Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor: Some people are angry at God because they don't understand all the suffering in the world. Why do innocent children die? Why do all these innocent people die in war? Why doesn't God make it stop? If God is good, if God is love, if God is powerful, then why does he allow suffering? There is so much confusion on this, and once you understand this subject from the Bible perspective, it can change your whole worldview and make it easier for you to love God.

Now, God could have destroyed the devil, or some of you are thinking, God could have made the devil. When God makes his angels in that factory on the assembly line, couldn't he have just wired the transistors so Lucifer would never be selfish? We say, yeah, God, couldn't he have did God know what was going to happen? Does God know all things? God is all-knowing. He knew what would happen. And yet he still made a creature that would rebel. Why?

Because God wants us to love. It's the greatest experience. He wants our love. You cannot force love. Now they've got a new website I ran into. It's a website where you can now with AI, you can actually have an AI boyfriend or girlfriend that will love you and it will program you. I checked this out and it's real. I just this week, I downloaded this thing called ChatGPT. I asked it to write me a love letter. I say, "Please compose a love letter to Doug, telling Doug how wonderful, handsome, wise, beautiful, intelligent he is and how much you love him." Let me see here. This will solve a lot of problems.

Guest (Female): My beloved Doug, from the first moment my eyes found you, something in my heart knew that you were different, set apart by a quiet strength that speaks without words. There's power in the way you move, confidence in the way you stand, and safety in the way your presence fills the room. Your strength isn't only in muscle or form; it's in your steadfast spirit, the kind of strength that holds, protects, and loves with unwavering devotion.

Your beauty captivates me, Doug. It's not just the handsomeness the world sees; it's a glow that comes from within, the light of a pure heart and an honest soul. When you smile, the world softens. When you look at me, time itself seems to pause. You carry the kind of beauty that doesn't fade with years because it is born of truth, courage, and grace. But it is your integrity that makes me fall in love with you more deeply...

Doug Batchelor: Okay, I can't take any more. Enough is enough. I'm starting to believe it. That was really written by AI. I gave it the prompt, and now I'm going to leave Karen and run off with my Samsung. Would I? No. But it loves me! I've never had anyone talk to me like that. Karen has never written me a letter like that. She'd be lying if she did.

Why do I not feel loved by my phone? Because I made it say that. It is doing what I programmed it to do. God makes his intelligent creatures really, really free. The greatest proof of that freedom is that he would even make creatures that chose not to love him. He knew what was going to happen, but he did not make it happen. You and I have a choice. Some churches teach us that we don't have any choice.

The Bible says God said to Joshua, or Joshua said, "Choose you this day whom you will serve." God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes. You can choose whosoever believes. God is not willing that any should perish. He's made us free to love him or to choose not to love him. And so Jesus came to show us what he's like. And if you know God, you'll love him. If you take time to know him, you'll love him.

The devil was made free. He rebelled and he persuaded one-third of the angels to rebel with him. And that's why we have all the sin and suffering in our world because this terrible experiment with sin, with Satan's government, has to play out so it will never happen again. Number four, what powerful beings work under the devil's command? Answer: it says his tail, meaning the devil's tail, drew a third of the stars of heaven. Who are those stars? The angels.

You can also read this in Revelation 1. A third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. So where is he continuing his rebellion? He's restricted to our planet now. Jesus said, "I saw Satan like lightning cast down from heaven." Satan, Revelation 12:9, "He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him." So when people are talking about Jesus talked about evil spirits, these are fallen angels, same thing.

When Jesus was preaching in a synagogue, this demon-possessed man said, "Jesus, Son of God, we know who you are." They knew him before the incarnation. They knew him maybe for millions of years. He knows who these angels are by name. He has counted the stars and named all them. He knows the numbers of the hairs of our head, which is easier for some of us than others. But the idea being that God knew these angels. They're all individual creatures. They were created.

They said, "We know Jesus. We know who you are." Ghosts, goblins, evil spirits, demons, these are all fallen angels that are tempting and manipulating. And when people say, like Flip Wilson, "The devil made me do it," it's usually not the devil himself. The devil is not all-knowing. He appoints fallen angels to tempt and manipulate people. All right, number five, what methods? Now we've got to brace ourselves. How do we resist this evil power?

I'll tell you, before I do this presentation, we do a lot of praying. Our team prays. I get off by myself, I pray. I prayed in my room because the devil does not want you to know this. We're exposing what he's up to and we're telling you from the word of God how to overcome. Fortunately, one-third of the angels fell, which means there are two-thirds of good angels that protect us. Amen?

