That Old Serpent

"And the great dragon...that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world..was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone...and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

When the old-time evangelist, Billy Sunday, was asked if he believed in a literal devil, personified in one person, he answered, "I sure do, I've done business with him." He went on to say, "If there is no devil, who is behind all the devilment in the world?" From Genesis to this last book of the Bible, all Bible Christians believed in a real, literal devil. Like Billy Sunday, many of them had up-close and personal dealings with him. He tempted Jesus face to face and was constantly punching Paul around.

John the Beloved refers to Satan as, "That old serpent," on two different occasions in Revelation. He is the only writer in scripture to use this term. Tradition tells us John was an old man at this writing, in his nineties, no less. Interestingly he calls his, and our, arch enemy, "Old." At this writing the apostle traces the serpent back four-thousand years, to the Garden of Eden and the Fall. We can follow that slimey path of heartache and destruction back over six-thousand years of human history. 

Thank God, we're told there is coming a day, soon I pray, when all evil will be destroyed permanently from the universe! And while Satan and his cronies are suffering the torments of the damned forever and ever, we, the children of God will be experiencing eternal bliss with the KING OF KINGS AND THE LORD OF LORDS, and Lover of our souls! They have a place prepared for them and so do we: in the arms of God. 

Some of you might want to try what I do when I am severely
tempted. On the authority of the Word of God I remind Satan and all the evil spirits that may be involved in my sifting at the time, of their future eternal incarceration and suffering, and of my joy, both now and forever, with my Father!