Supplement 4 — For Lessons 7 & 8

Supplement Four

For Lessons Seven and Eight

We have seen in Lesson Seven that the Earth was originally ruled by an angel; that he ruled for an unknown period and was perfect in his ways until he desired to exalt himself above God; that many other angels also rebelled against God’s Moral Government; that God ceased to be all-in-all; that because of the rebellion of angels and the subjects of Lucifer, the Earth was made chaos by a flood and all life on Earth was destroyed, as in Gen. 1:2. We have seen in Lesson Eight that God restored the Earth to a second habitable state in six literal days, creating and making new fish, fowls, land animals, and man. We have also seen why God restored the Earth to a habitable state. God’s original purpose in creating the Earth was that it should be inhabited by intelligent free moral agents to whom He could reveal Himself and whom He could bless forever with all the good things of life.

God’s blessings upon all creation were wonderful—beyond human words to describe. If man had not sinned, there would have been no sickness, disease, defeat, harm, pain, suffering, sorrow, misery, failure, and none of the present corruption that is in the world through lust. Because it was not God’s will that man should sin and that these conditions be in the Earth, we can safely conclude that such is still not His will.

That all men would have been healthy, wealthy, and wise if man had not fallen is a recognized fact in Scripture, as well as in the minds of all intelligent men. That all free moral agents were intended to conform to the best public good according to the will of the Moral Governor is equally clear. Everyone is naturally morally obligated even under the state of sin to consecrate himself to the best good of all society. God Himself, the Supreme Moral Governor, is likewise under the same moral obligation. Therefore, it was and still is His highest will that all creation be in the highest state of perfection so that this end can be attained. It could never be the will of God for even one person to be given over to anything that would hinder his part in helping all society to attain the highest good of all. Therefore, sin, sickness, poverty, want, unhappiness, and failure are foreign elements in the preservation of the eternal perfect plan for all creation. Because they are foreign elements they must be eliminated before God’s plan can be fully attained. They are not and cannot be in the least a part of the will of God for His creation. They are the works of the devil and are enemies of God and all creation.

If they are enemies, then they should be treated as such. Constant and aggressive warfare should be waged against them until they are entirely out of the personal life of the child of God who is cooperating with God to attain the end of a perfect, sinless, holy, healthy, prosperous, wise, and biblical society. As long as Christians count these curses as friends and blessings in disguise and as the will of God, they will be failing God and cooperating with their own enemies to destroy themselves and mar the perfect plan of God for man.

HOW SAINTS ADD TO THE GLORY OF SATAN IN A THREEFOLD WAY

1. 1 THROUGH UNBELIEF

   “But without faith it is impossible to please him : for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” Hebrews 11:6; “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering” James 1:5-8.

It is a known fact that where people are taught the truth they have faith and get blessings from God, for “faith cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of God” Romans 10:17. No man can have faith in something that he is ignorant about. No man can have faith in God until he knows about Him. Likewise, it is equally true that unbelief is the result of false teaching, of accepting lies instead of truths, and of cooperating with Satan instead of God.

Some argue that part of the gospel is for the Jews, part for the Gentiles, part for this age and part for that period, or that part of the gospel is not for us today and that all miracles, healings, gifts, and supernatural and inspirational powers were for the apostles only.

Most believers are perfect at tearing down faith and dashing cold water on people who have any hope that God will be a just, merciful, loving, and kind Heavenly Father who will give His children as much in life as evil parents give to their children. If a person even suggests that God will give any and all things to His children that He has promised, he is immediately told that he must not expect too much from God and that such might not be best for him. He is told simply to be satisfied with what the Heavenly Father sees fit to give and that it is sinful to be bold enough to ask for any more.

If we are going to believe in the Bible at all, then let us believe it in its entirety . If we are going to profess that God is able to do all things, then let Him do at least a few of the things He has abundantly promised. If we are going to be in gospel work, then let us work with the gospel and not against it. Let us at least believe the best of it, the promises, and let us attain its promised benefits. If we are going to be as sensible in religion as we are in other things, then let us not accept the worst ideas of the Bible and reject the best. We don’t act that nonsensical about our affairs outside of religion, so why be foolish in religious matters when we can do better? This is just plain common sense. Let us wake up and see that when we oppose God and the Bible we are cooperating with Satan and demons, who are our own enemies, and we are destroying ourselves and helping defeat those who are making an effort to conform to the whole will of God according to the Bible.

