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Samuel Chadwick
"The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from
praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies,
prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our
toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray."
Christ Is God's Everything For You
Harold J. Chadwick
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Leonard Ravenhill
"True Christians are heartsick, grieved at the worldliness
of the Church ... grieved at the toleration of sin in the
Church, grieved at the prayerlessness in the Church. They
are disturbed that the corporate prayer of the Church no
longer pulls down the strongholds of the devil."
I Believe in Miracles
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A. W. Tozer
"Any religious movement that imitates the world in any of
its manifestations is false to the Cross of Christ and is on
the side of the devil."
How to Be Filled with Spiritual Power
Harold J. Chadwick
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C. S. Lewis
"Like a good chess player, Satan is always trying to
maneuver you into a position where you can save your castle
only by losing your bishop."
Dry Land, Living Waters Video of Kathryn Kuhlman's
Miracle Service in Las Vegas (Only one of her miracle
services ever recorded)
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C. S. Lewis
"Enemy-occupied territory . . . that is what this world is.
Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has
landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us
all to take part in a great campaign in sabotage."
Nothing Is Impossible With God
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To understand Satan's role on the earth and its purpose and
limits, it is important that we keep our consideration of
all that he does within the framework of his rebellion and
punishment. The devil who wanders the earth is the same
angel who rebelled against God in heaven and is destined for
everlasting punishment. He is not an unlimited and
all-powerful evil creature who battles God with some
possibility that he may defeat Him and establish an eternal
dark kingdom of his own. Not by any means. Satan, because
of his rebellion in eternity, travels rigidly along the
pathway of our time/space universe toward his predetermined
destination in the hell God prepared for the punishment of
the devil and his angels.
1There is no alternate pathway that leads to a
safe haven for him, no open side road upon which he may
travel to a destination of his own choosing, no unguarded
direction in which he may flee to escape the wrath of God.
In pre-time eternity he rebelled in an eternal heaven, in
post-time eternity he will punished in an eternal hell. His
pathway on this earth is frozen in God's purpose, his
destination is fixed and final, his punishment is certain
and everlasting.
It is important, also, that we understand and keep firmly in
mind the Scriptural fact that hell is not Satan's throne
room where he rules as dark overlord. He does not in the pit
of hell orchestrate the devilish work of countless demons
and send them forth to tempt and torment humanity.2
Hell is not the spawning pit for the vomiting forth of
diabolic slime, nor is it Satan's dominion to which he drags
his hapless victims where they will be tormented forever by
merciless demons and mutated angels.
It is for this strong Scriptural reason that I must again
disagree with the distinguished Paul Billheimer and his
writings about the where and how of the suffering of Christ
on our behalf.3
Of that, he wrote,
| The Father turned Him over, not only to the agony and death
of Calvary, but to the satanic torturers of His pure spirit
as part of the just desert of the sin of all the race. As
long as Christ was the "essence of sin" He was at Satan's
mercy in that place of torment where all finally impenitent
sinners are imprisoned upon leaving this life (Luke
16:19-31), which seems to be the headquarters from which
Satan operates (Rev. 9:1, 2, 11).4
While Christ was identified with sin, Satan and the hosts
of hell ruled over Him as over any lost sinner. During that
seemingly endless age in the nether abyss of death, Satan
did with Him as he would, and all hell was "in carnival."5
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This theological theory I must strongly reject as being
totally in error, without Scriptural justification, and as
giving far too much authority and power to Satan both in
this age and in the next. It was not our Lord Jesus Christ
who was concerned about hellish torment by Satanic forces
after His death, it was Satan's hordes who feared the coming
of that day when they would be thrust through the dark doors
of the fiery furnace of their perpetual punishment.
| And
suddenly they cried out, saying, "What have we
to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have you
come here to torment us before the time?"6
(Italics mine) |
To repeat: Hell is not the devil's throne room; he does
not rule there in authority, nor torment there in power!
