Rejoice then, you heavens and you that dwell in them! But woe to you, earth and sea, for the Devil has come down to you in great fury, knowing that his time is short!’”​—Revelation 12:5-12, NE;

The holy heavens were called upon to rejoice over God’s victory, a divine victory, but what about us here on earth? The loud cry in heaven said: “But woe to you, earth and sea!” Why “woe” for us, whether on land or on sea? Because “the Devil has come down to you in great fury, knowing that his time is short!”​—Revelation 12:12, NE.

25, 26. (a) What questions about human affairs since the close of World War I are submitted to persons who scoff at the existence of Satan and his demon angels? (b) Finally, as to the matter of cause and effect, what question do we ask?

²⁵ Scoffers at the Bible may take this idea of Satan the Devil and his demon angels being thrown down to the vicinity of our earth as a laughing matter. But can they laugh and are they laughing at the “woe” that both earth and sea are experiencing today? No, those scoffers cannot see Satan the Devil with their natural eyes, but they have reason to know that he and his legions of demon angels are around, in our neighborhood. If they do not believe it, then let them answer why it is that the League of Nations that was organized shortly after the end of World War I did not prove to be an international organization for world peace and security. Why did it not prevent the rise of war-minded political dictators in Europe? Why did it not prevent the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the war that climaxed with the detonating of two atomic bombs with woe for the inhabitants of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

²⁶ Also, Why is it that the United Nations organization, since its formation at the close of World War II in 1945, has not prevented all the wars and revolutions, territorial aggressions, and other political turmoils till the present time? Why is it that we have such frightening buildup of the great world powers for nuclear warfare? Why the money crisis? Why troubles continually between labor and capital, even between government employees and government? Why all the fanatical nationalism? Why all the racial strife and prejudices? Why the increasing of crime? Why the breakdown of morals? Why the epidemic increase of social diseases? Why the ruining of mankind’s earthly home by pollution? Why the growing shortage of food for earth’s increasing population? Why, as Jesus Christ predicted for our time, “upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken”? (Luke 21:25, 26, Revised Standard Version) For every effect there is a cause. What is the real cause of all these distressing effects?

CAUSE OF HUMANITY’S DISTRESS NEARS REMOVAL

27. According to the Bible, what is the main cause of humanity’s suffering increasing distress?

²⁷ It is true that selfish, loveless men are not free from blame. But the main reason for humanity’s suffering increasing distress is that Satan the Devil and his demon angels have been thrown out of the holy heavens and down to our earth’s neighborhood, and these ousted devils are furious at this. They are furious because the “war . . . in heaven” resulted in divine victory, God’s victory. They are furious because God’s kingdom of his true Messiah was born in the heavens at the end of the Gentile Times in 1914, and they could not block it. They are furious because their time of confinement here is short before they are ousted even from the earth and imprisoned in an abyss from which they cannot exercise their wicked influence over all mankind.​—Revelation 20:1-3, 7.