One Last Attempt

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The devil tried to tempt Jesus one more time. He took Him up to a high mountain and, perhaps primarily through a vision, “showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and said unto Him, All these things will I give You, IF You will fall down and worship me” (Matt. 4:8-9).

This epic battle was about rulership. Satan knew Christ was destined to establish God’s government on earth and rule all nations. In this “present evil world” (Gal. 1:4) of man’s 6,000-year history, the nations, kingdoms, governments, laws, practices, traditions, systems, cultures and societies are influenced by and belong to “the great dragon…that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9). As the “prince of the power of the air” (Eph. 2:2), the devil broadcasts wrong attitudes, thoughts and emotions, which translate into perverse language and conduct in the lives of an unsuspecting humanity.

Satan’s Origin

Before the universe existed, God created hundreds of millions of angels. Like human beings, God granted them free moral agency, permitting the angels the capacity to decide and choose for themselves whether they will obey Him.

God then created all the stars, planets, moons and galaxies in the vast and expanding universe. Millions of these spirit beings sang for joy, especially when God created the earth (Job 38:7), for they knew it would be handed to one-third of all the angels as part of a very special assignment. They were to live on the earth, led by the archangel Lucifer, and take special care of it. If they succeeded, they would eventually be given the entire universe to rule under God.

At first, the angels were happy about their assignment. They wanted to do all they could to make the world a beautiful garden paradise of peaceful meadows, green forests, sandy beaches and sparkling oceans. But as time passed (the Bible does not say how long; it may have taken millions, even billions, of years), something changed.

It all began with Lucifer. Full of wisdom and beauty, he was the most brilliant, perfect being God had ever created (Ezek. 28:11-14). For a while, Lucifer obediently carried out God’s commands and government on the earth. But, at some point, he allowed a wrong thought or attitude to enter his mind. Instead of removing it and replacing it with right thoughts, Lucifer allowed even more wrong ideas and feelings to guide and control his mind. He soon became full of pride (Eze 28:15).

Instead of being grateful for the assignment God gave him, Lucifer had become bitter and angry. He had come to believe that he deserved more, that God was somehow “limiting” him, not putting his “enormous talents” to better use (and in the process, forgot that his talents came from God in the first place). Lucifer wanted more power, more responsibility, more “respect”—and he wanted it his way, not God’s.

Lucifer’s mind corrupted to the point he believed he knew better than his Maker—and that he was greater than God! Eventually, Lucifer believed he should BE God! He reasoned that he needed to take God’s place and remove Him from His heavenly throne (Isa. 14:12-14).

Lucifer’s perverse and twisted thoughts and attitudes led him to sin—to break God’s spiritual laws of love and outgoing concern for others (I John 3:4; Rom. 7:12-14). Thus, he became God’s enemy. Through lies and deception, Lucifer convinced angels around him to believe his way was right and that God’s ways were unfair and unjust. In turn, those angels convinced others of the same lies, eventually twisting the minds of all the angels on the earth— one-third of the spirit beings that God created rebelled against their Creator (Rev. 12:4; Job 4:18).

Led by Lucifer, the rebellious angels—now demons—invaded heaven to take over God’s throne. But God—armed with the limitless power of His Holy Spirit, and backed by twice as many loyal angels—squashed the invasion. He cast the evil spirits back to the earth, and changed Lucifer’s name, which means “morning star” or “shining one,” to Satan the devil, which means “adversary, accuser” and “slanderer” (Ezek. 28:11-19). (Additional facts and description of Lucifer’s rebellion are contained in others of our books and booklets.)

World Under Satan

Ever since he influenced Adam and Eve to reject God’s rule over them, and subsequently their descendants, Satan and his demons have had dominion over mankind’s kingdoms, governments and systems. This world belongs to the devil—and man’s carnal nature, which is naturally hostile to God and His laws (Rom. 8:7), is actually Satan’s nature!

The devil knows that His days as ruler over this perverse, rebellious, anti-God age are numbered. Satan, through Herod, tried to destroy Jesus when He was just a babe. As you will read in this book, the devil on many occasions tried to use his human agents to kill Christ before it was His time to die. And Satan used all his wiles in Matthew 4:1-25 to influence Jesus to go his way—but in all strategies he failed!

When Christ successfully defeated His adversary, He qualified to rule over the kingdom of God, the divine government He will establish on the earth to produce true and lasting peace, equity and prosperity for all!

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