Was the Devil cast out to Earth or to Hell?

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“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:9)

“For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness” (2 Peter 2:4)
 
2 Peter 2:4 “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment”

God allows some fallen angels to come to earth and some are chained up awaiting judgement. (We can know from the NT that demons were/are on the earth.) Remember, God is in control and angels can only do what He allows. It must be for our sake that He does not allow all evil forces to be in the earth.

Job 1:7 “The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it."

So clearly Satan was on the earth, and also when Satan tempts Jesus in the desert, he is clearly on earth.

Also, Revelation 20:10 says “And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”

Seems to be a future event, describing the second future Hell, that perhaps the devil is not currently being tormented day and night in the current Hell, but allowed to tempt the earth to the extent that God allows him. When Jesus comes, the ”prince of this world” will be overthrown once and for all. As Jesus says, in John 16:11, “…the prince of this world now stands condemned” Hallelujah for that 🙏
 
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If the Devil will be cast out to hell anyway, so why wasn’t he cast out to hell immediately after his fall?
 
I don’t know why God allowed him to come to earth and tempt us in the first place, hopefully another poster can answer you! But God is good and God is love so He must have had a perfect plan.

I do know that the eternal “lake of fire” described in revelation is different than the “underworld Hell” that currently holds the damned souls. So Satan will certainly be thrown into the lake of fire after Jesus’ return, but I don’t presume he’s in the current Hell.
 
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Remember angels and devils are spirits. They have no bodies and don’t need a place as they take up no space. God allows the devils to operate on earth so we have a choice between good and evil. That choice is what Adam and Eve earned for us. God loves us too much to make us slaves. We can choose Him or not!
 
/into/

hell is subterranean

/into the earth/

He is not always in Hell because he is spirit creature but in a sense the answer is both
 
I think it would be great if we did not have the devil to contend with. God allowed the devil to tempt Adam and Eve and I think if God bound Satan, God could be accused of an uneven playing playing field. Now you might ask why should God care? Well God has to be perfectly consistent or He would not be God. Remember that Jesus was tempted by the devil. If you bow down to me, the devil said, I will give the whole world to you. Jesus rejected the offer and we have to freely chose God over the devil!
 
The Devil and his followers were cast away from Heaven. That to me is clear. Hell, earth, both, not sure. But Jesus triumphed over the Devil at his resurrection so after that the Devil’s power was diminished compared to before.
 
There is no such thing as an uneven playing field, God is always in control and I am fairly certain He does not care what the devil thinks of Him…perhaps God wanted to weed out the sheep from the goats by testing our hearts: choose God and repentance or choose the devil’s will and evil.
 
PatK63 said:
Remember angels and devils are spirits. They have no bodies and don’t need a place as they take up no space. God allows the devils to operate on earth so we have a choice between good and evil. That choice is what Adam and Eve earned for us. God loves us too much to make us slaves. We can choose Him or not!
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True. The devil doesn’t have “place”, the concept doesn’t apply to him. He can tempt simultaneously in Portland ME and in Portland OR. Hell is his ultimate reality, but it’s not a geographic place, or limitation.
 
Uneven playing field is an expression. God decided to give us a free will and if God limited the options for evil by not letting the devil to tempt us, God would know that that was a bias on the choice humans have. God has to be consistent! I hope that explains my thought!
 
Maybe something of the Earth existed when the Devil was cast out to there.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Genesis 1: 1-2)
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But in Heaven you are extremely inclinade to do only the good. It’s almost impossible to choose to do bad things.
 
Once you see God there is no longer free will. You will be intoxicated with love and have no inclination for evil.
 
We don’t believe they saw the beatific vision. the angel were denied that before their fall also.
 
MasterHaster said:
That makes no sense. There is free will in Heaven without the bother of a devil.
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The purification that occurs prior to standing before God in the Beatific vision removes all vestiges of sin left in us. This includes concupiscence, which is the inclination of sin which we receive from our First Parents on account of their sin. Without that interior inclinations towards sin we require an outside actor to lead us into sin. (The serpent tempted Eve, the temptation did not come from within her).

In Heaven there are no outside actors that could lead us to sin, and so there will never be an instance where we will be tempted towards sin. Without that external temptation, and with a perfected will that is no-longer bound by concupiscence, there will be nothing in Heaven that could possibly lead us to sin. The capacity will still exist in our souls in so far as our wills remain free, but there will never be anything to cause us to even consider acting against God. Hence, we can have free will but also be assured that we will never sin.
 
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