Pray for godly wisdom and do not doubt. You will receive it in due time. – James 1:5-7
The flesh = evil (pride and selfishness)
The spirit = good (selfless, humble love)
The flesh’s desires (food, drink, alcohol, drugs, sexual pleasure, body pampering, the acquiring of possessions, the desire to be “better” than the next in whatever) are:
- Selfish – they only benefit itself.
- The flesh’s desires always come at the expense of others, costing others much time, effort and money.
- The flesh just wants more, more, more! Endlessly. And can be draining and painful mentally and physically.
The spirit feeds off of selfless love that it can render to others: kindness, patience, self-control, humility, selflessness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, forbearance, hope, believing, trusting, and feels really good. This spiritual stuff benefits other spirits and in turn benefits itself by feeding the originating spirit with true joy and peace. It’s a beautiful, self-sustaining system that feeds itself by benefiting others. Rather than the flesh that takes and takes only for itself at the pure expense of others.
Our bodies are the physical manifestation of the knowledge of evil. Sin is an entity that dwells in our fleshly bodies. And when we are born, we are born spiritually dead and our souls are joined to our flesh. When we believe in Christ for salvation, we are made spiritually alive with the incorruptible seed of the Holy Spirit, and are then separated from our flesh with a circumcision performed by the Holy Spirit.
It all started in the garden of Eden when Satan tempted Eve to eat of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil, appealing to the flesh with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life:
Genesis 3:6 — “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), that it was pleasant to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and a tree desirable to make one wise (the pride of life), she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”
These are the same three things Satan tempted Jesus with in the wilderness to start His ministry: turn stones into bread (the lust of the flesh), all the kingdoms of the world (the lust of the eyes), and tossing Himself down that the angels would bear Him up, testing God (the pride of life). So you can see, the curse began with the temptations of the fleshly lusts of: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life with man, and began to be reversed with the temptations of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life with God. Man succumbed. God overcame.
Why did God teach us evil? In his manifold (many layered) wisdom:
- To show us what “good” is, and how “good” those of us with eternal life will have it.
- To teach us about certain parts of His character that we could never comprehend if it weren’t for knowing evil: patience, grace (underserved kindness), mercy, forbearance, forgiveness, agape love (selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love ultimately demonstrated in giving up His life on the cross).
- To find the souls that love what’s good and truly want to be with Him, over those who love evil and are prideful. To find those worthy of His gracious gift of eternal life and the eternal state of blessedness we will enter into.
Just as He did with the angels: He found out which angels truly loved Him and His ways, and wanted to be with Him (2/3 of the angels), over those angels who loved the thought of Lucifer’s/Satan’s prideful and evil ways (1/3 of the angels). He found the angels who were worthy and deserving. So He’s doing with humans made in the likeness of His image: He’s finding out which humans love Him and His ways, and want to be with Him, over those humans who love Satan’s prideful and evil ways. Finding which humans are “worthy and deserving”.
The angels got to see, live with and experience God face-to-face in a glorified creation, and some still rejected Him. Angels were born with eternal life, and were subjected to eternal death in hell for rebellion. There is no second chance for them. Humans don’t get to start with those experiences. God is spirit and the spiritual realm is invisible to us, and we live in a cursed creation. Humans are born dead – on their way to hell, but some are made eternally alive by faith in the invisible Christ. There is a second chance for humans. See the opposites?
Once this 7,000 year “trial period” so-to-speak to find out which angels and humans are worthy of eternal life and His glorious state of blessedness, He will seal us all up and promised that we will never be separated from Him for all eternity. All of the curse will be reversed, we will not know evil anymore and we will all live “happily ever after”.
It all ends with the temptation of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life:
Satan loves to copy God. He wants to be like God in the sense that he wants God’s power, authority and worship from other beings (angels and humans).
What got Satan kicked out of heaven in the first place was his pride of wanting to be like God and ascend above Him in authority and claim worship for himself. He got 1/3 of the angels to choose the side of Satan and whatever his version of heaven and rule he would implement, over God’s current establishment, and they were all thrown out of heaven, cast down to the earth, reserved for the pits of hell for all eternity. There is no second chance for them. They already knew God face-to-face and lived in His glorious state of blessedness, yet still chose Satan over God.
“If you bow down and worship me, I will give you all this…”, Satan says to all of us.
In the spiritual realm in heaven, we’ll be able to do all sorts of amazing things that we cannot do on this physical earth yet, such as teleporting (even to other worlds), talking telepathically, levitating and super intelligence. There will be no more pain or sickness, and there will be no more death and decay – in humans and all of creation (nature, animals, etc.).
