Tag: Future

Reader Questions: How Will There Still Be Sin When Satan Is Bound?

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There is a page on this site where readers can submit questions or suggest topics. Recently I received the following question:

We know Satan is the author of sin. So if he is bound for a thousand years (Revelation 20), how can sin still remain on the earth?

Great question! It touches on how we understand Satan, the nature of sin, and the condition of the human heart.

The short answer is: Satan tempts us and influences us sin, but human sin is not dependent on Satan, but on something inside of us – and since the fall, sin resides in the human heart.

The ultimate solution to sin is not even the binding of Satan (as good as that will be) — it is our completed and full redemption. What we need are new hearts and complete sanctification.

Revelation 20: Satan Bound for a Thousand Years

In Revelation 20:1-3 it says:

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

In Revelation, John the Apostle is recounting the vision he received from God, in which he was given a preview of the things which were to come in the future.

He goes on to say:

Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. (Revelation 20:4b-5a)

Then, John goes on to say:

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. (Revelation 20:7-8)

Clearly what is being described is a time when Satan will be bound, and thereby prevented from deceiving the nations. Then, when he is released, he will deceive the nations once again – the result of which will be a rebellion and a multipolar attack on God’s people.

What this shows us is that, although during the thousand years, sin will be restrained by Christ’s rule – the capacity to sin, rebel, and attack will remain within people during that time, only waiting to be “activated” when the opportunity arises.

In other words: the problem of sin is deeper than demonic influence. It is rooted in human nature.

The Fall: When Sin Entered the Human Heart

In Genesis 3, Satan appears as the tempter. He deceives Eve and entices Adam into rebellion. In that sense, he plays a catalytic role. But notice something crucial: Satan does not force Adam and Eve to sin. He tempts them, but they willingly choose rebellion.

After the fall, something fundamental changes in humanity. Sin is no longer merely a possibility; it becomes part of our nature.

Genesis 6:5 describes the condition of humanity before the flood: “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Notice where the problem is located: “the thoughts of his heart.”

In other words: Sin is not merely environmental. It is internal.

The prophet Jeremiah later writes: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

And Jesus Himself makes this clear: “For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery…” (Mark 7:21–23)

Sin is not just something that is “out there” – it is something that is “in here”: bound up within our very hearts.

Case Study: The Flood

Sometimes people wonder: “What if we could get rid of all the ‘bad people’ in the world, and start over with only ‘believers'”? Well, in Genesis 6-9, we see that that actually happened once! And it didn’t fix the problem of sin.

In Genesis 6–9, we read about the time when God judged the entire world; the unrepentant were destroyed, and only one righteous man and his believing family were spared. And yet, even after this “global reset” sin and evil somehow reemerged! But, how?!

What the story of the Flood shows us, is that sin is not just something that exists in society, or in certain wicked and unbelieving people. Rather, what the flood shows us is that sin resides inside of the human heart, and is even bound up with those of us who sincerely believe.

If sin were merely “out there” — then the flood should have permanently solved the problem. And yet what happens almost immediately after they exit the ark?

  • Noah becomes drunk (Genesis 9:21).
  • Ham dishonors his father.
  • A curse follows.
  • Within a few generations, humanity is united again in rebellion at Babel (Genesis 11).

Sin reemerges. Why? Because Noah and his family were descendants of Adam. The carried a fallen nature within them.

When Noah got on the ark, sin got on the ark with him. The only way to truly eradicate sin from the world, would be to eradicate humanity completely – and yet, that is not something God was willing to do.

This is why Nicholas Wolterstorff famously said, “The tears of God are the meaning of history.” What he was saying is that, the entire reason there has been human history, is because God refused to wipe us out, even though our sins caused Him grief (as it says in Genesis 6:6 that human sin “grieved Him to His heart.” Rather than wiping us out, God chose to suffer the grief caused by us to Him by our sins.

The flood proves that until we are transformed, sin will always resurface.

