Religion basically says our whole relationship with God is based on us being filthy & Him cleaning us. Where would religion be without sin? It wouldn't exist. Since God is not charging us with sin & Christians don't need to be sin conscious who is pushing the concept of sin in religion? The deceiver, the accuser, Satan himself. As Jesus said he does, Satan steals the truth. With the truth out of his way he can destroy our perceptions of God, ourselves, others, & all of life.
I honestly believe the #1 way Satan steals the truth is by sermons presented by self-professed leaders. When you perceive someone as "above you" because of a title in front of their name or a position they hold you are utterly opening yourself up to believing falsehood. This happens when you either let them do your thinking for you or you assume they are more apt to receive & understand truth than you are.
The truth is Jesus forbade the existence of official leaders & He told us that He'd teach us Himself by His Spirit living in us. But Satan stepped in & said, "You must have official leaders in every group of Christians. You cannot trust your heart to hear God's voice, always doubt yourself if you think you've heard Him. You should trust the leaders to tell you what God says in the spirit & in the scriptures." The church system is Satan's substitute for living in & with the family of God. Regardless if the person is aware of it, has a great character, or even preaches the truth church leaders (pastors etc) are Satan's substitute for Jesus & the Holy Spirit of God.
Showing posts with label satan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label satan. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Monday, March 4, 2013
3 Doctrines That Really Don't Believe God is Love
1. Some Are Predestined to Hell
This says God only chose to save a few thus God created most people just to send them to hell & torture them forever. What kind of parents plot to have a child with the intent to torture the child for his or her entire life?
2. A Christian can lose his or her salvation
This says if you meet a certain criteria, usually too much sin, unrepentant sin, unconfessed sin, God will murder you by taking away your eternal(?) life & sending you to hell. This says God murders his own children. It says He throws them back into the burning building after saving them from the flames because they did some things He didn't like. What kind of father throws his children back into a burning building he just saved them from?
3. God is in Complete Control
This paints God as giving you sickness or crippling you for your own good. What parent would do that to their own child? When did Jesus give sickness instead of take it away? It also makes God out to be in control of Satan & using him as an attack dog of sorts. Scripture says "Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil" yet this doctrine says the devil is on God's team. This doctrine also credits all of the evil in history to being under "God's sovereignty" picturing God standing at a door choosing to open it for some things & close it for others. It pictures God opening the door allowing all rape, molestation, pedophilia, murder, & abuse that actually happens to happen. He doesn't try to stop it because He opens the door & "allows" it. It "passes through His hands." God signs all the permission slips to allow for all of your suffering & every sin someone else commits against you. What loving parent would sign off on such things?
Those who clutch to these doctrines will fully ignore the character of Jesus, who scripture says is the exact representation of God. They will paint God as the utter opposite of recognizable love.
Related Posts
Free & Fearless: The Truth Behind God, Humanity, & The Law
God is Not All Knowing & God is Not in Control
Satan is Not God's Attack Dog
The Devil Has the Power of Death
This says God only chose to save a few thus God created most people just to send them to hell & torture them forever. What kind of parents plot to have a child with the intent to torture the child for his or her entire life?
2. A Christian can lose his or her salvation
This says if you meet a certain criteria, usually too much sin, unrepentant sin, unconfessed sin, God will murder you by taking away your eternal(?) life & sending you to hell. This says God murders his own children. It says He throws them back into the burning building after saving them from the flames because they did some things He didn't like. What kind of father throws his children back into a burning building he just saved them from?
3. God is in Complete Control
This paints God as giving you sickness or crippling you for your own good. What parent would do that to their own child? When did Jesus give sickness instead of take it away? It also makes God out to be in control of Satan & using him as an attack dog of sorts. Scripture says "Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil" yet this doctrine says the devil is on God's team. This doctrine also credits all of the evil in history to being under "God's sovereignty" picturing God standing at a door choosing to open it for some things & close it for others. It pictures God opening the door allowing all rape, molestation, pedophilia, murder, & abuse that actually happens to happen. He doesn't try to stop it because He opens the door & "allows" it. It "passes through His hands." God signs all the permission slips to allow for all of your suffering & every sin someone else commits against you. What loving parent would sign off on such things?
Those who clutch to these doctrines will fully ignore the character of Jesus, who scripture says is the exact representation of God. They will paint God as the utter opposite of recognizable love.
Related Posts
Free & Fearless: The Truth Behind God, Humanity, & The Law
God is Not All Knowing & God is Not in Control
Satan is Not God's Attack Dog
The Devil Has the Power of Death
Monday, February 11, 2013
Free & Fearless: The Truth Behind God, Humanity, & The Law
In Luke 1:67-79 The father of John the Baptist, Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying... "The Lord God of Israel has granted us the freedom to serve Him without fear because He has saved us from the hand of our enemies."
This is huge. Here the Holy Spirit through Zacharias says God no longer requires us to fear Him. Many of us have suspected as such but may not have seen it so concise in the New Testament. But here is the reason we need not fear God, "He has saved us from the hand of our enemies (sin, death, Satan)." This says the only reason people had to fear God in the Old Covenant was because of the power the enemy had to harm them!
In Luke 17:4-7 (while still under the Old Covenant) Jesus cleared this up further. He said God values you deeply so do not be afraid of Him but instead be afraid of "the one who kills" which Hebrews 2:14 makes clear is Satan who has the power of death. So the point of fearing God was to trust Him like one would trust a body guard. If you didn't fear God, meaning fear the consequence of refusing His instructions, you would face turmoil or death. That is why the old covenant was based on performance because sin & Satan were based on performance & without the law showing people the consequences or "curses" of their actions they would be lying down in the street not knowing that they would be run over.
