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The cloudy and gloomy day is about to become bright. No more fights and no more struggles, which were totally unnecessary in the first place. Like a false messenger that brought bad tidings about an enemies’ imminent attack; so were many of our doctrines. It takes spies that would go and see the real situation on the ground, but why the scouts do their job the people unnecessarily tremble. But even after the spies’ true report it is hard to give up the initially accepted fear; so the spies’ true message may not be heeded. Once the initial but false message had been accepted and fear permitted to dominate feeble hearts; it involves the ticking clock, a waste of precious time in which things can be changed. Fear prevents many of venturing out. Lethargy sometimes prevents many from trusting their reason, which they would rather leave to the “experts” than explore themselves.
[Hebrews 2:14-15] Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
Now, this verse is illuminated with a different light. In this case the author of the Letter to the Hebrews uses the devil for Satan, who brings death. Correlate this now with Exodus 4:11 The LORD said to him, "Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?" In 1Samuel 2:6 we read, The LORD kills and makes alive He brings down to Sheol and raises up. In Isaiah 45:7 we read, The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.
Why don't we like these verses? What's going on? Check if that old pagan root still bothers you. Perhaps you need a dental work done like the root-canal perhaps then you can properly eat and chew God's Word?
If you must blame someone then you would have to blame God who does these things through different angels. However, theology singled out Satan as the only one doing anything negative and so our predecessors decided to call him the devil (diabolos).
Christianity evolved from Judaism and the tendency to make God only good, Lovey Daddy, and the devil/Satan only bad; was rooted in pagan worship of imaginary deities whom the pagans always tried to appease and sacrificed to. Fear was the real cause for trying to please their gods and so it overflowed on to Christianity where out of fear of Satan they sweeten up God and bemire Satan. As the saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." The result was polytheism narrowed down to just dualism. But it is still paganism and no matter how much we would like to, and even do prove to the former religion (Judaism) that our new religion is better, we would only do that out of fear and out of our own selection. This selection of ours is but our theological god and our own choice as to how we aught to worship this chosen sweet and good with no temperament deity.
Jesus was the only man on earth that introduced God to us as a father—His Father and our Father, His God and our God (Jn. 20:17). His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime, (Ps. 30:5).
IF SATAN CASTS OUT SATAN
Out of God’s outbursts of anger people in their minds created another god for it sort of calms their own angry dispositions. And a scapegoat, like Satan, is a convenient way of going about it.
Jesus was the only man on earth that introduced God to us as a father—His Father and our Father, His God and our God (Jn. 20:17). His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for a lifetime, (Ps. 30:5).
IF SATAN CASTS OUT SATAN
Out of God’s outbursts of anger people in their minds created another god for it sort of calms their own angry dispositions. And a scapegoat, like Satan, is a convenient way of going about it.
As already mentioned, unlike paganism Israel was chosen and invited to walk in God’s ways. Pagans chose for themselves gods and worshiped them the way they have imagined them to like or dislike their rituals and offerings. Many religions have kept competing over whose god is better and whose ritual of worship is truer. “We believe in the God of love and not the God of wrath” as if He has to comply with our beliefs and proclamations. In the process we forsake the truth and stray. It is like a man who plans to marry a woman that must look like Marilyn Monroe, who must be a great homemaker, perfect mother of his children and a great cook; otherwise he won’t marry her. [Mark 3:23-26] And He called them to Himself and began speaking to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. If Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but he is finished!”
The purpose here is to open your eyes to something yet not seen; and to open the mind still shrouded in shadows. Satan cannot stand if he had risen against himself, which would be preposterous in logical terms. Jesus tries to stimulate those people’s minds and then ends with saying he is finished. For some inexplicable reason we don’t want him to be finished because many before us have tried to get rid of Satan and make him nonexistent, which would be viewed as “the trick of the enemy” and we “won’t fall for it.” So the perpetual seduction of fear of the unknown plays a trick on our not yet illuminated mind. Instead of studying, examining and understanding, which takes time; we settle for the status quo.
