The Bible shows a progression of thought concerning the divine. Coming out of the pagan cultures of the Earth, Israel’s faith evolved from polytheism, or henotheism, to monotheism. Just as with many concepts within the Bible – through its different authors and writings spanning thousands of years – we see a plurality of views wrestling with each other and evolving into new ways of thinking concerning the nature of the divine.
Many Christians today seem to think that there is a unanimous voice in scripture concerning the nature of the metaphysical concepts that it describes. However, in dealing with metaphysical concepts, we must admit that it is a “through a glass darkly.” Metaphor, analogy, anthropomorphism, parable, poetry, and myth are constantly employed by the writers of the Bible. There is not always consistency with language when trying to grasp existential and metaphysical realities.
When we actually read and study the Bible and its history and culture, we find that the concepts within the Bible are very much evolving and progressing with new voices being added to the discussion. The Bible, after all, was written not by one person, but by dozens of people over the course of thousands of years. The story of human existence and culture and awareness is one of learning and growing and evolving into new understandings, and religion is not exempt from this process.
The multivocal and progressive nature of the Bible, instead of being seen as a threat (shaking the self-certain evangelical insistence of inerrancy), should be viewed as a beautiful testament to this faithful universal Presence that is drawing us up and forward into truth, relating to us where we are at, and summoning history towards himself. God is with us in the process.
With the generations that unfold from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we see a progressive nature to the way people see God, and this was all leading up to Jesus, as discussed in a previous article. But there are other metaphysical ideas that are evolving in the scriptures too, such as what we normally see as the antithesis to God, the character that we call “Satan.”
We are told many times in the New Testament that all before Christ was a shadow – that no one saw God or knew God before Christ – but that Christ fully displays what God is like. All revelation of God before Jesus was a shadow, but Jesus is the reality and the fullness. The living, breathing, walking and talking man Jesus is God-incarnate.
“The image of the invisible God.” (Col. 1:15)
“The radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s being.” (Heb. 1:3)
“In whom all the fullness of God dwells in bodily form.” (Col. 2:9)
Christ said of himself, “Whoever sees the Son has seen the Father” (John 14:9). So, whereas in the Old Testament you see a shadowy revelation of God, it was progressing and leading up to the fullness of divine revelation in the person of Christ. Not just a vision, not just an epiphany, not just an inspired writing, but the unveiled Word of the Father in the flesh, of whom it is true, “everything the Father does, the Son does likewise” (John 5:19).
A shadow is very… shadowy. It can be misconstrued and misinterpreted. For example, in the Old Testament, the saints believed God was sic’ing evil spirits on people to deceive and torment them (1 Kings 22:22, 1 Samuel 16:14-16). They believe that God was holding the power of death and destruction over them, wielding it upon humanity according to his pleasure, exactly as the surrounding nations perceived their own gods. This application of destructive power was viewed as “the wrath of God.”
But in the New Testament, we never see Jesus partnering with evil spirits, only casting them out. He portrays the Father, not as the author of death and destruction, but rather the author of life. The writer of Hebrews says that it is the devil who wields the power of death, not God, and that Christ came to destroy him who holds the power of death (Heb 2:14).
In Acts 10:38, we are told that Christ went about healing all those under the power of the devil, because God was with him. Furthermore, John says that the reason Jesus was revealed was to undo all the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). This means that sickness, torment, and death, the things Jesus undid and healed people from, were of the devil rather than from God, and the reason Christ was able to heal them was because God was with him.
So what’s the deal here? Is satan the author of death and destruction or is God? Is God revealed in Jesus, who opposes satan and all of his works of death and destruction and disease and demons…. or not?
All of theology comes down to this question: What is God like? But more specifically, we could ask questions like:
- Is God like the devil sometimes?
- Does God steal, kill, and destroy human lives sometimes?
- Is all of the Bible equally true, or does the God we see in Jesus trump conflicting views in the Old Testament?
- Does God partner with evil to bring destruction and torment on people for their wrongs as shown sometimes in the Old Testament?
- If God is like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, does there ever come a point where if the son doesn’t return, the father sets out on the road to hunt the son down in order to angrily kill him?
- Is sin a crime that God needs to destroy us for, or a deadly disease that God desires to heal us from?
- Is God out to both destroy us and save us?
- Is God both our enemy and our Savior?
- Is God trying to save us from his own plan to destroy us?
- Is God schizophrenic?
To answer these questions, we need to understand the multivocal and progressive nature of scripture. One important aspect is to understand the development of the concept of the character called “satan” in the scriptures.
“The Satan”
In the days of the Old Testament, “satan” was a general term for that which was opposed or adverse. It means “enemy/adversary”. The angel of the Lord that stood in the way of Balaam and his donkey is called a “satan” against Balaam (Number 22:32), God raises up Hadad of Edom as a “satan” against Solomon (1 Kings 11:14), God raises up individuals, nations, and spiritual entities as “satans” numerous times for various adversarial purposes (1 Samuel 29:4). In this way “satan” is just a generic term for an adversarial role. To this day, much of Jewish tradition believes “satan” to be the evil inclination of humans and having no power except through our evil actions.
The book of Job is the first place the word “satan” is used in an actual personified way, because this is a parable using an adversarial archetype as a main character. However, every time this character is mentioned in Job, it appears with the article “the” in front of it, as in “the satan”, or literally “the adversary” as a generic descriptive term. Although English Bibles capitalize the word “satan” in Job as well as leave the article “the” off, it is clear that “the satan” is not meant as a personal name, because Hebrew never puts “the” in front of a personal name, ever. And in the Hebrew text, “the” appears in front of the word “satan” in Job every time without exception.
In Hebrew tradition, all things, both evil and good, came from the hand of God. “The satan” then represented God’s destructive agency, a kind of “prosecuting attorney” appointed by God, who watched for those who did not obey the law so he could accuse and punish them on God’s behalf. In this way, the adversary was not “evil” per se, he just fulfilled God’s destructive will. “The satan” therefore came to be known as “the accuser”.
In those days, “the satan” was not the wicked, demonic idea of a being that he is now. Those conceptual demonic entities were more along the lines of false gods such as Baal and Moloch and other malevolent pagan deities to whom people participated in bizarre rituals and human sacrifice. During all this time, the serpent of Genesis was not yet equated to “satan”.
In the New Testament the personification of “the satan” as a character is followed, as apocalyptic writings became more popular in the intertestamental period such as the book of Enoch, and this genre of literature predominantly imagined an archetypal enemy and personification of evil. Thus the generic adversarial title “the satan” evolved into the personal name “Satan”, and came to be seen in a more diabolical sense.
So from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we see “the satan” conceptually evolve from an adversarial agency of God through which God exercises his destructive will, to a demonic enemy of God whom God has come to defeat. Jesus solidified the progressive breaking off of this satanic/adversarial element from our concept of God. Jesus refined our understanding of God and exposed the adversarial destructive agency as opposed to God instead of part of God. For God is not the accuser and destroyer of mankind, he is a Father and a giver of life..
Not until later centuries did Satan begin being equated with “Lucifer” which just means “morning star” and comes from a prophecy about the earthly king of Babylon in Isaiah 14. Like the unbiblical doctrine of the rapture which was developed in the 1800’s and was novel enough to become indoctrinated into multitudes within 200 years, the power of tradition turned “morning star”, the earthly king of Babylon, into “Lucifer”, a pre-existent spiritual being who wanted to become like God and fell.
At some point, it just became a “fact” that satan was always the fallen angel who rebelled against God in pre-existent times. People will often point to Revelation 12:7-9 to defend the idea that satan was a pre-existent angel who fell, but that scripture has no ties to the Isaiah 14 prophecy about the king of Babylon, nor does it mention any type of fall of a good angel. Rather it is about the deceiver and accuser being cast down and losing his place of authority.
This is what Jesus alludes to when he says “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven”. He is not talking about some pre-creation rebellion of an archangel that is nowhere in the scriptures. He is talking about the eschatological defeat of the adversary. This is clear from the context.
Preceding this statement of Jesus in Luke 10:18, the disciples return from going forth demonstrating the power and faith of the Son:
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, ‘Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name!'”
Jesus, happy to hear that his disciples are walking in his faith and authority, prophesies the adversary’s defeat and all the powers of darkness:
He replied, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Jesus becomes even more excited and joyful, such that he begins praising the Father for how he is accomplishing his triumph, through the faith of children:
At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, ‘I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.'”
Jesus continues in the same vein describing how this triumph over darkness is happening through the revelation of the Father and the Son:
All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Jesus tops off his rejoicing that satan and the powers of darkness are being cast down through the children of God by saying how blessed his disciples are to see this day in history:
Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.'”
Jesus’ declaration “I saw Satan fall like lightning” is his prophetic declaration of the existential downfall of the powers through his revelation of the Father and the Son, which is also the revelation of humanities sonship.