God has guardian angels. He said their angels do behold the face of my Father in heaven. There are good angels that are here, praise God, watching out for us. What methods does Satan use? Well, we'll give you several quickly. It says he deceives the whole world. He tempts. He tempted Jesus in the wilderness, Mark 1:13. They are the spirits of devils performing signs. Can the devil do signs and wonders and miracles? Yeah.

He is the accuser of the brethren. The devil will tell you to do something, then he will turn you in for doing it. He's the accuser of the brethren. He, Satan, was a murderer. He inspired that first murder of Cain with Abel from the beginning. And he is a liar and the father of it. He lied to Adam and Eve and he's been lying ever since. That great dragon was cast out, the serpent of old called the devil who deceives the whole world.

Jesus was there in the wilderness 40 days, tempted by Satan. The devil did everything he could to overthrow the Son of God. If the devil could have tempted Jesus to sin, Jesus could not die for our sin. But because he lived a sinless life, the Bible says he did no sin. So he could be the substitute. And it's not just like one man dying for another. He is the creator of man. So his overcoming is adequate to cover the sin of the whole world because the creator died for the creation.

You know, the Bible says all things that were made were made by him. That's Jesus. The devil can perform signs and wonders and miracles. Do not follow pastors and preachers just because they can do signs and wonders. The devil can do that. Moses threw down his rod and the magicians of the Pharaoh, they threw down their rods and they became serpents. The devil can sometimes imitate the power and the miracles of God.

"For they are the spirits of demons," this is Revelation 16. It's going to be more manifest in the last days, friends. "They are the spirits of demons performing signs that go out to the kings of the earth and the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty," better known as the Battle of Armageddon. So in the last days, Satan has come down with great wrath and he is going to do signs and wonders and impersonate Christ and deceive most of the world.

And God doesn't want you to be deceived, and that's why you're here. That's why you're listening. He wants you to know. Friends, am I giving you scripture? This is Pastor Doug not just going off on a tangent. I'm trying to give you a clear, reasonable Bible study on the enemy so you can know what he's up to and how to resist his power. Revelation 12:10, "I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, 'Now is salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ.'"

He's come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night. He's accusing us constantly. Has been cast down. Jesus came to resurrect Moses and the devil was there to resist him and Michael said, "The Lord rebuke you." He is constantly trying to keep humans. God knows, the devil knows that God loves us. And the devil wants to hurt God by hurting us. And just think about that.

What would hurt you more? If someone held you down and put bamboo shoots under your fingernails and tortured you, or if they tortured your child in front of you? The devil may not understand it, but remember, he goes back a long way with God. He knows God is love. He knows how much God loves us. He knows Jesus died to save us. God is desperate to save us. He wants to inflict as much suffering on God as he can, so he hurts us.

And he doesn't want us to be saved. He's trying to take as many with him as he can. The devil knows he has a short time. The demons said to Jesus, "Have you come to torment us before the time?" The Bible says they are kept in everlasting chains of darkness. They're here in this world, going to and fro. They know their doom is sealed. "He is a murderer from the beginning, nor does he stand in the truth because there's no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it." And what makes the devil's lies so dangerous is he combines 90 percent truth with 10 percent error, which still makes it poisonous. The devil knows how to even quote scripture and misquote scripture. Number six, when is the devil the most dangerous? "For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light."

And again, Jesus said, Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false Christs and false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves." Dresses up like a sheep but they're Jesus said there are tares among the wheat, there are wolves among the sheep, there are false ministers among the true ministers. The devil gets his most work done by working from the inside out. Even the devil had a Judas among Jesus' apostles. He is not changed.

So how do we know the truth? We've got to measure everything by the word of God. Number seven, does Satan know the Bible? Better than anyone here. I think he's probably got a photographic memory. He had a magnificent mind, the greatest of the angels. He knows the scriptures. When he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness, the devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for it is written," quoting from Psalm 91.

"He will give his angels charge over you," but he didn't quote the rest of it, "to keep you in all of your ways, lest you dash your foot against the stone." So the devil will cherry-pick scriptures to try to make it say what he wants it to say. That means you need to know what the Bible really says. And every time the devil tried to tempt Jesus, how did Jesus meet every temptation? "It is written." We'll get to that in a minute.

