> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://sbms.gitbook.io/know-jesus-and-drive-out-demons/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://sbms.gitbook.io/know-jesus-and-drive-out-demons/chapter-2-the-devil-and-his-cohorts.md).

# Chapter 2: The Devil and His Cohorts

> And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)

&#x20;    Among creation, man is the only unique being who is able to communicate with God. But man was disconnected from God’s life because of Adam’s disobedience to God. However, through Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, those who believe in Him were restored to fellowship with God. This was possible because God has begotten them by the truth.

&#x20;    Nonetheless, the Devil and his cohorts have never stopped using every possible means to disrupt man’s relationship with God. They not only obstruct the world’s understanding of God, but they also use all means necessary to deceive God’s children so that they would believe lies.

&#x20;    The Devil and his cohorts were initially God’s ministering angels in Heaven. This Heaven is the place referenced in the Lord’s Prayer, “our Father in Heaven.” It is where God’s angels continually minister before Him.

&#x20;    According to the Bible, there are three kinds of heaven. The first is the heaven that people generally think of, namely the sky where birds dwell, the air in which physical life exists. The second is the universe where all the stars exist. The third is Heaven where the ministering spirits exist. Angels were created and positioned in Heaven long before the *beginning* in Genesis 1, before the creation of the heavens and the earth.

&#x20;    Although the angels were created as eternal beings, they did not exist from the eternity past. They came to have eternal existence from the day they were created. The only One who existed from the eternity past is God. He created the angels and positioned them to serve Him forever.

&#x20;    However, an archangel that served God in Heaven led a rebellion against Him with some of the subservient angels. God confined that archangel and his cohorts under darkness. This archangel is the Devil.

&#x20;    The Devil is a single being. Thus the word *Devil* only appears in the singular form throughout the Bible. On the contrary, the word *demon* often appears throughout the Bible in the plural form. There are so many demons in the world, more than enough for one to go into each person. Yet they are all under the authority of the one Devil.

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*<mark style="color:blue;">How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. (Acts 10:38)</mark>*

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&#x20;    Jesus healed all who were oppressed by the Devil. This does not mean that the Devil went into people and caused sicknesses. The Devil oppresses the whole world while his countless, subordinate demons torment the people by inhabiting their bodies. The Bible shows that when Jesus cast out demons and healed the sick, He was “healing all who were oppressed by the Devil.”

&#x20;    Jesus called the Devil “the ruler of the world”. A kingdom can have only one king. However, people still use the plural form *devils* and also use it interchangeably with *demons*. This error arises from people’s lack of knowledge of the Devil and the demons. Someone once said to me,

&#x20;            “Pastor, whenever I sleep I have nightmares and feel oppressed.”\
&#x20;            “A demon caused them.” I replied.\
&#x20;            “What? No, it’s not a demon.”\
&#x20;            “What can it be then?” I asked.\
&#x20;            “Maybe it’s the Devil,” he responded.

&#x20;    He was insinuating that the one tormenting him was not a servant but the leader himself, the Devil. Demons are the ones that actually inhabit man’s body and cause all sorts of curses and afflictions. The number of demons is countless. However, there is only one Devil in the world that rules over all those demons in the world.

&#x20;    The Devil has another name, *Satan.* Satan and Devil are two different names for the same being. But these two names are not to be used carelessly without any rules. In the Bible, the names Satan and Devil have distinct usages.

&#x20;    Satan means ‘an enemy, a traitor, and an insurgent’. Then to whom is he an enemy, a traitor and an insurgent? It is to God. The angel that should have served God instead betrayed and rebelled against Him and thus became God’s enemy. Since the servant that should serve the King rebelled against Him, his actions were illegal. This lawless one is called Satan. And God confined him in darkness. The name Devil was given him since he is the one that separates man from God. Yet he is called Satan, because he rebelled against God.

&#x20;    Let us consider when the Devil came to tempt Jesus.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” (Matt. 4:3)</mark>*

*<mark style="color:blue;">And said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down.” (Matt. 4:6)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    When the tempter came to Jesus at the first two temptations, they were attempts to sever Jesus’ relationship with God. The Bible did not use the term Satan at those times.

