By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
The content outlines the history and future of Satan, originally an angel named Lucifer who rebelled against God. It describes his declarations, fall, and ongoing efforts to oppose God. Key events include the Great Tribulation, his temporary power over the earth, and eventual defeat, culminating in eternal torment in the Lake of Fire.
Continue reading “What will become of the devil? Satan’s end”By Elizabeth Prata
SYNOPSIS
The content explores the origins and fall of Satan, originally known as Lucifer, a beautiful cherub created by God. Due to pride and slander against God, he became evil and was cast down. Despite his fall, Satan continues to have limited access to heaven, operating under God’s authority until a final judgment. Part 2 of 3. Part 1 below
By Elizabeth Prata
Satan is real.
He was God’s covering cherub, it is believed the highest of the high angels, and the most beautiful. (Ezekiel 28:14-17). Since he is an angel he is therefore a created being, thus, under God’s sovereignty. The eternal clash between good and evil is not one of equal opposites, but one of rebellion of a created being against an uncreated, holy powerful God. (Isaiah 14:13-14)
We hear satan’s actual voice three times in the Bible. Once in Genesis 3:1-5 when he (as the serpent) is talking with Eve in the Garden of Eden. There, he insinuated to Eve that God is not good enough to her by not letting her have all the fruit of the Garden. The second time we hear him speak, it’s in heaven to God about Job. (Job 1:7-11). There, he told God that God was being too good to Job. The third time is when satan tempts Jesus. (Luke 4:1-12). In that scene, he used several the schemes in his arsenal (temptation of the body, temptation of power, temptation of testing God) and when he failed, he went away until another opportune time. (Luke 4:13).
These scenes tell us that satan has many schemes in his bag of tricks, he is not hesitant to use them against people, or Jesus or even GOD, and that he never quits.
Satan is mentioned in the Gospels twenty-nine times. And twenty-five of those times, Jesus is the one talking about Satan. Satan is mentioned in seven Old Testament books and every New Testament book.
He has different names to which he is referred. That Old Serpent, Adversary, Devil, Satan, (which is a title)
Satan is a real person. He is not allegory, a metaphor or a figment. If you believe he is an allegory or figment or just an evil force, then you destroy the integrity and truthfulness of every NT book, each Gospel, a quarter of the Old Testament, and the character of Jesus. It is not possible to disbelieve satan is real but also believe the rest of the Bible is truthful, historical, prophetic, and the word of God.
He is real and thus has a will, goals, plans. He is seen spoken of in Isaiah 14:13-14,
But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
So his goal is to supplant God….usurp God…BE God!
Satan is not in hell. He is not the ruler of hell. So where is he? He is roaming up and down upon the earth. (Job 1:7, Job 2:2; 1 Peter 5:8). Satan is the prince of the air. (Ephesians 2:2). Satan is in heaven accusing the brethren. (Revelation 12:10; Job 1:6). God has granted limited and temporary sovereignty to satan, for he is the god of this world. (2 Corinthians 4:4). From this we see that satan has been granted much latitude by God on earth, the air and in heaven.
Satan is busy! He is accusing the brethren, roaming the earth, fighting the holy angels, sowing tares among the wheat, ensnaring the unwary, polluting the doctrine. He is wreaking devastation and destruction. (John 10:10). And much more!
What is satan’s destiny? When satan rebelled in the primordial past, God prepared hell for satan and his angels. (Matthew 25:41). There will be no offer to repent and no opportunity to come to salvation. The devil and his angels’ futures are fixed. (John 16:11). Meanwhile, God uses their evil for our good and His glory.
During the time since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden, satan has been allowed latitude in each of the three spheres of earth, air and heaven. However, midway through the Tribulation, he will be thrown out of heaven and access will no longer be granted to him or his angels. Perhaps satan thought he would be able to go on like this forever. God’s patience is longsuffering, but it does have an end, and satan gets tossed. He and his angels will be furious and will wreak their fury on the population of the earth. Woe to the people! (Revelation 12:7-17).