So the devil is an expert at quoting the Bible. There are a lot of Christians that think that there's some spiritual virtue in owning a Bible. And if one is not enough, some of us own many and we never read them. We think that we get credit and if we sleep with a Bible on our bedstand somehow the devil's not going to tempt us or put it under your pillow or in your top pocket, get one of the little New Testaments and it'll protect you.

And that's not how it works. The Bible doesn't say, "Thy word I have hid on my library shelf that I might not sin against you." "Thy word I have hid in my heart." Jesus wants it in us. There is power in the word of God. Jesus spoke, "Let there be," and things happened. And as we read the word of God, it has a transforming power within us. So as we hide his word in our heart, it keeps us from sin.

Number eight, whom on earth does the devil especially hate? You read this in Revelation. This is a prophecy seminar. We're giving you a lot of Revelation. The dragon... who's the dragon? The devil, Satan. We already read that. Was enraged with the woman. Now who is the woman? Correct. The Bible says, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loves the church." The Bible compares Israel and the bride of Christ to the church, to a woman.

And there's two women in Revelation. A good one, Revelation 12, clothed with light. And a bad one in Revelation 17 called a harlot. They're opposites. And the Bible says the dragon is angry with the woman in Revelation 12 who's clothed with God's light and he goes to make war... this is the Battle of Armageddon. He goes to make war with the rest, the remnant of her offspring, her descendants, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Now another way you might say that, you read in Revelation 19 verse 10, it tells you that the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. We just read the commandments of God. Isaiah said, "According to the law and the testimony. Seal the law and the testimony among my disciples." Jesus, when he rose from the dead, he spoke to them from the law and the testimony. That is the word of God.

These are the two witnesses really you find in Revelation. It's like Moses and Elijah. Moses the law, Elijah the prophet. The word of God. The devil hates those that have the word of God. And he makes war with those who have the truth of the word. And it says they keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Number nine, what two deadly animals does the Bible use to portray Satan? There's a few in the Bible. He's called a scorpion, but among the things, it says be sober.

Peter says be vigilant for your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour. You know, a lion uses surprise and deceit. And the male lion, he'll go around on the windward side of the animals where they sniff him. He'll let out a blood-curdling roar and then all the creatures charge off into the mouths of the female lions hiding in the grass.

So the devil like the lion is ferocious, he is pacing, he is restless, he is filled with fury and rage. Daniel was thrown in the lions' den, but God shut the lions' mouth. Amen? And the Lord can shut the lion's mouth and save you from the devil as well. But you've got to be sober, Peter says. That's why the devil is trying to make this generation high and drunk so they cannot resist the temptations and they don't see what's coming.

Be vigilant. That means be on your guard. Know what he's up to. He's an adversary. He's also compared to what? So that great dragon was cast out, the serpent. You know, in the garden, the devil spoke through a serpent. And the serpent back in the garden was not like serpents today. The Bible says after the devil used the serpent as a medium, that it was cursed to go upon its belly, meaning before that it did not.

And some believe that it even had wings and it could fly. And it's interesting that we find fossils of winged reptiles around the world. And almost all ancient cultures have stories of flying serpents. And it even mentions fiery flying serpents in the book of Isaiah. So we believe the serpent was cursed so it must go upon its belly. But because the devil first spoke through the serpent, it became a symbol for the devil.

Even in the first prophecy, it said the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head, but the serpent would bite or wound the heel. The work of Christ has been limping because it's been bit in the heel by the serpent all along the way. The progress of the church has been limping along, but in the end it says that the serpent's head is crushed by Jesus. So snakes are cold-blooded animals. They'll sometimes devour one another.

Number 10, what is the only way we can resist Satan? If you don't have your lesson, take notes because we need this. "Therefore," James tells us, this is the brother, the half-brother of Jesus, gives us some good advice, "Therefore, submit to God." You cannot resist the devil in your own strength. How did Jesus fight the assaults of the devil? Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan, for it," what? "It is written."

All three times Jesus was tempted, he said, "It is written. It is written. It is written," quoting from the book of Deuteronomy all three times, making me believe that Jesus had memorized the book of Deuteronomy. Bible says, "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God." I read my Bible every day so that I can have his word. You know, we are guided by words. Words are very powerful.

I'm hoping the words I'm sharing are changing you right now. If I should start to talk about cutting a lemon in half and then quartering that lemon, a fresh lemon, opening that lemon, put it in your mouth, biting down on the lemon... some of you, your mouths will water right now. You don't see a lemon, you can't smell a lemon, all you're hearing is words about a lemon and it can change you physiologically.

