I made the following notes upon reading Hal Lindsey's "Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth".
Evidence of Satan's activity is seen. Consider the interest and activity in these areas; reincarnation, tarot cards, transcendental meditation, mysticism, clairvoyance, psychics, sorcerers, seances, astrology, extrasensory perception, witchcraft, black magic, fortune-telling, Satan worship, seers, sexual deviation, sexual perversion.
From Lindsey's interview with Commander Bob Vernon of the Los Angeles police force; Lindsey, "Do you have an explanation for the trend toward witchcraft, satanism, and some of these other bizarre cults?"
Vernon, "For one thing, I know there is a spiritual hunger among people today. Many of them have gone to a church and haven't found the answer to that hunger. Someone comes along and offers them a feeling of belonging, a sense of being loved by a group, and they fall for it. There are other reasons, of course, but longing for acceptance and a place in the world is what I see as being a very important part of the insane direction many are taking into the supernatural."
A new age of Satan?
In the "churches" entangled in Satan worship the rites are opposite form those of a Christian church. (A perverted, counterfeit religion - Conar Note). Every desecration of Christianity is emphasized, from the upside-down cross to the flagrant use of sex and sensual stimuli. It's contradictory.
Said by an official witch in Los Angeles County, "You see, witchcraft is a participatory religion. This isn't a religion where you go somewhere and sit to listen to a sermon. We all get involved. This attracts the young person, because he or she is sick of the organized and recognized religions. They want to be active - to take part. Witchcraft offers them just such an opportunity. Witchcraft is actually a return to nature, a worship of the natural gods...we're more interested in finding powers within ourselves, in broadening our own minds." (Los Angeles Times 5/5/70).
Witchcraft appears to be exciting, sophisticated, inviting, or perhaps just a little amusing. There is a "pyramid" that must be ascended in graduating steps before one becomes a witch. The witch's pyramid involves faith, will, and imagination.
See Proverbs 14:12.
Age of Aquarius. Said by Ruth Montgomery, medium of the late Bishop James Pike, "It's the age of Aquarius, so the time was right for revelations about the unknown." (Los Angeles Times 4-18-72).
Dr. Merrill Unger, a renowned archaeologist and theologian, writes, "The (great) power of demonic spirits to delude humanity is the unrecognized peril surrounding parapsychologists and spiritualists." (Merrill Unger, The Haunting of Bishop Pike, Tyndale House).
On the other hand, Hanz Holzer, assistant professor of parapsychology at the New York Institute of Technology and the author of twenty-six books on psychic phenomena says, "Psychic phenomena don't hurt anyone. In fact, they're good for you. They expand the mind, expand your sense of man's purpose." (Chicago Tribune 4/17/72).
Concerning Eastern religions, a member of a Buddhist sect (Nichiren Shoshu) said, "Nichiren Shoshu is nice because you participate. Let's face it, the church has lost it." (Life 1/9/70). Also consider Hare Krishna.
Whether it is realized or not, the person exposed in witchcraft and the occult can be brought under the direct influence of powerful spiritual personalities (Satan and his army of demons - Conar Note) who are dedicated to enslaving his life
Look at the birth of the black prince. See Isaiah 14:12; Ezekiel 28:15).
I do not believe this trend of history has happened by chance. Satan does not want a world that rejects the supernatural; he wants a world that is "religious" and accepts supernaturalism because it sets the stage for him to be worshipped in the person of a coming world leader known as the Antichrist. The first step was to discredit the Bible so that Satan's true nature and plan would not be discovered.
Morning stars, sons of God (Job 38:7). A study of these titles reveals that in the Old Testament, they are used only in regard to angels. Angels are higher than man; they have greater intelligence and more power than man. They have personal audience with God.
Before the revolt (Job 38:7), "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" at creation (See verses 1-6). This indicates complete harmony among the angels. Obviously no rebellion had taken place at this time.
Lucifer was the most beautiful and wisest of all God's creation. Consider his credentials in Ezekiel 28:11-17. Also he was the "anointed cherub" (verse 14).
A cherub is an angelic being of high rank, associated with God's holy presence and His glory. Cherubs are celestial beings who proclaim the righteousness of God. Satan is called the "anointed" one, which indicates supreme favor from God.
