Question: I have read the introduction of the first part of the Satanic Rebellion Series on your site. I have found it very useful, as I have decided recently to try and understand Christianity more fully, to learn more of God's work. I would very much appreciate if you could answer a few of my questions, or refer me to a site that may be able to help, as I am sometimes confused by the terms used and in what context they should be taken. The passage makes reference to us being in “the devil's world”, and I was wondering in what sense we are in "the devil's world". You also write how we are "bombarded by the devil's attacks"; I was wondering, what these attacks are, and how they would cause us to commit sin. I was also confused in how God "condemned" his Son, Jesus. As I have always assumed that it was through death, yet he is resurrected, and so seems did not physically die. I was also wondering how Jesus' dying makes atonement for our sins. Lastly you write that man was created as a replacement for the devil and the fallen angels, so should we assume that the only reason for our existence is due to the devil and his actions? I hope you can help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.
Response: I am very pleased to hear that you have found these materials
helpful, and will do what I can to help answer whatever questions you
have.
1) "the devil's world": Satan gained a measure of control over the world
through his corruption of Adam and Eve. As it says in 1st John 5:19,
"the whole world lies in the power of the evil one". This issue is
covered in some considerable detail at many places in the Satanic
Rebellion series, the Basics series, and in the Coming Tribulation
series, but the following links address it more or less directly and
would be a good place to start:
Sojourners in the Devil's World (in Satanic Rebellion part 4)
The Limits of Satan's control over the world (in BB 2A: Angelology)
2) "the devil's attacks": Jesus and the apostles did much in the way of
exorcism, which demonstrates beyond doubt the very tangible way in which
satanic forces are operating in the world. The book of Job, moreover,
gives a very detailed account of how Satan targets individual believers
(for he is the adversary who accuses us "night and day before God":
Rev.12:10). This subject is covered at the following links:
Satan's Tactical Doctrine (in SR #4)
Satan's World System: Tactical Methodology (in SR #4)
Satan's Counter-Strategy (in SR #5)
Satan's Tactics (in BB 2A)
3) The second part of this question is a bit more difficult to answer
than the first, but I will do my best. First, Jesus most definitely did
die on the cross for us. He did die physically. After He had “given up
His spirit”, He was pierced by the soldier's lance and "blood and water"
came out (Jn.19:34), a sign according to most medical authorities that
He had been physically dead for some time when this action occurred.
Indeed, it was because He was clearly and demonstrably physically dead
that the Roman soldiers did not break His legs to hasten His death (as
they did in the case of the two crucified with Him: Jn.19:31-37). The
fact that He was in the grave from Friday till Sunday is also a clear
proof of His death (cf. Lk.23:46 where He breaths out His last breath).
His resurrection from the dead is the hope upon which Christianity is
founded. If we did not believe in the resurrection - Jesus' rising from
the dead and our own rising to meet Him on the day of days to come -
there would be little point to our faith (cf. 1Cor.15:19, we would be
"more to be pitied than all others"; see
Peter lesson #20: "The
Resurrection"). But He did rise, and that is the good news of the
gospel, proclaimed in all of the gospels, by all the witnesses to the
resurrection, and in all the New Testament epistles.
The second part of your question requires an answer more involved than I
can possibly give in this e-mail, but I will attempt at least to outline
it here (until the availability of parts 4A and 4B of the Basics series,
"Christology" and "Soteriology" respectively, please see
part 3B, "Hamartiology: the Biblical Study of Sin", section III.2, “The
Sacrifice of Jesus Christ”). We are all sinners, for we are all born
with a sin nature and all commit personal sins (on the universality of
human sinfulness see: 1Ki.8:46; Ps.130:3-4; Prov.20:9; Eccl.7:20;
Rom.3:23). The penalty for sin is death (Rom.7:23 et al.), so that in
order for us ever to be able to live with a holy and perfect God,
someone had to pay for our sins. Since is God is just, He could not in
justice just "let us off" - someone had to pay that price (without a
sacrifice, without "the shedding of blood" there is no remission of
sins: Heb.9:22).
