Donald Barnhouse called it The Invisible War, and Dr. Lewis
Sperry Chafer spoke of it in several chapters of his book, Major Bible
Themes. These books are available through
Amazon.com or
Christianbook.com. Some pastor-teachers in our nation are
currently teaching this extremely important doctrine to their
congregations, and they call it The Angelic Conflict.
Robert McLaughlin of Grace Bible Church in Somerset, MA is one of
those men. You can download for study or order cassette tapes on that
subject on gbible.org.
Another pastor teacher is R.B. Thieme, Jr. of Berachah Church in
Houston, TX, whose tapes and publications are available, also on a
grace basis, on rbthieme.org.
While the Angelic Conflict began before the creation of man, it has
been, and still is, a tremendous influence on the lives of every man,
woman and child throughout human history. A careful, exegetical study
of God's Word reveals that a conflict existed between God and angels
before the creation of man. Here are a few of those scripture
references:
Genesis 1:1-2 teaches that the earth became empty and that
it was engulfed in water
Isaiah 45:18 tells us that God did not originally create the
earth empty
Isaiah 24:1 says something happened that made the Lord cause it
to become empty
Job 38:30 teaches that the Lord froze the waters that engulfed
the earth
Isaiah 43:7 tells how the Holy Spirit restored the earth, and
then God the Son created man |
One day, in eternity past, Lucifer, the most beautiful of all the
angelic creation, decided to use his free-will and go contrary to the
will of God. He boasted of his great intellect and beauty and decided
he would make himself exactly like God. Isaiah 14:13,14 record his
blasphemous five "I will's". He was able to persuade one-third of-the
angels to follow him. God changed his name to Satan (adversary) and
sentenced him and all who would follow him to spend eternity in a lake
of fire that would burn forever and from which there would be no
escape.
Satan accused God of being unfair and asked, "How can a loving God
cast His creatures into a lake of fire?" In defense of His fairness,
God created a man and woman, placed them in perfect environment with
only one way they could disobey Him, and told the accuser He would
prove that a creature lower than angels would have the free-will to
choose for or against Him, and man's positive attitude toward the
Lord's provision would resolve their conflict.
Naturally, Satan tried to make sure that man would fail, so he
deceived the woman into thinking God was unfair in saying that they
could eat from every tree in the Garden of Eden except the one in the
middle of the garden, which was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil. The woman ate of the tree, gave some to her husband, and he ate
it knowing that he was being disobedient to the Lord God. At that
time, Adam lost his rulership of the world to Satan.
Centuries later, the Lord used a man by the name of Job to further
prove to Satan that a man would trust Him no matter how much pressure
was placed upon him by Satan to accuse God of treating him unfairly.
After Satan was permitted to kill Job's ten children, all his flocks
and cover Job's body with sore boils, Job still continued to trust the
Lord, and Satan was defeated.
Throughout all the ages, Satan has done a magnificent job of
suppressing any teaching about the Angelic Conflict. Furthermore, he
has successfully blinded the minds of both Christians and
non-Christians to keep them from finding and following God's will and
purpose for their lives. He wants people to believe that there is no
devil and certainly no hell for those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ
as their substitute for sin. He also has been very successful in
making believers in Christ think that their human good deeds can
please the Lord. (John 6:28,29)
Satan tries to counterfeit or distort the Word of God and especially
the true meaning of the cross and why Jesus had to die to pay the
penalty for man's sins. Salvation comes through faith alone in Christ
alone ... nothing can be added to His finished work on the cross!
Satan can quote scripture, but he cleverly twists the meaning. of
God's Word to further his own purposes, just as he did when he tempted
the humanity of Christ to go contrary to His Father's will. (Matthew
chapter 4) In each temptation, Jesus responded with the correct
interpretation of the scriptures.
Unless believers are well taught by men who have the gift of
pastor-teacher and who know the original languages of scripture so
they can teach the Word of God accurately, they are fair game to Satan
and to this cosmic system of thinking which he controls. We can't
learn truth unless we are humble enough to submit to good teaching and
grow in the grace and knowledge of God. Once we learn and metabolize
what is taught, we must apply those doctrines to our daily lives. Only
then will our lives bring glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
|