At the conclusion of the Tribulation, satan will be thrown into the abyss and locked up for 1000 years. When 1000 years is over, he will be let out for a little while to foment one last, short, rebellion that God puts down with a word. (Revelation 20:3; 8). Finally vanquished, he will be thrown into the lake of fire, the place prepared for him in the prehistorical past. His angels will be thrown there too, (Revelation 20:10) along with every person who followed him. (Revelation 20:15).
If you are a believer and are struggling or strong or persevering or weak: He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We need not fear satan, but we do need to appreciate his capabilities and thus rely on the Holy Spirit more than ever. And to the lost: make no mistake, satan is real.
Oh, woe to those who disbelieve Jesus’s words about future judgment for sin and His word to John in Revelation about the Book of Life. If your name is not written in it, you will be thrown into the Lake of Fire to be tormented forever.
Look at the cross! God’s love of humanity- expressed through Jesus- triumphed over evil and sin and death! (Colossians 2:13-15). Holiness wins too. (John 9:39). All one needs to do is look at the lake of fire- the place prepared for the devil and his angels, and all those who follow satan. (Matthew 12:30-32). Unless you believe in Jesus, you are actually following satan by default. When you die, you will follow satan right into the Lake of Fire.
A caution: Satan is real, powerful, and we are continually warned in the Bible not to dally with him or his flavors of sin and perversion. It’s dangerous to ignore these sober warnings from the One who knows all! However it’s just as dangerous to excessively focus on the devil. Some people look for him around every rock, attribute every major and minor thing to satan, and see him as an equal with God battling it out for the universe.
Our own sin nature advances satan’s goals for him much more than we’ll ever know. We are usually too puny to even be bothered with by him. Focus on obeying Jesus and slaying our own sin, while being mindful we do have an actual living adversary. Balance is best.
Now for some encouragement to the brethren:
“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
“Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.” (John 12:31).
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Thanks be to God for Jesus!
Those are a few facts about satan. As always, read the word for yourselves to see if these things are true.
Further Reading
The Wiles of Satan, William Spurstowe (Puritan Paperback)
GotQuestions essay, Who is Satan?
Ligonier devotional, The Devil
The Devil’s Wiles, 37 minute sermon by Sinclair Ferguson
By Elizabeth Prata
This was a question asked of me on my The End Time facebook page.
Good question. What DOES satan know about us?
Resource: Answers in Genesis, Who is Satan?
First of all let’s remind ourselves who satan is. Satan is actually a title. It means Adversary. He seems to have been a high angel, maybe the highest. Until sin was found in his heart and he decided he wanted to usurp God from His throne. Satan chose to sin. This is recounted in Isaiah 14:12-14. Then satan convinced a third of the angelic host to side with him, and there was rebellion in heaven. Unholy angels, fallen angels, are now called demons in common vernacular.
Satan (probably originally named Lucifer) and his minions fell from God’s favor and became enemies of God, and by proxy of the Israelites then of the Christians. Anything holy, good, or God-like – satan hates.
When God created the first man and woman, satan came down and messed with them, and convinced them to oppose God by disobeying and doubting His word. And we have been off and running ever since.
God is allowing satan and his evil ones latitude to do their worst, as part of God’s plan for humankind. Eventually, they all will be thrown in the Lake of Fire and punished forever for their rebellion.
Satan is known also as the Devil, Evil One, The Serpent, The Dragon.
There are two ways to interpret the question, what does he know about us humans, what does he know about each saint individually?
Satan cannot read our mind, whether we are saved nor not saved. Only God has the ability to know our thoughts and our heart (1 Kings 8:39; Acts 1:24). Satan cannot know our internal thoughts of each individual.
Resource:
–Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached about Good Angels here.
