THE TWO HANDS OF GOD
Copyright © BRI 1994
It is difficult to rescue glory for God out of the tragedies of life. However...this depends upon our thinking.
As a Messianic believer I must insist that the Gentile Christian community (by and large universally) got the intent, purpose and plan of God for humankind wrong. It got the beginning of the story wrong. It got the eschatological ending of the story wrong. And it got the Gracious story-plot
itself wrong.
Originally theMessianic Movement (later the Church)understood the basics of HaShem's plan of salvation for his fallen creatures. But they soon replaced Grace with works. The church early replaced the imposition of God's Grace in election with the doctrine of man's free will in accepting “Jesus” as Saviour. That such an antichrist doctrinal position was early imposed upon the understanding of the primitive believers was due to a sinister conspiracy which we have covered in supplementary material.
In other expositions, we have covered some of the basic facts concerning the revelation of the purposes of God for humankind. We have discovered that the plan of salvation was worked out in eternity, long before the creation of this present universe. We have seen that Messiah has been a Saviour from eternity. We have seen that “evil” as well as “good” comes forth from the Mind of the Creator. This is not to say that God is an evil God. Not by any means! God is very much a good God, but he is also very much above our concepts of what we would consider “right” and “wrong.” God is not bound by our ethics or morality. God is not bound by LAW.God is above all the transcendent One. Indeed, we have seen that evil as well as good was available in the garden of Eden at the very beginning of man's story (history). Man was created, not perfect, but -- as the Hebrew recognises --“very good.” Nevertheless, man sinned and brought upon himself aloss of cognisance as to his proper relationship with the LORD OF ALL and a lack of comprehension as to his identity as the mirrored or reflected Image of the Divine God.
Man's separation from Deity was essentially a matter of perception or comprehension (Col 1.21 Greek).
Essentially and traditionally the Christian life is a progressive unfolding (in our personal recognition) of our true relationship with the LORD (in Messiah) and the dawning (in our personal recognition) of our true identity as the Image of the Divine God (again, in Messiah). In other words the Christian life is one of constant change in overcoming erroneous perceptions. We cannot over-stress that a proper recognition of Jewish thoughtforms is vital to an overall understanding of this too-long neglected collection of Hebrew books we Christians refer to as the Holy Bible.
When men failed to appreciate the Jewish thoughtforms in the Word of God, and began to turn more to pagan Hellenistic notions and ideas than to the
Lord God, they could not accept the simple plain verdict of the Scripture, or to the admission by God himself, that he authored evil (Isa 45.7).
God IS the Creator of evil. He is the Creator of ALL things. This is the unequivocal position of the Holy Bible. Pagan heathen dualism, which postulates two constantly warring Divine Creator-beings (one of whom is good and the other necessarily evil), has no place in the biblical record nor in authentic Christian theology. On this point the Scripture does not waver.
“For by him [the Creative God] were ALL THINGS created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and INVISIBLE, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: ALL THINGS were created by him, and for him: and he is before ALL THINGS, and by him ALL THINGS consist” (Col 1.16,17).
“ALL THINGS were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (Jn 1.3).
“And the Lord said unto him [Moses], Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?” (Ex 4.11).
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace AND I CREATE EVIL: I HaShem do ALL these things” (Isa 45.7).
As difficult as this sometimes is for the human mind to accept (let alone comprehend) Satan did not wreck the plan of God.
Adam did not fall in Eden. What we see about us is the plan of God, this plan of redemption. We may not like what we see happening in the world today, but this is God’s dream (“nightmare” might be a better choice of words). This is why “salvation” or “deliverance” in association with God’s intent for humankind is such a vitally important concept. If what we see about us is NOT the plan of God, then all we can say is “GOD HELP US ALL.”
Adam was pushed. God knew all about sin prior to Adam and Eve's transgression in the garden. God knew about it “before the foundation of the world” for he had already planned redemption from sin before sin even existed, through Yeshua the Mashiach (2 Tim 1.9; 1 Pet 1.20).
But men did not want to associate God in any way with sin and evil. Therefore, instead of accepting by faith the inspired biblical revelation they set up a system of dualism. They created, in their wild imaginative speculation, a second god in the form of a beautiful sinless archangel called Lucifer and
they connected him with Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. They knew what was written in Revelation 12 about a fall of Satan from heaven and they wrested texts, distorted the sacred Word, and deliberately lied about the holy Scripture in order to establish a totally new doctrine about a second Creator in opposition to the Lord God. This perfect angel was made to appreciate himself a little too much, fill himself with contemptuous pride, convince fully one-third of all of God's angels to follow him in his rebellion, war against heaven, fall from the position he held as God's protective covering, and become a dragon called Satan!
What a load of drivel!
Let us look at Revelation 12.
THAT GREAT DRAGON
Before we actually turn to the Apocalypse, consider the words of Yeshua concerning an incident involving the Devil during Messiah's ministry. The Lord Yeshua's personal active ministry to the Jewish people included the professional practice, science and art of exorcism. It was at one stage of his ministry that Our Lord sent seventy disciples (as his own new Sanhedrin) out into regions where he himself was preparing to go, as heralds to prepare the way before him (Lk 10.1). Who these seventy actually were we have absolutely no idea. We know they later rejected his claim to Messiahship. Nevertheless, on their return journey they exclaim with great exuberance that “even the demons are subject to us through your name” (Lk 10.17). Now what was Yeshua's response to their excited report? Yeshua replies: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Lk 10.18).
Please note that in its context Yeshuais replying to the enthusiastic response of his 70 disciples, who have discovered the great power of faith, and the attitude of submission of the demonic realm to the personal name of Messiah! And submit they did! With little doubt haSatan (“the adversary”), who occupies a position of lackey in the vicinity of God's awesome throne, had felt or experienced some form of movement, waver, tremble or disturbance in the unified field. He rapidly exited heaven and fell to earth to investigate the trauma that had occurred! It was at the time of the mass exorcisms that Yeshua admitted that he saw Satan fall from heaven to earth. This was an event that was concurrent with the exercising of new authority within Satan's realm. In no way can this be construed to relate to an event that had supposedly occurred before the foundation of the world involving some mythical angelic power called Lucifer. There is no way we can justifiably link this momentous event with the passage in Isaiah 14 or Revelation 12 for that matter. The context demands that the incident was contemporary with the plunder of Satan's kingdom by the seventy disciples of Yeshua. Indeed, in a word, Satan was losing control of his dominion. And, just a few verses before, mention is made of the city of Capernaum which (it is plainly said) considered that it was “exalted to heaven” yet would be “thrust down to hell (Hades/Sheol)” (Lk 10.15). This city would fall from its prominent and exalted position. So also in the observation of Yeshua concerning the Devil (slanderer). Satan's power was being broken through the ministry of Mashiach's disciples.
According to no less an authority in NT matters, Godet translates verse 18 as “While you were expelling the subordinates, I was beholding the Master fall” (F. Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of St Luke, 1879). And the celebrated translator Richard Weymouth comments, “The thought is not that of Milton's rebel angel ('hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky'), banished forever from the abode of bliss but, rather, brought down low from the place of his pride and power” (R. Francis Weymouth, The New Testament in Modern Speech, 1929, 166).
