Have you ever wondered what life is all about? Have you pondered the mystery of your existence? Why are you here and for what purpose? Where is the gateway of true happiness?

You may think that the answers of life are material or fleshly. There are a lot of voices out there. But none of your searching has brought peace to your heart or a conscience clear of guilt, has it!
Be honest- have the answers that you have collected or imagined really satisfied you deep down in your soul?
I know. I was there at one time. I was 21 years old- I had two years of college behind me and believed in biological evolution. I was successful but I still did not have peace in my heart (and thought that there was no way I could ever get it) nor find any purpose for my guilt-driven life. That is a horrible condition to be in.
But I found the answer in the last place on earth to look- the answer is spiritual and not humanistic or economic.
The reason I am writing this is to share the answer with you so you also can have what I have.

Well, if you are open to it, the bible gives us the answers to these questions and much more. Let's dig some nuggets of truth out of God's holy Word, the Bible. After all, your creator and mine has not just abandoned us to flop around aimlessly like a fish out of water. He has given us the answers that we seek if we will take time to carefully examine His truths. It is His will and desire for us to know Him, and His truths, and for us to have a loving relationship with Him.

The story starts in eternity past with God ruling from His throne ruling over all the heavenly government. He had three arch-angels to help him to whom He deligated service and authority. They were named Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer. Then the sin of pride was found in the heart of Lucifer. Lucifer wanted to pull God down off of His throne and take over. In order to accomplish this task Lucifer went out and gathered an army of angels to lead in the heavenly revolution. And it was no small number that he was able to gather together to him but one third of them all. Probably the one third that he ruled over. Then there was war in heaven.

Let's look at the scriptures that confirm this to us:
¹³"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:
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
¹⁵ Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
¹⁶ They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms..." (Isaiah 14: 12-16).

"And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon (Satan), having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven (a third of the angels), and did cast them to the earth..."(Revelation 12: 3 & 4).

Lucifer and his army (host) lost this war of rebellion against God and were now prisoners of war. God changed the appearance of Lucifer to the dark color of black but allowed him to keep his radiant glory. And God changed the name of Lucifer to Satan which fits his evil character. God also changed the appearance of Lucifer's white beautiful fallen angels to those of hiddeous creatures short and tall and chained them all up. Court was held in Heaven and they were all found guilty... God created a place of fire and torment called hell where they are all going to spend eternity apart from God's love and warmth.

Let's look at the scriptures that confirm this to us:
⁷ "Then there was war in heaven. Michael and the angels under his command fought the dragon and his angels.
⁸ And the dragon lost the battle and was forced out of heaven.
⁹ This great dragon--the ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world--was thrown down to the earth with all his angels" (Revelation 12: 7--9).

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels..." (Matthew 25:41)

It is at this time that Satan stuck his chest out and bragged that if he had been given more time and resources then he could have taken all of God's angels away from Him- not just 33% but all 100%. His "logical" but flawed premise was based on the fact that no one could love God for who He was and continue to serve Him for eternity. Satan could offer each of them so much more than God did. God disagreed with Satan and the matter was in dispute for quite some time with Satan continually making an issue of it and influencing others in the heavenly realm to wonder if Satan was right or not. God came up with a plan. God would create human-beings with free will and choice. God would have them populate planet earth and each individual would then have a choice to love and serve God or not. It was a simple plan of ownership. Each individual would either be owned by God or by Satan.

God Said It   I Believe It   That Settles It

Here is an example from Jesus of some people who were owned by the devil, "For you are the children of your father the Devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and has always hated the truth. There is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies..."
(John 8:44)

The planet earth was already in existence at this time but now God made it habitable for human occupation. Satan was given freedom to come and go from Heaven as he wished and to ask his fallen angels to shed their chains and come and join him on planet earth for another long-time battle against God. Some of the fallen angels consented and joined Satan while others decided to remain in chains and throw themselves on the mercy of God, which is great. These remained in chains in Heaven.

"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment..." (2 Peter 2:4)

God proposed this plan to Satan. Satan stuck out his chest and bragged that it would be no contest at all- that Satan, not only could have taken all of God's angels in Heaven, but now, would take all human beings on planet earth for himself. Satan would get all of them and God would get none of them. God once again disagreed with Satan and told him- Not so, Satan, I will have a few people on planet earth who will choose to love me for who I Am. Remember, that God always deals with a remnant or just a few. Satan agreed to this test of mankind and sure enough, Satan went out and was able to test the majority of mankind NOT to love God or to serve Him. But, God, was right also. He had a remnant of people who did love Him for who He was. Now, you know why there are always more pagans than Christians.

