May 28, 2012
Know Thy Enemy – Part 1: The Devil You Say?
NOT QUITE
“The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist” – Verbal Kint, “The Usual Suspects”
The seed plot of the entire Bible centers around a war between those who support God’s plan, (and the redemption of man from the effects of Original Sin), and those who oppose it.
The Bible takes for granted that we accept the existence of God. This is because God’s existence is self-evident. But there is another supernatural personage whose existence the Bible also expects us to take for granted: man’s adversary; the personal, intelligent, powerful, and malevolent spiritual being called the Devil and Satan.
The very idea of “the devil” usually elicits eye rolling, and condescending smirks. Many people put him in the same category as Big Foot, unicorns, and the Loch Ness Monster – an insignificant figment of myth and legend embraced mostly by the lunatic fringe.
Even when Satan is acknowledged publically, it’s often in a satirical manner such as the depiction of a guy in a red suit with a goatee and pitchfork. Or he’s simply dismissed as a psychological boogeyman for weak-minded people.
Looking at the matter objectively, Satan’s place in the Biblical narrative appears to be that of a character necessary to complete the dramatis personæ of the story – the villainous plot device needed to create the drama – he’s the Bible’s arch villain, he’s perpetual boogeyman; the Darth Vader, the Moriarty, the Svengali, the Vodemort, the Hannibal Lecter, the Dick Cheney.
One could argue that with the inclusion of Satan, the writers of the Bible merely utilized the classic story telling components that have existed since man first tried to get his kids to go to sleep at night. You have:
The protagonist (God)
The antagonist (Satan)
The theme (the viability of God’s Plan)
The journey (the Dispensations)
The conflict (Original Sin, and Justification)
The resolution (Redemption)
The prize (Heaven and Earth)
(However, I would contend that it is not the Bible that is mimicking man’s story, but rather all of man’s stories mimic THE story of God’s plan that began with the creation – the classic story telling elements that are present in every epic narrative we’ve ever told or heard appeal to our hearts and spirits on such a deep and fundamental level BECAUSE they reflect the story of our existence and destiny. This is something I plan to explore in more detail after we finish with the Dispensations.)
With all this in mind, the question is, should we really give significant attention to the idea Satan?
I would say yes. Why? First of all, the Bible makes it clear that he IS real, and since we’ve already shown the validity of the Bible, then it would be safe to say that if it says he’s real, then we should take his existence seriously!
Secondly, we should pay attention to Satan because if you choose God, you are at war with him!
And even if you are not on God’s side, you’re not off the hook. As we’ll see in upcoming posts, Satan hates humanity. ALL of us. Depending on your level of antipathy towards God, Satan will either consider you a pawn, a spoil, or a useful idiot.
The Bible clearly expects us to pay careful attention to Satan, and our understanding of his identity is the key to deciding our success or failure in our encounters with him.
We are expected to know that Satan is real and is the source of our struggles
Sin entered this world when Satan tempted the first man and woman to disobey God. Since then, he has continually been the catalyst for spreading evil throughout the earth. We must understand that our temptation to do evil comes from satanic influence on our fallen flesh. But we have the will and the authority to resist.
We are expected to know that Satan is our enemy
The temptations that we receive from Satan are appealing. They seem to be beneficial and pleasurable in the short term, but we have to understand that any temptation of our flesh will lead to negative consequences.
We are expected to know Satan’s method
We are all unique individuals with different strengths and weaknesses. We need to be mindful of our vulnerable areas because these are the places that Satan attacks. He has a specific and effective plan of attack tailored to our weak points. We know Satan’s method of attack in these areas of our lives because he assaults us the same way over and over again! How often do we find ourselves asking “Why do I keep making the same mistake again and again?” The areas where we continually fall are our points of vulnerability. We have to make the conscious effort to protect ourselves. Speaking of which…
We are expected to resist Satan
Whether we like it or not, we are not passive participants in spiritual affairs. God expects us to take an active role in defending ourselves and having victory over our adversary. God gives us the authority, and the Bible tells us how.
Satan employs one of two deceptive strategies when it comes to our direct confrontation with him. His primary strategy is the “I’m not really here” approach. He tries to get us to think that all the negative thoughts and actions he uses to influence us are really coming from us instead of him! The result is that we blame and condemn ourselves while ignoring him.
If the first strategy does not work, then he goes in the opposite direction. He leads us to obsess on him and give him an undue amount of attention. He tries to convince us that he is responsible for everything that goes wrong in our lives, including things we have caused ourselves, events that are merely happenstance, and even things that God initiates in our lives for the long term good. The result is that we feel that Satan has more power over us than he really does. We become fearful of him and think that we have no hope of overcoming him.
Why does Satan try to deceive us in these specific ways? Because if he is successful in getting us to believe either of his strategies, then we will fail to do the one thing the Bible tells us will defeat him – fight! (this is a war remember?)
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. – James 4:7
If we don’t acknowledge Satan, or feel that he is invincible, we won’t fight against him as the Bible command us to do and we will not have the victory over his machinations through God.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God – 2 Corinthians 10:4-5
The only way to lose the battle against our adversary is to not fight him. Satan goes though great pains to make sure that he can execute his schemes without resistance because he knows that we have the ability to be victorious over him through the authority that God has given us.
But if everything I wrote in this post is true, it just leads to many more questions. Where does Satan come from? What does he want? Why does he hate humanity? Why does God allow him to exist? How powerful is he?
The next few posts will further explore the origin, identity, and methodology of Satan as well as how to overcome him.