When Moses says in Leviticus 18:5 "The man who obeys these laws will live by them" he literally meant "live by them" as in obedience would prevent Satan from killing them. Paul said in Galatians 3:24, "the law was our guardian until Christ came." The law could not give life but obedience to the law could prevent death & guard people. God did not want to curse or harm anyone. Lamentations 3:33 says, "God does not make people suffer nor cause them grief from His heart." Whether we like it or not God did have to put some consequences out there upon some of His people for the greater good of the whole of His people. But He didn't do this because of His "holiness" or "justness." He did this because He was protecting His people from Satan who holds the power of death.
This was NOT about God having a "holy standard" or requirement that people weren't meeting so He had to give the law to show them that they didn't measure up to His expectations. He brought the law to reveal sin because sin earned people death, sin produced death in people, sin crouched at people's doors waiting to devour them. God was ALWAYS a Savior. God has ALWAYS loved the world. God would have never given Adam & Eve the law. His only "law" to them was to "avoid the one thing that will kill you."
The law was not God's guidelines to righteousness. Romans 3:20 says flat out that "no human is made righteous by keeping the law" & "the law was given to make people conscious of sin." Why? Because "the wages of sin is death." Death is God's ultimate enemy because He loves mankind. He is life & the life giver. But there was a huge problem with the law. It was weak because obedience to the law was based on human effort. Sin took ahold of the law & produced more death. The only upside to this was that sin made itself even more evident as a problem that needed to be fixed.
Mankind was addicted to the drug of sin & destroying themselves with it. That is why God hated sin so much, it destroyed those He loved. As any parent would, God became angry with His children who were willingly destroying themselves & especially angry at those who were destroying others, the drug dealers who drug other kids into danger (something Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for doing).
Those God killed in the flesh & those who did not or were not able to trust in Him, God sent to what 1 Peter 3:18 calls "prison." A good father would let his drug dealing son go to prison or even turn him in to be imprisoned, particularly if it kept his other children from following the same path of addiction & drug pushing. That is a picture of God & the flood & every other place in scripture where God commands or threatens death for people.
"Jesus told the good news to those who were dead. He gave them the same choice that living men have, the choice to live like God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
Instead of sin being something where God deemed mankind unworthy of life because of their actions, God actually deemed mankind worthy of life despite their actions. He took some people's life away in the Old Testament & locked them up in "prison" so that they would one day take the chance to "live like God in the spirit" after Christ came off the cross.
So you see it was never about God being "too holy" to accept people or let them live. That is absurd. It was about God going to any lengths to save men from sin even if it was by taking their life here on earth, sending their spirits to prison, then giving the life of His Son to save them & set them free.
Hebrews 2:12-15, "Since God's children live in flesh & blood Jesus Himself became flesh & blood, that through death He might render powerless the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
Even the most wicked people you could imagine, those you would help hunt down before you would forgive them, God gave the choice to be set free & know Him. The bible says humans were slaves to sin & slaves to the fear of death. Slaves are victims to those more powerful than themselves. Humans were victims of sin because of Satan, sin, & Adam's choice. Adam chose death. God didn't say, "Good you deserve it!" No, instead God said, "You chose death but I choose life. I will defeat death itself. I will save you & give you life again, life that lasts forever." Then God stepped into the world & bore the curses, consequences, & wages of sin.. He died so that we may live. He did not save us from Himself! He didn't kill His Son because He was unwilling to forgive us unless His anger was satiated & His wrath satisfied. He died saving us from our enemies & rose again to life to have triumph over them. Because of Jesus we are freed from all fear, fear of death, fear of sin, fear of Satan, & even fear of God. We are slaves no more! We are His sons, daughters, & friends.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
The Devil Has the Power of Death
To Fear or Not to Fear?
For all related posts see my Choose Life & Live! page
This is huge. Here the Holy Spirit through Zacharias says God no longer requires us to fear Him. Many of us have suspected as such but may not have seen it so concise in the New Testament. But here is the reason we need not fear God, "He has saved us from the hand of our enemies (sin, death, Satan)." This says the only reason people had to fear God in the Old Covenant was because of the power the enemy had to harm them!
In Luke 17:4-7 (while still under the Old Covenant) Jesus cleared this up further. He said God values you deeply so do not be afraid of Him but instead be afraid of "the one who kills" which Hebrews 2:14 makes clear is Satan who has the power of death. So the point of fearing God was to trust Him like one would trust a body guard. If you didn't fear God, meaning fear the consequence of refusing His instructions, you would face turmoil or death. That is why the old covenant was based on performance because sin & Satan were based on performance & without the law showing people the consequences or "curses" of their actions they would be lying down in the street not knowing that they would be run over.
When Moses says in Leviticus 18:5 "The man who obeys these laws will live by them" he literally meant "live by them" as in obedience would prevent Satan from killing them. Paul said in Galatians 3:24, "the law was our guardian until Christ came." The law could not give life but obedience to the law could prevent death & guard people. God did not want to curse or harm anyone. Lamentations 3:33 says, "God does not make people suffer nor cause them grief from His heart." Whether we like it or not God did have to put some consequences out there upon some of His people for the greater good of the whole of His people. But He didn't do this because of His "holiness" or "justness." He did this because He was protecting His people from Satan who holds the power of death.
This was NOT about God having a "holy standard" or requirement that people weren't meeting so He had to give the law to show them that they didn't measure up to His expectations. He brought the law to reveal sin because sin earned people death, sin produced death in people, sin crouched at people's doors waiting to devour them. God was ALWAYS a Savior. God has ALWAYS loved the world. God would have never given Adam & Eve the law. His only "law" to them was to "avoid the one thing that will kill you."
The law was not God's guidelines to righteousness. Romans 3:20 says flat out that "no human is made righteous by keeping the law" & "the law was given to make people conscious of sin." Why? Because "the wages of sin is death." Death is God's ultimate enemy because He loves mankind. He is life & the life giver. But there was a huge problem with the law. It was weak because obedience to the law was based on human effort. Sin took ahold of the law & produced more death. The only upside to this was that sin made itself even more evident as a problem that needed to be fixed.
