Christian Essays

Evil

July 23rd, 2010 - The Enemy

C.S.Lewis, the great apologist for Christianity, wrote about “evil” many times. In his book ‘Mere Christianity’ for example, he shows that people have an instinctive, or inherent understanding about what is “fair” and what isn’t “fair. The same can be said about many other types of value. It is universally accepted as “wrong” to lie, steal, cheat, hurt, injure or kill another person without a reasonable cause. Justice also operates universally, (that is, in all cultures, and at all times). This is clearly seen by the number of codes, laws, and rituals which societies through the centuries have devised in order to govern the behaviour of the people in them. And while governing people has been the main task of governments of whatever kind, the punishment of people has also been practised by all governments and societies through all ages. For this we have had such things as torture, incarceration, crucifixion, hanging, the electric chair, and so on. The punishment of ‘wrong-doers’ has been carried out by vigilantes, lynch mobs, juries, officers of the law and other upholders of a generally recognised jurisdiction. People have been placed in stocks, dunked in water, shot, burnt alive, crucified and treated to hundreds of different forms of unpleasantness in order to either repay them for what they have done, or to inflict revenge on them on behalf of the victim (be it the state, the community or an individual).

The usual things which most people in most cultures object to are such things as lying, cheating, unequal weights or measures, broken promises, lies, murder, theft and so on. The usual expressions of these things include such qualities as lust, dishonesty, hatred, jealousy, envy, avarice, lack of self-control and so on.

So we have made some progress with the subject so far. We have come to the understanding that, whatever “evil” is, it is acknowledged by all people at all times as something which must be responded to. There is such a thing as “evil” and it comes by many names.

The Christian response to the problem of evil is to call into the discussion a very short but definitive list of rules from the Bible. The Ten Commandments define accurately every separate form of “evil” we can discover – or shades of evil, because it is not always easy to separate one evil from another. A man may have lust and hate mixed together, or kill with jealousy, or cheat in revenge in order to satisfy his greed. There are many ‘grey’ areas, but they all fit into the Ten somewhere.

The Ten Commandments not only define evil. They also describe it. (Deut.5)

1. Have no other God than the God of the Bible.

2. Make no substitute God (as an idol).

3. Never use God’s name disrespectfully.

4. Honour the seventh day, the Sabbath.

5. Honour your parents.

6. Don’t murder.

7. Don’t commit adultery.

8. Don’t steal.

9. Don’t lie.

10. Don’t be greedy.

The list is totally inclusive, because there are no forms of behaviour which humans do which are not found somewhere in this list. (The writer of the list obviously knew humans very well!)

When Jesus referred to the Ten Commandments he ‘amplified’ them, or made them far more difficult to keep than the mere letter implied. For example, the person who claimed that he had never murdered, was suddenly found guilty of hatred, which is murder’s equivalent. Likewise adultery was equated with dirty thoughts. (Matthew 5 21 etc) Jesus added another lense to the magnifying glass of God’s standards.

So “evil” is not only inherent in all humans, but also manifested in much the same way by all people at all times, and in all cultures it is dealt with by various forms of justice. This universality of evil rules out cross-cultural fertilisation, because the same evil has manifested itself in different nations separated by huge distances and huge gaps of time. There is no basis for the claim that evil was invented. It has always been available, and the fact that people have always tried to control and prevent it shows that all people generally are aware of its existence.

One obvious ‘proof’ of evil is the fact that, almost without exception, literally thousands, or tens of thousands of fictional stories through the ages have revolved around an antagonist and a protagonist. The ‘goody’ and the ‘baddy’. The cowboy in white against the gang in black. The wicked wolf and the innocent Red Riding Hood. The sweet children and the wicked step-mother. The princess and the jealous queen.

Stories abound with witches, wizards, trolls, gnomes, pixies and elves. Evil plans to rule the world, kill the hero, destroy the town. Evil lurks at night with a knife, carries a gun, clutches a bottle of poison. The whole movie industry depends on ‘bad’ characters for its success. Without a worthy opponent, where would such characters as Zorro, The Lone Ranger, Superman, The Flash, Ironside, and all the other crime-fighters be? Evil mutates, cripples, hurts. Evil manifests all the most obvious sins – greed, lust for power, pride, dishonesty. In some deep way the human psyche seems to be tuned into a sort of universal story, in which good always triumphs over evil, and justice is seen to be done.This is always the most satisfying conclusion to a story. The villain dies, the dragon is killed, the burglar caught, the evil mastermind destroyed. There is a multi-million dollar industry based on good guys beating bad guys, all variations of the classic fairytale.

But there is another aspect of evil which most of these stories contain, which is not always obvious. Take Star Wars for example. In this series there is a black-caped man called The Emperor, who is, apparently, taken over by “the dark side” of some all-pervasive Force. On the other hand there is Luke Skywalker, who uses the same Force to battle the “dark side”.

The point is, despite the fact that the Force is depicted as impersonal (‘neutral’), it cannot operate as either good or bad unless there is something else present by which we can measure it. Without some universal standard of goodness, we would not know for sure whether Luke or the Emperor were really evil. If there was no universal standard, we might wonder whether the Emperor was perhaps really on to something useful, and Luke needed, in fact, to be educated into the Emperor’s way of thinking? Perhaps evil and good are much the same? Perhaps Luke should be destroyed because, after all, the Emperor is actually on to a very sensible line? Perhaps the Force is so unbiased we ought to regard life and death, love and hate, with an equally dispassionate eye?

But Star Wars illustrates clearly that primary assumption which most people make quite unconsciously – that evil exists because there is also Absolute Goodness, and Goodness is an eternal, absolute standard by which we can measure all the many different shades of evil.

If we stood Luke and the Emperor in a wide empty plain, they would appear as two dots, like ants, tiny figures, with no particular distinctions, but when we place the word GOOD along the horizon behind them in huge letters, suddenly the Emperor turns black, and Luke turns a shade near to white.

Which brings us to the next point : Contrasts.

If I were to say to you “It was a hot day today” you would automatically assess what “hot” meant by comparing it to a collection of values already stored in your memory. Hot is “not cold”. Hot is related to high temperature, sweating, fans, need for shade. The same can be said of most qualifying words. By comparing the word we hear with a collection of variables we already know, we can instantly gain an understanding of what the word we hear means.

Take the following statements :

1. The snow was freezing!

2. The room was empty.

3. There goes a poor man.

Now apply the same automatic rule to “The Emperor was evil”. Instantly you attach a meaning to the word “evil” as if you have known all along what it was.

Some Eastern religions have beliefs which seem to blur the meaning of good and evil. The Hindus think life is cyclical, and that everything which happens to a person in this life is the product or result of a former life, hence a lack of enthusiasm in trying to change anything. This terrible fatalism has held millions of Indians in unspeakable poverty for many years, yet within this system they still uphold the principles of the Ten Commandments and also administer a justice system. This is somewhat contradictory to their beliefs, but consistent with what we might expect to find if all humans share the same universal inherent rules.

“Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream” may sound all very good in principle, and be quite acceptable as an ‘eastern’ view of life, but dream or not, the man who lies, cheats, steals or causes pain to someone else will rouse anger and a sense of injustice, and also a desire to see punishment administered to the offender.

The Ten Commandments march through all societies, regardless of what they profess to believe. Even the Russian Communists, and Atheist Chinese, who have both tried very hard to abolish God, or ‘external’ standards, still exercise a governing style which reflects the principles of the Ten Commandments.

The Christian point of view, though often rejected, and much maligned, is the most logical and consistent view. It contains a harmony of all the factors regarding evil, and provides the most logical solution to it.

The Bible outlines very briefly the origin of evil. It springs from a beautiful garden, where everything is beautiful and harmless. There is no death, decay or aging. The first humans are created with astounding intelligence. They understand perfectly who they are, who God is, and why they are alive in the paradise which God has given to them. They exercise their intelligence by learning, communing, speaking, working and moving about autonomously. But at some point very soon after they appear on the scene, they choose to go their own way, and as a result they are held responsible and punished accordingly.

Evil is simply ‘doing your own thing’ rather than checking to see what God wants.

But evil didn’t start on Earth. It started in heaven, where God had already created beings called “angels”. These beings also had free will, and they were given specific jobs to do, for their own happiness, but also to reflect and display the love and majesty of the God who had made them.

Some of these angels, led by one Satan, became dissatisfied with their work and wanted to be promoted, not just to a more important position, but to the very height of God’s absolute rule over all things. This was like a termite wanting to run as president.

God sent these angels, still full of emulation and pride, to the Earth, where their leader discovered two rivals, Adam and Eve, already installed on the planet. Satan of course did not want to share the planet with these humans, so he picked up on the warning “In the day you eat . . . you will die” and started work on the humans. If Satan could get them to disobey God, they would be destroyed, leaving the planet to the angels.

But when Adam and Eve disobeyed, God slew a lamb and made clothes for the humans, which they put on, thus covering their sins with a symbol of Jesus the “Lamb of God” who was to come some 4000 years later.

Evil was there in the garden, in the form of free-will agents who chose to do what they wanted rather than what God wanted. This is the essence of evil at all times in history. The daily news brings us examples of the abuse of freewill every almost continuously. Whatever the crime, it can always be reduced to a breach of one or more of the Ten Commandments – thus vindicating God when he says that all humans have sinned. In other words, all humans practise evil.

