This is an amalgamation of several doctrines, scattered throughout the exegesis of Genesis, Samuel and the Psalms.
Satan's Programs to Attack the 4 Divine Institutions in the United States |
||
|
Online Doctrines for Satan, Demonism and the Angelic Conflict |
|
The first half-dozen doctrines come from Genesis 3 (HTML) (PDF) (WP_compressed)
Satan was on the scene already. We have already studied the Angelic Conflict back in Gen. 1 (HTML) (PDF). |
This chapter of the Bible is about the temptation of Eve and the fall of man. What we find in this chapter is a serpent (snake) which confuses and deceives Eve, deceiving her, thus causing her to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Since Satan is herein introduced, we need to have an idea of who Satan is. |
1. It is important to note that, Satan is a real person. Although he is not human, he has thoughts, personality, and emotion. The Bible always presents Satan as a real entity and never as some sort of impersonal force. Gen. 3:1–15 Matt. 4 2. Our first introduction to Satan directly is in Gen. 3:1–15, where he will deceive the woman and get her to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Satan was indirectly introduced between Gen. 1:1 and 1:2, where the earth became empty and a waste-place. This had to happen in some way, and certainly, Satan and the fallen angels were involved; however, we are not given any details at that point as to what exactly took place. If you allowed some teenagers to party in your house, unsupervised, the way that your house would look the next day is not unlike what Satan and other fallen angels did to the earth. 3. Satan is called Lucifer in Isa. 14:12, which means morning star, shining one; light bearer. Angels are associated with light (they are sometimes called stars), and Satan was apparently the grandest angel of them all. Oh shining star [Lucifer], son of the morning, how you have fallen from the heavens! You, who weakens the nations, you are cut down to the ground. For you have said In your heart, “I will go up to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit in the mount of meeting, in the sides of the north. I will rise over the heights of the clouds; I will be compared to the Most High.” Yet you will go down to Sheol, to the sides of the Pit (Isa. 14:12–15). This is Satan’s fall, and it is his sin of arrogance which seems to be the reason for his fall. 1) Lucifer is associated with the stars and the heavens, from which he has fallen. 2) Notice how Lucifer is described: you, who weakens the nations... Satan is the father of internationalism. It is God Who separates us into nations (we will see this in Gen. 11). 3) Satan exalts himself over all of the other angels (the stars of God) and compares himself to God. 4) However, Satan has been judged. 4. He is called Satan in Job 1–2 and elsewhere. Satan means adversary, accuser; and it is not a far leap to understand his name to mean attorney. His actions in the courtroom of God in that passage reveals the mind of an attorney. 5. Satan’s fall is also mentioned in Ezek. 28:12–19, a passage which begins as a lament for the king of Tyre, but morphs into a lament for Satan: Son of man, lift up a lament over the king of Tyre, and say to him, So says the Lord Jehovah: You seal the measure, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering; the ruby, the topaz, and the jasper, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the turquoise, and the carbuncle, and gold; the workmanship of your tambourines and of your flutes in you. In the day you were created, they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub that covers, and I had put you in the holy heights of God, where you were. You walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until iniquity was found in you. By the multitude of your trade, they filled your midst with violence, and you sinned. So I cast you defiled from the height of God, and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from among the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. I have cast you to the ground. I will put you before kings, that they may see you. By the host of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trade, you have defiled your holy places. So I brought a fire from your midst and it shall devour you, and I will give you for ashes on the earth in the sight of all who see you. All who know you among the peoples shall be appalled at you. You shall be terrors, and you will not be forever. 1) We are told that Satan had been in the Garden of Eden. This is the narrative we are about to study. 2) He was an anointed cherub (another Biblical name for angels; it is probably a certain classification of angels). 3) Satan is a created being. 4) He was created perfect, which perfection was maintained until iniquity was found in him. 5) His sin was arrogance, because of his great beauty; and this arrogance corrupted his great intelligence. 6. The argument might be made, so what if some people sin; so what if some angels sin; it is a big universe; just give them a place to hang out and sin. We do not know a lot about Satan’s life before he fell and after he fell, apart from these two passages, but it will be clear in Gen. 3 that he is unable to leave well enough alone. Here is Adam and his woman in perfect environment, and Satan’s gut-reaction is to become involved and to mess it up. 1) Life is filled with parallel situations. When a person begins using drugs, this is rarely a choice that he makes in a vacuum. Invariably, he has friends or associates who coax him to take drugs. Rarely does he talk to a friend, and his friend tells him, “Look, even though drugs make me feel great, they have screwed up my life royally. I cannot concentrate in school, I cannot hold down a job, I cannot maintain a decent relationship, and I spend much of my life thinking about getting high. All the people I know who use drugs tend to screw up their lives more and more. I strongly recommend that you do not ever even try drugs.” Most of the time, their friend makes drugs available. Then the person who is hooked goes out and evangelizes others to join him in taking drugs. My point is, Satan was not able to just sin, and then walk away to some corner of the universe and continue sinning to his heart’s delight. He had to entice others to his lifestyle and to his way of thinking. 2) Atheists cannot leave well enough alone. They become overly concerned about a manger scene at Christmas time in a capitol building; or they walk into a store, and call management because the employees are all wearing green or red and they tell the customers, “Have a merry Christmas!” The sin nature is powerful, and often, such a one will take time from their busy lives to complain to someone. I’ve been in Thailand, and I have been in the palaces with the ubiquitous statues of Buddha, and to various shrines with Buddha—many of which are state-sponsored (I assume). It did not make me upset. I did not ponder as to the morality of this nation, which is a poor but developing nation, spending money on Buddha stuff. It never occurred to me to try to locate someone in authority and to lodge my complaint. There are Christian evangelists within Thailand. I doubt that any of them try to convince their converts to remove Buddhism and Buddha statues from Thailand. In fact, I suspect that none of them ever even considered such a thing. 3) Like the atheist, Satan is unable to just let things be. 7. We find out a great deal more about Satan in Job 1–2, a narrative which takes place probably before the time of Abraham and probably after the flood. Satan apparently has access to both the earth and the throne room of God (I would assume with permission, he has this access). Satan has some power over what happens here on earth, according to these first couple chapters of Genesis, as long as God grants him this power. His primary inclination is to destroy the life of Job in any way that he can, in order to prove a point. The suffering which Job endures is simply a bonus to Satan. 1) Let me draw another parallel. Satan is willing to inflict the worst and most painful punishment upon Job—a man who has nothing to do with Satan—in order to make a point. Along these lines, we have the Satanically-inspired radical Islam today, and they will kill innocent people in order to make a religious and/or political point of some sort. In fact, most of the time, these radical Muslims kill more fellow Muslims than anyone else, simply because these Muslims are not radical enough, in their estimation. 2) When I was in Thailand, I recall that an older farmer was captured and beheaded by some Islamic radicals. I suspect that, like most people, this man was just providing for his family. However, somehow, by taking this man hostage and then beheading him, something of value was accomplished in the eyes of the Muslims who did this. 3) This is how Satan thinks and acts; and this is one of the reasons we understand Islam to be of Satan. 8. This is who the serpent is, speaking to Eve in the Garden of Eden. This is how the serpent thinks. Satan has fallen; God has restored the earth, and Satan is going to become involved. Satan cannot leave Adam and the woman alone. Although we all have a sin nature now, Satan is still unable to leave well enough alone. He helped to corrupt this earth, but he cannot just let that be—his involvement in this world continues. 9. Satan is found in Rev. 12:4, in which context he is called the great dragon: His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 1) The dragon’s tail which swept down a third of the stars of heaven refers to Satan influencing a third of the angels to sin, and follow him. It is these angels who are cast down to earth. 2) It is Satan who desired to destroy Jesus Christ when He was born of a woman, as an expression of his intense hatred for God. 10. So that there is no confusion, Satan is equated with the devil, with the great dragon and with the serpent of old in Rev. 12:9. This is all the same angelic being. 11. Today, Satan attacks our thinking. 1) This has always been the case. In Gen. 3, with the woman, his attack will be on her thinking, and her actions will follow suit. 2) In John 13:2, we are told: the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Judas was an unbeliever, and Satan was able to, in some way, influence his thinking. The exact mechanics of this are difficult to elucidate. 12. Satan tempts us to sin. Gen. 3:1–6 Matt. 4:3 13. Satan is the father of religion. 1) When speaking to some Jews in the Temple (which would have been those steeped in Judaism and included scribes and pharisees), Jesus told them, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44). Their eventual response was, they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple (John 8:59). 2) Sometimes it is obvious that a religion is Satanic, as it is with Islam (a good place to confirm this is www.thereligionofpeace.com); and sometimes, it is not quite as obvious, as with Buddhism and many forms of Catholicism and Pentecostalism. 3) Jesus calls many of the religious men in the Temple sons of the devil, because they did not recognize Who Jesus was. John 8:41–44 14. Satan is the ruler of this world. 1) Jesus calls him the ruler of this world in John 12:31 14:30 16:11. 2) Paul calls Satan the god of this world in 2Cor. 4:4 and the prince of the power of the air in Eph. 2:2. 3) John tells us that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one (1John 5:19). 15. The conflict that we are involved with is against Satan in the realm of the Angelic Conflict: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph. 6:12). Satan is our adversary (1Peter 5:8). 16. Satan has the power of death (if granted by God). Heb. 2:14 compared with Job 2:3–6. 17. We are to resist Satan and his thinking. 1Peter 5:8–9 James 4:7 18. The human race is broken down into two categories: 1) The sons of God: you are all sons of God, through faith (in Christ Jesus) (Gal. 3:26 compared with 3:22). See also Rom. 8:14 Gal. 4:6 1John 3:10. 2) The sons of the devil: Matt. 13:38 John 8:44 1John 3:10. 19. Satan does have the ability to deceive us with false signs and wonders. 2Thess. 2:9–10 20. Satan’s power is limited. He is not God; he does not have the attributes of God; and God specifically limits his power and actions. Job 1:9-12 2:4-6 Matt. 8:30–32 21. Satan has been judged and he will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. Matt. 25:41 John 12:31 Rev. 20:10, 14 |
This is by no means a complete examination of Satan. It is just enough information, so that you realize that, Satan was created by God; Satan fell because of his choice to sin against God; and that this all occurred prior to the restoration of the earth. At this point, we find Satan in the garden, with the intention of causing trouble. It is a large universe; given that Satan can travel instantly between the throne room of God and the earth, this would suggest that he could have located himself to any planet or any place in the universe at this time. He chose to go to the earth, to deal with God’s newest creation, a creation which did not sin and was not involved in good and evil. |
Although most of this doctrine was original (although based upon my many years at Berachah Church), some came from: http://www.biblicalproportions.com/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=4652&page=0 |
Let’s take a look at Satan’s fall as well. |