The Evolution of the Satan
As we can see, the biblical witness concerning the ontology of “the satan” and his “demons” is not exactly consistent. Much of it is most likely myth, which serves a purpose to get at a reality we don’t understand… but is not literal. Just to be clear, the word “myth” is not to say something is not true. It is to say that a certain story or parable is created to relate to us on our conceptual level concerning a higher reality that we cannot yet comprehend.
“Satan” (“adversary”) is not a myth – we all experience a dark adversarial dynamic in this universe. Rather, it is possible that some of the stories regarding this evil cosmic presence are myth, using personification and the power of narrative to denote a reality of the cosmic presence of evil, its accusatory and adversarial element, and its destiny of being defeated.
To me, the issue of the ontology of “the satan” is not really that important. Whatever the cosmic powers of evil are, we believe they exist, and the best way to fight them is to simply follow the way of Jesus.
However, the near absence of satan in the entire Old Testament is an important dynamic to understand concerning progressive revelation. Even though the Old Testament is significantly larger than the New Testament, a character called “the satan” is only mentioned nineteen times, and not as a personal name but with the article “the”, as in “the satan”, indicating a generic adversarial role. Fourteen of these mentioning’s of “the satan” are in the book of Job, because the satan plays a key role in this story. This means, besides the book of Job, the Old Testament only mentions “the satan” five times, which is just a generic adversarial title. When this character does appear, he serves as God’s agent of destruction, as part of the “divine council” (also called “the council of the gods”), revealing a facet of the divine nature while serving as God’s adversarial tool.
To give an example of this, there are two biblical accounts of David’s sin in numbering Israel. One blames God for it, and the other blames the satan, because to Israel, there was no difference. All destructive behavior was attributed to God, and sometimes it would specifically make “the adversary” (the satan) as the angel or servant that was fulfilling God’s destructive decree.
This demonstrates that the Israelites sometimes saw God’s destructive anger as synonymous with the satan. Here I will quote two different passages of the account of Davids numbering of Israel, but notice the two different causes in each account:
The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.'” (2 Samuel 24:1)
“Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.” (1 Chronicles 21:1)
Same exact event, but two different causes. In one, it is the Lord that caused Davids destructive behavior, and in the other, it is the satan that caused Davids destructive behavior. Is this an error in the text? Or is this an example of the general perspective of Israel that the satan was synonymous with Gods destructive wrath?
This is not just a minor little obscure thing here in these passages, but rather, a blatant example of a more general Old Testament perspective of God. There are many other places where Israel attributes things to “the Lord” because believed the Lord was behind everything. If an angel of destruction or the satan did something, it was ultimately “the Lord” doing it.
Take another look at the book of Job for example. In the book of Job, a character called the satan (the adversary) enters God’s presence and has a casual conversation with God about a man named Job, one of God’s best men. The satan convinces the Creator to team up with him in a kind of cosmic bet to see if Job is truly faithful to God or not.
Where in this story is the prince of darkness, the demonic archenemy of God, who is only full of deception and lies, whom Jesus declares he has come to overthrow? Nowhere. God casually goes along with the satans antagonistic endeavors and that’s that. That’s because in this story, and in this time, the satan is not conceptualized as an enemy of God. He is conceptualized as merely an adversarial mechanism that serves God’s adversarial purposes.
Contrast this with the New Testament, where Satan is an actual name no longer having the article “the” in front of the word, has developed a history in Jewish tradition as a demonic enemy of God, and plays a main role in every book (mentioned 100’s of times in a portion of the Bible that is significantly smaller). Satan is now always shown as a cosmic rebel who is the antithesis of the Father and whom Jesus has come to destroy. Jesus goes about his whole life completely opposed to a character named Satan and all of his works, heaven-bent on driving him out of the world.
This is quite an interesting distinction to think about when reading the Old Testament. The evolution of the concept of “the satan” reflects on the evolution of the concept of the nature of God. Since both good and evil could no longer be attributed to God, since God could not be both the enemy and Savior of mankind, all of the sudden, there is a supernatural entity that personifies evil who is mentioned hundreds of times throughout the New Testament.
Think about that for a second. The Old Testament takes up 2/3 of the Bible and covers thousands of years of Israel’s history, and the New Testament is about 1/3 of the Bible and was all written in the span of several decades.
I would point out however that even though the satan is only mentioned nineteen times in the Old Testament, (fourteen of which are in Job), other characters like “the angel of the Lord”, “the angel of death”, “the angel of destruction”, and “the destroyer” are also employed to describe this adversarial element of God. The scriptures sometimes said, “The Lord did this destructive thing” or “The Lord sent an evil spirit” or “the Lord sent this deception” but then would attribute the actual action to an angel or “the destroyer.”
Later on, Jewish literature began to identify “the angel of death/the destroyer” who fulfilled God’s destructive will as synonymous with the satan as well. The Old Testament simply did not differentiate the Lord and the satan, and all stealing, killing, and destroying was attributed to God.
Jesus reveals his Abba as never coming to steal, kill, or destroy, but only to bring life. “For this reason the Son of God was manifest, to destroy the works the devil.” (1 John 3:8)
Old Testament saints wrongly included Satan in their functional definition of God. Whenever there was temptation, destruction, wrath, and death, all activities which the New Testament would later assign to Satan, the Old Testament would instead attribute these destructions to God Himself. They would not pray against the wiles of the devil, the way the New Testament instructs, but would rather beg God to stay His own wrathful hand. Satan was nowhere in their causative equation. God was the ONLY cause of both good and evil.
The New Testament, by contrast, DIFFERENTIATES the identities of God and Satan totally. What is joined at the conceptual hip in the Old Testament is separated and forever severed in the New. Jesus, it could be argued, IS the DYNAMIC DIFFERENTIATION of God’s image from Satan’s image. He is the refining fire which burns all the unworthy attributes the Old Testament God out and away from the pure and perfect divine nature. Simply stated, the Old Testament view of Satan is lacking New Testament illumination. And, as a result, the Old Testament often blends the identities of God and Satan TOGETHER, which ends up confusing the true source of Old Testament ‘wrath.’ Only as we NOW reinsert Satan back into the destructive Old Testament passages can we rightly understand what Jesus was doing in the Old Testament versus what Satan was doing. Learning to do this instinctively will forever free up our thinking and our understanding of the Old Testament.”
– Richard Murray, Satan: Old Testament Servant Angel or New Testament Cosmic Rebel?
Author Stephen Harris notes that the Old Testament Satan is not the same entity as the New Testament Satan:
[In the Old Testament] the Satan figure acts as Yahweh’s spy and prosecuting attorney whose job is to bring human misconduct to the deity’s attention and, if possible, persuade Yahweh to punish it. Throughout the Old Testament the Satan remains among the divine ‘sons,’ serves as God’s administrative agent, and thus reveals a facet of the divine personality.At the outset, some Bible writers saw all things, good and evil alike, as emanating from a single source– Yahweh. Israel’s strict monotheistic credo decreed that Yahweh alone caused both joys and sorrows, prosperity and punishment (Deut. 28). The canonical Hebrew Bible grants the Satan scant space and little power. Whereas the Old Testament Satan can nothing without Yahweh’s express permission, in the New Testament he behaves as an independent force who competes with the Creator for human souls.
According to Mark’s Gospel, one of Jesus’ major goals is to break up Satan’s kingdom and the hold that he and lesser evil spirits exercise on the people. Hence, Mark stresses Jesus’ works of exorcising devils and dispossessing the victims of demonic control. The New Testament, then– in sharp contrast to the Old– shows Satan and the devil as one, a focus of cosmic evil totally opposed to the Creator God. This ‘evil one’ is the origin of lies, sin, suffering, sickness and death.”
– Understanding the Bible, A Readers Introduction, pages 26-28.
The renowned International Standard Bible Encyclopedia is in full agreement with this in its entry on Satan:
The Old Testament does not contain the fully developed doctrine of Satan found in the New Testament. It does not portray him as at the head of a kingdom, ruling over kindred natures and an apostate from the family of God.
It is a significant fact that the statements concerning Satan become numerous and definite only in the New Testament. The daylight of the Christian revelation was necessary in order to uncover the lurking foe, dimly disclosed but by no means fully known in the earlier revelation.
In the early states of religious thinking it would seem to be difficult, if not impossible, to hold the sovereignty of God without attributing to His agency those evils in the world which are more or less directly connected with judgment and punishment.
The progressive revelation of God’s character and purpose, which more and more imperatively demands that the origin of moral evil, and consequently natural evil, must be traced to the created will in opposition to the Divine, leads to the ultimate declaration that Satan is a morally fallen being to whose conquest the Divine Power in history is pledged.”
Scholar Jeffrey Burton Russell, who has written multiple volumes on the historical development of our understanding of Satan, notes that the reason early Jewish thought saw Satan as God’s servant is as follows:
Since the God of Israel was the only God, the supreme power in the cosmos, and since, unlike the abstract God of the Greeks, He had personality and will, no deed could be done unless He willed it. Consequently, when anyone transgressed morality, God was responsible for the transgression as well as for its punishment.”
– The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of God in History, Cornell University Press, 29-30.