The origin of evil was pride, but it was displayed in the form of Satan’s bid for self-advancement. His greed, disobedience, emulation and covetousness were all combined, followed by hatred and a desire for revenge. Since then he has lied, stolen and killed, and caused the deception, injury and death of millions of humans – he is the most incurable being who has ever lived – and sad to say, many humans are just like him. The same ability to choose one’s way in life regardless of what God wants has spread through the whole human race. This is why we have religions, wars, strife, massacres, military coups, dishonest politicians, bank robberies, invasions, the KKK, athletes who take drugs, tax fraud, espionage, divorce, domestic violence, druggies and so on. And the result of all this rebellion against God has been a world-wide industry called the justice system, with its lucrative sub-systems of reformatories, prisons, insurance companies, police, army, navy and air force, security firms, bodyguards and so on. Not to mention the vast array of weapons both for offence and defence – all the result of the effects of evil.

But some people suggest that if evil started in heaven, and IF God is the ruler over all He has made, (which He is), then He Himself must have evil in Himself too? This point of view is totally wrong. For a start it is quite illogical. Would a God who is evil create evil and then destroy those who practised it? That would make God insane, not to mention a hypocrite.

The problem is resolved when we realise that there is a First Cause and Second Cause. The First Cause is undoubtedly God, because he created all things, and is responsible for all things. He set the universe spinning, so he must sustain and uphold it every nanosecond, otherwise it would collapse instantly. Just as the bowling green holds the Ball, the Lord holds all matter and life in his Hand. But when God created the angels and Mankind, he gave these beings something unique – a free will. This meant that whenever these creatures chose to do something, they would be personally responsible for the consequences. In other words, God created something which became a Second Cause.

Adam and Eve were intelligent enough to understand this principle (which good parents also drum into their children). Adam disobeyed God knowing full well the consequences. He had a very good memory, and, like Eve, he chose to do what he wanted rather than what God wanted, even though he understood what would happen if he disobeyed. When he disobeyed, God kept his word and brought in the fair and just punishment.

Because God was the First Cause, he was responsible for maintaining the basic mechanism and running of the universe, but because Adam and Eve were responsible too, they could not avoid the consequences of their actions. As some people say ‘The buck stopped with them’.

The chaotic misery which Adam and Eve inflicted on themselves has been passed on, generation by generation, to the whole human race, right up to today, and nothing has changed. Even when the Bible is presented clearly, people still turn away and do their own thing. Just like Adam and Eve they use their free will and disregard God.

Most people can recall childhood incidents when they were dishonest, or greedy, or dirty-minded, or lazy, or angry, or hateful, or envious . . .and because God is fair, he always allows the consequences of our disobedience to follow. He allows us to reap what we sow. He usually lets us learn by our mistakes. As many people have discovered as they lie in hospital, you cannot smoke for years without running the risk of cancer, or eat junk food without damaging your body. The laws of cause and effect always operate, regardless of what we might prefer, and consequences always come, despite our wishful thinking.

But one final objection quite often follows, and that is the problem of evil in general. When we look at the world we see many people suffering or dieing (because of war or dictatorships or religious regimes) apparently through no fault of their own. Is it “fair” of God to allow evil to run rampant through the lives of “innocent” children and helpless people?

Take one example. A parent sees a child about to run on to the road, so the parent quite rightly grabs the child and pulls it back just as a huge truck hurtles by. The child has no idea why it was jerked back, and actually hurts itself, falling on the kerb. The pain seems unreasonable and unwarranted. Should the parent have stood back and allowed the child to be killed? No. Is God being cruel by allowing the parent to hurt the child? No. If God intervened at every moment when humans were negligent, human free will would disappear, and accountability would devolve on to God.

Take another example. A person who has been very careful about their diet suddenly finds a cancer in his or her stomach. Is God being cruel or sadistic, by allowing that cancer to grow there. No. Is the cancer simply an inherited problem caused by inherited faulty genes? Possibly. Should we blame God for something ‘Adam’ caused? No.

There is no easy answer to questions like these, because no human can see things from the heavenly point of view. We might be amazed at how fair and just God really was if we could see things from his point of view.

If we see a parent pull a child out of the way of a truck, we might cheer with approval, even though the child is hurt slightly in the process. If we discover that the person with cancer has been eating food with a toxic spray, which has triggered the cancer, we might say, with sympathy, that it was simply a cause-and-effect situation, the result of ignorance, and the result of certain ‘laws of Nature’ which operated as they always do.

In some ways we can blame everything on Satan, but in other ways we can just as fairly blame Adam and Eve. But the moment we blame them for the evil in the world, we have to look at ourselves, because we too have not kept the Ten Commandments perfectly. As soon as you or I sin, we in league with evil, and part of the problem. There is no escaping this one. From childhood upwards, every human is personally accountable to God, and subject to the consequences of their own actions.

C.S.Lewis, in his last years, was stricken for a time by the death of his wife. He asked all the usual question, starting with ‘why’, but he found very few answers. In the end he had to accept that this is not a perfect world and the one to come is the most important. (Life is short anyway, so why worry?) He and his wife would one day be together again, for eternity. Death became, in a sense, his best friend because it provided a doorway through which he could pass to the happier life.

Which brings us to our final comments. There are four things which are common to all people : pain, accident, cruelty and death. We don’t always experience the first three in equal amounts, but we all partake of the fourth, whether we are saints or the worst sinners alive. Death reaps 10 out of 10. There is no avoiding it.

The greatest attempt to defeat the four things mentioned was achieved on a cross just outside Jerusalem. Jesus, the Son of God, the Creator of the universe, the Lamb of God, the Messiah, the perfect and sinless Son of God, came to die for all the world. He who never sinned took the penalty for all sin in himself, and then yielded up his life voluntarily on behalf of all sinners. While most people would stand condemned before God if they were called before him today, they can be covered completely if they accept Jesus as their Saviour. His blood shed for them, his body given in their place. The perfect sacrifice for the sake of a rebellious and sin-laden world.

When Jesus died, he gave the whole world the greatest opportunity it has ever had to become a happy and healthy place – but the world didn’t turn to him. Rome continued in its pagan ways, worshipping emperors and idols, burning and killing Christians even as they proclaimed the gospel. Other nations have come and gone, Christians have preached, but still today the nations are much the same. Perverted versions of Christ have led armies across Europe and into the Holy Land to kill other people, and mutated forms of Christianity have spread here and there. Evil continues, so the consequences of evil also continue.

Is there an end? The Bible predicts the final moment of evil, when Satan and his fellow-angels are destroyed, along with all those who have willingly joined his forces. The warning is clear; instead of discussing evil, we ought to swear allegiance to Jesus Christ and stand under his banner before the clock reaches its final stroke.

The Serpent

April 21st, 2010 - The Enemy

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Before I write anything more on this subject I would like to freely and humbly admit that I am no expert on the Bible. I simply read it and try to understand it as best I can, and then pass on what I have discovered in the hope that it may be of some help to other people. This and all my other articles are not an attempt to set up ‘once-and-for-all’ dogmatic statements. I believe I may be correct in many areas, but I also know that in some points I am in need of some correction. I have, many times, discovered other views by other people which have caused me to run back to my original findings and modify, or even scrap them. I urge you, the reader, to make up your own mind, and not follow my writing as if it is the final statement!

The subject of this essay is the matter of whether Satan appeared to Adam and Eve as a snake or as an angel. Both points of view are defended by Bible-believers with equal sincerity, and I am not interested in picking a fight. As with all peripheral Bible teachings, when it comes to a choice between winning an argument and losing a brother, or conceding an argument and keeping a brother, I always choose the latter.

However, there is much that I would like to say in defense of the view that Satan appeared as an angel.

The first point that must be made is that Genesis is literal, historical narrative. This means that we are not reading some oral tradition, which has been altered as it has been passed down from generation to generation, or a myth, in the sense of Aboriginal ‘dreamtime’ myths, or fanciful legend in the genre of Zeus and Hercules. What Genesis tells us is a real account, such as we might receive on the television News, with live, actual footage of the events as they transpire. Genesis is so true, we could hop in a time machine and park near the Garden of Eden, and watch Adam being molded from the soil and then spring to life. We could watch the rib pulled from Adam’s side and see it transform into a woman. And as Adam and Eve walked through the orchard (this is what “garden” means) we would see a glorious being, Satan himself, approach them. We would hear him speak, and then Eve would speak back, in a language foreign to our ear.

The Bible is full of idioms and figures of speech. This fact may surprise some people, because it may seem quite illogical, to them, for God to use such ‘unscientific’ language as a means of conveying truth. One would expect (naturally speaking) a more technical and formal method, with less ‘colouring’. But God is the Author of the Bible, so we must accept His judgment, and look into the idioms and figures of speech for the treasures they contain. There is, after all, a lot more in a figure of speech, than a technical description of something.

For example, suppose we described the defeat of some Indians by a group of cowboys in technical language. We could efficiently convey the numbers of cowboys and Indians and the course of the battle, the types of guns used, the quality of the arrows fired, and so on. We could submit the whole thing as a formal entry in the military files, and there it would lie, boring to most people, dry, technical, and just another archive to be kept for reference. Its main interest would be its historical record.

But suppose we told the same story with the use of facts plus idioms and figures of speech? Suddenly the battle would take on a new depth, it would catch the imagination, it would make us wonder. Just the addition of some cliches can make the event so much more interesting: The Indians could ‘bite the dirt’, the guns might be ‘blazing like fireworks’, the battle could be ‘as wild as a stampede’, the cowboys might ‘cut the ground from under’ their attackers, the battlefield might be visited by ‘hungry vultures of death”, and the story of the battle might ‘spread like wildfire’.

