A Scriptural Analysis of the History of Satan – Part 7 – Insights from Satan’s Story – On God is Love

A Scriptural Analysis of the History of Satan – Part 7 – Insights from Satan’s Story – On God is Love

So, what does this mean about what you have been told about Satan?

Is Satan shiny? Yes. But is he actually a snake, serpent, or reptilian? Or a red horned goat man? No. He looks like a cherubim, a shiny cherubim, because he is a cherubim. Is he actually covered with jewels? He might have that appearance, or it might just be symbolic, but he still just looks like a cherubim.

Was Satan heaven’s choir director? How about Satan himself being a one-man-band living musical instrument? No, there’s nothing in the scriptures to indicate that.

Did God give Satan the planet in some pre-Adamic creation? Did God give authority over the world to Satan when man fell into sin? Or did Satan inherit authority over the earth when mankind fell into sin, because he owned it prior?

satanedenNo, what “anointed cherubim” means is that Satan essentially worked as a security guard in Eden, to keep people away from the tree of life. He is called the “prince of this world” because he received the nations from the Divine Council members, starting by around 700 BC. In other words, there was a lot of history prior to Satan coming into power, like about 3300 years of biblical human history before Satan even rose into power over the world.

This is what the Bible teaches, but why haven’t you heard this? That is because for the past 2000 years, Satan has tried to lie to the world about who he is. One part of this is trying to keep Christians ignorant, another is by spreading confusion in lies about himself. That’s why most of what you have heard so extremely exaggerates Satan’s place in history, power, and importance. No doubt he is evil, that is true, and you have heard that, but most importantly, what you have heard also tried to make God out to be evil too, or at least incompetent.

SatanSonsofGodWhy would a good God give Satan all this power over the world, foreknowing Satan would be evil? God didn’t. God gave power over the world to a council of what were good angels at the time. By their own choices, but under Satan’s influence, they feel into sin and took side with Satan, handing their nations over to Satan.

Did God make Satan to be evil? No, he made Satan to be wise and shiny. By Satan’s own free will choice he decided to become evil, because he wanted to be God. Have no sympathy for the devil. After deceiving mankind into sin, death, and the fall, God was patient and gave Satan some 1600 years to think about what he had done and change in his heart, to make the decision for Eden to be a mistake. Instead, what we see is envy of God’s angels, and a desire for power, to have power more than them. And sadistic… how evil is it for the powerful to want to hurt, destroy, harm, despair, Job, a defenseless righteous and upright man who loves God, and does good?

I’m mean, let’s say you were a creature who lived for thousands of years… and oops by your wit, interfering, showing off how smart you are, you get an entire creation condemned to die. Well, God has a solution in mind, to send Jesus, to save them, and give them eternal life, and make a new heavens and earth. Oops, but God can fix it, and has a plan to fix it. So God is very patient, and gives you 1600 years to think about what you have done, at the scene of the crime, while entire generations go through toil, trouble, and death. Then God starts the whole world over, with the flood, the past is gone, what’s done is done. But instead of repenting, the next thing Satan does, once he is relieved of that job and the whole world is starting over… is he wants to go to heaven. But when he gets to heaven, he has to show off his wit again, but in doing so, what does he get to do? Torturing and ruining a good man who is innocent and loves God. Does that seem like he’s sorry about all the pain and death his actions in Eden led to? Did he repent during those 1600 years? No, it seems not really. It seems the pain and death of humanity was something that did not matter to him, not as a whole, or even in the life of one man. What can be seen in Job is hatred towards people, and no love.

