God’s Plan of Creation and the Origin of Satan

 

Topic of Discussion: “God’s Plan of Creation and the Origin of Satan”

    

Yang, Yuh Ming

 

Preface

Visible works versus invisible truth

From the perspective of the conflict over circumcision

The importance of debating and reasoning

One church, different policies

Babes and adults are all children of God

Returning to the common faith

 

Introduction

How can truth be revealed without the Holy Spirit?

Has Satan nothing to do with salvation?

The mire of monism and dualism

The two kinds of self-existence and the two types of everlasting in the Bible

The bread from heaven versus crumbs on the ground

 

Immanuel

 

Chapter One: God’s Plan of Creation

• Did God create the world just to destroy it afterwards?
• Why would God create a world that was “formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep”?
• God’s purpose of creation was to destroy “death”!
• The tree of the knowledge of good and evil: the first step to overcome death.
• Death shall be no more

 

Chapter Two: The Origin of Satan

I.     Straightening the crooked root

• The uncertain views concerning the “origin of Satan” were regarded as the doctrines: Data taken from the Bible encyclopedia
• Satan gradually disappears
• If Satan did not exist, redemption would have become invalid
• The theme of the Bible: Triumph over Satan

 

 II. Some misconceptions

• Thinking that God created the world to “glorify Himself”
• Thinking that God created the world to fulfill salvation
• Thinking that unless God wills, Satan is incapable of doing anything
• Thinking that the devil came from the fallen angel:

              A. Isaiah 14: 12~19

              B. Ezekiel 28: 15~17

 

III. See Satan’s self-existence from the fundamental thinking of men

• Self-existent and everlasting
• From the perspective of eternal future
• From the perspective of the quantity of the devil
• From the perspective of the outcast of man
• From the perspective of the power of Satan
• From the perspective of the work of God
• From the perspective of the simplest thought
• The only possible answer

 

IV. See Satan’s self-existence from the evidences in the Bible

• What God has eternally bound can no longer roam the earth
• Satan did not originate from God’s creation. He has opposed God from the beginning
• “In the beginning”: light and darkness opposed each other
• Satan the enemy existed “before” the creation
• The message from “God created all things out of nothing, and called forth light from darkness”
• The creation: A heavy blow to the power of darkness
• Satan is self-existent but not everlasting

 

Chapter Three: What Accord Has Christ with Belial?

I. Are they friends? Or are they enemies?

• Draw a clear line
• Does Satan act only by God’s approval?
• Are the saints’ trainer and manager named…“Satan”?
• Is good accomplished through evil?

 

II. Determination to overcome Satan

• God created the heaven and the earth to overcome Satan
• Before the creation, God already had a plan “to destroy Satan through the manifestation of the Son”
• God’s “omniscience and omnipotence” means He can overcome Satan in all his destructive works
• Possible preparation for salvation and the absolute determination of creation

 

III. If all were of God’s doing?

• Was it God’s foreknowledge and plan before the creation that the devil would change from good to evil?
• A programmer who puts virus in his own program?
• What kind of message will that be?

 

IV. Omnipotence and Predestination

• Would the “omniscient” God bring about “predestination” when He “has no idea” how men would exercise their freedom of choice?
• God said, “This doing, was not by Me”

 

V. Satan’s unrestricted initiatives

• Satan was not restrained by God; he took the initiative to roam the earth and sow the weed
• Satan being “bound” by God does not mean he was “restrained”
• Face the reality: “What God forbids may still happen; What God purposes may still not come about”

 

VI. What fellowship has righteousness with wickedness? / Discussing      

   “evils”

• Key concept: Not all “evils” come from Satan. God would repay “the wicked” with “evil”
• The evil of God is the immediate righteous judgment; the evil of Satan is the destruction against God
• A few verses where “the evil of judgment” has been misinterpreted as “the evil of wickedness”
• The impact of beliefs on the wording in translation

1. David took census and the people were punished (1 Sam 24:1; 1

   Chro 21:1)

1. God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens of

   Shechem (Judg 9:23)

1. God has put a lying spirit in the mouths of the false prophets (1 Kg

   22: 23?

1. An evil spirit from God came upon Saul

 

VII. The thorn in Paul’s flesh

 

VIII. The story of Job:

     1. God said, “Job could only save himself by his righteousness”

     2. Although I do not understand, I accept it

3. God did not allow Satan to test Job, He overcame Satan through Job

• Lead us not into temptation
• This is the story of Job

 

IX. Discernment

• Was it the “chastening” of God? The “evil” of God? Or the “evil” of the devil?
• What accord has Christ with Belial?

 

X. Conclusion

 

       Topic of Discussion: “God’s Plan of Creation and the Origin of Satan”

                           

Yang, Yuh Ming

               

Preface

 

The visible works versus the invisible truth

Biblical truth is not of the worldly knowledge, where success is ultimately achieved through hard work. “God has prepared for those who love Him (the mystery), what (man’s) eyes have not seen, ears have not heard and mind has not conceived” (1 Cor 2: 9), which goes beyond the boundary of men’s knowledge. No matter how men rely on their profound knowledge, “by his wisdom he did not know the work of God” (1 Cor 1:21); this is an irrefutable truth. Nonetheless, we cannot say anyone who is led by the Holy Spirit will discover the complete truth: Moses did not know the name of God the Father was “Jesus”; the anointed David did not realize God would manifest Himself in the flesh and come to save the world; prophet Jeremiah knew the temple would be rebuilt seventy years after its destruction but was unaware that, in the last days, the true church would be rebuilt on the original foundation.

Biblical truth came from God and revelation. Without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, men will never know the path to the truth. Besides, truth is revealed gradually through two important factors, God’s time and man’s worthiness (Rev 5: 1~10). In fact, there is no absolute relationship between the manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit (signs and wonders) and the discovery of the mystery of the truth. Paul’s enlightenment of the truth which came mostly from his suffering for the Lord and the hardship he encountered in his ministry is a good example. Hence, when the power of the Holy Spirit flourishes rampantly, it does not mean the saints of that period will fully understand the mystery of salvation. Conversely, when the Holy Spirit is inactive, one should not preclude the possibility that, under such circumstance, the “truth” may very well be revealed. The prophetic books, for instance, thrived during the decline of the elect, and the book of Revelation was completed during the degradation of the apostolic church.

 

From the perspective of the conflict over circumcision

According to the Bible, the Holy Spirit was actively at work during the early period of the apostles. They received great power to perform miracles and wonders. However, reality revealed that over a period of more than a decade – from when the Holy Spirit descended to the time of the Council in Jerusalem, although the gospel had been preached to the Gentile lands, none of the followers like Peter, James and John actually understood the truth regarding “Gentiles’ exemption from circumcision”. Consequently, for over a decade the Gentile churches had different opinions over the matter of “circumcision” and could not come up with anything conclusive, despite the fact that the churches were established by the power of the Holy Spirit through grace.

 It took Paul more than ten years, since he was called to be an apostle to the Gentiles, to fully realize that “the Gentiles who are turning to God do not need to be circumcised”. Apparently, Paul who was filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 9: 17) also did not understand right away the truth of “Gentiles need not be circumcised”.

The matter of circumcision was like most of the mysteries in the Bible (including the truth of the true church such as baptism, washing of feet, Holy Communion etc. at the beginning) that by following the order – “Believe in the Lord→obey His word→become His disciples→know the mystery→be freed” (Jn 8: 32), and through the inspiration and revelation of “not knowing why but knowing it has to be done this way” – although it is not obvious in the Bible at this point, the path will eventually lead us into a complete understanding in accordance with the Bible.

 

The importance of debating and deduction

The process that led to the conclusion “the Gentiles need not be circumcised” was recorded in detail in Acts 15. It has paved a definite path for men to seek the truth. Paul and Barnabas first understood the truth concerning “Gentiles’ exemption from circumcision”, but were unable to convince the Jews from Judea who had come to the Gentile churches as they did not use biblical verses to support their claims. Failing to prove their point, the church sent the pros and cons parties to Jerusalem to discuss the issue with the apostles and the elders.

At the council, the apostles and the elders, who were all God’s faithful servants and were filled with the Holy Spirit, debated for a long time without getting any result (it was apparent although the apostles and the elders were the pillars of the church and drank of the same Holy Spirit, the level of understanding each had received varied). At this deadlock, Peter recalled his experience of how the Holy Spirit was at work in the household of Cornelius and deduced that the Gentiles who had turned to God “ought” not to be circumcised. Although he did not support his statement with any biblical verses, the whole assembly became silent. Following that, Paul and Barnabas testified how God worked through them in the Gentile lands; eventually, James remembered a passage in the Bible and relayed it to the assembly, concluding with “therefore, I judge that…”. Seeing that the words of the prophets were in line with James’ view, the assembly disregarded their own opinions and agreed and derived at the truth: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” that “the Gentiles need not be circumcised”.

Obviously, when James quoted: “Then I will return, to restore David’s fallen tent, and its ruins, so that the remnant of men and all the Gentiles that bear my name may seek the Lord”, and if we were to discuss the passage word for word, no one would sense that this verse actually referred to “the Gentiles who are turning to the Lord need not be circumcised”. Yet the apostles and the elders were able to deduce and affirm, from these seemingly insignificant verses, that this was “the decision of the Holy Spirit”.

Evidently, apart from the letters, the Holy Spirit who gives life (the essence) must be present while searching for the truth. What it means is to be able to grasp from between the lines the “deduction” guided by the Holy Spirit (cf 1 Cor 7: 25; Acts 16: 10). As in the case concerning the ox recorded in the Bible, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain”, Paul said loudly, “Is it about oxen that God is concerned? Surely He says this for us!” (1 Cor 9: 9~10). Literally speaking, Paul’s deduction was far-fetched, but who could oppose the power of his deducing by the Spirit?

“Deducing” is the guidance by the Holy Spirit which is indispensable in the search for truth. It is also the main purpose why two or more people gather for discussion or debate in the name of the Lord!

 

One church, different policies

In reality, Paul promoted a set of policies in the Gentile churches different from that practiced by the apostolic churches in Judea: The Gentile churches did not observe the Mosaic Law while tens of thousands of believers in Judea were zealous for the law (Acts 21: 20). This was not a matter of right or wrong, rather it was the order in which the truth was received. We cannot therefore deduce that Paul’s spiritual blessing exceeded that of the apostles who had followed Jesus. At most, we can only say circumstances and time caused Paul to ponder more and gain insight into some issues of concern. After all, the problems he faced concerning the Mosaic Law in the Gentile lands greatly differed from that experienced by the apostles in Judea. Circumstances forced Paul to consider many problems that those living in the Jewish circles would not have cared to consider. He understood the issue of circumcision but could not convince the assembly with any biblical backup. On the contrary, due to living environment, Peter and James had never concerned themselves with this matter, but were quick to grasp the concept at the council and were able to set up a policy made specifically for the Gentile believers, in accordance with the Bible.

Incidentally, the spirit of the resolution was that the apostles decided “not to trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God” (Acts 15: 19). Although the Jerusalem council spared the Gentiles from the “trouble”, the Mosaic Law of circumcision still applied to the Jewish converts (Acts 21: 21~22). If, in the future, when Orthodox Jews accepted our gospel, should circumcision be required of them as did the Jews in the apostolic time under the Law of Moses? I am sure we will all agree that the answer would be “no”, even though we cannot find word for word in the Bible for support (what it has are actually evidences that support circumcision). If people were to use biblical verses to accuse us of crossing the apostles’ teaching, how can we explain it other than by “deduction”?

 

Babes and adults are all children of God

From the incidence of “circumcision”, we realized that under the guidance of the same Holy Spirit and in the same era, the Gentile churches and the Jerusalem churches, due to different environments, observed the Mosaic Law differently. Thus, in principle, within the true church established by the Holy Spirit, we should not view with a negative attitude at any resolutions made in the past, or any “temporary” measures taken by the General Assemblies at present because of different circumstances. Indeed, these different “temporary” decisions made by the different General Assemblies may create some confusion for the believers, but did Paul not encounter the same problem too? While he insisted strongly at the council circumcision was no longer necessary, soon after the meeting he circumcised Timothy who was to accompany him (Acts 16: 1~15), for the sake of the Jews who lived in the hometown of Timothy. Would such spirit and sensitivity receive the same understanding and praise if it were found in the true church today?

Moses asked for God’s name and when God responded with just “I Am who I Am”, he became indignant and insisted the people would not believe God had sent him (Ex 3: 13~4:1). This goes to show that no men can rush to comprehend the mystery of the Bible, which is unfolding gradually. For those servants who love the Lord and seek the truth, they can only follow by the degree the scrolls are opened to them and, based on the circumstances and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, make the best decisions for the churches “for that particular time and in that particular place”. No one is to take the “present” (or this place) to judge the teaching in the "past” (or that place) as being “wrong”. For how would the church as a whole and the local churches grow into adulthood without going through the trial and error period of childhood? Paul understood this best: “the law (imperfect) was our tutor to bring us to Christ (perfect)” (Gal 3: 23~25). Although the law was still a long way to salvation, it was a necessary step that would lead us to the knowledge of God; just as a child has to go though the period of ignorance before he can mature into an adult. Not even Jesus Christ, the son of man, who, although born of the Holy Spirit and being God the Father Himself, could skip the learning process and just rely on the revelations that would suddenly come from heaven. After the Lord Jesus Christ had completed the salvation and ascended to heaven, Luke wrote in his letter to Theophilus: "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature" (Lk 2: 52). What message does such reality bring us?

 

Returning to the common faith

In the process of pursuing the truth, we must take note: the scrolls will be made clearer and clearer in God’s time. If the churches today unanimously agree on resolutions pertaining to the “common faith”, which are found closer to the truth, then no individuals or local churches should continue to cling to the past decisions which were made based on a mere peek of the scroll. Besides, if everyone (or local churches) today receives a different insight but basically bases it more or less on the spirit and evidence of the Bible, then we should embrace the attitude of Paul as he advised and encouraged his co-workers of the Philippian church: “Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind: and if in anything you have a different opinion, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind”. (Phil 3: 15 original translation).

May this “perfection” we behold as great grace today be just “childish thinking” to the next generation. May the Holy Spirit who guides us into all truth continue to lead the true church down the path of truth, that we may soon adorn and prepare ourselves to meet the Lord who is “the way, the truth and the life”.  Amen!

 

Introduction

 

How can truth be revealed without the Holy Spirit?

Christianity has spanned over two thousand years from the apostolic era to the present day. During this period, apart from the first hundred years and the period between 1917 and now where historically the spiritual churches acknowledged it as “the period guided by the Holy Spirit”, the rest of the time dating from the fifth to the fifteenth century was branded “the Dark Age”. In this period of time, from the spiritual aspect not only the Holy Spirit ceased to work, the church from the secular standpoint where politics, education, society, business, literature and arts were all incorporated into it also became corrupt and confused. Despite the revolution led by Martin Luther in the early sixteenth century to bring back the church to the Bible, his effort and contention for the truth could not materialize as the Holy Spirit of the latter rain has yet to come.

Nevertheless, what is confusing is that while, on the one hand, everybody was zealously proclaiming, referring to the Bible, that there was no truth without the Holy Spirit, and blamed the “degeneration” of the church on the departure of the Holy Spirit in the second century A.D; on the other hand, they accepted without any hesitation the ideas and traditions of the so-called “Dark Age” Christianity, which was quite significant at the time (such as the trinity, Sunday worship, original sin etc) and heralded them as “doctrines”. Opposes of such view were regarded heretic. Today, the misconception that “Satan was the fallen angel” was indeed the product of this era.

It is not, of course, our intention to disprove entirely the biblical knowledge of these devout men during this period in the absence of the Holy Spirit, but even if some of their understanding were correct, they would not be complete until the Holy Spirit came to make known the truth even clearer. Or else, the statement Jesus gave to His disciples, who had considerable understanding of the Bible and had gone out to preach (Mk 6: 12): “But when He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth” (Jn 16: 13) would become meaningless.

 

Has Satan nothing to do with salvation?

      Speaking of "the origin of Satan", it is inevitable and a great shame that some people do not wish to discuss it in details because they think that such topic "has no direct relation with salvation". In fact, in the whole of God’s salvation plan God, men and Satan are the key players who absolutely have direct relation with one another. We can even say the main purpose of God’s entire work is to triumph over Satan: the creation of heaven and earth, the appearance of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the giving of the law, the manifestation of God Himself in the flesh, the crucifixion and resurrection, the bestowing of the Holy Spirit, the establishing of the church, the second coming, the final judgment, etc, every work of God has everything to do with overcoming Satan. It is until the very end when God will cast Satan and his angels into the lake of fire the entire work of salvation is considered completed.

Since God is conscious of Satan in His every action, Satan must be closely related to our salvation. We can even conclude that Satan causes conflicts in every moment of our spiritual life. One slip and we will give Satan a foothold, causing us a whole lifetime of regrets.

Since Satan is all-present, and biblical record shows that God has used a certain amount of energy and power to oppose him, and if we, the elect, still do not know the origin of Satan, his relationship with God and cannot sense his power that is great enough to destroy the work of God Almighty, how then are we to discern the different spirits, to tell the times, to be watchful and prepared? How are we to fight the beautiful battle and to be victorious in the end?

