Man sinned and was cast out of Eden. Death was not executed upon him at once. Adam "lived nine hundred and thirty years, and he died." In consequence of his sin the race is subjected to all the effects of mortality, and finally die; but when our cases come to Judgment we must receive, for our personal sins, "the second death." So Satan and his angels that sinned were cast down, degraded from the joy and light of heaven to the darkness of tartarus, not yet finally judged because their sinful state is not yet completed. They are to be judged at last and consigned to the lake of fire. As these fallen angels now tempt mankind to sin, when their judgment comes the saints of God who have overcome their temptations, will have a part with Christ in judging them. 1 Cor. 6:3.
We are not of the class who, as Mr. R. intimates, claim that the devil was created a devil and was "never nothing but a devil." We claim that he with other angels was placed on probation, not as immortal beings, but, to decide their title to a second estate, and this they would secure by keeping "their first estate." Jude 6. Instead of so doing, and becoming "as the angels of God in heaven," to "die no more" (St. Luke 20: 36), they left that estate ("sinned," 2 Pet. 2: 4), and "fell from heaven." St. Luke 10: 18; Rev. 12: 9. Of the devil, Christ said, "he abode not in the truth." St. John 8: 44. It could not be said that he abode not in the truth if he never was in it. By a comparison of the above texts with other equally explicit statements of Scripture we learn that he who is now called the devil was once "in heaven," "in the truth," was "cast out," and "his angels with him," and thus he "fell from heaven," and is now "going to and fro in the earth," "like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." He is an outside foe who is to be resisted by steadfastness in the faith, and whom to successfully resist it is needful to submit to God. and be clothed with his "whole armor." St. James says, "submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4: 7.
As to his question, why it was necessary that the devil should be "defeated through death," I answer, Death is the penalty for sin. Before any being could defeat the work of the devil, and break his power of death off the race of man—it was needful that this being should go into death and the grave, and break the power of death in his own person. Coming forth from the grave a victor would be a demonstration of his power to rescue all from death. So Christ says, "I am he that liveth and was dead, and am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death."
The devil introduced death into our world by introducing sin. So Christ obtains power to destroy sin, death, and the devil, by obtaining the victory over death, thereby demonstrating to all that he is more than a match for the full result of Satan's deception. Having passed through death, he will destroy "him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Heb. 2: 14.
On page 154 of the lectures we read:—
"The words 'devil' and 'Satan' occur repeatedly in the Scriptures, and are used in a personal sense; it is their use in this way, as affording sanction to the popular dogma, that demands our consideration. The first general fact that strikes the attention is the entire absence from the Scriptures of a formal devil theory. The word occurs often enough, but there is no affirmation of the doctrine popularly attached to the word. This is remarkable; for if the doctrine be true, why do we not find it explicitly detailed like other points of truth? The doctrine of God's existence; of his creative powers; of his relation to his universe, is not only implied in the appellations he appropriates to himself, but formally propounded, 'I am God, and there is none else.' (Isaiah 46: 9.) 'To whom will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things.' (Isaiah 40: 25, 26.) 'Thou knowest my downsitting, and mine uprising; thou under-standest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. There is not a word on my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence?' (Psalm 129: 2-7.) These and many other declarations affirm the verity of God's existence, attributes, and power, but in the case of the supposed devil we have no such information."
He says we have "no such information." I will simply say, the devil is not "such" a being, therefore we do not expect to find such information concerning him—a created being—as we do of the Almighty, omnipotent, and all-wise Creator, the Bible tells us what God did, and what he is doing, and as, Mr. R. justly concludes from this, there must be a personal deity, called God. As previously shown, the Bible tells us also of the devil as a being who was once "in the truth," and "abode not in it," who was "cast out of heaven," "fell" from heaven "like lightning," and who is now "going about" seeking to "devour" men. Why should we not admit this as proof of the devil's existence on the ground that we admit the other as proof of the existence of God? If we explain away what the Bible says of the devil as only a myth of Paganism, or a simple diffusion of the principle of evil through the world, who could deny the Spiritualist his claim that God is simply the principles of goodness and power diffused through all space, and that therefore everything is God? If, as I admit, proof of the existence of a personal, true God is found in what the Bible says God did, why not admit that there is also a personal devil from what the Bible says of him and of what he did and does?