It is impossible to read the numerous references to Satan and his angels, and what they did, believing the record, without knowing that they are real, personal beings, as real as men are. But that they are supernatural beings, and not man, is plainly declared in Ephesians 6:11, 12: “Put the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, again spiritual wickedness [“wicked spirits,” margin] in high places.”BEST April 6, 1903, par. 1

But they are bound, you say, and so are harmless. Yes, they are bound to this world. They have not, as the unfallen angels have, the freedom of heaven, nor the privilege of visiting other parts of God’s universe. They are in bonds, under darkness so dense that no ray of heavenly light ever pierces it. This intense darkness they have plunged themselves into, through rejecting God, and so there is nothing for them to look forward to but “the blackness of darkness for ever”-utter extinction.BEST April 6, 1903, par. 2

“THE GOD OF THIS WORLD”

The first ten verses in Ezekiel 38 are addressed to “the prince of Tyrus,” and the languages such as could well apply to an earthly ruler having great riches, power, and wisdom. But from the eleventh verse to the nineteenth we have a “lamentation upon the king of Tyrus,” in language that could not possibly apply to any human being. Read:-BEST April 6, 1903, par. 3

Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was light covering, the sardius, topaz, and diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold [compare Revelation 21:10-21]; the workmanship of thy tabrets and thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth [compare Psalm 80:1]; and I have set thee so; thou wast upon the holy mountain of God, thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God; and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, and from the midst of the stones of fire.BEST April 6, 1903, par. 4

The reading of this is enough to show us that it never was true of any man on this earth; it applies to the highest being ever created in heaven-one of the cherubim overshadowing the throne of God in heaven. The question then comes, How is it that he is called the king of Tyrus? The answer is easy. Satan, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2), is “the God of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), the chief of “the rulers of the darkness of this world.” He is therefore the real ruler of every heathen nation that sets itself in opposition to God; while the nominal king is only his agent. So the visible ruler of ancient Tyre, that proud and wicked city, was in reality only the prince; the real ruler was the wicked spirit to whose control he had yielded himself, and whose designs he was carrying out.BEST April 6, 1903, par. 5

This also applies in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah. That is indeed in connection with prophecies of the destruction of the city over which Nebuchadnezzar ruled. Satan, who first brought sin into God’s universe, by seeking to make himself equal with God, was the real ruler of ancient Babylon when its nominal ruler exalted himself against the God of heaven. That the prophecies in Isaiah concerning Babylon embrace a great deal more than the city famed in history, and whose ancient site is noted in our maps, is evident when we read the New Testament. That city was utterly destroyed long before the days of the apostles; and the kingdom of Babylon had been succeeded by three other world powers; yet the book of Revelation of abounds in references to Babylon, and of prophecies of its fall. The very language of Isaiah is used by John. Compare Isaiah 47:8, 9 and Revelation 18:7, 8. Babylon and its king exist as really to-day as they ever did, although the city and king known to secular history have long since ceased to be. In the destruction of Babylon of the Chaldees we have the type and the assurance of the destruction of Satan and his kingdom.BEST April 6, 1903, par. 6

(Concluded next week.)

April 13, 1903