And finally:
‘The satan’ in Job is an officer of the divine council (sort of like a prosecutor). His job is to ‘run to and fro throughout the earth’ to see who is and who is not obeying Yahweh. When he finds someone who isn’t and is therefore under Yahweh’s wrath, he ‘accuses’ that person. This is what we see in Job — and it actually has a distinct New Testament flavor. (We also see it in Zechariah 3). But the point here is that this satan is not evil; he’s doing his job. Over time (specifically the idea of ‘being an adversary in the heavenly council’ was applied intellectually to the enemy of God — the nachash (typically rendered ‘serpent’) in Eden, the one who asserted his own will against Yahweh’s designs. That entity eventually becomes labeled ‘Satan’ and so the adversarial role gets personified and stuck to God’s great enemy (also called the Devil). This is a good example of how an idea in Israelite religion plays out and is applied in different ways during the progress of revelation.”
“I Come to Give Them Life” (John 10:10)
Surrounding pagan beliefs of the time influenced Hebrew thought, because after all, the Semitic people came out of these cultures. As Judaism moves from hanotheism (plural gods) to monotheism (one God), the evil things that happen in the world are explained as this “adversarial element” to God which is part of his wrath, and part of the attempt at explaining bad things happening in the world. This idea evolves into the idea of “the adversary” or “the satan” who is part of the “council of the gods”, who is Gods “prosecuting attorney”, who is Gods tool to both tempt people to transgress the law and then report them to God to be condemned and destroyed for doing so. This divine adversarial character became known as “the accuser.” As the evolution of the satan in Hebrew thought progresses, there emerges a breaking off of this adversarial characterization from the concept of God and the satan begins being conceived as an independent will that is opposed to God.
The satan therefore evolves in Hebrew conception from being a adversarial facet of God, administering Gods death and destruction, to a cosmic rebel who is in direct opposition to God.
This character who personifies opposition to God is now mentioned hundreds of times in a portion of writings that take up less than 1/3 of the Bible and were written over the span of a few decades. Since the good nature of God became much clearer, and no longer could everything be attributed to God, it followed that the source of all the evil, destruction, and death in the world had to be something else.
This should give us pause. What do we find revealed in the life of Jesus? We find a clear and consistent ethic of non-violence, enemy-love, peacemaking, and reconciliation, teaching that he comes to bring life and he is the image of his Abba. Yes, we find warnings of the self-destructive consequences of sin, but these destructive consequences do not come from the hand of his Abba. Jesus declares himself to be the exact representation of the Father, and nowhere is violence and destruction found in the actions of God when he walked into history in his flesh and blood Son.
Consider the following passage:
Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. Saul’s attendants said to him, ‘See, an evil spirit from God is tormenting you. Let our lord command his servants here to search for someone who can play the lyre. He will play when the evil spirit from God comes on you, and you will feel better.’” (1 Samuel 16:14-15)
As we know, the story goes on to say that David plays the harp for Saul and, by the Lords anointing, drives away the evil spirit the Lord sicced on Saul. So here we have God tormenting Saul with an evil spirit, and David under Gods anointing interfering with Gods tormenting plans and driving away the God-sent evil spirit. David, under God’s anointing, going against what God himself is doing.
This comes back to what the Hebrews commonly believed about God vs. what is revealed in Jesus. The Hebrews simply saw in part and didn’t have the whole revelation of God’s character. There are other places as well where it says that God sent evil spirits to deceive people (1 Kings 22:22). The God of truth, who wants people to live in truth, sends evil spirits to deceive people? Jesus reveals otherwise. Jesus reveals that God is not in line with everything the Old Testament attributed to God simply because they thought he was the author of everything. Jesus reveals God as opposed to evil, chaos, destruction, deception, retribution, evil spirits, etc. whereas the Old Testament commonly attributed all these things to God.
This is not “throwing out the Old Testament.” This is reading it discerningly, with Jesus as our guide. The Old Testament is full of powerful pointers to Christ. But the revelation of God in Jesus is actually significant, folks. God actually came into history in a man, and in flesh and blood revealed the fullness of what God is like.
Whereas in the Old Testament the Hebrews saw God as inflicting people with evil spirits, in the New Testament we have Jesus casting out evil spirits. Whereas in the Old Testament we have the satan as Gods obedient servant angel of destruction, who carries out Yahwehs disasters, in the New Testament the satan is shown as completely opposed to the will of the Father and whom Jesus has come to drive out and destroy.
Jesus shows the satan to not be an expression of Gods anger who does Gods dirty work, but to be the antithesis of the Father and who Jesus has come to cast down. Jesus says that God is the God of giving life, and not stealing, killing, and destroying. Jesus spends his whole ministry destroying the works of the devil and then it culminates in Jesus declaring, “’Now I will cast the ruler of this world out…’ Signifying what death he should die.” (John 12:31) Everything Jesus did contradicted the work of a wrathful destroyer, and this perfectly reveals God.
In Jesus, we see the full disclosure of the character of God as he completely divorces the idea of God from the idea of the satan so that the two are directly opposed. God is not the accuser, the destroyer, or the enemy of humanity. God is the Savior of humanity.
Stay tuned for the second part to this series, which will explore what this biblical progression of the satan means for understanding “the wrath of God.”
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Satan and his principalities, powers, dark world rulers are real and at war with God’s saints on earth. Even one of God’s blessed angels had to wrestle with one of Satan’s agents or demons in the Book of Daniel for a space of time to overthrow the adversarial demon who ruled over an enemy of God’s plans to liberate the Jews from Babylon! Even though God has total power over Satan and his demonic forces, they are real and will be judged one day for their persistent wickedness!
You merely just declared your own presuppositions on the issue, and didn’t address any of the points in the article.
I think Ron Murphy’s point is a valid one. In order to address all the points in the article, it would take another article. You sidestepped his question. The burden of proof lies with you to address and overturn (if possible) his question, because it is a good one.
I do agree Murphy has a point. Not framed as a question though.
My question is from the book of Jude where he writes:
” But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”[d] 10 Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them.”
This seems to be addressing those who scoff at supernatural beings, whereas the angel Michael had an encounter with the devil and simply rebuked him. What was this encounter between Michael and the devil?
Daniel has been written after the return from Babylon under influence of Zoroastrianism in Persian empire. Did you know that book of Daniel has 3 more chapters speaking openly just about Satan as dragon. Bus last 3 chapters has been removed after significant amount of time.
Where did you find this out?
People are going to have to “WAKE UP!” The Jews “ARE NOT” JESUS THE FATHER’S chosen people! Esau’s “ADAMIC” [SEED LINE] from [JESUS THE FATHER] “WAS” 100% PURE WHITE STOCK! Something very evil had to have happened for Esau’s descendants to suddenly be called the “Synagogue of Satan.” Esau and his rebellious descendants committed the shameful, sinful, and forbidden act of “MISCEGENATION” or “race mixing” with the evil serpent seed descendants of Cain, for the evil serpent seed descendants of Cain are the “NEGROES.” This mongrelization of the “ADAMIC” [SEED LINE] is what you call a Jew. A mamzer. A bastard.
*FACT* “ADAMIC” Enoch was the first to identify them
*FACT* “ADAMIC “ Moses was the “2ND CONFIRMATIONł” in (Moses 7:22)
*FACT* “ADAMIC” Abraham was the “3RD CONFIRMATION” in (Abraham 1:21-24) that identified the “serpent seed” descendants of Cain are the “NEGROES.”
3 of the Bible’s “GREATEST PATRIARCHS” have identified the black to copper colored negroes as the “serpent seed” descendants of Cain.
Jesus Christ was not a Jew! The ALPHA & The OMEGA cane in the flesh of an ADAMIC [man] who had a 100% pure white stock Holy [SEED LINE] that HE passed through Adam [the man]. Adam “‘eth-ha-‘adham” is a distinct “formation” in the image of “THE INVISIBLE GOD! [Adam] was the first [man] to have “ADAMIC FEATURES” like [JESUS THE FATHER] through HIS [SEED LINE]. When [JESUS THE FATHER] “formed” Adam [the man], [HE] “formed” Adam [the man] in the image of [HIMSELF], (Genesis 5:1). (Colossians 1:15-17) – [JESUS THE SON] is the exact image of the “INVISIBLE GOD!” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Christ, who is the image of [God The Father]. [ADAMIC] means: #119, #120, #122, #219, #1305, #1588, #3835, #4899, #6703, pure white race, chosen, the elect, remnant, Christian, ruddy, red lips, to turn flush, able to blush in the face, rosy pink cheeks, fair countenance, bright white, laban, ivory, white as snow, “without spots,” golden, clean, purified, with black brown red to blonde hair, with emerald green to sapphire blue eyes as the fish pools of Heshbon. Adam [the man] was the beginning of a completely [new race], from (Genesis 2:7-22) that is the central theme of [all Scripture].