Because God is both Scientist and Playwright, He has peppered His Book with both accurate narrative and creative devices, in order to make it arresting and interesting to us His children. Having said this I must add that there is no serendipitous or randomness about this writing. Everything is consistent, and measured, and balanced. God is God, and His Word is perfect.

Why would God use a figure of speech when referring to Satan in Genesis?

1. To call attention to what He has to say,

2. To emphasize what He has to say,

3. To intensify what He has to say,

4. And to underline the reality of the literal sense of what He has to say.

God wants to force upon us the truth of the historical setting in which His description takes place. He uses highly imaginative language to convey something true, which the picture He uses is not literally true. There are many examples of this through the Bible (For example Deut.32:22, Is. 43:2, Mat.3:12 and Rev.6:16) It is common in our own normal everyday language to use metaphors, such as ‘the rain was biting though my jersey’, or we ‘battled a storm of protest’, or we made a ‘last ditch’ effort. In fact, it is very difficult to relay any information without assuming some imaginative underlying picture. (You see how I used the word ‘underlying’ as in sub-soil, and ‘relay’ as in passing something on?)

Another aspect of the way God uses figures of speech and so on is the actual revelation of Himself to us! The fact that He uses idioms and metaphors tells us something about Him because His words convey His thoughts. Every writer betrays him or herself the moment they put pen to paper. Something of our own personality is revealed as soon as we begin to write, and it is the same with God. Suppose, for a moment, that God was a machine. We might expect the Bible to be written in machine code. Or suppose He was a cruel, heartless tyrant. His Word would be a catalogue of rules and punishments. Or what if God was like some of those invented gods of the nations? He would be morally slack, inconsistent, and in most ways just as bad, and fickle as the humans who invented them. So it is quite unrealistic for us to presume that God should obey our whims and write contrary to His own choice and nature. His Book is written the way He wanted it written. It is up to us to accept it as such and obey His rules of interpretation.

The following is quoted from Bullinger’s ‘Companion Bible’:

“Figures are never used but for the sake of emphasis. They can never, therefore, be ignored. Ignorance of Figures of speech has led to the grossest errors, which have been caused either from taking literally what is figurative, or from taking figuratively what is literal.

The Greeks and Romans named some hundreds of such figures. They may be divided into three classes:

Figures which involve (1) omission; (2) the addition;

or (3) the alteration or change, of a word, or words, or their sense.

In Gen.3:14, 16 we have some of the earliest examples. By interpreting these figures literally as meaning “belly “,” dust”,” heel”, or “head “. we lose the volumes of precious and mysterious truth which they convey and intensify. It is the truth which is literal, while the words employed are figurative”.

(He goes on to name 181 types of Figure of Speech with examples from the Bible)

When we look through Genesis chapter three we find many figures of speech. For example “eyes were opened”, “they knew that they were naked”, “upon your belly you shall go”, “dust shall you eat”, “bruise your head”, “bruise his heel”, “thorns and thistles”, “sweat of your face”, “you are dust”, “to dust you shall return”. In every case, God is trying to convey more than just the bare facts. By “eyes were opened” He is conveying the sudden shock and intense reaction which Adam and Eve experienced as they realized the implications of what they had done. By “thorns and thistles” we understand that God was condemning the world to many “problems and difficulties”, as well as literal changes in creation of course. By “dust you shall eat” we understand that God was placing Satan under a humiliating punishment.

In Revelation 20:2 we have two references to Satan which link him to his first appearance in Genesis: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him”. Revelation 12:9

“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan . . .” Revelation 20:2

In both references the word “old” is used, which, taken literally means that Satan must be at least 6000 years old (minimum) but it also links his ‘oldness’ with the fact that he is also the “serpent”.

The Hebrew for “serpent” is ‘nachash’ which means ‘to hiss, mutter, whisper’ as enchanters and those involved with the black arts do. The secondary meaning of ‘nachash’ is ‘to divine, to enchant’. In other words, Satan’s name means something like ‘to entice by enchantments’, which is consistent with his first act of enticement when he deceived Eve into sin. All through the Bible Satan’s methods have been much the same. He entices through false doctrine, false Christians, false Bibles, false witnesses, false evangelists, false everything. In every area of life we find the trail of the serpent – not just in the pulpit, but also in the Arts, in Science, in Philosophy and so on. His goal is to draw people away from God’s Word and into alternatives, any alternatives will do, provided they contradict what God has said.

“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light”. 2 Corinthians 11:14 Satan is, of course, already an angel of light. What this verse means is that he appears to those he wants to deceive as a member of the church, or as a good pastor, or as a wonderful Bible teacher, or as a Christian musician, or whatever. He comes as a wolf dressed as a sheep. See 2Cor. 11:1-15.

If you took the time to read the above reference you will have noticed verse three, which says that “as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety . . .” This verse is explained by verse 14, quoted above, which refers to Satan as “an angel of light”. By this we see that it was not a snake which beguiled Eve, but a glorious being, an angel, to whom Eve paid great attention. She assumed that because of his appearance, he must have possessed superior knowledge. It is hardly likely that she would have paid as much attention to a snake – a mere created animal over which she and Adam were to have dominion.

Now look at Ezekiel 28. In this passage we have a description of the “king of Tyre”. By comparison, this “king” is not the same as the earlier “prince of Tyrus” at the beginning of the chapter, or “Tyrus” in chapters 26 and 27. Beginning at verse 11 God describes the “king of Tyrus” as “the anointed cherub” – which cannot refer to any human, and as the one who “has been in Eden”. The description of this “king” is of a supernatural order -”full of wisdom, perfect in beauty” etc and in verse 15 we are told that he was “perfect in his ways from the day he was created until iniquity was found in him”. He also corrupted his wisdom “by reason of his brightness” (v.l7. Put together, all these verses refer to Satan the anointed cherub, not a man, and certainly not a mere snake.

The link between Satan and the Garden of Eden is made in the passage in Ezekiel, which again shows that it was Satan as an angel who deceived Eve.

In defense of the ‘Satan was a snake’ point of view, some people quote Genesis 3:1 which says “the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” However, the word “subtle” means ‘wise’ ( The Hebrew word is ‘aw-room’ which means ‘cunning (usually in a bad sense) – ‘crafty, prudent’.) and the word “beast” means “living creature”, so what the verse is saying is: “Satan was wiser than any other living creature created by God”. This makes harmony of what we have already concluded.

Moving away from the purely Scriptural view, let us suppose that Eve, in all her perfection and great wisdom, actually held a conversation with a literal snake. On the face of it this is most unlikely. The snake was just one of many beautiful creatures created by God, but it was, after all, just a creature. Eve was a brilliant creation, glorious and wonderfully made, far superior to the snake. She may have been attracted to it aesthetically, but hardly intellectually. If there was anything resembling an angel of light in the garden, perhaps a large bird would have been more likely, but not a mere snake. However, if Satan behaved like a snake, then the comparison is quite understandable. (We have many similar comparisons in the Bible, such as Herod, whom Jesus called a fox, and Egypt, which is called a great-scaled creature. Nero is called a lion, Judah is called a lions’ whelp, doctrine is called leaven, and, in our own language we refer to people as ‘dogs’ or ‘pigs’ and we say that someone ‘ate like a horse’.)

When we read in Genesis 3 that Satan would “bruise his heel” we understand this “head” to be more than just skin and bone. It has something to do with character, and it will be only temporary. When we read that “he shall crush your head” we understand this to mean more than literal hair and skin and skull. It means that Satan’s plans and plots, activities and purposes, will one day be crushed and finished. Referring to this very passage Paul says “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly”. Romans 16:20 Again, in Malachi: “And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, says the LORD of hosts”. Malachi 4:3 And Jesus warned Christians about throwing wisdom at the ignorant:

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you”. Matthew 7:6

The prediction that Satan would one day ‘bruise the heel’ of the seed of the woman was a wonderfully compact description of what followed. In just those few words God foretold the temptations and injuries done to the Son of God, plus the associated sufferings shared by His followers. The crucifixion set the seal on Satan’s doom, because by orchestrating the death of Jesus, Satan made the way for the resurrection. The moment Jesus rose from the dead, Satan’s entire object (world domination among other things) was utterly defeated – his head was about to be crushed. Through the death of Christ, he who had the power of death would be destroyed, and all Satan’s power brought to an end, including all his works – Heb.2:14, Uohn 3:8, Rev.20. Thanks to figures of speech, much more than a mere technical description of the facts is conveyed to us.

Gen.3:14. “upon your belly shall you go”. If this were literal, then Satan, the angel must be sliding about on his stomach, but of course this is quite absurd. He is also called the “prince of the power of the air” Eph.2:2. What this figure of speech means is that Satan has been humiliated. He has been brought down, demoted, disgraced. God has reduced his rank and standing and authority from a high place to a very low place. In a similar setting we read in Psalm 44:25 “For our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly cleaves to the earth”. This expression tells us a lot more than mere facts could. We understand the feeling of prostration and submission of the writer. We enter into his sense of prolonged subjection to oppression or sorrow.

