| HOLY SPIRIT versus SATAN {also Last Days} The Bible story of the "last days" is the story of how, according to the plan of God and Christ, God and Christ sent the Holy Spirit to combat for a certain period of time the influence of Satan. I. The "Last Days" started when, according to the Apostle Peter and the Prophet Joel, the Holy Spirit was put on earth in order: (1) to take the place of Jesus and do the work of Jesus on all the earth and for the limited time of the "last days"; and (2) to combat the influence and work on Satan related to "sin, righteousness, and judgment". 1. On the first day of Pentecost after the Ascension of Christ, as the Holy Spirit made His appearance on earth in great presence and power, Apostle Peter explained from the Prophet Joel how this was the beginning of the "last days". "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh...." (Acts 2:14-21 and Joel 2:28-32) 2. Jesus during the last days before Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension had foretold this Entrance to Earth of the Holy Spirit with the work of the Holy Spirit as He combated the work of Satan. "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment..." (John 16:7,8) NOTE: Right now we will limit ourselves to a discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit in the total "world", temporarily waiting another time to discuss all the other work the Spirit did to write Scripture, help Christians, and as a Helper. However please recall as we come to the opposite of the ENTRANCE of the Spirit to Earth, that is to the WITHDRAWAL OF THE SPIRIT FROM EARTH, that the work of the Spirit with the whole world is quite separate from His work inside of Christians; for there are many among the fictitious fables of the fundamentalists who claim the only withdrawal of the Spirit from earth is at an equally fictitious rapture before the Second Coming {the Bible does teach a being caught up to meet Christ in the air at the time of the Second Coming, see SOUND DOCTRINE ON THE SECOND COMING}, that the only Spirit withdrawn from earth is the Spirit inside Christians. II. Just as clear as this ENTRANCE TO EARTH of the Holy Spirit, and in order to counter the influence of Satan in the world, is the Bible on the WITHDRAWAL OF THE SPIRIT FROM EARTH. "And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. {The Holy Spirit is presently restraining Satan and the son of perdition until the time of the "loosing of Satan", Revelation 20:7,8, and "his own time" of the son of perdition, alias near the end of the Falling Away, just before the Second Coming.} For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He {please notice the capital "H" in "He" for the Holy Spirit} who now restrains {we hope that time has not already come where the Spirit no longer restrains, and the indications are such since we still do not have a good visual on the man of sin, the son of perdition, although we in Osama Bin Ladin and others have good prospects} will do until He is taken out of the way." (II Thessalonians 2:6-12) III. WHY? Why, some would object, does God and would God remove the Holy Spirit from the world. Well, first of all this is withdrawal from the world, not withdrawal from the inward presence in Christians living during these end times of the Falling Away; and perhaps, although we can not see into the mind of God beyond what He has chosen to reveal in the Bible, two reasons for this withdrawal: (1) since we know the final days of the Falling Away to be a time of rapid increase in sin and the "mystery of lawlessness" (II Thessalonians 2:7), already at work in the time of Paul, God the Holy Spirit who is known to be greatly "grieved by sin" (Ephesians 4:30) is forced by the nature of His holiness, just like God the Father, to withdraw from sin on earth; (2) even as the Spirit came to replace Christ and do His work at the beginning of the last days, so at the end of the last days and just before the Second Coming of Christ, it is time for Christ to return in the plan of God the favor, for Christ to come in judgment and for the Holy Spirit to withdraw. "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming." (II Thessalonians 2:8) IV. The Counter of the work and ministry to Satan by the Holy Spirit that started at the beginning of the last days, same as the Ascension of Christ back to heaven, is the "binding" of Satan mentioned in Revelation 20:2; and the loosing of Satan of Revelation 20:7 from prison is the same as the WITHDRAWAL FROM EARTH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 1. EARTH ENTRANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO BIND SATAN. "He {God did it through an angel messenger, like He always works, by "pouring out" the Holy Spirit in all the world"} laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 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." (Revelation 20:1-3) 2. Some fundamental Bible Exegesis of this Revelation 20:1-3. (1). The one thousand years of Revelation 20 is the same "one thousand years" of II Peter 3:8, not explicitly 1000 years to God and therefore should not be considered literal to us, "that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day". It is meant rather to be with us a VERY LONG INDEFINITE period of time, and to be considered naturally according to the Bible as the same as the "last days". NOTE: This determination for a literal "one thousand years" on the part of Darby, Scofield, and the fundamentalists has made them create a dozen other fictions to develop a consistent philosophy and fable of eschatology, like the "rapture", millennium {words not even in the Bible}, and the most dangerous of all--that Christians will not be on earth during the final tribulation and the Falling Away. This false teaching and unsound Bible doctrine, deceive present day Christians into thinking: (1) the Second Coming is far in the future; (2) the Falling Away is far in the future, and they do not have to be there; (3) that living Christians will not be here on earth for the Final Tribulation, which by the way is primarily environmental as the old earth crumbles {see THE NEW EARTH}. (2). The "bottomless pit" is out there in space, some unseen to the human eye location just like heaven. This binding of Satan by the ENTRANCE TO EARTH OF THE SPIRIT does not mean that Satan has no more influence on earth and among men, we know better, it is only that Satan can no longer do a wholesale "deception of the nations" on the subject matters of sin, righteousness, and judgment. 3. The WITHDRAWAL OF THE SPIRIT of II Thessalonians 2:7, alias "taken out of the way", is the same as the loosing of Satan of Revelation 20:7,8. |