In (Genesis 2:7-22) [JESUS THE FATHER] “formed” Adam [the man] in the image of [HIMSELF]. That means [JESUS THE FATHER] has these same “ADAMIC FEATURES.” [JESUS THE FATHER], Adam [the man], and “ADAMIC” [Jesus Christ] all had “ADAMIC” beautiful blonde hair with ruddy-white glowing skin, with emerald green to deep, dazzling, sapphire blue eyes as the fish pools of Heshbon. (Matthew 15:24) But He answered and said, [I AM] not sent but “ONLY” to the lost sheep of the house of [ADAMIC ISRAEL].
Gadre’El is the true hidden name of the devil from the garden of Eden, not Lucifer (3 Enoch 68:6-8, page 64). Gadre’El is (יהוה). (יהוה) is not The Creator God, (Obid:16). (יהוה) Is not God The Father. Yod~He~Vav~He, is not the unspeakable name of God The Father. YAHWEY is not The Father of The Christ! The Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Ed Vol 15, page 321 says “…Yahweh is not a Paleo-Hebrew/Greek name. The 4 letters of the tetragrammaton YHVH/YHWH are used on satanic tarot cards, they are not Holy. They are used for divination, witchcraft and sorcery. If these 4 letters together are not holy, all of the transliterations from them are not holy. See Google Images. 4 LETTERS YHWH ARE NOT HOLY TAROT CARDS – Google Search
YAHWEY IS NOT THE GOD OF CHRISTIANITY. YAHWEY IS THE GOD OF JUDAISM.
Yahwey was no god, Yahwey was just a black man, a warrior with sword and spear. He was also called a god (worker) of metallurgy and that’s it. Yahwey’s wife was also black named Asherah, aka Ishtar, Venus, Hathor, Gaia, Aphrodite, Isis, and the queen of Heaven. The Jews have corrupted the Old Testament to cause “confusion and chaos” in the minds of Christians about who God The Father really is. It isn’t Yahwey.
Moses began writing the Scriptures in Paleo-Hebrew/Greek in 1446, YHVH/YHWH/YAHWEY/YAH/YESHUA did not appear in them. YAHWEY’S negro~Babylonian/Aramaic/Assyrian language did not exist until “300 BC.” That’s a gap of 1,146 years that the true sacred name of The Creator God was in his the Scriptures. In Paleo-Hebrew/Greek [His] name is Ἰησοῦς or Iesous. It was never pronounced “EA-SOUS”. With the letter “iot/jot” if you have a consonant after the letter “iot/jot” the name has the letter I sound. If you have a vowel after the letter “iot/jot” the name has the letter J sound. By rule, the O is silent. Therefore, when the apostles spoke to The Christ, He “HEARD” the name above all names. JESUS, NOT ANY OF THE PAGAN “Y NAMES.” JESUS is The Creator of ALL the Heavens, and [HIS] “Flat Disk” called Earth Isaiah 40:22 (ISV). In the William Tyndale 1537 Bible, the first Old English translation, in 2 Samuel 11:11 you will find these 3 words, “THE FLATT ERTHE.”
10+ alphabets had and used the letter J before the Greek! The Enochian alphabet, “uncorrupted” Paleo-Hebrew, Ancient Phoenician, Daggers, Malachim, Pictish, Tengwar, Futhark, Anglo/Roman, Mason/Rosicrucian uncorrupted Ogham, and more. Other alphabets had symbols for the J sound. THE SACRED NAME” So, what did God The Father say to Moses in 1446 BC? HE said “EHJEH ASHER EHJEH.” THUS SHALL YOU SAY TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL: “EHJEH ASHER EHJEH.” “I AM JE” HAS SENT ME TO YOU.” JE (HIS name) + SUS (God with us) = JESUS! (Exodus 3:14). God The Father was known as JE, I JE, JEH, EHJEH ASHER EHJEH, JESE, JEUE, JESUE, and of course Jesus or “JESUS.” Jesus ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE ALMIGHTY GOD, THE EVERLASTING FATHER, THE SELF EXISTING ONE, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, THE LORD GOD. YOUR CLOSEST FRIEND! JESUS THE CREATOR GOD, (John 1:14). THE FATHER & I ARE ONE, (John 10:30).
FOR IN JESUS DWELLETH THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD! JESUS THE FATHER, JESUS THE SON/CHRIST, JESUS THE HOLY SPIRIT. (Colossians 2:9)
JESUS THE FATHER delivered the ADAMIC Israelites out from under the whips of the negro pharaoh. Jesus called the Jews what? The synagogue of satan. Jesus Christ laid His life down for Israel. The Israelites. Who are the Israelites? Adam’s [the man] “ADAMIC” [SEED LINE] from [JESUS THE FATHER] leads to THE WHITE ANGLO-SAXON, GERMANIC, CELTIC, SCANDINAVIAN, CAUCASIAN AND KINDRED PEOPLE OF THE WORLD. THE WHITE RACES! THESE ARE THE DESCENDANTS OF “ADAMIC” ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND JACOB/ISRAEL [THE MAN], not the nation of Israel in the Middle East. The everlasting covenant [JESUS THE FATHER] made with “ADAMIC” Abraham applies to “his” ADAMIC” descendants “ONLY.”
Why do I draw such a hard, no none sense type of attitude? “Dogs” and “bulls” are synonyms for the people (BEASTS) that crucified Jesus. Jesus 4 times acknowledged these people as evil “DOGS.” In Psalms 22:12-16 “These “dogs,” these “beasts of the field” have surrounded me and trapped Me in. [Intro] TLC~So I creep, yeah, ’cause he doesn’t know what I do, and no attention goes to show so I creep, yeah, just creepin’ on, but I’ll know so I creep, yeah, ’cause he doesn’t know what I do, so I creep, ‘cept nobody is supposed to know.” [End] If it was the “beasts of the field” that pierced [HIS] hands & pierced [HIS] feet to the old wooden cross, it was the “serpent seed NEGRO descendants of Cain” (Moses 7:22) & (Abraham 1:21-24) that spat on Jesus, that blindfolded Jesus and pulled His beard from HIS face. The “serpent seed negro descendants of Cain” tortured, and crucified [OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST].” It wasn’t the Holy Roman Empire that we see today that crucified JESUS. It was a “black” Rome “THE ORIGINAL JEWS and ORIGINAL ROMANS WERE BLACKS. (Psalm 21:10) The “serpent seed negroes” are unclean, they are demons, they are the enemies & adversaries of JESUS THE FATHER, Jesus Christ, and Christianity. These negro Jews hated the blue eyed blond haired Jesus so much, they fondled themselves until they urinated on The Christ. Why do you think it’s wired into the negroes to always grab themselves in front of everyone? The final act of the devils literal and physical children was: “with one swift movement, they decapitated Jesus and they set His precious body and head on fire!
JESUS THE FATHER’S chosen people are The Israelites that live right here in a new
Jer USA lem .
Ron, you do understand that 2,000 years ago there was no such thing as a Jew. The terms Jew and Jews did not exist until the year 1590. Jews are not God’s chosen people. Whenever you see Jews as His chosen it should say Israelites.
I really enjoyed this post. It got me thinking. 🙂 Would you be able to provide the scripture reference for when God refers to Himself as a “satan” / adversary to Israel’s enemies? I would love to do some follow up reading on this article. Looking forward to the next post on how this relates to the cross and God’s wrath!
Sorry, that was a mistake. It is the Angel of the Lord who is called a satan in Numbers 22:32, which in the Jewish understanding there is no difference between Yahweh and his representative Angel. But while it does call the Yahwehs Angel satan, it does not directly call Yahweh satan. I corrected that.
(יהוה), Yod~He~Vav~He Is not the sacred name of God The Father. (יהוה) is not The Creator God. YHVH/YHWH/YAHWEY/YAHUAH/YAH/JAH/JAH(W)/YAM/YAMO/IAH are all satanic names. They are exactly the opposite of what we have been taught. They are not the names of God The Father of Christianity! These “Y names” represent these so-called deities in both male and female form throughout the Levant in the Canaanite pantheon. That could mean any one of these so called deities could have a wife, or be in male and female form simultaneously like Baphomet. Unknown to Christians, “Y names” are used in Judaism, Kabbalistic mysticism, Egyptian mysticism, Egyptian Neo-Paganism, Neterism, Kemetism, Babylonian mysticism, Wicca, and witchcraft. These Pagan religions use “YAH” in different forms to represent the Egyptian moon god. The pre-Adamic “beast of the field” negroes use the name YAHAWA for their negro god, and Yahawashi for their negro christ. YAH is now most commonly associated with the Rastafari. YAH was also assimilated with green/black (negro) Osiris, god of the dead, the god of the underworld. The 4 letters YHVH/YHWH are used on satanic tarot cards, they are not Holy. The apostles never spoke these “Y names.” The Encyclopedia Britannica 1958 edition, Volume 12, says “…Yah/Yahweh are not Hebrew names”. YAHWEY is the god of the serpent seed negroes, (Moses 7:22). YAHWEY was “literally” a negro man, a negress wife named Asherah. YAH was also identified with the Aramaic thunder God, Adad. The identification of the god YAH of Gaza is the Hebrew Phoenician and Aramaic sun-god El or Elohim. Source (ibid, pp. 42-43). All of these names are used in conjunction with the name of the god Yahu. ALL” of these “Y names” are Satanic for GOD THE FATHER, and The Christ. Today’s Jews freely admit these “Y names” mean “May His name (Jesus) be obliterated,” and modern Americans (Israelites) are vast asleep believing Yeshua/Yahshua are the correct name for Jesus. Orthodox Jews call the name “Yeshua” as a term of “intentional blasphemy.” Not only is this grossly incorrect, it’s uneducated, and brainwashing. People don’t seem to know the difference between the Judeo-Christianity Trinity compared to the Godhead of Christianity. In the Judeo-Christian Trinity you have Abba/YAHWEY, Son/Yahushua/Yeshua and Rawuch spirit/ghost. In Christianity, Colossians 2:9 For in a JESUS dwelleth the fullness of The Godhead. The Godhead is JESUS THE FATHER, Jesus The Son/Christ, and Jesus The Holy Spirit. JESUS THE FATHER IS THE CREATOR GOD!
