Amazing Facts

Guest (Male): This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry. Coming to you from New York City at the historic Manhattan Center with your host Doug Batchelor. Join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy, explore the timeless wisdom of God's word, and see how it relates to our lives today. Stay tuned. Your Amazing Facts adventure begins now.

Doug Batchelor: Whenever I present this subject, I do it with much prayer because the adversary, I can promise you, is not happy that we're exposing his tactics. But I know that there are people around the world that are hedging in this entire event with prayer. The Bible says the angel of the Lord encamps round about those that serve Him and delivers them. The devil was mad at the Lord; he says, "You've set a hedge about Job." We're praying that God will just hedge in this whole series with His protection because we're going to tell you what the devil is up to.

He appears all the way from Genesis to Revelation. The battle between good and evil is one of the central battles that you're going to find in the books of prophecy. So you need to understand the enemy and what you're up against. I don't like to focus on the devil. I don't spend an inordinate amount of time talking about him, but Jesus talked about the devil, so we must, to understand his tactics. Paul said we do not want to be ignorant of Satan's devices.

We always like to start with an amazing fact. I don't think I ever did mention where Amazing Facts came from. Amazing Facts has been around now over 65 years. It started with a 15-minute radio program that began with an amazing fact from science or from history or from nature, and then we would weave in spiritual biblical truth. It became very popular and grew from radio to television, to Bible school, to mission training. We've got mission training schools around the world, and God has just been blessing. The ministry's been going by faith for over 65 years now.

But we always like amazing facts, and I love amazing facts. We're going to start with one about the octopus. Karen and I have our scuba license and we like to dive. We were diving off of Egypt a couple of years ago. The octopus is an amazing creature. It's among the most flexible and versatile and clever, very intelligent. They say its intelligence level is on the same level as a dog.

When it comes to disguise, an octopus is the ultimate chameleon. Thanks to special cells in its skin, it's not only able to change the color in just a flash of a moment, but it can change the texture of its skin so it can suddenly look like a rock on the seafloor or appear like the coral where it's hiding. There's an octopus in that picture. That octopus that you're looking at, if he wants, he can turn purple or red. They can change and look like a crab walking or look like a fish swimming. They can even make themselves look like a sea snake.

They're so clever they will find an empty clam shell, they'll get inside the clam shell, they'll open and close the clam shell and stick one little tentacle out like a worm to lure fish over, and then they pounce. They have a famous way people put them in aquariums of escaping from the aquarium. They're incredible. And if they're being pursued by a predator, they'll let out a blast of ink and jet off in another direction, leaving their predator totally bewildered and confused.

I have nothing against octopuses, but it makes me think about the devil, who is a master deceiver. Through history, the devil has also inspired and possessed individuals that have deceived. Jesus said in the last days there will be false christs. Jesus came into the world to show us what God is like. It's called the incarnation; God became a man. Before the second coming, the devil is going to come and impersonate Christ and deceive much of the world. We need to know how to spot him and recognize his devices.

Another little fact of history, some of you maybe have heard of Grigori Rasputin. For years, the Russian family, Tsar Alexander and for generations back, they ruled Russia with the imperial family. There was this peasant born in Siberia, very clever, and he became something of a mystic quasi-priest. He went to Saint Petersburg and he sort of wormed his way into the upper echelons. A very clever, manipulating man, very charismatic.

He finally said that he believed he could heal Tsar Alexander's son Alexei, who was a hemophiliac. They brought him into the palace and it seemed like his advice, when followed, was helping the boy. He eventually wormed his way into the royal court and began to manipulate the family, especially the Tsar's wife. Some accused him of having an affair, but that was never proven.

He started encouraging military decisions, and the advice was just awful. Finally, the imperial family disintegrated, Communism took over, they were assassinated, and so was Rasputin. Historians look back and say they call him the Mad Monk because of the evil influence of this Mad Monk, the whole kingdom was lost. The devil is a master manipulator. Now before we go to our lesson, we like to go out and just talk to people on the streets and ask if there's a good God, then why is there so much evil in the world, and a couple of other questions. So let's take a listen to what our people on the street have to say.

