Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Deceiver



(Audio version; Music: "At The Cross" by: Among the Thirsty and "Prince of Peace" by" Hillsong United)










Introduction

            Have you ever wondered how it is possible that otherwise intelligent people can be so easily deceived? Granted, there are some really good liars out there, and surprisingly they’re not all politicians even though they seem intent on cornering the market on deception. Nevertheless, it never ceases to amaze me how people will believe a lie in the face of all evidence to the contrary. And not just one lie but repeated lies from the same person. It almost seems like they’re not in control of their senses. It seems like a normal person might get sucked into believing one lie, maybe even two but what does it mean when a person continues to believe the lies of someone who has clearly demonstrated that they are a pathological liar? I know I can’t be the only one to notice this happening around us all the time. Of course we here in America get our daily dose of this foolishness with an administration running our country that has long ago given up trying to shake hands with the truth. From the top down they have turned lying and deception into an art form yet millions of people continue to believe their lies. More than a million babies are murdered every year by the abortion industry yet supporters still believe the lie that it is a “women’s health” issue. Well in case you haven’t figure this out already, it’s not really a women’s health issue for all the baby girls that are murdered is it? And of course many of you know the popular lie that is killing people every day—Islam is a religion of peace. This foolish lie has absolutely no basis in truth given the 1,400-year history of Islam, a religion that has otherwise been more accurately referred to as “The Greatest Murder Machine in History.”[1]

            I suppose if a person lives long enough they wind up hearing lies that can make a person wonder if they are living in a different reality. You know what I think, I think they are; I think there are two different realities that people live in—one is a reality governed by truth and the other is governed by deception. In a lesson from last month titled “Tough Love,” I pushed back at the notion that all faith systems are equally valuable and that we should all just learn to “coexist” regardless of who we worship—whether Satan or Jesus. I can tolerate quite a bit of foolishness but I couldn’t let that nonsense stand. I insisted that Satan and Jesus can’t coexist because they are enemies. I thought I made that clear in the lesson but evidently not because a few weeks ago someone left me an anonymous comment pushing back at what I said by asking the rhetorical question, “Do Satanists really worship Satan or are they just secular humanists who are pushing back against the exclusivity of a Christian culture?”  The person went on to contend that perhaps all Satanists really want to do is what’s best for all humanity not just an exclusive group.

            Are you shaking your head in disbelief yet? Well I’m not done. I had never heard such nonsense in my life and I naively thought it was an isolated case. That is until last week when I read an article in The Washington Post about an After School Satan Club preparing to open in an elementary school in Salem, Massachusetts. I thought it was a joke at first but then I realized that they were actually serious. The group wants to open the club to offset other clubs that have a distinctly Christian foundation so that children have a choice between Jesus and Satan! The group says they don’t actually worship Satan but that Satan is a metaphor that represents the opposition to all forms of tyranny over the human mind. The article reads in part,

“The curriculum for the proposed after-school clubs emphasizes the development of reasoning and social skills. The group says meetings will include a healthful snack, literature lesson, creative learning activities, a science lesson, puzzle solving and an art project. Every child will receive a membership card and must have a signed, parental permission slip to attend. ‘We think it’s important for kids to be able to see multiple points of view, to reason things through, to have empathy and feelings of benevolence for their fellow human beings.’ ”[2]

It sounds so amazing and wonderful doesn’t it? I mean there will be snacks and craft projects and who can argue with the value for empathy and feelings of benevolence for their fellow human beings? I mean even Jesus said that we should love one another. It’s almost like Satan is teaching the same thing Jesus taught, right? There just one major problem, it is one massive lie concocted by the father of lies—The Deceiver.

            The very best and most effective lie always contains some degree of truth. For example, if I were to show you a blank sheet of writing paper and ask you what color it was, you might say it was white. Now if I wanted to convince you that it was actually black, I wouldn’t come right out and say, “No, it’s black.” You would know that I am lying. But what if I said, “Well it certainly looks white but do you realize that there is no such thing as a color that is pure white? There are only shades of white. Some are lighter and some are darker. As you move in one direction the color becomes more white. However, if you move in the other direction, it becomes less white. Until it actually looks black which is really the least white. So in reality, that white piece of paper is actually a very light shade of black. So you are actually holding a black piece of paper that looks white.” Do you see how clever a lie can be? This is the domain where Satan operates. So this week, we are going to take a look at some of Satan’s characteristics and how he operates and you will quickly come to see why he is known as The Deceiver.