In the uncorrupted Paleo-Hebrew, there was no letter “ Y “ but since the letter “ Y “ is used for 5 different letters to prevent the spelling of The Creators name. Right to left it’s ESEJ. From left to right it’s JESE. The “Divine Creators” name was usurped by the negro-Babylonians and negro-Jews, (Moses 7:22) and they applied Y=Y, Y=W, Y=S, Y=J, Y=I but to what end? It’s so in the corrupted Paleo-Hebrew you cannot spell The Creators “Divine, Sacred Name” of JESUS.
Saying there was no letter J until the Greek is a lie of the Babylonians and the Jews. There are 10+ alphabets that had and used the letter J. The Enochian alphabet, “uncorrupted Paleo-Hebrew,” Ancient Phoenician, Daggers, Malachim, Pictish, Tengwar, Futhark, Anglo/Roman, Mason/Rosicrucian uncorrupted Ogham, and more. Other alphabets had symbols for the J sound.
In Greek/Paleo-Hebrew we have the name Iesous. It was never pronounced as “EA-SOUS”. If you have a consonant after the letter I, the name has the letter I sound. If you have a vowel after the letter I, the name has the letter J sound. By rule, the O is silent. Therefore, when the apostles spoke to The Christ, He heard the name of Jesus regardless of ancient spelling.
THE SACRED NAME” So what did God The Father say to Moses in 1446 B.C.? In Exodus 3:14 He said “EHJEH ASHER EHJEH.” THUS SHALL YOU SAY TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL: “EHJEH ASHER EHJEH.” “I JE HAS SENT ME TO YOU.” JE (HIS name) + SUS (God with us) = JESUS! In the “uncorrupted Paleo-Hebrew” Old Testament and New Testament, God The Father was known as JE, I JE, JEH, EHJEH ASHER EHJEH, JESE, JEUE, JESUE, and of course Jesus or “JESUS.” “The ALPHA & The OMEGA.”
The self-existing, The eternal JE. I am JE, The Beginning and The End, The Eternal, JE with us, God with us.” The Alpha & The Omega. The pronunciation or the spelling of The Holy “Divine name” doesn’t change. JE is The Creator of ALL the Heavens, and HIS “Flat disk” called Earth (Isaiah 40:22 ISV).In the William Tyndale 1537 Bible, the first Old English translation, in 2 Samuel 11:11 you will find these 3 words, “THE FLATT ERTHE.” Absolutely nowhere in the Bible do you ever find the names of Yahweh or Jehovah identified as The Alpha and The Omega. 1 John 4:3 And every spirit (man) that confesseth not that “JESUS CHRIST IS COME IN THE FLESH” is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
1 John 5:7 King James Version (KJV) 7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, The Father, The Word, and The Holy Spirit and these three are one. Who are they? The Godhead. Colossians 2:9 For in Jesus dwelleth the fullness of The Godhead! JESUS THE FATHER, Jesus The Son/Christ, Jesus The Holy Spirit. Therefore, If you are an [Adamic white man or woman] and you have rejected the name of “JESUS” as The Creator and you have been worshiping any of these “Y names” or you if you have been baptized by any of the “Y names” or the name of Jehovah you are worshipping and giving praises to evil negro/Egyptian devils Thoth, Set, Yam, Horus, Nimrod, Osiris, Jupiter, Yahwey, Allah and ultimately Satan-Gadre’El (Book of 3 Enoch 68:6 page 64). YAHWEY is blasphemy! YAHWEY/JUPITER is the negro beast in the book of Revelation.
If you have called on these names for God The Father you are worshiping and giving praises to Allah, who is really Satan instead of The LORD God of the Old Testament. (יהוה) is not Jesus, nor is (יהוה) God The Father. (יהוה) is not The Creator God, nor The Christ. THERE IS NO YAHWEY JESUS! THERE IS NO YESHUA JESUS! THERE IS NO YAHSHUA JESUS! Any “Y name” used with or for Jesus is blasphemy and it will send your “living soul” soul to hell!
MOSES 7:11,35 And The LORD God gave unto Enoch a commandment that he should baptize in the name of The Father, and of The Son, which is full of grace and truth, and of The Holy Spirit which beareth record of The Father and The Son. 35 Behold, I am God; Man of Holiness is My name; Man of Counsel is My name; and Endless and Eternal is My name, also. (nothing about The Godhead even in The Old Testament has anything to do with YAH/YAHWEY/YAHUAH/YESHUA/YAHSHUA/YAHUSHUA). Spirit. (ACTS 4:10,12) Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel (white America) that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, neither is there salvation in any other name.
A FINAL WARNING:
Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven. 1 John 4:3 And every spirit (man) that confesseth not that “JESUS THE FATHER IS COME IN THE FLESH” is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist. THERE IS BUT 1 LORD, 1 FAITH, 1 BAPTISM, 1 NAME, 1 JESUS. JESUS IS THE GODHEAD. JESUS THE FATHER, JESUS THE SON/CHRIST, JESUS THE HOLY SPIRIT.
BTW, The Rapture is 100% Doctrine! There are 101 Scriptures in the Old and New a Testaments combined. People use the Darby card constantly. That’s so old. The Rapture doctrine was first taught by IRENAEUS LYONS (120-202 AD)
I see I’m not the only one but being the next one is fine with me. Yahwey is not God. Yahwey is not the Creator God. Yahwey was the ancient pagan moon god of the black/red Idumeans/Edomites and of today’s Jews.
Jesus is God. Jesus Christ is God incarnate (John 1:14). (Jesus is the Everlasting Father, Almighty God, the Prince of Peace, Wonderful, Counsellor. (Isaiah 9:6).
Stuff to think about. In the NT, we are warned to be on our guard, that our enemy prowls like a lion, and elsewhere to put on the armor of God.
Pretty clear there is an actual entity, not just part of God’s prosecuting side, at play here.
The thing is, much of the Bible is allegory and is not intended to be taken literally. This was the language of the culture. I get the sense that the “enemy” that is spoken of is the same thing Paul eludes to when he talks about his internal struggle, doing the things he didn’t want to do and not doing the things he did want to do. This was his adversary. It wasn’t a being that was tempting him to sin, but our own evil desires we each wrestle with.
Hi Kevin! You mentioned Paul talking in Romans 7:15. In context, he is talking about a Law keeper not a new covenant believer. He says in verse 16, “But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.”
While I completely agree there is an adversary, our struggle is not a lukewarm Christianity where we want to do good but have a desire for evil. The beautiful thing is that we have been born again with new desires–a new heart–that is set on doing good. We are a “good tree” that bears good fruit and if along the way a piece of bad fruit shows up, our Father is good to trim it before we let it defines us.
I so agree.
Good thoughts
Gen. 4, God warns Cain that sin is “crouching at the door.” Personification doesn’t imply entity, as Kevin pointed out, so similarly the enemy “prowling like a lion” doesn’t need to mean entity.
The satan is the ego. Virtuous living attracts positive circumstances (even in a quantic sense), as any true seeker of the Kingdom knows. The literal scapegoat, which was sent out into the wild, carrying people’s sins, was a Hebrew invention. Taking responsibility for one’s own thoughts and actions (known in psychology as internal loci of control thinking) is what this beautiful world so desperately needs. Judging others is merely a projection of one’s own quirks.
Read Peter Goodgames comment a few comments down. Similar ideas.
I agree with you, but what about Jesus. He seemed the believe satan was an entity. Was Jesus just using Jewish thought or was He talking about Satan as a personification?
Love this insite. Thank you!
One thing that came to mind though for me was the destruction of babelon. He sent Angels to check out the city didn’t he? If it was the enemy who destroyed the city, then why did he make sure the good people got out first?