&#x20;    The third temptation however, is in nature different to the first two.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” (Matt. 4:9)</mark>*

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&#x20;    What the tempter said here was no different to making himself God. The only One that receives worship is God, but Satan tried to receive that worship. That is why Jesus said,

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*<mark style="color:blue;">“Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” (Matt. 4:10)</mark>*

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&#x20;    Thus as the one that rebelled against God, he is called *Satan* instead of the *Devil*. Remember what Peter said to Ananias?

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">“Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?” (Acts 5:3)</mark>*

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&#x20;    Lying to the Holy Spirit, that is, to God is an act pertaining to Satan.

&#x20;    Again, Satan and the Devil are different names used to refer to the same being. It is the same as how I am both a son to my mother and a father to my own child. One person can have several titles. To God, the fallen angel is the lawless one, Satan; but to man, he is the Devil that separates him from God. Satan, who wanted to be equal with God, was driven out of Heaven and kept under darkness.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    What does this darkness mean? It is not referring to an absence of a created light such as the sunlight or moonlight. Does physical darkness affect the angels’ transit? The darkness that imprisoned the fallen angels was a darkness that the angels could feel. In other words, this darkness is not the absence of a created light, but the absence of God's light, namely His glory.

&#x20;    In the beginning, God created light in the midst of darkness.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. (Gen. 1:2–3)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    This created light displayed its radiance upon the creations through the sun, moon and stars. This light did not illuminate the darkness. It was only a created light which would one day disappear. “Darkness” is the absence of glory, explicitly the light of the Creator God.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (John 1:1–4)</mark>*

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&#x20;    There is life in God’s word. This life is the light that shines on men. God’s word, life and light are inseparable. Thus the absence of light in the darkness means the absence of the word and the life of God. God confined Satan, the fallen angel, under darkness because the moment he rejected the word of God, he was severed from life and light.

&#x20;    Angels are originally God’s servants created to obey His word and serve Him. Hence they receive life as they obey God’s commands. No creation, including the angels, can sustain their own life. This is the same in principle as a branch that cannot survive on its own without the tree. Creation exists only by the Creator and never by its own power. Angels must obey God’s word in order to maintain life. God’s word gives eternal life to created beings that have eternal existence.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (John 6:63)</mark>*

*<mark style="color:blue;">But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:68)</mark>*

*<mark style="color:blue;">And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak. (John 12:50)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    For created beings to receive God’s words, His words must be in the form of commands. When they are in the form of a command such as, “Do it this way!” or “Do it that way!” they can be applied to created beings and prompt either an obedient or a disobedient response.

&#x20;    Angels are personalities with free will. They have the free will to obey or disobey God’s words. Nevertheless, they were created as God’s servants to serve Him by obeying His words. It was one of these angels that disobeyed God’s command. God’s command is everlasting life; thus the moment he rejected His commands, he was severed from life.

&#x20;    The moment he was cut off from life, only death remained for him. The Devil’s greatest asset and power is none other than death itself. Therefore, whoever is friendly with the Devil will eventually die. Though the Devil might give much wealth, what he ultimately leaves behind is eternal death. Even if he gives great authority on earth, in the end he only brings eternal death. Though the Devil gives so much of his love, all that he can give is death. This is because the Devil has been cut off from eternal life, and eternal death is all that he has.

&#x20;    The Devil who rejected God’s words is devoid of God’s light, His glory. Thus, the Devil can never pray to God because there is no other way for created beings to pray to God except by His glory.

&#x20;    Today, many believers are greatly mistaken when they say that they are giving glory to God. Man does not possess any glory. Glory belongs only to God. Because they have a misunderstanding about glory, they erroneously say that God gives sicknesses to man to receive glory from him. This is like repeating a Korean folktale, where an old brother Nolbu deliberately breaks the leg of a sparrow and patches it up to receive a reward after hearing about his younger brother’s fortune when he compassionately saved a sparrow. Is God so deficient of glory that He has to struggle so hard to obtain glory through such a way? Glory is His light that belongs to Him originally.

&#x20;    How is God’s light different from created light? Among all creation, light travels at the highest speed. In the blink of an eye, it can travel seven and a half times around the earth. Even with such blazing speed, it is estimated that it takes over several hundred billion years for light to travel from one side of the universe to the other. If we were to pray by means of this light, our prayers would actually take several hundred billion years to reach God’s Heavenly throne, which is beyond the universe. His replies would also take a similar length of time to reach us.