In fact, there is only one truth where all the links are joined to one another. No one can divide the truth into “one that is related to salvation” and “one that is not related to salvation”. When one link is opened (regardless of its relation to salvation), many issues concerning “salvation” will be simultaneously opened (revealed). On the surface, the question of circumcision seemed unrelated to salvation, but once the truth of circumcision was unraveled, it rapidly took a giant leap leading to a clearer understanding of the truth regarding “the Lord’s salvation” and “justification by faith”. Conversely, if this link were unopened, men would eventually lead the whole church toward the path of justification by the law where salvation is nil (Acts 15: 1, Phil 3: 1~3)! Thus, if the church desires to seek the “perfect” truth and to get ready to welcome the coming of the Lord, she has to reach that perfection in all aspects of the biblical truth.

But take note: the “new discovery” at the Jerusalem council did not nullify circumcision of the Gentiles more than a decade ago, before the truth was entirely understood. Although circumcision has no “direct relation” with salvation, just as Paul claimed what was important was not circumcision but to be “a new creation” (Gal 6: 15), nevertheless, after the Jerusalem council when the truth concerning circumcision was revealed, Paul was very forceful in saying that anyone who insisted the Gentiles converts to undergo circumcision ought to be cursed (Gal 1:8; 5: 2~12)! Since it is to be cursed, never mind talking about being saved or not!

 

The mire of monism and dualism

For a long time, the Christian world has always avoided discussing about “the origin of Satan”, allowing this question to be stuck in the mire with no clear answer. One main reason is that they cannot draw a clear line between this topic and beliefs such as the Persian sect that holds “the good and the evil coexist eternally”. At the same time, they cannot pull themselves away from the philosophy of “dualism”, thinking that all who are self-existent must live forever. In fear of Satan’s “everlastingness” will foil the fulfillment of salvation, they do their best to shun Satan outside the scope of “self-existence and everlastingness”. They insist on this with good intent to defend the truth, but little do they know this insistence actually brings harm to the monism of God which they’ve so desperately strived to protect! Since traditional philosophy of monism argues God was the only source of origin, it naturally makes God, who is absolutely good, to also become the source of “the absolute evil”: as everything originates, comes from and returns to Him who is all good. As a result, the most important ideology of Christian gospel “God is love” suffers vicious doubts and attacks.

Since Christianity has failed to explain biblically that God is not responsible for “the origin of evil”, which they think has nothing to do with salvation, the world has lost its hope on the God of Christianity, let alone salvation through Him! And, in order to preserve the traditional theory of monism that has been passed down over time, Christianity can only say, on the one hand, that “God is love” while, on the other hand, they are forced by their own theory to admit that “evil” came about under the foreknowledge of God who is all-powerful and all-knowing. Since this God who is the source of love foreknew the appearing of evil and anticipated the destruction it would bring to God Himself and His creation, including mankind, yet not only did “love” not prevent the birth of this “absolute evil” or at the very least, nullify it so it would never happen, it actually allowed this “absolute evil” to violently explode! In the end, Christianity can only wind up by saying it was “the good will of God”. Hence, this explanation about “good will” has become the culprit that prevents men from coming to the “salvation of Christ”, making Christianity weak and insignificant. Whose fault is it? Is it Satan’s again?

In reality, the source of these confusions came from the Christians themselves who were being deceived. Ever since the mid-century, theologians of the New Platonism in the Christian world lost themselves in the matrix of monism and dualism and neglected the important revelation of the Bible: “those who are not self-existent can live forever”. In the Bible, “the created man can live forever” is a strong evidence to refute this common view of men.

 

The two forms of self-existence and the two kinds of everlasting

For thousands of years, philosophers have been blinded by their own wisdom. They consider that one who self-exists must live forever and “everlastingness” is an attribute belonging only to him. They have neglected the four types of “existence” illustrated in the Bible: the God who is self-existent and is everlasting; Satan who is self-existent but is not everlasting; the saved mankind and other creations who are non self-existent but will live forever, and last of all, the perishable men who are neither self-existent nor will they live forever.

Biblical teachings indicate clearly that “everlasting” is not the privilege of the self-exist! As well, according to the Bible on the last day Satan will be destroyed by God; this message of “Satan being destroyed” negates, on the one hand, his everlasting before God while, on the other hand, it reveals a different kind of everlastingness in that he will be punished forever. Of course, this “everlastingness” in hell holds no meaning at all.

 

The bread from heaven vs. crumbs on the ground

           Obviously, ever since the era of Christianity, if the theory of monism insisted by philosophy has been in line with biblical teachings, we should strive to uphold it no matter how difficult the road would have been. But if this thinking was erroneous, and we still hold on to this misconception to defend the truth by philosophical standard, then we have endeavored in vain! No matter how much effort is put in, it will not salvage this faulty ideology from crumbling. On the other hand, if the concept of dualism concerning faith was wrong, as accused by monism, then we should consider: From the perspective of the Bible, if both monism and dualism were incorrect, is there any value to believe in either of them that simply accuse each other of falsehood?

            This thesis is independent of the theories of monism and dualism. It has no direct cause and effect relation with philosophical thinking. Rather, we are trying to find a way to the truth through biblical teaching, besides the ways of philosophy and theology. We want to discuss facts from the Bible: In the beginning, God and Satan opposed each other; through creation, all things return to the oneness of God. Simply put, in the beginning there were good and evil, light and darkness. Evil and darkness were destroyed by light and good through creation, and finally all things return to the oneness of God.

            We often maintain that the power to “discern different spirits” comes from and only from the Holy Spirit. Yet we often believe in the judgment of organizations that do not possess the Holy Spirit. In the era of the Middle Ages, people came up with their own answers to the problem of Satan; that's their business and is unrelated to the truth. We can very well ignore what they said. Just as in the sixteenth century when the Catholic accused the reformation movement as “apostasy” or “heresy”, its conclusion was not our concern.

            In the last days, various absurd theories of faith will surface but the true church is the only God-erected pillar and foundation of truth in the troubled times. In approximately 2700 years ago, the Lord had spoken through the prophets concerning the true church of the latter days: “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem”; as well, “That the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills….” (Isa 2: 2~3)! The Lord would reveal to His disciples freely the mysteries that were incomprehensible to the Scribes and Pharisees. “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given” (Mt 13: 11; 16:17). Besides, even if the scholars had, out of their devoutness, understood a little of the mysteries, but with respect to “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be ‘exalted above’ the hills”, there is no reason why the true church which is on the mountain should regard this piece of knowledge of the scholars as their having understood the entire mysteries, for the outsiders get only the crumbs at most while the Lord gives to His children the bread (Mark 7: 27)! The prophet said the nations shall flow to the highest mountain of God to receive the law of God. It is not the other way around where the children of God on top of the mountain should consult about the way to the mountain the tourists that are half way on the hills. As many roads are “above” the hills where no men of the world have trod, we ought to hack through all difficulties to open the ways. Since they are ignorant of the ways, men of the world cannot understand the things of the Holy Spirit but actually consider them as foolish.(1 Cor 2:14; Jn 14: 17). The problem of the true church is not because she cannot find the truth, but rather she does not know how to equip herself to face the reality that we are viewed as “foolish” through the wisdom of the world (1 Cor 1: 17- 2:16).

        We cannot, on the one hand, vow solemnly that the true church is the only church of salvation God has established, with Holy Spirit and truth, and that without the Holy Spirit, there will be no truth (take note: the truth is not merely “the five basic doctrines”, it is a complete understanding of God’s words); yet when questions are thrown at us, we do not hesitate to “refer” to books which we claim are, on grounds of biblical proof, written by men with no Holy Spirit, and we view them as keys to the answers, as if they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Such inconsistency of words and actions and the faith that “splits” is most worrisome in the pursuit of truth.

        All people of God, though as uneducated and untrained like Peter and John (Acts 4: 13) who were despised by the world, do not have the right to belittle ourselves up by picking up the crumbs of others!

 

Immanuel

      Perhaps a handful of believers have the misconception that doubting “Satan is the fallen angel” is doubting “the truth” or the concept of “One True God” and that it is preaching heresy! No, what we do doubt is the traditional thinking passed down by the Catholic over thousands of years ago! Our hope is to return to the Bible! We urge the believers to take a stand against Satan, who is very much a reality, is at all times actively destroying the work of God, and whose origin has nothing to do with God! We also firmly believe that only in the true church of God, the pillar of truth, will the Holy Spirit who searches all things lead us to understand the mysteries of the spiritual realm.

      According to written historical record, this day is the first time where the church established by God’s Holy Spirit has provided an opportunity to discuss “the origin of Satan”. It is also the first time, in the history of truth, that a group of saints who rely solely on the Holy Spirit and the word of God can, after much debating, express their viewpoints concerning this issue. May the Spirit who moved the Jerusalem Council at the apostolic era also move us greatly and lead us to take, for the truth, a big and pioneering step forward, just as the step about “Gentiles need no circumcision”. May we fight the good fight and become more perfect in the truth, welcoming the coming of the Lord. Amen!

 

Chapter One

God’s plan of creation

 

      If anyone desires to know God, he must first understand the purpose why God created the heaven and the earth.

 

Did God create the world just to destroy it afterwards?

       According to 2 Pet 3 and Rev 21, the sky above our heads and the earth at our feet will be destroyed when the Lord comes again. People cannot help but ask: Surely the all-wise and all-powerful God did not create the heaven and the earth previously just for the purpose of destroying it afterwards? Should the creation exist without any meaning? Had not God entrusted any missions to His creation? That is absolutely impossible! As the heaven and the earth were created by the (Word) of God, and the Bible attests that when the command (word) goes forth from His mouth, it shall not return to Him void and shall prosper in the thing for which He sent it (Isa 55:11)! Hence, the heaven and the earth will surely accomplish their assigned missions before their value of existence disappears, thereafter to be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth.

 

Why would God create a world that was “formless and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the deep”?

          Chapter 1 of Genesis describes that in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, and “the earth was formless and empty and darkness was over the surface of the deep”. Now why would the Almighty God took so much trouble to create a chaotic world? It was obvious there were signs of sabotage from the enemy. In fighting back, God’s Spirit first hovered over the face of the waters; He then separated the light from darkness and proceeded step by step to finish His wonderful creation. Immediately in chapter 2, God said to the man: “You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die”. In chapter 3, the serpent tempted Eve with “You surely will not die” and caused Adam and Eve to sin, going into the trap of death. Satan laughed wildly and henceforth sin reigned the world with “death” (Rom 5: 21). “Death” is not a natural phenomenon of metabolism as defined by biology; “death” did not originate from within the creation itself where it was born naturally. In fact, “death” is the most unnatural existence in the world of nature; it should not have appeared amongst the creation, as it had no relation with God’s creation. It is a separate independent entity outside of the creation and the enemy of God (1 Cor 15: 26)! “Death” entered the creation from “outside” of the creation only after Adam had sinned (Rom 5: 12)! However, God counter-attacked immediately! In chapter 4, Cain who was of the evil one (1 Jn 3: 12) murdered his brother who had offered up sacrifices by faith; but God let Abel’s blood still speak even though he was dead, strikingly manifested the power of God that overcomes even “death”! In chapter 5, Enoch who walked with God for three hundred years was taken up to heaven without experiencing death. By this, God claimed victory over Satan and declared to the world the mystery of salvation in that “anyone who is willing to walk with God will never see death”!

 

      God’s purpose of creation was to destroy “death”!

            “Death” was originally outside of God’s creation. After Adam had sinned, it entered the creation and thereby to all men. However, amidst the destruction of Satan, the all-wise and all-powerful God turned his trick against himself and overcame “death” through death. According to Revelation 20, on the last day Satan, death, and Hades will be thrown into the lake of fire by God. Having destroyed “death”, the last enemy He was determined to destroy (1 Cor 15: 26), the heaven and the earth would have accomplished their duties and thus withdraw from the presence of God; followed by a new heaven and a new earth coming down out of heaven. From here we can discover a great transformation from Genesis to Revelation (that is, from the time when the heaven and the earth were created to the time when the heaven and the earth are destroyed): In Genesis, death exited and men had to constantly guard themselves against it; whereas in Revelation, “death shall be no more”, it has been destroyed (no more an exiting entity), thrown into the lake of fire.

            Since the command of God goes forth (creation) and shall not return to Him void (destruction), if people ask: Why did God create the heaven and the earth? Our answer would be: to destroy death! And if they ask: Has God accomplished greater things other than the creation? Our response will be: The creation of heaven and earth was the wisest and most powerful work of God. God had no need to accomplish greater things other than the creation because in this plan God personally became flesh to join the battle.

 

      The tree of the knowledge of good and evil: The first step to overcome death

            Apart from the purpose of creation, there was another difficult question that is indelible on people’s mind: Why would God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden of Eden after He had finished the wonderful creation? Why would He command Adam not to eat of it and warn him that on the day he ate of it he would surely die? If God had not such a “redundant" action, would men not have been spared of the possibility to sin and enjoyed the eternal peace? Yes, if the all-wise and all-powerful Creator was so inefficient in giving even the first command, how are we, the created men who can live only by obeying God’s commands, to put any hope in God?

            To understand this age-old, unsettled question, we need to return to the purpose of creation.

            Since God created the heaven and earth for the purpose of destroying death, there must be a way to prevail. Originally, “life” and “death” were two separate entities that had no fellowship with each other. Because of the creation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the “good” and “evil” that had never crossed had therefore a meeting point, a battle ground. Since there would be a confrontation, it would be possible for life to destroy death! In fact, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that has been regarded as failure by men is the wisest and mysterious arrangement of God. It is the first step by which life would overcome death! As for the first command “You must not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” was given to man (Adam) for the purpose of making man understand that only by obeying God’s command will he not be swallowed up by “death”, or else “the day he eats of it he would surely die”!

 

      Death shall be no more

            After death had enveloped all things for thousands of years, the time to complete salvation had come. God left His throne in heaven (rose from supper), and He forsook His glorious beauty, coming as flesh to the world reigned by death and  taking on a body like His sons and daughters (laid aside His garments). In the form of a servant like an ox or a sheep (took a towel and girded Himself), He poured out His life (poured water into a basin) so that especially through His “death” He might destroy the devil who holds the power of death. By so doing, the world is able to once again reconcile and have a part with the Lord (Jn 13: 3~8). He accomplished this by opening a new and living way with His precious blood, and overcame the devil, the ruler of death, with His “resurrection” (Heb 2: 14). Henceforth, the creation in hope will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom 8: 20~23). And so the elect took up the commission to proclaim to the world the gospel of “resurrection”. This put a whole new meaning to the toilsome life: With all our might, and through the grace of God, our mortal life will be transformed into one that is immortal, a corrupt body into a glorious spiritual body, and we will dwell in the new heaven and new earth with God as the light. There, Satan will roam no more; there will be no more death, sorrow, crying or pain, for the old order of things have passed away. What is present is the tree of life standing by the crystal-like river of the water of life, yielding its fruit every month, swaying and carefree. Amidst the songs of praise, the saints who have overcome are able to see the divine face of the Lord and enjoy the sweetness of the fruits from the tree of life.

            We can even say that the first sentence in the Bible, “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” and the last sentence, “Surely I am coming quickly” (Rev 22: 20) embody the whole content of the elect’s faith. Anyone who constantly remembers and holds fast to the truth connoted in these two sentences is able to accept, in any situation without murmur or complaint, any circumstances which he does not understand. He is able to rely and submit wholeheartedly, full of hope waiting for the coming of the Lord. For since we know the Lord is the Creator of the universe, we believe He will make me lie down in green pastures and lead me beside still waters; since the Lord had overcome death, resurrected and ascended to heaven, we have the hope that after our mortal body has wasted away and the heaven and the earth are done away with, we will see God out of the body: I myself will see Him, I will see Him with my own eyes! 

 

 

Chapter Two

The origin of Satan

 

      I. Straightening the crooked root

     

      The uncertain views concerning “the origin of Satan” were regarded as the doctrines: Data taken from the Bible dictionary

      This is an abstract from “The Devils and the Spirits” taken from the “Contemporary Theology Dictionary”:

      Theories concerning the devils had generated much interest during the patriarchal era, with great influence coming from especially the book of Ethiopian Enoch. They believed the devils had already become the gods of the heathens (according to parts of the book: it had something to do with the persecution of the church by the secular world at that time), the incarnations of the fallen angels or as some had claimed, the offspring of women as described in Gen 6. Clementine Homilies was the typical writing of that period. Origen did not accept the ideology of the book of Enoch, neither did he reckon the devils were the angels who fell for reason of envy (ref: The Wisdom of Solomon 2: 24). He equated Lucifer (meaning “light-bearing”, referring to the planet Venus; which was translated as “the morning star” in the New International Version) from the book of Isaiah 14:12~15 to Satan, who in pride rebelled against God and was cast down. Augustine shared the similar view with Origen but he did not believe Satan would reconcile with God. Abelard viewed it differently from Anselm, he negated any relation between redemption and the devils. Thomas Aquinas believed the devil was the source of all sins and that he was most likely the seraphim, the highest-ranking angel who, due to pride, fell before the creation, and enticed his followers to be his messengers.

      Calvin opposed the fuss of men surrounding Satan. He deemed sins came from men’s own evil emotions. He only pointed out the biblical verses that mentioned about Satan and the devil, the purpose of which was to “warn men to beware of his tricks” (<The Christian Essentials> I.xiv. 13~19, Arts and Literature, 1991). Theologians of the nineteenth century were not interested in demonic theories. For instance, Schleiermacher disagreed that Satan was a good angel who fell and turned bad; He held that the Lord Jesus did not point out there was any relation between the Satan and the redemptive plan; and that the Lord and His disciples did not use the Old Testament to discuss about Satan, rather He taught them with the common things found in their daily ordinary lives. Hence, the concept of Satan was not the focus of Christianity. Bultman’s viewpoint could be used to represent the opinion of that generation: “We cannot, on the one hand, use the electricity and wireless services or enjoy the knowledge of modern medicines and surgery while on the other hand, still believe in the recordings of devils and the spiritual realm in the New Testament Era”. (‘The New Testament and Mythology’, in H. W Bartsch, ed., Kerygma and Myth, vol. 1, London, 1953, P. 5). Mascall, the author of <The Christian Universe> (E.L. Mascall, The Christian Universe, London, 1966) could possibly represent a minority of the theologians today in saying that from the experience he perceived of the current situation of mankind, there was a hint some kind of evil forces were present. These evil forces were the “devil” and “Satan” as described in the Bible.