In the new testament Jesus also warned constantly of the coming destruction of Jerusalem. He was going to put a final end to that religious covenant He never wanted, and whoever clung to it was going down with it. Jesus said the blood of all the prophets would be on there heads. So could it be that both were true? Could there be an adversary and the righteous judgments of God? He sets us free by destroying the works of the enemy. Is that not sometimes a system or belief that He has to destroy? And sometimes will that involve taking down those who cling to it in it destruction? That certainly seems to be what happened in 70AD. He gave them all the warnings He could!
Maybe we should look at the covenant God was being faithful too as well. He never wanted that old covenant. He wanted to make them kings and priests. But He went with what they would give him (“we don’t want to talk to him, just tell us what to do and we will do it”). God entered that covenant choice they wanted with them and was righteous and just in keeping up His end of the agreement with blessing and cursing. He never wanted too and had a plan to put an end to it, but He was acting in accordance with the covenant agreement He went into with them (less He loose them all together). I guess there’s a lot of things to look at.
expecting to find in future articles that since the synagogues had become synagogues of satan and that eschatalogically (in my view) Revelation’s casting of satan into the lake of fire is the final destruction of “religion” in the destruction of Jerusalem, the Law system, priesthood, sacrifices, etc in the fires of the Roman destruction.
Interesting, would have to read more into this view. Got any links to share?
He Jacob, not sure if you ever got around to that but I can give some links or explain myself.
Look up “Don K Preston” on youtube
Also “ecclesia.org” and “revelationrevolution.org”.
Basically, the view is that Matthew 24 amd Revelation are parallels as many agree. But in Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples attributed the destruction of the temple to the coming of the Lord and end of the “Age” (not world, wrong translation). Peter indicated the “Elements” will be burned up in the emd. The word for Elements here, refers to teaching and principles, a.k.a. elements of the old laws. The end was all about judgement and Jesus said his generation will be judged and they were responsible for the blood of the past saints/martyrs (Matthew 23:34-36).
The common doctrine of Satan is really a shell of out-of-context Scripture surrounding a completely hollow core. If Satan is indeed the greatest arch-enemy of God, a being who once led the heavenly host, the leader of worship, as the typical teaching goes, then when was this hugely important entity created? Why does the Bible not tell us more of his story?
Jesus says that the devil is the father of lies, a murderer from the beginning. This would seem to tell us that Satan never existed in a supposed innocent and glorified “pre-fallen” state. Furthermore, after God is finished creating after Day Six in Genesis God declares that everything He created was “good.” Where is Satan in this narrative, if Jesus is truthfully telling us that Satan comes only to steal, kill and destroy?
What I am saying is that, like the author of this article, I have come to the conclusion that Satan was not created by God, but was created by mankind. This does not mean that he is not real, merely that he is not REAL in the sense that we have traditionally believed. Satan is a social invention that serves a theological purpose for a species grappling with the terrors of violence and death in a biological world on one hand, and a slowly emerging revelation of a transcendent God on the other. You cannot disconnect the career of Satan from the story of fallen man. They are intertwined! Satan appears at the scene of the first temptation of man and is then destroyed at the last judgment of man.
Satan is the Accuser. We have only imagined that he served a purpose as God’s agent in heaven, simultaneously tempting and accusing mankind. The temptations and accusations had their true origin in ourselves, but to protect our identities and further our cultures we projected these impulses outside of ourselves and created Satan to be in charge of things that we dared not claim as our own.
Jesus defeated Satan. During His earthly life He revealed the Kingdom of Heaven and He made a way for true transformation, resisting temptation and smothering all accusations. Jesus appeared as an advocate for all who are accused, telling the adulterous woman, “Where are your accusers? They are all gone and I’m not one of them!” Then when Jesus ascended to Heaven He released the Holy Spirit, the divine Advocate, who is the theological opposite of the Accuser.
Revelation 12 therefore connects the ascension of Jesus TO Heaven with the fall of Satan FROM Heaven. No longer can we view Satan as an agent of God having a rightful place in Heaven. In fact he never did have a place in Heaven. We thought he was “doing God’s dirty work” but really he was our own projection. The Accuser is cast out of Heaven at the same time that the Advocate is released by Jesus from Heaven to empower His disciples. The earth is now a battleground, but it is clear on which side we should stand. One day all accusations will cease when the old world passes away and the New Creation emerges in its fullness.
This is deep revelation folks! Thanks for the insightful and challenging article. Please keep them coming!
Wow, really good stuff. I see great validity in your view here. You on Facebook?
That insightful comment creates an excitement in me towards the kingdom. Bertie Brits has been teaching along these lines, if I understand you and him correctly.
Peter Goodgame,
While it’s true, as you proclaimed, that “after God finished creating after Day Six in Genesis God declares that everything He created was good.’” However, it’s also true that Jesus was quite clear that when he returns he will separate the sheep from the goats. He explains he will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me to the place prepared for the devil (i.e., Satan) and his angels.” He explains that even many professing Christians will respond, “But Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” Jesus adds, then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. So while God may have indeed declared everything he created to be “good” at the Creation, clearly according to Jesus, not everything remained “good,” nor will everything (or everyone) be “good” at the time of his return.
Hello alex. I have questions to ask about the bible
Jacob, I love your writings and this article is particularly enlightening.
Knowing God is omnipotent, omniscient, and 100% sovereign then nothing occurs without His ability to stop it – and that includes a lot of horrible events. Nothing evil gets by our God.
It seems that we “use” the personification of ‘the satan’ or devil so we don’t have to admit God’s sovereignty.
As we know, Jesus’ declaration “IT IS FINISHED” carried a lot of meaning. Perhaps death and sin and ‘the satan’ were defeated that day. Knowing all will be restored and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord, then all the evil and death we’ve seen for 2000 years has been part of God’s plan to reveal His endless love and mercy. The darker the backdrop, the brighter His plan will be seen.
Great article. Can’t wait to see the rest!
Hi Jacob. Great article thanks. I have a question. This is something that I have been pondering lately. I recently had a convo with a sister who believes “God has satan on a leash” and uses him for our good”…like in Job. So this is what you are writing about here as being the view of God like the OT saints. The question that arouse is if this isn’t the truth than how do we explain that God created the satan(evil, death, destruction, adversary or whatever we call it)? How do we explain that God created it and knew exactly what He was doing because He is the “all knowing” God? For example…and maybe it is not a good one because it’s a “human perspective” but…I paint on canvas….when I paint something it has to come out of me…my conscious or subconscious and I make an intention to use certain tools and colors to make what I want on the canvas. It doesn’t just become a donkey if I am painting a flower…let alone something “evil” and Im just a human. How can God create wrath, evil, destruction,….and Himself not have any part of it in any way?
Hi Danielle! I’m not familiar with how to reply on a blog, but I didn’t see an answer to your question so I thought I’d attempt to throw my two cents in. Your question is a good one! I believe that the word translated as “good” means good as in purposeful. The surrounding cultures had creation myths that saw the physical reality arising as a byproduct or accidental consequence of war between deities. Genesis declares that the creation is purposeful. Your question about God’s part in evil is (I think) best answered by a construct of reality that sees evil categorized into two types. The first is evil conceived in the free wills of conscious beings like us and possibly other beings like angels and demons. The second type is evil in the sense of natural disaster resulting from randomness. Both seem necessary for freedom to be a genuine piece in the creative/redemptive puzzle. Moral evil committed by free willed moral agents like us and natural evil occurring out of the law of probabilities. If God is all knowing and therefore, foreknowing – then either the “evils” I described are the maniacal acts of a cosmic a–hole or the purposeful allowances of a good and perfectly loving God. Perhaps Romans 8:I8-23 sheds light on the latter being true. Since this creative/redemptive plan is unfolding it makes sense that it is not totally intelligible to us who live in it. So while many have reasoned about the relationship between God’s sovereignty and the existence of evil, I suppose the mystery won’t be understood fully until reality is made new as the children of God are revealed. But I do think our hope is one we can eagerly expect! Here’s a link to a short video me and my friend made addressing the question. https://youtu.be/yQSxG6zvCn4 Hope this was helpful!
If you are getting this twice I apologize….its not appearing after I sent the first time….
Hi Jacob. Great article thanks. I have a question that came up recently pertaining to this that I have no idea how to answer and so I have been pondering. I recently had a convo with a sister who believes “God has satan on a leash” and uses “him for our good”…like in Job. So this is what you are writing about here as being the view of God like the OT saints. The question that arouse is if this isn’t the truth than how do we explain that God created the satan(evil, death, destruction, adversary or whatever we call it)? How do we explain that God created it or that we are capable of being it if He knew exactly what He was doing because He is the “all knowing” God? For example…and maybe it is not a good one because it’s a “human one” but…I paint on canvas….when I paint something it has to come out of me…my conscious or subconscious and I make an intention to use certain tools and colors to make what I want on the canvas. It doesn’t just become a donkey if I am painting a flower…let alone something “evil” and Im just a human….the painting can not be an opposition to f what I intended to make. How can God create wrath, evil, destruction,….and Himself not have any part of it in any way?