Hell is the place of Satan's eternal punishment in the
everlasting fire and brimstone that God prepared for him and
his angels and demons!7
God, not Satan, created hell. And God did not create a
throne room for the devil, or provide a place for him to
torment those who rebel against God. In hell the devil and
his angels and demons will torment no one. It is they who
will be tormented along with all that follow Satan by
remaining throughout their life independent of God and His
Christ. And nothing comes out of hell to torment earth. Hell
is a place into which things go, not out of which things
come. Hell has a one-way door with a sign on it marked,
"IN." Nothing that is cast into hell, neither
devil, demon, nor
human, ever comes out of it.
The multiplicity of fanciful doctrines and tales that
portray hell as something other than a place of punishment
for the devil and his angels, were without a doubt born out
of deception by the deceiver, and may have been propagated
by the King James Version's unfortunate use of the word
"hell" instead of the correct word "Hades" (Old Testament "Sheol"),
and "hell" instead of "Tartarus."8
Even more unfortunate, however, is the puzzling fact that
many Christians prefer to believe bad fiction stories
written under the guise of "Christian writing," paintings,
and movies about Satan, fallen angels, demons, and hell more
than they do the Scriptures. For those in the world who are
indwelt by the spirit of disobedience,9 to
believe so is understandable. For those in the body of
Christ who are indwelt by the Spirit of Christ,10
to believe so is inexcusable.
We should also keep in mind that at the present time there
is no one in hell: not Satan, not angels, not demons, not
sinners. The reason there is no one presently in hell is
there has not yet been the great White Throne Judgment. It
is only at the time of the Judgment that anyone will be cast
into hell.11 Until then hell will remain empty.
Hades, the confine of the departed spirits of the lost—and
before the ascension of Christ, the realm of the blessed
dead—is occupied; and so is Tartarus,12 the
confine of darkness where the angels who sinned are reserved
for judgment; but not hell. Even as Paradise13 is
occupied but not the new heaven, new earth, and New
Jerusalem; they comprise the final realm of our eternal
dwelling and are, therefore, yet to come.14
1. Matthew 25:41
2. In James 3:6, where hell is described as the source
of the evil done by misuse of the tongue, the word stands
for the powers of darkness, whose characteristics and
destiny are those of hell. This is also true in the use of
the word in Matthew 16:18. There the KJV uses the word
"hell," while most modern revisions, such as the NKJV, use
the correct word "Hades." (See Vine's Expository Dictionary
of New Testament Words.)
3. And in so disagreeing, disagree with those with
whom he agreed and whose writings he quoted.
4. The "bottomless pit" in the passages Billheimer
referenced is not hell, but rather a place of confinement
for certain demonic spirits, possibly the abode of darkness
spoken of in Peter and Jude where many of the fallen angels
are bound in chains, and the prison into which Satan is cast
for a thousand years—that's why there's a "key" to it,
because it's a prison. The Scriptures never refer to the
"bottomless pit" as "hell," nor equates it with hell. Note
especially that Revelation 17:8 and 11 speak of the "Beast"
coming up out of the bottomless pit and going to
"perdition." The perdition, or destruction, into which he
goes is stated in Revelation 19:20: "Then the beast was
captured, and with him the false prophet . . . These two
were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with
brimstone." It is obvious from these passages that the
bottomless pit in which the Beast had been is not the hell
into which he is later cast—and there are not two hells.
5. Destined For The Throne, Paul E. Billheimer, page
84. (Copyright ©1975 Christian Literature Crusade, Fort
Washington, PA)
6. Matthew 8:29
7. Matthew 25:41
8. 2 Peter 2:4
9. Ephesians 2:2
10. Romans 8:9
11. Revelation 20:11-15
12. 2 Peter 2:4
13. Luke 23:42, 2 Corinthians 12:1, Revelation 2:7
14. Revelation 21:1 |