Gen. 314 “and dust shall you eat all the days of your life”. If this were literal, then we know what Satan eats – the dirt which we grow plants and vegetables in. Soil. Minerals. If we take a figure of speech literally we come to many absurd conclusions. But if we take the expression as pointing to some underlying fact, some more important truth, we understand that Satan judgment was to be always disappointed, always a failure, always a loser. Proverbs 20:17 picks up on this ‘eating dirt’ idea: “Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel”. Again, in the New Testament, Christians are rebuked for “biting and devouring one another:” (Gal.5:14,15) something more heart-breaking and terrible is meant.

Other examples of these ‘dirt” type of expressions are:

“He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he has covered me with ashes”. Lamentations 3:16

“And Abraham answered and said. Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:” Genesis 18:27

“He raises up the poor out of the dust” 1 Samuel 2:8

“Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad”. 2 Samuel 22:43

“My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust” Job 7:5

“Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust”. Psalms 7:5

“My soul cleaves to the dust” Psalms 119:25

Etc.

When we read that the enemies will “lick the dust” (Psalm 72:9) we are not supposed to think of them down on their hands and knees licking away at the ground with their tongues, but rather to understand that the enemies are prostrated in defeat, subdued, brought down to complete submission. The expression is far more effective at conveying the meaning than a mere statistical analysis of the battle campaign.

Another problem which arises if we think that Satan was a literal snake is the simple biological impossibility of a snake talking. It has no larynx, or ‘voice box’. Even if it wanted to, it couldn’t speak. It has no organs of speech, no lips, no mobile tongue, no speech center in its brain. On the other hand, where was the wisdom in Satan taking a mere creature, and certainly not one of the most beautiful in creation, and using it like a glove-puppet to beguile Eve? She was intelligent enough to see through something as stupid as this. Whatever would she have thought if a real snake has started talking to her? She would have been instantly suspicious. Why would God created a mere animal which had such wisdom? If snakes could talk, what else in the Garden had the same ability? Monkeys? Elephants? Moths?

Traditions are very powerful. They can be so strong that even when the Word of God is presented, they still prevail. Jesus, in anger, told the religious leaders of his day: You make “the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which you have delivered: and many such like things you do”. Mark 7:13. Many Christians, despite having Bibles available, still think that Jonah was swallowed by a ‘whale’, that Noah’s Ark was quite small, and that Eve was tempted with an ‘apple’. The Reformation was a fierce battle fought over traditions. Many churches elevate man-made rules and traditions above the liberty of God. Traditions lead us away from what God says and blind us to the truth. About this we are told to: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ”. Colossians 2:8

If we dig into the figures of speech and look for the underlying truth we find a picture which conveys many wonderful things. We see two beings, the first humans, both glorious and perfect. They already have language and science built into them. They already understand many things. They live and rejoice in a perfect world. Suddenly an immensely glorious being appears to Eve. He challenges her to go beyond what God has said and she does. It is this great disobedience – adding to and taking from the words of God – which caused the Fall. Not some silly story about a woman eating an apple. The traditional story, with equally absurd illustrations, have smothered the real meaning of what happened and it is the Church (the only organization on earth entrusted with the preaching and teaching of God’s Word) which has failed to consistently proclaim this truth, hi this way Satan’s deception has been successful for thousands of years.

When Satan said “Has God said . . .?” Eve should have been immediately alerted to the danger. Her reply should have been to quote exactly what God had said. Or Adam, who was “with her” should have done this. Just as Jesus responded to Satan’s “If you are the Son of God . . .?” with quotes from the Word, Eve should have remembered precisely what God had said and Satan would have been defeated.

But Eve committed several errors. She omitted the word “freely” and added the words “neither shall you touch it” and then she altered the words “you shall surely die” into “lest you die”. In this way Eve misrepresented the Word of God, but when Jesus was tempted He presented the Word of God faithfully.

From this temptation of Eve we understand that Satan’s main sphere of influence is in any area where he can influence people to doubt the word of God. We see his activity in the pulpit – perhaps his main area of deception (by this I mean through false teachings, traditions, cults religions, New Age mystical ideas, and sectarianism). There are of course many fine Christians who love and cherish the Bible. We see Satan in the newspaper and other forms of media, in professorial chairs, in universities and colleges, in Institutes of higher learning, in the unsaved academia. We know that Satan has a dominant control over the media – this is why anything which calls into question the Word of God has ready admission into the newspapers and so on, and also why anything which strongly supports God’s Word is resisted and omitted from the same organizations. The man or woman who claims to have found the body of Jesus (or some such thing) is given air time and treated seriously, while the creationist is held up as a ‘flat-earther’ and depicted as ‘controversial’. Sinful Mankind tolerates Christianity, but will not receive it as the revealed Word of God. The unsaved will talk about the Bible as ‘literature’ but they will not believe it to be anything more than that.

If we continue to follow traditions, we (by default) join the crowd who think in terms of snakes and apples. By doing this we help to hide God’s truth. We take part in the jeering of unbelievers and we pat the critics on their backs. We also provide a stumbling block to the weak in faith because we help to propagate a tradition which Satan himself has fostered. Better by far rather to stand on God’s Word and present it as it is written, with understanding and faith. That way, on the Day of Judgment, we will not be ashamed of our witness, and the ungodly will have no excuse.

Satan

April 20th, 2010 - The Enemy

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A being called Satan really exists. This being, an angel, was created by God, along with many others, and was included in some vast and unnamed crowd of individuals, in which are many other equally mysterious beings called the seraphim, and cherubim. Scripture is almost silent when it comes to this heavenly realm so any attempt to see into it at present would be a matter of presumption. But the fact that Satan really exists is not based on some unfounded theory. It is clearly taught in the Bible, and should therefore be accepted as truth, regardless of whether we fully understand what or who this Satan is.

The Bible does not give us a comprehensive teaching on Satan, or his fellow angels, probably because the main focus of the Bible is the Messiah, the Son of God, and not some would-be rival and pretender to the throne. But here and there, through the Bible, there are glimpses and clues as to what Satan is, and what he usually does. As Jesus said “The thief comes not but to kill, steal, and destroy”, so we can trace the work of Satan in the way he disrupts, corrupts and causes degeneration in the lives of nations and individuals. We cannot always discern whether Satan is directly responsible for the misery in the world, because Man also has a free will, and, like Satan, he too can choose the wrong path in life. In fact, Man left to himself would probably do just as well at destroying the good things of God as he does with Satan’s prompting.

The following notes are not supposed to present everything the Bible says about Satan, but to give a simple ‘lead in’ to the subject. If readers look up the references and do some study of their own they should be able to gather all the Biblical information available.

Another name for Satan is Lucifer.

The name Lucifer comes from Heb. helel = shining one, or brightness. It refers to the king of Babylon, and also to Satan, who was the power behind the throne. Is. 14:12 – 14.

This far-reaching passage goes beyond human history, being the first recorded sin in the universe. Ez.28:ll – 15 describes Satan’s original state before he ‘fell’. In both passages Satan is not just described as alone, but as working out his plans through different nations and leaders. He is called “the prince of the kingdom of Persia” in Dan. 10:13, and Eph.6:12 shows that when Christians make a stand for Jesus, they are actually fighting him in the spiritual realm.

Satan = Heb. Satan. Greek = Satanas = an adversary, or opponent. He is the chief of the fallen spirits. He is also known as the Devil, the Dragon, the Evil One, the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, the Prince of this world, Apollyon, the Power of the air – Eph.2:2, Abaddon, Belial, Beelzebub, the wicked one, son of the morning – Is. 14:12.

He is also called the king of Tyre – Ez.28:ll – 18.

Satan is first mentioned (after his appearance in the Garden, and his indirect appearance in and through the wizards of Egypt), in Job 1:6 – 12, 2:1 on. He mixes with the sons of God (Gen.6:2 with Job 2:1 and 6) – the angels, even though he doesn’t belong with them any more. We find him again in Zech. 3:1 where he tries to stop the restoration of the priesthood.

Domer says “Though he has his special purposes and aims, he is yet the servant of God for punishment or trial, the asserter or executor of the negative side of the Divine justice.”

This view may sound to some readers as rather peculiar. Why should God deliberately create a being whose purpose in life was to thwart and destroy the good plans of God? The answer is simple. God did not originally create Satan with this intention. It was Satan’s freedom to choose and his pride which led him into rebellion. God punished Satan and the other rebellious angels, by sending them out of heaven and on to this planet Earth, where they discovered another rival: Mankind. God gave planet Earth to humans, and they too were given a free will. Satan learned that if the humans sinned, as he had, they would be destroyed, so, in order to take the planet, Satan tempted the humans. They sinned, but instead of destroying them, God offered them a way of salvation. Adam and Eve accepted the offer and wore the skin of the sacrifice, thus beginning the line of faith for all who believed in like manner, through to the Messiah. Jesus, the Lamb of God gave his life as a final and supreme sacrifice for all sin, and at the same time sealed the doom of Satan.

But as an opposer of God Satan serves a very useful purpose. Suppose an athlete had no competition to beat. Without an opposing team, there would be no sense of achievement in any sport or contest. In a similar way, in a world totally neutralized by God, Christians would not be able to resist temptation – because there would be none to resist. Or suppose God wanted to teach certain virtues. How could He teach endurance without a trial? How could He teach love without some hateful person to test it out on? These very crude illustrations throw a little light on the problem of conflict in the world. Mankind, as always, has exactly the same free will which Adam and Eve were given, so exactly the same potential exists in the world for obedience or disobedience. To put it another way, Satan has only as much power over us as we give him.