Mankind was addicted to the drug of sin & destroying themselves with it. That is why God hated sin so much, it destroyed those He loved. As any parent would, God became angry with His children who were willingly destroying themselves & especially angry at those who were destroying others, the drug dealers who drug other kids into danger (something Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for doing).
Those God killed in the flesh & those who did not or were not able to trust in Him, God sent to what 1 Peter 3:18 calls "prison." A good father would let his drug dealing son go to prison or even turn him in to be imprisoned, particularly if it kept his other children from following the same path of addiction & drug pushing. That is a picture of God & the flood & every other place in scripture where God commands or threatens death for people.
"Jesus told the good news to those who were dead. He gave them the same choice that living men have, the choice to live like God in the spirit." (1 Peter 4:6)
Instead of sin being something where God deemed mankind unworthy of life because of their actions, God actually deemed mankind worthy of life despite their actions. He took some people's life away in the Old Testament & locked them up in "prison" so that they would one day take the chance to "live like God in the spirit" after Christ came off the cross.
So you see it was never about God being "too holy" to accept people or let them live. That is absurd. It was about God going to any lengths to save men from sin even if it was by taking their life here on earth, sending their spirits to prison, then giving the life of His Son to save them & set them free.
Hebrews 2:12-15, "Since God's children live in flesh & blood Jesus Himself became flesh & blood, that through death He might render powerless the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
Even the most wicked people you could imagine, those you would help hunt down before you would forgive them, God gave the choice to be set free & know Him. The bible says humans were slaves to sin & slaves to the fear of death. Slaves are victims to those more powerful than themselves. Humans were victims of sin because of Satan, sin, & Adam's choice. Adam chose death. God didn't say, "Good you deserve it!" No, instead God said, "You chose death but I choose life. I will defeat death itself. I will save you & give you life again, life that lasts forever." Then God stepped into the world & bore the curses, consequences, & wages of sin.. He died so that we may live. He did not save us from Himself! He didn't kill His Son because He was unwilling to forgive us unless His anger was satiated & His wrath satisfied. He died saving us from our enemies & rose again to life to have triumph over them. Because of Jesus we are freed from all fear, fear of death, fear of sin, fear of Satan, & even fear of God. We are slaves no more! We are His sons, daughters, & friends.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
The Devil Has the Power of Death
To Fear or Not to Fear?
For all related posts see my Choose Life & Live! page
Monday, January 28, 2013
Satan Wants You to Make Promises to God
You won't see anyone being told to "make a commitment to God" in the New Testament. A commitment is basically a promise or set of promises. Jesus essentially said in Matthew 5:33-37, "Don't make promises to God. If He approaches you with something just give Him an honest yes or no. The idea that you should make promises to God actually comes from Satan."
Jesus wanted to take us away from the paradigm of failure but to retain the paradigm of willingness. Jesus knew we couldn't keep promises so He told us to not make them thus resulting in us not having to experience the shame of failure.
One of Satan's goals is to make us feel guilty & feel like failures. Jesus said anything outside of an honest yes or no come from evil. Why? Because it is Satan setting you up to condemn yourself by convincing you to make promises you cannot keep & had no business making.
Very sad is the fact that most of Christianity is based on making commitments & promises to God. They even say we are saved by making a commitment to God or by making Him our Lord. By that teaching alone (& there are many others I won't go into here) it is obvious that most of Christianity is based on something Jesus calls Satanic.
Jesus wanted to take us away from the paradigm of failure but to retain the paradigm of willingness. Jesus knew we couldn't keep promises so He told us to not make them thus resulting in us not having to experience the shame of failure.
One of Satan's goals is to make us feel guilty & feel like failures. Jesus said anything outside of an honest yes or no come from evil. Why? Because it is Satan setting you up to condemn yourself by convincing you to make promises you cannot keep & had no business making.
Very sad is the fact that most of Christianity is based on making commitments & promises to God. They even say we are saved by making a commitment to God or by making Him our Lord. By that teaching alone (& there are many others I won't go into here) it is obvious that most of Christianity is based on something Jesus calls Satanic.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
The Devil Has the Power of Death
Hebrews 2:12-15, "Since God's children live in flesh & blood Jesus Himself became flesh & blood, that through death He might render powerless the one who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives."
How People Were Protected from the Power of Death in the Old Testament
Here it says, "the devil holds the power of death." This text means that the devil also had the power of death before the cross, in Old Testament times. God tried to protect people from Satan by offerings, sacrifices, & obedience. If we take Satan having the power of death very seriously & the fact that he made people fear for their lives we can see God's motivation in the OT change from looking like a selfish God who demands obedience to a loving, protecting God who advises His children against things that lead to death. Because Satan had the power of death people had to be protected from him. So if they did not cooperate with God they refused his wise protection & they died.
Cain & Abel
Before the law Cain & Abel gave offerings that God regarded or disregarded. This suggests that they were told that they should do this. So the idea of sacrifices & offerings did not start with the law. God did not have "regard" for Cain's offering of fruit. The word regard there carries the idea of "a shepherd who inspects and watches over his flock with compassion and protection." Most seem to take God's disregard to Cain's offering as arbitrary or mysterious. But what happened is Cain's offering didn't allow God to protect Cain from sin. He gave fruits instead of blood. Satan craves blood & death.
Cain was angry & his head fell because his offering was not good enough but God said to Him, "If you do well, will there not be a lifting up?" The word for "lifting up" is the same word often translated as "forgive" that means to "lift up" or "carry away" a burden. God then said, "If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” This is the first use of the word "sin" in the entire bible. Sin is described as something that wants to follow Cain & ambush him. God says Cain must control/master/rule over sin. How? By offering the appropriate blood sacrifice, that is what "doing well" means. Cain could have the oppression of sin lifted off of him by giving the right sacrifice. This then doesn't describe God playing arbitrary favorites. Instead He is seeking to protect these brothers but His protection requires their cooperation because sin is a spiritual force, the devil, who God is aware of but they are little aware of. God's regard & disregard for the sacrifices is essentially God saying, "Abel your metal shield is great protection. Cain your grass shield is going to be useless."