But God is love, and God is very patient with all of His creation, because God loves all of His creation. What decisions Satan has made have been from rejecting God’s fatherly love towards him. God gave him time to repent, and even after the Divine Council fell, under Satan’s influence, Satan just kept going. God gave a warning in Genesis early on, but gave another judgment in Isaiah, that Satan would end up locked in the Abyss. But Satan kept going. The thing is, if Satan had just accepted that God had the authority to chastise him, and seen God as a Father, wiser and bigger than him, then 1600 years in Eden would have been good for Satan. He would have learned from and regretted what he had done in Eden. But instead, he wanted power. Rather than accepting his mistake, in questioning Eve and his deceptive statements, admitting to it being a mistake, he wanted to prove himself to be right. Which is why the second time we see his wit and questions, in Job, he is again doing the same thing, hurting someone else, trying to bring down the Divine Council, the sons of God.

It comes down to a question of Satan’s pride, if he could have admitted he did wrong, and accepted that he did not need to forgive God, but needed God’s forgiveness, that his imperfections hurt others, then he might have improved and not ended up being sentenced to be thrown in the lake of fire. Satan never seemed to accept his place, to admit that he could never be God, that God was God, and Satan’s place was to accept God’s authority. Instead, Satan wanted to become like God, to be the one in authority.

m4-empiresSatan never accepted what it was that God had created him to be, which was a cherubim, a shiny witty cherubim, and accept his place as such, and relationship with God as such – for God to ride on at times, to carry God’s throne, to hang out around God’s throne, etc. There are other cherubims which do these things, and like them, that is what Satan was created to do. But Satan apparently wanted to be something different, and hey, as the story goes, God doesn’t have a problem with weirdos and oddballs. God loves us all, and gave a free will to be ourselves. But it’s when your way to stand out and be yourself is defined by death, destruction, deception, lies, tempting and hurting or killing others, and destroying innocent helpless people, then it becomes a major problem. And ultimately you are hurting yourself. The issue was never that Satan couldn’t be an original unique cherubim that was different from the rest – the problem was that Satan didn’t care who he hurt or how he hurt others. Indifference to other’s pain and destruction, that you cause them, on your road to success, is a terrible selfish hateful thing. There’s no love in that, and there’s no God in that, because God is love.

See, God has created each of us to be something, and when we accept God’s will is love, then we can be in God’s will and be a good whatever that is he made us to be. But when you hate, then you cannot be in God’s will, and you can’t be who God made you to be.

Probably the Biggest lie out there in Christianity about Satan is that God needed him to be evil somehow, or made him to be evil. God gave Satan free will, just like the rest of us. Yes, God foreknew what would happen – but that’s what would happen within the free will that God gave all of us, including Satan and the other fallen angels. God did not create Satan to be evil – God created Satan as a pretty shiny witty cherubim. What Satan has done with the life God gave him has been his choice, and God had patience with Satan’s mistakes. But eventually, it became clear that Satan was set on taking over the world with power, not caring how much pain he caused all humanity, or anyone, in order to get that power and try to be like God. Satan hated God, even though God is love, and in pride, refused the choice to change his mind and change his actions. And at some point in time, there was a breaking point, and God gave the prophecy that Satan would be destroyed. Did God’s patience run out? No. But there was a point of no return, past which Satan was clearly not going to change his mind and turn back, Satan was committed to carry through on his plans as much as they were hurting and destroying others. And in God’s justice, Satan had to face judgment for hurting others, and not repenting of this. By this time Satan had carried through on his plan of destruction, to exalt his throne above that of the Divine Council, influencing them negatively to do so, even as seen in Job, and eventually God pronounced judgment on them that they would die like men. After this, Satan seemed to collect up their kingdoms from them, and like a warning in Isaiah, circa 700 BC, was told he would be imprisoned in the Abyss… but Satan kept going… until in Ezekiel, circa 570-590 BC God prophesied Satan would be destroyed in fire in Ezekiel.

Looking over this story, spanning thousands of years, it certainly does not seem that Satan, for all his intelligence used to destroy, ever outsmarted God. Satan has already lost and judgment has been pronounced on him, and so it really was not so smart that he kept on using his intelligence to hurt others. After God’s judgment that Satan would be destroyed by fire, since then, it has been war, and Satan has known he will be destroyed, and having nothing to lose, has done whatever he can to destroy anything and everything that God loves and try to bring everyone down with him. Satan knows he cannot live forever, will not live forever, and he doesn’t want anyone else to live forever either.