March 12, 2012
The (Seed) Plot Thickens
If only it was that easy…
Toward the end of our look at the First Dispensation, I mentioned that the curse God pronounced on the serpent in Eden was the seed plot of the entire Biblical narrative.
“…And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” – Genesis 3:15
I also gave my reasons why I believe that the serpent either was Satan, or represented Satan. This promise that the “seed of the woman” would crush the serpent (and his kingdom) represents a spiritual war (we struggle not against flesh) going on in the background of human affairs which greatly affected (and continues to affect) man’s history. Having a proper perspective of the seed plot and the war is vital to understanding many of the events in the Biblical narrative and the narrative of our own lives.
We took a detour from this important topic during our discussions of the Second and Third Dispensations in order to address faith, organized religion, and mystics. However, the events of the Fourth Dispensation present a good opportunity to address this subject again.
The Fourth Dispensation was defined by the covenant God established with Abraham and the representative nation formed by Abraham’s descendants (Israel).
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – Genesis 12:2-3
The Abrahamic covenant states that the nation comprised of Abraham’s descendants would be a blessing to ALL the other nations in the world. This blessing is due to the fact that the Seed of the Woman; the One who will redeem mankind, reverse Adam’s transgression, pay the penalty for Original Sin, and reclaim rulership of the earth from the serpent – would be a descendant of Abraham!
Knowing this, it would make sense that Satan and his forces would target the fledgling Jewish nation as a part of the war to prevent the advent of the Redeemer.
Now the term “war” may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, especially since we do not have the ability to directly observe much of what goes on in the spiritual realm, but a look at the end of the Fourth Dispensation provides a dramatic example of the scope and impact of the theater of this war.
At face value, the 10 Plagues visited upon Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt was God’s judgment for the failure of the Fourth Dispensation. But there was more to it than that. Each of the plague specifically targeted a member (or members) of the pantheon of “gods” that the Egyptians worshipped.
Our first inclination is to believe that these so called “gods” were not real, but made up by mystics. However there is evidence that there was significant supernatural power behind the Egyptian religion.
The Bible clearly states that mystics in Pharaoh’s court could access supernatural power – to the degree that they could even duplicate the first two plagues God sent through Moses!
It seems that the Egyptian gods were either supernatural beings (fallen angels) or were to some degree associated with these beings via the mystics’ machinations.
Here is a summary of the Plagues and the associated “god(s)”
Plague 1: Nile water into blood – Hapi: god of the Nile
Plague 2: Frogs in the land – Hekhet, the frog-headed goddess of fertility, water, and renewal
Plague 3: Lice from dust – Geb: Egyptian god of the Earth (Pharoah’s mystics were not able to duplicate this or any of the next seven plagues. The lice infestation also made them ceremonially unclean and therefore unable to perform rituals to the gods – if only lice could affect all mystics in a similar manner…)
Plague 4: Infestation of Flies – Khepri: Egyptian god of resurrection, creation, movement of the Sun, rebirth; depicted as having the head of a fly or beetle (lovely).
Plague 5: Death of Cattle/livestock – Hathor: cow-headed goddess of love and protection.
Plague 6: Boils on the skin of Egyptians – Isis: goddess of medicine and peace. Im-Hotep: real person turned deity, patron of wisdom and medicine. Sekhmet: lion-headed deity of plagues, believed to bring about or prevent epidemics or pestilence.
Plague 7: Hail and fire rain down – Nut: Sky goddess. Shu: god of air. Tefnut: goddess of water/moisture.
Plague 8: Locusts– Senehem: locust-headed, god of protection from ravages of pests. Seth- Egyptian God of Storms and Disorde
Plague 9: Darkness – Ra or Amon-Ra: god of the sun. Osirus: sky god; sun was his right eye, moon his left.
Plague 10: Death of the firstborn – Pharaoh himself who was considered Horus (son of Isis and Osiris) in the flesh. Min: god of reproduction. Anubis: god of the dead and embalming.
The Plagues not only resulted in freedom for the Jewish nation, they showed that the God of Abraham was superior to the gods of the Egyptians (some of the mystics were even convinced). They also increased the spread of the reverence and respect of God’s power into other nations ahead of the Israelites.
But this brings up a point I touched on earlier. When we initially studied the mystics a few months ago, I portrayed them as charlatans who attempted to gain power and rule through guile and deception (as well as exploiting human nature). And in the vast majority of cases, that’s true.
However, I intentionally left something out of the posts on mystics because I wasn’t ready to examine it until now.
The truth is that the fragile house of cards that the mystics built on secrets and lies would be unlikely to allow them to remain in such positions of power and influence through the ages. They’ve had help. Supernatural help.
Some of the most powerful and influential mystics through the ages have used (and been used by) spiritual entities that are in fierce opposition to God’s plan.
These beings are intelligent, powerful, immortal, and evil. They are at war with God and anyone who chooses Him. We can’t see them or touch them, but they are all around us and they desire our destruction.
If all this sounds a bit disturbing and spooky to you, that’s because IT IS! We’re extremely uncomfortable with the idea of beings we can’t see influencing our world. Even Christians who acknowledge the existence evil spiritual beings prefer to ignore them most of the time.
Unfortunately, unlike the monsters that were under our beds as children, pretending they don’t exist won’t make them go away.
I mentioned them briefly when we discussed the origin of the Nephilim in the Second Dispensation but I haven’t gone into a detailed discourse on the subject until now because I wanted make sure we understood the roles of God and man in our historical narrative first.
Now its time we got to know our enemy. In the next post we will begin our journey into the dark side with a look at the one who started it all; the greatest enemy of man; the first and grandest failure of creation – the being called Satan.
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