Cain then Goes on to kill his brother. Why? Because the burden, guilt, shame, oppression, & influence of sin causes the action of sin. We also know there was something wrong with Cain's heart already because he didn't give the appropriate sacrifice. Satan seeks to kill. One way he does this is by convincing humans to kill one another. The only way for Satan to kill a protected man is by using another man to do it. But next is one amazing thing God does. Cain says to God that he fears death. God then marked Cain to where no one who found him would kill him. God protected Cain, a murderer, from being murdered. We see that even though the law would some day judge Cain as worthy of death God saved his life & protected him from death. God is a God of life!
Most translations have Cain say, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." But the word punishment is actually the word for "twistedness, wickedness, unrighteousness." Cain was actually saying, "My twistedness is greater than I can bear." He was broken up about what he had done. Additionally the meaning of the names of the people in Cain's family were godly, also suggesting that Cain regretted what he had done. God was somehow able to mark Cain as protected from murderers because of this. (Side note: Cain is taught to be the first murderer yet Cain fears "whoever finds me will kill me"). God was able to sometimes protect men from being murdered, men such as Cain, Job, & the armies of Israel.
The Law
God's goal is to protect life despite sin, not to take life because of sin. The curses of the law weren't only a revelation about how God feels about sin or to be punishments from Him. They were also the reality of what Satan can seize through sin. God said in Deuteronomy 6:2 that keeping his laws prolonged people's lives & breaking them & worshipping false gods lead to death. Paul also said that obedience to the law can preserve life but it cannot give life & certainly cannot give eternal life.
Hebrews 7:18-19 describes the law as weak & unprofitable. The law could not add anything. It could only keep & weakly defend. It says the reason why is because "the law made nothing perfect." Yes God would bless people for obedience because obedience was safety for them. The law is performance based & sin is performance based, God is not performance based. Because sin, which is Satan who holds the power of death, is performance based God had to make a performance based law to protect mankind. The law was "safety rules." This is one reason why some of the laws seem so strange. Satan would take the smallest drop of impurity & use it against people.
God's covenant with man that started with Abraham was based on trust & promises not on performance. Galatians 3:17 says, that covenant was still in effect while the law was in effect. Righteousness & life never came through the law (Galatians 3:21). People were always saved by faith/trust. If people could never be given life or righteousness through the law then why did God give it? Paul says God gave it to make people aware of sins so they would know that everyone is imprisoned under sin. Another way to make this imprisonment obvious was by the law being a burden itself which made the even greater burden of sin obvious. That is the other reason why there are strange laws, strange yet detailed laws are more burdensome.
Jews never forgot about Abraham so trusting in the promise that was given in his covenant was always an option. The law was given to preserve people's lives, help people treat one another better, & most of all point people to God to trust in Him & His promises. People weren't to fight for themselves (self-righteousness) but to trust in the Lord who wants to be their protector. Many of the descriptions of God in the OT described Him as someone strong & safe. The covenant of Moses, the law, was to get people to realize their need for God which can be fulfilled by the covenant of Abraham, faith/trust & promise, which pointed forward to the New Covenant of the Blood of Christ.
The Sin Offering
In the old covenant there was a "sin offering." It wasn't an offering to God to appease Him. Instead it was an offering toward sin (the devil) to keep him from killing people because of sin. Satan had the power of death, the power to kill anyone he wanted to. Jews had to give sin offerings to protect themselves from Satan not from God. God is always about life & saving lives.
Those sacrifices "covered" sin. Why did sin need to be covered? Because Satan demanded payment for sin, which is death. Covering sin threw Satan off the scent of people's sin (notice OT offerings had scents). In Psalm 40 & Hebrews 10 God said that He took no pleasure in sacrifices & offerings & in fact He did not desire them. That means they weren't for Him. Hebrews 10 says sacrifices could not clean people from sin & that it was impossible for them to "take away sins." If you can't get clean & you have a scent then you must cover up the scent. Satan is described as a lion seeking to devour. While it is easier for lions to hunt by sight & sound they can also hunt by smell. Thus someone who had sinned but was not openly sinning at the moment still "smelled" like sin. God wanted to take sin away so people could be clean & perfect. He eventually did so with Jesus' sacrifice.
Protected from The Power of Death by Christ
Jesus didn't cover sin, He took sin away. Jesus was a sin offering but not one to appease God or to throw off Satan (like the OT one) but to defeat Satan & "render him powerless" & "free those who feared death because of him!" Why would the devil enslave people to fear death? Because he holds the power of death. Jesus said that Satan "seeks to kill."
"Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10). The power of death is broken because the way to life is illuminated. It is like saying the power of your enemy in war is broken because Jesus has laid out a bunch of rocket launchers. The enemy is still there but if you use what has been given, in this case the life offered by Christ, the enemy is powerless & you have no reason to fear him killing you. The life of Christ has hopelessly outgunned the power of death, sin, & the devil. Jesus overpowered death through His resurrection & provided a way out.
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; everyone who lives and trusts in Me will never die" (John 11:25). God allows our flesh to pass away because it is a sin wrecked vessel of weakness. He gives eternal life to our spirit so when we trust Him there is a sense in which we Christians never die.
"For those who have trusted in Jesus the fact of sin & death has been replaced by the new reality of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are free from sin & death. You have been released from the reality of sin & death and born into a new reality of the spirit, the reality of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).