1. Satan's origin Ezek. 28. Chronologically, we first find Satan in the garden of Eden, prior to human history, and he was blameless at that time (Ezek. 28:13,15) indicating that Satan did live on earth prior to man and that the earth was not originally created for man but for the angelic creation. Satan was a created being (Ezek. 28:13b) and he was created beautiful and wise (Ezek. 28:12b). Satan's sin, insofar as we can tell, was arrogance (Ezek. 28:17). Satan, in his fall, took with him one-third of the angels (Isa. 14:12–14 Ezek. 28:15b). For his one sin of arrogance, Satan is destined to be cast into eternal fire (Ezek. 28:16,18 Matt. 25:41). However, Satan is not there at this time; he is roaming about the earth (Gen. 3:1 Job 1:7 2:2 Matt. 4:1). This indicates that even though Satan has been sentenced to the Lake of Fire, he will not actually be cast into the Lake of Fire until the future (Rev. 20:10). 2. What Satan did is recorded in Isa. 14:13–14. [God is speaking—Isa. 14:4,22] "But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars [angels] of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.'" We do not know if this was Satan's first sin or a result of his first sin. It is possible that Satan also had placed before him the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and that he ate from it before man did (man would not have even been on the scene yet). We have already seen n Gen. 1:1–2 and Isa. 45:18 that the earth was not created a wasteland and a dump but it was crated to be occupied; it became a wasteland and a dump. In any case, Satan became arrogant (either before taking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, after taking from that tree, or apart from the tree altogether). All the suffering which we face here on earth is a result of (1) Satan's arrogance and (2) Adam's sin. This does not take us off the hook insofar as our own volition is concerned. By our many poor choices in life, we often make ourselves miserable without the help of Satan or an imperfect environment (Prov. 22:8 Gal. 6:7). 3. In his fallen state, Satan acts as a prosecuting attorney in the courtroom of God accusing man (Job 1:7 2:2 Zech. 3:1,2 Rev. 12:10). God has apparently set aside time to hear the petitions of the angels and Satan (Job 1:6) [This indicates, by the way, that God hears petitions from fallen creatures; this also means he probably hears petitions from elect angels. The courtroom here gives the angelic creation the chance to view all of the evidence which exists and to make their own determination concerning the petition brought before God. God has made His perfect determination from eternity past; however, when He passes sentence, those present are allowed to see why it is just.]. Satan has access to the earth and to observe what is occurring on earth (Job 1:7) and he impugns God's character by objecting to the way things are going on earth. This is pictured in the beginning of the book of Job. God points out to Satan (and the other angels, both elect and fallen) his servant Job. Satan objects that Job is faithful only because he knows who provides him with prosperity. Take away this prosperity and Job will curse God and his life (Job 1:8–12). The reason I point this out is to: (1) establish that God does have a courtroom of sorts where He hears the petitions of his creatures. (2) Reveal that Satan has access to this courtroom and to the earth. (3) That Satan will use this opportunity to attack the believers on earth and, incidental to this attack, impugn God's perfect character. 4. Points #1 and 3 set up the following logical deduction: if there is a courtroom of God and if Satan has been sentenced to the Lake of Fire but is not there; and if Satan is instead tempting and accusing man, why is this occurring? Since we are created in the image of God, it is likely that our court system is a shadow of His, albeit imperfect. What has likely happened is that Satan has appealed this sentence on the following grounds: ● Satan perhaps claimed that he sinned because God designed him to sin. He did not have any choice. This is one of the reasons that man's free will is so important. This objection is dealt with by Paul in Rom. 9:20–21. ● Satan certainly objected to the severity and the eternity of the punishment that he faced. No doubt he insisted that the punishment was too harsh. Certainly, all he did was either eat from a little tree or display a bit of arrogance. All of human history answers this objection. We live in a world of tremendous suffering, pain and tears. Many of the things which seem right and good, that we too often place our trust in, such as human love, results in pain and humiliation. ● Satan claimed that the only reason a creature followed God and behaved as God wished was for reward from God. Satan leveled this objection against Job and very likely leveled this objection against the elect angels. The life of Job answers this objection. ● If a created creature does not follow God out of reward, then he obeys God out of pure and simple fear of punishment. Human history and growing up in a family has shown us that there is nothing wrong with discipline or with obedience due to discipline. God sets up standards and consequences out of love. For whom the Lord loves, he disciplines and he scourges every son whom He receives. (Heb. 12:6). ● How could God really have the attribute of love if He casts some of His creatures into a Lake of Fire? We find our Lord's love expressed in the person of Jesus Christ who came to this earth and walked among us, suffering temptations which we cannot begin to imagine, and then dying on our behalf, enduring an eternity of hells for all of us, that we might be redeemed. This is love beyond human comprehension. We might die for a person that we love, but Jesus Christ died for the unlovely, the arrogant, the vicious, the immoral and the unrighteous. Yet, in fact Christ, while we were still helpless, at the proper time, died for the ungodly. For one will rarely die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man, someone would be brave enough to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:6–8) ● Is God really righteous to subject His creatures to a Lake of Fire? God's righteousness is demonstrated by the cross. His righteousness is revealed in His Law and in the results of rebellion. God's righteousness is an integral part of His character and essence, wherein there is no variation or shifting shadow. (James 1:17). For in it [the gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from [salvation] faith to [living] faith-doctrine. (Rom. 1:17a). ● God does not know what it is like to be a creature and subjected to the temptations that creatures face. This objection is answered by the fact that Jesus Christ came to earth and faced the same temptations and the same deprivation that we face and more. These are educated guesses as to some of Satan's objections. Being a genius, I am certain that he raised many more objections than these. If any of these sound familiar, they ought to. Satan has been raising these objections in men's minds for millenniums to turn man away from God. It would also be important to point out that these are not necessarily heart-felt objections of a sincerely repentant creature; these are rationalizations for improper behavior and ethics; these objections are a way of side-stepping responsibility for one's actions. 5. Satan certainly made appeals on the grounds similar to what we have to day: ● Certainly he promised never to do it again. ● Perhaps he pleased temporary insanity or diminished capacity. ● He may have claimed that he had no idea that the results would be so devastating. ● Perhaps he claimed to never do it again. ● Perhaps he claimed to be rehabilitated. ● It is possible that Satan just asked for a corner of the universe in which to hang so that he and his fallen angel buddies could live there. God has the entire universe; what is a small portion of it to Him? ● Perhaps he claimed that God's laws were too strict and unbending and that they could do fine without these laws. Whatever appeals that Satan made along these lines, his activity in human history shows us that he cannot be allowed to roam the universe freely. He will cause death, pain and suffering wherever he happens to be. God cannot give Satan a second chance nor would it be right for God to provide Satan with a devil's island, so to speak, within the universe (other than the Lake of Fire). Human history shows us that Satan cannot be trusted and that he cannot be allowed to have any portion of the universe in which to roam. His fallen nature makes him a danger to all creatures in the universe. 6. This view of pre-Adamic history explains: ● Why we are observed by angels. ● Why Satan is sentenced to the Lake of Fire yet is not there now and he still has the freedom to move about between heaven and the earth. ● This explains why good is sometimes evil. ● This explains why Satan would like to restore order and peace on earth. In his arrogance, he wants to show that he can act as God and that his plans are equal to those of God (Isa. 14:13–14).. ● Why God came to earth as a man. 7. Satan will be allowed to operate on earth under the following environments: ● Man is innocent and environment is perfect. ● Man is fallen and angels may cohabit with females. ● Man is fallen and angels are not allowed to cohabit with females; yet they are allowed to indwell unbelievers. ● Israel as a nation operates in many states, as a client nation to God in many different levels of power, or lack thereof. ● Israel is ruled by the Romans and the Son of God walks on this imperfect, fallen world. ● Satan is given a great deal of freedom during the tribulation to bring about world peace and order. ● Satan is bound while man enjoys perfect environment again (although it is possible that man is not always regenerate and it is possible that some regenerate men still have old sin natures; I am not certain about this. ● Satan is allowed to tempt man again during perfect environment and he will lead another revolt against God and against perfect environment. In all of these environments, Satan will operate and tempt man and not make the earth a better place to live, but will cause continued pain and suffering among humankind. His act of arrogance results in millenniums of suffering for mankind. Again, this does not remove our responsibility for our volition when it is used to sin against God; but his one act of arrogance has plunged our world into sinful darkness and misery. Surely God is righteous to condemn an act which continues to cause so much grief and pain. 8. Conclusion: God created angels with free will, creating Satan as perhaps the most beautiful and intelligent creature of all. Satan fell in an act of arrogance and took with him a third of angelic creation. God judged and passed sentence upon Satan, yet Satan is allowed a great deal of freedom of movement. His actions in the court of God imply that he must have objected to God's harsh sentence. God answers this objection before all of angelic creation, both fallen and elect, through the creation of mankind and through human history. This may not always seem fair to us, but God has made provision for our salvation and for our entire lives, at great personal expense. For us, attaining salvation and a wonderful life is a matter of our own free will. Furthermore, at the end of our life, if we have believed in Jesus Christ, God will provide us with comfort and love and rewards beyond our imaginations. No temptation or testing has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted or tested beyond what you are able [to bear], but with this temptation also provide the way out that you may be able to endure it. (I Cor. 10:13). For we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His pre-determined plan. (Rom. 8:28). For the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes. (Rev. 7:17). And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be death; there shall no longer be mourning or crying or pain; the first things have passed away. (Rev. 21:4). And when He [the Holy Spirit] has arrived, He will convince the world concerning sin, and righteousness and judgement: concerning sin because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I got to the Father and you will no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world [Satan] has been judged. (John 16:8–11) |
|
The idea that Satan appeals his sentence to God is based upon the fact that Satan has already been judged, but God has not yet carried out the sentence against him. Furthermore, given the almost courtroom-type atmosphere found in Job 1:6–12 2:1–6, and Satan’s ability to object to God’s testimony, it is not a great leap to suggest that Satan objected to his sentence, appealed to God, and God granted him his appeal, which appeal is played out in human history. |
Although we have covered these before, I have listed below some of Satan’s appeals (there were probably many specific appeals as well, as well as a much longer list than I have been able to come up with). |
1. How can a loving God cast any of His creatures into a Lake of Fire? 2. Satan to God: “God, You made me this way. I am not responsible for Your creation.” God is at fault for not making a perfect creation. If Satan is imperfect, then it must mean that God is imperfect. 3. “The creatures You have designed, God, are all prone to sin. This indicates a faulty design. Since You, God, made all creatures this way, You ought to allow them free expression and You ought to allow all Your creatures to live.” 4. Satan’s sin is originally one of pride, which was discovered by God; how can a hidden sin like this deserve eternal death? How is this just? 5. Can’t a God of love forgive His creatures? 6. Let’s accept the premise that Satan and the fallen angels have sinned. Why not just give Satan some little space in the universe and let him and the other fallen angels hang out there? 7. Elect angels have chosen this path simply because God rewards them for their choice. 8. Essentially, Satan’s objections call into question God’s actions in comparison to His character and essence. God has to be consistent, as He is immutable. God is righteous and just, so His judgment has to be righteous and just. God is love, so His actions should reflect His love. 9. There are inherent contradictions in God’s character (creating beings which will suffer forever in the Lake of Fire does not demonstrate love or righteousness). Therefore, the inherent defects in Satan’s character cannot be judged by Someone with inherent defects. In other words, if Satan is imperfect, then God is imperfect. God is unable to demonstrate perfect character in all respects at all times (that is the argument of Satan). 10. Right and wrong are relative concepts; there really is no such thing as absolute standards of right and wrong. The acts of Satan and those angels who fell are not inherently wrong, because there is no such thing as inherent wrong. 11. Right and wrong, good and bad, are simply arbitrary standards, set up by God. 12. God is incapable of creating creatures with free will who will not, at some point in time, disobey Him. 13. When Adam and Eve fell, there was a change in the environment; Satan may have alleged that the problem is with the environment as much as it is with anything else. 14. FInally, Satan, in a sense, alleges, “I could do a better job than God with this earth and with His creatures.” He said, “I will be like the Most High.” (Isa. 14:14b). |
In this chapter, Satan will show that His creatures all sin, indicating that he, Satan, ought to be running things. Bear in mind that Satan has never created any living creature before, he has never had authority over these new creatures, and yet he proposes that he is able to be equal to God. |
This is taken from Job 1 (HTML) (PDF)
Satan asks God, before all of angelic creation, if Job is not just responding to the great
blessing which God has given him. Job knows which side of the toast is buttered. The
implication is that Job has all of these characteristics because he is greatly rewarded for
it. There is no greatness in his spiritual walk. He behaves because God rewards him.