–LLoyd-Jones’ companion sermon about the unholy angels is lost but the transcript is here: fallen-angels-sermon-transcription-lloyd-jones
Collectively though, satan has been observing humankind for thousands of years. He is wily and subtle. He knows what our desires are in general. He tempted Eve with them, (Genesis 3:1-5) and he even tempted Jesus with them! (Matthew 4). Those desires are listed in 1 John 2:16; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
As he observes us (or more likely, his minions, most of us do not rate personal interference by satan himself), he simply sees what we press toward, what we say, how we act, and melds our temptations to what he or his demons observe in us.
I am not a fan of CS Lewis EXCEPT for his book The Screwtape Letters, which is an accurate and somewhat chilling recounting of a temptation of a Christian man from the perspective of an older demon educating his nephew demon on how to get the man away from Jesus.
Also it must be said, our own sin nature bedevils us more than demons haunting us. Mainly, satan and his demons leave us to our own devices, which if we do not kill that sin crouching at the door (Genesis 4:7), will have us- as the cartoon shows-
I am reading a Puritan Paperback called The Wiles of Satan. It’s by William Spurstowe. A Puritan Paperback is an updated language and a shortened version of the original. It has lots of scripture references and details how satan operates. I recommend it.
The author fleshed out the concepts and the one about speediness… eye opening. Satan does press us to do it, do it now! If we resist, and resist for a long time, then satan capitalizes on the frailty of our flesh and wearying us so that after a while of resisting it suddenly seems easier just to do the sin than spend the energy opposing his temptation. Man, we really ARE helpless sheep ripe for the slaughter!
But God! He made a way for us to oppose our sin nature, the world, and the devil. If we confess with our mouth and believe on Jesus, then he will save us and send the Holy Spirit to indwell us and be the Helper to resist. Most of us aren’t Job, where the devil personally provoked and hurt him. But demons are around, you can sometimes see them in the behavior of a false teacher (like Kenneth Copeland, as Justin Peters has said). The Bible tells us they do tempt us. So let’s not give them anything to tempt us with. The more we pursue holiness, the more the devil and his army will flee from us.
Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)
FURTHER READING
Grace to You: Can satan hear our thoughts?
The End Time: Angels part 1
Podcast Haunted Cosmos (if you’re into the weird and strange)
By Elizabeth Prata
Part 1: I will vs. I AM
Part 2: From Lucifer to Satan: The Devil’s origins
On Friday I posted a comparison of the statements in the Bible that satan and God made. The named angel Lucifer, later known as satan or the devil, said in his heart that he will ascend higher than the most high, and also made four other blasphemously rebellious declarations. These are found in Isaiah 14:13b-14.
God and Jesus had made several I AM statements declaring who He is. The more well-known I AM statements Jesus said are found throughout the book of John from chapter 6 to 15.
On Saturday I posted an essay exploring satan’s origins. At one time he was a holy angel. When God made the world, he had not fallen yet. Lucifer was praising God for His creation (Job 38:6-8). The holy angels had not fallen when God pronounced the creation very good. (Genesis 1:31). However, sometime after the world was made and after the 6th day, we meet satan in the garden, impugning God’s character and tempting Eve to rebel. By then, he was fallen and evil. Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 describe Lucifer’s fall.
Ever since Genesis 3 when we first meet satan, he has ceaselessly been stalking the world. His activity is to steal, kill, and destroy. His incessant desire is to usurp God and thwart God, and meanwhile, to send as many people to hell as possible. (John 10:10).
Will satan always do these things? What will happen when the Kingdom comes and Jesus is enthroned on earth for 1000 years, administering justice and ruling with His rod?
Well, God has plans for satan. He always has. His future plans for satan include the following.
After the rapture of the saints (the moment when God calls his church members dead and alive up to heaven) then God will unleash satan to do his worst. Jesus said this time will be the worst known on earth, ever. (Matthew 24:21-22). God will allow satan to do his worst because rebellious Israel still needs to be punished. Their punishment has not come. God paused his attention to Israel after His resurrection in order to build His church. (Matthew 16:18.) When the full number of the church is met, God will return His attention to Israel, overseeing their Time of Jacob’s Trouble, as the Great Tribulation is known. (Jeremiah 30:7; Romans 11:25).