With sin taken away Satan "cannot touch the children of God" (1 John 5:18). We are cleaned of the scent of sin, made perfect, & hidden with Christ in God. Everything God wanted to do for us to protect us from Satan has been accomplished. Satan only has the influence of deception in regards to Christians & his deception is only powered if we believe his lies.
Under the law Satan would take the smallest drop of impurity & use it against people. God is not a stickler anymore about what kind of fabric we wear because Christians are protected from Satan & God is offering perfect life to all mankind through His Son, the Savior of the world. Our actions no longer condemn us because God has broken the power of sin & death. God has no reason to charge people with sin because the solution to sin has been given (2 Corinthians 5:19). The law was a defense against Satan but he managed to use it to produce more sin & death & condemnation (Romans 7:8). But Jesus is only good & only love, Satan cannot tempt God or twist Him to do evil (he tried in Job & he tried with Jesus in the desert). Today the old dead law is used by Satan to distract people from Jesus & to make people fear death (people who believe they can "lose" their salvation fear death based on their performance).
It is clear that Satan has the power of death & it is God's character to save & give life. I believe God gives people a second chance to trust Him on judgment day as evidenced by Romans 14:10-12 saying Isaiah 45:18-25 occurs on judgment day. Thus I believe God has killed people in the flesh (such as the flood, see 1 Peter 3:18) to save them from the second death. Death is His final enemy. He doesn't let death win the first time when we die in the flesh. We have a second chance to choose life.
God has not yet ended the existence of death but He has broken its power. Satan still seeks to kill but God has offered imperishable life to all mankind for free. Satan may still be able to grab hold of unsaved people's actions & produce death but there is an easy escape. It is not an escape route, it is a Savior offering to take our hand.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
Satan is Not God's Attack Dog
How People Were Protected from the Power of Death in the Old Testament
Here it says, "the devil holds the power of death." This text means that the devil also had the power of death before the cross, in Old Testament times. God tried to protect people from Satan by offerings, sacrifices, & obedience. If we take Satan having the power of death very seriously & the fact that he made people fear for their lives we can see God's motivation in the OT change from looking like a selfish God who demands obedience to a loving, protecting God who advises His children against things that lead to death. Because Satan had the power of death people had to be protected from him. So if they did not cooperate with God they refused his wise protection & they died.
Cain & Abel
Before the law Cain & Abel gave offerings that God regarded or disregarded. This suggests that they were told that they should do this. So the idea of sacrifices & offerings did not start with the law. God did not have "regard" for Cain's offering of fruit. The word regard there carries the idea of "a shepherd who inspects and watches over his flock with compassion and protection." Most seem to take God's disregard to Cain's offering as arbitrary or mysterious. But what happened is Cain's offering didn't allow God to protect Cain from sin. He gave fruits instead of blood. Satan craves blood & death.
Cain was angry & his head fell because his offering was not good enough but God said to Him, "If you do well, will there not be a lifting up?" The word for "lifting up" is the same word often translated as "forgive" that means to "lift up" or "carry away" a burden. God then said, "If you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” This is the first use of the word "sin" in the entire bible. Sin is described as something that wants to follow Cain & ambush him. God says Cain must control/master/rule over sin. How? By offering the appropriate blood sacrifice, that is what "doing well" means. Cain could have the oppression of sin lifted off of him by giving the right sacrifice. This then doesn't describe God playing arbitrary favorites. Instead He is seeking to protect these brothers but His protection requires their cooperation because sin is a spiritual force, the devil, who God is aware of but they are little aware of. God's regard & disregard for the sacrifices is essentially God saying, "Abel your metal shield is great protection. Cain your grass shield is going to be useless."
Cain then Goes on to kill his brother. Why? Because the burden, guilt, shame, oppression, & influence of sin causes the action of sin. We also know there was something wrong with Cain's heart already because he didn't give the appropriate sacrifice. Satan seeks to kill. One way he does this is by convincing humans to kill one another. The only way for Satan to kill a protected man is by using another man to do it. But next is one amazing thing God does. Cain says to God that he fears death. God then marked Cain to where no one who found him would kill him. God protected Cain, a murderer, from being murdered. We see that even though the law would some day judge Cain as worthy of death God saved his life & protected him from death. God is a God of life!
Most translations have Cain say, "My punishment is greater than I can bear." But the word punishment is actually the word for "twistedness, wickedness, unrighteousness." Cain was actually saying, "My twistedness is greater than I can bear." He was broken up about what he had done. Additionally the meaning of the names of the people in Cain's family were godly, also suggesting that Cain regretted what he had done. God was somehow able to mark Cain as protected from murderers because of this. (Side note: Cain is taught to be the first murderer yet Cain fears "whoever finds me will kill me"). God was able to sometimes protect men from being murdered, men such as Cain, Job, & the armies of Israel.
The Law
God's goal is to protect life despite sin, not to take life because of sin. The curses of the law weren't only a revelation about how God feels about sin or to be punishments from Him. They were also the reality of what Satan can seize through sin. God said in Deuteronomy 6:2 that keeping his laws prolonged people's lives & breaking them & worshipping false gods lead to death. Paul also said that obedience to the law can preserve life but it cannot give life & certainly cannot give eternal life.
Hebrews 7:18-19 describes the law as weak & unprofitable. The law could not add anything. It could only keep & weakly defend. It says the reason why is because "the law made nothing perfect." Yes God would bless people for obedience because obedience was safety for them. The law is performance based & sin is performance based, God is not performance based. Because sin, which is Satan who holds the power of death, is performance based God had to make a performance based law to protect mankind. The law was "safety rules." This is one reason why some of the laws seem so strange. Satan would take the smallest drop of impurity & use it against people.
God's covenant with man that started with Abraham was based on trust & promises not on performance. Galatians 3:17 says, that covenant was still in effect while the law was in effect. Righteousness & life never came through the law (Galatians 3:21). People were always saved by faith/trust. If people could never be given life or righteousness through the law then why did God give it? Paul says God gave it to make people aware of sins so they would know that everyone is imprisoned under sin. Another way to make this imprisonment obvious was by the law being a burden itself which made the even greater burden of sin obvious. That is the other reason why there are strange laws, strange yet detailed laws are more burdensome.
