Natalie is very afraid of the devil. This fear goes back to VBS this summer, when she heard the story of the temptation of Jesus. She asked Troy and me the other night if the devil was going to die. I asked Pastor Mumme his thoughts on how I should explain this to her.
His response:
"The devil is a fallen angel, and angels (fallen or holy) do not and
will not die. Rather, on the Last Day they will be locked up forever
in the prison house of hell, never to tempt or afflict the children of
God ever again. In Matthew 25:41, Jesus says to the unbelievers on
Judgment Day, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire
prepared for the devil and his angels." This tells us that hell was not
originally prepared for human beings, but for the fallen angels. And
since its fire is eternal, the devil and his angels (and all who die
without faith in Christ) will eternally suffer there. This is made
explicit for the devil in Revelation 20:10: "And the devil who had
deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the
beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and
night forever and ever."
This is a hard
conversation to have with a little girl! I would just assure her at
this point that when we die (and when we rise again in glory on the Last
Day) we will be forever free from the devil. He cannot harm us who
believe and are baptized now, and he will not be able to harm us then
either. I hope this helps."
After I told this to Natalie, she thought about it and then said, "So Jesus makes it so the devil can't come to our house?" I told her, yes, that was pretty much true, that Jesus makes it so the devil can't hurt us. She was thrilled and said, "I'm going to tell my sister, and Grandma and..." I told her she could tell everyone she wanted about that.
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