Can Satan Be Redeemed?

Can Satan be redeemed? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, it's Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Feel free to leave a voicemail if you've got our voicemail system. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites, and you can always email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Anthony calling in from Tennessee. Anthony, what's your question for Adriel?

Hey, good afternoon. On a previous episode, there was a caller who was struggling with a prayer light because of some things that had happened in her life, and it triggered a question or a topic for me that I wanted to bring up, and that is, sometimes I don't really know what I want to pray, but I don't know what to pray for. And to explain, I don't believe that, for instance, God makes people die so that He can have you angels. God is the opposite of death. I don't believe that He just intermittently kills people so He can get angels, and I probably take it to the extreme the other way, in that He doesn't save people either. He has set the world in motion, and we all have free will, and at some point we're all going to die, and it could be from this or that, and I catch myself just praying for, you know, whatever happens, Lord, can we, you know, I hope it's glory to you, and that the affected people will have peace, and I think that cheapens His power, and I don't always know what to do about that.

Anthony, I appreciate this question, and especially, right, you're putting your finger on something that I think is really important. Sometimes we can kind of have this fatalistic viewpoint when it comes to God and prayer, where God kind of becomes impersonal. This is, sometimes, you know, people will talk about this as kind of a deistic view of God, where God set the world in motion, He's up there, and yeah, you know, He loves us, but He's not really involved in the day-in, day-out details of my life, and so, you know, I pray, God, let your will be done, but when it comes to seeking God or pursuing Him for specific things, you know, I have trouble with that, and it seems to me, like, when we look at Scripture, that's not the kind of attitude or outlook we should have. It seems to me like we should have this very personal relationship with the Lord over and over again, a very personal relationship with the Lord, where we are seeking Him for the particular needs that we have, down to our, you know, the need for our daily bread, my breakfast, God, I need you even for that, and of course, Jesus taught us how to pray in the Lord's Prayer.

He gave us, you know, a whole, a whole list of things to bring before our good Father in heaven. God cares about our needs, our spiritual needs, and even when it comes to someone who's sick or in need of healing, we're encouraged and commanded even to pray for that. You know, James in James chapter 5 says, if anybody is sick among you, let that person go to the elders of the church and let them lay hands on him, anointing him with oil and praying for his healing, and the prayer of faith will heal, will save the one who is sick, and so it seems to me like the example that we have in Scriptures, we ought to be praying for specific things. Now, we don't know whether it's in God's sovereign will to heal every single person for whatever reason, right, and God has his own reasons. He may say, okay, no, you know, I'm not going to heal in this instance. You think of Timothy, for example, in the pastoral epistles, you know, Paul at one point encourages him to take a little bit of wine to settle his stomach ailments. Well, why didn't he just say, well, it's, you know, it's always God's will to heal. You should just ask God to heal you.

No, that wasn't it. God, for whatever reason, had allowed Timothy to endure this difficulty. Or Paul, you know, talks about the thorn in the flesh that he had in 2 Corinthians and how he pleaded with the Lord. God, would you remove this? We don't know exactly what it was. Some people think it was a spiritual kind of depression that he had or maybe a physical ailment, maybe a sickness, and he pleaded with the Lord three times.

Would you remove this? And what did Jesus say? My grace is perfected in your weakness. And so there are certain things I think, Anthony, that we always ought to pray for with confidence, anything that's in line with God's revealed will. So when we say, Lord, sanctify me, help me to walk in purity, Lord, help me to love my neighbor, you know, those kinds of things. I think we pray those kinds of things confidently, knowing that God hears and answers those prayers. It's like what John says in 1 John. When we ask anything according to the will of God, we know that he hears us and we have our requests. But with regard to other things, where we're not certain, I don't know if it's God's will to heal, I think we can still pray and pursue the Lord and ask and seek and knock and accept what his response is and trust in him. But my encouragement to you and my encouragement to everyone is let's cultivate a very personal prayer life with the Lord, where, I mean, yeah, there's nothing wrong with saying, Lord, you know, your will be done. But there's also nothing wrong with coming before God and saying, God, I need your help in this specific situation, or this brother or this sister is in pain. Send down your mercy.