In our theological exposition “Does Satan Lurk in Ezekiel 28?” we noted the comment by Adam Clarke concerning Isaiah 14. We feel it is significant that the prophets Jeremiah, Zechariah, Amos, Ezekiel and even Malachi (who lived well after the time of the prophet Isaiah and who would have been very well acquainted with his writings and the oral traditions handed down from his time) never once made a mention of the fall of some Lucifer who had become the Devil! This is strange indeed if Isaiah had been the prophet whom God had bequeathed such important information. But on Lucifer's fall the prophets (all of them) are particularly silent. Certainly this idea was never mentioned by Our Lord nor by his very elect apostles. Comments Weston Fields, “This interpretation of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, which makes these passages refer to the fall of Satan, has not been generally held during church history [except in our own time]. The connection of Isaiah 14 with Satan was begun by Tertullian [d. circa 230 CE], and continued by Origen [d. circa 254 CE]” (Weston Fields, Unformed and Unfilled, 1976, 142).
According to Fields, then, the Carthaginian Canaanite “Father” Tertullian was the first Christian to make such a connection between Isaiah 14's Nebuchadnezzar and some Lucifer. This idea found its way into Jerome's Latin translation, and from there into the Authorised Version of 1611. A few short years thereafter, the blind Milton dramatised the fall of Lucifer in his Paradise Lost. Since the 19th century, particularly, this view has been popularised by the founder of Seventh-day Adventism and echoed throughout churchianity by most of its leaders.
But as Revelation 12 shows, when Satan falls from heaven he is no perfect angel termed Lucifer. In no way! For he is revealed as a dragon.
WAR IN THE HEAVENS.
“There was war in the heavens: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in the heavens. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev 12.7-10).
Now please note that some sweet and perfect angel called Lucifer who was supposed to be the heavenly choirmaster and song-leader is not ever mentioned. No, not once. Rather it is made clear that the fall from the heavens involves one “Satan”, the “Devil,” who is a “dragon” (and is even called a “great” dragon) and a “serpent.” But nowhere do we get the picture of a previously perfect angel with the name Lucifer falling from grace due to pride in his own immaculate beauty. This is nothing more than a reading into the text of something that is absolutely unwarranted.
Rather, haSatan is the original Reptoid.
Actually, John is writing prophetically. He is decidedly not recording historical events that occurred before the creation of our planet. A close examination of the text shows, in the previous verse, that Satan is the accuser of the brethren “who accused them before our God day and night.” This by itself ought to be enough proof that the time period under discussion cannot be prior to the creation of man. After all, before the creation of Adam and Eve there were no brethren around to accuse! But here the dragon is in heavenly conflict with “Michael.” It is Michael and his angels, not the Messiah, who launch an attack against the Dark Lord in the heavens in this cosmic prelude to the eschatological consummation (R.H. Mounce,The Book of Revelation, 1977, 241). According to the angel who communicated with the prophet Daniel, Michael is labelled “one of the chief princes” or Archangel (Dan 10.13) and is described by the apostle Judah (often called by the anglicised Jude) as the archangel who refused to make a slanderous accusation against Satan in his dispute over the body of Moses (Jude 9). According to Jewish tradition Michael is the chief of the seven archangels (J.A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, 1900, 306). A celestial being, his military patronage is attested to in literature of the Intertestamental Period (Jub 1.29; 2.1; Eth. Enoch 20.5; Test. Levi 5.6) and his designation as protector of Israel is on the shields of the apocalyptic Sons of Light in Qumran Scriptures (1QM 9.14-16). Michael is revealed to have a role as intercessor (Test. Daniel 6.2; Talmud Yoma37a; Midrash Rabbah on Gen 18.3; Ex 3.2; 12.29) and it was held by the Jews that he also served God as the recording angel (Asc. Isa. 9.22-23). As such he was the intermediary between God and Moses at Sinai (Jub 1.27; 22.1; Asc. Isa 11.21; Targum on Exodus 24.1). His argument with Satan over the corpse of Moses, mentioned in passing by Judah the Lord's brother, is based on a reference found (according to Origen) in the Assumption of Moses. Later rabbinical sources are well aware of this story and we should accept it as authentic although it is absent from our extant copies (Deut. Rabbah 10.11). None-theless, from other references it is established that to Michael was given the commission of disposing of the body of Moses (Targum of Jonathan on Deut 34.6). And Satan attempted to stop him. It is interesting that the angels have names, Gabriel, Michael etc. Even God has a name, even Yahweh or Yahoweh. But Satan does not have a name but is only known by descriptive terms and titles. The Apostle Peter was once referred to in the negative as a Satan by none other than Mashiach himself (Mt 16.22,23). In the Talmud Rabbi Simon bar Lakish said: “Satan and the evil impulse and the angel of death are one” (Bab. B. 16a).
Having said all this, there is another factor associated with Satan in this 12th chapter of the Apocalypse that needs to be noted. We have already
referred to the mass exorcisms conducted by the seventy disciples of Our Lord Yeshua during Christ's earthly ministry. It is recognised by all astute Christian scholars that at the time of Yeshua there was intense demonic activity, perhaps more concentrated during the Fourth and Fifth Procurator-ship of Judaea than at any other time in the history of our planet. Certainly such a flurry of demonic ascendancy in that particular region of the earth has never been equalled or surpassed before or after the days of Yeshua. There is a reason for this accurate observation. The Apostle John informs us that at the very time of the birth of Yeshua (in 3/2 BCE) “there appeared another wonder in the heavens; and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the
earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born” (Study Rev 12.1-4 carefully). It is Satan himself who casts fully one-third of the heavenly angels into the geographical area of Judaea in order to devour the Incarnate God as soon as Miriam (Mary) completed her labour in bringing forth the prophesied Emmanuel. This event is not to be confused with the launching of Michael's attack on Satan and his angels further on in chapter 12. This is a different event altogether, despite what many popular writers say to the contrary. The Scripture must be allowed to assert its own meaning, and we should be reverencing what it says rather than enthusiastically imposing our traditional concepts onto the sacred text.
The cosmic hostilities pictured in Revelation 12.7-10 are eschatological. They occur right at the very end of human history. It is written of the Devil, that as a result of this expulsion from the heavens, that he has “great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time” (Rev 12.12).
DO CHRISTIANS STAND CONDEMNED BY CHRIST?
We now come to a very basic Christian teaching as far as the Word of God is concerned. Yet it is a teaching that most Christians fail to appreciate or fully believe. And this concerns our state of acceptability before God in THE Messiah Yeshua.
All of us who truly love the Word ought to reflect more often on the spiritual blessings we possess in our Christian life. If we belong to Christ, we possess the very holy Spirit of God. In fact, Paul taught that if we do not have the Spirit of God we do not belong to him (Rom 8.9). This is a prime doctrine of the Bible. And all believers of all divisions of the One Faith accept this stand. Let's recount some of the privileges of the holy Spirit as Paul reveals them in Romans 8.
The holy Spirit sets us free from sin (Rom 8.2), and cancels the death penalty over our lives (Rom 8.2).The holy Spirit fulfils righteousness (Rom 8.4-5), indwells believers (Rom 8.9-11), gives life (Rom 8.10), quickens the mortal body (Rom 8.11), mortifies sinful members (Rom 8.13), leads children to God (Rom 8.14), makes us God's sons (Rom 8.15), bears witness of that Sonship (Rom 8.16), helps our infirmities (Rom 8.26), and makes inter- cession for the saints (Rom 8.26). It does all this and more, under the provision in Romans 8.1 that all believers have been removed from any form of condemnation by Christ or his Father. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Messiah Yeshua” (Rom 8.1).
Now the “good” King James (after whom the Authorised Version of 1611 is named) did not like that translation. He made it clear that if any of the
translators of his version came across any doctrinal position in the Bible that conflicted with the teaching of the established Church of England they were to take the liberty of altering, tampering and changing the verse or verses in question in order to bring the Bible into a working alignment with the religious thinking of the day. One scholar refused to be so intimidated. As he walked out of the presence of the king, James cautioned that if he left the chamber he would forfeit his right to further breath. This scholar turned on his heel and again took his seat with the other good scholarly gentlemen.