Satan’s Role: Tempter, Not Ultimate Source of Sin

Scripture calls Satan:

  • “A liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44)
  • The deceiver of the nations (Revelation 20:3)
  • The tempter (Matthew 4:3)

But the Bible never teaches that Satan is the sole originator of every sinful impulse. James makes this clear:

“Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin…” (James 1:14–15)

Notice the order:

  • Temptation connects with our own desire.
  • Desire gives birth to sin.

Satan can tempt. He can deceive. He can influence. But he works with something already present: the fallen human heart and our desire to sin.

Jesus shows us a different way; even though He was tempted (or “tested” – it’s the same word in Greek) in all ways as we are, He did not sin (Hebrews 4:15). When He was tempted in the wilderness after His baptism, Jesus resisted the temptations of the Devil and responded to him with the Word of God (cf. Matthew 4).

If there were no internal corruption (as we see with Jesus), external temptation would have nothing to attach itself to.

Furthermore, God has promised us that He will give us the strength to withstand whatever temptation we face in life, if we rely on His strength and step out in faith and obedience (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Original Sin and the Fallen Nature

The Apostle Paul writes:

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin… so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12)

Through Adam, sin entered humanity. We have inherited not only guilt, but a corrupted nature inclined toward self-rule rather than submission to God as Lord.

This is why even in ideal conditions, sin resurfaces.

  • Cleansed world after the flood? Sin.
  • Miraculous provision in the wilderness? Sin.
  • Kingdom of Israel under righteous kings? Sin.

And, as we see in Revelation: Millennial Kingdom? Sin will rear its head then too.

The Hope: A New Heart & a Completed Salvation

God promises in Ezekiel 36:26, speaking about the then future time of the Messiah who is to come, and what will happen to His people as a result: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.”

That promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In Him we are: forgiven, justified, regenerated, and sealed with the Holy Spirit.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” The ultimate solution to sin is not merely the binding of Satan, it is the redemption of the human heart.

But even then, we still go through a process of sanctification, which will last all of our lives, and only be complete when we see Jesus face-to-face, and are finally “like Him”

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 John 3:2)

The good news of the gospel is something greater than simply that Satan will be bound – or even that he will ultimately be defeated (which he will! – see Revelation 20:10). The even greater news, is that God is transforming us from glory into greater glory, and that one day, not only will we be set free from the penalty of sin and the power of sin, but we will even be set free from the presence of sin – both from without AND from within!

Projections for Belief & Secularization Around the World

Published on by nickcady5 Comments

people across on intersection

There is a widely held assumption in Western society called the ‘secularization hypothesis,’ which basically supposes that as the world becomes more educated and more scientific, religious belief will decline. This did happen in Western Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and to a lesser degree in North America.

However, current trends are leading sociologists to predict that the world will become increasingly religious in the decades to come.

Future Projections

By 2060, Christianity and Islam are both projected to grow worldwide. Hinduism is expected to make a slight decline, and Buddhism is projected to decline by about 30 percent. Judaism is expected to hold steady at 0.2% of the world population.

Whereas the growth of Islam is mostly the result of birth rates in Muslim communities, Christianity far out-paces Islam when it comes to growth through conversion. In fact, the Christian population of China is growing so fast (mostly by conversion) that experts believe China could have more Christians that the United States by 2030, and that it could actually become a majority-Christian country by 2050.

Here’s what’s perhaps more surprising: by 2060, the percentage of the world population who identify as atheists, agnostics, or “none” is expected to decline from its current 16% down to 13% of the world’s population. 

Secularization & Education

It turns out that the assumption that the more educated a person is, the more likely they are to become secular, is also pretty weak. Jews and Christians make up the majority of the most-educated people in the world. Christians also have the least amount of disparity when it comes to the education of women versus men.

While it is still common for nominally religious people in the United States to declare themselves non-religious if they are more educated, professing Christins with higher levels of education are just as religious as those with less schooling. In fact, highly educated Christians are more likely to attend church weekly than those Christians with less education.