Yes, it is true we glorify Satan through unbelief and by giving in to his gospel-defeating program. This can be stopped right here and now, and it must be, before we can begin to reap the wonderful benefits of the promises.

1. 1 SAINTS GLORIFY SATAN THROUGH FEAR OF SICKNESS, PAIN, TROUBLE, AND DEATH. Job said, “The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me” Job 3:25. Fear comes through wrong thoughts, and wrong thoughts are the seeds of future acts. Thoughts are blueprints of future acts. Every thought projected into the subconscious mind is eventually brought into the active mind, and if entertained there it will pass into the cells and tissues of the body. What we think becomes, to a great extent, materialized. This is especially true with thoughts that affect the physical, material, and spiritual life. When thoughts concerning these realms are persisted in tenaciously they cause certain events to be brought to pass. This, of course, applies to the realm of human possibility.

The devil’s chief work is to get men to think wrong thoughts––that they are sick, weak, helpless, unhappy, mistreated by God and man; that they are facing certain calamities financially, physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually; and that they have to accept these conditions as the will of God simply because the conditions have occurred. Satan knows that if men get a mental picture of a certain thing by believing it strongly, they will act accordingly to make it a reality. If he can get them to think about sickness, failure, or whatever it is they are subject to, then they will talk about these conditions, and soon the conditions will materialize. If he can get them to moan and grumble and be discouraged about any difficulty, it will soon develop.

Paul said, “God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” 2 Timothy 1:7. Job’s spirit of fear was not from God. This no doubt was one of the reasons God permitted him to be tested. He was perfect in many ways, but not in being free from fear. If he was not free from fear he did not have perfect love, and thus there was plenty of room for refinement in his life.

If one would ignore, minimize, deny, and refuse sickness, poverty, troubles, tears, worries, sin, suffering, or whatever it is that should not be in the life of the child of God, he would soon have nothing to fear and worry about. What we are today is the result of the thoughts and fears of yesterday. Sins, sicknesses, failures, and unhappiness we sow today are the results of the thoughts and plans of yesterday. If the thoughts had been cast down no such wrongs would have been committed.

If a man or woman lives in the thoughts of illicit love, he or she will soon be a victim of sin and lust. Movies, novels, magazines, nude advertisements, dance halls, and the sight of immodest men and women are constant food for wrong thoughts and we must refuse to feed on such ideas. The mind must be kept clean and pure. Mental pictures of lust set in motion the passions that only a supernatural force can break. Thoughts control and bring about materialization of mental pictures and constant dreaming and longing for certain things that are harmful soon produce acts of sin. This is why superstitions exert an influence on many people. Don’t play with wrong thoughts. They are dangerous. At last they will bite like an adder and sting like a scorpion.

Think right thoughts and you will have no fears, and then you will have no acts that you will regret. We are mental broadcasting stations and we raise or lower the community in which we live. One grouchy, pessimistic, trouble-expecting person controlled by fear and wrong thoughts can bring darkness wherever he goes. If a child begins doing wrong and you constantly talk about his wrongdoing, the child may soon become confirmed in living this way. Say to him constantly that he is no good, and soon he will prove you right. He will more or less mold his life by his mental environment. You expect him to be wrong, he expects himself to be so, and soon and unconsciously this thinking will have the effect of making him wrong. Such a life glorifies Satan as much as anything else, maybe even more so. If he can get you to fear he will glory over it because he knows this is the first step to a downfall. Satan had many months of glory out of Job because he convinced him to fear that certain events would happen in his life. And this trial might have been the only way God could have brought him out of this state of constant fear and worry.

1. 1 SAINTS GLORIFY SATAN BY GIVING IN TO HIM IN TIMES OF TEMPTATION AND TRIAL

   If every Christian would realize the source of his temptation and the truth that God has not forsaken him just because he is under attack from demons, he would conduct himself in a more courageous and Christ-like manner. Satan gets men to think that God has forsaken them when something goes wrong. He convinces them that they would not be going through such a trial if God were with them. One is not backslidden when he is tempted. No sin is committed until lust hath conceived and sin is finished James 1:13-15. People under attack from demons should do what James said: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” James 4:7. Peter also said, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world” 1 Peter 5:8-9.

1. 1 SAINTS GLORIFY SATAN BY PERMITTING HIM TO KEEP THEM SICK

   No child of God has to be sick or stay sick. It is the right of every believer in Christ to have perfect health and freedom from the works of the devil. The following passages prove this: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty . . . A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee . . . there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling” (Ps. 91); “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” Matthew 8:16-17; “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” Matthew 21:21-22; “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” John 15:7; “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” Romans 8:11.