 

Satan gradually disappears

       In this light, the general belief amongst Christianity (though many no longer believe today) that “the devil came from the fallen angel” was indeed passed down form the Catholic church since the Middle Ages, and was adopted and accepted by the Christian churches as its common faith.

       In fact, the Catholic church fathers confessed from the very beginning this concept was quite debatable, but the later generations were negligent and accepted it as the truth to pass down from generation to generation. Nevertheless, most of the theologians and clergies today were beginning to sense the inadequacy of biblical grounds to support this view, and it also seemed farfetched, therefore they dismissed that view. Regrettably, although they have failed to explain the theory of "the fallen angel" using Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 and consequently given up such explanation, in order to defend at any cost the monism that is founded in error and derived from philosophy, some came up with another explanation in which there was a substitute of term. They quoted Colossians 1: 16: “For by Him all things were created…created through Him and for Him”, to maintain Satan came from one of the created beings (they no longer mentioned angel). Some even said, with some kind of covering, that “Satan was directly created by God”, making God look like a pathetic man in a science fiction: that He was messed up by His own creation to the point of almost losing control!

       To date, although there is no better substitute solution and thereby the Catholic Church and various Christian faiths have greatly swayed in their beliefs pertaining to this theory, they still maintain the teaching that “Satan was the fallen angel” in terms of their doctrines. Only a few theologians with good conscience do not want to say something they themselves don’t even believe, so they either deny outright the existence of devil, thinking he is not a real entity; or they discourage discussion about Satan. Surprisingly, such view is becoming more and more dominant in theology today, much like how the Christianity a thousand years ago upheld monism, which was also combined with the philosophical wave at the time.

       Problem is, if Satan did not exist, the redemptive plan of Christ would have become an imaginary play without a specific opponent; there would have been no explanation as to what Jesus Christ would overcome by His death.  Nor would we have known why the Word become flesh. The devil that is supposed to be concrete has been replaced by something abstract called “evil”. Very quickly, the Christianity that once braced itself as the only religion that could overcome Satan has now fallen from its status of being “the only salvation”, to becoming just as any one religion that “teaches men to do good and shun evil”.  

       In deed, the value of Christianity lies in that “the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1Jn 3:8). Without Satan, there will be no problem of sin, and there will be no controller of death, neither is resurrection necessary. Following that, God became flesh to die for mankind, to destroy the devil that holds the power of death, to resurrect from the dead, and to bring to the “dead” a living eternal hope…all these would become void if Satan was not of concrete existence; it would only be just an allegorical story that teaches men to do good.

 

If Satan did not exist, redemption would have become invalid

       The Lord said to Paul: “I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18) – this is the specific content of redemption. The whole Bible, beginning with “the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep”, describes the struggle between light and darkness, that is, the battle between God and Satan. Today, as the origin of Satan is still undetermined, the scholars simply negate the existence of Satan and attribute it all to something as abstract as “evil”. They define evil as the judgment between right and wrong which men would definitely have as they develop and pursue knowledge (to be like God). They reckon that evil is not a dreadful thing, but a problem men will encounter in the process of growing up and developing. “You will be like God, knowing good and evil”, to them this statement represents the growth of men. They believe that new born babes do not have the problem of “evil”. Even before all things developed from a minute particle through big bang and “evolved” through billions of years into intelligent mankind, evil did not exist as they claim. “Evil”, as they explain, only came about after “man” was created and when “freedom” was given. Without the wisdom of free will, there would be no freedom of choice and thereby no problem of evil!

       Unfortunately, how many people have been stupefied by this cover up of “freedom”! Is true freedom about being able to make a choice? What if when one is in the heavenly kingdom where he can no longer choose (for evil has been destroyed) but to praise all day saying “hallelujah”, does it not mean he has lost all freedom? The Lord says: “And you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8: 32), does it not mean that those who do not know the truth will have no freedom? But, in order to know the truth, men must first “believe” the Lord, and “obey”  His word (Jn 8: 31); for only those who obey God's commands can overcome the temptation of evil and practically “respond to God’s calling”. Being set free from the bondage of sin, they can soar like an eagle and enter into the complete freedom of truth!

       Philosophers and theologians are naïve to think that if men of free will had not existed, neither would have evil. And if that’s the case, there would be no Satan either. They reckon that in actuality Satan is not a real entity but something resulted from men’s free will! However, they have not considered that if from the very beginning Satan was not a real entity, then before Adam sinned he could not have been tempted by “evil”! Furthermore, after Adam’s transgression, God’s painstaking effort to “deliver men from the power of Satan and to bring them to Him” through His “love” and “redemption” would lose its meaning if there were no such real enemy as Satan. In this case, it may not be necessary for men to rely on the Lord Jesus’ precious blood to be freed from the bondage of “evil”, but through meditation, contemplation, self-denial and cultivation, the same effect can be achieved and may even surpass the once and for all redemption of the precious blood of the Lord!

       Men seek to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted to God’s righteousness (cf.Rom 10:3); nothing is worse than the aforementioned.

 

The theme of the Bible: “Triumph over Satan”

       For a long time, the world of Christianity has customarily acknowledged the theme of the Bible as “the Redemption of Christ”.

       The Lord Jesus Christ told the Jews: “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me” (Jn 5: 39); Paul said: “The Holy Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim 3: 15). We therefore generally agree the theme of the Bible is “believe in Christ and receive eternal life”.

       Problem is, when God commanded Moses to write the Pentateuch, mankind was already deep in sin and could not get out of it. In order for mankind to have their status as the sons of God reinstated, God imparted to Moses His works and His laws and commanded Moses to instruct the people the ways to overcome evil and sin, while awaiting patiently for Christ’s redemption. Hence, from the time of the Pentateuch, the Bible’s existence absolutely correlated with the works of Satan: If Satan failed in tempting Eve, men would have no need for redemption; and since redemption was unnecessary, the revelation to “believe in Christ and receive eternal life” will be redundant; in other words, we do not need to have the Bible. Therefore, strictly speaking, to “believe in Jesus and receive eternal life” is the “second” step of God’s work.

       The step before redemption is “the creation”. First, there was creation, and then the forefather sinned, and so began the redemption. Christ’s redemption is accomplished through God who would incarnate in the flesh, taking the form of the sinful man, to shed blood and give up His life and overcome sin and Satan. This plan had existed before the creation. Just as what is written in the Bible: “For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil”. Therefore, we can say the theme of the Bible on one side of the coin is to “believe in Christ and attain eternal life” while on the flip side is “to destroy Satan”.

       “Redemption” was only meaningful after Adam had sinned. As to the plan of the manifestation of the Son of man, that had already been prepared even before creation. In other words, the plan to “destroy Satan” had begun even before the heaven and earth were created, and before Adam sinned. This purpose of “destroying Satan” was first conceived in God’s mind. He then had a plan and began to create. For this reason, from the time it said, “in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” to “overcoming Satan and receiving eternal life through Christ”, we can see that God’s work to “destroy Satan” is evident throughout the whole Bible.

 

II. Some misconceptions

     Concepts of Christianity ought to be very clear since it originated from God Himself. Unfortunately, the worldly men chose not to know God and by their own wisdom, the concepts of Christianity had developed to become one that was very inconclusive. Many concepts that came up were based on the then popular ideologies of philosophy. Over time, these concepts seemed to have become the truth and doctrines that men began to revere and follow. “Trinity” was a typical example. Today, when people talk about Trinity, it appears to be the right and proper truth; any Christian who disbelieves in “Trinity” is regarded by the “orthodox” as “heretic”! Hence, it is imperative that we should “search the origin” of a concept. Only the “right origin” can keep itself from being contaminated and to reveal something’s true colour.

      Below is a brief examination on the four misconceptions that are closely related to this thesis. In hope, this will help clarify the misunderstandings and eliminate any difficulties that may arise in the in-depth discussion:

 

Thinking that God created the world to “glorify Himself”

      This point of argument is based on Isaiah 43: 7: “Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him”. This verse is irrelevant to creation as a whole. What it points out here that “everyone who is called by my name” represents only a portion of the humankind. God continued to say: “You (everyone who is called by My name) shall bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears…You are My witnesses, and My servants whom I have chosen” (Isa 43: 8~10). It is evident that this verse does not refer to “God created the heaven and the earth for the purpose of glorifying Himself”. Rather, the “being created” here entails the meaning of rebirth that comes from being “chosen” and “redeemed”: “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine” (Isa 43: 1), just as today, the Lord will make us into a new creation through His blood (Eph 4: 24).

      Again, the Lord said, “When you passed through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you; and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I give Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you; therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘give them up!’, and to the south, ‘do not keep them back!’. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him” (Isa 43: 2~7). Here we can see further from its context that when it says “whom I have created for My glory”, it does not refer to the creation of the heaven and the earth, but rather the completion of the salvation work in the future.

      After Adam had sinned and allowed sin to enter the world, God created and chose His servants so that through His servants He will receive glory by defeating Satan and completing the redemption (Isa 49: 3). However, we should not reverse the order of the “creation” and the “choosing of the servant” and interpret the latter from this passage in Isaiah as how in the beginning God created the heaven and earth to glorify Himself.

 

Thinking that God created the world to fulfill salvation

      Some hold that since the theme of the Bible is “salvation”, the purpose of creation is therefore to fulfill the salvation. People with this concept have neglected that even before the existence of mankind, or at the very moment while creation was taking place, there was no presence of sin; and naturally, the issue of “salvation” was uncalled for! All we can say is that if Adam had not sinned, we would not have had the Bible. But the Bible appeared in order to save mankind “after man sinned”, and it had nothing to do with the creation that occurred “before man sinned”. Hence, we cannot say that God’s creation was made for the purpose of fulfilling salvation for mankind when mankind had not even existed.

 

Thinking that unless God willing, Satan was incapable of doing anything

      God is Almighty, but Satan has a way to constantly destroying and opposing the work of the Almighty! Since His work has been obstructed, it appears that God is unable to proceed with His work as planned. This poses doubt to the definition of God’s “Almightiness”. To clarify this controversy, men can only claim the Almighty God allows Satan to destroy His work or he will not be able to do anything. The question is, in this instance, God should be happy that one by one His plans were completed; why then was God crushed (since God Himself allowed it) when the people were enticed and became corrupt (Ezek 6: 9)? If the happening of events came from God’s permission, why was there such an account: “Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered why there was no intercessor” (Isa 59: 16); and why would He punish the people for their rebellion, which would not have happen unless He allowed it, and said: “Who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin” (Isa 30: 1)?

      No, Satan does not move only when God allows it! He is the evil one who acts on his own initiatives and has the power to destroy! That is the reason why Peter said, “The devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet 5: 8~9).

      We will elaborate on this concept in chapter three under the heading “What accord has Christ with Belial?”

 

Thinking that Satan came from the fallen angel

      At the present, the knowledge of Satan generally comes from the concepts of monism and dualism. In monism where God is believed to be the sole existing being, some claim that the devil came from the fallen angel (Ezekiel 28: 15~17 are the key verses); others say it was one of the creatures that turned into the devil after it had sinned (in actuality, this view is not much different from the view that it came from the fallen angel, the supporting verses were taken from Colossians 1: 15~16); yet there are those who believe that the devil was a direct creation of God (same book was quoted : Colossians 1: 15~16)! However, all of these three views would find it hard to answer the simplest question: “How did evil come about when all that was good”? The final outcome of such views which cannot even justify themselves is similar to the mishandling of monism in philosophy, which eventually developed into polytheism or atheism. Today’s Christendom either attribute all good and evil to God’s “good will” or gradually avoid talking about angels and the devils, to the extent that they symbolize them, not reckoning that they are real entities.

      As for dualism, the theory holds that the devil was the “evil” that had been against God from the beginning to eternity. As the opposition endures forever, it appears there will not be a day when the “evil” will be done away with. Thus, the possibility “the devil will be cast into the lake which burns with fire and brimstone and there shall be no more death” will never happen, and naturally the day of the fulfillment of salvation will never take place either. This theory has obviously violated the revelation of the Bible.

      Ever since the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church fathers had penned many writings with regards to the fallen angel theory. The new religions did not suggest any reformation about it but continued to inherit the idea, based on two passages from Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28:

 

A. The book of Isaiah 14: 12~19

      The following passage, taken from the book of Isaiah 14 where God told the prophet to prophesy concerning the king of Babylon, was often quoted as the basis to support the theory that the devil was the fallen angel: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit” (12~15). However, a little careful study of the phrase “you who have weakened the nations” quickly reveals the loopholes: If the devil were struck down to the ground only “after” he had weakened the nations, then who deceived Adam, who was present long “before” the nations existed? The prophet continued: “Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you…all the kings of the nations, all of them, sleep in glory, everyone in his own house; but you are cast out of your grave…” (Isa 14: 16~19). In other words, long before the angel fell from heaven, that is, at the time when the devil appeared, kings and nations had already existed on earth! Will it not be right then to say that in the earlier period of human history before the kings and nations surfaced, there was no sight of Satan?

      In fact, prophet Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the king of Babylon was simply a prophecy against the king and bore no relation at all to the angel nor the devil. It was no appalling that the Babylonian king was called “the Day Star (Lucifer), the son of the morning”, after all, God considered him His “servant”! After he had completed the task given him, “for she has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel” (Jer 50: 29), which paraphrased the saying of prophet Isaiah: “For you said in your heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High”; for this he was punished by God. He was struck down to the ground and brought down to the lowest pit.

      The book of Isaiah 14 is a prophecy against the king of Babylon which will come to full realization later. Within that passage, there is no hint whatsoever to suggest any fallen angel turning into the devil!

 

B. The book of Ezekiel 28: 11~19

      “Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God…You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing, out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed (original text was written in the future tense: I will …) you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings that they might gaze at you. You defiled your sanctuaries, by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I (will) brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth, in the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever’” (Ezekiel 28: 11~19)

      Based on the above passage, some theologians regard Satan as the fallen cherub. If reading it carefully, however, even a reader with poor faith can soon discover that there is no basis for this argument. If this passage described the appearance of the devil, then there would be a problem with the phrase “by the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within” – because “violence” can only come from the evil one. Since the cherub had yet to be cast to the ground and turned into the evil one (that is to say before the source of violence existed), how would the evil one (Tyre) be filled with violence and sin? Besides, Tyre’s beauty was brought to perfection by “her builders” (Ezek 27: 3~4); it was the work of “men”, not a direct creation of God! In fact, the king of Tyre was just a “man”, not a cherub (Ezek 28: 2, 9)! In addition, according to the verse “I will cast you to the ground” as prophet Ezekiel prophesied, the “cherub” had yet to be cast down from heaven; who then, may we ask, deceived the Israelites and led them to sin before Satan even appeared?

      Moreover, we must realize that the preservation of the original text’s information on this passage was incomplete and fragmented. For instance, the word Keruwb (cherub) can simply mean Blessing, while the “ark of the covenant” was not mentioned in the original text. As well, the “anointed” is not the “anointed” as we generally understand (the mimshach here is different from the mashach in Leviticus). Mimshach was used just once in the whole Bible; many versions therefore chose not to translate this word into “the anointed”, but “the ordained/the one cared for”, to avoid any unnecessary confusion.

      Similarly, in accordance with Ezekiel 31: “So that all the trees of Eden envied it (pharaoh)” (9); “To which of trees in Eden will you then be likened in glory and greatness? Yet you shall be brought down with the trees of Eden to the depths of the earth” (18). We can see from here that the Eden in the book of Ezekiel was not the Eden where Adam once dwelled, and naturally, the “cherub” could not have been the “cherub” who guarded the tree of life!

 

III. See Satan’s self-existence from the fundamental thinking of man

 

Self-existent and everlasting

      We cannot find any verse in the Bible that clearly said “God is self-existent and everlasting”. We can only deduce from sentences of the similar nature “I am Who I am” (Ex 3: 14), or “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Rev 22: 13) and derive at the obvious conclusion. Likewise, there is not a verse in the Old Testament that said “the Gentiles need not be circumcised”, yet the apostles were able to deduce it from the passage: “After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name” and understood the mystery of salvation, confirming that it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to them to make such decision (Acts 15). By the same token, nowhere in the Bible explicitly points out the origin of Satan, all we can do is deduce it based on the biblical verses available and using the spiritual wisdom of the fellow workers, while relying on the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 

From the perspective of eternal future

      If we say that in the beginning where all things were good (whether it was prior to or after the creation), a created being (an angel for instance) would suddenly become proud under no apparent outside influence, and fell and turned into Satan; then what about in the infinity of the future where all things will be good (that is, in the new heaven and new earth within God’s kingdom), who can guarantee there will not be some other created being (like an angel) that would again suddenly fall and become the devil to fight against God yet again? When then will we see the last of salvation?