THE SOWN SEED
As long as there are seasons of sowing and harvesting there will be those who have more and those who have less and some will go bankrupt. One can blame the weather, God or Satan, but blaming should not even be part of our vocabulary but rather aiming. Aim your grievances toward God and tell Him of your troubles in prayer, perhaps He will also remind you about any wrongdoing you might have had hushed up and forgotten? Once there is a complete return to God and His ways, on individual as well as corporate level, things will change. No matter how much both the government and banks try to help you with; certain areas like the dust bowl of central USA will remain unchanged. What changes things is better knowledge. God is the one who gives knowledge but man must be willing to apply it and that takes humility, which God loves.
[Mark 4:13-15] And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word, which has been sown in them.
According to the already established pattern, which involves God’s wrath, employment of Satan or the devil – Kenite – tare a human being the above statement would not make any sense. Satan is being portrayed here as someone who comes and takes away the sown seed. But, why would Satan want to do that if he is on God’s leash, unless Jesus means opposition(s)? Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop or remained fruitless" (Mk. 4:7).
Cain produced tares and these choke up the crop. God’s wrath is not involved, nor Satan, but perhaps the offspring of Cain; hence the devil.
The apparent conflict in terms does confuse. Had it not been for the borrowed from Babylon and Persia beliefs and for the mix that the Hellenistic period brought; we would not see Satan and Diabolos lumped together. There must be a clear separation between pure monotheism and paganism. The subsequent context sheds more light.
Opposition (Mt. 13:30) does the choking. Mark tends to use Satan as the enemy, while Matthew, Luke and John use the devil. Hence, we can’t take the scriptures dogmatically, but with understanding.
Jesus said, Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares (people) and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat (people) into my barn” (Mt. 13:30). The explanation follows in Mt. 13:38-39, And He said, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, and the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the evil sons; and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels."
So Mark uses “Satan” while Matthew uses “the devil” to express the same thing, which was part of their vocabulary in the context of the Greek mentality. In each instance the enemy, which is opposition plays a role and which is the core reason for worries.
THE DEVIL & HIS ANGELS
The enemy is people that oppose the sons of the kingdom. So we see sons of disobedience coming against the sons of obedience; those who hate and those who love; the bad and the good. Satan has nothing to do with this unless he is used as an idiom for opposition, which Jesus and later Paul also used.
[Matthew 25:41] Then He will also say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the *devil and his angels.” – *Cain and his kind.
The tares will be burned up and that is their destiny. Jesus speaks about the fruit of kindness and the separation between those who are kind and those who are not. He separates tares from the wheat and the eternal fire (instant annihilation) speaks of destruction, after the tares fulfilled their mission on earth. Only His sown and cultivated seed will inherit the kingdom.
Jesus had to navigate in this jungle of ideas and pagan influences that have shaped people’s imaginations for more than 600 years. In order to make someone understand you have to borrow not only their vocabulary but also their common beliefs and use metaphors. The great storyteller used parables to plant the seed of Truth in His followers. This seed brought fruit today.
SATAN IN THE GOSPELS
Satan is mentioned in:
1. Matthew 12:26 – Discourse about Satan casting out Satan
2. Matthew 16:23 – Jesus calls Peter Satan
3. Mark 1:13 – Temptation of Christ
4. Mark 3:23 – Discourse about Satan casting out Satan
5. Mark 3:26 – Satan is finished
6. Mark 4:15 – The taking away of the sown seed
7. Luke 10:18 – The supposed fall of Satan
8. Luke 11:18 – Discourse about Satan being divided
9. Luke 13:16 – A woman bound for eighteen years is released
10. Luke 22:3 – Satan enters Judas
11. Luke 22:31 – Satan receives permission to sift Peter
GET BEHIND ME SATAN
[Matthew 16:23] But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
Bluntly in Peter’s face Jesus said that his mind is not set on God’s interests but man’s and that is in contrast to John 10:18 where Jesus states that ‘He lays His life down of His own accord in obedience to the Father’s commandment.’ Peter had no clue that the mind of his Master was tied to the Father’s; and Jesus viewed Peter’s words as if attempting to change His mind. And this was another temptation and another test, which Jesus resisted.