The world is vastly complex. It comprises billions of individuals all making freewill decisions, and at the same time the consequences of these free will decisions impact on the world and other people. Like millions of spreading ripples from a handful of sand, the causes and effects of trillions of choices intercept and impact on each other. In all this there are angelic forces at work, some rebellious, some obedient. God overrules all things, steering and controlling in infinite wisdom, yet still allowing for free will, caring for every detail in every life, turning consequences first one way and than another as He shapes and moulds every life.

Spirits.

In the New Testament, spirits are referred to, with Satan as their leader – Mat.8:28, 9:34, 12:26. Luke 11:18,19.

These spirits, or demons, or fallen angels, are:

1. Endowed with high talents, power and knowledge – Mat.8:29, Mark 1:24

2. Satan is used in a figurative sense – Mat. 16:23

3. Jesus said the “wicked one” is the Devil – Mat. 13:19, 39, and Mark 4:15

4. Jesus was literally tempted by the Devil – Mat.4:10, Luke 22:31

5. Satan was a murderer from the beginning – John 8:44

6. Satan is the enemy and falsifier of God’s Word- Mat.13:19, 39

7. Satan aroused hatred against Jesus and put treachery into Judas’ heart – John 13:27, 6:70, Luke 22:53

8. Satan is judged,, and hurled from heaven – Luke 10:18. He is as good as done for. Vanquished. Destroyed.

The history of this world is the story of Christ’s struggle against Satan.

The devil.

Devil = Gr. diabolos = accuser. One who slanders another for the purpose of injury; a calumniator, i.e. a gossipmonger – lTim.3:ll, 2Tim,3:3, Titus 2:3.

The Devil has a certain amount of power over certain believers for a limited time, as God uses him for His own purposes – Job 1:6, Luke 22:31, 32. He has the power to take life – lCor.5:5 and ITim. 1:20, when given permission to do so. He tries to discredit and destroy upright Christians – ITim. 3:6,7. He is, of course, unable to overcome the power of Jesus Christ the Advocate for Christians, to Whom they are to come immediately when they sin -1 John 2:1-3.

There are some Christians who have an overbalanced interest in Satan. They delve into the dark and horrible things connected with him, and read extensively about him. This sort of obsessive interest may even become borderline adulation. Their library on Satan resembles that of a crime-novel enthusiast. What they ought to do is find out the truth about him and then concentrate on the antidote, the Saviour, the Mighty God.

The best way to defeat Satan, on a day by day basis, is to live an obedient, upright life for Jesus. This means to stay as close to Jesus as possible, in prayer, in decisions, in obedience and in lifestyle. A good basis for a consistent Christian life is to take the discipline of Psalm 1 seriously and practice it. Christians must maintain close fellowship with other strong Christians in order to encourage and build themselves up. They ought to develop habits which tend to cover ‘weak’ areas (inbuilt weaknesses) with Christian behavior so the weaknesses are compensated for. They should be wary and on guard, because Satan is always looking for something to use to mess a Christian’s life up – not that he usually needs much help, because Christians are quite capable of ruining their fellowship with God all by themselves.

It does no good to blame Satan for everything either, because Satan is not responsible for all sin, all misery, and all suffering. He is an instigator, an insinuator, a whisperer. His minions work in the heads of humans, suggesting ideas, placing thoughts, challenging the truth of God’s Word. Satan also works through cults, heresies and false teachings. He uses well-mannered and ‘civilized’ people as his advocates, lettered men and women with high social standing. He speaks through misguided ministers, preaches lies from pulpits, fosters Man-centered traditions and rituals. He uses very educated people to promote anti-Christian ideas and to give respectability to errors. Having started a fire Satan then ‘sits back’ to watch ignorant and misguided humans fan it into a blaze.

Knowing these things, Christians are able to identify the influence of sin and/or Satan and counteract it by behaving like Christ. In this way the victory is won for God, and Satan loses yet another place of dominion. By successfully resisting Satan’s influence Christians also gain a reward.

Cults

April 19th, 2010 - The Enemy

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The first thing many people think of when they hear the word “cult” is ‘weird religious belief’ or something similar, but a cult can be as wide as a business or corporation, as well as a narrow, religious view of life.

The word “cult” comes from the Latin ‘cultus’ meaning ‘to worship’. The dictionary defines it as a “system or community of religious worship and ritual. It can also mean an obsessive devotion to a person, principle or ideal. A cult is always an exclusive club, or group which shares a belief or idea which other people cannot accept. Outsiders can’t join unless they conform to the cult beliefs.

Taken this way, we can identify cults by three marks :

1. exclusive

2. religious

3. obsessive

Another way of looking at a cult is to imagine some fish in a bowl. The bowl has been painted black, so the fish know only the world inside their bowl. As far as the fish are concerned there is no world anywhere except the one they live in inside their bowl.

Cults tend to close themselves in and exclude anything from ‘the outside’ which might spoil their world view. Many cults actively forbid members from reading newspapers, listening to radios, or talking to non-members – in case of ‘contamination’. Cult members often become so afraid of being persuaded out of their beliefs that they learn responses to critics, rattling off learned answers whenever questions or objections are raised. Other cults aggressively seek to persuade other people into their cult. There are two reasons why they do this:

1. They are insecure. One way a sense of being right can be achieved is by seeing other people coming to believe what the cult-member believes. If ‘so and so’ thinks I’m right then I must be right. The more converts the cult can gather, the more it believes it is right.

2. They are misguided. They think they owe it to people on the outside to persuade them to join the cult. This will ‘save’ these people from terrible consequences.

Sadly, some Christians also fall into these two traps, instead of trusting God

One thing a cult doesn’t like is anti-cult material. Rather than open themselves to the possibility of being exposed, they build a defence against criticism, and rely on repetition of their own beliefs to counteract the effects of criticism. They refuse to examine their beliefs thoroughly because they are afraid they might find errors, which would mean having to repudiate their beliefs. This would remove their sense of being different (elect, special, superior)

For example, the Mormons isolate their members so securely that the average door-to-door worker has no idea how far from Bible truth he is. The same can be said of JWs. Cults like these print their own material, make their own Bibles, read their own material, listen to their own speakers, meet in their own buildings, and so isolate themselves that members might as well be on some other planet. Like the fish in the bowl, they lose touch with the outside world and live in their self-styled world.

There are two very good questions that can be asked of a cult member:

The first question:

1. Did you come to be an “x” because of what the Bible says, or because of another “x”? The reply will no doubt be evasive, because no “x” likes to admit that they became an “x” because they were talked into it by another “x”. They will claim that the Bible has guided them (through the work of a devoted “x” member), or they will come up with some other similar evasive bit of reasoning, but in the end (if you force them to it) they will admit that they did not become an “x” simply by reading the Bible. Some other “x” had to persuade them.

The second question:

2. Which is more important, a written document by somebody reliable and honest, or a feeling that the document is true?

The first question is crucial, because it exposes the cloning effect of a cult. Nobody in the history of the world ever became a Mormon, or JW, or Christadelphian, or UFOlogist, or Christian Scientists, or Theosophist, or any other cult simply by reading the Bible. It always involved some outside influence. This shows that God’s Word has to be reinterpreted before it can be used to produce a cult.

Christians on the other hand can claim that the Bible and the Bible alone has brought them to Christianity. Sure, someone may have preached, or taught the Word, or some Christian book, or video, or friend may have done the persuading, but the Christianity came from the Bible, not from an interpretation. What the Bible says is plain and clear and doesn’t need interpretation. The Bible itself actually prevents a person from turning into a cultist. It is only when people move away from the Bible that they open themselves to perversions of the truth.

The second question shows how different a cult is from true Christianity. Christians are told that they “walk by faith, not by sight”, in other words, they don’t rest on experiences, but on what they read in the Bible.

For example, if you suddenly received a million dollars, and you read the cheque, and saw the signature, you would know that the money was yours because of what you read, NOT because of how you felt. You might jump about and shout with joy, but your feelings are extra to the written word. The cheque is worth just as much regardless of your emotions. It’s the same with the Bible.

Mormons and others encourage people to “ask God to confirm our beliefs to you” and they talk of an “anointing” or some “inner knowledge” which indicates that their cult is right. But if people could be persuaded by feelings and not by the Bible, they could also be dissuaded by feelings. These ‘confirming feelings’ are either fleshly, or Satanic. By the same ‘experience’ as God supposedly confirms a cult, the same ‘experience’ could also confirm an Eastern religion, or a New Age spiritual teaching.

Christians believe the written Word of God regardless of how they feel. God’s Word is true whether we feel joyful or gloomy – just as the words and signature on the cheque are true regardless of how we might react to it.

Ways of dealing with cults.

Religious cults – the sort which include the Bible, go from obviously wrong to so subtle it is difficult to tell them from genuine Christians. JWs for example are always quick to quote the Bible when it suits them. Other cults never use the Bible, but claim to be Christians, or from that end of the spectrum anyway.

I would not presume to know every way to deal with every cult. Sometimes a simple personal testimony is enough, or a polite “No thank you”, or a statement to the effect that you are a Christian and that is enough. Some Christians like to show hospitality, others get their Bibles out and have a debate at the door. God guides each person in a different way so I’m not interested in providing any formula.