Throughout the story of Satan we see indifference to the pain of others, using his wit to expose faults with others, instead of loving them, we can see pride, that he should be exalted to positions God had not chosen for him, such as the divine council, and a total lack of acceptance of any good purpose God may have had for him. Despite what people may think, God did not create Satan to be evil, he just chose to be, out of sin and lies, things like envy, pride, arrogance, and especially a selfish self-focused indifference and lack of love or concern for what other’s experienced. He didn’t empathize with other’s pain, and did not care about how his actions affected others, and had consequences for them, to mess up their lives and cause them pain, as is seen over and over in using his wit and intelligence to trip other’s up, to tempt them to do wrong, and then leave them to deal with the consequences of their wrong choices. Quick to trip others up into pain and hardship, and never lifting a finger to help them in that, Satan was indifferent to how his clever double meanings, pushing the envelope, looking for loopholes, ways out of taking blame, while tempting others to sin, accusations, criticism, etc. affected anyone else, bringing them pain. And for this, it seems very likely Satan will suffer tormenting pain, for all the pain he has caused the world, for a very long time.

The question is Why is Satan like this? How did he get to be this way? He rejected relationships – which are based on love, not perfection, and that as God is love, it is God who covers imperfections in relationships. In other words, in order to have free will, choice between good and evil, God and not, the system had to allow for imperfections. Adam lying to Eve was an imperfection, her believing Adam over God was also, but they had relationship and love, which was God, which balanced everything and held it together anyway. See, what Satan did was not exposing lies, or giving truth, or pointing out imperfections – what he was doing was attacking God who is love, and as love was in the relationship between Adam and Eve, covering imperfections, it was God as love that Satan was working against and attacked from the start.

This same theme carries throughout Satan’s story, of not caring about relationships, but through pointing out imperfections, even potential ones, working against God who is love, who covers those imperfections. Looking again at Job, why or how was this story fair of God to choose to allow Satan to do this? And what was the point of the story?

The point of the story is not whether God loved Job, but rather that knowing how much Job loved God, based on their relationship, God knew that Job could handle it. Job loved God very, very much, and because they had a relationship… like in any relationship in which there is really love, really God present, even if someone wrongs you, even if you are distant for a while, even if they hurt you – you still love them, and the relationship can be repaired. Through forgiveness, through love, through God covering a multitude of sins, the strength of real love in a relationship will withstand even the fiercest trial. See, God was Job’s friend, and it was not just that God loved Job, but that Job loved God. The real pain of the trial was not boils or losing what he owned, but rather the real pain for Job was fear of losing, that he was losing, God as his friend who loved him. But because of Job trusting God, as his friend, he believed that God loved him in return, and would come back to a place with him where he could see that God was still his friend and still loved him. The fear of God is the fear of losing relationship with God, a friend who you love, but God will never betray you, or anyone, He is always trustworthy.

Satan questioned God’s justice, and attacked God’s statements, as to whether they were true or not. Was Job really a righteous man? How could anyone know what Job would do unless he was tested. Did he love God, did he really, did Job really love God? Yes. They had a relationship, of trust, Job trusted God, and God trusted Job, God loved Job, and Job loved God. Which is why when God, his friend, no longer seemed to be there for him, and terrible things were happening to him that he knew God was allowing, he did not betray his friend God, but waited and hoped to find out why. He did not love God because of money, other wealth, etc., but rather God was his friend and they had a relationship. Because of this, even when God came to him, and asked him many questions Job could not answer, and did not explain why to Job, but he came back, Job was just glad that God as his friend had come back, and he could see their friendship again. And that highlights the point I started with: relationships with God in them, have love in them, which covers a multitude of sins, which covers imperfections. Job did not love God because he understood him, or because God was perfect. Who do you love in your life Because they are perfect, flawless, and make total sense to you? Love itself is something that covers imperfections, and loves anyway. So even if it had been that God had gone away, and oops forgot to keep up a hedge of protection in Job’s life for a while, Job loved God anyway, enough that even had God done wrong (God had not, but even if He had), Job would have forgave him because God was his friend and he loved God.