THE FALL OF SATAN
Point 6 speaks of the fall of Satan from which St. Augustine contrived his theology of the supposedly fallen Lucifer.
[Luke 10:18-20] And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”
When God sent Satan to Job, fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them… (Job 1:16). Obviously fire and lightning portrays God’s wrath in the natural world. In the case of Korah (Nb. 16:23-35) Fire also came forth from the LORD and consumed the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense. There are many more depictions of fire in the Bible and each instance speaks of God’s wrath, or rather that of His holy garments.
From Sodom and Gomorrah to prophet Elijah God’s fiery wrath falls and consumes. In Luke 10:18 Jesus saw Satan fall from heaven like lightening which is fire. As frightening as that may appear Jesus continues saying that this is not as important as having our names recorded in heaven. The mystified evil is also not important because it is not in heaven, but on the ground and like serpents and scorpions these can be walked over and crushed. In fact, when I fasted in the places between Jerusalem and Jericho I slept in clefts and caves and woke up to scorpions around me, which I smashed with one blow. I also killed snakes.
If Satan, with his supposedly subordinate army of angels, is expelled from heaven and my name is recorded in it; than heaven is not a realm of the perfect love and perfect peace, but of the earthly fear. These strange ideas others passed down to us and like fools many of us embraced them as Scripture. One of those fools was I, but I went into the Scripture and found something else. Since I have been reformed and since then God’s presence became ever so more wonderful, yet this presence I cannot sell to you, except this book. I do not provoke God to wrath with my error filled imaginations about Him and His kingdom. I am at peace with Him and He is at peace with me and that’s the true aim of the last reformation.
The ancient world worshiped images and through them imagined the spirit world and this was the case with the returning seventy disciples, which eventually stopped following Jesus.
When God’s wrath falls, fire falls also, but that can be observed only in the natural world. As already stated, the angels of the SERAPHIM rank look like flames. Satan is not a cherub, but a seraph. But the anchor remains strong: without the will of the Almighty Satan cannot fall, war or do anything.
SATAN OR BEELZEBUL
We have touched on this earlier. Jesus starts His sentence with conjunction provoking those people to think. Satan is not a king nor does he have his own kingdom; therefore Satan is not divided, but subordinated to one God and one kingdom.
[Luke 11:18] If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.
People can be kings and have kingdoms therefore a Kenite (the devil) can be an earthly ruler. Baal and Satan and are not related, neither are demons related to Beelzebul for demons are dead past lives, which witchcraft and spiritism plays with; some are only unclean and some besides already being unclean are also violently evil. Multiply these devils in a presently living person and the strength of these souls is also multiplied and such was the Gerasene man.
DAUGHTER OF ABRAHAM
This is quite interesting. Jesus recognized that the woman was indeed from Abraham’s lineage and He saw God’s compassion on her. God was about to release her even on His own Sabbath day.
[Luke 13:16] And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?
Since Jesus was introducing to us the loving heavenly Father He permitted Satan to represent something negative, but only for the first phase. Jesus came to die and rise again; after Him came the second phase of evangelizing the world. Now, we have entered the third phase in which we must reevaluate those loose pieces and sew a quilt from them so that we might cover ourselves with the Truth and rest in God’s sovereignty and His peace.
The heart of God is love, but His garments are fiery, acting as protecting walls against anything vile coming His way. God’s spirit of life resides in all of us thus connecting us to God and His world of oneness. The way we must use the power of the spirit of life is only for peace and blessing and not war and suffering for these things flare up His holy garments. What that woman’s ancestors have committed we do not know, but God visits the iniquities of the fathers to the third and fourth (crossroads & changes) generations (Ex. 20:5) and in the fifth comes His grace. If that grace is not being utilized, but the root of evil perpetuates and even blossoms bearing evil fruits; in the sixth generation can come destruction and even life’s termination. Whoever survives such calamity is lucky enough to perhaps turn away from evil otherwise in the seventh generation all debtors must go free. This law (Hebrew, shmittah) applies to people and the land they cultivate. God counts seven times seven and in the fiftieth year is the year of jubilee where all culprits, debtors and sinners are released. God loves peace so much that He must arrest and calm down the fluster of His holy garments with the Sabbath peace otherwise the earth would not endure.
