Topic: If I were Satan
In today's society, many people are looking for answers to their lives after the event of Sept. 11, 2001 attack. Still the news media reports today's bad news. There are seeming the world has filled with the bad news as we are in the 21st century. The question is still remaining for us to answer when we all will meet Jesus Christ at face to face: What was your relationship with Jesus Christ?
Even we still experience many sufferings and trials in our life; we may often forget the important question in our lives. Why we face a challenge? What is God doing? If I were Satan, what would I do?
Read with me in John 14:30 as we answer that question. Jesus said, "I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming."
What Jesus meant these sentences? Although He showed Himself to His disciples after the resurrection, what He meant to us in this century? Before the reformation of the Church, there were a great religious movement going on between the Roman Catholicism and Paganism. The both religions became a partner to each other and they Christianized from their original background in about 300 A.D. Even before Jesus left on earth, He warned His disciples that there will be a great suffering on earth.
Even today, we see many ugly events among our people, nation, and the third world countries. We see many U.S. governments voted for abortion, alcohol, sexual activities, and drug administration. The Church has been separated from each other since the early church era. Many people are scattered to search for the answers.
In I Corinthians 1:10-17 and Chapter 3, Paul argued about the divisions in the Church. Paul asked, "Is Christ divided?" The word "denomination" means the division among the group. If the Baptist has the conference meeting, then Catholic Church doesn't show up. If there is Washington, DC conference and the both Catholic and Protestant Churches show up, then the Baptist Church doesn't go to that conference. Do we depend on our own denomination or the Word of God and our relationship with Christ? God does not looking for our performance and attendances in the Church. He does not looking for any favoritism in our church denomination. But He only wants to have the personal relationship with each of us.
There is a great different between the two passages of the Scripture. One is that God loved the world (John 3:16) and another one is hated the world (I John 3:15-17). In John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." According to this verse, Jesus didn't refer to this physical world, but in the heavenly world. If He loves so much of things in this world, He died for our sins. Yet God created this world, we are still bound into sins and our sins cannot wash away unless Jesus Christ came to the world to demonstrate how He loves us and would like to take us into His world that He created and loved.
Satan is an enemy of God. The Bible recognizes Satan as deceiver, devil, Lucifer, dragon, serpent, and the World Prince. He was in the world since God created the earth, heaven, and creatures. In Genesis 3, Satan tricked Eve and Adam with the one of fruits that God warned them not to eat. In Job 1, he was at the Heaven with God's angels to temp Him by accusing the life of Job. In Matthew 4, he was trying to tempt Jesus at the wilderness after 40 days and nights. Satan was and is the Prince of this world since the event of Garden Eden.
This world is belonged to Satan until God will put him into his own world, Hell. Because he is ruling of this world, God cannot enjoy His creation any longer. Yet He is still loved us, we have the choice to love God or to love our own deeds. If we love the world, the love of the Father is not in us. "For everything in the world... comes not from the Father but from the world." In the same way, if we love the world much than God, He can't just love us and take into His home. The place is called Hell real. God created Hell for those who reject Him, even though He doesn't want any of us to go there. Hell is filled with gnash of the teeth, lake of fire, a place of remembrance, and a separation from God.
Look at today's America. Our country has been turned to the day of Gomorrah and Sodom and filled with variety religious and cultural activities. Satanism Secret Society, Gothicism, and other unfamiliar occults are already developed in this country. Our economic system is becoming greater than other parts of the world.
But where are you in this point of the time? If you and I were Satan, where we will be after we die? These characteristics of Hell and Satan are real and realistic. But God doesn't want to see any of us to go to Hell and enjoy our eternal life with Satan, but we may choose to go there for eternality. Jesus didn't just die on the cross 2000 years ago to wash away all our sins, but that He may have the personal relationship with each of us from now and throughout the eternality.
Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." (John 3:16-21.).