Satan denies what God affirms, acknowledges no love towards God in the world which is
not rooted in self-love, and is determined to destroy this love as a mere semblance. Where
piety is dulled, he rejoices in its obscurity, where it is not, he dims its lustre by reflecting his
own egotistical nature therein...[We recognize that] Genuine love loves God...for His own
sake; it is a relation of person to person, without any actual stipulations and claim.
Throughout his tenure on this earth, Satan brings out many questions and objections, which, on their face, seem worthwhile. We should first recognize his motivation. Satan does not want to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. His only motivation here is the weasel his way out of that. However, the questions which he brings up are questions which many people have thought or expressed. When human history as we know it is over and when Satan has been banished to the Lake of Fire, every objection raised concerning God and His creatures will have been answered, and God’s perfection and righteousness and love will shine through. History is an object lesson for all the elect angels. Angels could fall at any time but exercising their volition against God, as Satan and his demon armies did. The question put before the court is: is not Job’s faith selfish and mercenary? Isn’t Job merely motivated by his prosperity. God gives him great prosperity, so his worship and faith is toward God. Do we trust and show faithfulness in God in order to spend eternity in heaven? Do we put forth some modicum of worship activity in order to gain some rank in heaven? Satan tells God that if you remove Job’s prosperity, then Job will remove himself from God.
Furthermore, God will show in this time of human history that He is worthy of our love and devotion; Satan will prove to all that his motivations are strictly evil and selfish; that he acts only in self-interest. Satan only gives if there is a return in it for him. If his orders are not obeyed implicitly, then his wrath is vicious and vengeful. Finally, there is no sacrifice on Satan’s part. When it comes down to it, Satan would not lift a finger for anyone. It is every man for himself. If he had to choose between his spending eternity in the Lake of Fire or our spending in eternity in the Lake of Fire, that is a no-brainer to him. Satan would trade us in a second, if he could. In fact, he deceives and leads many into temptation and into harm; with the eventual hope that we will never believe in Jesus Christ and spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.
An objection which I have heard from a friend of mine is why does God demand our devotion and why does He demand that we glorify Him? Is God that desperate for exaltation? Is God a man who requires continual praise to get through the day? Certainly not. God requires our devotion and praise and demands that we glorify Him because:
1. He is worthy of our praise and devotion.
2. God is worthy enough to be glorified. We can depend upon His consistency and His perfect righteousness.
3. God has shown that He will sacrifice Himself in order to deliver us.
Now consider the alternatives: if we do not glorify God, then we are left with glorifying either ourselves or glorifying Satan. If we are honest with ourselves, we know that we are seriously flawed; our hearts are desperately wicked. This book should make a clear point of Satan’s character. To make a point, Satan will cause Job to suffer in every way he can. God has allowed this, but Satan performs it. Therefore, when you consider the alternatives, only God is worthy of glorification.
With this act, man essentially hands rulership of the world over to Satan. The woman thought that this would affect her standing in the world, making her equal with God (and therefore being above Adam, at least for a short time). Authority did change, but not in the way she expected it to. |
1. God originally gave man authority over the earth and the animals of the earth. Gen. 1:28: And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." Man was to subdue the earth (do whatever he chose to make the earth to his liking); and man had authority over all that was on the earth. 2. When the woman was made, she was second in command to Adam. She was made as a helper to Adam. 3. This gives us a simple hierarchy: God|man|woman|the animals and the earth. 4. However, as we have already studied, the woman submitted ot the authority of a creature (the serpent) and then the man submitted to the authority of the woman, both of them disobeying God, Who is their authority (Gen. 3:1–6). The woman submitted to the authority of the serpent, disobeying God; and the man then submitted to the authority of the woman, disobeying God. 5. The end result is, Satan rules over this earth. 1) Jesus says, in John 12:31: Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out [or, driven out, sent away]. 2) In John 16:8–11, Jesus speaks of sending the Holy Spirit to us: And when He [God the Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged [in the past with results which continue into the future]. 3) Paul writes the Corinthians, saying: And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God (2Cor. 4:3–4). 6. This is the reason that we are told on several occasions that we are in the world, but not of the world (John 15:19 16:33 17:11–16 1John 2:16 4:4). We as believers are not to submit ourselves to the thinking (and therefore authority) of Satan, who rules over this world. 7. This will change. After the Tribulation, Satan will be put into chains for most of the Millennium. This will be a period of perfect environment during which weapons will be beaten into plowshares because there will be no more war; and the lion will lie down with the lamb (Isa. 2:3–4 11:6–16 65:25 Micah 4:1–7). During this time period, Jesus Christ will reign over the earth from Jerusalem. 8. Satan will be allowed access to the earth once more at the end of the Millennium, at which time he will actually turn the minds and hearts of some against God, even after they have lived in perfect environment under a perfect ruler. Satan will lead a rebellion against Jesus Christ after 1000 years of perfect environment. In the end, Satan and his angels will be thrown into the lake of fire. Rev. 20:1–3, 7–10. This will end Satan’s hold over the earth and over man. This should give you an idea as to just how smart Satan is. He will be able to organize a revolution against God with people who are living in perfect environment. |
The theological consistency of the Bible is a marvel to behold. How a book on such controversial topics as sin, salvation, God and the Messiah to come could hold together so well, despite the fact that the Bible was written over a period of at least 2000 years by about 40 different authors is an amazing thing to behold. |
Satan appears here as a serpent. As has been discussed, it seems likely that Satan took on the appearance of a serpent and that he probably did not indwell a serpent. |
1. There is no indication in the Bible that man has ever seen Satan. 2. All of our manifestations or representations of Satan are poor caricatures. The fellow in the red suit with the forked tail and pitch fork is not even close. If anything, Dracula is a semi-reasonable concept of Satan, yet still not accurate. 3. Satan's actually appearance is one of incredible beauty and attractiveness (Ezek. 28:12–13). 4. What we see in human history are the creatures which Satan has occupied. Satan occupies very few creatures because he is not omnipresent; therefore, when he indwells a creature, he is confined to that place, which Satan would find to be very stifling. However, we can reasonably guess that he indwelt this serpent (Rev. 12:9 20:2), Judas (Luke 22:3 John 13:27), and possibly some world leaders such as Hitler or Stalin. 5. Therefore, God judges the serpent, an animal, as a symbolic judgement of Satan; a judgement which we will observe throughout human history. 6. The test implies that the serpent either stood up on hind legs or had legs and feet that he walked upon like a lizard. There was an actually, physiological change in the serpent which has remained with this animal until this day. However, the judgement, although it is a real, physical judgement, its purpose was more of a symbolic judgement of Satan. |
So far, God has judged Satan. Each of the 3 judgments is Hebrew poetry. In this passage, God speaks to Satan, who is indwelling the serpent. |
The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” |
God first judges the serpent; but then speaks directly to Satan, telling him, in shadow form, what would come to pass. There will be a natural animosity between the seed of the serpent (unbelievers and fallen angels) and the Seed of the Woman (Jesus Christ). We hear this regularly in the United States and elsewhere, where the name Jesus Christ is used as an epithet. We do not find, to the best of my knowledge, special curses associated with Buddha or Mohammed or Confucius; but we do with Jesus Christ. This illustrates this inherent animosity between the seed of the serpent and the Seed of the Woman. |
The cross is revealed here, for the first time, in shadow form. “He [Jehovah, the Seed of the Woman] will crush your head and you [Satan] will bruise His heel.” The cross will be Satan bruising the heel of our Lord—He will stumble, but then stand up again (the resurrection); but our Lord’s judgment on the cross will crush the serpent’s head. |
This is taken from Psalm 21 (HTML) (PDF)
All of these attacks are from Satan and his minions; and these attacks involve great evil plans and designs, as well as great dishonesty. I offer these as a few examples of the myriads of ways that Satan attacks these divine institutions throughout the world. |
This is taken from Psalm 105 (HTML) (PDF)
Satan is very much involved with Egypt in the following doctrine: |