      Moreover, if the creature A could fall and become the first devil due to his pride, the possibility of creature B to fall and become the devil would double: B could fall just like A out of pride, or he could be enticed by A who had fallen and also fall to become the devil, then the chances for creature C to fall and turn into the devil would even be greater. If we continue to infer in this fashion, the odds of the creatures turning into the devils will become greater and greater. In other words, in the world of theology where theologians cannot say for sure which creature it was(to make it simple, let’s say it’s an angel), every created being would possibily fall and become the devil. However, as God does not save the fallen angels, devils will never ever be able to return to their angelic status! As such, with the simplest mathematical calculation, we will soon discover that in “infinity” where time has no boundary, one of those days most of the angels in heaven will fall and turn into the devils, since there is only “exit” and no “entry”! Faced with such a frustrating scenario, the only way God could do against it is to continually create more angels, then …only to wait and watch them fall to become the devils!

      In this way, “eternity” will allow who to be victorious”? God or the devil? Is not the answer obvious?

      On the contrary, if the devil was one independent entity who has no relation with God’s creation; and the sins of the angels and the creatures came from this independent entity. When the end time comes, God will cast Satan into the lake of fire, getting rid of the first cause that led the creatures to sin. Then we can be sure that in the new heaven and earth, there will be no more death, no more crying and pain for all will be renewed! There will be no more sinning! Salvation will be completed!

 

From the perspective of the quantity of the devil

      Paul encouraged us to put on the full armor of God to stand up against the wiles of the devil. He used the following verse to describe the devil: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6: 12). The devil’s power is seen here to extend to the heaven and earth. According to Revelation, the quantity of the devil and his messengers in comparison was enough to combat Michael and his angels. Problem is, we insist only God has the power to create and there was no reproduction among angels as in men -- angels were created one by one. Since the number of the devils was numerous as the legion (Mk 5: 9) and their powers varied (Mt 12: 45), if one devil tallies one fallen angel, then from its number we can easily deduce it backward and see that heaven is actually not as peaceful as we thought; as there are angels who constantly disobey God and fall to become the devils! Thus, the prayer “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” would have lost its meaning.

      Even more so, when the first angel fell and turned into the devil, God did not punish (or incapable to) him immediately, but allowed him to go against God Himself! Following that, God let tens of thousands of angels to fall one after another and to transform themselves from the servants of God to the disciples of the devil, destroying God’s work with all their might…Under such circumstance, we can no longer use the biblically unfounded excuse to explain that “God tries the believers through the devil”, because God Himself suffers when the believers are tried (Ezek 6: 9)! Moreover, does the passage "for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” not clearly indicate that it was not God’s intent to spare the devil but it has always been on God’s mind to destroy the devil’s work even before the creation!

      Since that was the intent, why did God not destroy this fallen “creature” at the very moment when it was about to transform into the devil, while it was still very much alone and too weak to go against God? Instead, God let it destroy the creation however way it desired, causing havoc to the heaven and bringing down even more God’s people and the doomed angels! Aside from this, after this fallen creature had turned into the devil, its power was so great that it caused God to grieve. Over the span of thousands years from the time of Adam, it continued to destroy, until almost the whole army of God, the chosen people, was wiped out then at that point did God decide to raise up Jesus Christ from amongst the remnants, and to manifest Himself in the flesh and give up His life on the cross to defeat His enemy, which He could have, in theory, destroyed with just one breadth.

      So, does such Satan, whose power has continued to increase, look like a “fallen” “creature”?

 

From the perspective of the outcast of man

      The Bible tells us “man” was the only “creation” made in the “image of God”; he was “the son of God”. But the angels were “ministering spirits”, sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation (Heb 1: 14). Even Adam (man), before he sinned, did not possess a carnal body that was made “perishable” by sin. The power of the “son” prior to his sinning was definitely not less than that of the “servant” (we cannot regard the condition of man after he had sinned the same as before he had sinned by using Hebrews 2 to claim that the angels’ power had always been greater than man’s!) When the son sinned, in other words, when the most honorable creation sinned, his outcome was tragic – he was “driven out of the garden of Eden” and “in the sweat of his face he shall eat bread”; how then was it possible that after it sinned, the “ministering spirit” (no matter how high its position, it was still a mere “ministering spirit) was able to freely strut in and out of the heaven (Job 1)? And not only did God not temporarily punish him. but God allowed him to roam freely back and forth in heaven to wage war with the angels and accuse the elect of God?

      It seemed that God was efficient in driving out the son but was at wits end in casting out the servant!

      Conversely, if we read carefully: “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment” (2 Pet 2: 4) and “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6), we can see God had absolute control over the angels; He would never allow them to behave in this arrogant manner after they had sinned.

 

From the perspective of the power of Satan

      If Satan was one of the creations (like the fallen angel), he should be a created spirit under God’s control as would the clay in the hands of the potter. How was it that after he had sinned, his power had not waned but even increased, to the extent that he was able to challenge his Creator and that his spirit  is able to enter man’s heart? Who granted him such power after he had fallen? Would God have given great power to the creation that had sinned so that he could challenge God Himself?

      Would not have God expected this outcome before He started the work of creation? Why would God create a host of angels whose power would grow even stronger after they sinned? Perhaps one could say that the appearance of “one” devil was an unexpected “sudden change”, but what inertia was it to cause “a legion” of devils to appear?

 

From the perspective of the work of God

      Since “for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3: 8), and that “the manifestation of the Son of God” was foreordained before the creation, then we know that “to destroy the works of the devil” had been God’s plan before He created the world.

      Since they are to be destroyed, that is to say that the works of the devil certainly did not come from God, neither were they allowed by God. Otherwise, would not the “casting out of demons” have become: In the name of the Lord, I (first) forbid God from allowing Satan to continue with his works, and (then) stop Satan from continuing his works which are allowed by God? Furthermore, if God allowed Satan to first enter a person’s heart, why would He command His disciples to cast out, in His name, Satan who would not have entered man’s heart without God's permission? And if everything was in the hands of God, all He needs to do is to “disallow” Satan to carry on his works; why do we have to fast to cast out Satan? Why should God manifest Himself to be humiliated in order to destroy Satan? From this we can know that Satan’s works are in opposition to God and they come from his own accord; they are not allowed by God, but rather, God is determined to destroy his works!

 

From the perspective of the simplest thought

      The Bible tells us, “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil”. Since the manifestation of the Son of God was foreordained before the creation of the world, it was evident that God had the determination to destroy the devil prior to the creation. Therefore, we cannot argue that God clearly has the power to destroy the devil in one second but chose not to. Instead, for the purpose of putting His saints through trials, He let the devil be the master to sieve His household, and purposely let it roam the land to devour God’s sons and daughters whom God had redeemed with His own precious blood through great suffering.

      Since God had the determination to destroy the devil, why did God not destroy the very first creature (such as an angel) when it sinned? Instead, God allowed it to continually deceive the other creatures? Would God let Satan persecute His people to the point they can bear no longer (cf. Mt 24: 22: “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved”), before realizing that Satan is good for nothing, that the saints he has captured outnumbered those who has overcome the trials, and then God decides to destroy Satan instantly?

      On the other hand, if the devil came from God’s creation, then the power of a created thing, no matter how great it might be, would never come close to the power of its Creator! The problem is, if God had the intention from the start to destroy the devil, then to the one creature from amongst tens of thousands of creatures that had sinned and turned into the devil, the Creator had to spend thousands of years, combining all the power of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, along with the price of countless fallen saints who had been deceived, before He could finally overcome him. To the Creator “Who spoke, and it was done; Who commanded, and it stood fast”, was not such disastrous battle (we can know this by comparing the number of created men who will end up in hell to that in heaven) ironic to His “omniscience and omnipotence”? If this potter had to exert so much energy to destroy just one single piece of clay that He Himself had made and had turned bad, how are we, the affected clays, to testify how great the potter, the Creator, is?

      Unless, Satan did not come from God’s creation. He was going aginst God from the very beginning!

 

The only possible answer

      Furthermore, since Satan could not have possibly come from the fallen angel (or any other creatures), his only source of existence was the same as that of his enemy/the Lord God of our Redeemer, who is self-existent. Because Satan and God are both self-existent, he is powerful enough to oppose the Creator of the universe, and persecute the saints before he himself is destroyed!

 

IV. See Satan’s self-existence from the evidences in the Bible

 

What God has eternally bound could no longer roam the earth

      Amongst the known creations, only man and angels are capable of sinning. (We will discuss the fact that “Satan sinned from the beginning” in the next paragraph)

      According to biblical recordings, an angel’s sinning and Adam’s sinning produced different outcomes. Adam’s sin alone implicated all the created things in the “world” (Rom 5: 12); angels’ sin is similar to that of the elect after the fulfillment of salvation, that it involves only the individuals. The author of Hebrews said: “For indeed He (the Lord) does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham” (Heb 2: 16). It is clear, therefore, that angels who sinned have no hope of salvation.

      Jude, the brother of James said: “to the angels, the Lord has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6); Peter claimed: “For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment” (2 Pet 2: 4); these statements are evident that God has absolute control over the angels, and He will surely not allow the angels who have sinned to freely roam the earth. Hence, it is obvious that there was no such concept of fallen angel turning into Satan in the faith of the apostles!

      After God had put a fallen angel eternally in darkness and in chains, it came a time when we turned the fallen angle into the devil who roams the earth and freely coming in and out of the heaven of light!

      After thousands of years, the erroneous belief of the Middle Ages has brought Christian concept into an impasse. The inadequacy to explain the origin of “evil” according to the Bible has caused Christianity to be deserted to almost the point of bankruptcy. In desperation, theologians quoted Colossians 1: 15 ~ 17 from the epistle of Paul: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through him and for Him”. They read these verses with new interpretation, stressing on words like “all thins” and “principalities and powers” (in fact, these are already included in ‘all things"); they changed a direction and hesitantly said: “The devil was not the fallen angel; nevertheless, he came from God’s creation”! Some even honestly said: “The devil was created by God”! (I once personally heard a fellow worker of our church uttered the same saying in a service).

      The problem is, as Paul continued: “and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col 1: 20), since the Lord Jesus Christ has reconciled “all things” to Himself through His precious blood, according to the new theological way of understanding, all things reconciled should have included the devil as well! In addition to this, prior to the opening of the first seal in Revelation, it was recorded: “And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!” (Rev 5: 13). Again, by this new interpretation, before the first seal was opened and the war of salvation has entered the final battle ground, “every creature” including Satan had already hailed the greatness of God. If that is the case then against whom was God fighting in the following strings of wars?

      Hence, we can see that for the sake of rectifying the error made a thousand years ago that misunderstood Satan as the fallen angel, the world of theology has justified themselves to the point of absurdity! This is how the mainstream theology today views the devil, and Christianity will surely continue to pay the price if the source of “evil” remains unclear.

 

Satan did not come from God’s creation; He opposed God from the very beginning

      In 1 John, when John spoke about “evil”, he said, “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning” (1Jn 3: 8).

      First, the apostle said, “He who sins is of the devil”. Take note, he did not say “He who sinned “had fallen” to become the devil, but “He who sins is ‘of’ the devil. In other words, the devil existed before the fall of the created things; before they sinned, he was there, and he tempted them to sin. Therefore, any creature that sinned is ‘of’ the devil. Simply put, the devil is not a product but the source of sin! We will understand it better with the following explanation concerning “the beginning”.

      After the apostle said “He who sins is of the devil”, he added: “for the devil has sinned from the beginning”. When was this “beginning”, really? Was it the moment right after all things were created? Or was it the time before the creation, by human’s concept of time? In the same book, the apostle also mentioned about “good”, he said, “That which was from the beginning, concerning the Word of life…” (1Jn 1: 1). Similarly, the apostle John used “the beginning” to describe the “time” when the Word of life existed. Was this beginning of time referred to the time immediately after all things were created? Or was it the time prior to creation in the human knowledge of time? According to the biblical description regarding “the Word of life”, it was evident that the Word of life existed before the creation for it was from the power of the Word of life that all things were created. Just as what was recorded in the gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him was life…” (Jn 1: 1~3).

      In this light, we understand that the book of 1 John intended to describe the “Word of life” with the phrase “in the beginning”, so as to demonstrate His existence that was even before creation. As human could not imagine the state of time prior to its existence, John could only write “in the beginning” to give a general idea. Just as “I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him (God) who is from the beginning, that “who is from the beginning” surely existed before all creation as He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End!

      Therefore, in the same book when John said, “the devil has sinned from the beginning, this “beginning” has to be the same as the beginning of the “Word of life” before the creation: just as how the Word of life existed in the beginning, so was the existence of the devil who sinned from the beginning. Hence, the devil who has sinned before all things were created could not have come from all that were created later; in other words, he could never have come from God’s creation (like the angels), which were good but became bad.

      “The devil has sinned from the beginning” demonstrates that the devil was independent of God’s creation; he was against God from antiquity.

 

“In the beginning”: Light and darkness opposed each other

      Aside from this, in accordance with Gen 2:1, after God had created the heaven and earth and all the host of them in six days, He was very pleased with His work and said, “it was very good” (Gen 1: 31), and He rested. It seemed there was at least a seven-day period of “the beginning” during the creation, and there was no record of sin amongst the created things of the heaven and earth; all seemed very good to God and so God rested from all His work. From here, we gather that “the beginning” from the phrase “the devil has sinned from the beginning” would absolutely not have referred to “the beginning” which God exclaimed “very good” after He had completed His creation. On the contrary, a carefully study of Genesis 1 would surprisingly reveal that from the moment the creation began, or in the beginning before all things had yet to take forms, the work of God had already been opposed.

      Genesis 1 describes how in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, but the work that was so meticulously created by the God of order whose power fills all, is light Himself and is all wise and all powerful (1 Jn 1:5) actually presented itself as a chaotic state of “without form and void, and the darkness was on the face of the deep” -- it was evident that there were signs of opposition. Then God said let there be light, but darkness was even able to stand up against the powerful “Word” (the word of God)! How mighty was the power of darkness against God! This has reinforced the truth stated in 1 John: “the devil has sinned from the beginning” (1 Jn 3: 8). Hence, God separated light from darkness (the most basic act of the saints who wish to overcome), and continued His work of creation to do away with darkness and destroy Satan.

      Therefore, in the “beginning” before all things were created “light” and “darkness" had been in opposition, and so were “life” and “death”. Then, all things were created through the Word of life, and as well all things will overcome death through the Word of life.

 

Satan, the enemy that existed “before” the creation

      It is clear, then, that the saying “the devil has sinned from the beginning” points out the fact that Satan did not originate from any of the creation. His existence was not like what the Christian world claims today – that after God’s creation one of the creatures deteriorated by a cause without basis. The devil could never be a created thing that was originally good but later on “sinned” and "turn into” evil.

      Surely some would argue: does not the verb “sinned” in the phrase “the devil has sinned from the beginning” explain that Satan was originally an innocent creature, but due to its transgression at some point, he “sinned” and fell to become the devil? No, the “sinned” here does not denote a progression of action from a state of “without sin” to a state of “committing sin”; rather, it merely depicts the “innate character” of the devil’s opposing God from the beginning. Just as the Lord Jesus’ prayer in John 17: 24: “Father…, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world”; here the verb “loved” does not portray a transition from a state of “did not love” to a state of “loved”, but it conveys the “innate character” between God the father and Jesus. By the same token, Satan’s “sinning” and “evil” were his “innate character”, and as long as he lives, he sins. He could not have “once" been good. He knew not and would never repent, for his essence was evil, and there was no good in him. As the Lord Jesus said, “When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (Jn 8: 44). In other words, he is the source of all evil!

      Since the devil is the father and source of evil, he did not require anything to exist prior to him; more so, he could not have turned into evil from being good in the first place. This is likened to God, the Father of all spirits, in whom there is no darkness. He is the source of all things that are good, and since He is the Father, He is the source; He does not need anything to exist prior to Him, for He Himself is “yes”, “the existence” and “the beginning”.

      Although both God and Satan similarly do not need to be preceded by anything, the difference is that Satan will be overcome and destroyed by God, and into the lake of fire he will be thrown which spells his disappearance before God. After the new heaven and new earth appear, God says: “There will be no more death”. It is obvious that Satan who will be destroyed will not endure forever as God will. Henceforth, in the new heaven and new earth, Satan will no longer be able to disrupt God’s work as his work has already been destroyed by the Son of God. With the absence of “evil”, the saints and the angels and all the creation will enjoy the eternal joy of peace in heaven. That will be indeed the realization of the kingdom of God.

 

The message from “God created all things out of nothing; He called forth light from darkness”

      “The power of death” could not have slipped out of God’s hand, only to be gained back again through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The coming of the Lord is to “destroy him who had the power of death” (Heb 2: 14), so that it no longer exists (1 Cor 15: 54). Death has always been in the hand of the devil!

      It is not true either when the devil said that the authority of all the kingdoms had been delivered to him (Lk 4: 6). He is the initial ruler of this dark domain, which is his kingdom. He had attempted to deceive Lord Jesus claiming this kingdom was “delivered” to him by God! Our argument is simple. If that was true, God could simply “claim it back” without having to first incarnate in the flesh and endure much suffering. Satan failed to fool the Lord Jesus but succeeded in deceiving many theologians.

      Let’s think about the following: If the self-existent and everlasting God existed by Himself before the creation of all things, then  how is the God who is all present and fills all able to find a place called “nothing” that did not contain Him? If we say that God made the “existence” of all things out of “nothing”, we cannot but admit that even before creation “nothing” was already in opposition to the “existence” of God, and that this “nothing” was outside the existence of God! Otherwise, would we not have said God had created all things from the presence of His own “existence”?

