You have the same choice before you that the angels had in Lucifer's rebellion:
Worship the Creator,
or
Worship a creature.
This decision was and is a final decision. Eternal. How can it not be? The Creator is eternally the Creator, and the creature will eternally be a creature. The angels knew God and that Lucifer was not, is not, and never will be God. There nothing more to know for them. Their choice is very informed, and it is a once and for all choice. The faithful angels are eternally faithful to God. The demons are eternally loyal to Satan, and Satan eternally loyal to himself. After 1000 years of imprisonment in the book of Revelation, Satan comes out to lead another human rebellion. Humans face the same decision as the angels and demons. It was the same with the first man and woman.
Adam and Eve knew God their Creator. They knew the serpent as a fellow creature. The serpent was not, is not, and never will be God. He didn't make them or the fruit they were to eat or not eat. Why should Eve believe the serpent and not God? What "evidence" could the serpent give that caused Eve to believe? Had the serpent seen a creature make God a liar, a creature who ate from the tree of knowledge and didn't surely die? The choice was a simple and eternal one for the first man and woman: Creator or Creation? Whom will we worship? God or Satan?
This is always the decision. Always. The word "satan" means adversary. Opponent. The opponent of God. Whenever a creature seeks to usurp the Creator in your life, he is acting like satan, an agent of satan. An adversary of God's will in your life. Whether a man or woman or an actual demon, you are dealing with a creature trying to act like your Creator. Imagine that.
Imagine God Himself coming to you, Jesus Christ the Lord revealing Himself and His will to you. Not a figment of your imagination. The real Jesus Christ, who died rose and ascended for you.
Now imagine the real Satan, the same Satan that came to Jesus in the desert to test him, now coming to test you.
No matter what Satan says, good or bad, HE'S SATAN. Just knowing the identity of your enemy causes you to resist him simply because it's him.
I'm telling you that this is always the situation, whether a man or woman or demon. You are always choosing to worship and serve God the Creator or an adversary creature: a satan. It's always an eternal decision, just as final as it was for the angels and the demons. How can it not be? Will a creature ever be the Creator? Will the Creator cease to be your master? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego understood this when Nebuchadnezzar, a creature, wanted the worship of the Creator.
These three Hebrew men of God understood that whether the God of Israel delivered them or not, He alone was still the only true God. Deliverance or not, Nebuchadnezzar was not, is not, and never will be God. Never should be worshipped or bowed down to, no matter now hot the flames burn. Notice that Nebuchadnezzar wanted the same thing from people that Satan wanted from Jesus Himself and from all people: to be worshipped. A man, a foolish and prideful king, became a Satan. So did a follower of Jesus named Peter, as it is written,
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Matthew 16:23
Peter became an adversary to the Savior, a satan, focusing on human or creature concerns, and not on the concerns of God the Creator.
Any time a creature usurps the concerns of the Creator in your life, he or she or it is a satan. Plain and simple. If God and Satan were standing there and you had to choose between the two, it would literally be no different. Isn't the choice plain? Eternal? Simple? (click here for part 5)
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