1. I do not believe that God reaches into the volition of anyone and changes them from hot to cold, or from love to hate. This would not make any sense. 2. There are certain controls on society: there are family controls (the authority of the husband; the authority of the parents) and the rule of law. These are controls which God has placed upon a society. 3. There are apparently controls which God places upon the unseen world. We do not know the mechanics apart from, Satan and his demon corps would like to disrupt mankind, they would like to see a free-for-all in any given society, and they would love to destroy the Jews. 1) In Scripture, we have a few recorded instances where Satan requests the ability to attack individuals (e.g., Job). God grants this ability, sets the parameters, and Satan goes to work. In the book of Job, we see that Satan afflicts Job in a number of ways, which include economic ruin and severe physical illness and pain (Satan appears to keep Job as lucid as possible, so that Job might feel pain as intently as possible). 2) We have seen in Scripture men who show a great passion for hatred of the Jews, e.g., Haman in the book of Esther. In the book of Esther, you will notice that there are no references to the supernatural or to the world outside what a person can perceive with his 5 senses, but Haman is clearly inspired to do evil against the Jews. We may reasonably conclude that, if God allows Satan the ability to attack Job as directly as he did, that Satan may be given access, in some way or another, to various men, who seem to be inspired by him. 3) When Judas betrayed our Lord, Satan went into him. 4) Throughout the gospels, we run into people who are controlled, to some degree, by demons. Although we can speculate as to exactly how this occurred, the Bible does not really give us precise mechanics in this regard. We may reasonably assume the Hitler was demon-influenced, if not possessed, and that probably many Arab leaders are also influenced or possessed. Obviously, there are some controls which God places upon these men. God also appear to allow some spreading of this disease. Hitler on his own, even with his great power, could not have done what he did alone. Satan had to have great power over those who ran the death camps. On the other hand, this cannot come to pass without man’s volition being involved to some extent. 5) It is not made clear in Scripture just what man must do in order to become demon controlled, but it certainly would involve the man’s volition. That is, it does seem reasonable that some men would be willing to submit to demonic control, if there was some sort of payoff. Our sin natures are that corrupt. 6) Peter tells us that Satan goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. No doubt, God only allows Satan so much leeway in his interactions with mankind. 7) So, clearly, in the Angelic Conflict, there are controls which God has placed on demons, which controls are lifted from time to time, with specific restraints being maintained. Part of what we learn in the Angelic Conflict is, God cannot simply let those who have sinned run free in some part of the universe. Judging by what we have seen in Scripture, whatever God creates, Satan wants to inflict his evil upon or destroy. 4. We have seen in recent history just how far anti-Semitism can go. One nation, Germany, through having certain restrictions lifted, systematically tried to destroy every Jew that they had. Or, at the very least, they chose to dehumanize and inflict severe pain on people for no other reason than their being Jewish. 5. We may reasonably suppose that societal norms and standards and the rule of law were all distorted, and no doubt, though God allowing Satan some access to the people and particularly, the leaders of Germany. 6. In the Middle East today, we have millions of Islamic fundamentalists who would love to do nothing more than kill the few Jews who live on a tiny patch of land (if I recall correctly, the Jews occupy about 0.2% of the Middle East). The hatred is clearly there. By territory and by sheer numbers, those who hate the Jews have a vast numerical superiority. God has maintained some degree of control over this situation. In fact, the US is a part of these controls. Any Arabic nation which tries to destroy Israel may find themselves bombed back to the stone age by the United States. 7. I believe that what we are dealing with in Egypt is a restraint which God puts upon Satan and his demonic forces, and appropriates laws and social norms which, for many years, gave the Jews freedom and prosperity in Egypt. When these controls began to be lifted—Satan was allowed to work to some degree among the Egyptians and the Egyptians were allowed to express their hatred for the Jews, it appears as though, suddenly God turned the heart of the Egyptians against His people. 8. Satan would love nothing more than to attack and destroy the Jews who live within the United States. If God lifted the restrictions which He has placed upon Satan, we would see gross anti-Semitism begin to occur overnight. 9. In Egypt, when these restraints were removed, it appeared as though God has turned the hearts of the Egyptians to hate His people. 10. The key to the use of this language is this: it is language of accommodation. What God has done behind the scenes is, He has allowed Satan to work within the nation of Egypt. God has allowed those Egyptians with strong negative volition to more fully express their negative volition. God has removed the restraints which he places on a society to maintain law and order and freedom. From the standpoint of someone in Egypt, it appears as though God turned the heart of the Egyptians against the Jews; therefore, we find this language of accommodation used. I hate to trivialize this somber subject, but have you ever heard a teenager say to his or her parents, “You hate me! You never want me to have any fun!” A teen typically says this when the parents refuse to let him or her go to a party or out to a concert, or some other place where the temptation to do evil might be too great for the teen’s volition. To the teenager, they may think their parents hate them; they may think their parents is simply against them having fun, no matter how irrational all of that is. The teen’s parents don’t hate him or her, nor are they looking to keep the teen from having any fun. The parents are acting out of love and the teen sees it as entirely the opposite. The Bible is filled with language of accommodation; language which explains a concept or an act of God from man’s viewpoint; however, what is really occurring is much more complex, and possibly outside our ability to understand. |
In Scripture, we are given some details and some mechanics, and other details and mechanics are not given to us. When it comes to demonic influence and demonic possession, we may reasonably assume that the volition of man and demons are involved, and that God’s sovereignty sets up specific boundaries, but we are never given specific mechanics. |
God’s Geographical Will and Satan’s Plan for Man
This is taken from 1Samuel 27 (HTML) (PDF)
This brings up an interesting question: can you be out of the geographical will of God and yet be in fellowship? Being spiritual, being in fellowship, walking in light as opposed to walking in darkness is an all or nothing proposition. There is none of this part spiritual part not. So, if you are out of God’s geographical will, does this exclude you from spirituality, and thus from the plan of God? Definitely not. We are going to make mistakes in our lives. This mistakes are going to wreak all kinds of havoc with our lives (and sometimes, just a little havoc). What these mistakes will do is, at times, take us out of God’s geographical will. If, for instance, it is God’s plan is for us to be in Little Rock, Arkansas, and we find ourselves in New Orleans, Louisiana instead, then are we out of fellowship until we move to Little Rock? No. We still get back into fellowship in the same way: we name our sins to God. All of our sins are completely forgiven, those which we are aware of and those which we did not realize that we committed. However, God does not looks down and say, “Too damn bad, Charlie Brown; you’re in the wrong place; no filling of the Spirit for you.” That is legalism. That goes against what we are taught in 1John 1:9. Therefore, even if we get out of God’s geographical will, which is going to probably involve getting out of fellowship as well, we can get back into fellowship no matter where we are. God’s plan picks up for us right then and there. Even though David is clearly out of God’s geographical will, which involves him being out of fellowship, he will be back in fellowship in 1Sam. 30:6, prior to returning to Israel.
Let’s think this through: we are in New Orleans, but it was God’s will for us to be in Little
Rock. A legalist might tell you that you cannot be in fellowship until you hop in your car
and drive to Little Rock. But, do you see the problem? You are working in the flesh in
order to get back into fellowship. You are going through the steps of securing
transportation out of New Orleans, where you are not in fellowship, to return to Little Rock,
where you can then get back into fellowship. You are using the power of the flesh in order
to go from point A to point B in order to be in God’s will. You do not accomplish anything
of lasting spiritual value while in the flesh. Not ever! We have believers who have spent
their entire lives out of fellowship. You can talk to believer after believer and they have no
clue as to how they fall out of the fellowship and how they get back into fellowship.
There
are believers who do all kinds of works in the flesh—the give money to the church, they go
to the mission field, they serve on the board of deacons, they pastor churches, they have
evangelical ministries on television. Unless they are filled with the Holy Spirit, nothing that
they do has any spiritual worth and it will be burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ
(1Cor. 3:12–15). The foundation of all spiritual works is God’s grace, which is based upon
the filling of the Holy Spirit. You may struggle and work and sweat to establish a mission
somewhere and this may consume your entire life; but if you are not filled with God the
Holy Spirit, then you are wasting your time. I have known Pentecostals whose ministry
emphasizes the power of God the Holy Spirit; yet, most of them have no idea how to be
filled with the Holy Spirit. They believe that if they get under a little psychological pressure
from some other more advanced Pentecostals, and if they open up their mouth and try to
let sounds come out without thinking about what these sounds should be, that this is
indicates that they are being baptized and filled with God the Holy Spirit. It does not! Try
to understand, if the most important post salvation thing for us to do is speak in tongues,
don’t you think that Paul would have mandated that in his epistles? He does nothing of the
kind, even in the only passage devoted to this, 1Cor. 14. Satan attacks in several ways:
(1) he does whatever he can to keep us from the gospel. (2) However, since some people
are going to go on positive volition toward Jesus Christ after reaching God consciousness,
then Satan does not just throw up his hands and say, “Oh my; can’t do anything here.”
Don’t be stupid. Satan is much more intelligent than any of us. He can think circles
around you and around me. His next objective is to neutralize us as believers. If Satan
can get huge groups of believers to spend the majority of their Christian lives out of
fellowship, then he has accomplished plan B. Plan A: keep a person from believing in
Jesus Christ: Plan B: keep a believer out of fellowship. There are entire denominations
which are under Plan B. I have met many Pentecostals and many Catholics who I am
convinced are believers in Jesus Christ. I am also convinced that they have no idea how
to get in and out of fellowship with God. Catholics go the a priest (even though they
themselves are priests) and they confess their sins (perhaps weekly, monthly, yearly) and
the priest gives them some sort of human works to perform in order to get back into
fellowship. Do you see the problems? They are confessing their sins to the wrong person
(a priest rather than to God the Father); and they are performing works of the flesh in order
to get back into fellowship (doing an act of penance, for instance). A believer who does
this all of his life will never be filled with God the Holy Spirit (following the first time that he
sins after salvation). Now let’s look at the charismatics. First of all, in their initial salvation,
they are not really quite saved. They don’t have God the Holy Spirit. They might have to
hang out with some other charismatics—you know, tarry after church or after a Bible study.