The earth is very volatile and the distances between planets speak of a delicate balance. The tilting of our planet and the lengthening or shortening of the earth’s orbit can either burn it up or freeze it; so it is with our God. Life is fragile and it ought to be handled with care. If someone has a hard time accepting this then perhaps he or she tries to play a god? But any subjective interpretations have nothing to do with the Supreme God. Once you fathom God you will fear Him and let Him have His own perfect way, but at the same time He comes very near to you, melts your heart, squeezes tears out of your eyes and celebrates life with you. Oh what a wonderful fellowship that is, which I am privileged to enjoy.
RETURN TO ME
Man’s vicissitudes, bottled up dislikes and nerve-racking whims come from not knowing the way of peace. These are the vestiges of God’s wrath for with the wrathful He is wrathful. David knew of this so well that this particular characteristics of God appear twice - in the Book of Samuel 22:26-27 and in Psalms 18:25-26. It was important to David’s mentor Samuel so the king was well trained in the laws of actions provoking reactions.
God says, Return to Me,” declares the LORD of hosts, “that I may return to you,” says the LORD of hosts (Zech. 1:3). God is always there and everywhere, but there are mechanisms that invoke His presence in our lives and that period was when Jesus came releasing the captives from God’s wrath. He watched the Father who gave His Son a sign to heal the bend-over lady even though it was the Sabbath. Just as Satan left the high priest Joshua (Zec. 3:1) after Joshua repented and was cleansed; Satan left the daughter of Abraham when Jesus released her from any effects of God’s wrath. Jesus was celebrated because when He opened Isaiah 61 in Nazareth’s Synagogue He declared the Year of Jubilee a time of complete release from all obligations.
SATAN ENTERS JUDAS
Without God’s permission Jesus could not do anything and without Jesus’ permission Satan could not act. This is the world of oneness and perfect agreement. Our world is fragmented because of the fragmented matter and individualism.
[Luke 22:3] And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve.
Satan received permission and the sign of that permit was the morsel, which Jesus dipped and gave it to Judas. Because we have rather emotional issues with Satan, we tend to avoid addressing something we do not like, but right there we find the release from our bondage. The Satan of Balaam (Nb. 22) spoke through the mouth of a donkey so we can imagine that he entered the animal. Then he stood with a drawn sword in hand and Balaam could see him. Obviously, God is God and He does what He wishes. Judas was chosen to do the dirty job a son of perdition (Greek word, apoleia from the mythological god Apollyon a god of destruction. Hebrew, Abaddon, utter destruction) which means that God’s fire will completely annihilate Judas and he won’t exist in neither world. Of course Judas will not even have any consciousness of ever existing. That’s the power of God. He does what He wants and uses whomever He will for He raises up and He brings down. It is hard for us to swallow this truth but Jesus already said, He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it (Mt. 10:39).
SATAN SIFTS PETER LIKE WHEAT
For those who are very much attached to their lives and just this physical domain would have a hard time accepting this verse, which specifically states that Satan received permission (original text) to sift Peter like wheat.
[Luke 22:31-32] Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
How we feel about this verse and how we might interpret it—in our humanistic way—is beside the point. The translated text reads (NASB), Satan has demanded permission. KJV translates this verse as, Satan hath desired (Greek, exaiteomai, which means asking for permission). There was an accord between the Father and the Son regarding Peter and his impetuous temperament, which would only get in a way as to what was planned for Peter. For this reason Satan was assigned to Peter to sift the disciple. Jesus did not pray that Peter would be spared from this sifting, but rather that he might endure it and emerge victorious and then strengthen his brothers. It sounds as if Jesus wanted it and the employment of Satan explains His intentions. So what’s going on here? This completely changes our views regarding Satan being our enemy. Enemy? – Yes, when we take into account our feelings; but when we use our educated head we might conclude otherwise. Our soul screams “enemy!” Our mind says, “but why?” The second is better because when we ask someone we sort of submit ourselves to the giver of that answer, make ourselves hollow like a vessel and then this vessel is ready to be filled. That is my practice in pondering on the mysteries of God and His kingdom.