As a result the KJV (and New KJV) continue to promulgate absurd and demonic teachings such as 1 John 5.7 as the only actual proof of the doctrine of the Trinity in the NT. (This comment is not intended to impugn the teaching of God's triunity. We are just stating a fact about theTrinity doctrine.)Also as a result of the intimidation of King James the KJV and the New KJV continue to malign and distort God's Word by adding to Romans 8.1 “who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” thus successfully negating Paul's entire argument concerning our liberty in Mashiach. And by doing this they fly in the face of the sacred words of Our Lord himself who said “Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation but is passed out of death unto THE life” (Jn 5.24 Gk).
The reason we are rehearsing these basic essential factors is due to the fact that there persists an erroneous teaching, from the mouth of hell itself, that believers must continue to be extremely, perhaps even overtly, cautious and inhibited in their walk of faith lest they fall into the condemnation of the Devil, spiritual pride. After all, Paul did write concerning a new or immature novice to the Faith, “[A leader in the Church must not be] a new convert, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Tim 3.6).
So, isn't Paul saying that God will condemn the novice, as he did the Devil, if the novice is lifted up with spiritual pride of office and the authority that is thus invested in him? Well, millions believe this is what he said. But if this is what Paul is saying then he has flatly undermined his entire theological structure set forth so creatively in his letter to the Romans. If only people would analyse favourite texts in the context in which they are located. Read the very next verse! It says a leader “must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into the reproach and the snare OF the Devil” (1 Tim 3.7).
It is the Dark Lord himself who would eagerly place a snare before the novice. It is the Dark Lord himself who would cause a reproach brought on by
decisions the novice might make. And note that it is the Dark Lord himself who would condemn that novice. These expressions in 1 Tim 3.6 are linked as a formidable unit of things Satan would achieve, not God. What we are dealing with here in this passage is not the condemnation of God, but “the condemnation of (or, better from) the Devil.”
It is only if we have already been ensnared with the false teaching about an angel called Lucifer, who was once perfect in beauty and was subsequently lifted up in spiritual pride, and who fell from heaven and became the Devil that we would read back into Paul's writings something alien to the simple teaching about spiritual matters relating to office within the Church. Many of us have been thus ensnared without even knowing it, and have unconsciously brought dishonour to Our Lord by disbelieving his very own words that relate to the fact that we are no longer under any form of condemnation by God. Its time we re-educated our pure minds and reformulated our theology of Life. In fact it is high time that we allowed ourselves the possibility of venturing forth beyond theology into the freedom of that Life that lies before us. God does not want any of his converted children living their lives in a morbid straitjacket of despair. He is primarily a God who lets us be. In our joyous being we are able to explore God's self-sacrificial, self-emptying love.Only in this capacity of liberty and freedom can any of us hope to grow and develop into the full scope of the Divine Image whose mirrored reflection we most certainly are.
A REFLECTION ON THE NATURE OF DEITY.
In Eden Adam ate the forbidden fruit. Adam experienced a world of opposites. He forgot who he was. He cluttered his divine intuition with elements of panic, fear and shock. He experienced a finitude as alienation, and guilt as despair over which he had no control. He seemed beyond God, caught in a web of opposites: life and death, good and evil, light and darkness, the self and the not-self, the knower and the known, yin and yang, black and white, the organism and its environment, the solid and the space, the useful and the useless, love and hate, randomness and order, multiplicity and unity,freedom and determinism. He was fallen man with a knowledge of ultimate dualism. And yet, in that fall, he had become as a god (Gen 3.22 cf Jn 10.34). HaShem admitted to the Wisdom of the ancient Serpent, “Now the man has become as one of us knowing good and evil” (Gen 3.22). It is only in man's fall that he can begin, through Messiah, the inner journey toward spiritual fulfilment. There is no other way for man, except in the fall, for him to understand, comprehend and appreciate the nature of Divine Being.
God is absolutely sovereign. He superintends all things. And he is the Source of Life, has Life inherent in himself. There is no conceivable way that the Transcendent God could be seen to be ambitious or self-seeking. God is complete, perfect and self-subsistent. There is only one way for the Creator God to use his awesome power. And that is in creative abdication. Now some may object to this evaluation, and that is their right to do so. But how can God use his power in a personal plus situation? How do you put a plus to an already existing perfection? How do you add to perfection? We might live in a world where our clothes can appear to be made “whiter than white” by using this laundry detergent or that bleach. But its nothing more than illusion. God's power, if it is to go anywhere, must go to the minus side of voluntary self-renunciation. God is a not merely the Creator God. To be a “Creator” implies a one-off creation. No, more than this, God is ever a Creative God. He ever and always creates. God not only continually creates (for he is eternally the Alpha and eternally the Omega) but he creates cyclically. It is his nature to do so. This was understood by Solomon (read Ecclesiastes with this thought in mind).
The Gospel of Messiah is the gospel of liberty and freedom, at least this is the position Paul takes in his letter to the Galatians. But God in liberty and freedom empties his power and energy into that which he materialises out of himself (See again Rom 11.36 Gk) in creative activity. So in creating the universe, and to that extent emptying himself, God lets the intelligent creatures that he has brought forth ultimately go free. This is his nature. And he will not be but what he is.Reflecting on this principle, then, we must be prepared to ask the question, Where did the Dark Lord come from, and, What will be his ultimate fate?
ISAIAH 14: SUBJECT, LOCATION AND TIME
“How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the morning! How are you cast down to the ground, which did weaken the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit” (Isa 14.12-15).
Linked with Ezekiel 28 (which we covered in our theological exposition entitled “Does Satan Lurk in Ezekiel 28?”) most believers see beyond a mere king in this prophetic burden which the prophet utters against the Babylonian monarch, the dwarf Nebuchadnezzar. Again, on the surface, it looks like the prophet is referring to a negative angelic power. However, we must take care with the sacred text. There is often more to a passage of Scripture than at first meets the eye as we pointed out in the exposition mentioned above. After all, when we learned that Eden was a country or nation contemporary with the prophet Ezekiel and the king of Tyre the prophecy of Ezekiel took on an entirely new dimension. Eden must have been a very attractive region, for Ezekiel called it “the garden of God” (Eze 28.13; 31.8,9,18) and “the mountain of God” (Eze 28.14,16). That its existence was concurrent with the city-state of Tyre is easily seen by virtue of its listing as a commercial ally with Tyrus (Eze 27.23). It was also known as a volcanic region in the northern Mesopotamian mountains because it is described as having “stones of fire” in the environs (Eze 28.14). Fire-walking, still today, is practised in India and some of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The king of Tyre actually walked through the region.
So much for Ezekiel, but with Isaiah's burden the specifics seem much more pertinent to the mythology of Lucifer's fall from heaven.
But first notice that the prophecy does not mention anything at all about a fall from heaven. What we read instead is a desire to ascend into heaven.
Whoever is present in this section of Scripture, it is self-evident that he is not already in heaven!
Secondly, the prophet Isaiah is describing the thoughts that were going on inside the head of the king of Babylon.
“You have said in your heart....” But this establishes nothing in a literal sense of the Word. For, Capernaum was “exalted to heaven” (Lk 10.15) and the prophet Obadiah railed against Edom in similar language. “Thus says HaShem concerning Edom...the pride of your heart has deceived you...you say in your heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though you exalt yourself as the eagle, and though you set your nest above the stars, from thence will I bring you down” (Obadiah 1,3,4). In Daniel 8 we read of an earthly ruler called “the little horn.” With prestige, pride and power “he
waxed great, even to the host of heaven [the starry sphere]: and he cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped on them” (Dan 8.10). Even in the days of Joshua the Canaanite cities, we are told, were “walled up to heaven” (Deut 1.28; 9.1) but these are Semitisms, exaggerations to make a point in the Jewish thoughtforms that brought us The Book. Even the terminology “sides of the north” refers, not to some
location of God's throne in the skies of the northern hemisphere (as certain legalistic denominations teach) but to the geographical restraints of the city of Jerusalem! “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on thesides of the north, the city of the great King” (Ps 48.2).