      As well, the verse “God who commanded light to shine out of darkness” (2 Cor 4: 6) may give the wrong impression that darkness existed before light. In other words, darkness was before light for light shone out of darkness. This is a terrible mistake because before God said let there be light, God had already existed for God was light, and no darkness was in Him. Hence, before God commanded light to shine out of darkness, light (God Himself) had existed! Question is, since God was light and in Him there was no darkness, why did darkness which rejected light exist, so that God had to command light to shine out of darkness? Where did this darkness come from? Why did God command light to shine out of darkness?

      We knew that God created the darkness of “judgment” (like the plague of darkness, the darkness of Hades cf. Isa 45: 7), but the darkness of “sin” that did not accept light and utterly opposed it could not have come from the creation of God, for God could not make sin! Since it was impossible for God to create the darkness of sin, its existence would be similar to that of “nothing” and “light” whereby they originated by themselves. And Satan is the ruler of this darkness, who is against God and against light.

      God said, “Light has its dwelling, and darkness has its place” (cf. Job 38: 19 Bible commentators in general reluctantly referred to light and darkness as day and night). Light is God’s dwelling and darkness Satan’s place; therefore, the darkness of the evil one existed before God’s creation. In other words, God had two possible options of creation: He could create the heaven and earth in His kingdom of light (existence), or He could do so in the darkness of Satan (nothing). Judging from the verse that “through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil”, God has to enter darkness to destroy darkness, just as God had to enter death to destroy death. Thus, creation had to occur in the place of darkness (nothing).

      The Bible said, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep…Then God said, ‘let there be light, and there was light’. And God saw the light, and it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness”. It is obvious God created the heaven and earth in the kingdom of darkness! Because when there was only the light of God and under the power of His word (creation), it was impossible to attain darkness that would reject light; unless God’s creation directly entered into the darkness that had existed, of which the power was strong enough to challenge God for the time being.

 

Creation: A heavy blow to the power of darkness

      The fact that “God commanded light to shine out of darkness” shows that God created the heaven and earth in the kingdom of darkness, which was God’s first step of victory over Satan. Through creation, God attacked the dark domain with His power! Then, amidst darkness God said, “Let there be light” (please think carefully the first word of God as men understood it; how great the power that was contained within this word that it enabled light to shine out of darkness), and after God had commanded light to shine out of darkness (2 Cor 4: 6), He separated it from darkness! Henceforth, light shone in the kingdom of darkness, and darkness was not that dark anymore!

      Through the light that shone out, God broke the power of darkness. This truth can be likened to the time of our Lord Jesus’ (light) death when darkness enveloped the earth (darkness temporarily triumphed). However, in the middle of darkness, the veil in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; salvation had quietly triumphed and was deploying with irresistible force! The Lord Jesus Christ entered death for three days (the earth was without form, and void, and darkness on the surface of the deep), and He resurrected (God commanded light to shine out of darkness). From then on, He defeated the enemy (victory over darkness)! How great the mystery of God is!

      If we could reconsider the whole Bible according to the saying that “the creation of the heaven and earth was God’s first step to overcome darkness”, we will be pleasantly amazed to discover that darkness could only spoil but had never triumphed over light. Ever since the creation of the heaven and earth, the main battle ground has always been in the domain of darkness. Do not forget, Satan was also “god”, the god of this age (2 Cor 4: 4) and the spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places (Eph 6: 12). The Lord Jesus saw Satan fall from heaven; the apostle John saw Satan and his angels fight with Michael in heaven. These scenes did not mean that Satan had gone to heaven to stir up havoc or had moved the battle ground to heaven; rather, it was a sign that Satan had lost his power over what was in heaven and had thus gone down to the earth and the sea in great wrath (Rev 12: 7~12). Eventually, God will destroy the “heaven” that was of the darkness (not the heaven in God’s kingdom) and the “earth”, accomplishing the ever glorious new heaven and new earth.

      In the beginning, God created “all things” out of “nothing”. Faced with the darkness over the deep, God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light. Through this victorious command, darkness had since lost its sovereignty in his own kingdom; from the time the “light” shone out of darkness, all that darkness could ever do was to put up a dying struggle.

      After that, God incarnated in the flesh, fully manifesting this light concretely and overcoming death with His resurrection (just as in the beginning when light shone out of darkness and broke the darkness). From then on, the power of darkness shall be no more; “there shall be no night there, and they need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign (victory over the power of death) forever and ever” (Rev 22: 5).

 

Satan is self-existent but not everlasting

      As a result, the statement “the devil had sinned from the beginning” points out that at the “beginning” before all things were created, Satan had been fighting with God. Satan did not evolve from any degraded creature. He existed by himself and “evil” was his nature. Just as “when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources (Job 8: 44). This parallels the self-existence of God, whose nature is “good” and in Him there is no darkness (1 Jn 1: 5). The difference is that God endures forever while Satan will be thrown into the fiery lake. Hence, Satan will not last forever before God!

      This is a radical distinction compared to the dualism in philosophy!

 

Chapter Three

What accord has Christ with Belial?

 

      A worrisome phenomenon of today’s faith is the spiritual confusion where one cannot differentiate Satan’s work from God’s will. We are confident that all things have the good intent of God behind it. Even if a situation may appear serious, we “by faith” watch and wait for the revelation of God’s will while in the mean time allowing Satan to do as he pleases. After all, people would think with great faith (or they are very reluctant to play “villain” to interfere) that unless God willing, Satan will never stir up troubles. And since God has allowed, what has happened must be of the good intent of God; therefore, let the good intent of God be done! Such a mindset often drives us to the passivity of “wait and see” when facing the opposition of Satan. We naively think that behind the turbulence, the good intent of God would follow. As such, we fail to take a proactive measure in unity against Satan; we miss out the opportunity to defeat the enemy with a steadfast faith but watch helplessly as Satan roams and roars and devours in the church, while we continue to be disillusioned by the saying of “all things work for the good of one another”.

 

I. Are they friends or are they enemies?

 

Draw a clear line

      From the time of the creation of heaven and earth until this day, Satan has been against God and destroying every aspect of God’s work. In the spiritual warfare, he is the only enemy of God, men and the angels. The ups and downs of our faith are mostly related to him. Not a day passed by from the first day of creation to the end of the world that we do not see his shadow! And God can only wait until the day when He casts Satan into the lake of fire before He declares: “It is done, everything is renewed!” As well, we have to wait until that day before we are able to enter the entire peace where there will be no more sorrow, crying, pain and death. The destruction of Satan signifies the end of evil; it is a new heaven and a new earth unfolding in an evil-free environment, the realization of the kingdom of God.

      The Bible recorded that before the creation, God had prepared for the manifestation of His son for the purpose of destroying the works of Satan (1 Jn 3: 8). Within the period that spanned from the time of preparation to when Satan is cast into the fiery lake, how much might and power, wisdom and time God has put in, and how much pain and struggle He had to go through! This is not a battle of one-man-show where it begins and ends with God; it is a battle of life and death between good and evil.

      Since it was said that “For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil”, it is obvious that  “the works of Satan” can never be allowed by God; or else how could Satan do anything if God only has to “disallow” him from heaven? And why would God manifest in the flesh and come to the world to endure much hardship and pain when He could easily destroy from heaven Satan’s works that are deemed to be from Him, through Him and allowed by Him? Furthermore, if God allowed it to happen, why would He destroy it?

 

Did Satan act only by God’s approval?

      If men do not have a clear understanding of their one and only enemy as well as the relationship between God and Satan, they would ultimately “conclude” that every hardship and injustice must come from and be approved by God, that He must somehow be the source of all evil! After all, one could argue that this loving God could have filled the whole world with goodness and peace by a single word of command, and yet He refused to do so! Not only that, He also “allowed” Satan to destroy His works and increase the pain of humankind, before binding Satan and casting him into the lake of fire for the very destructive works that He first “approved”. All this was God’s way of showing His “loving kindness” towards men! The relationship between men and God is thus farther estranged; men grow from loving God to hating God, to the extreme of driving God out of their lives, granting God a death sentence. In their indignation, they proclaim what seems to be the most forceful impact on this century’s thinking and societal trend – “everything is allowed!” (For since God has allowed Satan to commit such great evil, is there anything He could possibly disallow?) Consequently, the intimate relationship between God and men is destroyed.

      Facing such strong opposition and disgust against God, the Christian world - too deeply entrenched in their erroneous concept that “all Satan’s deeds are allowed by God” – had no way of standing up and rectifying this trend. They could only listen speechlessly as men began contending with them, saying that “Since I already asked for God’s permission 'beforehand’ and He personally permitted me to act in this way, how could He condemn me ‘afterwards’”? In the end, the Christian world lost the hearts of men, totally defeated.

      With such a chaotic state, it is no longer possible to use “the works of Satan” as an excuse. After all, did we not state that his works were allowed by God? It would actually be more fitting to call them "the works allowed by God"! In this case, who then is the “culprit” responsible for the chaos?

      If we do not have a clear understanding of Satan, we will be fighting a battle without knowing how to distinguish the banners. The enemy will be perceived as being under the command of God, and we will no longer know if Satan’s attack on the elect’s camps is self-initiated or by the order of the “same Lord Commander” for the purpose of training us. After a few rounds of combat, we are stranded and struggle to know if we should strike back; since “all things work for the good of one another and all things are under the good intent of God”, striking back may actually mean imposing “human will” to destroy “God’s good will”! Such hesitation and failure to separate the holy from the profane will eventually lead to confusion amongst God’s people, not recognizing the line dividing the enemy and ourselves. We are unable to unite in strength but are routed by the enemy who prowls and roars around us.

 

Is the saints’ trainer and manager named…“Satan”?

      What is the role of Satan, really? Is he there to help us or to oppose us? Is he God’s enemy or His partner? Does everything he do originate from his own destructive scheme or is everything initiated by God, who allows Satan to carry out His plan of training His saints? Does God really need Satan to stretch out his arm of destruction to “help” at the crucial moment, so that the work of “sanctifying the saints and perfecting the church” can be elevated? If that is the case, has not Satan, the enemy of God, virtually become the good helper of God, the requisite by which the saints may be sanctified? And in order to test the faithfulness of the saints (implying that God does not know anything about His saints and moreover does not trust them), has God purposely allowed Satan to test them?

      If the reality was really like this, how dreadful would the relationship between God and His saints be: After God has chosen His saints, He allows Satan to “tempt” them to gauge their loyalty. However, the outcome greatly disappoints God as He sees His saints succumb to temptation and blindly follow Satan, forgetting about the grace of salvation through His death! In a desperate attempt to save those who still have the hope of salvation and out of His love to save them from falling, God once again enlists the help of Satan to “train” them, so that in the midst of suffering they may awaken to remember the mighty grace of the Lord and quickly put on the full armor to fight against…Satan! Consequently, Satan has become a bridge connecting God and His saints. Without him, men might ask themselves how God may know the hearts of His disciples, and how God would train His saints?!

      Going back to the time when God and Satan were enemies, when in the struggle of life and death, the Lord Jesus Christ came to the world as flesh to suffer great humiliation and an agonizing struggle with death; His sweat dropped like blood, and in extreme hardship He redeemed His saints from Satan’s power of death with His life; through His precious blood, He purchased the church and is working to this day, determined to destroy the final enemy, Satan. He does this so that all things will be released from death and a new heaven and new earth will be revealed. But before long (and without any basis from biblical teaching), we start allying the two enemies as if they were friends: Satan has become the manager of God’s household, roaming the earth and seeking out saints who are weak and imperfect. He then struts liberally in and out of heaven to accuse before God the conditions of the saints’ spiritual lives he has observed. Next, he asks for permission to devour or chastise them. God listens to Satan’s report, and in order to “prove His justice” to Satan and to guarantee that He shows no partiality towards both His people and Satan so that Satan will have no excuse on the judgment day (Do many people not say so? They have all forgotten that if Satan were to question God – “Why is salvation only for the elect and not for Satan?” – how would God give account to Satan when faced with such an unjust salvation?), God fully agrees with Satan’s viewpoint and approves his plan. In this way, the two “spirits” meet up with each other numerous times a day and discuss their plans at anytime and anywhere, working closely together towards their common goal – whether it is for judgment or edification of the saints.

      Alas! Such a faith that confuses enemy for friend, how long must we insist on it? How long will we last before any harm comes to the church?

 

Is good accomplished through evil?

      In the light of these conjectures, it seems then that Satan’s existence is indispensable for the church to reach perfection. Without him, no other means are available to refine the saints. We have masked Satan’s rebellion and his destructive works with a sugar-coating of “God’s good intent”. Consider this: if Satan was truly indispensable in the sanctification of the saints, why did God manifest Himself for the purpose of destroying Satan’s works, if they were truly beneficial to the saints? Do we not all say that God refines the saints through Satan, that the more they are refined, the more perfect they will be? If that was true, why did the Lord declare: “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened”? Why did God say that those days will be shortened for “the elect’s” sake if the elect are supposed to achieve perfection through more and more trials? Would God not want them to become more perfect? Obviously, the Lord wants to convey to us that the Satan’s work centers around pulling us down to Hades, and that it has no effect whatsoever in helping us become sanctified! Otherwise, in a kingdom where Satan has been cast into the fiery lake and his existence is no more, people would reminisce about the days when Satan was around to help sanctify them. And consider this: in the new heaven and new earth of God’s kingdom, would not the angels, the ministering spirits, become unwatchful and idle in the absence of Satan’s “roaring” trials, unable to keep their proper domain and falling to become…?

      If we allow such a concept to continue, how are we to differentiate right from wrong, to be victorious in battle? People have almost completely forgotten that from the beginning, Satan did not come to help God refine His children. He was God’s enemy, a liar whose very intent was to create a rift in the relationship of the created and their Creator. They have forgotten that if Satan did not exist, there would be no temptation of sin and death; that men would not have to eat bread in the sweat of their faces and in the end return to the dust; that Christ would not have to suffer.

     We ought to be clear on this point: men do not need Satan in order to achieve perfection. On the contrary, men were originally good, but Satan’s temptation caused them to fall from being God’s sons to becoming sinners! Why then would God put His hope in Satan to refine the saints so they can reclaim their identity as sons of God?

 

II. Determination to overcome Satan

 

God created the heavens and earth to overcome Satan

   With reference to 2 Pet 3 and Revelations 21, the heaven above and the earth beneath us will be abolished at our Lord’s second coming. People may ask: Surely the all-wise and all-powerful God did not create the heaven and earth only to destroy it later? Surely its existence has no purpose? And surely God has not entrusted His creation with any specific mission? However, all these things are impossible! For by the “word” of God, the heaven and earth were made; the Bible tells us explicitly that the “word” of God goes forth from His mouth and shall not return to Him void, but shall prosper in the thing for which He sent it (Isa 55: 11)! Thus, the heaven and earth will finish their designated tasks and when the value of their existence is achieved, they will be replaced by the new heaven and the new earth.

      We already understand that the devil holds the power of death (Her 2: 14), and that “death” originated from outside of God’s creation. At the beginning of creation, God reminded Adam to guard himself against death (Gen 2: 16~17), but Adam and Eve were deceived and fell unto death, so death entered God’s creation and spread to all men (Rom 5: 12). According to Revelations 20, in the last days, God will cast Satan, death and Hades into the lake of fire and brimstone. And since “death”, this final enemy whom God has been determined to destroy (1 Cor 15: 26), will be overcome by the appearing of the Son of God, the heaven and earth will cease their work and fade from the presence of God. Then, a new heaven and a new earth will come down out of heaven from God. From these events, we can see a great transformation from the time of creation of the heaven and earth to the time of its abrogation: In Genesis, death already existed before the creation, and men had to guard themselves against it constantly; in Revelations, this scenario is replaced by a time when “death shall be no more”, where death has been destroyed (no more an entity) and thrown into the lake of fire. Consequently, from the creation and the destruction of the heaven and the earth, it is evident that the purpose of God’s creation was to destroy death, His enemy; in other words, to destroy the works of the devil! And the wisdom of God is displayed through the “appearing of the Son of God” to accomplish this arduous task!

      The creation of the heaven and earth was the first step to prepare for the appearance of the Son of God, and the first step where God overcame Satan!

 

Before creation, God had a plan to destroy the works of the devil through the manifestation of the Son

      According to (1 Jn 3: 8), “the Son of God was manifested for the purpose that He might destroy the works of the devil”, and in the book of Ephesians, apostle Paul also tells us that the plan of salvation through the appearance of the Son of God was already in place “prior to the creation” (Eph 1: 4). In other words, God had, “before creation”, planned for the manifestation of His Son to destroy the devil’s works so that we might be saved.

      However, what other entities existed before the creation apart from God? Under no circumstances could we claim that before creation, before any criminal records were written, and before a single created thing (such as the angels so often mentioned) had sinned to become Satan, God had prepared for the manifestation of the Son of God to destroy the works of Satan if such entity was not even in existence! Unless, of course, the devil did already exist before the creation, and was in rivalry with God, who therefore thought of a way – prior to creation - of destroying Satan by planning the manifestation of the Son! And for this purpose, God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it, so the Son of God could come in its midst to overcome Satan! That too would explain why God will abrogate the heavens and earth after Satan has been destroyed since it will have served its purpose, to be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth that will come down out of heaven.

      However, herein lies a problem: If the phrase “for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” rightly justifies the existence of Satan before the creation, people may refute it by referring to the salvation plan of God in Ephesians 1: 4: “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…”. If we use this argument, does it not imply that men actually existed before the creation and that they needed God’s salvation? For after all, we cannot argue that before God made Adam and before evil surfaced, God had “predestined” Adam to sin; and that God would then predestine Himself to “save” those whom He had predestined to be “born in sin” and also “predestined to be saved”!

      No, these are two separate issues: The works of Satan lie outside the works of God, for he is in opposition with God; the work of God, on the other hand, is the salvation of mankind. After Satan’s ploy had succeeded in entrapping the son of God, God “counterstriked” and claimed victory in His redemptive plan.