During this period, Satan will be allowed to overcome the saints through the antichrist. (Revelation 13:7). He will hunt the Christians who come to faith after the rapture, and kill as many as possible. (Revelation 20:4). He will raise up, influence, and indwell the antichrist. The “whole world” marvels after this beast and acknowledges his power. (Daniel 7:23; Revelation 13:3, 5, 7). This is why Jesus said the time will be the worst ever on earth. It is the devil’s time.
Though satan has the earth’s kingdoms in his hand at this period of time, (Luke 4:4-6), and is god of this world, (2 Corinthians 4:4) he will finally be taken off the leash he has been on.
However sometime during the Tribulation, likely midway thorugh, satan’s access to heaven will be denied. He and his cohorts will be thrown out of heaven finally, and this enrages satan. Again, this will be a terrible time. Satan’s rage will drench the world in blood. Again, this is the sovereign will of God.
Then Jesus returns. When the iniquity is full and in His timing Jesus determines the punishment has been met, and Israel cries out for the savior, He will put a stop to satan’s evil acts. Satan will be thrown into the abyss for 1000 years and locked up. (Revelation 20:3).
After the thousand years, satan will be let loose again, for a very short time, in order to deceive the earth a final time. You see, after Jesus returns, the earth’s people repopulate. Some saints survive the Tribulation and they procreate. Even though Jesus will be present one earth ruling and reigning, sin will still be present on the earth and in men’s hearts. In order to determine who will be allowed into the final kingdom after the earth and heaven is remade, satan will be allowed to deceive to draw them out.
Those people who harbored blasphemy in their heart will be drawn to the serpent, whose venom will overflow. They war against Jesus. The war will be quick, though. See Revelation 20-
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison 8and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. 9And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them,
And satan finally, blessedly,
was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Revelation 20:10).
In summary, the schedule of events for satan over the next years is:
–Church Age: allowed to do evil, on a leash
–Tribulation: Allowed to do evil, off the leash.
–Millennium: Bound in the abyss
–End of Millennium: Allowed out of the abyss, mounts a war, is quashed immediately.
–Eternal state: Tormented in the Lake of Fire forevermore.
Names: Satan is also known as the serpent, the dragon, and the devil. (Revelation 20:2).
Part 1: I will vs. I AM
Part 2: From Lucifer to Satan: The Devil’s origins
Further resources
Sermon: The Origin of Evil
Devotional: God’s Devil
Lecture: Before the Time (How demons operate)
By Elizabeth Prata
Satan fell. (Isaiah 14:12, Ezekiel 28:11-19). We do not know when, because the timeline for God’s creation of the universe and all its beings (including angels) is not specifically mentioned in scripture. We know that they were already created when God created the world, because they praised God for it. (Job 38:6-8). We know none of them had fallen by the conclusion of the sixth day when God saw all that he had made, and declared it very good.
By the time of Genesis 3, satan was a fallen, evil, sinful creature. Revelation strongly intimates that he caused a third of his cohorts to fall with him. (Revelation 12:4).
What happened? How did satan get this way?
There aren’t a huge number of verses describing satan before or after his fall, but beyond Genesis 3, the main texts are in Ezekiel, Isaiah, and Revelation. The longest passage about Satan before his fall is found in Ezekiel 28 beginning at verse 11 and going through to verse 19. His name is actually Lucifer, one of three named angels (Michael and Gabriel being the other two).
Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God:”
In the above verse from Ezekiel 28:11 we read about the ‘King of Tyre.’ In the immediately previous passage we read a lament over the prince of Tyre. These two laments are normally interpreted as the prince being the human ruler of Tyre, with satan being the evil force behind the prince, influencing the prince to do evil. We also learn that Satan was in the garden of God, and is a class of angel called a cherub.
A cherub, or plural, cherubim, according to the ATS dictionary is
an order of celestial beings or symbolical representations often referred to in the Old Testament and in the book of Revelation. The cherubim are variously represented as living creatures, Ezekiel 1:1-28 Revelation 4:1-11; or as images wrought in tapestry, gold, or wood, Exodus 36:35 37:7 Ezekiel 41:25; as having one, two, or four faces, Exodus 25:20 Ezekiel 10:14 41:18; as having two, four, or six wings, 1 Kings 6:27 Ezekiel 1:6 Revelation 4:8
You were the signet of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone was your covering,
sardius, topaz, and diamond,
beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle;
and crafted in gold were your settings
and your engravings.
On the day that you were created
they were prepared.
You were an anointed guardian cherub.
I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God;
in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.
(Ezekiel 28:12-14)
Apparently Lucifer was beautiful, adorned with precious stones and radiating perfection. His job was to guard God at the highest of the highest places, His throne. It was the highest honor.
When we read the descriptions of the cherubim, they are definitely not the cherubs we have unfortunately been presented with in our culture since the Renaissance. They are not tiny chubby babies with rosy cheeks and stunted wings. They are depicted in art and carvings in the Temple as majestic, powerful, and mysteriously beautiful. They are described below in words in 2 Peter 2:10-11 as majestic and powerful.
Peter’s verse opens with noting that the false prophets blaspheme angels all the time. But even evil angels have a majesty and a dignity because they transcend time, are empowered by God, and they see His face. Before his fall, satan was the highest of these dignities. Afterward, though he is now the very embodiment of evil, he still retains a dignity that is beyond humanity. That’s what the verse is saying here:
Bold and willful, they [false prophets] do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord.
Continuing in Ezekiel 28, sadly, the beauty and power Lucifer was given caused pride in his heart. He became polluted with sin.
You were blameless in your ways
rom the day you were created,
till unrighteousness was found in you.
In the abundance of your trade
you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned;
What does the ‘abundance of your trade’ mean? It is said that wickedness was found in him and through his “widespread trade” he was filled with violence. In this case, the widespread trade does not mean economic traffic. Does one believe there were shops in heaven, with checkouts and money exchanged? No, surely not!
The phrase widespread trade comes from the Hebrew word r’kullah, the main word rakil, meaning slander.
Satan went on a whispering campaign against God, the same as he did later to Eve (“Hath God said? Genesis 3). He went around abundantly and ceaselessly to the angels, whispering that God was a tyrant, He was egotistical, He was withholding from them the good stuff, whatever that was. With Eve we know satan insinuated God was withholding the knowledge of good and evil. Whatever satan said to the 1/3 of the heavenly host that ended up following satan, it was lies and we know that he was a liar from the beginning.
“You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44).
Devil means slanderer. Satan wanted something else besides God so much that he slandered God’s character to get it. What was it that he wanted?
Isaiah 14:12-13 has the answer.
You said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
Lucifer wanted to be like God. And isn’t that what he tempted Eve with?
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, (Genesis 3:5a)
The punishment of satan’s evil, declaring rebellion in his heart against God was to be cast down from heaven. Ezekiel 28 continues the story:
so I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,
and I destroyed you, O guardian cherub,
from the midst of the stones of fire.
Your heart was proud because of your beauty;
you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
I exposed you before kings,
to feast their eyes on you.
By the multitude of your iniquities,
in the unrighteousness of your trade
you profaned your sanctuaries;
so I brought fire out from your midst;
it consumed you,
and I turned you to ashes on the earth
in the sight of all who saw you.
Isaiah mentions the fall, too:
12 How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
15 But you are brought down to Sheol,
to the far reaches of the pit.
(Isaiah 14:12-13,15)
However as we see from Job and 1 Kings 22, satan and his cohorts to this day still have access to heaven. (Job 1 or 1 Kings 22) They still appear to God in heaven. They still stalk the heavenlies and strut in the holy place. God allows this for His sovereign purposes. However, satan and his evil cohorts operate only within the limits God sets. The ones that did not, who stepped out of their first estate and went beyond God’s limits, are chained in the abyss. (Jude 1:6). The remaining ones pursuing evil on the earth have a horror of being put into the abyss. (Luke 8:31), so they remain disobediently obedient.
In another example of the evil angels still having access to heaven, we see that God used a lying spirit to deceive Ahab, (2 Chronicles 18:18-22).
So is it sure that as of now, Satan and his demons come and go in heaven as well as on earth. However, one day the door to heaven will be shut and satan and his 1/3 of the evil host will be denied access to heaven permanently. More on this in the next part, Satan’s End!
Lucifer means light-bearer, shining one, morning star, (Strong’s Hebrew 1966).
Satan means adversary (Strong’s Greek 4567) or accuser. Out of the 18 times we read the word satan in the Old Testament, 14 of those refer to the fallen angel Lucifer in the book of Job.
Satan opposes the proclamation of the gospel and therefore opposes God’s people, especially pastors and preachers. Satan opposes God by snatching away the seed (the word) that was sown in people’s hearts (Mark 4:15 ; Luke 8:12). He also thwarts God’s people as in the example of stopping Paul from traveling to Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 2:18).
Devil means (as it is used in the verse from Jude 1:9,
diábolos (from 1225 /diabállō, “to slander, accuse, defame”) – properly, a slanderer; a false accuser; unjustly criticizing to hurt (malign) and condemn to sever a relationship.
Here is Martyn Lloyd Jones with a few thoughts on something the devil cannot do.
Putting God first…herein lies the stifling of the passions that defeat us. Herein lies the quietness that calms our tumults. Herein lies the peace of knowing that our sins are forgiven and forgotten by God and so they can be forgotten by us.
When men seek things before they seek God, they throw themselves into what has come to be known as the ‘rat race’. An earlier phrase described it as ‘the pace that kills’. But it was never the pace that killed, it was the fear of tomorrow that made the pace necessary.
The devil has never praised God. He can make people happy. But whisky can make people happy. The fact that a thing can make you happy doesn’t prove it’s right. There are drugs that can make you happy. You see, the devil can come, and he can counterfeit all these things. If a man says “I am happy”, it doesn’t prove he is a Christian. It can be counterfeited. There is only one thing I know of that the devil cannot counterfeit: praising God. The devil never does that. Never. The devil has made anybody praise God.
He can counterfeit a belief in God. But that’s a very different thing. The Apostle James tells us in his epistle, ‘the devils also believe, and tremble.’ The devil has never praised God. He can persuade people that they believe in God. If it suits his purpose he can transform himself into an angel of light, and encourage people to believe in God and to be religious. He is doing that to large numbers today. But there’s one thing he’s never done and he can’t do it, and that is to make people praise God. He can give you a counterfeit intellectual interest. He can give you a counterfeit interest in God’s people. A counterfeit interest in communion service. A counterfeit interest in prayer, a counterfeit joy and gladness. He has never made anybody praise God. Why? Because he hates God.
But these people [in Acts 2] were praising God. That is why I say in many senses it is the ultimate test of the profession of the Christian faith – praising God! My friends, are you praising God? I’m not asking if you believe in Him, or if you try to worship Him. I’m not asking if you make requests of Him. I’m asking one thing only. Do you praise God?
Sermon- Praising God, Acts 2:46-47.
It occurred to me that this test would apply to a false teacher. Someone who teaches about God but is not saved, (2 Timothy 3:5) and who is the son of the devil will never praise God. Sons of the devil, those who are energized by satan and are in bondage to satan, cannot praise God because the devil cannot praise God. His minions can’t either. Use it as a test, as MLJ noted. Not that a false teacher can’t say the words, though oftentimes they can’t, they choke on them. They might say off-handedly, “Praise God it rained!” but a life lived in praise to Him, sincere, thorough, zealous praise, will never pass their lips. Look for it…or in this case, the absence of it.
the-end-time.org 