Categories
angels

Who Is Satan, the Devil, the Prince of Darkness?

Pleased to Meet You, Do You Know The Name of Satan?

Either Satan gets blamed for almost everything or ignored as if he doesn’t exist. Known by many names—the Devil (Matt 5:1), Belial (2 Cor 6:15), Beelzebul (Matt 10:25)—that basically describe his character.

So when we see names like The Evil One (Matt 13:19), the Prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), the god of this present age (2 Cor 4:4), the Father of Lies (John 8), the great accuser, Satan (Job 1:6): they tell us what he’s like.

Honestly, typing this makes me a bit nervous. That will either have some folk laughing at me or confused that I would carry on with this foolish endeavor. But, I spent some time studying him in Scripture and I wanted to share my notes.

I have no intention of examining Satan’s activities throughout history, or how he may have been behind this or that event. Indeed, I don’t have many notes on the intertestamental development of the doctrine of Satan and I frankly don’t think it’s helpful in understanding him.

My nervousness lies in hoping to properly represent the ruler of this present world (John 12:31). I don’t want to follow in the foolish error of men who go on to do what not even an archangel dares to do (Jude 9,10) so I approach with the reliance on God’s word.

This is one of my longer posts, so I’ve divided it into the following sections. If you would rather not read the full post, each section ends with a short summary.

  1. The Bible shows that Satan has perfected his evil
  2. But the Bible tells us little about Satan’s history and future
  3. And also little about Satan’s position
  4. Frankly, Isaiah 14 doesn’t talk about Satan
  5. Neither Does Ezekiel 28
  6. Satan is powerful, though limited
  7. When people freely join Satan things get ugly
  8. Christians must actively resist Satan
  9. While knowing that their own worst enemy is themselves
Categories
angels church study

God With Us

Article 2 of the Constitution of the United States stipulates the rules for the Executive branch. How long the person would serve. How they would be elected. What was the grounds for electing him. What is the process for removing him. What are the qualifications to function in that role.

In that clause, the Constitution states that the President—indeed, also the Vice President—must be thirty five years old but then it has these two other qualifications: they must have been a natural born citizen and have been a resident of the United States for at least 14 years.

The clause is not historically uncommon. Nations throughout history have always wanted a leader who belonged to the country. It’s understandable. When a foreign nation comes in, attacking another country and sits on the throne, the new country is merely real estate with revenue funneling back into the mother country. The ruler doesn’t represent the people of the conquered country at all. Be it Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, Mother Russia, England, or the United States the leader represents the needs of his own people.

It was the people’s fear of having a foreign national with us. He’s not really of us—but he’s over us.

So the Constitution drafters insert that clause ensuring that some foreign national doesn’t come along, somehow orchestrate events to become leader of the United States, and then spends the bulk of his time supporting the desires of his real country.

Which brings us to the problem of Hebrews 2.

Categories
angels apologetics

We Can Be Angels Today

Angels are awesome. They stand in the throne room of God. They have the ability to slay armies. They can appear at the flash of light, fight demons, and even be a comfort to people when the Lord sends them.

But people have an incorrect view of angels.

Categories
angels study

The Sons of God in Genesis 6

Okay, this is what I know. I know that the Bible sometimes gives us peeks into the supernatural while not making a huge deal of the event. Like, when an angel appears to Mary and tells her that God has chosen her for a specific role, the story doesn’t become a parable for angel worship. The announcement if anything stirs Mary to eventually proclaim an awesome praise of God. The angel (as Mary, by the way) fade into the background as Mary’s Son becomes exceedingly prominent (surely an understatement but I’m trying to highlight the emphasis). The angel has a comparitively minor role in the whole story.

Categories
angels church sin

Satans Dual Objectives: A Worldly Messiah And A Worldly Church

By Bob Gessner

As one examines the New Testament, it becomes evident that Satan had two primary
objectives in this world, among many more perhaps less evident. (1) To tempt the Messiah
to conform to the image of the worldly Jewish religious thinking of His time. (2) To
influence the church so that it conforms to the worldly religious thinking of our times.
In the first objective, Satan totally failed. He met an opponent who stood firm. In the
second objective, he has met with more success than we would like to think or admit.