The doctrine of the devil

1. The person of the devil.

a) The devil is the highest of all angelic creatures — Matthew 8:28; 9:34; 12:26; Luke 11:8,19.

b) The devil is the prehistoric super creature — Isaiah 14:12-17; Ezekiel 28:11-19.

c) The devil has three falls — Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28; Revelation 12 and Revelation 20. His first fall was his revolt; he led the angelic revolt. His second fall is when he loses rulership of the world, and his third fall is when he is cast into the lake of fire forever.

d) The devil also has two advent. In his first advent he came into the garden, found man in perfect environment and led him astray. The second advent of the devil: again he comes in perfect environment at the end of the Millennial reign of Christ and he leads another revolution. These two advents are related to two revolts against God.

e) The devil is the central antagonist of the angelic conflict. He is the enemy; all demons are enemies; all unbelievers are the enemies of God; all reversionists are the enemies of God; but the devil is the enemy — Hebrews chapters 1 & 2; Genesis 6; 1 Peter 3:18-22.

f) The devil has an organisation — Ephesians 6:10-12.

g) The devil is a murderer — John 8:44.

h) The devil is the opponent to Bible doctrine — Matthew 13:9,39.

i) The devil is the enemy of the Church, the royal family of God — Revelation 2:9,13,24.

2. The principle that the devil is the ruler of this world — Luke 4:5-7; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2. He took over the rulership at the fall of man and will continue to rule until the second advent.

3. Therefore the devil has a strategy regarding the nations of the world — Revelation 12:9; 20:3,8. The strategy generally makes him the opponent of doctrine and the opponent of establishment. He either tries to duplicate in a pseudo way what God has accomplished or he is directly opposed to what God has given.

4. Therefore the devil has a strategy regarding unbelievers in the world. This is stated in many passages — 2 Corinthians 4:4, to blind the unbeliever to the true principles of the gospel. This is illustrated in 2 Peter 2. His strategy regarding the unbeliever is found also in Luke 8:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:7-10; Colossians 2:8; the entire 17th chapter of Revelation. Religion is the devil’s ace trump. It isn’t his only system, every system of evil is a part of Satan’s strategy in blinding the unbeliever but the ace trump of all and the worst thing that ever happened to this world is religion.

5. Therefore the devil has strategy regarding the believer as well. We are a challenge to Satan in this Church Age. We are the royal family of God, we are the ambassadors of Jesus Christ. Therefore he has a sevenfold strategy:

a) To accuse us — 2 Corinthians 2:11; Job 1:6-11; Zechariah 3:1,2; Revelation 12:9,10; 1 John 2:1,2.

b) He is the sponsorer of reversionism — 1 Corinthians 10:19-21; 2 Corinthians 11:3,13-15.

c) To frustrate the will of God under 3 categories. He frustrates the mental will of God by means of the influence of evil in one’s life — Ephesians 4:14; he frustrates the geographical will of God — 1 Thessalonians 2:18; he frustrates the operational will of God — James 4:7,8.

d) To neutralise doctrinal application, especially in the field of worry and anxiety — 1 Peter 5:7-9.

e) To destroy the believer’s focus as a believer, to destroy the believer’s perspective — Jeremiah 17:5, getting eyes on people; 1 Kings 19:10,14, getting eyes on self; Hebrews 13:5,6, getting eyes on things.

f) To get the believer to become involved in some form of evil, especially the improvement of the devil’s world. The believer under the influence of evil becomes humanistic, occupied with temporal solutions to life, altruistic, advocating systems to improve man’s environment, he becomes socialistic, becomes involved in social action, and becomes a bleeding heart.

g) The inculcation of fear regarding physical death — Hebrews 2:14,15. This only works with the reversionist and/or the believer under the influence of evil.

6. Religion is a part of the devil’s strategy. Basically religion has been created by the devil to

counterfeit the plan of God. Christianity is not a religion; Christianity is a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. It is always a grace relationship, a relationship by which the believer enters the royal family of God forever through the baptism of the Spirit. Religion, by way of contrast, is man seeking to gain the approbation of God through his own plans, his works, his merits, his systems, his deeds. While religion as a principle represents the evil genius of Satan it is viewed here from the standpoint of its many counterfeits. Religion has a counterfeit gospel — 2 Corinthians 4:3,4; it has a counterfeit system of ministers [clergy] — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; it has counterfeit doctrines — 2 Timothy 4:1; it has a counterfeit communion table — 2 Corinthians 10:19-21; it has a system of counterfeit spirituality — Galatians 3:2,3; it has a counterfeit righteousness — Matthew 19:16-28; it has a counterfeit modus vivendi — Matthew 23:13-26; it has a counterfeit power, dynamics [tongues] — 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10; it has counterfeit gods — 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4.

7. False teachers are a part of the devil’s strategy. Most of the clergy today are false teachers.

a) False teachers always have a phoney and hypocritical facade. You will never meet a false teacher but what he will give you the impression that you are the most important person in the world. He’ll make you feel wanted, he will stimulate your ego to the point where you will be arrogant until you will think he is the nicest man! But he does that to all of the people and you are just one of the many victims of his con-artistry. Matthew 7:15; Romans 16:18.

b) False teachers use human public relations systems and legalistic flirtations to court believers — “I never do it that way, I think that’s wrong.” In this way they always court the legalistic. “You know Reverend, you’re right,” and they form a mutual admiration society; and they’re both full of hot air.

c) False teachers appeal to human pride — 2 Corinthians 10:12.

d) False teachers promote idolatry as a part of the devil’s communion table — Habakkuk 2:18,19.

e) False teachers promote legalism and self-righteousness — 1 Timothy 1:7,8.

f) False teachers continue throughout the intensive period of the angelic conflict, which is the Church Age — 1 John 4:1.