While I fully agree with you that “Christ fully displays what God is like,” I think it’s incorrect for you to say, “No one saw God or knew God before Christ.” Fact is the Bible actually teaches precisely the opposite. Let me explain. We’re explicitly told, for example, “Then Yahweh appeared to Abram” (Gen 12:7). We’re also told, “And Yahweh appeared to Abram” (Gen 17:1). And we’re also told, “Then Yahweh appeared to him at the oaks of Mamre…” (Gen 18:1), etc.
While Ex. 33:20 says, “No man may see me and live” and the NT agrees, “No one has seen God at any time” (John 1:18), we must ask how can this be true when time and again people actually do see the face of God? (See also Gen 32:30, Isa 6:5, Judges 6: 22-23, etc.) Jesus himself gives the answer in John 6:46. He says the Father is unseen. Yet Jesus claims to be God, and Jesus was clearly seen. Thus we can say that the Son may be seen while the Father cannot.
So what does this mean if we take this one step further? We discover that while God the Father cannot be seen, God the Son — WHO PRE-EXISTED WITH GOD THE FATHER FROM THE VERY BEGINNING — is seen throughout both the OT and the NT. In other words, we discover that anytime God shows up in the Hebrew Bible — and he does so dozens of times — IT IS THE PRE-INCARNATE MANIFESTATION OF GOD THE SON, IN OTHER WORDS, JESUS! Isaiah saw God (Is 6:5). Jacob was wrestling with “a man” but Jacob knows that He is God (Gen 32:24-30), etc.
For a great book detailing the dozens (yes, dozens!) of appearances of God in the OT, I’d recommend the wonderful book, “Who Ate Lunch with Abraham,” by renowned scholar Asher Intrater. Lest you be inclined to laugh off the tongue-in-cheek title, as I was tempted to do, Intrater, is a Jewish believer in Christ who graduated from Harvard University, cum laude, received an M.A. from Baltimore Hebrew College, cum laude, and an M.M.S. from Messiah Biblical Institute. He also served as elder, pastor and counselor in the DC area for 13 years before immigrating to Israel in 1992 and is author of several widely respected books on OT and NT theology.
Bottom line: While the term “trinity” itself is not specifically mentioned in either the OT or NT, God reveals Himself in His triune existence in both testaments. Gradually, but ever more unmistakably, the three-fold distinction within the Divine Being comes to expression in the history of God’s leading in Israel. The OT also includes promises that in the future, there will be higher and richer revelation, and in the NT this comes into much clearer light. But it is incorrect to say, “No one saw God or knew God before Christ.” This flies in the face of what both the OT and the NT teach us.
It doesn’t fly in the face of anything. It merely repeats what John said:
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. – John 1:18
Yes, we could say, but John! Mose saw God! Abraham saw God! Isaiah saw the Lord! But John declares with what Jesus has come and revealed, makes those other revelations as if no one has ever seen God. This is the full revelation of God, Jesus. This is the gospel.
Amen, Jacob!!! And this is precisely why we cannot say, “No one saw God or knew God before Christ,” for as far as the Bible is concerned there was no “before Christ.” Strange as it may sound, Jesus Christ, lived before he was born. Before the incarnation when he became a man and walked the earth, he was already in existence as the second person of the Trinity. From the past eternity he was the Son of God before in time he became the son of Mary. The Son pre-existed with the Father from the beginning of time and repeatedly made appearances in the OT. He was seen dozens of times in physical form and clearly identified himself as God.
This is thought provoking and interesting. I am very interested in hearing the rest of this series.
This is thought provoking. I am looking forward to the balance of the presentation.
Thanks for this very interesting alternative view. A funny thing; I’ve heard Christians my whole life justify heaven as a place forever excluding non-believers because God cannot be in the presence of evil. Aside from the obvious diminishment (although not obvious to some) of God, when I refer to Job and the incident of Satan visiting God in heaven there is typically no response. So even though this was a nifty response, I appreciate the greater truth that Satan/Evil is never in cahoots with God. A million years ago in university we studied a little of Charles Hartshorne, who if I remember correctly did not ascribe any evil events to God. This was very different from what I heard preached which was that “God is testing” when bad events happened and /or the explanation that some events are God’s punishment for sinful behaviour.
Can you please explain what you mean by this?: “Coming out of the pagan cultures of the Earth, Israel’s faith evolved from polytheism, or henotheism, to monotheism.” It seems to me that once God spoke to Abram that it was monotheism going forward. There was no evolution, per se, but rather they were pagans, God speaks to Abram, and then he’s not pagan and is monotheistic. Do you mean something different, or do you agree with me and I just misunderstood you?
No, actually even with belief in one God, there was still evolution with what this meant. Read into “the council of the gods”/”divine council” as well as the “sons of God” and the divine name “Elohim” which was originally a plural title for the pantheon of divine beings. Here is a good link to read into this: http://www.thedivinecouncil.com
Hi Jacob, thanks for this great article. I am very interested in the rest of this series.
Jacob,
I love your hunger for the deeper things if the Word but have what I believe is a fundamental comment regarding this piece on “The Real, Biblical Satan.” You readily and correctly acknowledge that the OT provides us with merely “shadows” and foregleams of what often gets more clearly revealed or fleshed out in the NT. However, despite this, you seem to have based the lion’s share of this piece and your understanding of the biblical Satan predominately on the OT texts. This is particularly hazardous in light of the fact that Jesus himself, in addition to every NT author who speaks of eschatological [or end times] events consistently and repeatedly indicate that Satan, through the rise of an Antichrist figure, will play a large and significant role in events leading up to, and culminating in, the return of Christ and in ushering in the messianic kingdom. Clearly, what we’re taught about the role of Satan in end time events is significantly more fleshed out in the NT by Jesus and the NT writers. Therefore, unless one addresses the NT texts that speak of Satan or the devil (the very same power according to Rev, 12:9), one’s understanding of Satan will be as limited and fractured as if one was trying to clearly identify and understand the role of the Christ predominantly from the OT texts. The two testaments can be compared to two acts in a play. An audience cannot expect to show up during the intermission and understand Act II. And on the same token, neither can an audience leave at the intermission with an understanding of the play based only on seeing Act I. In other words, in order to understand “The Real, Biblical Satan,” we must address the slew of NT texts and NT authors that speak of Satan’s role in the return of Christ and in end times events.
Great discussion of concepts and Truth. In II Cor 12:7 Paul says regarding his visit to heaven and possible pride, “…there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, …” What’s this and how does it fit with the things being said in this discussion?
Can you comment on Paul’s “thorn in the flesh to buffet him, the messenger of Satan”
Very interesting! Without descending into a debate on ‘the will of God’ which could go on forever (I grew tired of the debates over it at an interdenominational Bible College that had all brands of Calvinists, hyper-Calvinists and not-so-Calvinists!), there’s just one point I wish to highlight: while writing a book on contentment, I used the example of Job as an epic story of dealing with adversity. To my surprise, all that I’d heard about ‘the story’ got a major part wrong. It seems that you fell into the trap too… ‘Satan’ did not come to God and say “hey, THAT holy roller down there; Job! Let me at him!!” No, he didn’t mention Job until God said “have you considered my servant…?”
In that narrative, God CHOSE Job for the trial that Satan was to put him through! Whatever concept of ‘satan’ you use, the story, for me, is about how God allows us all to face challenges and trials, in order for us to display faith and remain trusting in him. The encouragement is that Job did not let it all ‘get him down’ but triumphed over adversity with a consistent faith. In accepting the ‘received wisdom’ that Satan picks out people to poke, we reduce him/ it/ the concept to a circus clown with a bucket of confetti (and allow the ‘prosperity’ preachers to gain ground). Accepting that God our Father DOES select us for various trials of faith is not assigning an ‘evil role’ to him, but ties in with the belief that ‘He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear’ (1Cor. 10:13) and knows your limits, but also how he can strengthen your faith when you face the mountain, so you can tell your story of how you conquered the mountain. In my own experience, if you ask God to relent on a trial because you’ve suffered enough, he DOES open the ‘escape hatch’!
I also had to wrestle with the fact that Job’s unnamed wife also suffered the same losses, but ‘failed’ the trial and wanted Job to curse God and die, but that’s another topic.
God can direct Satan against himself in us in the sense that God can play the field in such a way that it forces satan’s hand to unwillingly work against itself , Leadibg to an advangeous outcome for God. It is like a chess game between the chess grandmaster and some less skilled opponent who is forced to make moves which result in losing pieces due to a lack of ability to outcalculate the grandmaster(God). This can manifest as a wealthy man who is misusing his wealth to harm people suddenly lose everything. As A part of the flesh is of satan.
I hope that clarifies things
Also, God may allow us to go through certain trials to help shape us so that the enemy can be overcome in the best way possible
In this world, God is defeating and ultimately defeats satan. Everything that has occured is within that framework, and was the best way of that being accomplished.
I’m not so sure about the escape hatch theory. It’s much, much worse than you wish to believe or accept. There is no escape hatch for children brutally tortured and murdered. I am tired of seeing in science people saying, “this is an alternative reality that you chose to go through.”