The proud monarch of Babylon is represented as saying he would ascend into heaven. Capernaum had the same thoughts. The monarch thought he could exalt his throne above the stars. Edom shared the same thoughts. These are thoughts of pride, and pride goes before imminent destruction. Edom was destroyed. Capernaum was destroyed. And Babylon was destroyed. Isaiah is not describing events that occurred before the genesis of human history. The subject of the prophecy is a “MAN” (Isa 14.4,9-11,16), not an angel. The location of this prophecy is "BABYLON"
(v.4), not heaven. The time of the prophecy is the age of Isaiah, not aeons prior to the dawn of creation.
GENESIS OF SATAN AND HIS EVENTUAL FATE.
One thing is for certain in what we have so far studied pertaining to the Dark Lord. Satan never fell. Satan is not about to fall. If he fell in the past, or will fall in the future, where is the evidence? Even Our Lord's observation entailed a hurried exit from the heavens by the Dark Lord, not exactly a “fall.” A fall necessarily implies a previous good standing. And from the Scriptural record Satan has never ever had a previous good existence. Yeshua made it clear when he said that Satan was a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8.44). Recall that Satan (Adversary) is a title. He does not have a personal name. As long as the Adversary (haSatan) was an adversary (haSatan) he was a sinner. If words mean anything, sin began when Satan began. The unequivocal statement from John is that the Adversary is sinning from the beginning (1 Jn 3.8 Greek).
Now this reveals that in God's sovereignty there was a need to create, in the order of things relating to God's plan, purpose and intent for mankind a
negative force which would work toward the creative development of character in man. For, without the Devil there would have been no temptation
in Eden.
Without the Devil there would be no guarantee of the need of the Cross.
Without the Devil, again, there would be no guarantee of estrangement between man and God.
All through the pages of the Word of God Satan is shown to obey his Creator, God. Indeed, it could be argued that..... Satan would be disobeying God if he did not sin.
Without sinners there would be no forgiveness, and no Grace. And no possibility of an ultimate universal reconciliation and salvation to the Creator.
It is clear that the plan of God is ever a plan of redemption, of salvation. The plan of God is a game the Lord is playing. We Christians are so serious about this game. Of course, we need to be sober. And we need to play this game to win. But to relieve the stresses of the game (and what a game it is!) and to allow us to express God's basic nature he has freely given us his holy Spirit of comfort, joy, gladness in the knowledge of the certainty of our salvation. It is a salvation that is both present and future. The plan of salvation is God's dream and we are all participants in it. Even the Devil (Slanderer).
It is a fact that the Dark Lord is a creature without real choice. He actually has no real freedom of will. He must obey his LORD GOD in creating
havoc, tragedy and despair. He cannot help but be ice-cold and treacherous, evil and malignant. He is the true Victim of God. He is the angel of death.
As the embodiment of death, sin and evil Satan must naturally be destroyed. We know the Lake of fire is prepared for the Devil and his angels (Mt 25.41). And we know that the Devil will be cast into that lake of fire (Rev 20.10). But we also know that all of the material and spiritual creation will RETURN from whence it came (Rom 11.36; 1 Cor 15.24-28; Col 1.16,17,20; Phil 2.9-11; Eph 1.9-11,19-23).
Satan the Devil, who hates true righteousness, and loves self-righteousness, and all the negative things that hurt and destroy human beings as a result of their disobedience to God, will one day be neutralised in torments until a change occurs in his nature and that to the immense glory of God. Due to a woeful mistranslation this truth of God has been hidden from view UNTIL these final, last days. Notice the actual wording of the transliteration from Greek to English:
“And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and sulfur...and shall be tormented day and night for the aeons of the aeons” (Rev 20.10). For the“aeons of the aeons.”
Not endlessly.
Now to some this admission of the holy Spirit inspired Scripture may not be accepted too enthusiastically. And we understand that attitude. And it
must be hurriedly recognised that this lecturer is not saying that we like the idea. Frankly, if it were up to us Satan would never be given an opportunity to change. We cannot help but feel this way, for we are only human. Nevertheless a change in the nature of the Dark Lord seems to have the approbation of Scripture and we all need to be open to God's revealed Word. On this very point notice that the period of Satan's torment is exactly identical to the length of the reign of the Messiah Yeshua. After Yeshua has abolished all enmity from this universe, he himself abdicates and delivers his kingdom up to his Father, “that God may be ALL and in ALL” (1 Cor 15.20-28). His Messianic reign lasts only “for the aeons of the aeons” (Rev 11.15) -- exactly the period of the duration of Satan's torment.
And there is absolutely no doubt in this lecturer's mind that this knowledge is something the malignant power of evil wants the world to remain in ignorance concerning. Just as he has wanted the world to believe the mythology that he, Satan, is the “morning star” or “star of the dawn” of Isaiah 14 Yeshua replies with all authority and power:
“I Yeshua have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning
star” (Rev 22.16 See also 2.28).
If God as Creative Intelligence is able to convert Satan's nature, how much more is God our Father willing to do so much more for each of us, his Firstfruits?
CONCLUDING COMMENTS: A GLIMPSE OF THE INTENT BEYOND THE WORDS.
We could, perhaps, sum this lesson up in a pertinent quotation from brilliant Jewish theologian Kohler.
He writes, that in the final analysis, “[t]here is [really] no evil before God, since a good purpose is served even by that which appears bad. In the life of the human body pleasure and pain, the impetus to life and its restraint and inhibition form a necessary contrast, making for health; so, in the moral order of the universe, each being who battles with evil receives new strength for the unfolding of the good. The principle of holiness...transforms and ennobles every evil”(K. Kohler, Jewish Theology, 1923, 176).
Our Lord is a God of Grace. He is equally a God of Love. If God is Love, and he is, then he can be only the Ground of All Being (which includes the embodiment or being of evil) only in his self-giving Love.It was in his supreme self-giving Love that God emptied himself into his material creation, thus bringing it into a physical form of existence, and by virtue of this materialisation of the energy of God the creation (or, if you will, the creature itself) “fell.” (See Romans 8 again from this perspective.)
This “fall” consists of an existence that is other than spirit. And the quest of man is ever to return to the original state of perfection in
spirit.
It is clearly the case that once we grasp this understanding, by the Grace of God, everything will “fall” into a perspective that will enable us to
throw off the entirety of the negative factors of our lives that hinder us, or hold us back, from our patient race to return to Deity (Heb 12.1,2).
However we may wish to view it, haSatan had to originally have his origin in the divine mind of the sovereign Creator. Along with sin and evil. When God brought forth the Dark Lord in a form of material creation (haSatan is not spirit as God is Spirit!) the Lord had formed, with him, a fundamental partnership.
We cannot have it both ways.
Satan is our enemy, but he is God's instrument, the angel of destruction, the angel of death, the angel of collaboration, the Servant of the Lord: The Lord's “left hand man.” There can be no doubt about it from the biblical revelation: haSatan had a divine origin. For, even God's spittle is divine spittle.
Satan may appear to be God's opposite, but he is God's loyal servant nonetheless.
In summary, explicit opposition conceals implicit unity. This is the origin of Satan and the ultimate destiny of “the angel of light.”