These older charismatics will try a variety of methods to induce speaking in tongues. They
will speak in tongues themselves; they will tell the uninitiated to lay down, lay back, lay their
heads back, open up their mouths, and let whatever flow out. “Don’t think; just let the
sounds come out.” They may lay a psychological trip on you: they are in the in-group; they
speak with angelic tongues; you are in the out-group—you do not. There is only one way
to move from the out-group to the in-group: speak with tongues. Once they have you
speaking in tongues, then everything is as cool as Fonzie. From thereon in, when you are
down, or you feel like things aren’t exactly right; then you just need to get with them and
speak in tongues; or, perform good deeds with them. Again, a believer is completely and
totally neutralized. He is filled with God the Holy Spirit at salvation; he loses this filling
when he sins for the first time; and he never gets this back—he stays out of fellowship for
the rest of his life (or as long as he hangs around with charismatics who think the key to
spirituality is speaking in tongues).
Now, if you are a Catholic or a charismatic and you are reading this, I know what you are thinking: “This can’t be right—I’ve spent the past year (5 years, 20 years) in service to God. I have never confessed my sins directly to God. Are you telling me my Christian life has been for nothing? That can’t be!” I recall when I first heard about naming my sins to God in order to be in fellowship; this was a few months after I had become a Christian and, to me, what I had done in those few months was pretty good stuff—you see, I did not want to let go of my human good either. I did not want to let go of my works either. “I earned this! I’ve been doing stuff for God for these past several months—tell me I get some credit for it!” God does not work that way—it is His way, not ours. Salvation is clear and specific: you believe in Jesus Christ and you are saved. Being born into a religious family does not give you a relationship with God. Believing in Mohammed, Buddha, or Confucius does you no good; if you want a relationship with God, it is through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ only. “I am the way, the truth and the life—no man comes to the Father but by Me!” (John 14:6). For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1Tim. 2:5). So, I’m sorry—I’d love to tell you that all of your works are really appreciated by God—but, unless you were filled with God the Holy Spirit, all of your works mean nothing to God.
Since I am here, let me tell you Satan’s Plan C: a person becomes a believer and they know how to get back into fellowship. Then Satan (well, more likely those in his demon corps) does everything to appeal to the lust pattern of that person. The person lusts after money—put the promise of money just beyond his reach. Put the promise of money side-by-side spiritual compromise. The person lusts after power: offer him power, but make certain that there are moral compromises which must be made in order to attain it. The person lusts after sex: get him out of fellowship via pornography, advertisements, television, movies or by people he (or she) meets. Plan C calls for Satan to get you out of fellowship and keep you out of fellowship as long as possible. Do you remember that jackass who cut you off in traffic on your way to Bible class, and pissed you off to the max? You are going to sin; you are going to fail. There are times you may fail so badly that you doubt your own salvation; there are times you will fail so badly that you may become discouraged, despondent, ashamed. None of those emotions gets you back into fellowship. You might be the biggest Christian screw up on this planet—no problem; the filling of the Spirit comes with the naming of your sins to God. Your sins may be completely offensive to my sensitive nature. I might want you to confess your sins to God and cut off a finger to remind yourself about how much you offended me. Doesn’t matter what I want and it doesn’t matter how much you offended me. What matters is that you admit to God your sins. On the other side of the coin, some of the sins I commit might offend you as well. Let me tell you—your opinion of my sins means little or nothing. The only thing that is important is that I name my sins to God. That puts me back into fellowship—your feelings about my category of sins is irrelevant. Your feelings and my feelings about the sins of others is irrelevant with respect to their spiritual lives. The key to their spirituality is confessing their sins directly to God.
Second question: okay, we are out of God’s geographical will, and we rebound,
putting
us back into fellowship. Must we hop in our car and go to wherever God wants us to be?
That is a maybe. God can pick up His plan for our lives at any point in any geographical
location. So, there are times we would stay; and times that we would leave. There are
certainly going to be situations where leaving is almost impossible to do. That is when we
allow God to work all things together for good—including whatever boneheaded decisions
led us to the wrong destination in the first place. David will get back into fellowship in
1Sam. 30:6—he does not have all of his soldiers mount up for a return to Israel. He
remains in Philistia territory.
This is taken from 2Samuel 6 (HTML) (PDF)
When we hear the word peace, we too often think of world peace, which is one of Satan’s strategies—take a good theological word and change its meaning or emphasis. We actually have a considerable number of people who believe that world peace is some sort of achievable goal that we ought to strive for. There are a considerable number of people who think if we visualize world peace or if we disband our national army or if we destroy all of our weapons or do something equally stupid, that mankind will usher in a great period of world peace. It simply is not going to happen. Not only did Jesus Christ tell us that there would be wars and rumors of wars until He returns, but our own world history is pretty much a history of war and strife. Even in the United States, we would be hard-pressed to come up with a decade where the US was not involved in a war or a military skirmish of some sort.
Satan and the Global Warming Movement
This is taken from 2Samuel 10 (HTML) (PDF)
Application: Power over truth is the oldest connection in the realm of corruption; if you will
recall, Satan sought power over the first man and the first woman through deception.
Today, we have the same thing with the global warming movement. And, what are
supposed to be purveyors of truth—our newspapers—walk in lock-step with this
movement. During the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen a month ago, there
were demonstrators in favor of doing something about climate change. However, many
of them carried Communists signs and banners, and our news organizations here all but
ignored this. In fact, one week, I went looking for pictures of these demonstrators carrying
Communist signs, and I could not find any. Apparently, no newspaper thought that this
was important or newsworthy. Or, more likely, they realized that if Americans see how
closely allied the Climate Change Fanatics were with Communism, it might give them
pause. Therefore, there is very little news on this alliance.
Again, this is a manipulation
of the truth, by those who are supposed to be telling us the truth; and their desire is to have
control over us.
For all intents and purposes, Global Warming is a religion. (HTML) (PDF)
This is taken from 2Samuel 12 (HTML) (PDF)
Application: Allow me this tangent—there is a false dichotomy set up today between faith
and research, between religion and science. We are told, “Go ahead, believe whatever
you want, but we, over here in science, have the real answers to scientific phenomenon.”
What has happened, as science has become disengaged from faith, they have hooked up
with politics, so that, science has not become more reasonable and more discerning, but
they have become just another arm of liberalism, which is Satanic doctrine. A great
example of this is global warming, and how global warming is going to destroy us. A
scientist with faith knows that God is going to allow human history to play out on this earth,
and that we are not going to destroy ourselves with global warming or with nuclear
weapons or with anything else. And so, the hysteria comes from the godless left, who
claim that science is their god and the final arbiter of all things; and those scientists who
continue to have faith in God, end up being the most reasonable about this thing we call
global warming. First of all, if you believe in global warming and that this is a man-made
phenomenon which potentially could destroy us, then there are 2 things which you
probably do not know: (1) what greenhouse gas is the most plentiful and has more of an
effect upon global warming than all other greenhouse gases combined and multiplied by
100 (hint; it is not CO2). (2) What percentage of greenhouse gases are produced by man
and by the things which man does? You may be on either side of this controversy, and not
know the answer to either of those questions, and yet still have a strong opinion on the
matter. Because of our faith, we know human history will play out and that God will not
allow the human race to be destroyed. However, because science has become so
politicized, because it has departed from its spiritual roots, you rarely see either of those
two questions addressed when dire warnings about global warming are being issued.
My
point in this is, God has given us a mind; God has given us the ability to reason, and God
has not called the believer to ignore or turn off his mind. And the idea that there is some
great divide between faith and science is simply a manufactured falsehood.
Application: The greatest minds in scientific history have been believers in Jesus Christ.
This is taken from 2Samuel 12 (HTML) (PDF)
As an addendum, I believe that Christ’s death on the cross was clearly foretold, but that Satan, who knows the Bible better than anyone else, did not realize what was happening until it was too late. He used this opportunity to berate, slap, beat and humiliate the One Who decreed Satan’s eternal death; and then, when it was too late, Satan realized what was happening. That is, Satan had helped to orchestrate events which led to the cross, not realizing that it was the cross that would break his back (or, crush his head—Gen. 3:16).
This is taken from 1Chronicles 13 (HTML) (PDF)
Now, why is the gospel less perspicuous in the Old Testament? I’ve explained how God deals with that fact, but why is the gospel so unbearable clear in the book of John, but not quite as clear in, say, the book of Genesis? God knew from the beginning what was going to happen. His Son would come into the world and give Himself as an offering for our sins. As a part of the angelic conflict, God allowed Satan to vent his anger and hatred toward Jesus Christ, almost without reservation, and yet, at the same time, Satan was preparing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, where He would die for our sins and break Satan’s back. God, at the cross, reveals Satan, more clearly than ever before, and all of his hatred, all of his rage. God reveals that Satan cannot simply go off to some part of the universe and keep to himself. Satan has to interfere with mankind and he has to vent his hatred and anger; it is who he is. So, God’s plan call for Satan to vent his rage and vitriol, and yet, allow Jesus Christ to die for our sins. God did this in such a way that, the gospel would become clear to anyone in the Old Testament who desired a relationship with Him; and yet, the gospel was hid from Satan; Satan, the most brilliant creature to come from the hand of God—a being who knows the Bible inside and out—could not foresee that Jesus Christ going to the cross is our salvation. Satan did not know that his anger and rage would result in our Lord dying for our sins, despite the fact that God telegraphed what would happen over and over and over again in the Old Testament.
This is taken from Job 9 (HTML) (PDF)
Then Job posed a question. With the interrogative, he uses the Qal imperfect of the verb
tsâdaq (צָדַק) [pronounced tsaw-DAHK], and it means to be righteous, to be just, to be
justified. Strong’s #6663 BDB #842. This could read: And is a man righteous with God?
or Can a man be righteous with God? Recall that Eliphaz posed almost the same question
in Job 4:17: “ ‘Can mortal man apart from [or, more than] God be righteous? If apart from
[or, more than] his Maker, is a man cleaner?’ ” However, this is a different context. In
Eliphaz’s speech, God did not even trust his own angels with important duties—let alone
man.
Here, Job is presenting a different question. Man is being stood up next to God and
Job is asking how is it possible for man to be righteous standing up next to God? Barnes:
The question here asked is, in itself, the most important ever propounded by man...This
has been the great inquiry which has always been before the human mind, Man is
conscious that he is a sinner. He feels that he must be regarded as such by God. Yet his
happiness here and hereafter, his peace and all his hope, depend on his being treated as
if he were righteous, or regarded as just before God.
So Job poses these questions to his friends and you may ask why? Job’s friends have
presented themselves as theological experts. Bildad has studied the words and thoughts
of the ancients and Eliphaz has had great religious visions. Therefore, in their great
combined wisdom, they should be able to answer: How can a man, a frail human being,
establish his own relative justice before god? How can his righteousness be argued, or
even presented, as a case?