      By saying men needed salvation, we mean that “the works of Satan” had previously overcome mankind, and for that reason, men needed “the forgiveness of sins through the redemption in His blood” (Eph 1: 7). Hence, the statement: “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…” basically indicates that prior to the creation, God did not preclude the “possibility” of Adam being overcome by Satan; therefore, before God made the creation, and before Adam sinned, God opened for us a way by which we could become holy and blameless (Eph 1: 4; Heb 10: 20). In this “redemption” plan, God used a method similar to mending a broken net to overcome the destructive works of Satan!

 

God’s “omniscience and omnipotence” means He can overcome Satan in all his destructive works

      It is a biblical fact: God never “predestined” Adam to sin and his fall was not predestined in the plan of God. Just as the Israelites who, after forty years of wandering in the desert, perished under the rage of God. This failure did not come from God’s predestination but from the people’s own disbelief. God intended to lead His people on a smooth path to arrive safely in Canaan (Ex 13: 18), but the people did not believe and thus delayed the journey. Hence, this tragic delay did not spring from God’s “predestination”, but rather from the people’s own actions outside of God’s plan; and for disbelieving in God, they would have bear responsibility and suffer the punishment of a further forty years wandering in the desert (Heb 3: 7~11).

      God never “predestined” Adam to sin, but He did not preclude the possibility of Adam sinning. Indeed, in His command to Adam: “….you shall not eat, for when you eat of it you shall surely die”, God did not entirely rule out the “possibility” that Adam may rebel against His command. Adam’s action to “eat and die” was therefore not predestined by God; rather he was fighting a battle, of which the final outcome was a consequence of disobeying God’s command. Since God knew there was a possibility of Adam being deceived by the devil to go against His command, He naturally planned the “next move” based on this probability before He created Adam and before Adam would sin. His plan being: If Adam failed and was unable to overcome, God would personally come in the flesh to choose us in Christ.

      The duality of God’s preparation for all eventualities – in this case the two possible consequences of Adam eating and not eating the fruit - can be understood by viewing the relationship between God and the house of David. When God promised David that his house would be established forever before Him, He had already prepared within this promise a dual clause to ensure its fulfillment (2 Sam 7: 16). From history, we see that Solomon, David’s son, turned from the God who had appeared to him twice (his deviation was not predestined but was simply the result of sin), causing God to tear away part of the kingdom that He had given to David (1 Kgs 11: 9~13), even to the point where the entire kingdom was removed due to the many sins of David’s sons (2 Kgs 23: 26~27). However, God had also prepared Christ to come forth from the stem of Jesse (Isa 11: 1), and that He would be seated upon the throne of David and over his kingdom (Isa 9: 7). Thus, God was able to accomplish the promise he had made to David, whether or not David household succumbed to sin.

      Likewise, God created the world for the purpose of destroying Satan, who already existed prior to the creation. The plan before the creation was for Adam to overcome Satan; however, Adam was deceived and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; his failure brought sin and death into the world. Nonetheless, God’s plan to overcome Satan was not impeded, for God had prepared for the eventuality that Adam would sin: God would instead fulfill His plan through Christ’s resurrection and the church (Eph 3: 1~13; 4:8; 6: 10~17)! This is similar to God’s plan for the house of David, for before it was completely ruined by sin, God had anticipated its possibility and would raise up Christ to rebuild the fallen tent of David.

     We must concede that the spiritual warfare is not completely under the command of God, for Satan, the ruler of this dark domain, was powerful enough to oppose and destroy the works of God! God’s omniscience and omnipotence does not lie in being able to resolve all things instantly with a single word, yet willfully forsaking this power and letting things escalate to extreme complexity before deciding to consume all with fire; God’s omniscience and omnipotence actually means that no matter what method Satan uses to wreak destruction, God has made all the preparations “beforehand”, and is able to overcome him step by step until He can cast Satan into the lake of fire, to destroy his works completely and fulfill the kingdom of God with a new heaven and a new earth.

 

Backup preparation for salvation and the absolute determination of creation

      From the discussion above, we can understand how “before the foundation of the world, God chose us in Christ”; this statement refers to the plan of salvation, which differs from the plan of creation: “for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He may destroy the works of the devil”. The former plan was drawn up against the possibility of an occurrence; in this plan, God did not work alone but in cooperation with men. Strictly speaking, the role “for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He may destroy the works of the devil” was originally anticipated to be fulfilled by Adam, but his efforts resulted in failure. It did come to be accomplished, however, in Christ Jesus, the Son of God and is also relevant to us today, since we are born of God’s Spirit. He wants us to enjoy the glorious freedom as His children in destroying Satan’s works.

      As for “destroying the works of the devil”, God was targeting at the fact that Satan was opposing Him from “the beginning” and was destroying His works, and therefore He planned to destroy him. God had made this resolution even before the creation and this time He worked alone (e.g. in the creation of the heavens and earth). This plan does not concern the matter of possibility or command; when His time comes, God acts, just as He had, even when we were unable to match up with Him. For Paul said: “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5: 6).

 

III. If everything were of God’s doing…?

 

Was it God’s plan and did He know before the creation that the devil would change from good to evil?

      Now that we have the correct view concerning Satan, let us re-examine the deep-rooted concept that “Satan cannot do anything unless God allows it” and ascertain if there is any real value in its continued propagation.

      People generally perceive God as being omniscient and omnipotent, defining His “omniscience and omnipotence” as “the foreknowledge of everything, the ability to achieve everything easily (i.e. with just one word); that nothing will appear if God has not predestined it or nothing will come to pass if God has not allowed it”. Yet on numerous occasions, the Bible tells us how Satan destroyed and opposed the works of God! For instance, he deceived the elect to forsake God and worship idols, and even to oppose God when God Himself incited King Cyrus to rebuild the temple (Ezra 4: 24). Since the works of the omniscient and omnipotent God were obstructed, it signified that this Almighty God could not carry out His wish as planned. Certainly, this definition of “omniscience and omnipotence” is questionable. In an effort to defend the long-held concept of God’s omniscience and omnipotence in this controversy, people could only arrive at the one possible conclusion, that is to include Satan’s destructive works in God’s plan – after all, nothing would have appeared if God had not predestined it! They reckoned that Satan’s works were allowed by the “omniscient and omnipotent” God, given that nothing would have come to pass without God’s permission. In other words, in His plan, God must have arranged from the beginning for the degradation of some aspect of His beautiful creation to become Satan. Not only that, God must have also planned to allow the degenerated Satan to destroy His own works! Only in this way could everything proceed in accordance with the foreknowledge and plan of the Almighty. Thus, the term “omniscience and omnipotence” is justified.

      To put this widely-held concept in simpler terms:

      While God was “all alone” and nothing else existed, He generated a plan to perform some significant event to glorify Himself. How was He to achieve this? Why, by making a beautiful creation of course! And how was this creation to be constructed? It must contain considerable twists and turns, and be able to manifest God’s love and righteousness! Hence, in His beautiful plan of creation, God arranged the time of Satan’s appearance, and it came to pass. Therefore, under the foreknowledge of the omniscient and omnipotent God (or more appropriately, according to “plan”) and with His permission (again strictly speaking, more “according to plan” than with “permission”), Satan emerged from the creation in his degenerated form. Then, with the permission of God and according to plan, he came to destroy God’s beautiful creation. During this relentless destruction, God suddenly and swiftly steps in to deal Satan a deadly blow (this too was planned ahead). Nevertheless, the dying Satan would still return to heaven to request for an even more severe attack and rain of temptation on the saints, whom God had redeemed with His life. God would grant Satan’s request because He loved the saints. Thus, with God’s permission, Satan would put the saints through persecution and trials, resulting in many apostates. But unexpectedly, a minority of the saints (predestined to be saved) will be able to endure the persecution and become sanctified and perfect; they will mature and gain strength, turn and fight back. At this moment, God will again make His awesome appearance and cast Satan into a land of no return! He will completely remove from His creation the Satan whom He had already known about and approved in His plan. The creation will now come to an end. A new heaven and new earth will joyfully descend out of heaven, and for this, God will be glorified!

      This is how men have been entrapped in the concept that “unless God allows it, Satan can do nothing”. They neglected Biblical truth and, in a blind effort to defend the “omniscience and omnipotence” of God, redefined the “salvation plan of God” as well as “His love and righteousness” outside the remit of the Bible.

      People might still ask: if this was the case, what would have happened if God had not arranged for part of the creation to turn bad and become Satan (for surely nothing would appear without God’s predestination)? Would the whole creation not have fallen into a stale silence, unable to shine forth the wisdom of the omniscient and omnipotent God? Moreover, how was the creation supposed to have operated and developed? Under these circumstances, God would surely have had no idea of how to glorify Himself! In more direct terms, Satan had somehow become an indispensable leading actor of opposition in the beautiful plan of God, the plan of creation that God had formed for His own glory! Satan always seemed to appear at the right time, just when God needed a hand. He would be given the mission to wreak destruction and chaos throughout the whole creation, so that God’s great power to subdue disruption would be magnified, and that the difficulty for the saints to gain sanctification and victory and the treacherous path the church would take to achieve perfection are shown all the more. Because it had changed from good to bad and from bad to good again, the whole creation would bring to God the utmost glory!

 

A programmer who puts a virus into his own program?

      Saying that Satan is one of God’s creations is like saying an expert computer programmer tries to magnify himself by designing an extremely complex and perfect program. He thinks to himself: If the product comes out perfect in the first instance, then no one would appreciate the trouble he has taken in the design process and acknowledge how great he is (yet who else is there besides him, unless it’s the entity he planned to incorporate into the program?!); therefore, after he introduces the entity (let’s call him “Buzz”), he puts in files that contain the virus and antivirus.

      In the beginning, the programmer stands before his beautiful brain-child, and puts Buzz in charge of the program’s whole operation. Then, in the name of love, he gives to Buzz another entity called “Honey", who is capable of getting the virus. After that, the programmer allows the virus which he created and allowed to overcome Honey to work on her and then pass it on to Buzz. Hence, over a considerable amount of time, the virus begins to wreak havoc on the whole operation of the program, to the point of almost killing the program. In the nick of time, the antivirus suddenly starts working automatically and, with much trouble and difficulty, launches a counter-attack, completely destroying the virus and eliminating it from the program. The program is restored and a halo was put around it to signify a job well done. Finally, the programmer proudly announces, “Behold! What a great plan! In it, how I have shown my love and justice to Buzz and Honey! Without me, they would have been completely destroyed by the virus” (hush, never tell them that the virus was predestined by me to come about and allowed by me to overcome them). “Look! I have triumphed with my might and power over the most deadly virus (which I designed and controlled). I saved the whole program as well as Buzz and Honey! This is my omniscience and omnipotence! This is my wisdom! This is the glory I deserve!”

      To say that Satan came from God’s creation is to liken God to that very programmer. In His beautiful creation of the world, He implanted the root of destruction to creation and arranged the conditions for the appearance of the devil, so he could emerge to destroy God’s creation. After that, He personally became the flesh by the Word, and died on the cross in agony to destroy the enemy, the very Satan who had originated from Him and who was created by Him, the Satan He had predestined and allowed to destroy His own works! If that was true, what kind of “beautiful” creation would that be? What kind of “love” and “righteousness” and “faith” is that?

      And, if all this is true, God should have been glad after including the destructiveness of Satan in His plan to see that the plan followed through dutifully. Why then was He crushed when the people (allowed by Him) were deceived to turn from Him (Ezek 6: 9)? Why was He astonished (it was after all programmed to happen) when the elect became impassive (Isa 59: 16)? Why was He enraged over the stiff-necked people (again designed according to His plan) and swore in His wrath that they were not to enter His rest (Heb 3: 7~11)? Was this not already predestined to be? And why did He question Paul, right after He had given Satan permission to persecute the church: “Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?” Imagine if Paul had casually answered: “O Lord, before the creation, You prepared and knew about this plot. And now the time has come, as you planned, for Satan to make his request, which You have just granted, the request to incite me to do what I have done. How could You have forgotten?” Who could have argued that Paul was wrong?

      The works of Satan entrap all things in death and crush the spirit of God (Ezek 6: 9). The world falls short of God and slander His name, but nothing is more offensive than to say that Satan, the enemy and the source of evil whom God overpowered after much shame and disgrace by becoming flesh Himself, was designed by God - the omniscient and omnipotent God who “knows the past, controls the present and foretells the future”!

      Alas! Sayings like “Why else would Judas have betrayed the Lord, unless God had allowed it?” that “Judas’ betrayal of the Lord was part of the salvation plan before God’s creation!”, and “Good comes from doing evil” all slander and smear the name of God, making Him look the fool. When will it all end?

 

What kind of message is that conveying?

      Taking a further look at the notion “unless God allowed it, Satan could do nothing”, we can imagine that God must have given the devil(s) a multiple use permit with no expiry date so that he may use it anytime he wishes against any thing, matter or man; otherwise they would have been busy lining up at the gate of heaven daily, going in and out to apply for permits from God, without which they would not be able to execute their destructive work. The permits give them the authority to impede the numerous souls who are prepared to be saved, to dissipate the determination of the many who have put on Christ to keep the Lord’s command, and to destroy the hundreds of divine works in progress. Sometimes their destructive work meets with unexpected success (and they are amazed, because after all, they do not know God’s program. God, on the other hand, already saw it coming). Thus, they run to heaven several times a day to request permission to wreak further destruction, each time more vicious than the last. God in turn has to meet them each day, and especially on the Sabbath since the cases to be dealt with (devils' applications to prevent saints from keeping the Sabbath) are particularly numerous! God is constantly in dialog with Satan, telling him what he can or cannot do (just like people’s assumptions about the book of Job)!

      What is hard to comprehend is that the God who knows the future would clearly perceive one of His children on the verge of falling and foresee that he or she would be unable to withstand a single blow. Yes He not only refrains from sending an angel to protect the weak child but also gives Satan the “permit” to go and devour his/her spiritual life! Besides being astonished, people can only say “this is the foreknowledge and predestination of the omniscient and omnipotent One”!

      In fact, are these actually our ignorant thinking or are they really the foreknowledge and predestination of the true God who is loving and righteous? If the latter is indeed true, it would mean that at the time of baptism, a certain person - convinced that s/he is now freed from the bondage of sin - will rejoice at entering the salvation grace, little knowing that it is all just a beautiful illusion of predestination. Because in actuality, the God who sees the future “had known” even before He washed away the person’s sin with His precious blood, that on a certain day, month and year, Satan would seize the opportunity as God had “predestined” to ask for His permission to devour the victim. When the time comes, everything will go according to God’s foreknowledge. God will therefore generously grant Satan permission and allow him (also through his power) to devour this person who was not originally predestined to receive salvation! Not only that, since the subject had been predestined to enter the household of God “by mistake” and in order to fulfill the plan that “s/he will have no part in salvation”, the subject will surely commit, under Satan's deception allowed by God, a sin that has been foreknown by God long ago. Moreover, this person will receive his/her due punishment from God for "willfully" committing such a sin!

      In the person’s life, there is time to laugh (thinking that s/he would be saved) and a time to cry (receiving the final punishment). All this happens just because God had predestined not to choose him/her in Christ Jesus long before the creation. However, He also predestined him/her to get a taste of salvation, before snatching away this grace in His anger!

      How sad! This message of “love and righteousness” is widely spread because men are so determined to establish Satan’s works as being under God’s control: Satan’s works are allowed by the omniscient and omnipotent God, he must therefore be executing God’s plan; everything must come out of God’s good intent! This misunderstanding of God and the devil and the disregard of God’s proclamation: “They set up kings, but not by Me; they made princes, but I did not acknowledge them” (Hos 8: 4) have done the innocent God a great injustice.

 

IV. Omniscience and Predestination

Would the “omniscient” God bring about “predestination” when He “has no idea” how men would exercise their freedom of choice?

      Certainly people will refute: “God has predestination; except that His final decision is based on men’s choices!” Our response is based on one simple truth: Since God is ‘omniscient’, there is nothing He ‘does not know’; if one claims that ‘predestination’ is a decision the ‘omniscient’ God has made beforehand, then this ‘predestination' must have come about only after all the future possibilities have been factored in before He made up His mind, and as such, there should be no possibility of ‘amendment’;  or else wouldn’t we be saying that the omniscient God did not know in advance how men would make their choices, and that He had no option but to make amendment to His predestination according to the decisions of men?

      No matter how men insist that out of His love, God gave men “free will”, it has not occurred to them that such a concept of “free will” is actually forcing the omniscient God to admit that He is incapable of controlling and predicting men’s choices made by their “free will”! As a result, He has to wait for men to make their decisions by their “free will” before He “decides”. If that was true, consider the numerous “freedom of choice” men would have to face in their lives! And the omniscient and omnipotent God will have to stand at every decision-making crossroads to await men’s decisions by their free will, before He can decide what to do with them. This leads to the question what exactly had God “predestined” before the creation, before men even had the freedom to act? What foreknowledge did the omniscient God really possess? Since the omniscient God “fails to know” beforehand the choices of men by their “free will”, it would mean He is not “omniscient” at all.

      Hence, we cannot claim that God’s predestination changes according to men’s free will decision on what is right and wrong. We can never say the omniscient God has no idea beforehand whether men will choose the “right” or the “wrong” decision! Since God foreknew that decision, He would not, therefore, alter the “predestination” He had decided based on all the known factors He collected. Or else, are we not saying God has no foreknowledge in men’s decision making, and that He is forced to either confirm or amend the “predestination” He decided after men has made their choices?