No one ever talk about forgiving God, because He does no wrong, ever, and that’s not what I am implying. What I am speaking of is having the same standard for anyone, of love without hypocrisy. Who do you love only because they give you things, never take them away, always are pleasant, and never unpleasant, are always perfect, and never imperfect? Is that love? Real love allows for imperfections, for both the good and bad to come from a person, and you love them anyways, and despite the bad, despite the imperfections, you don’t give up or betray them, because you have a relationship of love. So why apply a higher standard to God, to receive your love, than you would any person? And there is where we have a free will choice, based on faith, to choose to love God.

You see, Job is the story in the Bible that may best capture what 1 Cor 13 says.. referring to Job’s love of God… love is patient, kind, not jealous, not bragging or arrogant, not rude, not seeking it’s own, not provoked to anger, it does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth.. and love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Job had patience to wait for God, not angry at God, did not get arrogant with God when God came to question him, but bearing all things, hoping and believing, and enduring, Job’s love for God as his friend did not fail. Job had a relationship of trust and love with God, and really loved God, so however it seemed imperfect, Job cared more about God as his friend, whom he loved, than he did about whether God was perfect. Job loved God. God knew Job loved Him, and would never betray that love.

But what happened was that God allowed Job to be tested, in order to show Satan something which he seemed to not have understood – which was love. And furthermore, just how strong and powerful love is. See, Satan had enough wit and wisdom to be able to find the weakness in any system, push the envelope, hack the system, expose the flaws and imperfections…. But he did not understand that those weaknesses, flaws and imperfections were enveloped by God, and not imperfections at all, but the space between individuals, which God as love could easily fill to hold all things together.

God is good, and just, and love. Most of the incorrect things told about God, in ignorance or out of Satan’s lies, serve to try to tarnish our view, our perspective and understanding of God as being good, loving, and just. God did not make Satan evil, God did not give an evil being power over the entire world, and God did not do this in some pre-Adamic creation that God kept secret from us. God did not give power over the world to any evil being, but only to good beings which later chose to become evil. God is not about to torment helpless people infinitely, eternally, for finite crimes, like some sadist, and apparently not even going to torment Satan eternally, though Satan will be tormented for a very long time. But this is balanced to the harm and destruction he caused many people, which it seems he is not done being tormented until they are done being destroyed. And that is just, as how can Satan be destroyed, his sentence ended, before those he committed crimes against, his victims, are accounted for and their cases presented also? God is just. But God is also love, and merciful, and forgiving, which is why when it is over, everything is done away with, passes away, and the new heavens and earth will come.

So in conclusion, we have now put together the Biblical puzzle about Satan. Going back to the topic of puzzles… A puzzle is just a puzzle – it is fun – but you feel a good feeling and sense of accomplishment, from completing the puzzle. However, with bible prophecy, the reward from completing the puzzle is knowledge about the past, present, and future, which can be useful and edifying for the body of Christ as a whole. A prophet has a sense of accomplishment in finding solutions, but also the rest of the body benefits from the insights received.