Guest (Female): I believe that there's evil in the world because so many people are looking to fill the hole in their heart with things that are not sustainable, like how Jesus Christ is sustainable.

Guest (Male): Maybe it has to do with your upbringing.

Guest (Female): Because people are not looking for God. They don't have God in their life.

Guest (Male): Human nature, I guess.

Guest (Female): Oh, that's a trick question. Probably not in the traditional sense, probably not how most people believe in the devil. I think there's a balance of bad and good in the world.

Guest (Male): No. Maybe the presence of Satan is a kind of way to guide people away from him, but I think maybe he needs him to know the difference between the good thing and the bad thing.

Guest (Male): I honestly don't have an answer to that.

Guest (Male): Wow, that's a very good question. I don't know if I can answer that question.

Doug Batchelor: Well, there you have it. One thing is perfectly clear: people are not perfectly clear on whether or not there is a devil, and if there is a devil, why would God make a devil? And if God's more powerful than the devil, is God evil in allowing the devil to do evil? How many of you have thought these things or wondered or heard these questions before? You just think about it. If God is love, if God is good, if God is all-powerful, then why is there so much suffering and evil in the world?

This is one of the most important questions that we need to understand. If you pay attention and study the lesson tonight, you're going to have the most important answers. Why is there evil in the world today if God is good and He is a loving God? Well, to get the answer to that, we need to go to the Bible. These lessons, of course, are on lesson number three tonight, talking about this arch-villain. We're going to begin with question number one.

The Bible says God did not make a devil. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. According to James, God is good. Jesus said God is good. In the beginning when He made the world, it said it was good, and He saw that it was good, and it was good, and it was very good. The word God comes from or is derived from the word good. Why would a good God make a bad devil? He didn't. He made a good angel.

You can read about this in a few principal passages. If you look in your Bible in Isaiah chapter 14: "How are you fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning?" When you say the word 'luc', it means light. Some of you have heard of Lucite or luminescence; it's talking about light. He was a glorious morning star, a bright angel. God made a beautiful angel, the most powerful of His created intelligent beings was this mighty general, this angel that we know as Lucifer. If you had known him back then, you would have liked him. The other angels loved him. Some people like him the way he is today.

God didn't make anything evil. I think it's probably a good idea to turn to the book itself. If you have your Bibles or on your phones, turn to Isaiah chapter 14. The principal passages where you're going to find information about the devil that goes back in time is Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, Revelation chapter 12, and a few other places. But we're going to go to Isaiah 14. We'll start with verse 12: "How you are fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer." Jesus said, "I saw Satan cast from heaven." "How you are fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!"

"For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north,' meaning the heights. 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.'" He wanted God's position. Yet God says you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit. He wanted to exalt himself higher and higher. You might just turn quickly to Ezekiel 28, and we'll start reading here in verse 14.

It says, "You were the anointed cherub." How many of you remember seeing images, even in the movies, of what they call the Ark of the Covenant? It's this golden box that had the Ten Commandments. On the top they called it the mercy seat, and the Shekinah glory of God would appear to Moses and the high priest between these two golden cherub angels. They were golden angels. In heaven, God has real angels.

You read in Isaiah chapter 6: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, the train of His robe filled the temple." And on the right and on the left there are these cherubim, and these seraphim are saying, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of God, the Lord Almighty," flanked by these two mighty beings. Lucifer held the highest position. Ezekiel's reminding us of that: "You were the anointed cherub who covers; one of the covering angels. I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in all your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you."

Lucifer was his name. Isaiah 14:13 and 14: "For you said in your heart, 'I will be like the Most High.'" He wanted God's position. The devil became jealous that he did not have the same power of Christ to create, and he wanted to take that from Him. It says, "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor." Here he depicts this beautiful, splendid being.

Now, we've been here three nights. I hope you trust me. Would you trust me for just a moment? I want you to just imagine something, but you're going to have to close your eyes to imagine this. For just a moment, I promise I won't do anything to you, no hypnosis, just trust me. Close your eyes for just a moment and I want you to picture what do you see when you think of the devil. What do people usually see when they think of the devil? How many of you will admit you saw something red? Fess up. How many saw a pitchfork, ostensibly so he can keep people evenly cooked in Hades? How many saw a creature with a goatee in your minds? Bat wings, anybody? Red circus leotards?