He "covereth" the throne of the almighty God. The Hebrew word means, to entwine as a screen, to fence in, cover over, protect, cover, defend, hedge in. (Evidently his duties included protecting and defending the throne of God. By nature of these duties he easily had more visibility of the Boss, definitely a coveted position. - Conar Note.)
Lucifer was the greatest being God ever created, one who had unequaled strength, wisdom, beauty, priveledge, and authority.
The plot that failed. Lucifer's five "I wills" (See Isaiah 14:4, 7-9). Remember Christ's seven "I ams"? (See John 6:35; 8:12; 10:7; 10:11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1). Satanism is opposite of or counterfeit to Christianity.
Lucifer pulled one third of the angelic realm down with him (See Revelation 12:4, 7-9). He tricked one third of the angels to join him rebellion. What a revolt there must have been! But, what a fall this must have been!! Satan fell from his very high position to the lowest position. See Genesis 3:14, i.e. "thou art cursed".
This planet (earth) was to become the arena of the mightiest contest of all time: a contest where God himself would be wounded in a life-and-death struggle with the powers of darkness. God had a plan, a method to resolve this pre-history rebellion led by Satan. Believers enter into this conflict, and share God's ultimate plan, as His representatives.
One great Bible scholar says that the shortest definition of sin is simply, "I will". (Donald Barnhouse, The Invisible War, Zondervan Publishing House.
Satan's downfall demonstrates (to us) the complete folly of choosing to reject God's will. God will deal with our rejection and rebellion. And as the Creator, He will call the shots. We will have everlasting by having accepted Christ, or we will have everlasting torment (as will Satan) by having rejected Christ. He offers us only two choices, and the choice is ours.
Satan may have thought he scored a major victory with the fall of man (in the Garden of Eden). Satan may be extremely wise, but he is battling against a far wiser Being. For when he set a trap up to "alter" God's plan (man's fall) by "damning" mankind, he merely set up a situation through which God demonstrated His justice and His love to the infinite degree. God did not want man to fall (See 2 Peter 3:9), but, in His infinite wisdom, He foreknew man would fall. And He had already provided a plan (See Revelation 13:8). A plan to save man from his own rebellious state and ultimately destroy the forces of Satan.
Satan invented one of the cleverest attacks of all time. He invented the power of suggestion.
He knows our natural weakness; he knows the areas where desire is strongest in us.
Doubt. He questions Eve, "Hath God said?" (Genesis 3:1). Literally, "Has God really said?" "Is God's Word really true?" His questions are carefully designed to start the doubt gnawing at our minds. He wants us to become confused, to doubt. Once we become uncertain or doubtful, then he will come along with a direct repudiation of what God said. In Genesis 3:4, he said, "You shall not surely die." This is another of Satan's methods: he takes clear truth and drops just enough poison in it to kill us. He perverts the truth.
Satan, again, thought he scored a major victory when he moved to bring about the death of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He may have thought, "I'll get Jesus in the ground and out of the way. Then I will reign! But the resurrection of Jesus sealed Satan's defeat. Christ conquered the power of sin and death when He arose. And since Christ is victorious over the power and control of sin and death (and sin's perpetrator, Satan himself), believers, too, are released from the power and control of Satan, sin and death.
"Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin...But thanks be to God, Which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him...For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof...For sin shall have no dominion over you: for ye are...under grace. (Romans 6:9-12, 14).
Satan may have won a battle in the garden, but he has not won the war. He has already been defeated, and he knows it! However, he is going to use every tactic in his bag of deceptions to keep as many individuals as possible from knowing it, especially those who are believers in Jesus. He already has rule over the unbelievers using spiritual blindness (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
This is not an age to be a soft Christian, but clearly an age to "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might!" (Ephesians 6:10). Consider these victory passages: 1 John 5:4; 2 Corinthians 10:4-5; Colossians 2:8-9.
Morality: (Current thought) There is no way of establishing what is right and what is wrong because there is no way of relating it to God. Morality is a system based on the Gallup Poll.
See 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10; Luke 10:17-20.
We are in a war where we can't be neutral! The battle lines are clearly drawn. There are no conscientious objectors in this war, no draft dodgers, no armchair generals, no advocates of peace at any price. This is a time when every Christian must stand for Christ, covered to the hilt with the full armor of God (See Ephesians 6:10-13...) It doesn't make any difference if you are old or weak physically; the Lord Jesus will be your strength.
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May God speak to your heart! Bob Conar