The positive outcome of Peter’s sifting cannot be overlooked here. Despite any animosity voiced against Satan; as a subordinate-to-God angel he only did what he was told. Peter emerged victorious and he did strengthen his brothers. Mission accomplished.
THE DEVIL - QUICK REFORMATION
We have already explained the devil in these passages of scripture:
1. Matthew 4:1, 5, 8, 11 – 40-day fast of Jesus
2. Matthew 13:39 – The field, tares and the seed
3. Matthew 25:41 Eternal fire for the devil and his angels
4. Luke 4:2-3, 6, 13 – Temptation and test of Christ
5. Luke 8:12 – The sower and the seed
6. John 8:44 – The first devil, murderer and liar - Cain
7. John 13:2 – The devil and Judas Iscariot
Now, what remains are few final touches.
- In point 1 Satan tests Jesus in Scripture, the devil (physical human being) tempts Jesus with riches and with the world’s temporary glory.
- In point 2 Jesus explains the role of the field, which houses the tares and the wheat, grain or corn (one and the same meaning - cultivated). The tares have life in them, but the outcome is negative - choking the seed. The seed has also life but it feeds people; these are God’s sons He identifies with; and as it is written in John 15:1-2 God is the vinedresser and He prunes them as branches so that they would become even more fruitful. This sort of disciplining may be unpleasant to the branch, but the outcome can be glorious. In the same way the seed is used for bread, for prosperity and for sowing again - three parts. However, tares are viewed as part of a curse; first on Adam's and then also Cain’s account - no good. Yet, as the record shows through Adam came redemption but not through Cain.
- In point 3 Cain is the devil and his descendants who walk in his shoes are his devils, for they kill, destroy, steal and lie in many forms. Today this kind of a Kenite is being curbed with laws, but had it not been for strong laws these tares would be at each other’s throats. And that’s what is going to happen when the restrainers of God’s wrath have left this planet. Look at the prisons which have already reached capacity; and many more prisons have to be built to house the tares; among which are also those who have been falsely accused.
- In point 4 Luke portrays Christ’s temptation and the wilderness ordeals.
- In point 5 we have again the parable of the sower of seed where worries of this life and oppositions choke up the seed so that it remains fruitless.
- In point 6 John clearly portrays Cain as the first murderer and liar and this verse perfectly ties in with the point 3. We are all like trees having roots-past, trunk-present and crown-future. Either we walk in the sins of our forefathers or we repent and get fundamentally changed.
- In point 7 John portrays Judas as a Kenite, because of his greed and complete oblivion regarding spiritual things. What matters to a Kenite is the gratification of self, desire for riches obtained through any means and pompous pride. The devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him (…) Obviously, Jesus knew them well; who they were; where they come from and where they would go. Jesus saw the material He could work with. About Nathaniel Jesus said “An Israelite in whom there is no deceit” (Jn. 1:45-47). He called Levi (Mk. 2:14) the tool collector who was not attached to the money he handled. Zaccheus (Lk. 19:1-27) was not asked to sell everything and give it to the poor and then follow Jesus, but the young rich ruler He did ask, but the young man could not part with that which he was deeply attached to (Mt. 19:21-22). Either money possesses you or you possess the money.
Judas was possessed with greed to the point of being willing to betray innocent blood, but he was hesitant. Jesus hastened His betrayal by letting Satan into Judas the devil (Jn. 6:70) and here the confusion of terms stops.
Dr. Joseph Luxum. Book excerpts: "Truth & Illusion the Last Reformation" Copyright (c) NWP