If I can do that talking about lemons, what can the word of God do? Is that right? The word of God, there's power in it. Read your Bibles, friends. You've heard it before, but it is true. The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's our most important offensive weapon against the enemy. "Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you."

Store the word. "Put on the whole armor of God," Ephesians 6:11, "that you might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." And I wish I had time to just go through a sermon now on the armor of God. 1 John 4:4, "You are, little children of light, and you can overcome them because he who is in you," Christ when you invite him in, "is greater than he who is in the world."

And he will empty heaven of every good angel to protect you rather than let you fall victim to the enemy if you're trusting in God. You have faith in God's power, he will save you. Number 12, what will be the final fate of Satan and his angels? Answer: "You shall be brought down to Sheol," that means the grave, "to the lowest depths of the pit." He who wanted to have the highest position is going to the lowest position.

And Jesus, who humbled himself, is going to be highly exalted. Then he will say, Matthew 25:41, he'll say to those on the left hand, the wicked, "Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Satan knows what's happening. This is a fire that will consume him forever. Sin will not rise up the second time. We will never be tempted again. Do Christians get tempted? Yes.

Is it a sin to be tempted? No. Jesus was tempted. We get tempted every day many times a day. I get tempted every time I eat to eat too much. You know, some things smoking you can just quit. Eating is harder because you can't just quit. You gotta control it every day. You know what I'm saying? So every day we're God's giving us grace to use judgment, make good decisions, and choosing what to say, what not to say, to say encouraging things.

Being led by the spirit is a moment-by-moment experience, friends, and it's a great adventure. "The devil who deceived them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone. By the multitude of your iniquities, therefore, I'll bring forth a fire from the midst of you and it will devour you and I'll turn you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who see you." Satan is going to be cast into that lake of fire and there will be no firemen putting it out.

The Bible calls it the second death from which there is no resurrection. Satan is going to meet his eternal destiny. He will suffer for the sins that he committed and every sin that he tempted everybody else to commit. He's responsible for that as well. The Bible describes his punishment as the second death. The devil and his angels, they know that they're facing their ultimate doom. Number 13, will Satan ever reappear to tempt God's people?

This is good news. "I brought forth a fire from you, it devoured you, it turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. You have become a horror," Ezekiel 28:19, "and you shall be no more forever." His doom is forever. Affliction, the book of Nahum, small book, chapter 1 verse 9, "Affliction will not rise up the second time," friends. You never gonna have to worry about anyone ever saying, "Well, I wonder if I can use my free will the way the devil did and rebel against God."

You know, the only thing in heaven that is going to be man-made in this world are the scars in Jesus' hands. And through eternity, when Christ rose, he still had the scars. Through eternity, we're going to see what that terrible experiment caused. Doubting God's love, doubting his word, no one is going to want to do that again. We will forever be sealed with that love of God.

Do you long to experience the peace that can only come from our loving Heavenly Father? Do you desire your heart to be clean and at rest? Jesus stands before you right now with his arms open wide to receive you. Why not ask him into your life right now? Why not receive him now as your personal savior? Take that first step and say, "Yes, Lord, I choose you." He's ready and waiting to receive you now.

Guest (Male): My question is, so many people are misled or don't understand the difference between the rapture and the second coming. And a lot of people I speak to seem to think that it's the same event. And it is not. So how would I be able to explain to them about the two different events?

Doug Batchelor: Well, one of the ways is we have literature that you can share. I've got a booklet that talks about the secret rapture and the second coming. It's called "Anything but Secret". And it contrasts the two teachings. Unfortunately, so many preachers in Christian media have bought into what Pastor Ross just described, some of the futurist interpretation of prophecy that says there'll be a secret rapture and then the second coming seven years after there's a tribulation and they sort of have scrambled what I think are very clearly in the prophecies of Daniel, Revelation, and other books that the next coming of Jesus is a literal second coming and the world being destroyed by fire is what follows immediately after that. There's not seven years of tribulation.

Just so our friends have a verse, you have 2 Peter chapter 3 where it says the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Oh, my secret rapture friends say, "See, there it is, he's coming as a thief, everyone's going to disappear." Keep reading the verse. "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise and the elements will melt with fervent heat and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up."

So when the Lord comes as a thief, life doesn't go on for seven more years. It says that the earth is burned up. We are caught up to meet the Lord in the air and the wicked are destroyed by the brightness of his coming. So those are all verses and I recommend the book "Anything but Secret" and you can share that. The number to call is 800-835-6747 and you can ask for the book. It's called "Anything but Secret".

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