So you may wonder—wasn’t Job saved? Didn’t he know that he was righteous before God? First of all, man’s notion of salvation was limited. In fact, in Job’s time, it was very limited. There was no extent Scripture that we know of (not that was readily available—certainly, the records to be used for Genesis existed—in fact, I believe that the manuscript for the first portion of Genesis existed. However, this was not distributed. People were saved then as they are now—God the Holy Spirit makes enough of the gospel understandable to them; they believe in Jesus Christ (then, Yehowah God) and they are saved. The exact mechanics were hidden from man and specifically hidden from Satan. When animal sacrifices were offered to God, God the Holy Spirit made enough of that act real to either the person offering the animal or the one watching to realize that a relationship with God was undeserved, that we are sinners, and that God saves us on the basis apart from our works, but because of a substitutionary death of some sort. We won’t know in this lifetime how much a man could grasp—and certainly, he could not put it into words. We definitely know that Satan, the greatest genius of all time, did not grasp the message at all, but that mortal man got enough of it to believe in Yehowah God and become regenerated. It was clear then, as it is now, that man, next to God, is not righteous. If you took my best week as a Christian and stood me next to God, I would be filthy and embarrassed. But we stand in our Lord Jesus Christ—we share His righteousness and His perfection and in this way, we stand justified and righteous before God. When it came to the means for this, Satan, although an expert in the Old Testament writings, did not have a clue and thought that when he engineered the crucifixion of Jesus, that he was putting an end to God’s walk upon the earth and that he was able to wreak his vengeance upon God the Son. We don’t know if Satan began to get a clue when the earth was suddenly enshrouded in darkness or whether the victorious proclamation of Jesus Christ to the saints in the heart of the earth was the first time that he understood what had happened.
This is taken from Job 14 (HTML) (PDF)
Now let me hasten to add that man in the Old Testament was saved just as we are saved today—by placing our reliance and our faith upon Jesus Christ (or, upon Yehowah God). What man did not fully grasp was the process by which he was cleansed. Job offered animal sacrifices; we saw that back in Job 1:5. And Job offered them on behalf of his sons and daughters—a substitutionary offering. In the Old Testament, they had all the pieces of the puzzle, but they were unable to put it together completely in order to articulate it. God allowed for a person to be saved without knowing the full realm of soteriology, just as He allows today. In fact, even today most Christians have little or no grasp of soteriology even after having been saved for years and years. This does not affect out salvation—not knowing soteriology affects our life on earth, our grace orientation, our understanding of God and our ability to witness to others—however, our salvation remains intact. So it was in the time of Job, with one important distinction. Today, we can understand and articulate the entire realm of soteriology; in the time prior to our Lord’s incarnation, man could, at best, understands bits and pieces of salvation—enough to be saved—but he could not articulate from beginning to end its ramifications. The reason for this is that the exact means of our salvation was concealed from Satan. It was Satan who finagled things so that Jesus Christ would go to the cross. He saw to it that one of the disciples would betray our Lord and that the two greatest systems of jurisprudence would fail and convict our Lord. Satan orchestrated all the details with the explicit desire to inflict the greatest amount of physical pain that he could upon our Lord. He was able to (1) show how much he hated God and all that God is; (2) he was able to demonstrate how negative the majority of the Jews and Romans were, from the least to the greatest; (3) he thought that he could remove our Lord from this earth through physical death; (4) he looked upon the cross as being the most shameful and terrible death that he could inflict upon Jesus Christ. (5) Satan just thought that in orchestrating the crucifixion that he was being so incredibly intelligent and crafty. He had no clue that our Lord could take the greatest injustice ever perpetrated in this life and transform that into our salvation. (6) Old Testament prophecies present, on the one hand, the Lord’s return as ruler over this earth. Satan was very familiar with these prophesies and he had assumed that in killing our Lord, that he would resume his control over the earth. (7) In viewing our Lord’s ministry on this earth, Satan saw a struggle between our Lord’s meekness and kindness and Satan’s viciousness and hatred. He assumed that by killing our Lord’s physical body, that this would be a victory of his hatred over our Lord’s kindness. (8) Satan assumed that in this crucifixion, our Lord would become so disgusted with the people of the earth that He would walk away from it and leave us under Satanic control. One of the religions devised by Satan is based upon this very principle: God created the heavens and the earth, and then walked away from it all and no longer participates in our day-in and day-out activities (this is called Deism, popular, in fact, with some of our founding fathers).
This is taken from Psalm 51 (HTML) (PDF)
Clearly, Satan is a super-genius, and 1000X smarter than any of the disciples on their best days. However, it is my hypothesis that he did not understand the function of the cross before it happened. |
1. It is my contention, and this is one of the few areas where I depart from many theologians, that even Satan, in his great genius, was not fully able to grasp what the cross was all about, despite the fact that Jesus taught his suffering on the cross was inevitable, even calling Peter, Satan, for suggesting that He not go to the cross. 2. Satan was instrumental in getting our Lord to the cross. In order for Jesus to be identified, Satan had to enter into Judas and point Jesus out to the religious types who took Him. If Satan understood the cross and how this would break his back, my thinking is, he would do everything to keep Jesus from being crucified. 3. In other words, Satan, who is a far greater genius than any person who has ever lived, who knew the Old Testament from cover to cover, who heard our Lord teach about his crucifixion, did not get it. He did not understand what the cross was all about. 4. It is reasonable to pose the question, how can Satan, a super-genius, be aware of all that Jesus taught, and yet be instrumental in getting Jesus to the cross? Hatred. Satan’s mental attitude sins were so blinding, that He did not put 2 and 2 together until the cross happened. 5. At some point during or after all of the trials, Satan may have begun to understand; but at that point, the die had been cast and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. 6. God brought the thick darkness over the cross for several reasons—to hide the humiliation of His Son but also to retain the continuity of the punishment. This darkness was so thick, even the demons could not penetrate it; even the demons could not see it. Therefore, they were unable to stop God’s judgment of our sins while Jesus was on the cross. 7. Recall that God the Holy Spirit has made spiritual information available to believers which is not available to unbelievers. An unbeliever cannot study the Bible and understand much beyond the basics. An unbeliever can sit in a doctrinal church and not understand much beyond the basics either. 8. Therefore, why should Satan be any different? Why should we expect him to be able to put Scripture together better than a believer with doctrine? 9. As a result, God used Satan to seal his own doom. Satan was not smart enough to see this coming. |
Again, this is an opinion and, insofar as I know, not only is this opinion not widely held, but I am unaware of any theologian who has ever taught this. This is a tertiary doctrine, and I am unsure as to how this affects a great many other doctrines, and, if presented with proof to the contrary, I would back off from this point of view (which is true of pretty much anything I have written—Let God be true and every man a liar). However, I include this doctrine, which I believe is a reasonable and logical conclusion. That is, in the greatest conflict of all time, Satan himself unknowingly participated in the events of the cross, which is our deliverance from sin and death, and therefore, our deliverance from Satan. |
There is an invisible conflict in which we play a part, known as the Angelic Conflict (HTML) (PDF). Angels learn from this, and the lesson they would understand is, despite Satan’s great genius, his intelligence is nothing compared to the intelligence of God. Logically, if angels are observing all of this human drama and learning from it, that presupposes that there are things which they do not know about God’s character and plan that they learn. Therefore, it is much more logical for a full understanding of Jesus to come with time. So, angels can look over Isaiah’s shoulder as he writes Isa. 53 and not fully understand what Isaiah is writing. However, when we come to the cross of Christ, then it all begins to fit together for these angels; and later, for us as men. |
Satan and the Angelic Conflict
This is taken from 2Samuel 12 (HTML) (PDF)
In this life, we are in the Angelic Conflict. We find ourselves in the midst of a conflict which began ages ago—maybe a hundred thousand years ago, maybe billions of years ago. God created Satan—the most beautiful creature to come from the hand of God—and Satan fell. Satan said, “I will be like the Most High.” Satan also took along with him a third of the angels. God judged and sentenced Satan and his angels (demons), but, prior to carrying out the sentence, throwing them all into the Lake of Fire, Satan appealed this sentence (which is a logical deduction, based upon the fact that God judged and sentenced Satan, but that he has not been yet thrown into the Lake of Fire). Satan, being a genius, probably laid out a large number of objections to his harsh sentence, all of which call God’s essence into question. “How can You be a God of love, and cast Your creatures into a Lake of Fire? We are creatures; You created us this way. How can we be held accountable for they way You created us?” What happened was, God allowed these objections to be heard, by all elect and fallen angels, and then He allowed His character and essence to be vindicated in human history. That is, God created man, and would reveal Satan’s character and God’s character in human history. God’s essence would be clearly obvious, throughout all human history, as would Satan’s. Satan’s actions in human history would show why his moment of egotism (“I will be like the Most High”) qualified him for eternal judgment. What we do on this earth, the choices that we make—particularly with regards to Jesus Christ—vindicate God’s character and heap condemnation upon Satan. A child, who does not even have a concept of Who God is, is not yet on the playing field. He has not suited up and come onto the playing field yet. Therefore, he cannot be held accountable for the score of the game. And since Jesus Christ died for his sins, that child, prior to reaching the age of accountability, is saved.
See the doctrine of the Angelic Conflict (HTML) (PDF).
Satan Counterfeiting the End Times
This is taken from 1Chronicles 13 (HTML) (PDF)
Let me give you an example: today, there are Muslims in almost all nations, their population is steadily growing and outpacing the growth rate of the indigenous people for the most part, and violence is breaking out throughout the world, its source being found in the more radical elements of these Muslims. That would be a current (January 2007) appraisal of some world events from human viewpoint. Divine viewpoint would be that these Muslims are evil, they are anti-God, and that these outbreaks as well as their infiltrating of most nations is a Satanic attempt to counterfeit the end times, where the Jews will be found scattered throughout every nation. Although the book of Chronicles might not be quite this straightforward, what is included and what is excluded in its historical narrative definitely reveals more of a divine perspective.
You may wonder, how does one counterfeit an incident which has not yet occurred? Satan knows the Bible, the Word of Truth, much better than we do; therefore, he knows about the end times, how the Jews are scattered throughout the earth into every nation, and that, at the rapture of the church, 144,000 Jews, who are scattered throughout the world in every land, will become prominent evangelists, until Jesus Christ returns. Satan knows this, so this is like an historical fact for Satan, even though it has not occurred yet. Therefore, Satan is duplicating this with scattering Muslims into every country. I think part of this includes the return of the 10th imam, or something like that. However, Muslims will be told not to simply evangelize, but to kill the infidels who do not respond to Muslim teachings. So, in this, we have adherents of Islam in every nation; we have something which will be equivalent to the Jews being scattered. However, these Muslims will be instructed to do more than evangelize. For those who refuse to listen to Muslim teachings or to accept Muslim teachings, they will be killed. This will parallel the disasters of the Tribulation. Finally, what is expected would be for there to arise a great charismatic Muslim leader who will jump start all of this.