Help them. And God hears those prayers. And so, God, again, help all of us to pray and to come before the Lord, trusting in him and believing that he hears us and that he cares about us because he does. Thanks for that question, Anthony. Really good counsel. Thank you for that, Adriel.

Appreciate that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Always love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. You can leave a voicemail for us anytime at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Let's go to Samuel, calling in from Oklahoma. Samuel, what's your question for Adriel?

Hello. Praise the Lord, Pastor. My question was regarded to the book of Revelation from chapters 12 to 14. And talking about me, I come from a background where my parents are in the ministry, but they do believe that the church would not go through the tribulation. But I did agree to them.

I respect them and all. But when I read the book, I feel more like the church will go through the tribulation. And one key word that took me was in chapter 14, verse 12, it says, This calls for patient endurance for the part of people of God who keeps his commands and remain faithful to Jesus. And there were other rats when God poured out on earth.

And for instance, when creatures like locusts were given to harm people, but they were commanded not to harm green plants and people who had the seal of God, but they were told to torture everyone who did not have the seal of God. So would that also mean that the church is present? And I was also given from this point while I was listening to one of the messages a couple of weeks earlier, and when pastor told about the image of the prophet Ezra, when he came to bring the people of Levites back to Israel, the first time there were a lot of people, but the second time there were only 38 Levites to go. So it shows that Jesus, when he rose up, he brought a lot of people who were in paradise back to, I mean, giving his news and showing that he came as the Messiah. And then when he comes back, because of the deceptions of the world and things around, I mean, not everyone talks proper religion or proper gospel. So Samuel, it sounds to me like you're wrestling with, I mean, fundamentally the question of do believers experience the great tribulation or great tribulation? And I can tell it's personal too, because you have family that you love, parents involved in ministry who think, well, and probably referring to the doctrine of the rapture of the church, or the church is gonna be raptured or taken to heaven, believers are gonna be taken to heaven, and then there's gonna be a period of tribulation for the world, but believers are gonna be spared from that.

And of course, there are gonna be converts during that time, but the church is gonna be reigning in heaven with Jesus. That's one view. And again, on the broadcast, oftentimes, core Christianity, our focus really is not this particular eschatological view that is view of the end times that we want everybody to just embrace.

I have a view. Our focus here is helping people grow in Jesus Christ and in the core doctrines of the Christian truth that all Christians across traditions and denominations need to understand and recover and grow in. But that's not to say that this question isn't an insignificant one, and I tend to agree with you when looking at the book of Revelation. It seems to me like the great judgments that are experienced on earth, like the saints, like the people of God are there, and those judgments are not necessarily being poured out on them in particular.

Sometimes those judgments are coming on the unbelieving world, but there's also the reality of persecution, there's the reality of temptation. And John, this is what he's getting at throughout this book, because he's writing to believers in the first century who were being tempted to abandon their faith, to compromise, to embrace idolatry, and so he's wanting them to persevere, to endure. That passage that you brought up in verse 12 of chapter 14, here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

That really echoes throughout the entire book. This is a call for the people of God to endure, come what may, to cling to the gospel and to know that God is holding on to them. In fact, earlier in chapter 14, where you have the ceiling of the 144,000, which I take, by the way, to be a symbolic representation of the Church altogether as this sort of military company, the people of God called to engage in holy warfare, holy spiritual warfare in Jesus Christ by enduring suffering and proclaiming the gospel, there you have it again. And so one thing that I think we can be comforted by, because people hear this and they say, oh man, that's terrifying, one thing we can be comforted by is God will never leave us or forsake us. We do experience trials and tribulations as Christians.

Jesus himself said that this would be the reality for the disciples. In this world, you will have tribulation, he said in John chapter 16, but we can take heart because he has overcome the world. He has sealed us with his Holy Spirit. He will preserve us by his grace. Now that doesn't mean, again, that we don't experience tribulation. Again, you think of the gospels where Jesus tells his disciples, don't fear those who can kill the body but can't do anything to the soul.