One method which I have found very effective is to arrange a meeting. I have done this with Mormons, and invited several other Christians to join the meeting, mainly as an audience. At the meeting I use a book called ‘A Ready Defence’ by Josh McDowell (Here’s Life Publishers, Box 1576, San Bernadino, California 92402). I ask the Mormons if I may read from the book a summary of the origin of Mormonism, and allow the Mormons to agree or disagree paragraph by paragraph as I go. This method works in several ways :

1. It allows the case for Mormonism to be presented clearly – something they actually like, because it seems to them that their case is being propagated,

2. It avoids ignorant comments by badly informed Christians,

3. It shows the Mormons themselves where their cult comes from (often news to them!)

4. It avoids either side from getting into a ‘conversion banter’. Obviously, when Mormons and Christians meet, both sides want to convert the other side, so swords are drawn. By simply reading from a book, the third party is brought in, and some dialogue can occur.

I present the material politely and show that I am not trying to attack anyone. My presentation goes something like this :

“Is it true that “Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, was born on December 23rd, 1805, in Sharon, Vermont?”

They say “Yes”.

“Is it true that . . . “ (Reading another paragraph)

The presentation takes at least half an hour, and goes through the alleged visions which Joseph had, the writing of the Mormon books, the fact that on June 27th 1844 a mob of about 200 people, their faces blackened to avoid recognition, stormed the jail and shot and killed Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and that according to the Mormon records Joseph shot and killed several of the mob members before he died . . .”

Some of this stuff is embarrassing, but of course the Mormons are keen to win converts, so they will sit quietly and try to be friendly, but they must admit, step by step, that what you are reading out to them is true. Gradually their wolves’ skin is removed until they realise they are not representing such a good thing after all.

Sometimes at this point they will retreat and ‘dig in’, like soldiers trying to make a last stand – they will switch to their learned banter and try to use repetition of learned phrases to avoid the situation, at which point I suggest that the meeting is over. This prevents emotions from rising, and anger, with hasty, unloving words. It pays to be in control, to open and shut down the meeting yourself, rather than allow the Mormons (or whatever cult you are talking to) to get into their banter.

The essential issue which decides whether a person is saved or not is the identity of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, that for a short time he humbled himself, taking on the form of a human, that he died for all sin, and that he came back to life and returned to heaven. Now on the throne, Jesus is equal to the Father in every way. Because God made Man, only God Himself can redeem Man – hence the basis of salvation, that Jesus was God in the flesh. All other issues which do not have these statements at their centre are distractions, or non-essential beliefs to salvation.

Some cults will argue about genealogies, the age of the earth, certain Greek words and phrases, the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, baptism, history and so on. No side issue is important enough to bring salvation. Only a belief in Jesus as God, come to die for sinners, is required for salvation.

All cults (without exception) do not attribute to Jesus his full equality with the Father. For example, here are some different views of Jesus and salvation as interpreted by :

1. Christian Science – “The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed . . . than when flowing in his veins . . .” (SH 25:6-9) So the death of Jesus was not really a sacrifice for sin.

2. Spiritualism – “Each must work out his own salvation; each has an equal opportunity to do this when he shall have atoned for the wrongs . . .” (SM p.184) So we don’t really need Jesus to die for us.

3. JWs – “Jesus Christ laid down in sacrifice a perfect human life, equal to that which Adam forfeited” (You May Survive Armageddon p. 39) So Jesus was just a man dying for other men.

4. Armstrong’s World Wide Church of God – “Jesus alone, of all humans, has so far been saved” (WWYB p. 11) “The blood of Jesus Christ does not finally save anyone. It saves merely from the death penalty of sin (All About Water Baptism p. 1-3) “You must be baptised to become a true Christian” (TW Feb. 1971 p. 16-17) So we need Jesus plus baptism to be saved.

5. Mormons – “Even the unbeliever, the heathen, and the child who dies before reaching the age of discretion, all are redeemed by the Saviour’s self-sacrifice from the individual consequences of the Fall” (Talmage p. 58) So everyone will be saved regardless of whether they believe in Jesus or not.

6. Eastern mysticism – “Be still and know that you are God, and when you know that you are God you will begin to live Godhood . . .” (Ibid., p. 178) So we can save ourselves without any help from Jesus.

7. Unity – “The error lies in the belief that He was the only begotten Son of God, and that He overcame for us, and that by simply believing on Him we are saved” (UTC p. 68,69) So Jesus wasn’t really the Son of God and we cannot be saved by believing on Him.

8. Unification Church – “Christ will come as before, as a man in the flesh, and he will establish a family through marriage . . .” (DUTA) So Jesus was just some super-man and not fully God.

9. The Way International – founder and leader, Victor Paul Wierwille regularly proclaimed “Jesus Christ is not God, never was and never will be.” So Jesus was not able to redeem fallen Man after all.

Cults usually have leaders, or founders, who seem to become more important the longer they reign, or the longer they are dead. These leaders are given, or take, great authority. This is part of the obsession of belonging to a cult. (In the Church there are also some dangerous situations where Pastors, Ministers, Priests and Popes have taken take far too much power to themselves.)

Some examples of religious cult leaders:

· John Robert Stevens, the “Apostle” of the Church of the Living Word

· Guru Maharaj Ji, called “the Perfect Master”, of the Divine Light Mission

· Mo Berg, called “Father David” of The Children of God church

· Elizabeth Clare Prophet of the Church Universal and Triumphant, called “Mother of the Universe” and “Messenger for the Great White Brotherhood”

· Moon, called “The Messiah”

You can tell if you are close to, or part of a cult when you see the following signs :

Authoritarianism. Members are not allowed to think for themselves, or present alternative views. Opposition is suppressed and the ‘party line’ is upheld.

Opposition. Members are encouraged to attack non=members verbally at least, and to live differently to everyone else. Cults always separate themselves from the world around them, cutting themselves off from it.

Exclusiveness. Cults claim to be the only ones who know certain truths. They (proudly) hold to what they believe as if they alone are the only people in the whole world who will be saved, and they often consider anyone who does not believe what they believe to be inferior or fit for destruction.

Legalistic. Cults are ruled by rules.

Subjective. This is a very important aspect of a cult. Members place huge emphasis on their experiences, or feelings. Many cults work at feeling happy, blissful, joyful, ecstatic. As feelings are encouraged, objectivity is suppressed, which is why most cults will not accept the plain statements of the Bible – there are no feelings attached to a written word.

Persecution. Cults either imagine or provoke antagonism, then feed on the rejection as a ‘badge of honour’. They call themselves an “oppressed minority” and claim that they are rejected by society because they are God’s people or some such claim.

Conformity. Members of a cult force themselves to conform to the beliefs, lifestyle and practices of the cult.

Mysteries. Cults usually contain some beliefs which are mysterious, hidden, esoteric, or said to be deeply spiritual. Only special members can understand these mysteries of course.

Hierarchy. Cults usually involve ordinary people, common people, and have very few ranks. The leader usually has one or two specially appointed helpers, but most of the people in a cult are happy to do their part in keeping it going. Like the pastor-centred church, a cult may have only one main leader and many obedient, submissive workers.

If you belong to a group with many of these characteristics, perhaps you ought to check the Bible and see if you are on the right track?

How do cults come about?

If you were given a counterfeit $20 note, you might think it was a real one. It would look right, feel right, and have all the right markings and numbers, but when you compared it to a real $20 note you would see differences. Sometimes holding the money up to a strong light is enough to reveal the faults.

Cults are counterfeits.

They may claim to be Christian (i.e. the Mormons, who call themselves ‘The Church of the Latter Day Saints”), or say that they are based on Christian principles (i.e. A Corporation) but when they are compared with the Scriptures, there are large and obvious differences. We are not talking here about the usual differences between the Mainline Church Denominations. These are usually superficial. The differences we mean here are basic and specific Christian doctrines.

One Bible example of a cult is found in 2Tim.2:17,18 “ . . .among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and thus they upset the faith of some”.

Romans 16:17 “Keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them”.

God has appointed over every fellowship a number of “elders”, and other people, whose job it is to guard, protect and nurture the fellowship. Quite often, when a church becomes lopsided and pastor-centred, and grows beyond 20 or so attendees, the work of protecting the flock falls into neglect, because a single pastor cannot care for every member of a large flock. (Eph.4:11-14) Sometimes a ‘lone-ranger’ will appear with his or her own personal teachings, or the man who takes the title ‘Pastor’ will teach unscriptural things and carry on with them because he is unchallenged (or too powerful to defeat).

Why does God allow cults?

In any training program, tests and obstacles are given to the team or trainee in order to build up and strengthen the muscles or mind. Opposition can actually serve as a blessing, and cults serve this purpose because they force Christians back to the Scriptures to make sure the teaching is correct.

Because people ought to be so based on the written Word of God that no deception should be able to fool them. But cults have ‘taken out’ thousands of Christians, with ease – what does this show us? It shows us the lack of interest those Christians must have had in the Bible. In some ways they got what they deserved.

If Christians aren’t tenaciously hanging on to what God has given them, they deserve to lose it. Look at it this way : God passes to the Christian His written Word – the most precious, the most fantastically valuable document in the whole world, and they either flip through its pages hurriedly when they have a minute, or fill their lives with so many things to do they don’t read it at all. Or some charismatic person convinces them that feelings and so on are more important than the written Word. Or ‘signs and wonders’ seem to back up certain teachings. Along comes the cult and they slip easily into its clutches.

