(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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