This is taken from 1Chronicles 16 (HTML) (PDF)
We commonly put together the words Jesus Christ as if this were a first name and a surname. To have said this in the wrong crowd when He walked the earth was to invite persecution and death from the religious types of his era. Although using the name Jehovah Elohim would not get you stoned in Jerusalem, it might outside of Israel. This was the Jewish claim that their God, Yehowah, was God overall. It was common for various nations to have their own national gods. Remember, Satan counterfeits that which God does: the system of true Judaism—the worship of Jehovah Elohim through animal sacrifices and the like, with Jehovah being their God, and yet the God of the Universe—this was copied throughout that area and that period of time, so that many nations had their own god or gods with some sort of a sacrificial system. Since the dispensation of Israel gave way to the Church Age, Jehovah is no longer a local God and animal sacrifices are no longer required. What happens in the rest of the world? No more animal sacrifices and no more local god or gods (there are exceptions to this, but I am speaking of what is most common throughout the world.
This is taken from 1Chronicles 16 (HTML) (PDF)
Application: There is protection for the believer in Jesus Christ. Remember, you live in the devil’s world. Satan and his minions would like nothing more than to destroy your life in every way possible. What Satan did to Job is what he would like to do to each and every believer in Jesus Christ. This would be wonderful in his thinking; and this is why we are told there is protection.
This is taken from Job 1 (HTML) (PDF)
We live in an evil world where Satan is making an attempt 24 hours a day to control our minds and our way of thinking. All these various philosophies of our day and time—materialism, humanism, evolution, new age thinking—are all inventions of Satan. One of the reasons that God’s Word is so important that it is impossible for any of us to out-think Satan. His genius far exceeds our greatest minds; furthermore, he bombards us daily with his thinking, in advertising, in movies and on TV. God’s Word is the only place where we can find the truth; everything else is mixed with error. At this point in time, for those who are unbalanced, who have become confused by this world, the universal cure which is touted is psychiatry; get into some counseling and that will take care of the problem. Why is that solution offered? Well, you have those associated with the movie industry who make 1000 times the money that they ought, have great fame and influence, and are essentially unhappy and in therapy; therefore, such a road would be offered as a solution.
One of the most heavily attacked institutions of our day is marriage. The media has brainwashed us into thinking that the key factor in a relationship is sex; that men and women should experiment prior to marriage. If 1000 couples from the movies and television were brought before you, a very small number of them—less than a half dozen—would represent adults who are virgins who intend to remain that way until they marry. Satan does not want any part of God’s plan to be presented as an option. Most Christian men and women that I have known think that sex is a part of the dating process. They have become brainwashed by our media. The whole point of this is to ruin what is potentially the greatest relationship of a person’s life: marriage.
Family is also heavily under attack. We have marriages dissolving, mostly due to actual or mental adultery, and we have children being raised by one parent, never fully grasping what they should learn from the parent who is missing (generally the father). Women from single parent homes tend to make the worst choices when it comes to men. They have no concept of honor and love, which a man will give to his daughter even if he gives these things to no other woman in his life. Therefore, they marry someone who really turns them on; and, secondarily, has a good personality—the two of the most shallow concepts of a person’s being. Regardless of what women say, two of the things which they find attractive about a man is his confidence with women and the fluid moves he makes on a dance floor; and these are two attributes which have nothing whatsoever to do with sustaining a good relationship. You see, if Satan can poison the relationship between man and woman to begin with, then he has poisoned the family. Every effort today is made to see that parents and children are separated for long periods of time. Both parents are often caused to work long hours; and children are involved in a myriad of activities. One of the greatest classrooms in the world is at home, so it is Satan’s intention to separate the child from it mother as quickly as possible. Get the kid into a daycare as fast as is humanly possible so that the influence of the parents become secondary to the influence of his peers. The discipline portion of the family is also under attack. Time out to a child is a joke; they don’t fear that. It is the most minor imposition which we can place on a child. A spanking to curb their behavior now and again is frowned upon as being barbaric and out of step.
I recall one study in that regard which I heard the other day. The researcher involved stated up front that he knew that spanking was unhealthy and produced children who had less discipline and did a study which verified his thoughts. However, his study dealt with children who were between the ages of 8 and 12 (I am doing this from memory, so I might be a year or so off) of mothers who were in their early twenties who spanked their children three times or more a week. This was the group which spanked and those who spanked fewer times were the group who did not spank. The former group produced children who were less disciplined. Duh. Spanking three times a week for a child who is around the age of ten is excessive. His indicates that the parents never got control of their child in the first place and now are trying to take up the slack. Furthermore, we are dealing with mothers who were teenagers when they gave birth—children who raised children. We are dealing with parents in general whose parenting skills are wanting. Spanking can be abusive; however, that does not mean that it is. Again, this is Satan attacking the institution of the family.
This is taken from 1Chronicles 16 (HTML) (PDF)
God’s judgment is not a bad thing. Have you ever been drawn into a movie, and the villains of the movie really angered you, and when you saw them get the comeuppance, you cheered or clapped? It is an innate part of our nature to desire to see evil men get their just rewards. This is how we think; this is how we roll. Therefore, divine judgment should be closely associated with rejoicing.
Satanic influence, by the way, is for us to think of this in exactly the opposite way. It does not want us to cheer the heroes and boo the villains; and you will note, as Hollywood becomes more and more secular, its movies move further and further away from this normal human instinct. In this particular day and time, Hollywood has put out movie after movie portraying our soldiers in Iraq in a very negative light. They do not put out any stories of our current soldiers behaving with great dignity and integrity in Iraq or Afghanistan (which is 99% of our troops). Now, many liberals support the war in Afghanistan, but not the war in Iraq. However, still, there are no movies even about our great and brave soldiers in Afghanistan. And it is important to see just how ingrained this point of view is in Hollywood: these anti-war movies are bombing at the box office; they are losing money. Any well-made movie about our soldiers acting honorably and courageously in either country would do bang up box office (remember Saving Private Ryan?). However, Hollywood would rather lose millions of dollars rather than to sign onto any movie which presents heroes of the current wars that we can cheer for.
This is taken from Job 1 (HTML) (PDF)
Application: Right here and now, today, there is a place for a new movie studio—one not located in Hollywood—to make millions upon millions of dollars. There is a great hunger in this United States for movies with are pro-American, pro-soldier and pro-God. There are millions of families who want movies that they can take their teenage kids to; or movies they can allow their teens to see. A studio set up and run out of Texas somewhere, producing such films, would make millions if not billions of dollars, if such traditional values were portrayed regularly. Now, bear in mind, such a studio would face the wrath of Hollywood, atheism, secular thought, and Satan. Distribution alone would be a serious hurdle. However, the people would go see the films and they would tell everyone they knew to go see the films as well. I haven’t seen it, but I understand that the John Adams series on HBO is getting rave reviews. Good historically-accurate dramas would be well-received as well. If you want to be a multi-millionaire and make movies, this is how you would do it.
The word for evil, which we have seen many times in the past, is raʿ (רַע) [pronounced rahģ] and it means evil, bad. This is the masculine adjective, which is considerable stronger than the feminine adjective. Strong’s #7451 BDB #948. Satan’s plan—one of many—is to fill our lives with temptation and evil and evil thinking. There is a whole way of thinking in Satan’s world which he desires for us to have. The concept here is not necessarily moral depravity, but he sponsors moral relativity as well. We find it advertised in every way imaginable today—on television, in the movies, on the radio, through advertising, in school textbooks, in most churches. Whatever stands in opposition to God’s Word is Satan’s way of thinking, which is inherent evil. One of the most common attacks today is the concept of sex outside of marriage. Only a tiny fraction of movies and television programs present a man and a woman as not engaging in sex until after marriage. A smaller fraction of those present both parties as virgins prior to marriage. Satan intends to infiltrate our entire thinking process and he can only do this with a constant barrage of evil. Job avoided all evil in his life.
This is taken from The Introduction to Job (HTML) (PDF)
Is God capricious? One of the aspects of the book of Job which many theologians find difficult is that a superficial reading makes God appear capricious. Satan goes to God and God points out to Satan a man of righteousness, Job. Satan objects, saying the Job serves God only because God blesses him. So God delivers Job into the hand of Satan. “Do what you want with him,” seems to be God’s capricious attitude. We are, by nature, anthropocentric—we are man-centered. We see everything in terms of us. There are two important theological thoughts brought out by the book of Job. God’s creatures do not serve, obey and love God out of self-serving interests (although we might avoid sin, at times, for those reasons); we serve, obey and love God as a response to His grace, love and righteousness. The alternate master for us to serve, other than ourselves, is Satan. This book shows us how utterly vicious and depraved that Satan is. To give an analogy: once we become adults, we often look with great disdain upon vicious, purposeless vandalism of youngsters, recognizing that it is painful, expensive and work-intensive to undo the damage which has been done—an experience that the errant youngster does not even begin to grasp. Satan, when given this opportunity, does not pass by believers, those outside his realm, under the principal of live and let live. He attacks Job with malicious glee. If given the opportunity, Satan will viciously attack and destroy our lives. He lies in wait for another believer to be turned over to him to administer the sin unto death. He takes great, perverse pleasure, insomuch as he can feel pleasure, in the destruction of a believer. When human history is done, we will be able to see that God is righteous in His every decision and that Satan absolutely deserves to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. Nowhere else in God’s Word are we exposed to the level of viciousness which Satan is capable of. No where else do we see how evil and degenerate he can be and how deserving that he is of spending eternity in pain and suffering. There is no indication that Satan had second thoughts, that he felt sorry for Job, that he thought perhaps he pushed this too far. In fact, in the second phase of his standing before God, Satan asked for more leeway in the area of causing Job pain and suffering. Now, that God would allow such a thing is more difficult, but the pain and suffering that Job endured vindicated God’s righteousness, revealed Satan’s absolute depravity and gave us the tiniest idea as to the unjust suffering endured by our Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. How about Job? Was it worth it to him? That is, if he had a choice between not being the example, just living a full life in the prosperity that he had enjoyed and having to endure all of the pain the degradation that he endured, what would he choose in retrospect? We can ask him in heaven; however, I can guarantee that, given the options, Job would have gone with God’s plan. We all have problems in our relationship with God and our thinking of Him. Couldn’t He create a universe where there would have been no suffering, no pain, no fallen creatures? Although on earth, we may never be completely satisfied by the answers that the allowing of free will is necessary in order for there to be real love; we may never, in our lifetimes, fully appreciate the actual extent of the pain which God’s Son endured on our behalf; however, in eternity, we will fully understand, we will be in full possession of our free will, and we will trust entirely and unequivocally in God’s perfect righteousness and love. The book of Job helps us to see these things as best as we are capable of seeing them during our short time here on earth.