(Tying back to Part  1 – Prophecy as Puzzles)

And such is the gift of prophecy as it is meant to be… the same as a Father with many different children, each with different interests… some like music, some sports, some history, or entertaining, some are people persons, some are not, some like making others laugh, some like helping… and some are nerdy sorts who really just enjoy puzzles, riddles, brain teasers, and enigmas and such. God’s gives each of His children skills and talents, and likes and a certain bent… and it seems like prophecy was meant for those who like and are good at logic and puzzles, riddles, and problem solving games – to give them something to do in the body to contribute. It’s really too bad most people don’t realize that – because God likes to give us challenges and ways to grow in our skills and gifts, and feel a sense of accomplishment in it, including nerdy sorts, something of value. Understanding the mysteries of prophecy provides the correct framework for further teachings to fit into about history, morality, the future, who God is and what he is like, reality around us, and Biblical truth in general. From this we can understand the place of prophecy in the body, and why prophets are second only to apostles, and third are teachers, because solving the puzzles of prophecy gives the framework that teachers need to rely upon in their teaching, but the faith and evangelism of apostles brings people into the faith, without which there would be no heeding of the Word, prophecy or teachers or teaching in the first place. On the assembly line of learning Biblical truth, apostles hear the voice of the Holy Spirit with faith and preach the Word to lead people into the faith, under direction and movement of the Holy Spirit, prophets are to sort out the Bible to be understood with a correct framework, and teachers teach the Word from there, and so on.

There’s not a book in the Bible step-by-step explaining in a plain language how to solve these puzzles, but there are verses explaining bible prophecies are composed of puzzles, and they have been given to us within the Bible. Like If we were given a box of toys, some children will gravitate towards the toy trucks, or a ball, or a doll, but some will gravitate towards the puzzles… and all this is contained in the wondrous book God has given us, the Bible. The point being that God has been fair to set puzzles before us, and leave it for those of His children who gravitate towards puzzles to try to figure them out.

And the other point being that through understanding being lost, the church has some wrong ideas and problems relating to solving the puzzles of prophecy, because of the development of traditions based on incomplete or flawed solutions to these puzzles, getting carried down and passed on dogmatically, and wrong traditions have stalled progress towards solutions. It was always meant to have some difficulty to it, as is the case within all puzzles, but it was never meant to be so hard. And people have gotten the idea either that scriptures can be interpreted emotionally and creatively inspired solutions, outside of much internally consistent framework, like there is no definite solution to be had, but no prophecy is of any private interpretation. Like any puzzle, there is a correct answer that was intended, and it’s not based on fancy, but on internally consistent logic and methods. But for the most part, no one is looking at bible prophecy like it seriously is puzzles, so it’s hard to fault anyone today for that, it’s just how things are, and were passed down to us, as flawed, with understanding having been lost at some time in the past. It’s really not that God made this entirely too difficult for anyone to possibly arrive at the correct solution, it’s more that the enemy in various ways has desperately tried to give the church an incorrect understanding on this, through infiltrating and persecuting it over the millennia, till anyone who understood was gone, and that knowledge was lost. But the pieces, and the Bible saying these are puzzles, has remained in plain sight.

matrix-triangle-puzzle5Going back to this puzzle (orange triangles) did the designer try to obfuscate the correct answer by putting 2 similar solutions side by side? Or, was the designer really nice and saved you a lot of deduction time by providing you with a “best guess” to work from (orange triangle with a green square inside) in order to help you out? That all depends on your perspective – if you are skilled or experienced with puzzle solving, then you know to take the puzzle and solution as whole,  and look at the big picture for clues, from having solved puzzles before. If you are not skilled at puzzle solving, then it would be easy to get frustrated, and assume the designer obfuscated the answers, but that is only frustration because you spent time deducing the first 2 shapes, when a good “best guess” answer was provided by the designer intentionally. But I guess that is why bible prophecy is best done by who have skill at puzzle solving, it’s something for them to do, and easier for them to do, with less frustration – and it truly is the skill and experience, the wisdom needed for solving puzzles which the Bible indicates is tied to the gift of prophecy.

But the point in solving puzzles is to have fun, so if you deduced the right answer manually, then you can still feel good about it and learn from it. If you deduced the wrong answer, then learn from your mistakes, and change your answer to the right one.

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A Modern Guide to Demons and Fallen Angels © 2007-2013
Paradox Brown

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