Satan’s Fall

            To begin with, it is important to understand who Satan is and who he is not. Satan is not the divine opposite of God. People mistakenly think that God and Satan are equally powerful even as they are moral opposites. However, this is incorrect. Instead, Satan is a created being; an angel. There are a number of verses that make reference to the fall of Satan but there are three biblical references that are the most prominent.

Ezekiel 28:12b-18a

12bThis is what the Sovereign Lord says: “You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. 13You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. 14You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. 15You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. 16Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. 17aYour heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth.”

Isaiah 14:12-15

            12How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. 14I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” 15But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.

Revelation 12:7-9

            7Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

            Now it is true that the verses from Ezekiel and Isaiah are referring in their immediate context to the “ruler of Tyre” and the “king of Babylon” so let me explain how these verses are doing two things at once. There is a principle in biblical hermeneutics call the principle of double reference. It sounds confusing but it’s really not. Here’s how it works: It is when a single passage applying to a person or event near at hand can also have another person in mind. We see this all the time in reference to Jesus. For example, Hosea 11:1 reads, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” It is clear that Hosea is writing about Israel. However, Matthew 2:14 uses it as a reference to Jesus. And there are others as well but you get my point. In the same way, the verses and Ezekiel and Isaiah refer immediately to earthly rulers but there are clearly aspects of the verses that can’t possibly be referring to earthly rulers. Consequently, it is generally accepted by biblical scholars that these verses refer to Satan and specifically Satan’s fall from grace.

            Satan’s fall from grace occurred because he believed not just that he could be God’s equal but that he could exceed God in majesty, glory, and rule. Imagine how crazy it is that a created being would think that he is greater than the Creator. That should sound familiar to many of you who have encountered someone during the course of your life who believes they don’t need God because they are too enlightened for such fairytales. Satan, The Deceiver, deceived himself and as a result was cast out of his position in God’s heavenly governance. It is important to understand that Satan is not God’s counterpart. Satan is a created being that is subject to God’s control and will. Satan can do nothing that God does not allow.

            “Humans are objects of Satan’s attacks and deceiving schemes. He is designated Satan, the devil, the evil one, the antagonist. But also here, Satan derives his limited authority from God…‘through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.’ ”[3]

Satan’s Characteristics

            For one of my doctoral classes this spring, I had to complete a myriad of personality/character assessments. Most of the things the assessments revealed were of no surprise to me. However, what became clear after reviewing all the assessments was that I act and behave out of who I am; in large part based on my personality or character. Some of those things are not very pretty but they are, nevertheless, who I am even while the parts of my personality and character that are broken are being renewed by the Holy Spirit.

            This principle holds true for God as well although His personality/character are already perfect. We define God in part based on His characteristics or attributes and we recognize that His actions are a reflection of His attributes. Let’s look at just few to give you a sense of what I’m talking about.

  • Wisdom—God makes no mistakes. He has the wisdom to devise the perfect ends and to achieve those perfect ends by the most perfect means.
  • Sovereign—God is in complete control over everything that takes place within His creation. Nothing occurs apart from His sovereign will.
  • Holy—God is perfect in every possible way.
  • Love—This means that God’s primary focus is the well-being of others. Especially in the case of making it possible, through Jesus Christ, to enjoy a reconciled relationship with Him.

Now these are just a few of the many, many characteristics or attributes of God but I wanted to give you a sense of what it means to know someone based on their characteristics because you will begin to recognize Satan’s characteristics in events you never would have attributed to him. The list of God’s attributes is understandably long and complex. That’s not the case with Satan. Instead, his attributes are fairly concise. That’s not to say that he doesn’t use them supremely well, it just means he is limited in his characteristics in part because he is a created being but mainly because he is singularly focused on one mission—to create chaos within God’s Kingdom and to siphon off worship and devotion to himself that belongs only to God. Let’s look at Satan’s attributes and you’ll start to see a pattern of recognizable behavior in the world around you.

