Ever since Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, Satan and his demonic forces have been on the attack to destroy humanity on this earth. One of the first things that Satan did was to send his horde of demons to cohabitate with human women attempting to produce a hybrid demon/human race of people (Genesis 6:1-4). It was because of this that God destroyed that race along with every other human except Noah and his family. Satan tried to destroy Job’s faith and caused Job many problems and heartaches. Satan caused David to number Israel; God was displeased with David and sent a plague that killed seventy thousand Israelites (1 Chronicles 21).
During Jesus’ earthly ministry Satan fought against the Lord, tempting Him for forty days and nights and actually trying to get Jesus Christ to worship him, but Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only” (Matthew 4:10). A demon-possessed man who could not talk was brought to Jesus and He cast the demon out of the man and he spoke (Matthew 9:32-33). A young boy was having seizures so his father brought him to Jesus and He cast out the demon and the boy was healed (Matthew 17:14-18). Satan attacked the apostle Paul and hindered him from visiting the Thessalonian Church (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Peter wrote, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 2:18). There is coming a time when the demonic forces from hell will be unleashed on this earth.
“The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss” (Revelation 9:1-2). This star that has fallen from heaven is Satan. Because of his arrogance and desire for power God removed Satan from his position as one of the leading angels of heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15). At the present time Satan still has access to heaven to accuse men and women before God (Revelation 12:10, Job 1:6), but Satan’s dwelling place is somewhere in heavenly places and on this earth (Ephesians 6:12). Jesus called Satan the prince of this world (John 12:31), and Paul called him the God of this world (2 Corinthians 4:4), and the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2). God has allowed Satan to be the ruler of the governing systems on this earth and in the end days Satan will be kicked out of heaven permanently to reek havoc on the earth (Revelation 12:7-9).
This star (Satan) is given the key to the shaft of the Abyss by Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:18). “And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth” (Revelation 9:3). These demons are so fierce that God has kept them in a holding place in hell until this point in time (2 Peter 2:4, cf. Jude 1:6). These are some of the most vicious demons and they will hurt anything or any person that God will allow them to hurt. They are under Jesus Christ’s control to torment evil men and women for their wickedness. Many times God uses the wicked to punish the wicked, “The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head…Evil will slay the wicked; the foes of the righteous will be condemned (Psalm 7:16, 34:21). Sometimes God even allows Satan to take the life of a Christian because of their evil actions (1 Corinthians 5:5).
These demons can’t harm the grass, any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They can’t kill the people, but only torture them for five months with a sting like a scorpion when it strikes a man (Revelation 9:4-5). Everything in the universe is under the control of Jesus Christ, and that includes these demons. They can’t hurt anyone that has God’s seal on them and they have no power to take life from a person. But this torment that God allows these demons to inflict on unregenerate and ungodly humanity is so severe that people actually seek to die, but they can’t because God rules the life and death of a person. Even what demons can do to Satan worshipers is limited by God. Jesus said, “I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18).
“During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them” (Revelation 9:6). Death is one thing that terrifies most people (Hebrews 2:15), and yet here we see these men and women who are actually seeking to die to escape this extreme pain and suffering caused by these demons. The earth, and earthly things that unregenerate humanity has loved and worshiped has been devastated with earthquakes, fires, volcanoes, the sea is filled with billions of stinking dead fish and animals, a large part of the fresh water is bitter poison, the air is polluted with toxic gases (Revelation 8:1-13), and now demons from hell are tormenting everyone who does not have the seal of God. This torment is for only five months; think about what it will be like for all unbelievers when they are cast into the lake of fire for all eternity with Satan and all these demons (Revelation 20:15)! We are all sinners and deserve to be cast into the lake of fire and the only way to keep ourselves out of the lake of fire is through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Eternity with Jesus Christ in His heaven, or eternity with Satan and His demons, the choice is yours to make!