Instead of the Bible, they now read the ‘interpreted’ books, or completely different books. They trust the leadership. They abandon their former beliefs because they are told the new beliefs are superior. And at every step it is entirely their choice, so they are accountable for what they have done. No cult member can blame God for his or her predicament.

People who are not Christians, who have been led into cults are very often sincerely seeking God, or some sort of meaning in life, or a sense of value, or belonging. Many cults offer acceptance and love. The ‘family’ feeling draws many lonely and hurt people in. Behind all the deceptions which tangle these people up are the lies of Satan – often very appealing lies. The spiritual hunger inside every person is appealed to. Freedom from guilt, of fear, of ignorance – are all things offered by cults. Whatever people want is found in some cult, somewhere – not to forget money, which some huge ‘Business Cults’ offer to members. The Mormons, for example, run their cult like a multi-million-dollar business, so financial security is a big drawcard.

In the end, the only really sure way to keep yourself free is to read the Bible as often and as intelligently as possible. The Bible is truth, and no counterfeit can get near you if you know the truth.

Christian Demons

April 18th, 2010 - The Enemy

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If you read the title of this essay carefully you might have wondered how a demon could ever be a Christian. “Demons”, you might say, are evil and rebellious, while “Christians”, good ones that is, are obedient and Godlike. That is why we have two different words – one word for each kind of being, otherwise we would need only one word to describe both things.

The very word “demon” by its association with the rebellion in heaven, the wild man in the tombs, the son who threw himself repeatedly to the ground, and the beings who shouted “My name is Legion, for we are many!” means an enemy of God. It was demons which constantly opposed the Lord Jesus throughout his ministry, twisting people’s hearts and contradicting the words of the Master.

So how can there ever be such a thing as a Christian demon? Am I suggesting that some demons become Christians? Not at all, but I am proposing that demons often practise the dramatic arts, and instead of a stage in a theatre, they use everyday life, and turn on such an act as to fool and bewilder all but the most discerning. Demons know how to dress up as Christians, and speak, act and even teach like Christians, yet their aim is to destroy the Christian faith.

One example of this kind of thing is the theology student who goes right through training and comes out with a sheet of paper which qualifies him or her to lead a fellowship – and from the pulpit this representative of God teaches evolution, humanism, compromise with the world, and a whole bag of false doctrines.

Another example is the rock group which takes on Christianity, and then portrays Christ as a rock musician, complete with long hair, swearing, drugs and screaming on stage.

In both cases the world finds ‘Christ’ attractive, and the minister or rock musician finds the blending of false with true extremely convenient, because nothing has to be forsaken, and people enjoy his sermons, or his music.

Further down the scale there are many different shades of this mixed worship, this demonic charade, this blending of darkness with light, this worldliness with Christ added – as if God would really share His Throne with Satan (!) – but the further down the scale we come, the more subtle the blend of false notes.

For example :

Exodus 20:1-7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain”. Exodus 20

“All false oaths are forbidden. All light appealing to God, all profane cursing, is a horrid breach of this command.” (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary)

“This means to swear by God’s name that a false statement is actually true. It could also include profanity, cursing, or swearing to a promise and failing to fulfil it.” (Believer’s Bible Commentary by William MacDonald)

How reliable are we as Christians? Do we always keep our word? Can people trust us implicitly? The very fact that we claim to be Christians places us on a pedestal above the crowd, and all eyes are on us – will we represent Jesus and honour his Name, or will we behave like demons – unreliable, dishonest, unpredictable?

Another form of Demonic Christianity happens when what is actually ungodly, and un-Christlike, is presented as Christian simply because it has the name ‘Christian’ pinned to it. One excellent Bible example of this principle is in Ex.32:1-6. Aaron the high priest, and Israel held “a feast to Jehovah” but when we read a little further down the page we see that the people were also worshipping a golden calf. “These be thy gods!” shouts Aaron. In other words, “Let us worship this idol, but let us also add God into the worship so we can please both Satan and God.

Nehemiah comments on this incident : Nehemiah 9:18 “They . . . made them a molten calf, and said, This is your God that brought you up out of Egypt . . .”

“They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.

Thus they changed their glory (God) into the similitude of an ox that eats grass”. Psalm 106:19,20

Christians may fall into the trap of reducing God to some Manmade formula, or to representing Him in ways which do not match the Bible description. God, obviously, is not an ox, nor is He any other kind of animal, such as a lion, lamb, or goat. Nor is He a Watchmaker, or a Cosmic Consciousness. Some Christians see God as Santa Claus, or Indulgent Father, or Slot Machine, or Passive Observer, or Radical, or Liberal, or even as a Revolutionary who condones Crusades and guerilla warfare.

“God . . . gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O . . . house of Israel, have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?” Acts 7:42 The answer to the question is “No”. Israel had offered sacrifices to the zodiac, to gods and goddesses of the sky, to Moloch, to Remphan – in other words, to Satan. But all that worship was said to be to the true God.

When Elijah came to demonstrate the power of the true God before the people, he said : “How long (must you) halt between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. 1Kings 18:21

The word “halt” in Hebrew is ‘pasach’ meaning “to leap, or pass over. What the people were doing was leaping, or passing over from Baal to God and back. They were trying to jump both ways.

I remember, when I was in my early teens, I did a fair bit of leaping between Creation and evolution. Lack of understanding and lack of careful Bible study, put me in the ridiculous position of saying evolution was true, but so also was the Bible – despite the fact that the two views were mutually exclusive.

Christians ought to beware of placing one foot firmly in error and the other in truth. The acceptance of cult teachings can do this, and so can blind obedience to priests, pastors or some other church leader. Truth is absolute. It can never change. It is the standard by which everything must be measured – not the other way round. Satan would have us place opinions, or Manmade teaching beside truth – but we know that Satan and Christ do not sit on the same throne.

In 1 Kings 12:26-29, 32 Jeroboam saw with dismay that the people were about to walk out of his little northern kingdom and worship God down south in Jerusalem, so he devised a suitable blend of worship to lure the people back to his own side.

“The king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said to (the people), It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And he set the one in Bethel, and the other . . . in Dan.

(so) the people went to worship . . .

And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.

And (he) ordained a feast . . . like the feast . . . in Judah, and he offered on the altar”. 1 Kings 12:28-33

As a vote-winning policy it worked very well. The people wanted to worship God and idols. The king provided facilities which looked like God was there, and stocked them with idols, he built impressive buildings, made special altars, and ordained priests in clerical costumes. Outwardly all looked good, and the idolatrous Israelites were satisfied. They probably really thought, with all sincerity, that the true God was pleased with their mixed worship – I’m sure Satan was as well, because now Satan was getting honour and praise (through his idols), and God was missing out.

One effective way of ‘neutralising’ a conquered nation is to shift it into another country. This disorientates the people, and weakens their resistance to rebel further. This is what the Assyrians did, when they carried Israelites away, and replaced them with people from Babylon. For all the deportees, in both cases, cultural shock set in.

These immigrants into Israel’s lands were full of false religion, and, when lions began to attack them, they asked the king of Assyria to send an Israelite priest to teach them about the God of Israel – in the hope that this extra religion might ward off the lions.

“Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, (Get one of the Israelite) priests . . . and let (him) go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.

Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them ( the immigrants) how they should fear the LORD.

(And as a result) every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made . . .

And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

So they feared the LORD, and made . . . priests . . . which sacrificed for them . . .

They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence . . .

So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they to this day”. 2 Kings 17:25-41.

Can you imagine parents offering their child to Moloch, and watching as the priest placed the child in the metal hands of the idol, and then hearing the screams as the fire burned the child alive . . . and then worshipping God as if this was pleasing to Him?

But modern-day parents would never do this would they? Christian parents would never offer their children up on the altar of Moloch . . . but they would send their children to a Public education system which is secular, which teaches evolution, and which promotes all sorts of anti-Christian values. They would allow their children to ‘soak up’ the TV world of soaps, fashion and sexual immorality. They would allow their children to play violent computer games. They would become so busy they had no time to properly supervise, or spend time with, or nurture their children in the things of God. Not the same thing, but close.

This last point is very important. True Christianity grows best when it holds to the standards set by God. What looks like but isn’t Christianity grows best when Christians compromise. Jesus lost many followers simply because he was dogmatic, but those who did follow him were aware of what they had committed themselves to, and they made the best followers.

Ezekiel, like Jesus, divided people in much the same way when he called to the leaders of Israel to make a difference between God and Satan, between godliness and worldliness, between fake and true.

“Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned My holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean . . . and I am profaned among them”. Ezekiel 22:26

It is always a good exercise to write down a personal list of what you, as a Christian, may or may not do, because as soon as you begin to write the list, you find yourself defining things. As a Christian you are a priest of God, and as such, you are a sort of mini-Christ, a replica of the Lord Jesus. It does not matter what people, including other Christians, think of you, since you are answerable primarily and ultimately to God alone, but because you are answerable to God, you ought to make sure you are pleasing to Him.

So where do you stand? If you are a husband, how do you treat your wife, other women, children, neighbours, the boss at work, and friends? If you are a wife, how do you treat you husband, children and others? If you are a child, do you honour your parents as you should, or are you disrespectful like most of the kids at the school you go to? If you think you should not be involved in something you know is wrong, are you staying with it, or leaving it behind? Are you following your convictions, or helping Satan chalk up yet more victories? In short, are you making a difference between holy and profane?

From my own personal experience, I can think of several times when I felt I was being drawn into mixed worship. (I speak only for myself here).

