Messianic Perspectives

Liz Aiello: We often hear prophetic teaching about God's plan for end times, but did you know Satan also has a plan? Stay tuned as Dr. Gary Hedrick discusses Satan's plan for the end times, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Shalom, and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinct first-century Jewish point of view. This is Liz Aiello. Today, our Bible teacher is Dr. Gary Hedrick, president of CJF Ministries in San Antonio, Texas. You can reach our offices by dialing 1-800-926-5397.

Gary's subject today is "Satan's Plan for the End Times." I'll be back a little later with information about a special offer, so have your pencil and paper ready. And now, with today's installment, here is Gary Hedrick.

Gary Hedrick: All right, thank you. And welcome haverim, welcome friends, to another edition of Messianic Perspectives. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on Satan's plan for the end times. And like we said on the last program, we know this is an unusual title. It's not what we're accustomed to hearing. We usually hear preaching and teaching about God's plan for the future, God's plan for the end times, and that's good because we need to know about God's plan for the future.

But we also need to know something about Satan's plan. We need to be aware of his wiles or his strategies. Ephesians 6:11 says that we are to put on the full armor of God so we can stand against the methods or the schemes of the devil. The King James Version says wiles of the devil. The Greek word there is methodeia. It's where we get our word method. But in Greek, it implies more than just a method like we think of a method in English because in Greek it implies treachery and deceit, methodeia.

In fact, this word is actually a compound that comes from two other words. First, there's the preposition meta, m-e-t-a, which means with or after or behind. And then the other word is the verb hoduo, which means to travel or to go on a journey. And when you put those two roots together, you get the word methodeia. So the original idea when you put those two roots together is the idea of sneaking up on someone, or literally to travel behind or to go after someone.

So it came to have the idea of deceiving someone through craftiness and through scheming. In other words, there is intelligence behind it. You and I have an enemy who is constantly scheming and strategizing against us. His powers of deception are great, and he's always looking for an advantage so he can sneak up behind us and attack us when we least expect it. You see, that's how Satan works.

His greatest power is the power of deception because ever since the resurrection of the Messiah, he has been a defeated foe. Ever since the resurrection, his powers have been greatly limited. He met the Messiah on the battlefield 2,000 years ago, and he lost. Remember, Satan confronted Jesus out in the wilderness over a period of 40 days, and the devil lost. So he has been declawed and defanged. The resurrection defeated him once and for all and forever.

So he's a defeated foe. So now his greatest powers are his powers of deception and intimidation. It's like what the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8, where it says we're supposed to be on guard against our enemy the devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. It says he's a roaring lion, and roaring is a technique of intimidation. They actually say the most dangerous lions are the ones who don't make much noise.

They're hiding in the tall grass. If they started roaring, everyone would know where they were. So they don't make much noise. When a lion roars, he's trying to intimidate an enemy or he's trying to impress another lion. So even the fact that he's called a roaring lion means his main weapons are fear and intimidation. You see, as a believer, he has no real power over you. Why? Because you belong to someone else. You've been bought with a price.

You've been redeemed, and you are someone else's private property. Satan has absolutely no power over you whatsoever. He has no authority over you whatsoever. He can't tell you what to do, he can't tell you what to say, he can't tell you where to go, and he can't tell you what to think. Now wait a minute, I should rephrase that. That's not exactly right because he can tell you what to do, and he can tell you what to say, and he can tell you where to go, and he can tell you what you should think.

But you know what? You don't have to do it. He can tell you anything he wants to tell you, but he has no authority over you to make you obey. You don't have to do it. See, Satan has no authority over you. He can tell you anything he wants to, but you don't have to listen because you don't belong to him. So the only weapons that leaves him with are fear and intimidation like the roaring lion. And fear and intimidation can only work if you let them work.

Okay, now let's talk a little bit about who Satan is. I'll start by giving you some of his names. In Hebrew, he's called HaSatan or literally the adversary or the accuser. The Greek equivalent of HaSatan is the word devil, or in Greek diabolos. Matthew 4:1 is where that word appears for the first time. The word diabolos was a legal term that came from two roots that literally meant to throw against. So it meant to throw charges against someone, to slap them with charges.