&#x20;    We do not depend on a created light to offer up our prayers but on God’s light, namely God’s glory. His glory travels through the universe in a flash. That is why we say that God’s glory is omnipresent. Glory is God’s light that only exists in Him.

&#x20;    God’s glory is in His name. Praying in Jesus’ name is the same as praying through God’s glory. The moment we pray in Jesus’ name, in a split second our prayer travels the distance that would take created light several billion years to travel. God’s answers to our prayers also reach us in a split second. In other words, prayers offered in the name of Jesus reach God instantly through His glory, and His answers also come immediately upon the one praying. That is why Jesus said that when we pray in His name, the Father is glorified, and believers would see the glory of God.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40)</mark>*

*<mark style="color:blue;">And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    Because it says that the Father is glorified through prayers, people incorrectly think that God the Father is in desperate need of glory and came to receive glory only because we prayed. However the phrase, “the Father may be glorified,” means that the Father has received our prayers by His glory.

&#x20;    We must have a thorough understanding of the light that is in us. People experience great confusion in their spiritual lives because they cannot identify whether the light they have is the light of God or created light. It is only when we know of the glory of God and acknowledge its value that we can use His great power.           &#x20;

&#x20;    For example, an illiterate woman received a telegram that read, “Mother has passed away.” She put it away until her husband came home to ask what it said. Her husband came home and read the telegram message,

&#x20;    “Mother has passed away! It says here that your mother has passed away!”\
&#x20;    “What are you talking about? I just visited my mom a few days ago.”\
&#x20;    “I’m not kidding. It says here that your mother has passed away.”\
&#x20;    “Oh, that’s impossible. Read it again carefully.”\
&#x20;    “It’s true. Your mother has passed away.”\
&#x20;    “Really? O Mom!”

&#x20;    When she was in denial, it did not affect her at all. However, the moment she acknowledged and accepted the truth, she was overcome with grief. Likewise, acknowledgement is another word for faith.

&#x20;    There was another true story of a junk peddler who purchased a winning lottery ticket. He kept it in his pocket for a few days and later asked someone to check the ticket for him.

&#x20;    “Mister, you’ve won the grand prize!”\
&#x20;    “Oh, be serious. If it were my fate to win first prize, I wouldn’t be doing such dirty work here. Check the ticket carefully.”\
&#x20;    “It really is the winning ticket!”\
&#x20;    “Hey, now you’re making me nervous...”\
&#x20;    “I’m not joking. It is the winning ticket!”\
&#x20;    “Really?”\
&#x20;    “Yes!”\
&#x20;    “Really?”\
&#x20;    “YES!”

&#x20;    The moment he accepted the fact that he had won, he was so shocked that he fainted and woke up in a hospital nine hours later. He had the lottery ticket in his pocket for three days but felt nothing since he neither knew nor accepted the fact that he had won. As soon as he acknowledged it, he was so shocked that he fainted.

&#x20;    It is because we fail to discern between created light and God’s glory, and do not acknowledge the incredible power of His glory that our hearts still remain unaffected and God’s power is not manifested. When we pray in Jesus’ name, God receives that prayer through His glory and sends the answers through the same glory.

&#x20;    When we pray, “God, please heal this sick person!” that prayer is delivered to God in Jesus’ name, that is, by God’s glory. God receives that prayer and answers. That answer then comes to us in Jesus’ name, specifically His glory. God’s glory proceeds back and forth between us and God in a flash; thus we are able to receive answers to our prayers instantly and heal the sick.            &#x20;

&#x20;    As we pray, we must rely on God’s glory. People suffer unnecessarily because they do not understand the glory of God. Rather than relying on the glory of God, the sick only desire to receive prayers from others repeatedly like as if taking herbal medicine. Therefore they do not think that healing will come after just one prayer.

&#x20;    “Now that you have received the laying on of hands, how do you feel? You feel better?”\
&#x20;    “I’m a little better. I think I’ll be completely healed after a few more prayers.”

&#x20;    These types of believers do not believe that the answers to their prayers can come instantly. We must acknowledge that our prayers are offered to God through His glory and that God answers us through His glory.