As a Messianic believer I must insist that the Gentile Christian community (by and large universally) got the intent, purpose and plan of God for humankind wrong. It got the beginning of the story wrong. It got the eschatological ending of the story wrong. And it got the Gracious story-plot
itself wrong.
Originally theMessianic Movement (later the Church)understood the basics of HaShem's plan of salvation for his fallen creatures. But they soon replaced Grace with works. The church early replaced the imposition of God's Grace in election with the doctrine of man's free will in accepting “Jesus” as Saviour. That such an antichrist doctrinal position was early imposed upon the understanding of the primitive believers was due to a sinister conspiracy which we have covered in supplementary material.
In other expositions, we have covered some of the basic facts concerning the revelation of the purposes of God for humankind. We have discovered that the plan of salvation was worked out in eternity, long before the creation of this present universe. We have seen that Messiah has been a Saviour from eternity. We have seen that “evil” as well as “good” comes forth from the Mind of the Creator. This is not to say that God is an evil God. Not by any means! God is very much a good God, but he is also very much above our concepts of what we would consider “right” and “wrong.” God is not bound by our ethics or morality. God is not bound by LAW.God is above all the transcendent One. Indeed, we have seen that evil as well as good was available in the garden of Eden at the very beginning of man's story (history). Man was created, not perfect, but -- as the Hebrew recognises --“very good.” Nevertheless, man sinned and brought upon himself aloss of cognisance as to his proper relationship with the LORD OF ALL and a lack of comprehension as to his identity as the mirrored or reflected Image of the Divine God.
Man's separation from Deity was essentially a matter of perception or comprehension (Col 1.21 Greek).
Essentially and traditionally the Christian life is a progressive unfolding (in our personal recognition) of our true relationship with the LORD (in Messiah) and the dawning (in our personal recognition) of our true identity as the Image of the Divine God (again, in Messiah). In other words the Christian life is one of constant change in overcoming erroneous perceptions. We cannot over-stress that a proper recognition of Jewish thoughtforms is vital to an overall understanding of this too-long neglected collection of Hebrew books we Christians refer to as the Holy Bible.
When men failed to appreciate the Jewish thoughtforms in the Word of God, and began to turn more to pagan Hellenistic notions and ideas than to the
Lord God, they could not accept the simple plain verdict of the Scripture, or to the admission by God himself, that he authored evil (Isa 45.7).
God IS the Creator of evil. He is the Creator of ALL things. This is the unequivocal position of the Holy Bible. Pagan heathen dualism, which postulates two constantly warring Divine Creator-beings (one of whom is good and the other necessarily evil), has no place in the biblical record nor in authentic Christian theology. On this point the Scripture does not waver.
“For by him [the Creative God] were ALL THINGS created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and INVISIBLE, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: ALL THINGS were created by him, and for him: and he is before ALL THINGS, and by him ALL THINGS consist” (Col 1.16,17).
“ALL THINGS were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made” (Jn 1.3).
“And the Lord said unto him [Moses], Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?” (Ex 4.11).
“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace AND I CREATE EVIL: I HaShem do ALL these things” (Isa 45.7).
As difficult as this sometimes is for the human mind to accept (let alone comprehend) Satan did not wreck the plan of God.
Adam did not fall in Eden. What we see about us is the plan of God, this plan of redemption. We may not like what we see happening in the world today, but this is God’s dream (“nightmare” might be a better choice of words). This is why “salvation” or “deliverance” in association with God’s intent for humankind is such a vitally important concept. If what we see about us is NOT the plan of God, then all we can say is “GOD HELP US ALL.”
Adam was pushed. God knew all about sin prior to Adam and Eve's transgression in the garden. God knew about it “before the foundation of the world” for he had already planned redemption from sin before sin even existed, through Yeshua the Mashiach (2 Tim 1.9; 1 Pet 1.20).
But men did not want to associate God in any way with sin and evil. Therefore, instead of accepting by faith the inspired biblical revelation they set up a system of dualism. They created, in their wild imaginative speculation, a second god in the form of a beautiful sinless archangel called Lucifer and
they connected him with Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. They knew what was written in Revelation 12 about a fall of Satan from heaven and they wrested texts, distorted the sacred Word, and deliberately lied about the holy Scripture in order to establish a totally new doctrine about a second Creator in opposition to the Lord God. This perfect angel was made to appreciate himself a little too much, fill himself with contemptuous pride, convince fully one-third of all of God's angels to follow him in his rebellion, war against heaven, fall from the position he held as God's protective covering, and become a dragon called Satan!
What a load of drivel!
Let us look at Revelation 12.
THAT GREAT DRAGON
Before we actually turn to the Apocalypse, consider the words of Yeshua concerning an incident involving the Devil during Messiah's ministry. The Lord Yeshua's personal active ministry to the Jewish people included the professional practice, science and art of exorcism. It was at one stage of his ministry that Our Lord sent seventy disciples (as his own new Sanhedrin) out into regions where he himself was preparing to go, as heralds to prepare the way before him (Lk 10.1). Who these seventy actually were we have absolutely no idea. We know they later rejected his claim to Messiahship. Nevertheless, on their return journey they exclaim with great exuberance that “even the demons are subject to us through your name” (Lk 10.17). Now what was Yeshua's response to their excited report? Yeshua replies: “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Lk 10.18).
Please note that in its context Yeshuais replying to the enthusiastic response of his 70 disciples, who have discovered the great power of faith, and the attitude of submission of the demonic realm to the personal name of Messiah! And submit they did! With little doubt haSatan (“the adversary”), who occupies a position of lackey in the vicinity of God's awesome throne, had felt or experienced some form of movement, waver, tremble or disturbance in the unified field. He rapidly exited heaven and fell to earth to investigate the trauma that had occurred! It was at the time of the mass exorcisms that Yeshua admitted that he saw Satan fall from heaven to earth. This was an event that was concurrent with the exercising of new authority within Satan's realm. In no way can this be construed to relate to an event that had supposedly occurred before the foundation of the world involving some mythical angelic power called Lucifer. There is no way we can justifiably link this momentous event with the passage in Isaiah 14 or Revelation 12 for that matter. The context demands that the incident was contemporary with the plunder of Satan's kingdom by the seventy disciples of Yeshua. Indeed, in a word, Satan was losing control of his dominion. And, just a few verses before, mention is made of the city of Capernaum which (it is plainly said) considered that it was “exalted to heaven” yet would be “thrust down to hell (Hades/Sheol)” (Lk 10.15). This city would fall from its prominent and exalted position. So also in the observation of Yeshua concerning the Devil (slanderer). Satan's power was being broken through the ministry of Mashiach's disciples.
According to no less an authority in NT matters, Godet translates verse 18 as “While you were expelling the subordinates, I was beholding the Master fall” (F. Godet, Commentary on the Gospel of St Luke, 1879). And the celebrated translator Richard Weymouth comments, “The thought is not that of Milton's rebel angel ('hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky'), banished forever from the abode of bliss but, rather, brought down low from the place of his pride and power” (R. Francis Weymouth, The New Testament in Modern Speech, 1929, 166).
In our theological exposition “Does Satan Lurk in Ezekiel 28?” we noted the comment by Adam Clarke concerning Isaiah 14. We feel it is significant that the prophets Jeremiah, Zechariah, Amos, Ezekiel and even Malachi (who lived well after the time of the prophet Isaiah and who would have been very well acquainted with his writings and the oral traditions handed down from his time) never once made a mention of the fall of some Lucifer who had become the Devil! This is strange indeed if Isaiah had been the prophet whom God had bequeathed such important information. But on Lucifer's fall the prophets (all of them) are particularly silent. Certainly this idea was never mentioned by Our Lord nor by his very elect apostles. Comments Weston Fields, “This interpretation of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, which makes these passages refer to the fall of Satan, has not been generally held during church history [except in our own time]. The connection of Isaiah 14 with Satan was begun by Tertullian [d. circa 230 CE], and continued by Origen [d. circa 254 CE]” (Weston Fields, Unformed and Unfilled, 1976, 142).
