Pat Willems

Captives_Not owned! We are slaves to whatever has mastered us.(IIPeter2:19) Satan has never owned us or been our master. We are enslaved to sin, Satan's will. II TIMOTHY 2:26 and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. May you always know the love, Jesus has for you.

Though the the slave-ransom analogy is not spelled out completely, Paul gives us a bit more information in his second letter to Corinth. II CORINTHIANS 1:21+22 Now it is God that makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. The way of redemption has been paid by Christ's death, the victory over death. Christ's asscention brought us his Spirit as a deposit, to those who believe. Christians have recieved the ransom. God's law of the Year of Jubilee has provisions for the poor and for slaves. We have nothing to redeem ourselves, but we have been given freedom (Year of Jubilee), to accept a gift. The Old Testament Law could not fulfill the pentalty of sin. Grace has come. It is free, it is a gift. Christ gives us His Spirit as a deposit! We have His seal upon us! If a ransom was paid to sin, to Satan, all the people in the world would be saved. Only those who are redeemed, believers in Christ are saved. Julie and Bernard Baker are right that Jesus defeated Satan, but he is not destroyed. Revelation 19:20-21 tells us when the 'beast' and the false prophet are destroyed. Also all of those who take the 'mark of the beast' (seal-ownership). Revelation 20:14+15 tells of the final destruction of death and Hades. -God tells it like this in the final days- MALACHI 3:17+18