&#x20;    Satan does not have this glory of God; he has forfeited it. Thus, God confined him where His glory does not exist. The place that is in absence of God’s glory, in other words, of God’s word and life is called darkness. This darkness is also called Hades. Since this place is devoid of God’s word, life and glory, there are only lies, death and darkness. God has kept Satan under this darkness, for he has been separated from His glory.

&#x20;    *Devil* is another name for Satan and it bears a different meaning. The Devil means ‘a divider, separator, and destroyer’. The Devil is the divider between God and man. On the second day of creation, God separated the waters and created a firmament in the midst of the waters. Man lives on the land that came out of the lower waters, and the Devil controls the air. The Bible says that the Devil is the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2).

&#x20;    Satan is the name given to the illegal being, and Devil is the name of the one who holds legal authority in the universe. In other words, Satan came to be called the Devil when he was given authority in the universe. He has the right to accuse man before God and separate him from God.

&#x20;    There is a difference between authority and power. We can say that a king has authority whereas the army that the king commands has power. In the Bible, power refers to the angels.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. (Acts 1:8a)</mark>*

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&#x20;    This power is referring to the ministering angels that accompany the saints. Angles have the power to fight, but no authority. A soldier might be armed and dangerous, but he has no authority. Only a king possesses authority. Angels only possess power. However, one of the angels attempted to possess authority and as a result, he became Satan.

&#x20;    Satan is the name given to the illegal being. But Devil is the name given to the one with legal authority. Though Satan was the illegal one in Heaven and thrown out, he came to be called the Devil as the legal ruler in the world. The Devil’s authority was even recognized by God.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. (Rom. 13:1)</mark>*

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&#x20;    Even the archangel, Michael could not deny the Devil’s authority that God had recognized because Michael did not possess any authority.

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*<mark style="color:blue;">Yet Michael the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” (Jude 1:9)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    Though he had the power to defeat the Devil, Michael could not judge him and strip him of his authority. Michael could only say, “The Lord rebuke you!” because only the Lord could judge the authority of the Devil. The reason God acknowledged the Devil’s authority as the ruler of the world is for Him to legally judge him.

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*<mark style="color:blue;">Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. (John 12:31)</mark>*

*<mark style="color:blue;">Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:11)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    The Devil uses his legal authority to persistently separate man from God. This is because he is exceedingly jealous of man. He is infuriated because out of all that was created under the darkness, only man can communicate with God and lives by His provision.

&#x20;    Man receives a completely different treatment from God than any other creation. First of all, his image comes from God. All other animals have their own image. For example, pigs have their distinct image and so do chickens. However man does not, for he was created in the likeness of the image of God. The image of God is Jesus Christ.

&#x20;                                                           &#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. (2 Cor. 4:4)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    Jesus is the image of God. And man was created according to His image and in His likeness. In other words, Christ is the true Man and we are a shadow of the true Man. Mankind does not possess his own image. Every animal such as a dog or a mouse has its distinct image. However man’s image is not his own but God’s. Many people think that Jesus came into the world in the likeness of man. However, it is not Jesus who took after man but man who took after Jesus.

&#x20;    Other than being created in the likeness of God’s image, man also received a spirit from Him. God created man from dust and breathed into him the breath of life and the man became a spiritual being. In this way, man’s flesh originated from within the universe, whereas his spirit came from beyond the universe.

&#x20;    Not only that, man receives daily bread from Heaven. God gave Adam everything in Eden for his physical nourishment, but for his spirit, He gave a commandment forbidding him to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God’s commands are spiritual food, so that those who obey them receive eternal life (John 12:50).

&#x20;    Man has been created in the image of God and endowed with a spirit that can receive life through God’s words. The Devil was definitely jealous of this, so he endeavored to obstruct the word of God in order to alienate man from Him. The Devil deceived Eve to eat the forbidden fruit; she then gave it to Adam and caused him to defy God’s word. The moment Adam opposed God’s commands, his spirit was completely severed from the life and light that came from Him.

&#x20;    After man was severed from God’s word, he was under the rule of the Devil. In other words, the Devil became the ruler. The Devil is the king in the universe. There is no authority greater than the king. Thus, there is no power in this world that could overcome the Devil. As long as the demons rely on the authority of the Devil, people do not have any way to defeat them when they attack. Nothing of this world can overcome demons. No training, discipline, knowledge, education, or anything of this world can vanquish them.