According to Fields, then, the Carthaginian Canaanite “Father” Tertullian was the first Christian to make such a connection between Isaiah 14's Nebuchadnezzar and some Lucifer. This idea found its way into Jerome's Latin translation, and from there into the Authorised Version of 1611. A few short years thereafter, the blind Milton dramatised the fall of Lucifer in his Paradise Lost. Since the 19th century, particularly, this view has been popularised by the founder of Seventh-day Adventism and echoed throughout churchianity by most of its leaders.
But as Revelation 12 shows, when Satan falls from heaven he is no perfect angel termed Lucifer. In no way! For he is revealed as a dragon.
WAR IN THE HEAVENS.
“There was war in the heavens: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in the heavens. And the great dragon was cast out, that ancient serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, who deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Rev 12.7-10).
Now please note that some sweet and perfect angel called Lucifer who was supposed to be the heavenly choirmaster and song-leader is not ever mentioned. No, not once. Rather it is made clear that the fall from the heavens involves one “Satan”, the “Devil,” who is a “dragon” (and is even called a “great” dragon) and a “serpent.” But nowhere do we get the picture of a previously perfect angel with the name Lucifer falling from grace due to pride in his own immaculate beauty. This is nothing more than a reading into the text of something that is absolutely unwarranted.
Rather, haSatan is the original Reptoid.
Actually, John is writing prophetically. He is decidedly not recording historical events that occurred before the creation of our planet. A close examination of the text shows, in the previous verse, that Satan is the accuser of the brethren “who accused them before our God day and night.” This by itself ought to be enough proof that the time period under discussion cannot be prior to the creation of man. After all, before the creation of Adam and Eve there were no brethren around to accuse! But here the dragon is in heavenly conflict with “Michael.” It is Michael and his angels, not the Messiah, who launch an attack against the Dark Lord in the heavens in this cosmic prelude to the eschatological consummation (R.H. Mounce,The Book of Revelation, 1977, 241). According to the angel who communicated with the prophet Daniel, Michael is labelled “one of the chief princes” or Archangel (Dan 10.13) and is described by the apostle Judah (often called by the anglicised Jude) as the archangel who refused to make a slanderous accusation against Satan in his dispute over the body of Moses (Jude 9). According to Jewish tradition Michael is the chief of the seven archangels (J.A. Seiss, The Apocalypse, 1900, 306). A celestial being, his military patronage is attested to in literature of the Intertestamental Period (Jub 1.29; 2.1; Eth. Enoch 20.5; Test. Levi 5.6) and his designation as protector of Israel is on the shields of the apocalyptic Sons of Light in Qumran Scriptures (1QM 9.14-16). Michael is revealed to have a role as intercessor (Test. Daniel 6.2; Talmud Yoma37a; Midrash Rabbah on Gen 18.3; Ex 3.2; 12.29) and it was held by the Jews that he also served God as the recording angel (Asc. Isa. 9.22-23). As such he was the intermediary between God and Moses at Sinai (Jub 1.27; 22.1; Asc. Isa 11.21; Targum on Exodus 24.1). His argument with Satan over the corpse of Moses, mentioned in passing by Judah the Lord's brother, is based on a reference found (according to Origen) in the Assumption of Moses. Later rabbinical sources are well aware of this story and we should accept it as authentic although it is absent from our extant copies (Deut. Rabbah 10.11). None-theless, from other references it is established that to Michael was given the commission of disposing of the body of Moses (Targum of Jonathan on Deut 34.6). And Satan attempted to stop him. It is interesting that the angels have names, Gabriel, Michael etc. Even God has a name, even Yahweh or Yahoweh. But Satan does not have a name but is only known by descriptive terms and titles. The Apostle Peter was once referred to in the negative as a Satan by none other than Mashiach himself (Mt 16.22,23). In the Talmud Rabbi Simon bar Lakish said: “Satan and the evil impulse and the angel of death are one” (Bab. B. 16a).
Having said all this, there is another factor associated with Satan in this 12th chapter of the Apocalypse that needs to be noted. We have already
referred to the mass exorcisms conducted by the seventy disciples of Our Lord Yeshua during Christ's earthly ministry. It is recognised by all astute Christian scholars that at the time of Yeshua there was intense demonic activity, perhaps more concentrated during the Fourth and Fifth Procurator-ship of Judaea than at any other time in the history of our planet. Certainly such a flurry of demonic ascendancy in that particular region of the earth has never been equalled or surpassed before or after the days of Yeshua. There is a reason for this accurate observation. The Apostle John informs us that at the very time of the birth of Yeshua (in 3/2 BCE) “there appeared another wonder in the heavens; and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the
earth: and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born” (Study Rev 12.1-4 carefully). It is Satan himself who casts fully one-third of the heavenly angels into the geographical area of Judaea in order to devour the Incarnate God as soon as Miriam (Mary) completed her labour in bringing forth the prophesied Emmanuel. This event is not to be confused with the launching of Michael's attack on Satan and his angels further on in chapter 12. This is a different event altogether, despite what many popular writers say to the contrary. The Scripture must be allowed to assert its own meaning, and we should be reverencing what it says rather than enthusiastically imposing our traditional concepts onto the sacred text.
The cosmic hostilities pictured in Revelation 12.7-10 are eschatological. They occur right at the very end of human history. It is written of the Devil, that as a result of this expulsion from the heavens, that he has “great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time” (Rev 12.12).
DO CHRISTIANS STAND CONDEMNED BY CHRIST?
We now come to a very basic Christian teaching as far as the Word of God is concerned. Yet it is a teaching that most Christians fail to appreciate or fully believe. And this concerns our state of acceptability before God in THE Messiah Yeshua.
All of us who truly love the Word ought to reflect more often on the spiritual blessings we possess in our Christian life. If we belong to Christ, we possess the very holy Spirit of God. In fact, Paul taught that if we do not have the Spirit of God we do not belong to him (Rom 8.9). This is a prime doctrine of the Bible. And all believers of all divisions of the One Faith accept this stand. Let's recount some of the privileges of the holy Spirit as Paul reveals them in Romans 8.
The holy Spirit sets us free from sin (Rom 8.2), and cancels the death penalty over our lives (Rom 8.2).The holy Spirit fulfils righteousness (Rom 8.4-5), indwells believers (Rom 8.9-11), gives life (Rom 8.10), quickens the mortal body (Rom 8.11), mortifies sinful members (Rom 8.13), leads children to God (Rom 8.14), makes us God's sons (Rom 8.15), bears witness of that Sonship (Rom 8.16), helps our infirmities (Rom 8.26), and makes inter- cession for the saints (Rom 8.26). It does all this and more, under the provision in Romans 8.1 that all believers have been removed from any form of condemnation by Christ or his Father. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Messiah Yeshua” (Rom 8.1).
Now the “good” King James (after whom the Authorised Version of 1611 is named) did not like that translation. He made it clear that if any of the
translators of his version came across any doctrinal position in the Bible that conflicted with the teaching of the established Church of England they were to take the liberty of altering, tampering and changing the verse or verses in question in order to bring the Bible into a working alignment with the religious thinking of the day. One scholar refused to be so intimidated. As he walked out of the presence of the king, James cautioned that if he left the chamber he would forfeit his right to further breath. This scholar turned on his heel and again took his seat with the other good scholarly gentlemen.