      Problem is, we believe everything is under the omniscient God’s control and they can only be accomplished by His permission. We acknowledge that from the beginning to the end of creation, all things whether good or bad are progressing precisely according to God’s predestined will, including of course the appearing and work of Satan, as well as the rebellion and destruction of mankind!

      Such a distorted view that has entrapped many into believing that “Satan cannot do anything unless God allows it” and has blindly defended God’s “omniscience and omnipotence attributes” outside the biblical realm is an erroneous concept that we best discard for now. Let us return to the Bible and start from the beginning to see how God looked at this problem.

 

God Said: “This doing, was not by Me”

      God said: “Woe to the rebellious children, who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;” (Isa 30: 1) The statement is clear. It was not of God’s “predestination” or “permission” that the Israelites sought alliance with Egypt. They did it as they saw fit and disregarded God. Consequently, God would punish them as they had added upon themselves sin to sin.

      We must confidently accept God’s proclamation: “They set up kings, but not by Me; they made princes, but I did not know it” (Hos 8: 4 French Pleiase Version’s original translation: Eux ils ont fait un roi, a mon issu; ils ont fait un prince et je ne le savais pas). We do not need to try very hard to alter its original meaning to fit the preconception of “omniscience”.

      The Lord Jesus also said: “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you…Yet because you are not of the world…therefore the world hates you. He who hates Me, hates My Father also…They hated Me without a cause” (Jn 15: 18-26). This explains that the hatred of “evil” towards the “Father” certainly did not come from the permission or predestination of the Father. Similarly, the same hatred for the Lord and His disciples also came from evil itself and had nothing to do with God the Father. This hatred was not of the Father or of His permission; it was purely because the disciples were not of the evil one!

      Having understood that hatred for the believers came from evil himself and was not granted by God, people may suddenly lose the reliance of "if God allows it to happen, it must be out of His good intent", fearing this hatred would spoil the good intent of God's salvation. However,  we can take heart because the Lord said, "In the world you will have tribulation (because of the attacks of the evil one); but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (Jn 16: 33). The Lord has overcome the evil one. He is the source of our strength and comfort, and will give peace to those in tribulation who are willing to oppose hatred by relying on Him.

      We must know the difference between "the inevitable encounter" and "the works allowed by God", so that we can courageously fight in the battle. Indeed, men mature through training in spiritual warfare, just as the Lord Jesus Christ has learnt obedience by the things He suffered (Heb 5: 8). Likewise, only through exercise in spiritual warfare can a man learn to be skilful in discerning good from evil (Heb 5: 14). However, the Lord suffered not because God wanted to train Him, thus allowing Satan to test Him and to make Him cry aloud, praying in tears; rather, the Lord's encounter of agony was an "inevitable" opposition on the path of accomplishing salvation! Let us understand clearly that attacks of the evil one would not come from God's "permission with good intent" to "train" us; rather, we would "inevitably encounter" them in our journey of faith. It is Satan himself who would take the "initiative" to oppose God and His saints. With this in mind, we must rely on the Lord who has overcome the evil one, to oppose him with faith and courage in order that we may claim victory over him! Otherwise, when we are faced with the temptation of the evil one, we will embrace the idea that nothing will be accomplished without God's consent, and therefore try to counsel with Egypt, thinking that if God is not pleased with it, it will not accomplished; and if it is successful it must be from God. That would be adding sin onto sin!

 

V. Satan's unrestricted initiatives

Satan is not restrained by God; he took the initiative to roam the earth and sow the weed

      Chapter 2 of the book of  Job records the dialogue between God and Satan. It strongly depicts Satan as independent of God: "God asked Satan: From where do you come? Satan replied: From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it. God asked: Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause". We cannot, in order to defend the concept of "all things are from God", disregard all consequences and say it was God who sent Satan as a supervisor to walk about the earth and watch the action of His people! More so, it is wrong to argue, based on the saying "Satan incited God" (God said: You incited Me), that it was God who made Satan do that! No, all these actions only illustrate Satan's "evil" deeds were independent of God and they were of his own initiatives.

      Furthermore, Peter's view also differed from the deep-rooted concept of "unless God allows, Satan could not do anything". Peter wrote and exhorted the dispersed brethren: "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith…" (1 Pet 5: 8~9), from which we can see Satan's destructive power of his own initiative; and the disciples' duty to counter-attack proactively.

      The Lord Jesus also gave the parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while he slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way…the servants of the owner asked: Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? He said to them: An enemy has done this…" ( Mt 13: 24~28). Then the Lord explained the parable: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil…" (Mt 13: 37~39). It clearly tells us that the devil is the Lord's enemy and his action is not under God's control. He roams the earth and when men sleep, he seizes the opportunity to act relentlessly and does not need any approval from his "enemy" (on the other side, God is of course his enemy)!

      As well, the recording in the gospel of Matthew states: "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first" (Mt 12: 43~45). Here we can also witness the power of the devil, which brought destruction by his "own initiative". In order to fend off this attack, we need to quickly invite God into our heart, which has been cleansed, and not to leave the "room" empty. Instead, let it be filled with God's grace and truth, not leaving any room for the devil. The evil spirits went and took with him other spirits more wicked than himself, which had absolutely nothing to do with God's permission. When a man is careless and falls into temptation, he cannot make excuses and blame it on God's permission (Jas 1: 13)!

      From the above verses, we know that as Satan is not restrained by God, he is able to roam the earth "ceaselessly" and "constantly" looking for victims to devour, to the point that he went to heaven and combat with God's angels! If Satan had no power to attack on his own, would not this  make God a murderer of the believers behind the scene? Furthermore, when the Lord Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane, He was "troubled and deeply distressed, His soul was extremely sorrowful, even to death" (Mk 14: 33~34). Why was that? Was it because God had "allowed" it? Why would God allow Satan to come and torture Himself, who incarnated as the flesh? And if that was of God's permission, why would this God-incarnate grieve to the point of death when He was faced with the greatest challenge that He Himself had permitted and limited (just as the trial of Job)? Also, why would He cry out to the Father three times to take the bitter cup (the cup that He Himself had allowed Satan to bring Him and knew very well the strength of its bitterness) away from Him? 

      How bad can men humiliate God than to perceive the struggle in the garden of Gethsemane, the agony on the cross, the life-and-death battle  between good and evil, as a drama directed and played by  God Himself and think that God had initiated the whole thing, that without His permission, Satan would not even have a part in it!

 

Satan being “bound” by God does not mean he is “restrained”

      At this point, people will refute by quoting from Revelation “…who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more ….” (Rev 20: 2~3) and say that Satan’s action is “restricted” by God. Since Satan is restrained by God, he would not be able to act without God’s permission! In actuality, we must recognize that “restraint” is built upon “obedience”. In other words, he “is able to” do what he wants, but God “restrains” him from doing so (just as the government putting on a speed limit for automobiles, expecting the public to obey it).

      If we say, “Because Satan’s action is restricted by God, he cannot do anything to us”, then under such circumstance we must admit that Satan is more obedient than God’s people who are restricted “not to do this and not to do that”! For the elect never heeded God’s warnings, let alone His restrictions. They continued to do as they pleased. God rebuked His people through prophet Jeremiah: “Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not; Do you not fear me, says the Lord. ‘Will you not tremble at My presence, Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, yet they cannot prevail; though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it. But this people have a defiant and rebellious heart; they have revolted and departed. They do not say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear the Lord our God…’”(Jer 5: 21~24) From that we can see that Satan is more God-fearing than His people! If we insist that Satan does not do the evil things he originally wanted to do because he is “restrained” by God, then we ought to admit the fact that Satan is more God-fearing than His people, and only under this fact can it become truly possible for Satan not to do anything God “restrains” him to do. How absurd that is!

      The reason why the aforementioned verse from Revelation would be raised by people for refuting purposes is because they had not realized the difference between “being restrained” and “being bound”. “Being bound” denotes the state of “being overcome and having no power to act”; regardless how unwilling or how disobedient the party is, it is no longer up to him! Furthermore, Revelation mentions that Satan was bound so that he would not deceive “the nations”. After one thousand years, he will be released to go out and deceive “the nations which are in the four corners of the earth”, to gather them together to surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Rev 20: 7~8). What that means is that during the thousand years, Satan is bound in the matter of “deceiving the nations” and unable to gather them for battle with the saints; it does not mean he is restrained in his attack of the saints! No, the Bible says that even in the millennium when the saints are reigning with Christ, Satan continues to persecute the saints, for after Christ is crowned King He presses on to triumph over all His enemies, until He destroys “death” in the end (1 Cor 15: 24~26).

 

Face the reality: “What God forbids will still happen; What God purposes will still not come about”

      Thinking “what God forbids will not happen” is similar to saying that “everything that happens is the will of God” – a worrisome mindset in terms of faith. That kind of faith often simplifies itself to the point of completely excluding “men”, believing strongly that all occurrences are from God and done in His way; men, angels, and the devils are the passive players as planned. Their every demeanour will absolutely not be accomplished unless God allows so. No matter what they do, they can never change what God wants to do; as a result, the view of “Unless God willing, it…” often surfaces.

      But what did Peter say? He said, “Satan walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, stand fast in the faith”. From this statement, we observe that the crux of the problem does not lie in God’s permission; rather it depends on men’s willingness. If men are willing to take courage to resist the devil, then the devil will surely flee. This is further clarified by understanding that what the devil is seeking are not “men handed over to him by God”, but “those whom he can devour”; what Satan cannot devour are not men withheld by God, but those who are willing to resist him in faith. God has accomplished His work of overcoming Satan and opened a victorious way for men; what is left is up to “men” themselves. As long as men are willing (the Lord was willing long ago and had done His part of the work) to resist him, Satan will surely run away (James 4: 7)!

      In fact, we can divide God’s work into two aspects. One aspect involves God Himself, in which case God can do whatever He plans to do “when the time comes” (for instance, the birth and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus). The other aspect involves the coordination of God and men, in which case God cannot just do as He pleases. It involves a triangle relationship between God, man and Satan (Ezek 16). In this aspect, God has His “forbiddance” as well as His “willingness”; but due to men’s disobedience Satan can easily foil God’s “forbiddance” and “willingness” that He has for men! Is not the Bible a recording of such nature in the history of the elect? Time and time again God forbid the elect to worship the idols, and what was the outcome? Did they obey just because God had forbidden it? On the other hand, God is very willing for all men to be saved, but what will happen then? Would all men be saved just because God is very willing?

      If we oversimplify faith and become habitual to say that “it all depends on God, everything has God’s good intent” or “if God willing, surely…”, the result will be the gradual weakening of the divine work. What hides behind this saying is neither faith nor entrustment but an excuse of forgetting one’s responsibility. We have forgotten that the problem is no longer on God who had prepared everything beautiful for us but on “man”! While we say: “it all depends on God”, God would be saying: “it all depends on you”! While we say: “if God willing”, God would be saying: “if you are willing” (Isa 30: 15~16). In this wait and see, all the good works will eventually seize in a state of “I look at you and you look at me”, giving Satan ample room to move! Did the elect not fall into this confusion during the rebuilding of the temple? They reckoned that God’s time had not come, so they stopped working. However, at the same time God had been waiting for them to go up to the mountains and bring wood to build the temple (Hag 1: 2~8)!

      Only after men have prepared and served with all their heart, soul, mind and strength are they qualified to say “it all depend on God; may His will be done”; and only in this instance do we discover that indeed, what God forbids will truly not happen; and what God purposes will truly realize!

 

What fellowship has righteousness with wickedness? / Discussing “evils”

       Since reality has told us: What God forbids will still happen and what God purposes will still not be done; we should know there truly is an adversary of God with power great enough to oppose the fulfilment of God’s will. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: “What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial (alias of Satan)?” (2 Cor 6: 14~15). He hit the nail on the head, revealing the truth of enmity between Christ and Satan. The two opposing good and evil will never be intertwined and “yoked together”! Hence, it is extremely slanderous and erroneous to say that God works "through” Satan’s evil in order to fulfill His will and plans.

      The reason why for a long time these two spirits of discord have been put together to give rise to the cognition that “God allows Satan to do this and that” is because men have neglected the responsibilities of a “man”; they have forgotten that faith is actually a battle, and that on the journey of faith encounter with Satan’s opposition is a natural thing. They have also overlooked the fact that Satan has the power to act independently.

      One factor that helped pass down continually this incorrect concept is men's understanding that all “evils” recorded in the Bible are from Satan. That if God decides to carry out “discipline, punishment or trials”, He has to seek out the evil of Satan to assist Him, to use the evil of Satan to accomplish His goal and to allow Satan to carry out the work. They have failed to realize that God would also use “evil” to repay “evil men” who practice wickedness!

 

Key Concept: Not all “evils” come from Satan. God will repay “the wicked” with “evil”

       Paul wrote to exhort the believers: “Repay no one evil for evil…Do not avenge yourselves”. He comforted them with the verse from Deuteronomy “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Rom 12: 17~19; Deut 32: 35). As well, through prophet Jeremiah the words of God came to the false prophets who prophesied in His name: “I will pour their wickedness on them” (Jer 14: 16); David wrote in Psalm: “And with the devious, You will show Yourself cunning” (Ps 18: 26). These verses show a distinction between what God demands of men and what He demands of Himself: God wants men to not only refrain from avenging themselves by “repaying evil for evil”, He also wants them to exercise the command of “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink (Prov 25: 21). If this is the case, does it not mean the wicked will always be “well” treated under the command of God? Then how would God manifest His righteousness? No, the evils of the wicked will eventually meet up with God’s “evil”. God is not human, and if humans repay evil for evil, they will entrap themselves in a vicious cycle of evil for evil. But God will display His judgment and righteousness with the means of “evil for evil”. The evil that God pours on the wicked will disable them from opposing God with evil. The hell – the most evil place –that God has prepared for the devil and his messengers says it all (Mt 25: 41).

       By saying that God will “repay evil for evil”, do we mean that God, in whom there is no darkness, would harbour the thought of evil? Or else how would this thought of “evil for evil” be even conceived? The key to solving this question lies in the understanding that God’s “evil” is different from the “evil” of the wicked. Although the two words are similar, their meanings are completely different. The evil of the wicked and the evil of repaying evil for evil by the common people are one uniform action that is against the will of God. They first harbour the “evil thoughts”, then they act; while the evil from God is one hundred percent the work of God, through which He executes punishment; it is a link of “justice” within God’s thoughts of brightness.

       David praised God with psalm: "With the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself cunning” (Ps 18: 26; 2 Sam 22: 27); Paul also stated that to those who did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God would punish them by “giving them over” to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting (Rom 1: 28); as for “the lawless who acted according to the working of Satan”, “God shall send them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess 11~12).

       This “delusion” comes absolutely not from the evil of Satan. Even though this “delusion” is “evil”, it comes from the righteous judgment of God who is light and just. It is the way how God repays the devious with deceptiveness; it is an immediate punishment that is as harsh as the burning fire in hell to the lawless who follow the working of Satan, so that those who delight in unrighteousness will be condemned more than the unbelievers.

 

The evil of God is the immediate judgment; the evil of Satan is the destruction against God

       All along we have inherited a very erroneous concept from the traditional Christian thinking: God will send and allow Satan to punish mankind and try His elect! No, what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Why would God send the tempter to tempt the tempted? Does the Bible not tell us that only the anointed are qualified to execute God’s works? Why then would God send the opposing spirit, the very evil devil, to carry out His judgment?

       Before Joshua’s departure from the world, he summoned all Israel’s elders, the heads, the judges and the officers, and said to them: “I am going the way of all the earth…Therefore it shall come to pass, that as all the good things have come upon you which the Lord your God promised you, so the Lord will bring upon you all evil things, until He has destroyed you from this good land which the Lord your God has given you” (Jos 23: 15). As direct as how blessings come from God, so will the “evils” come directly from God. The “evil” of punishment comes entirely from God’s own will and means; it does not come through the hands of Satan.

       History also revealed that the deluge of Noah, fire of Sodom and the quake in the desert were all of God’s direct judgment. God did not and would not execute the judgment of “evil” through Satan; at the end of Israel’s kingdom, the people’s extreme evil doings provoked God to hand them over to the hands of the Gentile king (Isa 47: 6), repaying their “evil” with “evil”. This king was not the devil but a servant sent by God Himself (Jer25: 9)!

       Again, the Bible says that God personally sent the “destroyer” to strike the firstborn of the Egyptians (Ex 12: 23), and this “destroyer” is referred as the “evil angels” by the psalmist (Ps 78:49). Although they were called the “evil angels”, they were fully of God and had nothing to do with Satan.

       Similarly, God caused the serpent to enter the elect’s camp to chastise them. He also struck the people with plague (2 Sam 24: 15). We cannot argue that the angels of death, the serpent and the plague were all the works of Satan or his incarnation! In actuality, those were the immediate righteous judgment whereby God repaid the wicked with their own evils (Jer 14: 16)!

       In addition, we must remember the following concept: Do not think that the judgment of God will be fulfilled only on the last day, and therefore no matter how wicked men are, they still have a chance to be saved as long as they are still alive. The Bible tells us just the opposite! Many judgments are being done at this very moment on this very day. Those who do not like to retain God in their knowledge have no hope of salvation even though they live. And as they do not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God punishes them immediately by sending them a strong delusion, so that they may not discern right from wrong; consequently, they will no longer be able to receive the truth (2 Thess 2: 10). Not only that, though, God will also give them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting so that on the day of judgment, they will receive the final and the harshest judgment of “eternal death” (Rom 1: 21~32)!