Jews never forgot about Abraham so trusting in the promise that was given in his covenant was always an option. The law was given to preserve people's lives, help people treat one another better, & most of all point people to God to trust in Him & His promises. People weren't to fight for themselves (self-righteousness) but to trust in the Lord who wants to be their protector. Many of the descriptions of God in the OT described Him as someone strong & safe. The covenant of Moses, the law, was to get people to realize their need for God which can be fulfilled by the covenant of Abraham, faith/trust & promise, which pointed forward to the New Covenant of the Blood of Christ.
The Sin Offering
In the old covenant there was a "sin offering." It wasn't an offering to God to appease Him. Instead it was an offering toward sin (the devil) to keep him from killing people because of sin. Satan had the power of death, the power to kill anyone he wanted to. Jews had to give sin offerings to protect themselves from Satan not from God. God is always about life & saving lives.
Those sacrifices "covered" sin. Why did sin need to be covered? Because Satan demanded payment for sin, which is death. Covering sin threw Satan off the scent of people's sin (notice OT offerings had scents). In Psalm 40 & Hebrews 10 God said that He took no pleasure in sacrifices & offerings & in fact He did not desire them. That means they weren't for Him. Hebrews 10 says sacrifices could not clean people from sin & that it was impossible for them to "take away sins." If you can't get clean & you have a scent then you must cover up the scent. Satan is described as a lion seeking to devour. While it is easier for lions to hunt by sight & sound they can also hunt by smell. Thus someone who had sinned but was not openly sinning at the moment still "smelled" like sin. God wanted to take sin away so people could be clean & perfect. He eventually did so with Jesus' sacrifice.
Protected from The Power of Death by Christ
Jesus didn't cover sin, He took sin away. Jesus was a sin offering but not one to appease God or to throw off Satan (like the OT one) but to defeat Satan & "render him powerless" & "free those who feared death because of him!" Why would the devil enslave people to fear death? Because he holds the power of death. Jesus said that Satan "seeks to kill."
"Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10). The power of death is broken because the way to life is illuminated. It is like saying the power of your enemy in war is broken because Jesus has laid out a bunch of rocket launchers. The enemy is still there but if you use what has been given, in this case the life offered by Christ, the enemy is powerless & you have no reason to fear him killing you. The life of Christ has hopelessly outgunned the power of death, sin, & the devil. Jesus overpowered death through His resurrection & provided a way out.
Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; everyone who lives and trusts in Me will never die" (John 11:25). God allows our flesh to pass away because it is a sin wrecked vessel of weakness. He gives eternal life to our spirit so when we trust Him there is a sense in which we Christians never die.
"For those who have trusted in Jesus the fact of sin & death has been replaced by the new reality of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are free from sin & death. You have been released from the reality of sin & death and born into a new reality of the spirit, the reality of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).
With sin taken away Satan "cannot touch the children of God" (1 John 5:18). We are cleaned of the scent of sin, made perfect, & hidden with Christ in God. Everything God wanted to do for us to protect us from Satan has been accomplished. Satan only has the influence of deception in regards to Christians & his deception is only powered if we believe his lies.
Under the law Satan would take the smallest drop of impurity & use it against people. God is not a stickler anymore about what kind of fabric we wear because Christians are protected from Satan & God is offering perfect life to all mankind through His Son, the Savior of the world. Our actions no longer condemn us because God has broken the power of sin & death. God has no reason to charge people with sin because the solution to sin has been given (2 Corinthians 5:19). The law was a defense against Satan but he managed to use it to produce more sin & death & condemnation (Romans 7:8). But Jesus is only good & only love, Satan cannot tempt God or twist Him to do evil (he tried in Job & he tried with Jesus in the desert). Today the old dead law is used by Satan to distract people from Jesus & to make people fear death (people who believe they can "lose" their salvation fear death based on their performance).
It is clear that Satan has the power of death & it is God's character to save & give life. I believe God gives people a second chance to trust Him on judgment day as evidenced by Romans 14:10-12 saying Isaiah 45:18-25 occurs on judgment day. Thus I believe God has killed people in the flesh (such as the flood, see 1 Peter 3:18) to save them from the second death. Death is His final enemy. He doesn't let death win the first time when we die in the flesh. We have a second chance to choose life.
God has not yet ended the existence of death but He has broken its power. Satan still seeks to kill but God has offered imperishable life to all mankind for free. Satan may still be able to grab hold of unsaved people's actions & produce death but there is an easy escape. It is not an escape route, it is a Savior offering to take our hand.
Related Posts
Second Chances & Why God Killed
Satan is Not God's Attack Dog
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Satan is Not God's Attack Dog
Satan and the Sifting
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your trust may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." But Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” (Luke 22:31-34)
Most think Satan demanded permission from God, that God is in cahoots with Satan. But that is not true! This plays out a little like a hostage situation. Satan is making a demand of Peter and Jesus has passed the message along to help prepare Peter. Even though Jesus said Satan would succeed Peter denies that he will let Satan sift him. Then Jesus confirms exactly what will happen & that Peter will let Satan sift him by denying Christ three times.
Some say that Satan is on God's leash and can only do as much & go as far as God lets Him. If you believe that then you believe God uses "the adversary" as a weapon to steal from you, kill you, or destroy you. If Satan is God's dog then God is not loving, He's a maniac! Satan is "the enemy" not the knife God uses to massacre His own children. Neither is God standing at the front door to your house saying, "Ok Satan come on in and take all you want." What kind of father lets a thief, not break into, but walk into their house and steal from their children? A terrible father who has no love for his children whatsoever! Yet some of you may believe that very thing about your heavenly Father.