As a result the KJV (and New KJV) continue to promulgate absurd and demonic teachings such as 1 John 5.7 as the only actual proof of the doctrine of the Trinity in the NT. (This comment is not intended to impugn the teaching of God's triunity. We are just stating a fact about theTrinity doctrine.)Also as a result of the intimidation of King James the KJV and the New KJV continue to malign and distort God's Word by adding to Romans 8.1 “who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit” thus successfully negating Paul's entire argument concerning our liberty in Mashiach. And by doing this they fly in the face of the sacred words of Our Lord himself who said “Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that hears my word and believes on him that sent me has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation but is passed out of death unto THE life” (Jn 5.24 Gk).
The reason we are rehearsing these basic essential factors is due to the fact that there persists an erroneous teaching, from the mouth of hell itself, that believers must continue to be extremely, perhaps even overtly, cautious and inhibited in their walk of faith lest they fall into the condemnation of the Devil, spiritual pride. After all, Paul did write concerning a new or immature novice to the Faith, “[A leader in the Church must not be] a new convert, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil” (1 Tim 3.6).
So, isn't Paul saying that God will condemn the novice, as he did the Devil, if the novice is lifted up with spiritual pride of office and the authority that is thus invested in him? Well, millions believe this is what he said. But if this is what Paul is saying then he has flatly undermined his entire theological structure set forth so creatively in his letter to the Romans. If only people would analyse favourite texts in the context in which they are located. Read the very next verse! It says a leader “must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into the reproach and the snare OF the Devil” (1 Tim 3.7).
It is the Dark Lord himself who would eagerly place a snare before the novice. It is the Dark Lord himself who would cause a reproach brought on by
decisions the novice might make. And note that it is the Dark Lord himself who would condemn that novice. These expressions in 1 Tim 3.6 are linked as a formidable unit of things Satan would achieve, not God. What we are dealing with here in this passage is not the condemnation of God, but “the condemnation of (or, better from) the Devil.”
It is only if we have already been ensnared with the false teaching about an angel called Lucifer, who was once perfect in beauty and was subsequently lifted up in spiritual pride, and who fell from heaven and became the Devil that we would read back into Paul's writings something alien to the simple teaching about spiritual matters relating to office within the Church. Many of us have been thus ensnared without even knowing it, and have unconsciously brought dishonour to Our Lord by disbelieving his very own words that relate to the fact that we are no longer under any form of condemnation by God. Its time we re-educated our pure minds and reformulated our theology of Life. In fact it is high time that we allowed ourselves the possibility of venturing forth beyond theology into the freedom of that Life that lies before us. God does not want any of his converted children living their lives in a morbid straitjacket of despair. He is primarily a God who lets us be. In our joyous being we are able to explore God's self-sacrificial, self-emptying love.Only in this capacity of liberty and freedom can any of us hope to grow and develop into the full scope of the Divine Image whose mirrored reflection we most certainly are.
A REFLECTION ON THE NATURE OF DEITY.
In Eden Adam ate the forbidden fruit. Adam experienced a world of opposites. He forgot who he was. He cluttered his divine intuition with elements of panic, fear and shock. He experienced a finitude as alienation, and guilt as despair over which he had no control. He seemed beyond God, caught in a web of opposites: life and death, good and evil, light and darkness, the self and the not-self, the knower and the known, yin and yang, black and white, the organism and its environment, the solid and the space, the useful and the useless, love and hate, randomness and order, multiplicity and unity,freedom and determinism. He was fallen man with a knowledge of ultimate dualism. And yet, in that fall, he had become as a god (Gen 3.22 cf Jn 10.34). HaShem admitted to the Wisdom of the ancient Serpent, “Now the man has become as one of us knowing good and evil” (Gen 3.22). It is only in man's fall that he can begin, through Messiah, the inner journey toward spiritual fulfilment. There is no other way for man, except in the fall, for him to understand, comprehend and appreciate the nature of Divine Being.
God is absolutely sovereign. He superintends all things. And he is the Source of Life, has Life inherent in himself. There is no conceivable way that the Transcendent God could be seen to be ambitious or self-seeking. God is complete, perfect and self-subsistent. There is only one way for the Creator God to use his awesome power. And that is in creative abdication. Now some may object to this evaluation, and that is their right to do so. But how can God use his power in a personal plus situation? How do you put a plus to an already existing perfection? How do you add to perfection? We might live in a world where our clothes can appear to be made “whiter than white” by using this laundry detergent or that bleach. But its nothing more than illusion. God's power, if it is to go anywhere, must go to the minus side of voluntary self-renunciation. God is a not merely the Creator God. To be a “Creator” implies a one-off creation. No, more than this, God is ever a Creative God. He ever and always creates. God not only continually creates (for he is eternally the Alpha and eternally the Omega) but he creates cyclically. It is his nature to do so. This was understood by Solomon (read Ecclesiastes with this thought in mind).
The Gospel of Messiah is the gospel of liberty and freedom, at least this is the position Paul takes in his letter to the Galatians. But God in liberty and freedom empties his power and energy into that which he materialises out of himself (See again Rom 11.36 Gk) in creative activity. So in creating the universe, and to that extent emptying himself, God lets the intelligent creatures that he has brought forth ultimately go free. This is his nature. And he will not be but what he is.Reflecting on this principle, then, we must be prepared to ask the question, Where did the Dark Lord come from, and, What will be his ultimate fate?
ISAIAH 14: SUBJECT, LOCATION AND TIME
“How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the morning! How are you cast down to the ground, which did weaken the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds: I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit” (Isa 14.12-15).
Linked with Ezekiel 28 (which we covered in our theological exposition entitled “Does Satan Lurk in Ezekiel 28?”) most believers see beyond a mere king in this prophetic burden which the prophet utters against the Babylonian monarch, the dwarf Nebuchadnezzar. Again, on the surface, it looks like the prophet is referring to a negative angelic power. However, we must take care with the sacred text. There is often more to a passage of Scripture than at first meets the eye as we pointed out in the exposition mentioned above. After all, when we learned that Eden was a country or nation contemporary with the prophet Ezekiel and the king of Tyre the prophecy of Ezekiel took on an entirely new dimension. Eden must have been a very attractive region, for Ezekiel called it “the garden of God” (Eze 28.13; 31.8,9,18) and “the mountain of God” (Eze 28.14,16). That its existence was concurrent with the city-state of Tyre is easily seen by virtue of its listing as a commercial ally with Tyrus (Eze 27.23). It was also known as a volcanic region in the northern Mesopotamian mountains because it is described as having “stones of fire” in the environs (Eze 28.14). Fire-walking, still today, is practised in India and some of the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The king of Tyre actually walked through the region.
So much for Ezekiel, but with Isaiah's burden the specifics seem much more pertinent to the mythology of Lucifer's fall from heaven.
But first notice that the prophecy does not mention anything at all about a fall from heaven. What we read instead is a desire to ascend into heaven.
Whoever is present in this section of Scripture, it is self-evident that he is not already in heaven!
Secondly, the prophet Isaiah is describing the thoughts that were going on inside the head of the king of Babylon.
“You have said in your heart....” But this establishes nothing in a literal sense of the Word. For, Capernaum was “exalted to heaven” (Lk 10.15) and the prophet Obadiah railed against Edom in similar language. “Thus says HaShem concerning Edom...the pride of your heart has deceived you...you say in your heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though you exalt yourself as the eagle, and though you set your nest above the stars, from thence will I bring you down” (Obadiah 1,3,4). In Daniel 8 we read of an earthly ruler called “the little horn.” With prestige, pride and power “he
waxed great, even to the host of heaven [the starry sphere]: and he cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground, and stamped on them” (Dan 8.10). Even in the days of Joshua the Canaanite cities, we are told, were “walled up to heaven” (Deut 1.28; 9.1) but these are Semitisms, exaggerations to make a point in the Jewish thoughtforms that brought us The Book. Even the terminology “sides of the north” refers, not to some
location of God's throne in the skies of the northern hemisphere (as certain legalistic denominations teach) but to the geographical restraints of the city of Jerusalem! “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on thesides of the north, the city of the great King” (Ps 48.2).
