Satan is Real!
Meditation for the week of September 11, 2011
Now after the piece of bread, Satan entered him. Then Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly." (John 13:27)
Many of us remember certain events with absolute clarity. I remember when I first heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated. I remember hearing the news that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded with a teacher on board. Most of us remember the events of September 11, 2001. I was in my study when my wife came back and told me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We thought there had been a terrible accident. But as we watched events unfolding on television, we saw the second plane hit the Trade Center. The world as we knew it had changed.
I was at the gym later in the day. Some of us were discussing what had happened. I remember remarking that there were people that didn’t believe God existed, but after the events that had taken place that day, it should be difficult for anyone to believe that Satan didn’t exist. As a result of his diabolical mind, nearly 3,000 innocent people were taken into eternity in a most inhumane way. Since then about 4,500 US troops have died in Iraq, a war that resulted because of our fear of more terrorism. Depending on whose statistics one believes, there have probably been 100,000 Iraqi deaths in that war, most of them innocent civilians. Why have people hated each other in this way down through history?
Satan is an adversary. That seems to be the meaning of his name. He is evil, he is a murderer, he is lawless, he is a liar. He is seen in the Bible as a serpent which seems to make him a cunning quiet enemy at times. He is also seen as a dragon, which makes him a public political adversary at times. Many find it easy to blame God when tragedies like this occur. We should be blaming Satan and not God. Because men would rather believe the lies of Satan instead of the truth of God, God has allowed men to suffer at his hand.
Satan entered into Judas and caused him to betray the Lord Jesus. I think that means that Satan took complete control of him. Apparently the same thing was true of Osama bin Laden. He didn’t care whom he put in eternity so long as his hatred and poison could be unleashed on people he did not know but who belonged to a political system that he despised. I personally think that the reason for his evil attacks were to show the world that he was “boss”. But the “boss” has died and and he has found himself in the torments of hell. He certainly wasn’t “saved” since he had rejected Christ and everything that the Lord represented. One wonders if he really believed in the “religion” that he used to deceive his followers. I personally do not believe he did. There certainly was not a bevy of beautiful virgins awaiting him on the other side. He found out the hard way who the “boss” really is.
Because of the events of 9/11/01, I know that we are not in the millennium as some think because Satan is not only alive, he is not bound like he will be for the thousand year reign of Christ. Revelation 20:2-3 says, “he (the angel) laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.” This world will not get better and better until the Lord comes. Evil men and seducers (imposters) will grow worse and worse during this day of grace (2 Timothy 3:13).
Satan the destroyer, the deceiver, the evil one, the adversary is still deceiving the nations and the political systems of this world. I hope that he hasn’t found a foothold in the hearts of any reading this meditation. Because Satan entered into Judas, the Lord was crucified. But that apparent defeat has given the believer in Christ victory. We who have believed in the Lord may go through terrible trials in this life; however, we are prepared for anything that this real living evil created being tries to do to destroy this earth and those living on it.
Bruce Collins