The Purpose of the Book of Job: In reading all of the commentaries which I own (which is damn few), I was struck by the lack of one of the most important themes of the book of Job, namely Satan’s absolute and utter selfishness and evil. Few people grasp how completely depraved and vicious that Satan is. Throughout Scripture, Satan is presented as a real entity, with great intelligence, who, because he sinned once against God, has spent the rest of his life not just in opposition to God, but inflicting pain and suffering on mankind. When given the opportunity to deal with Job, Satan did not ease into this attack—he hit Job with everything that he was allowed. God did not tell Satan to hurt Job—God allowed Satan to do whatever was in his heart; and Satan responded with a cruelty and viciousness unmatched in the universe. Most of us would not inflict upon our worst enemies what Satan inflicted upon Job. And Job has done no harm to Satan—Job has caused Satan no pain, no heartache, no suffering. Satan has sealed his own fate and Job had nothing to do with that. The only relationship between Job and Satan is that Job will be one of the many supergrace heroes who, in their short lives on this earth, vindicate the justice and judgments of God. Job’s only offense to Satan was his personal dedication to God. In response to that, Satan will inflict pain and suffering upon Job of an intensity unmatched to that time.
It is also very important to recognize, is that the innocent suffer, a point which the book of Job drives home. Now, mankind is not innocent—also a point of this book—but some men, despite their inherent weakness, are drawn toward God, and, ideally speaking, toward His righteousness. This does not mean that such a one will live a life detached from suffering. Even though Job is often criticized by exegetes millenniums later, it was Job who God held up as an example of righteousness before Satan. Personally, I would have caved with one-tenth the trouble of Job, so, even though I offer an occasional criticism, it is from a purely academic and theological stance, and certainly not from the point of view, I would have done better, because I wouldn’t have. But I have strayed. Clearly, in this life, there are those who suffer whose suffering seems to be disproportionate to their life and failings. Some of us have no problem when a promiscuous person contracts a sexually transmitted disease, or if a practicing homosexual contracts a debilitating illness; but there are thousands of people far removed from these sins who also contract the disease, many of them children, contracting these painful and debilitating diseases long before they can even distinguish from good and evil. The point is that you cannot judge a person based upon the amount of suffering they have endured. Job is superior to his three companions in every way; still, his suffering is far greater than they would ever know.
God’s Motivations with Regards to Satan and Job
This is taken from Job 1 (HTML) (PDF)
We have studied Satan’s motivation in all of this; now what about God’s motivation? The
divine arrangement has not its foundation in the sin which still clings to Job. For in the
praise conferred upon Job, it is not said that he is absolutely without sin; universal liability
to sin is assumed not only of all the unrighteousness, but even of all the righteousness, of
Adam’s race.
Certainly, it is clear that God is making a point to mankind and to all of
angelic creation as to the motives of the mature believer. However, God is also
strengthening and purifying Job’s faith. Furthermore, this, one of the oldest books of the
Bible—in fact, the oldest complete book, as Genesis had not been completed by the time
of Job—testifies as to the person of Satan, to his limitations, to his motivations, and to his
evil. This book also reveals to us the legal relationship between God, the fallen angels and
the elect angels. The proceedings involved here are very formal; they are not hap-hazard
and capricious. Early on, we learn the difference between the character of God and Satan.
God presents to Satan a man who is moral and dedicated; Satan immediately desires to
hurt this man in any way possible.
Satan’s Limitations (Satan is not God0
This is taken from Job 1 (HTML) (PDF)
The importance of this particular verb (which you missed in your attempt to read the Bible in one year) is that it means that Satan is not omniscient nor is he omnipresent. He has to continually move about from one place to another to cause and to coordinate his evil plan. He does have a demon army, but don’t think for a minute that they are under his absolute control. One of the defining factors of Satan and his angels is rebellion. Whereas God’s elect angels are completely obedient to God, there is no indication anywhere that the fallen angels share a similar obedience to Satan. Generally speaking there is one way to do a thing right and there are a myriad of ways to do a thing wrong. Satan’s evil forces, while under his dominion, obey him at times and at times exercise some personal choices which would not have been Satan’s. This is the nature of the beast, so to speak. The angels fell because of rebellion against God. This does not mean that they would suddenly become totally obedient to Satan. General obedience, perhaps. It is no different than having a company of employees; in general, they will follow the lead of their boss, but not each and every time. This is one reason that you cannot bargain with the devil or with one of his demons. We have no guarantees that they will fulfill their part of the bargain. We can lose whatever it is that we have been promised in a heartbeat because of another demon or because they have been overruled by the plan of God. My point here is that Satan, although he is highly organized, cannot be everywhere at once, nor can any individual demon (although there are certainly billions of them). Therefore, whereas it is possible that you are under demonic attack; it is highly unlikely that you are under Satanic attack. You are just not that important.
The second verb which describes the movements of Satan is Hithpael infinitive construct
of hâlake (הָלַךְ) [pronounced haw-LAHKe] means to go, to come, to walk. Strong’s #1980
(and 3212) BDB #229. This is followed by the prepositional phrase in it. When man fell
in the fall, Satan became ruler over this world and he continually patrols his domain. Satan
is always on earth, inspecting his domain, calling attention to believers who are out of
fellowship and making a terrible show of their lives. The Hithpael is the reflexive of the Piel
(intensive) stem. Satan has caused himself to go about; that is, God has granted him the
free movement over the earth. So long as he is not finally vanquished and condemned,
he has access to God, and thinks to justify himself by denying the truth of the existence
and the possibility of the continuance of all piety. God permits it; for since everything
happening to the creature is placed under the law of free development, evil in the world of
spirits is also free to maintain and expand itself, until a spiritual power comes forward
against it, by which the hitherto wavering conflict between the principles of good and evil
is decided.
Actually, this has been decided; and as Bob Thieme pointed out, the
sentence has been passed against Satan; we are in the appeal trial which God has allotted
Satan. This is not to give Satan another chance in any way shape or form, but it gives all
angelic creation and all humankind the chance to view how absolutely despicable, vicious
and evil Satan is as a result of his rebellion against God.
This is taken from Job 1 (HTML) (PDF)
Then Yehowah said to the adversary, “Have you given serious thought to my servant Job? That there is none like him in the earth—a man of integrity [or, blameless] and upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Finally, there is more to the Christian way of life than intentionally avoiding sin. There is also the avoidance of evil, Satan's way of thinking, which includes both sin and human good. This is a corrupt, earthly way of viewing things. These are the social revolutionaries, the rabid environmentalists, and violent anti-abortionists. Satan has a way that he thinks the world should be. He is on a crusade to save this planet and this world, although he changes his mind often as to what would achieve that, and he attempts to get us to do his bidding. Job did not participate in this kind of evil
So Job intentionally abstains from doing that which is wrong and does not participate in evil. He does that which is right. Job had great fear and respect for God. With these characteristics, there is no one else like him on earth.
As you study this book of Job, you will see many arguments that Job was a man of sin and that his great suffering was a natural result of this. God will even eventually criticize Job. However, always keep this verse in the back of your mind. God holds Job up before Satan as a man of integrity, as an example of a man righteous before God (given the saving work of Christ, of course). So, no matter what is said of Job, either by his friends or by commentary, this representation of his character is certain and stands forever written in God’s Word.
This is taken from Psalm 68 (HTML) (PDF)
Application: This also explains how, even though a religion might lead a person in the
right direction in many areas, that same religion might damage their lives as well. An
obvious example is Islam—many African Americans, by becoming Muslims, got off of
drugs and got away from constant self-gratification, and this made their lives better.
However, the characteristics of the god of that religion—Satan—is becoming clear in our
generation. It is a religion of hatred and revenge and anger and indignation, where
brainwashing and the simplest of arguments are given, and yet, so many Muslims cannot
see the big picture and do not recognize that the greatest killers of Muslims today are other
Muslims. They try to equivocate the violence in their religion to the crusades or to quasi-Christian anger over abortion, but Muslims foment more violence in a day than all the
misguided Christians during the entire abortion fight; and Muslims foment more violence
and death in a month, than man did during the crusades (also inspired by Satan, turning,
for instance, the world-class nation of Spain into the 3rd class country that it is today).
Application: I am going further and further out on a tangent, but notice how Satan has to let his true colors be known. Satan could not sit back and allow a religion which he has inspired reveal characteristics and laws of God to predominate. At some point, Satan has to show his true nature and his true control over this or that religion. With Islam, it is violence and hatred, which today has become the thrust of that religion.
This set of links is taken from 1Chronicles 16 (HTML) (PDF)
This is taken directly from Psalm 96:5. |
I have not yet done a full-blown doctrine of Demonism or the Angelic Conflict, so I will give links to these below. These are doctrinal sites, but I have not checked through the doctrines myself, point by point. |
Online Doctrines for Satan, Demonism and the Angelic Conflict |
Demonism |
http://www.gracedoctrine.org/word/Doctrines/Spiritism.htm http://www.aliveandpowerful.com/doctrines/demonism/demonism01.html http://www.aliveandpowerful.com/doctrines/pdf/Demonism.PDF (same as above) |
The Angelic Conflict |
http://kukis.org/Basicexegesis/Genesis1rev.htm#The%20Angelic%20Conflict http://www.gbible.org/_files/pdf/The_Angelic_Conflict_Part1.pdf http://www.aliveandpowerful.com/doctrines/angels/angels01.html http://www.aliveandpowerful.com/doctrines/pdf/Angels.PDF (same as above) http://www.versebyverse.org/doctrine/angels.html |
Satan |
Spiritual Warfare |
http://www.gbible.org/_files/pdf/The_Art_of_Spiritual_Warfare.pdf |
These are probably not exhaustive of what is available in the internet and relatively accurate; but these should be enough. |