Jesus is the only One who could die in our place, for He is the only One
who ever lived a perfect life without sin (His virgin birth meant that,
like Adam and Eve as originally created, He did not have a sin nature,
but unlike Adam and Eve, He never sinned and so never acquired a sin
nature as they surely did: Heb.4:15; cf. Phil.2:6-11; Heb.2:14-18). The
water baptism of Jesus is symbolic of what He did for us. All of as
sinners went down into the Jordan and had our sins washed away, then
Jesus went down and went under - into our sins, dying for our sins - but
came back up again - resurrection, and new life for us too since we are
justified not by our own works but by faith in what He did for us (cf.
Rom.4:25). It is hard to say exactly what happened at the cross beyond
precisely what scripture records, but we can say of a certainty that
after being betrayed, forsaken, denied, abandoned, arrested, falsely
accused and condemned, maligned, ridiculed, spit upon, tortured, and
beaten to the last reserves of His strength (cf. Is.53), our Lord was
nailed to a cross for us, saw with His own eyes the loss of everything
He had in His humanity as they gambled away His clothes and earthly
possessions, and then, after ministering truth and grace in His words on
the cross, He went into the darkness for us (Lk.23:44), was "made sin
for us" (2Cor.5:21), "bore our sins in His body on the tree"
(1Pet.2:24), and was "forsaken" for us (Matt.27:46), that we might be
forgiven and might move from death to life because He gave up His life
unto death for us. We cannot know the depths of the suffering that He
endured in the darkness on the cross as He bore the sins of the world,
your sins and mine, but we know that when it was over He proclaimed "tetelestai",
"it is finished", for with those words the entire plan of God was
complete: Man who had been created to answer creature rebellion had been
saved and made one with God forever (for all who choose Him), and the
entire universal rift that had been started eons ago by the evil one had
been made whole and right in principal. Now we only wait for God's good
timing when all things will be put under Christ's feet, and the final
end when He hands over the kingdom to the Father so that God will
finally be "all in all" (1Cor.15:28). I understand that this a
far-ranging answer, but who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross
is at the center of everything we believe, of all that we are, and of
all that God has ever done and will ever do in the world.
4) "is the only reason for Man's existence the devil and his actions?":
I would put it this way: God knows the end from the beginning and the
beginning from the end. He never reacts. He knew every possibility of
everything in the universe down to the nano-microscopic level before He
even created the universe. He is complete control, and, indeed, the
cosmos only holds together because He does not let go (Col.1:17;
Heb.1:3). One of the main things that unbelievers (or weak believers)
often fail to appreciate is the utter magnitude of God (see
BB #1 "Theology").
Whether we are talking about His power, or His knowledge, or His size,
or His love, or His goodness, or His grace, He and all He is defies
comprehension to an infinite degree. The way creature history plays out
from beginning to end, for man and angel alike, is exactly according to
God's plan. Man is not a reaction or a mistake. Jesus is the pivot of
history (cf. Heb.9:26), for only by His becoming an integral part of the
world could we ever, would we ever as creatures truly be an eternal part
of Him (cf. 2Pet.1:4). Jesus took on human flesh and is forever human as
well as divine, God and Man in one unique Person forever - and we share
all that He is through faith in Him as His bride to be! He was not an
accident or an afterthought, for "all things were created for Him and by
Him" who is the firstborn of all creation (Col.1:16-20). So I would say
it the other way around - the Lord could not have justly created the
angels including Satan without first having planned to create Man, and
He could not have justly planned to create Man without having first
planned and committed to have His own dear Son our Lord Jesus Christ
come into the world to save sinful mankind by sacrificing Himself unto
death. For creating creatures with free will, whether angels or men,
guaranteed that some would misuse that freedom to rebel against the very
One who gave them life. In this the wonder and the depth of the love of
God for us is truly breath-taking. You can find out more about all this
at the following links:
God's Replacement for Satan (in BB 2A: Angelology)
The purpose of Man (in Part 3 of Satanic Rebellion)
I hope you will find this answer useful. Please feel free to write me
back for clarification or if you have other questions.
May the Lord bless you in spiritual growth and production for great
reward on that day of days.
In our Savior Jesus Christ,
Bob Luginbill