You know, fear God who has control over body and soul, right? We will and Christians have throughout history experienced terrible suffering and tribulation, but God holds on to them even in the midst of it, and that's one of the things that we see throughout the book of Revelation. It's that great hope that's given to us, and so I guess, if anything, I'm just encouraging you and I'm encouraging you in your understanding, your reading.

That doesn't mean, again, that people who differ from you or your parents, right, that, you know, there needs to be any sort of division or looking down on others. No, you know, but I think as we search the scriptures, we want to understand them to the best of our ability and we want to speak the truth, and certainly I would say that the book of Revelation was written to suffering believers to help them endure and persevere in what they were experiencing, and it's a comfort for us today as well when we suffer. God bless you. Hey, Samuel, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity and for digging into God's Word. We always appreciate that when we hear from listeners who are committed to really getting into the scriptures.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez. You know, after Jesus was resurrected and spent time with his disciples, he ascended into heaven right in their presence, and his ascension represents something vital to the Christian faith, and we've created a wonderful resource on that we'd like to offer you today. Yeah, the resource is called The King is Crowned, and it's a free digital download over at our website corechristianity.com that focuses on the significance of the ascension of the Lord Jesus as a part of his redemptive work. We don't often look at the ascension of Jesus as being a part of his one redemption that really began with the incarnation, his coming into the world, his earthly ministry also being a part of his redemptive work, and then certainly his going to the cross.

We focus on that oftentimes. His resurrection from the dead, yes, but the ascension is also part of it and important for you to understand. There's a lot to think about there, especially as Jesus at the right hand of the Father dispenses the gifts of God to the people of God, namely the Holy Spirit. And so get a hold of this resource. Again, it's a free digital download called The King is Crowned over at corechristianity.com. By the way, when you're at our website, I would encourage you to check out some of our other great resources, including our core Bible studies.

If you lead a small group or a study school class and you're looking for a good study to go through, man, there's a great selection there, as well as some leaders guides, which will really help you out in leading those studies. So check it out at corechristianity.com. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the core. You can call us 24 hours a day and leave your question for Adriel. And here's one that came in from Steve. Hi, Adriel.

I love your program. Keep up the good work. Question about praying for our enemies. I know Satan is our enemy.

We have never been taught to pray for Satan's forgiveness of his sins, and he is our enemy. And I'd just like clarification from you on that. Thank you very much.

Appreciate it. Okay. Yeah. Okay.

I mean, this is a good question. There were actually some throughout the history of the church had taught, well, even Satan at the very end is going to be redeemed. Now, the majority of the Christian church rejected that view, did not embrace that view. And it's very clear at the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation that Satan, the great serpent, is cast into the lake of fire for all time and eternity. And so I think the Bible makes it absolutely crystal clear that Satan is not going to be redeemed. But you're also thinking about Satan. I think there's a little bit of maybe a category error here because Jesus did not come to redeem angels, but men.

Angels are ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are going to inherit salvation. That's what the author of the Hebrew says in Hebrews chapter two, verse 14. And Jesus, the eternal son of God, assumed humanity to redeem us. The very next chapter in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter two, verse 14 says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil.

You see where Satan is on this side of the discussion. Christ came to destroy him and, verse 15, deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery, for surely it is not angels that he helps. In other words, Jesus didn't come to help the angels, like Satan. No, he came to destroy the works of darkness, the evil one. Surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.

That's you and me. And so we don't pray for Satan, for his forgiveness, for his redemption. We pray, remaining vigilant, knowing that he goes around like a roaring lion seeking to devour us, we invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who appeared to abolish the works of Satan and the devil. We pray for our enemies, not, you know, the demonic hosts, but our enemies, those made in the image of God, yet who are in rebellion against God and persecuting his people. Those are the ones we pray for, that they might be redeemed because Christ came into the world to make atonement for the sins even of his enemies. And so that should shape how we think about those calls to love our enemies. We understand them in the light of Christ's redemptive work, and the fact that he extends his grace and salvation even to his enemies, like Saul of Tarsus, who was an enemy of the church and an enemy of God, a persecutor of Jesus. And yet Jesus knocked him off of his horse and said, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And brought him into the light. And God is still doing it today. And so we pray for our enemies and against the evil one. God bless. Great word. Thank you for that, Adriel, and I'm praying that God does not knock me off my horse, or my bike.

