Conclusion of The Origin of An Enemy

To all my listeners: Sorry for no blog this morning or earlier, but the electricity went off and just came on.  Thank you for you patience and God bless you.

When Satan led Adam and Eve into sinning against God, he was really leading a rebellion.  He was challenging  Jehovah's way of ruling. In effect, Satan was saying:  'God is a bad ruler. He tells lies and holds back good things from his subjects.  Humans do not need to have God ruling over them.   They can decide for themselves what is good and what is bad.  (No they can't) And they will be better off under my rulership.  (Well, guess what we are and if you see a good government ruling right now, then you are wearing rose colored glasses and need help)  How would God handle such an insulting challenge?   Some think that God should simply have put the rebels to death.  But would that have answered Satan's challenge?  Would it have proved that God's way of ruling is right? 

Jehovah's perfect sense of justice would not allow him to put the rebels to death right away. He decided that time was needed to answer Satan's challenge in a satisfying way and to prove that the Devil is a liar.  So God determined that he would permit  humans to rule themselves for some time under Satan's influence.  (We well see how that turned out. Not good at all!)  Why Jehovah did that and why he has allowed so much time to pass before settling these issues will be discussed in Chapter 11 of this book.  Now, though,  it is good to think about this:  Were Adam and Eve right to believe Satan, who had never done anything good for them? (NO!)  Was it right for them to believe that Jehovah m who had given them everything they had, is a cruel liar?  What would you have done?  (the same thing, someone had to be logical and intelligent)

It is good to thin about these questions because each of us face similar issues today. Yes, you have the opportunity to support Jehovah's  side in answer to  Satan's challenge. You can accept Jehovah as your Ruler and help to show that Satan  is a liar.  (Psalm 73:28; Proverbs 27:11)  Sadly, only a few among the billions of people in this world make such a choice.  This raises an important question, Does the Bible really teach that Satan rules this world?

Next time: Who Rules This World?

From the book:  What Does the Bible Really Teach? 2005 and 2006