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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Devil

Recently in a zoo, a lion reached through the bars to tear a child's arm from its side.

Even caged animals can sometimes maim or kill.

I'll be back in a moment to talk about another danger far greater than a lion on the loose.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz on the Amazing Facts broadcast.

Say did you read about the Norwegian statistician who set a computer to work counting up all the wars of history?

During the 5560 years of recorded human history there have been 14, 531 wars, or as a computer pointed out, 2.6135 a year.

Of 185 generations of human life, only 10 have known an uninterrupted peace.

Right now, roughly speaking, 10 wars are in progress somewhere in the world, ranging from petty conflicts with poisoned arrows to major jet bomber attacks.

Now these facts about wars, past and present, were all duly recognized and reported by the statistician and the computer.

But 1 major war of the past was not included in the figures.

The reason, of course, is that it took place before this world was even created.

It hardly seems possible to think of a war in heaven, the very last place we would connect with fighting or violence.

So let's read about it right from the Bible.

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought, and his angels, and prevail not, neither was their place found any more in heaven.

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Now please notice that at 1 time Satan and his angels fought against Christ.

Michael is mentioned here, and the good angels were on the side of Christ.

How did Satan come to be in heaven anyway?

Well, friends, the fact is that the devil was once a beautiful angel who served God day and night in that paradise above.

How he came to be our great enemy on this earth is the subject of today's broadcast.

Now, I recognize that multitudes don't even believe there is a personal devil.

Thousands of theologians even have gone on record as disbelieving the existence of such a creature, and I submit that this is exactly the way Satan has planned for it to be.

There was once a noted robber in his gang who lived in a high mountain.

When he was about to raid a certain valley, he would hire men to go down from house to house there and spread the report that the great robber whom they had so long feared was now dead.

And that was his trick to put the people off their guard and leave their property exposed.

Then that wicked robber and his gang would swoop down on that valley and plunder the people's goods without resistance.

Now the devil has tried to capture this world in the same way.

He has spread the doctrine that there is no devil.

And there are thousands of preachers these days who are spreading the same report and telling the people there's no devil.

And I tell you that he is very pleased, for it enables him then to catch the people off guard when he comes against them.

There is a real devil, my friends, and he is fighting against all who follow Christ.

Peter says in 1 Peter 5, 8, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." Now no doubt you've gone to the zoo and you've watched the lions in there pacing from 1 end of the cage to the other, how they'd like to get out and pounce on you.

The New Testament proves the existence of a devil.

In fact, that term, devil, is mentioned 34 places in the New Testament.

In addition, 37 places refer to the name Satan, making 71 direct references to the devil or Satan.

Then another 6 times the terms tempter and wicked 1 are mentioned.

In fact, he's referred to over a hundred times in all the Bible.

The person who doesn't believe in his existence is probably the most deceived person in all the world.

You may say there's no devil because you have never met him.

Do you want to know why you haven't met him, friends?

It could be because you and the devil are going the same way.

If you accept Jesus and obey his commandment, you will soon believe in a very real personal devil.

Just because you've not seen him with your eyes does not prove he doesn't exist.

There's air in the building right now where you're sitting, but you don't see it.

Rabbit tracks tell us rabbits are around, and yet you may not see them.

Just so the workings of Christ and the devil prove they are real personalities.

Now suppose you question, who is a devil?

Is he merely a a figure of speech or a figment of the imagination?

How can I be sure that the devil is real?

In John 8 verse 44, Ye are of your father the devil, Jesus is speaking here now, and the lust of your father's ye will do.

He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it." Now, Jesus taught, friends, that the devil was a very real being here.

He knew because he had met Satan in hand-to-hand combat and conflict out of that wilderness.

James 2, 9 declares, Thou believest that there is 1 God, thou doest well.

Now listen, an evil principle can't believe in God.

It takes an intelligent personality to believe.

Therefore, as surely as there is a personal God, there is also a personal devil.

If you believe the Bible, friends, you have to believe this.

On the basis of those scriptures it is fully confirmed.

Now, again, you might ask, well, who made the devil?

The Bible makes it very clear that the devil is a fallen angel from heaven.

And here are the words of Jesus in Luke 18, or rather, chapter 18, chapter 10, verse 18.

I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Now, friends, those are the words of our Lord, and He's an authority that can't be doubted.

He knows what he's talking about, and he says the devil came from heaven.

If we question this fact, we are questioning Jesus.

Now when Satan was in heaven, his name was Lucifer, and that's where we're told in Isaiah 14, 12 to 14, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!

How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." Now the word Lucifer means day star.

When he rebelled, his name was changed to Satan, meaning adversary or devil or deceiver.

And his position was once that of the covering cherub right by the very throne of God.

The prophet Ezekiel wrote, Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so.

Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee." Ezekiel 28, 14, and 15.

Now when Moses led the children of Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land, he built an ark in which the 10 Commandments were placed.

In fact, it had 2 of them, 1 on either end of the ark.

In Psalms 80, verse 1, we are told that God sits between the cherubim in heaven.

Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock, thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.

Lucifer had that highest position that any angel could hold.

He stood right by the throne of God as 1 of the special guardians of that holy place.

Now how did he become the devil or Satan?

He was cast out from heaven, we're told, into this earth because of his rebellion.

In Revelation 12, 7 to 9, there was war in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought against a dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels and prevailed not.

Neither was their place found anymore in heaven, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out in the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." Now, friends, the Bible is a startling book.

It says there was war in heaven, and in that war, Christ fought against the devil.

That's what your Bible says in Job 1 7, And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou?

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Devil

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