I grew a goatee a few years ago before my hair turned gray. Somebody said, "Doug, you can't do what you do with a goatee. You look like the devil." I said, "What makes you think he's got a goatee? Where in the Bible does it say he's got a goatee?" They said, "I don't know, but you look like a sinister minister. You need to get rid of that." Karen tells me to shave it off. But you talk about red devil paint or other people say devil's food cake.

If you look at these modern concepts of the devil, this is what people think of. They think of some ghoulish creature that is like a goblin and hideous-looking and scary. But what does he really look like according to the Bible? The Bible tells us that in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, do not be surprised, for Satan himself can be transformed into an angel of light. The devil wants you to think that he's this medieval ghoulish creature, but in reality, he can impersonate Christ.

He often comes as a creature of light and a creature of glory. The Bible says he was beautiful, he was splendid. He just assumed that you think of him in terms of this terrifying, ugly creature. In reality, in the last days, he's going to appear as people's modern concept of Jesus around the world, performing miracles, quoting some of the scripture, and much of the world is going to be deceived. Revelation chapter 12 says, "Who deceiveth the whole world." If he looked like that guy in red leotards with the pitchfork and the horns, would he deceive anybody? Who's going to listen to that? So did God make a devil when He created Lucifer? No. Bible says you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you.

I want you to think about something for a minute. I think everybody here will agree with me that we want love. I don't know about you, I don't want to sound too self-centered, but if I had a choice, I prefer to be liked as opposed to being unliked. You ask any girl when she's courting, she wants to be wanted. Some of you didn't raise your hands, you're lying. You want to be wanted. Boys want to be wanted, everyone wants to be wanted. God wants us to want Him, right? We all want love.

Why didn't God make Lucifer where there were no bad transistors? Obviously, does God know everything? Did God know that someday Lucifer was going to go bad? If He knows everything, yes. Then why did He make him? Some people start blaming God. Now let me explain how this works. Once you get this, the light's going to go on. Can you make somebody love? AI can do anything. I've discovered recently, I'm probably the last one who's discovered it, they got this program now called ChatGPT where you just give it a few cues and it'll write a letter for you.

So I would like a love letter. And so I turn on my ChatGPT and I say, "Please compose a love letter for me talking about Doug, how intelligent and beautiful and handsome and irresistible he is." Wait for it. Okay, you ready?

"Dear Doug, I hope this letter finds you well. I wanted to take a moment to express just how much you mean to me and how deeply I appreciate everything about you. First and foremost, your beauty is something that never ceases to amaze me. Whether it is the sparkling in your eyes or the warmth of your smile—Karen, you ought to use this next time—or the way you carry yourself with such grace and confidence. You are truly a sight to behold. Your presence lights up any room, and I feel incredibly lucky to be able to witness your beauty every day.

Beyond your physical appearance, your wisdom is something I deeply admire. You have a way of seeing the world that is both insightful and inspiring. Your advice has guided me through many a tough time, and your perspective always helps me see things in a new light. I am constantly learning from you, and I am grateful for the wisdom you share so generously. Your sense of humor is another quality I cherish. You have an incredible ability to make me laugh even during the darkest days.

Your jokes and your playful banter and your infectious laughter bring me so much joy. I love how we can share moments of silliness and fun, making every day a little brighter. And then there's your physical strength. Whether it's helping out with heavy lifting or tackling challenges or simply being there to offer a strong and comforting embrace, your strength is something I deeply appreciate. It's not just about the physical aspect, but also the strength of your character and the way you stand by me through thick and thin. Doug, you are an extraordinary person. I'm so grateful to have you in my life. Your beauty, wisdom, humor, and strength make you truly one of a kind. Thank you for being you and for sharing your wonderful self with me."

After reading that, I think I'm going to leave Karen and run off with my phone. It's been good, dear, all these years, but I've never had this kind of appreciation before. So let me ask you, while I find this entertaining, do I think for a moment that my phone loves me like Karen? It is telling me what it was programmed to say. That is not love. God cannot pre-program His intelligent creatures to love. He gives them freedom. The greatest proof He gives that freedom is the evil in the world today.