The Likelihood of Becoming Religious vs. Becoming Non-religious

A recent study found that 40% of Americans raised non-religious become religious – typically Christian – as adults, whereas only 20% of those raised Protestant become non-religious. This means that secular families are twice as likely to raise children who become Christians as Christians families are to raise church who become non-religious.

Interestingly, it is “full-blooded” Christianity which is growing around the world, including in North America and Europe, and not a theologically liberal form.

What Do We Make of This?

Surely there is much work to be done, and projections do not guarantee that future outcome, but these numbers help us to see that there are many commonly-held assumptions about Christianity and society which are actually false. As Christians, we must keep our hand to the plow, endeavoring to preach the gospel, as we are called by Jesus to do.

Further Reading:

Sources:

Is Christianity in Decline? Yes and No. – Part 2

Published on by nickcady3 Comments

growth

In Part 1 of this post I shared some thoughts on the commonly held belief that religious belief is in decline around the world and eventually doomed for extinction.

Today, we look at three more important factors to keep in mind regarding this topic:

2. Liberal Religion is Declining, but Conservative Religion is on the Rise

I wrote about this phenomena recently here: When You Stand for Nothing…, where I talked about the case of two Presbyterian denominations, one which is theologically liberal and the other which is theologically conservative. The liberal denomination is bleeding out quickly, whereas the conservative one is growing strongly.

It seems that there has been a major miscalculation by many people about the eventual demise of theologically conservative beliefs.

Since many of the historical mainline Protestant denominations, such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the United Methodist Church (UMC), the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA) and the Episcopal Church in America (TEC) have taken a hard turn towards theological liberalism, they have seen rapid declines in their membership and attendance. And since these denominations compromised a large portion of the population in the United States, their declines have caused many to say that Christianity in the United States is in crisis.

Of the people leaving these denominations, many have transferred into theologically conservative Evangelical Protestant Churches. According to this article from Christianity Today, over the last four decades, there has been more than a 400 percent growth in Protestants who identify as nondenominational. Non-denominational Evangelical Protestant Churches now compromises about 30% of all Christian church attendance in the United States.

Around the world, both in Christianity and outside of Christianity, it is the conservative branches of religious movements which are on the rise, not the liberal ones. This is surprising to those like Richard Dawkins, who assume that as the world becomes more educated and developed, religion will either turn into sentimental tradition or just die out completely. Quite the opposite is happening actually.

3. Secularism is Set to Decline in the Future

In an interview with the Christian Post (full article here), author and pastor Timothy Keller said:

“In the past there was hardly anybody who was secular,” Keller told the Christian Post. “In the future there will be significant numbers of people who are secular more than have ever been in history. But, the facts on the ground are that Christianity and Islam in particular are growing faster than the population. And that over the next 25-45 years the number of people who say that they are secular, the percentage of the world’s population that is secular, is actually going down.”

Is Keller correct? According to a Pew Research Center report released in April 2015, he is. That report projected out to 2050, finding that, as the world population changes in the coming decades, the world’s religious profile will also change.

Christianity is poised to remain the largest religion in the world, but Islam is growing quickly, less by conversion than by birth. This relates again to my previous post, in which I pointed out that inherited religion is in decline globally. It would be assumed that this decline will affect the growth of Islam as well.

4. Only a Small Part of the World is Moving Towards Greater Secularism, and They Will Soon be a Minority

What the Pew Research Center report had to say about the “nones”:

“Atheists, agnostics and other people who do not affiliate with any religion – though increasing in countries such as the United States and France – will make up a declining share of the world’s total population.”

So, it would seem that secularism is set to decline rather than increase in coming decades.

It is important to remember that the rise of religious beliefs is taking place as education as well as industrial and economic development is taking place. It would seem that as the world is becoming more educated and more developed, people are increasingly aware of their need for God.