Satan in Job
"Satan came before God. The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord." (Job 1:6-12)
When God asks Satan, "Have you considered Job?" most think this means God is offering Satan someone to torture, that God is suggesting Job to Satan as someone to attempt to devour. But our knowing God was saying something more like this, "You've considered my servant Job haven't you? There is no one like him, you will have a hard time getting him to reject me." God wasn't proposing an offer to Satan but instead knowingly addressing Satan's intentions.
God then says to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power." Most again think this means God is giving over Job to Satan perhaps even to test Job's trust in God. But that is not the case! Scripture is clear that Satan already has jurisdiction over unregenerate mankind. 1 John 5:19 says, "The whole world lies in the power of the evil one." In 2 Corinthians 4:3 Satan is called "the god of this world" who blinds minds. Most telling of all is the fact that Hebrews 2:14 says, "Satan holds the power of death."
Satan actually challenges God to "touch all that Job has & ruin it." God refuses to accept the challenge & reminds Satan, "All that he has is in your power." The first time God says, "only do not put forth your hand on him." The second time Satan comes God says, "Only spare his life." Satan could already do whatever he wanted to Job but God limited Satan's jurisdiction, He didn't increase it! The enemy seeks to kill, God seeks to save.
The second time Satan approaches God, God says, "Are you still considering Job? He still holds fast his integrity, yet you still are inciting Me against him to ruin him without cause.” Satan is so wicked and clueless that he is attempting to get God to do his dirty work for him! God again refused to attack Job. Sad that most see the story of Job as God wanting to test Job so He challenges Satan to do His dirty work for Him, but it is in fact the opposite! Satan could have killed & ruined whoever he wanted but here Satan is extra-bold & challenges God to do evil for Him, tempting God to test Job's faith (not much different from how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness). God essentially says no & sends Satan away to do what he was going to do anyway except God limits Satan's power over Job. For whatever reason God does remove some restriction on what Satan does to Job next, only preventing him from killing Job. Satan never appears again in the book of Job after giving Job boils all over his body. Satan didn't come back to propose death for Job.
Satan's powers are lies, shame, & fear. Satan rules this world but he rules it only through cooperation with mankind. He is "the god of this world" because he "blinds minds." Minds are blinded by lies, shame, & fear. Satan influenced the Sabeans & Chaldeans to take Job's animals & kill his servants. Ezekiel 28:13 says Satan was "created with pipes" & Ephesians 2:2 calls him "the prince of the power of the air." So Satan was able to create "a great wind" to kill Job's children. Scientifically wind can create lightning thus the mistakenly labeled "fire of God" that "fell from heaven" was lightning created by Satan. Just like mankind was created with all of their physical abilities, Satan was created with "pipes" that he chose to do wicked things with.
It is likely Satan caused the storm Jesus & the disciples went through. I believe most bad weather is a result of the fallen creation but I certainly see Satan being able to manipulate wind by the evidence here. Otherwise we would have to believe:
A. God aided Satan (as an accessory to the crime) in persecuting Job by allowing Satan to command wind & lightning when at other times Satan would not be able to do so (ie God "allowed" Satan to have this power because God was testing Job).
B. God did the murdering Himself even though He said the ruining of Job's life was "without cause."
If Satan can't control wind God must be a murderous maniac with Satan as His attack dog who kills without cause. Many are willing to destroy God's character in the name of making Him "totally in control." The truth is we all (God, humans, Satan) have various extents of control as exercised by our freewill. When one's freewill collides with another's there is conflict. Cooperating with Satan brings death. Cooperating with God brings life. God doesn't override freewill. Instead He goes to every extent to offer life to whoever wants it. God created the universe to be a place of freedom. There are consequences & conflicts because of this. Usually God is offering the positive consequences of choosing life by trusting Him. At certain times in history God will deliver the negative consequences Himself. Here, Job, by God's own admission, had earned no consequences.
Job lived long before the cross & while he was credited with righteousness he did not have a reborn righteous spirit. Satan has no power over Christians because Christians are born again, perfect in spirit. 1 John 5:18 says, "Whoever is born of God is kept safe, the evil one cannot harm him." However Satan can still influence other people to harm us. Satan also still comes & tries to deceive us. Resisting Satan causes him to flee. If Satan were on God's team God wouldn't want us to resist him. God would want us to embrace Satan. Remember "flee" is a cowardly word. Lies flee when confronted by truth. We have The Truth living in us.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your trust may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." But Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” (Luke 22:31-34)
Most think Satan demanded permission from God, that God is in cahoots with Satan. But that is not true! This plays out a little like a hostage situation. Satan is making a demand of Peter and Jesus has passed the message along to help prepare Peter. Even though Jesus said Satan would succeed Peter denies that he will let Satan sift him. Then Jesus confirms exactly what will happen & that Peter will let Satan sift him by denying Christ three times.
Some say that Satan is on God's leash and can only do as much & go as far as God lets Him. If you believe that then you believe God uses "the adversary" as a weapon to steal from you, kill you, or destroy you. If Satan is God's dog then God is not loving, He's a maniac! Satan is "the enemy" not the knife God uses to massacre His own children. Neither is God standing at the front door to your house saying, "Ok Satan come on in and take all you want." What kind of father lets a thief, not break into, but walk into their house and steal from their children? A terrible father who has no love for his children whatsoever! Yet some of you may believe that very thing about your heavenly Father.
Satan in Job
"Satan came before God. The Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord." (Job 1:6-12)
When God asks Satan, "Have you considered Job?" most think this means God is offering Satan someone to torture, that God is suggesting Job to Satan as someone to attempt to devour. But our knowing God was saying something more like this, "You've considered my servant Job haven't you? There is no one like him, you will have a hard time getting him to reject me." God wasn't proposing an offer to Satan but instead knowingly addressing Satan's intentions.
