Satan Powerless to Create
By A. S. Booth
Shut Up in a World All His Own—Has Every Opportunity to Make His Boast Good—Despairingly Ends in Destruction
"And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled." Rev. 20:1-3. Satan is to be confined to this world in its desolate condition. The voice that he has despised and caused cruel men to hush, out on Golgotha, is then proved to be the voice of the Life-giver, who descends "from heaven with a shout," and in "a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," the righteous are changed, and "caught up to meet the Lord in the air," and live and reign with Him a thousand years. During the period of time in which the righteous reign with Christ and Satan is bound, the wicked will be in death. The hand that the adversary has moved men to nail to the cross, will be made bare, and strike despair and death to the wicked, and they live not again until the thousand years are finished. Verse 5. The condition of the earth during the time of Satan's binding is expressed in the following texts: "The day of the Lord cometh, . . . a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness." Joel 2:1, 2. "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by His fierce anger. For thus hath the Lord said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it." Jer. 4:23-28. BOASTS A BETTER KINGDOM THAN GOD'S
It has been the boast of Satan that he could conduct a kingdom better than God. So once, in the end of time, God will reduce the earth to the same condition it was in immediately after He created it, and grant Lucifer opportunity to demonstrate his power. When the Lord began the work of creation, He said: "Let there be light: and there was light." "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind." "Let Us make man." And so it was; and "God saw that it was good." Genesis 1. Can Satan create light?—He may say, "Let there be light," a thousand years, but the heavens will remain black. Can he say, "Let the heavens bring forth birds, and the fields beasts"?—He may say it, and repeat it a thousand years, but the birds and the beasts are perished. Will it be worth while for him to say, "Let us make man"?—He can not give life to a blade of grass. He is utterly bound, and wanders up and down the earth, beholding what the working out of his plans has wrought, and trembles for the final end when he himself will be utterly destroyed. Eze. 28:12-19. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you." James 4:7, 8.