The responsibility then of getting healed and remaining healed is up to the individual. If a person wants healing let him resist the devil and pray in faith, nothing wavering. Let him believe that he has received the answer—that he is healed right here and now, and let him reject anything to the contrary. If God has provided healing through Christ, then it is the right and the duty of every person for whom Christ died to get the benefits for which He died. If it is the moral obligation of each person to consecrate himself to the best good of all society, then it becomes an obligation to exercise faith and get well so that he can be a better citizen of that society and show others how they, too, can get such benefits. Matthew said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” Matthew 5:16.

As long as one person is sick, he is not living up to his duty to society, and he glorifies Satan more than he does God. God can get glory only in healing and delivering men from the works of the devil, not in permitting the devil to have the victory over those whom Christ died to liberate. If every person would make up his mind that he is going to devote his whole life to God and that he is going to glorify God wholly, he would defeat Satan and refuse to be held in bondage by him any longer. He would be sustained by God and Christ, and the work of Christ on the cross would be effective in the bodies of all. Let no man say that he is glorifying God when he is sick and defeated in life, when the works of the devil are being manifest in him instead of the works of God. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and give life more abundantly, and those who do not permit Him to complete this work in them are causing the work of Christ to be a failure in them John 10:101 John 3:8Acts 10:38.

1. 1 SAINTS GLORIFY SATAN BY PERMITTING HIM TO ROB THEM OF THE WONDERFUL MATERIAL BENEFITS PROMISED THEM BY GOD

   If God has promised and provided material benefits for all men, particularly His own children who are the special subjects of His providence, then all believers can have these blessings. If they do not receive them it is not God’s fault. It is the fault of the saints for permitting themselves to be defeated by Satan. God will give them those benefits that He has promised and provided abundantly for them if they will study the Bible and thereby acquire the faith and wisdom necessary to get them.

The following passages prove that material blessings are promised every child of God: “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Ps.1:3); “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine” Proverbs 3:9-10; “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” Malachi 3:10-11; “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” Matthew 6:33; “Give, and it shall be given you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” Luke 6:38; “He that soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully” 2 Corinthians 9:6-10; “Beloved I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth” (3 Jn. 2).

II. Saints Add to Satan’s Glory by Advertising His Works and Magnifying His Power

1. 1 SAINTS ADD TO SATAN’S GLORY BY BEING LIVING TESTIMONIES OF THE POWER OF SATAN. It may sound harsh to state the whole truth about this subject, but regardless of what anyone says, if sickness, sin, defeat, poverty, and failure in life are the works of the devil, then when these things are manifest in the lives of people who claim to be Christians, they glorify Satan more than God by bearing witness of these conditions in their lives. If it is not God’s will for His children to be in these conditions, then they are out of His will to be satisfied to endure these curses in life. How can one glorify God better when sick, sinful, and poverty-stricken than if he were healthy, happy, victorious, prosperous, and able to do the whole will of God according to the Scripture?

If these conditions are the work of the devil, then whenever a person is sick, sinful and defeated in life, he is testifying for Satan and magnifying his power. If he had freedom from these curses he would be testifying to the goodness of God in delivering him from sin and sickness, and in blessing him with all the good things of life.

1. 1 SAINTS ADD TO THE GLORY OF SATAN BY BEING HIS TOOLS AT TIMES

   The Christian life is such a straight life that it behooves us to be on guard at all times lest we submit to satanic influences that will hinder the work of Christ. In Mt. 16:21-25 Christ rebuked Peter for allowing Satan to influence him to try and stop Jesus from going to the cross. Here it is clear that a Christian in ignorance yielded himself to satanic influences for the moment. It is such an easy thing to do. A person can do it without realizing it. For that reason we must learn all about our enemy and his tactics in order to wage a successful warfare against him and always use all time and talents for the righteous cause of God.

Every time a believer takes part in any division, strife, malice, hatred, or wrongdoing of any kind, he is being used as a tool of demons. All fault-finding, fears, unbelief, worry, fretting, bitterness, pride, retaliation, sinful lusts, worldliness, foolishness, insincerity, hypocrisy, dishonesty, deceit, failure, uncleanness, doubts, formality, deadness, lack of spiritual power, or whatever is contrary to holy living and sound doctrine, show that the parties so used are that much yielded to satanic powers. Anyone who yields to these influences knowingly commits sin. Those who get to know that these are manifestations of the wrong spirit in their life and conduct must quit all such motivated acts or they will backslide entirely. These conditions cannot be encouraged in any life, or they will cause a spiritual and moral breakdown and lead to other states that will damn the soul.