Remember, Satan likes to copy God. His end goal is to recreate heaven on earth, and wants to put himself at the top, taking all of the worship and glory for himself. His goal is to get rid of all illnesses, stop the aging process, bringing back “the tree of life” so-to-speak that was originally in the garden of Eden, stopping death, and doing it all using AI to develop new mRNA vaccines and genetic engineering that will finally cure cancer and all the horrible health problems we have, and ultimately halt the aging process, cheating death. He likes to copy God, in which in God’s realm we will be able to talk telepathically and have super intelligence, so Satan wants to hook up the human brain to the internet, enabling humans, in a faux way, to talk telepathically and have super intelligence. He wants to use AI to “reverse the curse” that God has (for a limited time – 6,000 years) bestowed upon all creation for the sin of Adam in the garden, and fix all the problems we have in the world. He even, with the advancements of AI, wants to copy God and figure out teleportation and travel to other worlds.
But the one thing Satan will never fix is all of mankind’s (every single human on earth) sin nature – our natural will to do what’s morally wrong in the sight of God rather than what’s right. That means, no matter how much we fix up our planet and our physical body issues, there will always still be: depression, anxiety, stress, fear, worry, panic, nervousness, mental pain and suffering, sadness, anger, hatred and bitterness – all due to mankind’s sin nature and lack of ability to produce the fruit of the Spirit 100% of the time (which all believers will do in heaven), because they lack God’s Spirit within them that enables them to walk in the Spirit (in joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness (doing good), faithfulness (doing what you say), gentleness, self-control, not envious, humble, not rude, not self-seeking (seeking the benefit of others over oneself – selflessness), not provoked to anger, thinks no evil, does not find joy in iniquity, but rather finds joy in what’s good, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things). With Satan, there is no love. He is incapable of love. As the Bible says, he is the father of lies and has been a murderer from the beginning. He is full of pride and only wants to be worshipped as God himself. He’s an evil “king”, and the invisible influencer of all the corruption and evil that takes place on the earth. But with God, as the Bible says, God is love. His character/personality (the fruit of the Spirit mentioned above) and His ways bring (1) true freedom from the slavery of all the negative emotional and physical consequences of sin (2) righteousness and purity (3) love, joy and peace, and true love brings true joy and peace in one’s life.
After the rapture, during the seven year Tribulation, all of this will begin to culminate. All of mankind left behind on the earth will be forced to make a choice: do you choose Satan’s sham version of heaven and him as your “god” presiding over you? Or do you choose God Himself and His legitimate version of heaven? The final choice will be in deciding to take the mark of the beast or not, which will be the ultimate sign of your allegiance either to Satan and his kingdom (by taking the mark), or to God and His kingdom (by not taking the mark, leading to dying for your faith). There’s no second chance after taking the mark, just as there was no second chance for the 1/3 of the angels who were kicked out of heaven, who pledged their allegiance to Satan instead of God.
During the Tribulation, a man known in the Bible as the antichrist will rise to ultimate power over the whole world, along with another man known as “the false prophet”. The false prophet will implement a system in the world that the Bible calls “the image of the beast” (most likely a powerful AI system skinned as the antichrist himself), and anyone who does not worship it (use it) will be killed. And all who do worship it will be doomed to hell. He will also implement what the Bible calls “the mark of the beast”, which is something that goes into your right hand or forehead, in which you will not be able to buy or sell without it (most likely some sort of chip implant with digital id and banking attached that needs to be used for all purchases). This mark is what the antichrist and false prophet (and Satan behind them) will require for anyone to participate in the things Satan wants to bring to earth: cancer curing vaccines, death prevention, super intelligence, etc. Anyone who takes this mark is pledging their allegiance to Satan and his version of heaven, and will be doomed to hell.
The good news is that you don’t have to suffer through the Tribulation, you can be raptured into heaven before it begins. Simply believe the gospel and you’re saved and sealed by the Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of your eternal life.
There is some good news for those who find themselves in the Tribulation and haven’t taken the mark of the beast yet: you can still be saved and go to heaven. Simply believe the gospel found in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (that Christ died to pay for all your sins, was buried and rose again the third day), don’t take the mark, and you will be saved. You will have to die for your faith though. But then you’ll be in heaven where there is only true righteousness, love, joy and peace for the rest of eternity. It’s worth it.
Satan and his antichrist will not prevail though. At the end of the seven year Tribulation, Christ and all His believers will come back to earth, and Christ will throw the antichrist, the false prophet and all those who have taken the mark into the lake of fire and brimstone for all eternity. Christ will lock up Satan in the pit of hell for 1000 years while He rules the earth during His peaceful Millennial Kingdom for 1000 years, and will then throw Satan into the lake of fire and brimstone for all eternity, after one final rebellion.
So, at this final end (and going back to the very beginning), do you take the mark of the beast to buy and sell and feed the lust of the flesh (buying food and drink), the lust of the eyes (acquiring goods and keeping your home) and the pride of life (staying alive in Satan’s kingdom forever)? Or do you reject all of Satan’s fleshly lusts, die for your faith and inherit true eternal life and the true kingdom of spiritual love, joy, peace and righteousness?
The choice is yours.