But you know what? Satan can slap me with all the charges he wants to, and not one of them is going to stick. Why? Because I have already been declared innocent of all charges by the judge of the universe. And so have you if you're a believer. That's what the word justification means. It means declared righteous or declared innocent. So HaSatan is the Hebrew, diabolos is the Greek, but they both mean the accuser or the adversary.

You see, in legal terms, you have a prosecution and you have a defense. The prosecution accuses you and the defense defends you. One is your adversary and the other is your advocate. One is against you and the other is for you. And in this courtroom analogy, Satan is the prosecutor and Jesus is the defender. Satan is the adversary and Jesus is our advocate. But we're not done. He has other names as well. I'm going to give you these names along with the scripture references.

First, he's known as Beelzebub, ruler of demons, Matthew 12:24. Next, he's known as the wicked one, Matthew 13:19. Then the enemy, Matthew 13:39. Another name is murderer, John 8:44. He's also known as a liar, John 8:44. He's the ruler of this world in John 12:31 and John 14:30. He's the god of this age in 2 Corinthians 4:4. He's the prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2:2. He's the ruler of darkness in Ephesians 6:12.

He's the tempter in 1 Thessalonians 3:5. He's the one with the power of death in Hebrews 2:14. He's a roaring lion and also our adversary in 1 Peter 5:8. He's the angel of the bottomless pit in Revelation 9:11. He's Abaddon, which means destruction, in Revelation 9:11. He's Apollyon, which means destroyer, in Revelation 9:11. He's the dragon in Revelation 20:2. He's the deceiver in Revelation 20:10. And he is Lucifer, son of the morning, in Isaiah 14:12.

The Hebrew word for Lucifer is Halal, which means light-bearer. These are just some of his names in the Bible. But that still doesn't tell us who he is, does it? What sort of being is Satan exactly? Well, he is a fallen angel or, more precisely, a fallen cherub. Now you see, there are different orders of created beings in heaven, and they seem to be arranged in order of importance based on their proximity to the throne of God.

Now there's no doubt a great deal about these heavenly beings that we don't know. Even the information in the Bible is sketchy because the purpose of the Bible is to present God's plan of redemption, his plan for the redemption of humanity and the redemption of the creation from the curse of sin. So all it tells us about angels is what it happens to touch upon while it's telling us about redemption.

So what we end up with is a sort of puzzle where we find a piece here and another piece there and then another piece from over there and then we take all the pieces and put them together. And that gives us at least an idea of what we're talking about. And in this case, one piece of the puzzle comes from Ezekiel 28:14, where it tells us that Lucifer was the anointed cherub that covered the throne of God in heaven.

When you look at Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10, it's very clear that these beings were the highest order of heavenly being. They were the ones who actually guarded the throne of God. Strictly speaking, a cherub is not an angel. By the way, cherub is the singular and cherubim is the plural. In Hebrew, when you want to make something plural, usually you just put either i-m or o-t on the end of the word, like one cherub or many cherubim, or one sukkah or many sukkot.

You add either i-m or o-t on the end of the word to make it plural. But a cherub is not an angel because an angel is a messenger. Cherubim are not messengers; they are guardians. They don't deliver messages; they guard the throne of God. And it's interesting how these heavenly beings with faces of lions and bulls were so integrated into the architecture of the ancient world.

In Babylon and Assyria, for example, you have these immense images of winged bulls and lions that guarded the entrances to their royal palaces. The Sphinxes in Egypt were similar creatures who guarded the tombs of the kings. So it's like the very existence of these beings is somehow ingrained into our collective consciousness. But the highest and most beautiful and the brightest of all the cherubim was the one named Lucifer, son of the morning.

Now you might say, Gary, if Satan is really so smart, why doesn't he realize he can't defeat God? Why doesn't he give up? That's a very good question, and I'll give you the answer a little later in this study. But we're out of time for today. So until next time, this is your friend Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Aiello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listener friend, for tuning in today. Today, we've been listening to our Bible teacher, Dr. Gary Hedrick, talking about Satan's plan for the end times. If you found today's program especially helpful and insightful, you'll be glad to know that we have placed the entire series of programs on compact disc. The title is "Satan's Plan for the End Times."

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And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on "Satan's Plan for the End Times" right here on Messianic Perspectives.