1. 1 SAINTS ADD TO SATAN’S GLORY WHEN THEY PROPAGATE FALSE DOCTRINES. Such propagators of fallacy become living epistles of Satan, known and read of all men. Any doctrine that is in the least out of harmony with revealed truth should not be tolerated in the life of a child of God. When so-called "saints" become dishonest in refusing to accept plain truth, whether to further a party, a church creed, or some personal bias, they are adding to the glory of Satan. They are rejecting truth and spreading fallacy. Any dishonesty in accepting certain statements on a subject and twisting them to prove some church or personal theory in disregard of other scriptures on the same subject is satanic in origin and practice, and those who carry on such a program are adding to the glory of Satan.

III. Saints Add to Satan’s Glory by Failing God in Life and Work

1. 1 Every excuse for unbelief and every argument that throws any reflection on God’s infinite Fatherhood, love, and will for the best good of all creation is helping Satan keep men in unbelief and bondage to sin, sickness, poverty, and failure in life. All accusations against God alleging that He wills for men to be sick, helpless, powerless, sinful and unhappy are all adding to Satan’s glory in that they spread fallacies about God and His will toward men and hide from men the true will of God.

1. 1 All failure in trusting God in times of temptation, sickness, trial and suffering, and all insinuations that God is responsible for these things add to Satan’s glory and rob God of man’s respect and true understanding. All failure to fight the fight of faith and wage an aggressive warfare on Satan is simply adding to his glory and is defeating the plan of God for man. Failure to pray for lost souls or for his own family, his own church, his own business, and for the needs of others all adds up to defeat for the cause of God and results in lost souls and therefore glorifies Satan. Failure to read and study God’s Word so as to be a workman rightly dividing the Word of Truth helps in the destruction of eternal souls and therefore adds to success for satanic forces.

1. 1 Unconcern for lost souls, failure to live and walk in the Spirit and thus live victorious over sin, disease, and failure in life, and disobedience to God in not coveting earnestly the best gifts and the endowment of power for service, all help build up the kingdom of Satan. Lack of missionary vision as to the need of God’s work as a whole destroys the highest efficiency of the child of God in his part in total warfare on evil spirits.

Until believers wake up to see their fallacies concerning God and His Word and carry out literally what God really says, Satan will get more glory out of their lives than will God. As long as Christians think and teach that it is God’s will for them to be poor, weak, defeated, sick, sinful, and suffering needlessly, Satan will defeat them and rob God of the glory that would be His because of His blessings in the lives of His people.

If what we have stated is truth, then those who desire to please God should take these thoughts to heart and refuse ever again to give any glory to Satan. It may well be asked, “How can we always glorify God and not Satan?” There is only one answer, and that is by walking in the light, as God makes it clear by His Word. The main action we can take is to refuse to ever live in doubt and unbelief and always carry through to complete victory those blessings that we ask of God.

Hindrances to Answered Prayer

There will be hindrances to answered prayer, and there is no use trying to avoid this fact. Furthermore, hindrances to answered prayer are so well known that believers even manufacture hindrances of all kinds as excuses for their unbelief. The hindrances to answered prayer are Satan, demons, fallen angels, doubt, unbelief, and false doctrines among Christians concerning God and answered prayer.

How to Overcome Hindrances to Prayer

In Lesson Six, Point X, 11, we have seen how to overcome Satan and demon powers. Review this and doggedly carry out the instructions revealed in Scripture given on this point. Let it be settled forever that Satan and demons must be defeated if you want definite answers to prayer. You must strive to bring yourself to the point where you stop all doubting and unbelief. You must lay aside all fallacies and get to know the truth, and the truth shall make you free John 8:31-32. You will get to know truth if you will follow the light as you receive it, and you will be made free accordingly. You must, above all, be careful that you have Scripture to prove every part of your faith and every detail of doctrine, and then it will be truth that will set free. Correction of doubt, unbelief, and fallacy is entirely up to you.

Ten Questions For Supplement Four. Do You Know:

• That Jesus actually descended into Hell while His body was in the tomb? This is the truth. In Mt. 12:40; Eph. 4:7-11 we read that Christ went “in the heart of the Earth” and “into the lower parts of the Earth” during the time His body was in the tomb. This is what David by the Holy Spirit meant in Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:25-27, “For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption” in the grave. During this time in Hell, Christ preached to the spirits in prison 1 Peter 3:19.