I have been offered drugs, liquor and cigarettes. I have been invited to late night parties, rock concerts and questionable company. In each case I made a personal decision and honoured God according to my own conscience.

But what can we say about people who claim to be Christians, but who behave so like people of the world that it is impossible to tell the difference? Are they fake Christians? Are they Christians who have never stepped away from the world? Are they Satan’s emissaries to deceive and lead astray true Christians? Sometimes the only answer to these questions is “Yes”. Of course there are fake Christians in the world. There must be tares in amongst the wheat, otherwise all the warnings in the New Testament would be nonsensical.

Usually, with these sorts of people, there is an attitude of “I am not doing anything wrong. God is happy with everything I do. I am not sinning.”

Jeremiah came across this attitude too.

“And it shall come to pass, when you show this people all these words, and they shall say to you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

Then you shall say to them, . . .Your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

And you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not listen to me”. Jeremiah 16:10-12

Earlier on in Jeremiah’s life, he met Christian demons who said :

“I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim?” Jeremiah 2:23

In other words, they said “I’m OK, I’m innocent! I’m not bad!” This sounds familiar. There are plenty of Christians today who claim that they are doing well in God’s work, while at the same time they accept the idea that homosexuals and others should be allowed positions of leadership in the church, or they encourage ecumenicalism, which means joining Catholic heresies with Protestant truths, or they are members of the Stonemasons, or they practise ‘New Age’ healing techniques, or eastern-type meditation, or they hold mystical beliefs which are the opposite to clear Bible teaching. “I am not polluted” they say, “I’m a Christian, and God is pleased with me.”

Paul knew about Christian demons. He wrote Galatians, partly to warn the Church about them.

“I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:

Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. Galatians 1:6-10

The word “accursed” in Greek is ‘anathema’, and it has a number of meanings. Originally it meant something devoted, or specially picked out for destruction, such as an idol or a city (Deut.7:26, Josh.6:17), later it came to mean something which God could not smile upon (Zech.14:11). Anyone who denies the truth about Jesus and God’s plan of redemption, is actually cursing themselves, because they place themselves outside of God’s saving grace.

Are there any Christian demons around today? Plenty! The Mormons, for example, claim to have received their version of Christianity from angels. Other cults claim divine perfection for their founders. Popes are said to be God’s faultless spokesmen – even when (as has happened in the past) there are two popes reigning at the same time, and both contradicting each other. Many founders of pseudo-Christian movements, such as Mary Baker Eddy of Christian Science, or Joseph Smith of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, or Herbert Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God, have actually claimed to have been divinely inspired, and far too many people are ready to believe such claims. In some cases their followers have made the claims, and the leaders have not contradicted them – a passive form of taking the deification.

But Paul says he does not want to please men. This is a crucial statement, because it is the men-pleasers who stray from, and lead many from, the truth. Today’s rash of fake miracles (i.e. gold fillings, gold dust, angel feathers and hundreds of ‘visions’, plus vague, contradictory predictions and prophecies) are all part of the men-pleasing ways of Satan. Misguided, sincere, dedicated Christians are continually being sucked in. False is being placed beside true, and God’s Word is being read along with Satan’s lies.

A ship, tied to a wharf, is held to the side of the wharf by large, strong ropes. If these ropes are untied, the ship does not suddenly race away from the harbour, in fact, it may stay close to the wharf for quite a while before gradually moving away.

It is the same with Christians when they begin to allow compromise and error into their lives. The ropes tying them to the truth have been slipped, but no obvious move away from following Jesus is apparent. For weeks, or even months the Christian may appear to be close to God, but gradually, as the tide sucks gently, that soul will move away. At first the gap is small, and at some distance there may even be the thought that the soul may return, but eventually the ocean swallows them up.

Finally, the Lord Jesus Himself speaks to the modern-day Church with a severe warning, in Revelation 3:14-22. He uses the word “lukewarm” to describe the state of Christendom, but what exactly is lukewarmness?

To make something lukewarm, you need a mixture of two temperatures – hot and cold. It seems that Jesus sees both hot and cold as good things, in the sense that he wants Christians to be something definite – either strongly defined one way or the other.

But when he looks at Christendom he sees compromise. “Warm” Christians, who claim to be followers of Christ but who are doctrinally messed up, and worldly, and immoral. Instead of being God’s spokesmen, they are pathetic, flip-flopping between the Bible and the wisdom of the world.

In the past, God spoke through the prophets. The prophet’s mouth was the Lord’s mouth, so what the prophet said was powerful. The Church today is supposed to be the representative of Jesus Christ, so when it speaks, (that is, when individual Christians speak), what is said should be in line with what the Bible says – so in this sense the Church is God’s prophet for today.

In Revelation 3 Jesus addresses the Church as a whole. There are always exceptions, but the overall tone of today’s Church is brought together in this one line :

“So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of my mouth”. Revelation 3:16

We should not be surprised at this. Would God allow Satan to represent Him? Would God be content to have Satan speaking through the mouths of His Old testament prophets? Of course not – so it is hardly surprising that God is angry with today’s Church, His modern-day mouth. Lukewarm Christians (Christian demons) will be vomited out of God’s mouth.

While there are many Christians who live zealous lives for Jesus, there are also many who do not. Their sorry state is pictured in Rev.3:20, which, despite popular usage is not addressed to unsaved individuals, but to Christendom. Jesus is seen standing outside His own Church, knocking to be let in.

“Behold, I (the Lord Jesus) stand at the door (of the Church), and knock”. Revelation 3:20

Which side of the door are you on?

Further references :

Luke 13:25-27, Deut. 12:32-13:1-8, 2Chron.33:16,17, Judges 17:3, 1Chron.13.

Evil

The Serpent

However, there is much that I would like to say in defense of the view that Satan appeared as an angel.

Why would God use a figure of speech when referring to Satan in Genesis?

1. To call attention to what He has to say,

2. To emphasize what He has to say,

3. To intensify what He has to say,

4. And to underline the reality of the literal sense of what He has to say.

The following is quoted from Bullinger’s ‘Companion Bible’:

“Figures are never used but for the sake of emphasis. They can never, therefore, be ignored. Ignorance of Figures of speech has led to the grossest errors, which have been caused either from taking literally what is figurative, or from taking figuratively what is literal.

The Greeks and Romans named some hundreds of such figures. They may be divided into three classes:

Figures which involve (1) omission; (2) the addition;

or (3) the alteration or change, of a word, or words, or their sense.

(He goes on to name 181 types of Figure of Speech with examples from the Bible)

“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan . . .” Revelation 20:2

In both references the word “old” is used, which, taken literally means that Satan must be at least 6000 years old (minimum) but it also links his ‘oldness’ with the fact that he is also the “serpent”.

The link between Satan and the Garden of Eden is made in the passage in Ezekiel, which again shows that it was Satan as an angel who deceived Eve.

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you”. Matthew 7:6

Other examples of these ‘dirt” type of expressions are:

“He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he has covered me with ashes”. Lamentations 3:16

“And Abraham answered and said. Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak to the Lord, which am but dust and ashes:” Genesis 18:27

“He raises up the poor out of the dust” 1 Samuel 2:8

“Then did I beat them as small as the dust of the earth, I did stamp them as the mire of the street, and did spread them abroad”. 2 Samuel 22:43

“My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust” Job 7:5

“Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust”. Psalms 7:5

“My soul cleaves to the dust” Psalms 119:25

Etc.

Satan

The following notes are not supposed to present everything the Bible says about Satan, but to give a simple ‘lead in’ to the subject. If readers look up the references and do some study of their own they should be able to gather all the Biblical information available.

Another name for Satan is Lucifer.

The name Lucifer comes from Heb. helel = shining one, or brightness. It refers to the king of Babylon, and also to Satan, who was the power behind the throne. Is. 14:12 – 14.

He is also called the king of Tyre – Ez.28:ll – 18.

Domer says “Though he has his special purposes and aims, he is yet the servant of God for punishment or trial, the asserter or executor of the negative side of the Divine justice.”

Spirits.

In the New Testament, spirits are referred to, with Satan as their leader – Mat.8:28, 9:34, 12:26. Luke 11:18,19.

These spirits, or demons, or fallen angels, are:

1. Endowed with high talents, power and knowledge – Mat.8:29, Mark 1:24

2. Satan is used in a figurative sense – Mat. 16:23

3. Jesus said the “wicked one” is the Devil – Mat. 13:19, 39, and Mark 4:15

4. Jesus was literally tempted by the Devil – Mat.4:10, Luke 22:31

5. Satan was a murderer from the beginning – John 8:44

6. Satan is the enemy and falsifier of God’s Word- Mat.13:19, 39

7. Satan aroused hatred against Jesus and put treachery into Judas’ heart – John 13:27, 6:70, Luke 22:53

8. Satan is judged,, and hurled from heaven – Luke 10:18. He is as good as done for. Vanquished. Destroyed.

The history of this world is the story of Christ’s struggle against Satan.

The devil.

Devil = Gr. diabolos = accuser. One who slanders another for the purpose of injury; a calumniator, i.e. a gossipmonger – lTim.3:ll, 2Tim,3:3, Titus 2:3.

Knowing these things, Christians are able to identify the influence of sin and/or Satan and counteract it by behaving like Christ. In this way the victory is won for God, and Satan loses yet another place of dominion. By successfully resisting Satan’s influence Christians also gain a reward.

Cults

Christian Demons

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