The proud monarch of Babylon is represented as saying he would ascend into heaven. Capernaum had the same thoughts. The monarch thought he could exalt his throne above the stars. Edom shared the same thoughts. These are thoughts of pride, and pride goes before imminent destruction. Edom was destroyed. Capernaum was destroyed. And Babylon was destroyed. Isaiah is not describing events that occurred before the genesis of human history. The subject of the prophecy is a “MAN” (Isa 14.4,9-11,16), not an angel. The location of this prophecy is "BABYLON"
(v.4), not heaven. The time of the prophecy is the age of Isaiah, not aeons prior to the dawn of creation.
GENESIS OF SATAN AND HIS EVENTUAL FATE.
One thing is for certain in what we have so far studied pertaining to the Dark Lord. Satan never fell. Satan is not about to fall. If he fell in the past, or will fall in the future, where is the evidence? Even Our Lord's observation entailed a hurried exit from the heavens by the Dark Lord, not exactly a “fall.” A fall necessarily implies a previous good standing. And from the Scriptural record Satan has never ever had a previous good existence. Yeshua made it clear when he said that Satan was a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8.44). Recall that Satan (Adversary) is a title. He does not have a personal name. As long as the Adversary (haSatan) was an adversary (haSatan) he was a sinner. If words mean anything, sin began when Satan began. The unequivocal statement from John is that the Adversary is sinning from the beginning (1 Jn 3.8 Greek).
Now this reveals that in God's sovereignty there was a need to create, in the order of things relating to God's plan, purpose and intent for mankind a
negative force which would work toward the creative development of character in man. For, without the Devil there would have been no temptation
in Eden.
Without the Devil there would be no guarantee of the need of the Cross.
Without the Devil, again, there would be no guarantee of estrangement between man and God.
All through the pages of the Word of God Satan is shown to obey his Creator, God. Indeed, it could be argued that..... Satan would be disobeying God if he did not sin.
Without sinners there would be no forgiveness, and no Grace. And no possibility of an ultimate universal reconciliation and salvation to the Creator.
It is clear that the plan of God is ever a plan of redemption, of salvation. The plan of God is a game the Lord is playing. We Christians are so serious about this game. Of course, we need to be sober. And we need to play this game to win. But to relieve the stresses of the game (and what a game it is!) and to allow us to express God's basic nature he has freely given us his holy Spirit of comfort, joy, gladness in the knowledge of the certainty of our salvation. It is a salvation that is both present and future. The plan of salvation is God's dream and we are all participants in it. Even the Devil (Slanderer).
It is a fact that the Dark Lord is a creature without real choice. He actually has no real freedom of will. He must obey his LORD GOD in creating
havoc, tragedy and despair. He cannot help but be ice-cold and treacherous, evil and malignant. He is the true Victim of God. He is the angel of death.
As the embodiment of death, sin and evil Satan must naturally be destroyed. We know the Lake of fire is prepared for the Devil and his angels (Mt 25.41). And we know that the Devil will be cast into that lake of fire (Rev 20.10). But we also know that all of the material and spiritual creation will RETURN from whence it came (Rom 11.36; 1 Cor 15.24-28; Col 1.16,17,20; Phil 2.9-11; Eph 1.9-11,19-23).
Satan the Devil, who hates true righteousness, and loves self-righteousness, and all the negative things that hurt and destroy human beings as a result of their disobedience to God, will one day be neutralised in torments until a change occurs in his nature and that to the immense glory of God. Due to a woeful mistranslation this truth of God has been hidden from view UNTIL these final, last days. Notice the actual wording of the transliteration from Greek to English:
“And the Devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and sulfur...and shall be tormented day and night for the aeons of the aeons” (Rev 20.10). For the“aeons of the aeons.”
Not endlessly.
Now to some this admission of the holy Spirit inspired Scripture may not be accepted too enthusiastically. And we understand that attitude. And it
must be hurriedly recognised that this lecturer is not saying that we like the idea. Frankly, if it were up to us Satan would never be given an opportunity to change. We cannot help but feel this way, for we are only human. Nevertheless a change in the nature of the Dark Lord seems to have the approbation of Scripture and we all need to be open to God's revealed Word. On this very point notice that the period of Satan's torment is exactly identical to the length of the reign of the Messiah Yeshua. After Yeshua has abolished all enmity from this universe, he himself abdicates and delivers his kingdom up to his Father, “that God may be ALL and in ALL” (1 Cor 15.20-28). His Messianic reign lasts only “for the aeons of the aeons” (Rev 11.15) -- exactly the period of the duration of Satan's torment.
And there is absolutely no doubt in this lecturer's mind that this knowledge is something the malignant power of evil wants the world to remain in ignorance concerning. Just as he has wanted the world to believe the mythology that he, Satan, is the “morning star” or “star of the dawn” of Isaiah 14 Yeshua replies with all authority and power:
“I Yeshua have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the assemblies. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning
star” (Rev 22.16 See also 2.28).
If God as Creative Intelligence is able to convert Satan's nature, how much more is God our Father willing to do so much more for each of us, his Firstfruits?
CONCLUDING COMMENTS: A GLIMPSE OF THE INTENT BEYOND THE WORDS.
We could, perhaps, sum this lesson up in a pertinent quotation from brilliant Jewish theologian Kohler.
He writes, that in the final analysis, “[t]here is [really] no evil before God, since a good purpose is served even by that which appears bad. In the life of the human body pleasure and pain, the impetus to life and its restraint and inhibition form a necessary contrast, making for health; so, in the moral order of the universe, each being who battles with evil receives new strength for the unfolding of the good. The principle of holiness...transforms and ennobles every evil”(K. Kohler, Jewish Theology, 1923, 176).
Our Lord is a God of Grace. He is equally a God of Love. If God is Love, and he is, then he can be only the Ground of All Being (which includes the embodiment or being of evil) only in his self-giving Love.It was in his supreme self-giving Love that God emptied himself into his material creation, thus bringing it into a physical form of existence, and by virtue of this materialisation of the energy of God the creation (or, if you will, the creature itself) “fell.” (See Romans 8 again from this perspective.)
This “fall” consists of an existence that is other than spirit. And the quest of man is ever to return to the original state of perfection in
spirit.
It is clearly the case that once we grasp this understanding, by the Grace of God, everything will “fall” into a perspective that will enable us to
throw off the entirety of the negative factors of our lives that hinder us, or hold us back, from our patient race to return to Deity (Heb 12.1,2).
However we may wish to view it, haSatan had to originally have his origin in the divine mind of the sovereign Creator. Along with sin and evil. When God brought forth the Dark Lord in a form of material creation (haSatan is not spirit as God is Spirit!) the Lord had formed, with him, a fundamental partnership.
We cannot have it both ways.
Satan is our enemy, but he is God's instrument, the angel of destruction, the angel of death, the angel of collaboration, the Servant of the Lord: The Lord's “left hand man.” There can be no doubt about it from the biblical revelation: haSatan had a divine origin. For, even God's spittle is divine spittle.
Satan may appear to be God's opposite, but he is God's loyal servant nonetheless.
In summary, explicit opposition conceals implicit unity. This is the origin of Satan and the ultimate destiny of “the angel of light.”