God then says to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power." Most again think this means God is giving over Job to Satan perhaps even to test Job's trust in God. But that is not the case! Scripture is clear that Satan already has jurisdiction over unregenerate mankind. 1 John 5:19 says, "The whole world lies in the power of the evil one." In 2 Corinthians 4:3 Satan is called "the god of this world" who blinds minds. Most telling of all is the fact that Hebrews 2:14 says, "Satan holds the power of death."
Satan actually challenges God to "touch all that Job has & ruin it." God refuses to accept the challenge & reminds Satan, "All that he has is in your power." The first time God says, "only do not put forth your hand on him." The second time Satan comes God says, "Only spare his life." Satan could already do whatever he wanted to Job but God limited Satan's jurisdiction, He didn't increase it! The enemy seeks to kill, God seeks to save.
The second time Satan approaches God, God says, "Are you still considering Job? He still holds fast his integrity, yet you still are inciting Me against him to ruin him without cause.” Satan is so wicked and clueless that he is attempting to get God to do his dirty work for him! God again refused to attack Job. Sad that most see the story of Job as God wanting to test Job so He challenges Satan to do His dirty work for Him, but it is in fact the opposite! Satan could have killed & ruined whoever he wanted but here Satan is extra-bold & challenges God to do evil for Him, tempting God to test Job's faith (not much different from how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness). God essentially says no & sends Satan away to do what he was going to do anyway except God limits Satan's power over Job. For whatever reason God does remove some restriction on what Satan does to Job next, only preventing him from killing Job. Satan never appears again in the book of Job after giving Job boils all over his body. Satan didn't come back to propose death for Job.
Satan's powers are lies, shame, & fear. Satan rules this world but he rules it only through cooperation with mankind. He is "the god of this world" because he "blinds minds." Minds are blinded by lies, shame, & fear. Satan influenced the Sabeans & Chaldeans to take Job's animals & kill his servants. Ezekiel 28:13 says Satan was "created with pipes" & Ephesians 2:2 calls him "the prince of the power of the air." So Satan was able to create "a great wind" to kill Job's children. Scientifically wind can create lightning thus the mistakenly labeled "fire of God" that "fell from heaven" was lightning created by Satan. Just like mankind was created with all of their physical abilities, Satan was created with "pipes" that he chose to do wicked things with.
It is likely Satan caused the storm Jesus & the disciples went through. I believe most bad weather is a result of the fallen creation but I certainly see Satan being able to manipulate wind by the evidence here. Otherwise we would have to believe:
A. God aided Satan (as an accessory to the crime) in persecuting Job by allowing Satan to command wind & lightning when at other times Satan would not be able to do so (ie God "allowed" Satan to have this power because God was testing Job).
B. God did the murdering Himself even though He said the ruining of Job's life was "without cause."
If Satan can't control wind God must be a murderous maniac with Satan as His attack dog who kills without cause. Many are willing to destroy God's character in the name of making Him "totally in control." The truth is we all (God, humans, Satan) have various extents of control as exercised by our freewill. When one's freewill collides with another's there is conflict. Cooperating with Satan brings death. Cooperating with God brings life. God doesn't override freewill. Instead He goes to every extent to offer life to whoever wants it. God created the universe to be a place of freedom. There are consequences & conflicts because of this. Usually God is offering the positive consequences of choosing life by trusting Him. At certain times in history God will deliver the negative consequences Himself. Here, Job, by God's own admission, had earned no consequences.
Job lived long before the cross & while he was credited with righteousness he did not have a reborn righteous spirit. Satan has no power over Christians because Christians are born again, perfect in spirit. 1 John 5:18 says, "Whoever is born of God is kept safe, the evil one cannot harm him." However Satan can still influence other people to harm us. Satan also still comes & tries to deceive us. Resisting Satan causes him to flee. If Satan were on God's team God wouldn't want us to resist him. God would want us to embrace Satan. Remember "flee" is a cowardly word. Lies flee when confronted by truth. We have The Truth living in us.
Monday, October 17, 2011
Satan and the Sign or Jesus and the Journey?
Imagine a man is holding up a sign with all of the law, obligations, and expectations you feel that you are supposed to keep. You walk up to the sign but you don't notice Satan (sin) is standing there holding it1. It tells you everything you think you need to do to be a good person, a good Christian. You have everything spelled out right from the start. You feel a comfort in knowing the "supposed to's" of life.
Then standing next to Satan is Jesus. He simply says "Come with me." You don't know where He is going to take you or what you would do together2.
Trust is putting your security in someone or something. Many trust the law because its predictability gives you a sense of security but in reality it never takes you past the sign. When you trust Jesus, that trust plays out in a relationship, you walking with Him and talking with Him. You will only trust Him & go with Him as much as you know He loves you3.
Satan says that doing good and abstaining from evil is the goal of the Christian life. Jesus says that it is knowing and having a relationship with Him and His Father4. Who do you trust?
1. The power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)
2. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)
3. We love Him because He loves us first (1 John 4:19)
4. This is eternal life, to intimately know the Father, who is the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. (John 17:3)
Related Posts
Wind in a Box
Then standing next to Satan is Jesus. He simply says "Come with me." You don't know where He is going to take you or what you would do together2.
Trust is putting your security in someone or something. Many trust the law because its predictability gives you a sense of security but in reality it never takes you past the sign. When you trust Jesus, that trust plays out in a relationship, you walking with Him and talking with Him. You will only trust Him & go with Him as much as you know He loves you3.
Satan says that doing good and abstaining from evil is the goal of the Christian life. Jesus says that it is knowing and having a relationship with Him and His Father4. Who do you trust?
1. The power of sin is the law. (1 Corinthians 15:56)
2. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)
3. We love Him because He loves us first (1 John 4:19)
4. This is eternal life, to intimately know the Father, who is the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. (John 17:3)
Related Posts
Wind in a Box
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