&#x20;    Only the authority from Heaven can overcome the authority of this world. That is why Jesus came to the world. He opened a passage to Heaven through His birth, crucifixion and resurrection. Just as a person underwater can breathe in the air outside through a snorkel, Jesus came into the darkness and made a channel through which man could commune with God.

&#x20;    Through this channel we have received the Holy Spirit, and through this channel we are receiving God’s words and using the power of Heaven. Who can block this channel that Jesus has personally opened? Those who are in Jesus have seen the glory of God. If we correctly understand the value of God’s glory, then we will understand that all of the work which God desires to do through the believers are absolute and cannot be disrupted by anything.

&#x20;    Let us examine how the Devil and his cohorts were cast out of Heaven.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    Angels were created to serve God. When the angels fell and left that position, God bound them with everlasting chains in darkness to await judgment. The word *everlasting* in “everlasting chains” refers to an attribute of God. In other words, “reserved in everlasting chains” means to be bound under God’s authority. God threw the fallen angels into the darkness devoid God’s glory, words and life, and confined them so that they cannot escape.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. (Gen. 1:2)</mark>*

&#x20;

&#x20;    The first part of this verse describes the darkness that confined the Devil, explicitly the condition of the universe before God said on the first day, “Let there be light”. The universe at that time was filled with dust mixed in water, like a fog. Before God spoke the light into existence on the first day, the Devil was already confined in the universe. On the first day, God created the light in this universe and on the second day, He separated the fog-like waters into upper and lower waters. The upper waters became the outer wall of the universe. On the third day, God caused the lower waters to gather into one place to form the seas and out of them appeared dry land, which He called earth.

&#x20;    The universe was originally composed of water. The spirit of God was hovering over these waters to prevent the fallen angels from escaping. This is the same as the everlasting chains from Jude 1:6.

&#x20;    Many people believe that the spirit of God hovering over the water is God moving from one place to another. However, God is omnipresent. His glory travels at such a blazing speed that it fills everywhere (Jer. 23:24). Therefore, He does not need to be in motion. The spirit hovering over the surface of the waters, as stated in Genesis 1:2, is referring to the angels used by God.

&#x20;    To give you an example, prisons are kept under the authority of the Minister of Justice. It does not mean however, that the Minister of Justice is patrolling the prisons himself. He only needs to sit in his office, give orders, and assigns guards to be on duty. The spirit of God hovering over the waters means a group of angels were posted to guard the darkness to keep the fallen angels detained inside from escaping. This is the everlasting chains stated in Jude 1:6.

&#x20;    God created the darkness before the six days of creation. He imprisoned the fallen angels there, and the Son of God came into this darkness to judge them. Man was created to prepare the way for the Son of God to come into this darkness, namely the world. In other words, man was created to prepare the way for God’s Son to come into the world. The purpose of the entire human race, not only John the Baptist, is to prepare the way of the Lord. Hence it is mankind that exists for Christ, not Christ for mankind. Many people are mentioned in the Bible but the main protagonist is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

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*<mark style="color:blue;">You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. (John 5:39)</mark>*

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&#x20;    The Bible is about Jesus Christ. There are stories about Adam, Noah and Abraham in the Bible, but they are not the main characters of the Bible. They were merely supporting characters whose duty was to prepare the way for Jesus Christ. Although Jesus appeared in history after Adam, Noah and Abraham, He was already in existence before them for He is the One who created them.

&#x20;    Jesus Christ came into the world to judge the Devil. When the angel that was supposed to serve the name of God as holy instead blasphemed it, God imprisoned him in darkness. Then, He sent His Son to judge him. Many people greatly misunderstand the reason Jesus came into the world. This is because they have been influenced by humanistic theology.

&#x20;    Humanistic theology advocates that Jesus came to the world because man sinned. This means that Jesus would not have come if man had not sinned. However, the advent of Jesus was already planned before the fall of man, even before the creation of the world. The creation of Heaven and earth was in fact purposed in Jesus. To put it simply, Jesus did not come to clean up the mess created by the sins of man.