And that's why He doesn't just destroy the devil. He wants our love. Now He knows whether or not we're going to love Him. He knows because He knows everything, but you still have freedom to choose. And God values real love so much that He even took the risk to make a creature that would process in his own mind that he chose to love himself more than God. And that's what's caused all the problem in the universe, is the devil's self-love.

You see, God created His creatures for love to go out. What's the great commandment? Love the Lord, love your neighbor, and lastly, as you love yourself. The devil, the compass needle broke; it's love yourself first. And all of us have got a broken compass needle. We're all without salvation and the Holy Spirit; we're selfish creatures. And Jesus came, He was motivated by the love of God. It was a love to give, a love that went out, and He wants to give us that love.

Lucifer, you notice what he wanted? He wanted God's position. You find the word 'pride', you find the word 'Lucifer', you find the word 'sin', and at the middle of all those words, what do you find? The letter 'I'. I, I, I. The devil had 'I' problems. "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne, I will sit, I will." You know they say people that are struggling with insanity use the words 'I', 'me', 'my', 'mine', and 'myself' five times more than sane people. Selfishness is a form of insanity and you will self-destruct. God did not make us to live unto ourselves. He made us to learn to love and to give and to think of others. It is more blessed, Jesus said, to give than receive. The devil's whole wiring is broken. And when Adam and Eve chose to listen to the devil instead of God, we ended up with the same problem.

What finally happened to Lucifer? Well, as he began to resent that he was not God, that he did not have the power that God had, he began to sow seeds of discord among the other angels in heaven. And he started saying, "You know, God doesn't give us freedom. We don't need God's laws to guide us. We are intelligent creatures. We don't need to rule one God. I'm just as powerful as God. We could also worship me." And he was able, like the best politician ever, to persuade one-third of the angels to follow him until finally—God's very patient, we don't know how long this dispute transpired—but eventually there was a war that broke out in heaven.

And you read here in Revelation 12 verse 7: "And war broke out." Usually you don't think of heaven and war together, do you? "Michael and his angels fought with the dragon"—Michael is a symbolic name and the dragon is a symbolic name—"and his angels fought." And the Bible says ultimately they are cast out. What powerful beings work under the devil's command?

Revelation 12 verse 7: "And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So that great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan." Who's the dragon? Do we have to guess? It's the devil, Satan, who deceives the whole world. Even Jesus said the devil is the prince of this world. "And his angels were cast out with him."

A lot of times when people are saying, "Well, there was a ghost that was spooking me," it's not a ghost, it's fallen angels. Sometimes we call them goblins and demons and evil spirits. The Bible talks about them in the New and the Old Testament. There's not only a battle between Christ and Satan, there's a battle between the good angels and the bad angels. And you've probably all seen cartoons, and there's a certain amount of truth to it, where they got the good angel with the halo on one wing, and he's saying, "Do what's right." Then you got the bad angel on the other side saying, "No, do what's bad." And it's really our conscience. It's the Holy Spirit and the devil tempting. So it's a very real battle we face every day.

Jesus came into our world for three reasons. First of all, He came as our example, to live a life that we might follow His steps. He came to show us the Father. He said, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father." And then He came as our sacrifice. He died on the cross as a substitute for all our sins. But we must come to Him. We repent of our sins, we confess. He'll receive us with loving arms. Why don't you ask Him now?

I trust you're being blessed by what you're watching. If you want to be doubly blessed, then you're going to want to get the prophecy odyssey study guides that go along with these presentations. There's 15 study guides. They're beautifully illustrated, and they will greatly enhance your Bible comprehension. So if you'd like to get them, simply follow the instructions that you see on the screen. You will be glad you did.

We learned a lot in our study today, but there's still more. If you'd like to better understand where Satan came from, you're going to want to get the Amazing Facts study guide, "Did God Create a Devil?" It's going to show you everything you need to know about Satan and what it means for you today. To get your copy, simply follow the instructions you see there on the screen. We'll send it to you absolutely free of charge. You'll be glad you did.

What you've seen just now is only part one in this presentation. Make sure and join us for part two in our next broadcast for some of the most important points on this topic and to complete the corresponding study guides. Until then, God bless.

Guest (Male): This presentation was brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry.