How is satan defeated

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Is there a power outside Himself that limits His rule over them? Or is God presented throughout the Bible as having the right and the power to restrain Satan anytime He pleases? The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.

From cover to cover the Bible presents God as governing Satan and his demons. He has the right and power to restrain them any time He pleases. Since God is never caught off guard, His permissions are always purposeful.

If He chooses to permit something, He does so for a reason—an infinitely wise reason. God has not told us. And this is true in such a way that God never sins. God is infinitely holy, and God is infinitely mighty. Satan is evil, and Satan is under the all-governing wisdom of God. Why, then, does God not simply wipe Satan out?

He has the right and power to do this. And Revelation says He is going to do it someday. Why let him rampage through humanity for centuries?

The ultimate answer is that all things were created through Christ and for Christ Colossians Our entry point for discerning the person and activity of Satan will be Colossians We will discover much there, but upon developing three guiding exegetical questions, we will unearth as many unanswered questions as we answer. Grasping a wholistic picture of Satan requires a full canonical scope.

These questions force an excursion into the terrain of biblical theology. After building out a stable biblical-theological framework, we will be in position to establish a few conclusive truths—also known as dogmatics. Due to space limitations, our exegetical motion does not attempt exhaustion. Rather, it is controlled by a mere three questions, which I believe naturally arise from the text:. The answer is found in verse Satan had no record of debt with which to accuse.

This is the primary way he was disarmed. That much we can discern from Colossians. The language used describes a parade. Satan was rendered powerless, and then becomes something of a cosmic joke. He was showcased in the theater of God before his own rebel entourage and before the angels of heaven. Satan is not acting in isolation but seems to have an organized, mobilized, rebel army, perhaps even a hierarchy. But more centrally, the thrust of Colossians is that when Jesus looked to be at His weakest, He was actually putting on invincibility.

Three days after his death, Jesus kicked the hinges off the door of the enclosed tomb outside Jerusalem. On Friday, Satan surely heckled, hissed, and laughed while hovering over the blood-bespattered carcass of our Lord. He never saw it coming. On Sunday, Jesus arose with an indestructible life.

He procured a deliverance for His people so rich, so stunning that even the angels could not heretofore comprehend its immensity. It was a plot twist so beautiful that it satisfied millennia worth of anticipation 1 Pt So, where did Satan come from?

When did he rebel? When did his entourage rebel? In Revelation 12—16 , John described in some detail the war that Satan wages against God and His faithful Saints, which began in the premortal world and continues in mortality. In spite of the fearful events described in these chapters, there are great reasons to hope and rejoice.

John the Revelator assured his readers that although Satan makes war with the Saints of God, they can be victorious. As we are faithful in these ways, we will also receive protection from the plagues to be poured out upon the earth. We also learn in these chapters that God restored the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth in order to help His children withstand and overcome these tribulations in the last days. Many of the events described in Revelation 6—11 seem to be chronological in order.

This can lead the reader to expect this pattern to continue. However, Gerald N. For example:. In the midst of a vivid description of the great battle of Armageddon, there is another pause. Since the Apostle was translated and was to live through all the events he saw, the Lord seems to pause to show him what part he will have in all of it.

This is the longest and perhaps the most difficult interlude to understand. When John hears that the kingdoms of the world are to become the kingdoms of Christ see , it is as though the Lord stops to teach more about these two different classes of kingdoms.

In Revelation —2, 5, 7 , John saw in vision a woman who gave birth to a child. Elder Bruce R. They are under, beneath and lower than the true Church. The highest eternal reward they can offer is the terrestrial kingdom, whose glory is like the moon.

These verses in Revelation 12 are a parenthetical reference to the War in Heaven. The same kind that prevails on earth; the only kind Satan and spirit beings can wage—a war of words, a tumult of opinions, a conflict of ideologies; a war between truth and error, between light and darkness. President Boyd K. Packer — of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles elaborated on how we can find protection during this spiritual war:. Elder Dieter F. Even at the foundation of the world, it was a certainty that Jesus Christ would perform the Atonement; thus, the effects of the Atonement began in the premortal world.

In mortality we continue to overcome Satan in the same manner—by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ and by the word of our testimonies. Elder Richard G.