&#x20;    Jesus came into the world and judged the one that revolted against God (1 Jn. 3:8). Hades is a place for the judgment of the fallen angel. In the eyes of man, the universe might seem colossal and limitless, but not so in the eyes of God. The universe is like a prison where the Devil is detained. Here, the Devil was waiting for his judgment (Jude 1:6). It was already in God’s plan that the Son of God would come into this place to judge the Devil. For this reason, man was first created in this universe. Finally, Jesus came among men. He then died and resurrected and thus legally judged the Devil.

&#x20;    Before He was crucified, Jesus spoke of the Devil saying that the ruler of this world would eventually be judged. This meant that the judgment of the Devil had not yet taken place.

&#x20;

*<mark style="color:blue;">Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. (John 12: 31)</mark>*

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&#x20;    Jesus said that when He sends the Holy Spirit to the believers from Heaven after His resurrection and ascension, the Devil would have already been judged.

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*<mark style="color:blue;">Of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. (John 16:11)</mark>*

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&#x20;    Here we need to distinguish between the words *judgment* and *punishment*. Another word for judgment is condemnation. Through a judgment, either a guilty or a not-guilty verdict is given, and then the appropriate sentence is rendered. Jesus came into the world and died on the cross in order to judge the Devil. But when Jesus returns, He will execute the punishment of the Devil. Punishment then refers to the sentence being carried out.

&#x20;    Today, many people say that the dead unbelievers are already in hell. However, in this present time before the return of Jesus, no one has yet gone to hell. The unbelievers are kept in Hades in their condemned status. Also, many people say that the believers who have passed away are in Heaven already. However at this time before the return of Jesus, no one has entered the Kingdom of Heaven. The Bible tells us that when Jesus returns, the dead in Christ would resurrect and ascend into Heaven with Him.

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*<mark style="color:blue;">16For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. (1 Thess. 4:16-17)</mark>*

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&#x20;    The punishment of the Devil will be carried out after Christ’s return. What Jesus accomplished on the cross is not the Devil’s punishment but his judgment. Again, judgment means condemnation. Jesus legally condemned the Devil through His crucifixion.

&#x20;    Then why did God not punish him directly? Why did He lock them in Hades and judge them through His Son?

&#x20;    Angels can receive God’s provisional life only when they obey God’s words. God endowed the angels with the free will to receive the words of God. Therefore angels have the ability to obey or reject God’s words. When the angel disobeyed God’s commands, he had exercised his free will as a created being and hence could not be punished immediately for what he did. For a capital punishment to be executed there must be a judgment by a due process of law. Therefore, God imprisoned the fallen angel in confinement and sent His Son to judge him.

&#x20;    The Devil has been judged but not yet punished. He is still active in this world. This condemned Devil is desperately doing whatever he can to torment mankind. Because he knows that he has but a short time, he is making his final efforts. The demons under the Devil’s rule have also been condemned but not yet punished. Therefore, they are also making their last frantic efforts before their impending punishment.

&#x20;    The dead unbelievers have not yet gone to hell, neither have believers entered into the Kingdom of Heaven. Before Jesus died on the cross, He said to the thief who was crucified beside Him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Likewise believers go to Paradise after death.

&#x20;    After the Lord’s resurrection, He said to Mary Magdalene, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God’” (John 20:17).

&#x20;    After His resurrection, the Lord said that He had not yet ascended to the Father. Jesus stayed with the disciples, and then went to the Father forty days later. He said before that He would send the Holy Spirit when He goes to the Father (John 16:7). Believers receiving the Holy Spirit today verify that Jesus has already ascended to the Father.

&#x20;    Jesus entered Heaven forty days after His resurrection. So the place where Jesus went before His resurrection was Paradise, not Heaven. Where the believers also go after their death is Paradise and not Heaven. Some people claim to have visited Heaven, seeing Jesus and the saints shopping together. However, the dead in Christ are in Paradise for now. When Jesus returns, those who are in Paradise will be resurrected, meet the Lord in the air, and enter Heaven afterward.

&#x20;    There is also no one among unbelievers who have gone into hell yet. When unbelievers die, they stay in Hades, and when the Lord returns, they will be resurrected into immortal bodies. However, their resurrection is not meant for eternal life, but to receive eternal punishment. After they have been resurrected, they will go into the eternal lake of fire, prepared for the Devil and his cohorts to suffer forever.