• That 200 million horsemen will soon appear on the Earth to slay millions of men? In the future Tribulation during the sixth trumpet judgment four angels will be loosed that are now bound in the river Euphrates and 200 million demon or spirit-horsemen will be loosed out of the bottomless pit. Each of these four angels will lead 50 million of these horsemen in a different direction to slay one-third of all men at a certain hour Revelation 9:13-21. This will literally happen in the first 3½ years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, for the middle of the Week starts with the seventh trumpet Revelation 11:15-18Revelation 12:6, 14Revelation 13:5. All these events take place after the rapture, as proven in Rev. 4:1, which says all the events of Rev. 4–22 “must be hereafter,” that is, after the churches.

• That the United States is not once definitely mentioned in prophecy? The very absence of any clear, definite reference to America in prophecy is sufficient to prove this. It is true that some teach Isa. 18 refers to the United States, but this is not so, for it refers to a land “which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia,” as it plainly says. There will have to be a lot of dirt moved in order for the United States to be moved to this land “beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.” Other students of prophecy find the United States in the beast of Rev. 13:11-18, but this refers to a man and not a country , as is clear from the language of the passage and because he is called the “false prophet” who will be destroyed with the Antichrist at the Second Coming of Christ Revelation 16:13-16Revelation 19:20Revelation 20:10. The first beast of Rev. 13 is a “man” according to verse 18 and in verse 11 the second beast is called “another,” which, in the Greek, means another of the same kind. If the first is a man the second beast must also be symbolic of a man. The language of the passages concerning the two beasts proves that individuals are referred to in Rev. 13. Still others say the United States is referred to in “the islands” mentioned in Scripture, but this cannot be proven. This is mere human theory, so we conclude that there is no direct reference to the United States in prophecy.

• That you will know each other in both Heaven and Hell? “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” 1 Corinthians 13:12. We are told in 1 Cor. 15:25-29; Phil. 3:20-21 that every person will be resurrected with the same kind of body that was sown in the ground and that every person will have “his own body,” so naturally if we know each other here we shall know each other in Heaven or Hell. In Lk. 16:19-31 the rich man while in Hell knew Lazarus, and so will every other person know whomever he sees whom he knew on Earth.

• That one-third of the ships of the sea will soon be destroyed? This will happen in the future tribulation when the second trumpet blows Revelation 8:8-9.

• That the future Tribulation will not be worldwide? Nearly every plague that will be poured out in the Tribulation states that it will be over a fourth or a third part of the Earth only, thus showing that the trouble for which these plagues are sent will be only on part of the Earth. See Rev. 6:8; 8:7-12; 9:18; 16:10, 12. As we shall see, Antichrist will rule just a certain part of the Earth, and because he is the one causing the Tribulation, it will be only over the part of Earth which he rules.

• That many people have already gone to Heaven and Hell? Enoch Genesis 5:24Hebrews 11:5; Elijah 2 Kings 2:11-13; Paul 2 Corinthians 12:1-7; John Revelation 4:1; and many bodies of the Old Testament saints Matthew 27:52-53; and all those that were not resurrected were captured from the devil in the underworld and taken to Heaven when Christ went back to Heaven Ephesians 4:7-11Acts 1:11. Now when every righteous soul leaves the body at death it goes to Heaven until the resurrection 2 Corinthians 5:8Philippians 1:21-23Revelation 6:9-11. All the souls of the wicked that have ever died have gone to Hell and will continue to go there until after the Millennium, when those in Hell will be brought before God in judgment, and then they will be cast into the Lake of Fire Luke 16:19-31Revelation 20:11-15.

• That the Bible tells you what Satan looks like? He is a most beautiful angel with an angelic body. All angels have bodies like men, as we have seen in Lesson Four. Satan then looks like a human being bodily, but much more beautiful according to Ezek. 28:11-17. (See Lesson Six, Point X).

• That the Bible tells you where Cain got his wife? He married his sister for “Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” Genesis 3:20. In Gen. 5:4, we read that Adam “begat sons and daughters” and in Gen. 6:1-2 we read, “When men began to multiply on the face of the Earth, and daughters were born to them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” One old tradition says that Cain had a twin sister named Lulawa and that he married his sister. Be that as it may, we know that he had to marry a sister to get the race started, for all men came from Adam and Eve.

• That the Bible tells you where Hell is located? It is located in the lower parts or in the center of the Earth Matthew 12:40Ephesians 4:7-11Isaiah 14:9.