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The Eternal Defeat of Satan
The Eternal Defeat of Satan
The Eternal Defeat of Satan
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The Eternal Defeat of Satan

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Christ rose from the dead and was enthroned at His Father’s right hand. He was given all authority in heaven and on earth. Why has the Church postponed His triumph to a coming age after He returns? Jesus defeated Satan and gave us the keys of dominion.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherBookBaby
Release dateOct 1, 2014
ISBN9780991013692
The Eternal Defeat of Satan

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    The Eternal Defeat of Satan - Joe McIntyre

    Endnotes

    INTRODUCTION

    Humanity was created for dominion. But something happened to disrupt God’s plan for humanity. This book is an attempt to bring to light the fact that Jesus has thoroughly defeated Satan and delivered His people from his grip. I am not talking about in the next age but in this age. Many in the Church believe we can’t really hope for much earthly victory until the Lord returns and defeats Satan. It’s too late! He has already defeated him.

    What I will be emphasizing in this book is that Satan has once-and-for-all been defeated, and humanity is redeemed out of his authority. When the Church really begins to believe this fact, she will rise up in her restored dominion and bring Christ-like leadership to this world. Not a top-down hierarchy but a bottom-up servant leadership that shows forth the character of Christ.

    Our traditions have given us an escapist, other worldly Christianity. Won’t it be great after the Lord returns! we say. Yet Jesus taught us to pray that the Father’s kingdom—His rule—would come and His will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Did Jesus really believe the Father’s will could be done in earth as it is in heaven? When did He believe this would happen? After He returns or before? These are questions thinking Christians need to answer. We have developed, in large part, a defeatist form of Christianity that postpones victory till the next age.

    What if Jesus’ triumph was accomplished so that we, His followers, could walk in His authority in this age and demonstrate the power of the Messianic age—the kingdom rule of God—in this age? This is the premise I will be unfolding in this book. Satan has been thoroughly defeated, and the Church has every right to enforce his defeat.

    I am going to make a shocking statement: Jesus will have no more authority in the earth when He returns than He already possesses now. His people will have no more authority to overcome the enemy than they already possess now. Your destiny, as part of this amazing thing called the Church, is to demonstrate to the principalities and powers in heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God (see Eph. 3:10).

    The Church has been like Israel in the wilderness. Won’t it be great when we get to the Promised Land? But they died in the wilderness due to a fatal illness called unbelief. Unbelief is not non-belief; it is believing something other than the truth.

    Jesus said only one thing can make void the Word of God—people’s traditions. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for just this issue: making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do (Mark 7:13). Unbelief is not non-belief; it is believing something other than the Word of God.

    We are in a great time of restoration. Many lost truths are being restored to the Church. The believer’s authority and the defeat of Satan are among them. The clearer these truths become in our hearts and minds, the more we will walk in the dominion Christ paid such a tremendous price to purchase for us. Let this Word take hold of you. Don’t let it be just good doctrine. Pursue it until you live and breathe it. Ask the Father to write these truths on the fleshly tablets of your new creation heart. Seek Him for the spirit of wisdom and revelation (see Eph. 1:17). He will meet you and confirm His Word with signs following. Don’t settle for less. This is your destiny. Refuse to let the enemy steal this freedom from you. It is your inheritance as a joint-heir with Christ.

    ONE

    CREATED FOR DOMINION

    Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." - Genesis 1:26–28

    Humanity was created to reveal the image and likeness of God. We don’t know everything we would like to know about the world in which Adam and Eve were to bring this image, but we know there was a force that was opposed to God’s purpose. We are not given much clear information about the being we know as Satan, or the Satan, as the original has it. The Satan means the adversary, one who resists. This being and his many followers (see Luke 4:5–6) are clearly in opposition to God’s purpose for humankind. Humanity was created for dominion over all the earth, including apparently, Satan and his fellow rebels.

    Think about this: Humanity was created by God to have dominion and reflect the image and likeness of God in the earth. God created humans knowing an adversary existed in the earth who would seek to undermine God’s purpose. God apparently intended that humankind, created in His image and likeness, would overcome this adversary and subdue him. Yet we know what happened. Both Adam and Eve listened to this being and disobeyed God, opening the door to an amazing amount of wickedness. But Father was undeterred from believing His image and likeness would overcome this adversary and his followers.

    It is valuable to take note of the process of temptation used by this being. First, he introduced a doubt: Has God said? Then he implied that God was withholding knowledge from them to keep them from becoming god-like beings. They already were the image and likeness of God, as much like God as a created being could be! Yet Satan got them to doubt the love and goodness of God and then encouraged them to act in disobedience to God’s Word. He uses the same tactic on us today!

    David, many years later, under a prophetic anointing, restated God’s original purpose in creating humanity.

    What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet. — Psalm 8:4–6

    The NASB dares to translate these verses literally: You have made him a little lower than God. Here is the accurate translation for the Hebrew word Elohim, meaning God. Our Father intended humankind to rule in the earth over His creation. We were as much like God as a created being could be.

    One of the keys to allowing the Father to paint the picture in our hearts of what He has done in the new creation is to get an accurate picture of what Adam was like before his fall into sin. He was as much like God as a created being could be. He was a God-like being.

    FREE TO CHOOSE

    For relationships to have meaning, they must be freely chosen. Love means nothing if it is coerced. Father gave humankind the ability to choose or reject His love. God’s great gift was the freedom of their wills to come into a loving relationship with the Father and eat of the Tree of Life. That same freedom allowed them to make the wrong choice as well. This freedom was the price necessary for loving relationship and fellowship.

    Adam and Eve were created as reflections of the uncreated One. They were to perfectly express Father’s image and likeness in the earth. They were given dominion over the earth for this very purpose. The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons of men (Ps. 115:16 NASB). It was God’s purpose to express His rule through His race of image-bearers. Father—who is love—created humankind to destroy the dominion of selfishness—Satan’s image—through His new creation species. Adam and Eve and their descendants, before their disobedience, were to bring underfoot the accuser, who both seduced them and accused God of selfish motivation by keeping the knowledge of good and evil from them. Because, he suggested, God didn’t want them to be wise and become like God.

    What a farce! They were already as much like God as a created being could be! If they had eaten of the Tree of Life they would have had access to heaven’s wisdom to deal with any challenge they might meet. Plus, they would have lived forever in union with the Lord and revealed His character in the earth.

    THE ACCUSATION

    Some believe the rebellion of this being we call Satan took place in the spirit realm before the creation of Adam. He was certainly in rebellion when he approached Eve in the form of a serpent and tempted her. What would Satan have used to tempt the other angels, assuming he was the author of their rebellion? I believe we have a clue in one of the oldest books of the Bible, the book of Job.

    In the book of Job, we get a behind-the-scenes view of the universe. The sons of God (angelic beings) came before God, and Satan was among them. (We will discuss the why of that situation later.) Summed up, the adversary said if Job lost his blessings he would curse God (see Job 1:11). However, Job proved faithful and didn’t curse God. The basis of Satan’s accusation is that selfishness is a better way than love. Implied in this is the idea that self-preservation will always rule humankind, that self-interest always trumps obedience to God.

    Job still blessed God, even though he mistakenly attributed the evil to God because he couldn’t read Job 1–2 and find out who the real problem was. You and I can read these chapters, so we can never be another Job. Even still, though depressed and deceived because he believed God brought these things upon him, Job still didn’t curse God. After his severe trial, God delivered him and gave him twice what he ever had. And, in the process, He corrected his ‘comforters theology, remarking that they had spoken wrongly about Me" (Job 42:7).

    Adam was created to father a race in God’s

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