according to His instructions (commandments) enables the salvation seeker to overcome his enemy and to qualify to spend eternity with the Lord Who wants all people to join Him in His kingdom. Read The Kingdom of God. Key word–Kingdom.

Though Satan already has the majority of the world’s population under his control, he is not satisfied. As long as this world exists, he will not stop trying to win the hearts of God’s most cherished creation–mankind whom He created in His own physical image and His own spiritual likeness. Adam was created perfect in every way and given dominion over the earth and everything on it, under it and above it (Gen. 1:26-28). We need to understand how special Adam was and how much power and responsibility he was given. A hint as to his greatness is revealed by the fact that Jesus is called the “second Adam,” meaning that He and Adam were alike in every way. Adam was the prototype for what God wants His men to be. During the final days of this world, another Adam (hopefully many) will rise up and fulfil Christ’s John 14:12 prophecy. Note that He said, “he,” which can mean one man or many men. We shall see.

When Satan deceives a person to follow him instead of God, he has performed his cherished coup. Since the Garden of Eden, Satan has controlled the vast majority of the human race. His efforts were temporarily thwarted approximately 2000 years ago when the Word came to earth and established His church (Jn. 1:1-4,14) which was designed to wrest control of the earth away from the devil and set the standard among humankind for righteousness, power and success in all areas of life. The church, as did her ancient Israelite ancestors–the ekklesia (congregation/church in the wilderness–Acts 7:38), failed in her assigned task. Since then Satan’s focus has been on that group of people who claim to be God’s people, making certain that they remain under his control through the work of his false prophets. Though he has been ultimately successful, there has always been a tiny remnant who saw through his “You shall not surely die” lie.

Over the past several hundred years he has worked tirelessly to lure those in the church away from the Lord spiritually while physically remaining within the church physically where they can influence others. He will not be satisfied with 99.99%. The parable of the Ten Virgins parable gives us a look at how he goes about doing that. Note that the five foolish “Christians” had given their lives to Satan even though they “knew” that they would marry the Son of God upon His return. After all, they were still “virgins.” The devil now focuses his attention on and applies his efforts toward keeping those in the church who unwittingly worshiping and serving him while he works to win the holdouts to himself. A look at the modern day church reveals how incredibly successful he has been. Check any phone book under CHURCHES to see just how successful. His mode of operation is to quietly pick off those who continue to obey God’s Word which, as Jesus warned, are minutely few (Mat. 7:13,14; 22:14) and growing fewer in number as those who embrace him are gaining in numbers. Satan is stepping up his game now at the end of the age as he works to hold on to the 99% while trying to lure God’s true saints to himself.

There is no middle ground; one is either overcoming Satan or being overcome by him. As Jesus said, those who are not for Him are against Him (Mat. 12:30).

Satan’s method of “attack” was identified early on in the Old Testament. The Prophet Isaiah (5:20) pronounced a “woe” (curse) on those who “call evil good and good evil” while the Prophet Ezekiel condemned those who fail to “distinguish between the holy and the profane” (22:26; 44:23). Both sins are running rampant in “the church” today. What God declares to be evil (homosexuality, for example), churches are declaring to be good. In his attempt to destroy marriage, his people maintain that there is no spiritual difference between straight marriage and gay marriage, between males and females, etc. However, Satan’s work in mixing good and evil and eliminating the differences between them is not a new thing for the church. Read Simon of Samaria: The Legacy. Key word–Simon for the history of Satan’s attack on God’s church, an attack which continues to grow in scope and power.

In Revelation 12:9 Jesus warns us that the devil has deceived the whole world and will continue to do so until the end of the world. To see how he goes about deceiving the masses we need to return to the Garden of Eden and notice how he deceived Eve (Gen. 3:1-5). Notice that he acknowledged that God was in fact God. He also acknowledged that God had said what she said He said when he (the serpent) asked her: “Did God say …?” He then repeated what God had said. He hooked Eve by saying that GOD DID NOT REALLY MEAN WHAT HE SAID, AND THAT SHE AND ADAM COULD DETERMINE WHAT HE ACTUALLY MEANT BY WHAT HE SAID. By telling her what she wanted to hear he convinced her that they could defy Him and not die, that they would live forever (vs 4). Sound familiar? It should, for that has been the message of Satan’s false prophets for over 2000 years. The key to sinning and getting away with it is to repent of one’s inevitable sins which are inevitable due to Adam’s sin gene-transferal miracle. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Adam was the first human being to perform a miracle. And not merely A miracle, but THE most powerful miracle ever produced which is supposedly performed on man at the moment of conception. Satan’s prophets tell his disciples that Adam has infected every human born since his fall. However, I wonder why it failed to work on “righteous Abel” (Mat. 23:35). And who were those “righteous” people Jesus said He did not come to save? How could they have been righteous if He had not yet died to remove their inevitable sins caused by Adam’s sin-transferal miracle (Mat. 9:13)? Could it be that the church has been deceived by the Great Deceiver relative to the “Adam made me do it” ruse? The answer is found in the series titles Original Sin. Key word–Original. L.J.