Ministration of Angels

IT is the popular opinion that the devil and his angels will never cease to exist, but live on to all eternity in hell, to blaspheme God, and torment the wicked. But is this reasonable? Is it Bible? Certainly it would not benefit the devils themselves; for they are lost beyond hope of recovery. Could a God of love and mercy himself take pleasure in such an awful scene of eternal woe and suffering? Is it necessary to keep such an example eternally in view of the saints and angels to keep them in subjection? Shall such a foul blot eternally remain to mar the beauty and happiness of God's fair universe? No. Such a thought is as abhorrent to reason as it is opposed to the Bible. Truth and righteousness alone are enduring and eternal. Sin and sinners are both an abnormal development, at war with the Creator, and, in the nature of things, must come to an end. God once had a clean universe, and he will have it again.

The Bible teaches that both wicked men and devils will be destroyed, and cease to pollute God's government. Heb. 2:14, says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself [Jesus] likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Then the devil will be destroyed. We have seen that the "covering cherub" of Eze. 28 is the devil. God says of him, "I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness; I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee; and thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more."

Here we see that Satan is to be "brought to ashes upon the earth," and that he will then cease to exist, as he "never shall be anymore." He is the king of rebels. For him God will prepare the lake of fire. All who follow his ways will be cast into it with him. To the wicked God will say: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25:41. Upon the same subject the prophet says, "For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king [Satan] it is prepared. He hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it." Isa. 30:33.

The devil will be blotted out of existence, and all his works with him. Wicked men are the works of the devil. Will they be destroyed? Let John answer: "'He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:8. Not only will the devil himself be destroyed, but those also who have followed his ways. Says David, "All the wicked will God destroy."

Peter states that as the earth was once cleansed by water in the flood, so it will be purified again by fire at the day of Judgment. "But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men." "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up." 2 Pet. 3:5-7,10.

By this we see that the earth is to be dissolved, melted by intense heat, and the works in the world will be burned up. But is the earth to burn eternally? No; for Peter, after describing the perdition of ungodly men in the lake of fire, and the purifying of the earth by the same, says, "Nevertheless we according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." Verse 13.

For six thousand years the earth has been polluted by Satan and his works, sin, and sinners. But all these will be burned up. Then the earth will once more be pure as it was when it first came from the hands of its Maker. The lake of fire which purifies the earth is spoken of in Rev. 20:14, 15; 21:1. "And death and hell [the grave] were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." From the lake of fire which cleanses this old earth, comes forth the new earth which is to be the abode of the righteous. The devil, the author of sin, the father of lies, the enemy of God, and the seducer of the human race, is destroyed in the lake of fire. He is reduced to ashes, put out of existence. Wicked men who have followed his counsel and rejected God; are destroyed with him. Then the saints go forth once more and possess the earth, their long-lost home. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."

Then God will again have a clean universe. Neither sin nor sinners will exist anywhere in the vast realm of God. The conflict of ages is ended; God's people are forever safe. Then we can sing with the poet, "Time past, The righteous saved, the wicked dead, And God's eternal government approved."

This time will surely come. We have so long lived amid sin and rebellion, have so long been accustomed to vice and wickedness, have so long been shut away from Heaven and God; that we cannot realize that it will ever be otherwise. Now, upon this earth, unrighteousness is popular and "he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey." Here, the righteous are vastly in the minority; but it is only here. When we remember the "innumerable company of angels," who are yet loyal to their God, we see that the righteous are really in the majority. For a short time, the devil has succeeded in defiling a small part, a mere atom, of God's creation. God has permitted him to go on for a time with impunity, till he has fully developed the awful consequences of sin and rebellion against the all-wise Creator. He will serve as an example to all the intelligent creatures of God, that they may see the utter folly of disobeying the Almighty. God will soon wipe out the blot which Satan has made on his universe, by the utter destruction of Satan and all his works.

Then will be fulfilled what God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. God "shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom the Heaven must receive, until the times of restitution of all things." Acts 3:20,21. As righteous men and loyal angels behold the punishment of wicked men and devils, they can sing, "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of ages." (margin). Rev.15:3.

