What invisibly took place, we read about in Revelation 12:9-12: “Down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! . . . On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.’”

After awaiting world rulership at his Father’s right hand for almost 1,900 years, Christ was now authorized to act against Satan. And act he did by hurling the Devil and his demons out of the invisible heavens down to the earth. From now on, the Devil, although still invisible, was to have his field of activity limited to the earth.

The angels of Noah’s days left heaven and came down to the earth of their own choice; the Devil and his demons in this time of the end have had no choice in the matter. They were simply evicted! The angels of Noah’s days were able to materialize human bodies on earth to enjoy illicit pleasures; the Devil and his demons in this time of the end have been unable to do so. Is it any wonder then that their frustration, anger and fear of impending judgment have driven them to influence men and organizations to acts of crime and violence of even greater magnitude than those of Noah’s days? How true the words: “Woe for the earth”!

How encouraging to hear Jesus’ promise that the conditions that have caused nations to faint with terror at the thought of where the world is headed are in reality an indication that better times are on the way, that liberation from these things is near! The hurling of Satan and his demons to the earth is a first step in a liberation that the Bible shows will bring about a completely new system of things in “this generation.”—Matt. 24:34.