Okay, since we all live in reality, explain why a 6 year old needed to have vaginal reconstructive surgery on my unit?
Not okay to talk about? Maybe I’m possessed by the Satan.
I don’t know if I would ever kill someone, but if I walked in on the act that caused the reconstructive surgery…if ever I were to be blinded by righteous wrath, it would be in a moment like that.
Whenever I am in the presence of God, I have absolutely no sense of any evil whatsoever, and it is from that stance that I started questioning the existence of a non-physical entity hell bent on our destruction. So I began to try to understand this. In short and only my conclusion, I felt that the satan was not a being but or the adversary but instead was the condition of adversity which can use anyone or anything as an adversity. What is happening today is sort of like the cart before the horse in that its a conditon of adversity and not an adversary from the onset.
This whole demonic thing and the evil satan is an old wives tale told across fence post to scare people.
Think about it, If you are hearing from God and Satan and Satan can imitate God , then throw in your own good and evil thoughts, theres no way your going to come out of this quagmire of voice and maintain your sanity. So,, I ask you, Who do you believe in? Yourself,
God, or Satan?
Who do you want to glorify? Yourself, God, or Satan.
Who do you actually worship in your thoughts and language? Yourself, God, or Satan.
How much power do we give this Condition of adversity. Its your choice.
That was a great read Jacob! I have thoughts/questions… In Genesis 3, is it actually the serpent talking or something or someone enabling the serpent to speak? Also, who is tempting Jesus? Is it His imagination or Lucifer/satan? Again, great thought proving read.
That was a great read Jacob!! I have some thoughts/questions…. In Genesis 3, is it actually the serpent talking or something or someone enabling the serpent to speak? Also, Matthew and Luke speaks of Jesus being tempted. Who is tempting Jesus? Is it His imagination or Lucifer/satanism? Again great thought proving read.
Michael Heiser’s “The Unseen Realm” is a must read if you’re wanting to really get into understanding Satan, the divine council, and similar theological concepts. We can’t simply sweep the supernatural elements of the Hebrew scriptures under the rugs of allegory or anthropomorphism. Somewhat Ironically, understanding this layer of the Hebrew scriptures is critical for rightly interpreting significant chunks of the New Testament, because the 2nd Temple period takes it very seriously itself!
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” -1 Timothy 4:1
Not only is the word ‘demon’ here (daimonion) referring to a real, living entity (‘dominion’ is literally ‘an evil spirit,’ ‘ a fallen angel’), but your article proves the point of this scripture: the best strategy of the enemy is to get people to believe that he’s not real to keep us “ignorant of his devices” so that he can “gain an advantage over us” (see 2 Cor. 2:10-11).
For those interested in this line of thinking, a book by James Jensen is on Kindle for a dollar. It follows a similar line of thinking. It will also make you laugh. Oh, it’s called Jesus, Mari & Joji.
You say that “Satan” is in every NT book and in the NT overall “100s of times”. But a quick check of the concordance shows 36 occurrences of σατανας and 37 of διαβολος in the NT, spread across 20 of the 27 books. Better precision would advocate well for your perspective.
Did it occur to you that the “two” satans are the same person but he just got worse and worse as time went on? He might have began as an agent of Yahweh in the early days… but maybe not; him tempting the humans in the Garden of Eden suggests he wasn’t working for Yahweh at all, as this behaviour displeased God a lot and the first humans died which was against God’s plan for them to live forever. (Genesis 3:22)
As time went on, the Satan’s head kept getting bigger and he eventually “developed” into the monstrous, murderous egomaniac that we read about in the New Testament. The OT and NT satan figure could be the same person, absolutely. People can go through major personality changes as time goes by. Reading the text, it is clear that he is deteriorating, culminating with the false prophet and the beast. God finally has enough and throws him into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:10) In the early days of Job, he simply wasn’t as evil as he eventually became.
So the destroyer God many “believers” consider as their god is the satan. Here why christian religion is not religion but it is a real universal spiritual relationship with the spiritual progenitor by Jesus. The worship of religions actually is the worship of satan.
For anyone interested in the history of the Devil and his constant fight with God, can click the link that’s below.
https://www.createspace.com/6829741
Both the Aramaic & Greek New Testaments call “Satan” “the Satan (Adversary),” though the Greek text not always. It should be noted that the other Aramaic word acelqarsa: “the accuser, slanderer” is often translated as “the devil” & may not refer to “the Satan” but people (see Ephesians. 6:11, etc.). In the verb form “they (he) shall accuse (slander)” is used to describe actions of people (Luke 6:7; JN. 5:45). – According to Enoch, the Satan & his angels rebelled against God, enticed Eve to sin, slept with women, & created giant offspring. The later part is also recorded in Genesis & Jude. The Jewish Deuterocanonical book: Yeshua the son of Sira (Jesus Ben Sirach) also teaches that the serpent is “the Satan.” The Satan & his demons were eventually judged in part. To wipe out their remembrance which also corrupted humankind, God caused the flood. The Satan & his demons were also given respite until the Judgment Day. They can only act or do so much under God’s permission. This is where Job takes up & the Satan is in a “agent” or “servant” role. The Aramaic text of (Revelation 9:11), which wasn’t translated correctly into Greek, also indicates the Satan is serving God. Paulus also suggests this (2 Cor. 12:7). – Current Jews are trying to distance themselves from Christian beliefs & reinterpret their Tanak. It’s clear that the Satan is an enemy to humankind when he got Eve & Adam to sin & rebel against God. Believers are to bruise the Serpent (Satan) under our feet (Romans 16:20). The Satan or his other names Baal, etc. were talked about from the beginning in Scripture.
“But in the New Testament, we never see Jesus partnering with evil spirits, only casting them out. He portrays the Father, not as the author of death and destruction, but rather the author of life. The writer of Hebrews says that it is the devil who wields the power of death, not God, and that Christ came to destroy him who holds the power of death (Heb 2:14).”
God created both good and evil. He does not “partner” with evil, but He does make all things work together for His will. And you mispoke. The God of the NT is the God of the OT. Notice how God sent an evil spirit inside of Judas to do His will, and that will was explained in John 3:16. And that evil spirit was the most evil spirit that there is, Satan. Jesus also said to fear Him who will destroy both body and soul in Gehenna. So your above staement is just plain incorrect.
SATAN, THE FALSE ACCUSER
The word “satan” or “devil” simply means slanderer, false accuser. Jesus called Peter, Judas, Moses and his Law, satans, slanderers, false accusers.
“He seized the dragon, the ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan,…” Revelation 20:2
“And the great dragon was hurled down — the ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels or messengers with him.” Revelation 12:9
It`s quite clear from Scripture that the ancient serpent in the garden is called the devil and also the dragon. Jesus was also unambiguous about who this entity is.
“Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How shall you escape from the sentence of Gehenna?” – Jesus speaking to the Scribes who were Pharisees; Matthew 23:33 (in reference to the Jeremiah19 prophecy concerning the utter destruction of their temple-city of Jerusalem).
In the Gospel of John 11, the high priests call a gathering of the Sanhedrin in reaction to the raising of Lazarus. In the parable related in the Gospel of Luke 16:28-30 the likely reaction of the “five brothers” to the possibility of the return of the beggar Lazarus has given rise to the suggestion by Claude-Joseph Drioux and others that the “rich man” is itself an attack on the High Priest Caiaphas, his father-in-law, and his five brothers-in-law.
“Snakes! Family of snakes!” – Jesus.
Giving a human being an animal attribute is a figure of speech, called “personification”, which is often employed in ancient Hebrew literature, eg. the word “Gentiles” means non-covenant beasts, or cattle.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44
Clearly then Jesus identified the ancient serpent or devil of Genesis 3:1 as the High Priest. Yes, the “snake” in the garden was the High Priest!
“And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.” Genesis 3:15
The head of the serpent or the dragon, the father of the family of snakes, was the High Priest, Caiaphas. The tunics of the priests were a deep red or crimson colour, also on their prayer shawls.
The High Priest also acted as the ex-officio head of the Great Sanhedrin, the Great Red Dragon, that met in the Temple in Jerusalem and pronounced the death sentence upon Jesus.
“His (the Great Red Dragon`s) tail swept a third of the stars from the sky, tossing them to the earth.” Revelation 12:4. Israel is represented by 12 stars or tribes, the 12 sons of Jacob, renamed Israel (Genesis 37:9-11). A third of the stars that fell are the four stars representing the kingdom of Judah, ie. Judah, Benjamin, Simeon (that was “absorbed” into Judah) and Levi. Fallen Hebrews. They fell to the earth in 70AD. when the Roman army burnt and demolished their temple-city of Jerusalem in accordance with Jesus` prophecy to that generation (a generation = 40 years) present at his crucifixion in 30AD.
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Would love the follow up to this article. I believe that Satan is selfishness and it comes from error in the code that God created us with. Yeshua is the anti-virus. We just need to be willing to accept the anti-virus.
Thank you.