  • An Accuser—Satan is constantly before God’s throne accusing believers of their sins. He boasts about his presence within the hearts of sinners and is constantly making his claims for the souls of all those who sin against God. Believers, however, need not fear these accusations because we have Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, constantly interceding for us before God (Heb. 7:24-26).
  • A Murderer—Jesus said that Satan was a murderer from the very beginning (Jn 8:44). Sometimes it is difficult to see that but you have to understand that particular characteristic of Satan not as someone who literally commits murder but one who manipulates hearts and minds to commit murder. Whereas people utilize inanimate objects to kill other people, that only occurs because Satan manipulates people into utilizing inanimate objects to kill people. Because a person commits murder under the inspiration of Satan makes Satan no less guilty of murder. Recently, when a priest in France was murdered by a Muslim, the priest said something very revealing during the attack. He said, “get away from me Satan!” at which point the man slit the priest’s throat. When Jesus refers to Satan as being a murderer from the beginning he is referring to Satan’s deception of Eve in the garden when he told her that she wouldn’t die if she ate the fruit that was forbidden by God. Satan knew exactly what was going to happen when she ate that fruit—death would enter the world through that single act of disobedience. And every single death since that day has its origins in Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden.
  • A Perverter—Satan distorts and changes things from their original or intended use. He distorts something that God has given humanity as a blessing and turns it into an idol to draw focus and devotion away from God. The best example of this is probably sexuality and prosperity. Sexuality was originally intended to be a blessing for humanity between one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage but Satan has so perverted it that human sexuality scarcely resembles God’s original intended use and has become an obsessive pursuit by humanity. Prosperity, like sexuality, was intended by God as a blessing for humanity but humanity has relinquished its pursuit of God and has instead chosen to pursue money. It is the perfect perversion of a wonderful and gracious gift from God.
  • An Oppressor—The minute we become children of God, we become enemies of Satan and he isn’t about to sit still while people forsake him and put their faith in Jesus. As a result, he bombards us with trials and tribulations in the hopes that we will turn back from our faith in God and once again return to the world which is his dominion.
  • A Tempter—Satan’s primary objective is not to kill believers when he knows they will go straight to heaven. That doesn’t serve his purpose. What serves him best is tempting believers away from their commitment and obedience to God. He knows that will serve two purposes: 1) Damage the relationship between believer and God, and 2) Damage a believer’s witness to an unbelieving world. It’s that second one that Satan gets the most mileage out of. Satan knows a true believer can never lose their salvation but he doesn’t want those true believers leading anyone else to a saving faith either.
  • An Imitator—Satan has always desired worship in the same way that God is worshipped so he imitates God to deceive people into worshiping him. Remember that Satanic club I referenced earlier? Well they say that some of the values they want to teach is benevolence, and service and the value of all humanity. So does that sound like a God thing or a Satan thing? In Paul’s second letter to the Church in Corinth he warned the Church there to be on the lookout for false teachers “masquerading” as apostles. Paul says that just like Satan “masquerades” as an angel of light, so do those who serve him “masquerade” as servants of righteousness (2 Cor 11:13-15). You can see Satan at work in heretical religious groups like Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses who follow an imitation of God not the real thing. Instead they practice their imitation faith inspired by Satan not God.
  • A Liar—Jesus refers to Satan as the father of lies and tells us that there is no truth in Satan. To drive home his point, Jesus says that when Satan lies, he is speaking his native language (Jn 8:44). Satan lied to Eve about what would happen if she ate the forbidden fruit and then lied when he implied that God lied to her about what would happen if she ate the forbidden fruit.
  • The Deceiver—This is somewhat of an umbrella characteristic of Satan. He will do whatever he can to blind people to God’s truth. You can see Satan at work when people say that all faiths are equally valid. His deception is clear when we hear that loving, same-sex marriages are just as valid as marriages between one man and one woman. You see his deception at work when people describe Islam as a “religion of peace” while at least 250,000,000 dead bodies litter 1,400 years of its history. And his deception is on full display when nearly 55,000,000 dead babies are described as a women’s health issue.

As you can see, Satan’s characteristics have a singular trajectory—to oppress believers, to tempt believers, to draw unbelievers away from God, to draw unbelievers to himself, and finally to inspire people to reject or oppose God’s biblical truth. And all this with the overarching desire to usurp God’s power and majesty by deceiving anyone and everyone—because he is The Deceiver. His work can be difficult to recognize at times because people mistakenly think that we are battling a visible evil that we can apprehend and expose but it doesn’t work that way. Instead, The Deceiver is an evil that invades every aspect of this world on a spiritual level. “The fall…has affected the entire creation. Not only are the individual human members of creation now separated and alienated from God, but also are the powers that organize and influence them. Paul sees these powers as allied with Satan, carrying out his purposes in the world. This is expressed quite clearly and directly in Ephesians 6:12: ‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’ Behind the invisible structures and institutions of society and culture, evil forces are at work using these invisible powers to enslave and bind believers, to attack them and do them harm.”[4] And those same rulers, authorities, dark world powers, and spiritual forces of evil constantly seek to deceive unbelievers to remain separated from God in Jesus Christ.

What is Worship?