Yeah, well actually, I mean, if the Lord does it and Jesus appears and starts there, I think that would be kind of an awesome experience. So it might hurt in the meantime, but yes, that's a good, good. That's right.

Yeah. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to James, who's calling in from Florida. James, what's your question for Adriel? My question is this. I'm someone who tends to lean toward the Reformed view of Scripture. And so I'm currently in school, and their argumentations, or the syllabus, I can't pronounce that word right now.

It goes like this. Free will and love are, I can't pronounce that word, free will requires real choices. Real choices require real consequences. Real consequences open the door to evil. We are not the only being created with free will. Something to that effect.

How does someone settle with that as someone who's Reformed, mostly? You know what I mean? What do you mean, free will?

Like, I don't understand. James, thanks for that question. I mean, understanding that the nature of the will and human freedom is really important, and certainly something that's been debated by Christians for a very long time. But I think here's a couple things that we can say. One is, God created man free. You think of Adam and Eve in the garden. God left them to the freedom of their wills to make a decision to choose to follow him, and they fell.

Okay, so then the question is, when they fell, how did that affect the rest of mankind? Because we're in Adam. Paul talks about this in Romans chapter 5. You know, we're the offspring of Adam, in one sense, and through Adam sin entered the world. And not just sin, but the corruption of our whole being, in one sense, our nature. This is why we say that we're born in sin.

David says this in the Psalms. And so how has that affected my will, my mind? Sometimes people will refer to this as the noetic effects of sin, the way in which sin has affected the mind and the will. And because sin has, you know, infiltrated into every part of us, it's not like we're immune from the effects of sin.

So we have to say it's affected our will in some sense, which means that we, and this is how I understand it, we can't save ourselves. Apart from the grace of God, we can't even see that we're blinded in need of mercy, that we're sinners. And so what happened as a result of the fall is you have now the necessity of God's intervention of his grace. And there are some people who make the argument, well, we need some grace, and then we cooperate with that grace, and little by little we're being renewed so that we can accept all of these things, and it's this sort of dance between God, his sovereign will, and our free human wills. Others have taken a more, I would say, drastic view, and this would be my view, which is it's not just that we need a little bit of grace, it's that we need a spiritual resurrection. We need to be born again, because as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, we're dead in trespasses and sins.

That's what we once walked in, that's how we once lived. If it wasn't for the grace of God, the illumination of the Holy Spirit, I wouldn't see or recognize any of this. And so in this whole discussion, we have to think about the will as God created us, but then also the effects of the fall and the necessity of God's grace and intervention. And then the question is, well, how much grace do we need?

How much intervention do we need? Is it like a little bit of medicine, or do we need a full renovation, a new birth? And I think the answer of the Bible is what we need is new birth. We need the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God in our lives, and apart from that, we remain in darkness and lost.

And so that's how some of the discussion goes. It seems to me like, you know, based on the syllogism that you brought up, the argument that was made, they're really not dealing with the effects of the fall on the human will. And so again, this is one of those things that Christians have argued about and debated about for many, many years. I think there are certain things that we have to affirm, like we have to affirm the necessity of grace. We can't save ourselves, we can't pull ourselves up by the spiritual bootstraps and save ourselves by our own works.

No, that's the heresy of Pelagianism. And so maybe we can get into that more another time. And if you want to give us a call back again, James, to follow up, feel free to do so. But may the Lord bless you as you continue to dig into the Word. It sounds like you're studying the Bible and theology in school. I hope that God encourages you in that and helps you to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Thanks. truth of God's Word together.