"And he (Jesus) said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven." (Luke 10:18).

God had another goal in mind as well- God wanted to replace the number of angels (one third) that he lost to Satan (in the war in Heaven) with human beings who loved God for who He was.
"Know ye not that we shall judge angels? ..." (I Corinthians 6:3)

This warfare on planet earth involving human beings was going to be a life and death struggle. It would be vicious involving a lot of death, pain, and suffering. Every human being born on this earth would be embroiled somehow in this spiritual warfare one way or another. All of this happened before modern mankind was created.

Satan and his imps were on planet earth when Adam and Eve were created. Satan studied Adam very carefully. Adam literally visited with God every day so Satan had to be very crafty on how to get Adam to be disobedient to God. So, Satan (as recorded in Genesis) tempted Eve to sin by a lie. It worked. Adam and Eve's disobedience to God really hurt God. This resulted in a great victory for Satan. He claimed ownership of Adam and Eve and bragged it all over heaven that he turned 100% of all mankind against God. God, he said, failed at His own test! All of this caused a lot of problems for God in Heaven. God lost face and it looked like God's plan was a failure. This is known in theology as the Fall of Mankind.

Often what we see depends a lot on where we are looking

No one is sure just how much mankind lost here at the fall. As a result of their sin Adam and Eve and their descendants (which means you and me)inherited certain circumstances beyond our control. We no longer had literal easy access to God, perfect weather, perfect health, and perpetual earthly happiness. Instead, sin, sickness, and death (physical and eternal) came upon us; all of mankind had to work, women had pain in child birth, and the earth had a curse upon it; Satan set up his throne on the earth, and there was famine, disease, wars, and inhumanity against humanity.

Satan raised up a horde of different voices from fallen humanity to drown out the truth about God and the way to God. It was so bad that without God's intervention it looked like humanity would be too corrupted. That is one reason why Jesus Christ had to leave Heaven and take upon Himself the robe of humanity. Christ had to show us the way. Christ would influence many to love Him for who He was by the life He lead and through the sufferings and death that He had to endure. He raised from the tomb and is alive forever more. He earned our respect, our love, and our devotion- and for those of us who choose to follow Him- we do so for who He is (as He is the greatest treasure).

I want you to be in that remnant of people who love the Lord for who He is. After reading this you should have a pretty good idea now of what went on in the past in Heaven. You are created to love and worship God and to have a relationship with Him and serve Him. Satan's job is to block you any way he can and prevent you from doing that. Yes, this Heavenly warfare has now become personal to you and also to me. But it is nice to be on the winning side- the victorious side. One preacher friend of mine used to say, "it's a fixed fight!" God is greater and is going to be the final victor.

The gateway of true happiness (true joy) comes from deep down in one's heart and soul. A cleansed heart and deep abiding peace coming from Jesus Christ living in your heart will produce unspeakable joy. God is the greatest treasure in the universe. I challenge you, if you are not already on God's side, to transfer from Satan's ownership of you to God's ownership of you. You do that my inviting Jesus Christ to come into your heart and possess you. It is a love possession and you then become His love-slave. Take it from me-- I have been on both sides. At age 21 I accepted Christ as my savior. I changed my ownership. I made the right decision to serve Christ and so can you...

Here are some additional study topics which you might find interesting:

If God created Satan, and Satan is evil, is evil God's fault?
No. God did not create Satan (or men, for that matter) as evil-
only with the capacity for evil. (Isaiah 14:12)

Dwight Saunders states on his website:
"In order to understand what is going on we need to study the Biblical history of this tug of war between the forces of God and the forces of evil. It all started in Heaven when Lucifer, the morning star, son of the dawn, rebelled against God and became the father of rebellion. You can read of this in Isaiah 14: 12-15. He said, "I will" five times, with the last "I will" stating that he would make his throne higher than the Most High. He wanted to be enthroned in a position receiving worship, glory, praise, and adoration. That is the position reserved for God and His son, Jesus Christ. There was no room for a rebellious angel, a creation of God, to take over and be higher than God. For his rebellious "I will" attitude he was cast down to earth in disgrace. Yet, after all of that he still maintains his rebellious attitude. He still desires to receive the worship that is reserved for God, and only God. He still wants to be above God."
http://www.alphaomegaministries.com/tug_of_war.htm

The philosophy of humanism is dangerous to you

presented to you by the Bread On The Waters Ministry
of Kraig Josiah Rice
www.breadonthewaters.com

As of April 5, 2005