            Both the person who was critical of my previous lesson referencing Satan and the leader of the Satanic Temple from the article in The Washington Post I referenced, said that Satan worshipers don’t technically worship Satan as a person but instead seek to elevate humanity as it’s own god and oppose the influence of Christianity in the world. Now think about that statement and everything I’ve said about Satan to this point. Do you hear the whisper of deception yet? Claiming that Satan worshipers don’t actually worship Satan has the stink of The Deceiver all over it. Let’s see if we can expose his little game of deception by looking at what it means to “worship” someone or something. We have a somewhat myopic understanding of what worship is. We tend to think it’s what people do on Sunday’s in church with music, light shows, fog machines, Sunday school classes, and good preaching. That, however, is an external manifestation of worship. True worship for Christians is defined by the priority we place on who God is in our lives and where God is on our list of priorities. True worship is a matter of the heart expressed through a lifestyle of holiness. Thus, if your lifestyle does not express the beauty of holiness through an extravagant or exaggerated love for God, and you do not live in extreme or excessive submission to God, then you are not truly worshiping God.

            So the question is, is it possible for us to not worship anyone or anything? The short answer is, no. We were created to worship. Specifically, we were created to worship God as Creator. So just because some people refuse to worship God doesn’t mean they worship nothing. Instead, when people refuse to worship God, it leaves a vacuum in their lives and Satan is perfectly happy to fill that vacuum. Satan fills that vacuum to worship with anything that will keep a person from filling that vacuum with God. Worshiping God is replaced by worshiping humanity in general, or worshiping a celebrity, or a child, or a spouse, or a boyfriend, or girlfriend, or a career, or wealth, or pretty much anything that isn’t God. So does that mean that a person is worshiping Satan if they refuse to worship God? Do you think the answer to that question matters to Satan or is Satan’s primary objective to keep people from being in a relationship with God? Do you think Satan cares if you call it worship as long as you are helping him fulfill his plan? The answer to that question is also “no” because Satan knows that as long as a person is separated from God then they remain under his control.

The Deceiver

            At the beginning of this lesson I made reference to my belief that humanity exists in one of two realities—the reality that is the Kingdom of God with Jesus at the head and the reality that is the kingdom of this dark world with Satan at the head. With Jesus at that head, those of us who are true followers of Jesus know we will be ruled with grace and truth because Jesus is the Truth that extends God’s grace to us. This is what reality looks like in the Kingdom of God ruled by Jesus, our Holy God. Those who reject Jesus are manipulated and used by Satan and deceived into accomplishing his objective of harming Christians, keeping unbelievers from coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and blinding anyone to the truths of God’s Word. Those who reject Jesus serve Satan’s purposes whether they want to or not or whether they know it or not. This is what reality looks like in the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan—The Deceiver.

Don’t Be Deceived

            “Evil is a violation of boundaries and an assigning to ourselves or things values that we and they do not possess. It is a rebellion against God and the boundaries and values he designated. The Ten Commandments and other ethical teachings in the Bible mark those boundaries and values placed on God, parents, property, life itself, the use of our bodies, facts, and other people. Evil entices us to change the boundaries so that God does not receive the allegiance we owe and so that property, life, and the dignity of others is redefined in our favor. Evil has its roots at the center of our being in our attempt to obtain the best for ourselves. This is why evil is a trap; it always looks like something good for us, but it does not ask about God or other people, and it does not ask about long term effects. In the process the boundaries and values by which God orders life are distorted.

            The spiritual forces of evil… are trap setters, seeking to delude us into shifting our boundaries. Some traps we recognize easily, for we see the paths to destruction worn down by previous captives. Other traps we hardly notice, for we have accepted the revaluing. In most cases our choice is not between obvious evil and something good but between two seemingly good and right options…Satan watches our inclinations and throws us to the side to which we are leaning. Discerning God’s will is difficult in a field where Satan appears prepared to suit up for either team. Evil traps us with the good, only slightly out of bounds. Each choice slightly out of bounds redraws the boundaries until nothing remains of God’s intent. That is why evil is deceptive and why we need to be alert [to The Deceiver].”[5]





[1] Konrad, Mike, “The Greatest Murder Machine in History,” American Thinker, May 31, 2014, Accessed August 5, 2016, http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/05/the_greatest_murder_machine_in_history.html.
[2] Stewart, Katherine, “An After School Satan Club could be coming to your kid’s elementary school,” The Washington Post, July 30 2016, Accessed August 5, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/an-after-school-satan-club-could-be-coming-to-your-kids-elementary-school/2016/07/30/63f485e6-5427-11e6-88eb-7dda4e2f2aec_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_afterschoolsatan-5pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory.
[3] Craig A. Evans & Stanley E. Porter, eds., Dictionary of New Testament Background, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p. 156.
[4] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2003), p. 666.
[5] Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians—The NIV Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), pp. 356-357.



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