Now what has Satan gained by his rebellion? Nothing but the poor satisfaction, for a short time, of having done evil. He has lost all the joys of Heaven, the pleasure there is in doing right, and the consciousness of being pure and innocent, and the happiness of being the friend of God. But, above all, he has lost ETERNAL LIFE. Had he remained obedient to God, he would have lived unto all eternity without pain, or sickness, or the fear of death. But now he must die—must cease to exist. Oh! what an awful thought it must be to Satan, who once occupied so exalted a position in Heaven! Can we suppose that the devil has been happy for the last six thousand years in the woe and misery which he has produced in the world? No; it is impossible.

When we look upon the awful condition of the world, we are sometimes tempted to question the wisdom of God in permitting things to continue in such a state so long, and think that it would not be so if we had the control of matters. But let us remember that God is from everlasting to everlasting, the Eternal One. Our world has existed only about six thousand years. Here is a man sixty years old. It seems but a few days since he was a little boy; yet he has lived one-hundredth part of the time that the world has stood. One hundred such men in succession would reach from the foundation of the world to the present time. Then how brief a period is the world's history! At the longest it is only a moment, compared with eternity. Think of the eternity which is past. Where did it begin? Imagine the eternity to come. Where will it end? Remember that God's purposes reach from eternity to eternity. Then why should it be thought a thing incredible by us that God should permit the devil to go on for so short a time with impunity, till he has fully developed his character and the consequences of sin?

Again, this earth, as compared with all the worlds of the vast universe of God, is no more than one grain of sand in comparison with the whole earth. The sun alone is as large as thirteen hundred thousand worlds like ours! At the rate of thirty miles per day, it would take a man over two hundred and forty years to travel around it. The planet Jupiter is 490 millions of miles distant from the sun. Its diameter is 89,000 miles, it being about fourteen hundred times as large as the earth! The nearest fixed star is so far distant that it would require a ball, moving at the rate of 500 miles an hour, over 4,500,000 years, or 750 times the period which has elapsed since the foundation of the world, to reach it from this earth! Many of these stars are thousands of times larger than our earth, and, probably, they are all inhabited.

Most of the stars we see are suns giving light to many planets revolving around them. This very fact shows that these planets are inhabited. If they were not, why should God provide suns to give them light? How many such worlds are there? Look at the stars, and count them! There are millions upon millions! How insignificant is this little speck of earth when compared with them? Truly God has said that all nations are before him as nothing, or as a drop in the bucket.

"Some astronomers have computed that there are not less than 75,000,000 suns in the universe. The fixed stars are all suns, having, like our sun, numerous planets revolving around them. The solar system, or that to which we belong, has about thirty planets, primary and secondary, belonging to it. The circular field of space which it occupies is in diameter 3600 millions of miles, and that which it controls much greater. The sun which is nearest neighbor to ours, is called Sirius, distant from our sun about 852,000,000 of miles. Now, if all the fixed stars are as distant from each other as Sirius is from our sun, or if our solar system be the average magnitude of all the 75 millions of suns, what imagination can grasp the immensity of creation! Who can survey a plantation containing 75 millions of circular fields, each thirty-six hundred millions of miles in diameter? Such, however, is one of the plantations of Him who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand—meted out heaven with a span—comprehended the dust in a measure—and weighed out the mountains in scales, and hills in a balance—He who, sitting upon the orbit of the earth, stretches out heaven as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Nations to him are as a drop of a bucket; and are counted as the small dust of the balance."— Christian Almanac.

When we view the subject in this light, considering the infinitely small portion of Creation which this earth really occupies, and the brief period of its history in sin, and remember that Satan's work has been confined to this small sphere, and that even this will soon be restored to its original condition, and that the devil will be punished for his crimes, all is reasonable, plain, and consistent. It is only when we take a narrow, contracted view of the matter that we are led to question the wisdom of God's dealings with this world.

As the eternal ages roll on, men almost forget that such a state of things ever existed. It will only be remembered as a passing cloud, or a sad moment in man's whole life. Oh! happy day! May it soon dawn! Then will be realized the glorious scene described in Rev. 5:13: "And every creature which is in Heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth; and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and, glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever." Dear reader, when the present unhappy state of our world has passed away, when sin and wickedness are no more, when devils and wicked men have been destroyed for their crimes, when the earth shall bloom again as the garden of Eden, when the "times of restitution of all things" come, may it be our happy lot to have a part in this joyful song of praise to God and the Lamb. Amen.