 

Verses where “the evil of judgment” are misinterpreted as “the evil of wickedness”

       If we understand clearly the actions of God to: “repay evil for evil”, “be devious to the devious”, “repay with vengeance”, and “pour the evils of the wicked on the wicked”, and if we know that the “evil” of God is for the purpose of overcoming the evils of the wicked, which is God’s righteous judgment by His own measure, while the evil of Satan is the “great evil” of opposing God that is by Satan’s own doing and to destroy God's good works; and when we look back to the verses that have previously confused us, we will now realize their real implications.

 

The impact of beliefs on the wording in translation

       Before we delve into the biblical recordings concerning “God” and the “evil spirit”, we ought to be aware that due to their own concepts of faith, translators would often translate verses accordingly. For verses that are clearly worded, but with meanings differing from their own beliefs, translators would do some polishing out of goodwill or give it some speculation. For instance, Acts 2 said: “speak with other tongues”. The advocates for “speaking in tongues is the evidence of receiving the Holy Spirit” would translate this phrase into “speak in tongues” while others who disagree would reluctantly translate it as “speak in other languages”; or, as Paul encouraged the Ephesians’ Elders before his departure: “…(ought) to shepherd the church of “God”, which He (God) purchased with His own blood (Acts 20: 28), many authoritative versions translated the word “God” into “Lord” to steer clear of problems that may arise from the faith of Trinity by avoiding making “God the Father” appear to be the one who shed blood. Aside from this, John 1:18 said: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him”. Do you know the word “Son” of the “only begotten Son” is actually translated as “God” according to the original text? That is to say, at least it should be translated as “No one has seen God at any time. God, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” – this is in consistency with “the Word is God” and “the Word became flesh”! If this verse were not impacted by the idea of Trinity but was translated exactly from its original text, it would have strongly substantiated the belief of “One True God”!

       By the same token, the concept of “Satan’s actions are all allowed by God” has been in circulation for a long period of time, and has been deeply embedded in the mind of Christians that it more or less has influenced the translators in their translations. This is especially reflected in the translation on the passage concerning “the evil ‘spirit’ from God came upon Saul”.

       We pointed out the reality in this manner not to despise or doubt the sincerity of the translators in their “loyalty toward the original text” (we can never thank them enough and have great respect for them), nor do we imply that the translated versions are not trustworthy (in fact they are top-notch linguists and very few people in the same field would excel them); rather, we are just pointing out that any translator with a preconceived mind when faced with “difficult” verses will inevitably let his opinion influence the direction he takes in his work.

       Fortunately, with today’s advanced technology, virtually everyone has access to the original text and is able to obtain the most appropriate and neutral explanation for every word in the Bible. Also, there are various authoritative versions we can parallel reference to see the different takes of different translators. All these serve as a great help for us who resolve to “return to the Bible”.

       Since our only basis is the Bible, with regard to translations (especially the difficult verses) we need to first go back to the closest meanings to the original text before we proceed to expound it in plain language.

 

1.  David took Census and the people were punished (2 Sam 24: 1; 1 Chro 21: 1)

       (2 Sam 24: 1) and (1 Chron 21: 1) were two separate recordings of David’s taking a census of the people. 2 Sam stated: “Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah…”; 1 Chro wrote: “Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel…” Here we have one story with two different sources of calamity, causing men to wonder if the incident was of God’s doing or Satan’s? In the end, a mutual consensus was reached: “God allowed Satan to….”.

       First, we have to understand the precursor of the calamity was due to the people doing wicked things that displeased God. Thus, God was provoked to anger and wanted to chastise the Israelites (not David) with “evil” whereby He moved David to number Israel. But since it was clearly stated here that this was of “God’s doing”, why is there another recording that said this incident was of “Satan’s doing"? Are “God” and “Satan” merely thousands of miles apart?

       In order to explain questions of such nature, we can obtain from the Bible a clear answer from the experiences of King Solomon and Balaam: In 1 King 11: 14, it was written King Solomon had turned his heart from the Lord God who had appeared to him twice, so God raised up an adversary (“Satan” in the original text) against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite). As well, the incident of Balaam tells us: As Balaam was determined to go and curse the Israelites, God was enraged and sent an angel to stop Balaam who was riding on a donkey: “And the angel of the Lord took His stand in the way as an adversary (original text “Satan”) against him (Numb 22: 22).

       Point to consider: If our mother tongue were the original language of the Bible, and we read only the original text, do we insist every word that spelled “god” means the “true God”? No, the word “god” also referred to many false gods. Similarly, one who reads only the original text will not jump to say, as soon as he sees the word “Satan”, that this word refers to the adversary of God! No, there are many words spelled “Satan” in the original text, but they absolutely do not refer to “Satan God’s adversary”. In the verses concerning King Solomon and Balaam, it is obvious that the word “Satan” does not mean Satan God’s adversary; rather, it refers to God’s way of punishing the wicked with “evil”! Also, the Philistine princes were angry with Achish for wanting to bring David along when they went to battle with Saul. He said to Achish: “…lest in the battle he become our adversary (original text ‘Satan’)…” (1 Sam 29: 4), the Satan here does not mean God’s adversary either.

       Thus, based on how God sent an angel to pose as the adversary (Satan) to chastise King Solomon and Balaam, we now turn back to read 2 Sam 24 “the anger of God was roused against Israel, and He moved David….” We can then quickly understand that the “Satan” mentioned in 1 Chro 21: 1 was not Satan God’s adversary! The actual story is: God was angry with the Israelites, so in order to punish them, He raised up His angel as the adversary (Satan) to incite David to number Israel and sinned against God, in order that the people would receive their due punishment.

       This Satan was not that Satan. This Satan (evil) came from God’s way to accomplish His will! Concerning that Satan (the evil one), he worked on his own accord to destroy the will of God! Therefore, this story of numbering the people was absolutely not an act of God through Satan (His adversary)”; rather, it was initiated by God Himself.

 

2.    God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of  
       Shechem (Judg 9: 23)

       Judges 9 recorded the incident where Abimelech hired reckless men to kill the seventy sons of Gideon and his accomplice the Shechemites crowned him king. After reigning Israel for three years, God wanted to repay what the “evil” Abimelech and the Shechemites had done, which was the slaying of his seventy brothers (9: 3~5), so He sent “an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem” (Judg 9: 23). Here we see traces of conceptual influence on the work of translation: The original text said “evil spirit or evil mind”, but the New International Version of the Chinese Bible translates it into “the evil devil”. A discrepancy of even one word can surely deviates its meaning from the original text, causing an overall misinterpretation of the whole context. The proper translation should read: “God sent a spirit of evil mind (ill will) between Abimelech and the men of Shechem”.

       As the “evil” of God’s righteous judgment had manifested, the men of Shechem dealt treacherously with Abimelech (23), inciting Abimelech to chase after the Shechemites to the point he burned their city. However, while he was on his way to attack another city, a woman dropped a millstone from the tower and crushed his skull; ashamed of dying in the hands of a woman, he asked a young man to thrust him through.

       The biblical conclusion to this passage is: “Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers. And all the evil of the men of Shechem God returned on their own heads (9: 56~57).

       It is evident that the “evil spirit” contained in this passage does not refer to the spirit from Satan the adversary; rather, it was the “evil” from God with which He repaid Abimelech and the men of Shechem for their evil deed; He caused them to deal treacherously and harbour evil thoughts towards each other. This is the judgment of God where “to the devious, He showed Himself cunning”. As devious as Abimelech and the men of Shechem treated Abimelech’s seventy brothers, so did God deviously treated them, repaying them for what they deserved in their life time.

 

3.    God let a lying spirit to be in the mouth of the false prophet (1 Kg 22: 22)

       King Ahab coveted Naboths vineyard and Queen Jezebel schemed of a false accusation against Naboth to have him stoned to death outside the city. And so King Ahab took Naboth’s vineyard.

       God sent Prophet Elijah to rebuke the evil deed of Ahab and prophesy that Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah would ally with him in the battle against the Arameans. All the prophets said: “The Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king” except for Micaiah who said to the king: “Hear the word of the Lord; I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said: ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up so that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said: ‘I will persuade him’. The Lord said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said: ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets’. And the Lord said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so’. Therefore look! The Lord (has put) a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster (evil) against you”…Ahab died in the battle, and the dogs licked up his blood just as what the Lord had spoken through Prophet Elijah (1 Kg 22: 38).

       This story is also a typical example of “to pour their evil upon them” and “to repay evil for evil”. Here God did not put Satan or the spirit of the evil one in the mouth of the prophet because the spirit said: “my God declares: ‘To the pure You will show Yourself pure, to the devious You will show Yourself cunning’” (Ps 18: 26), and "I will be a lying spirit”. In other words, the spirit itself was not a lying spirit, but in order to repay the evil of Ahab, he would become a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets, to persuade Ahab to go to war and get what he deserved. This echoes the saying “God will send them a “strong delusion” that they should believe a lie (2 Thess 2: 11).

 

4.    The evil spirit from God was upon Saul (1 Sam 16~19)

       Prior to studying this story, we must again emphasize one fact: God will send the spiritual (evil angels) to punish the wicked (Ps 78: 49), and although it was addressed as the “evil angel”, it is certainly not referring to Satan; rather, he was just like the “destroying angel” who was sent to strike the Egyptians’ first born before the people left Egypt (Ex 12: 23). He was absolutely the servant of God and from God, having nothing to do with Satan God’s adversary and his angels!

       God needs no help from Satan to carry out his punishment on mankind! God has His “evil angels” to carry out judgment. They are not of Satan the evil one who opposes God; on the contrary, they are the righteous angels who execute God’s measure of “repay evil for evil”! It is unfortunate that men’s bias has translated this same word “evil” in the story of Saul from the book of Samuel into “the devil” (in the Chinese version) which was almost the same as “Satan” in meaning, thereby causing serious misunderstanding to the works of God’s.

       If anyone who earnestly seeks the truth can remember that God has His own “evil angels” to execute His judgment, he will be more able to discern matters of the spiritual realm.

       In 1 Sam 16: 14, 15, 16, 23; 18: 10; 19: 9, the evil spirit was translated as “the devil from the Lord” in the Chinese New International Version and not as how the words "evil angels" in Ps 78: 49 are translated as “destroying angels” in English. Because of the term “devil”, the whole meaning of the text has been misunderstood. On top of their adamant concept of “unless God allows, Satan cannot do anything”, the Bible commentators, therefore, logically explained these verses as “the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and God allowed “Satan” to trouble him….”.

       In fact, if the New International Version translated from this passage the word “devil” into “destroying spirit” as in Psalm: “The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a destroying spirit from the Lord troubled him”, then its meaning would have been self-explanatory.

       It was mentioned six times in the book of Samuel that Saul was troubled by the “evil spirit”, of which chapter 16: 23 most vividly displayed the author’s intent of the wording. The Chinese New International Version translated this verse as: “Whenever the devil from God came upon Saul,…the devil would leave him”, a translation that had vastly deviated from the original text. The original text actually states: “‘Whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the “evil spirit” would depart from him’”. Obviously, here the writer interchanged “the spirit from God” and “the evil spirit” to explain the “evil spirit” was “the spirit from God” which was a punishment from God and it had no relation with “the devil”.

       Why then would the destroying spirit from God depart whenever David played “the songs of praise”? People would say: is it not because that was the spirit of the evil one, so it departed when David played “hymns” with the harp? Such an answer comes from their understanding that hymn singing is also effective in “driving out the demons”; therefore, they all the more insist that this spirit was the evil spirit. In actuality, there is no secret reason why the “destroying spirit” would depart whenever David played the harp. It was similar to the plagues from God that through the intercession of Moses and David, God let the plagues depart and stopped His punishment on the Israelites. Surely we cannot say that the plague was from the devil because it stopped because of prayers.

       From 18: 10 to 19: 9 it describes how the evil punishment God upon Saul grew increasingly intense when Saul was obstinate to repent. Eventually God no longer showed mercy so that even David’’s playing the harp (intercession) was ineffective; not only that, God sent Saul a strong delusion (1 Thess 2: 11) so that he tried to pierce David, the anointed one, with the spear, adding to himself sin upon sin. At this stage, it was like when God said to Prophet Jeremiah: “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favourable toward this people” (cf. Jer 15: 1), for God had condemned these evil men in their life time and no amount of intercession would have saved them. The outcome of the Israelite people was to be captured and exiled while that of Saul was to die in the battle.

       According to our study concerning “God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem”, “God let a lying spirit enter into the mouth of the false prophets” and “an evil spirit from God was upon Saul”, we understand that “the evil spirit from God” was not referring to Satan. But the “assumption” that stemmed from the preconception of “unless God allows, Satan cannot do anything” will lean us towards the wrong interpretation that is biblically unfounded. And, as such erroneous view coincides with the incorrect teachings of men; it is easily accepted without much thought. Aside from that, men have used the above stories as a basis to argue that “God sent Satan…God allowed Satan…”. How sad that is!

 

VII. A thorn in Paul’s flesh (2 Cor 12: 7)

       In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul said: “For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me. And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness’. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me…For in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing” (2 Cor 12: 6~11).

       First of all, let us understand what Paul meant by “weakness”? Was it the normal understanding of “sin”, one that falls short of God? If that was so, then when God said to Paul: “My strength is made perfect in weakness”, did it not imply we must remain in the weakness of sin so that the power of God could be magnified? Absolutely not! In order to understand the true meaning of weakness mentioned in the paragraph, we should read on and find the clue from Paul’s statement: “Christ was crucified in weakness” (2 Cor 13: 4). Christ’s weakness was far from the weakness of “sin”, for He has never been overcome by sin (Heb 4: 15). So what was the weakness of Christ? Of course, it was the struggle at the garden of Gethsemane where He wept aloud beseeching the Lord who had the power to save Him; but in affliction He had learnt to relinquish His own will and submit fully to the will of the Lord; it was also the “weeping of love” that said: Who is weak, and I am not weak? (2 Cor 11: 29). Christ the Lord experienced such kind of weakness (Luke 19: 41), so did Paul (2 Cor 11: 29), and also God the Father (Ezek 6: 9; 1 Cor 1: 25). Furthermore, there is a “weakness” that is stronger than our strongest (cf. 1 Cor 1: 25). For example: church works are hindered by slanders and persecutions, (2 Cor 11: 24~33), and the frustration that leads one to becoming a “fool” (2 Cor 12: 11). These “weaknesses” are courage and determination that are praise worthy; they are the profound love and selfless submission that deserve respect. Contrary to those who desire to flaunt their spiritual blessings, these weaknesses seem feeble on the surface, but they are indeed strong and dauntless – a gentleness that can subdue toughness (2 Cor 11: 5); they may appear lacking the Lord’s grace, but in reality, they are filled with God’s abundant grace (2 Cor 11: 24~27; 23).

       From Paul’s plea where three times he asked the Lord to take the thorn away from him, it shows that in the beginning he did not regard the thorn as of any benefit to him. It is just as how the Lord in the garden of Gethsemane begged God the Father three times to take away the cup because He did not want the cup to press upon Him; but eventually in weeping the Lord submitted and drank the cup of death and received great glory. Similarly, in the end the Lord told Paul to ask no more because His grace was sufficient for him and the Lord’s power was made perfect in men’s “weakness” of encountering attacks from Satan’s messengers. As a result, Paul understood and realized that this thorn was actually good for him. In fact, the messengers of Satan had planned to make him stumble; however, constant combating in adversities had made Paul all the more humble and not exalt himself, thus more pleasing to God.

       What shall we say then, that the attack of Satan’s messengers would edify Paul’s spirituality? Therefore, surely God would “allow” Satan to try Paul in order that he might become stronger and understand better the will of God? Certainly not! Although fighting hard against Satan with faith allows men to be skilled in the word of righteousness (cf. Heb 5: 13~14), it does not mean that Satan appears before us only by God’s permission. Just as in any battle, the more we fight with the enemies, the more skilful we are; but we cannot therefore say that the enemies confront us only by the general’s command. No, our enemies are like a roaring lion that could appear anytime; those who are alert and watchful will triumph while others who have yet to light their lamps will be devoured.

       It is “natural” to encounter Satan’s initiative attack, threat and opposition on one’s way to heaven as he is God’s enemy, not wanting to see the will of God accomplished nor anyone saved. Besides, the saints at times need to take the initiative to enter the wolf pack to fight with them; at other times, the wolves are in sheep’s clothing and enter into the sheep pen to destroy them while the shepherds are asleep; it has nothing to do with whether God allows or not, and is entirely of Satan’s own initiative and power to destroy. However, the Lord said: “But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world”. Therefore, no matter how Satan inflicts us with tribulations, we will overcome bravely by the Lord. During the course of the battle, we may develop many mixed feelings; there may be weeping of bitterness or calming in the storm, all of which will only draw us closer to the Lord and allow us to enjoy the true peace from Him amidst tribulation. This is the reflection of “the thorn in Paul’s flesh”.

       As the saying goes: One born in tribulation learns to become vigilant.

       Paul did not understand right away “Satan’s messenger tormenting him” would actually prevent him from becoming conceited. He spent a long period of time praying and after pleading with the Lord three times and failed to have his request granted, he learnt to submit in agony, overcoming the “weakness” of struggling. When peace came to him, he came to understanding.

       In reality, Satan attacked Paul with intent to dispirit him; just as he attacked the Lord for the purpose of putting the Lord through overwhelming sorrow to the point of death, thus bringing Him fear so that He would give up the bitter cup (Mk 14: 32~34). However, the Lord was victorious over Satan’s attack. He submitted Himself in selflessness and understood that it would bring Him glory to drink the bitter cup, and He drank it. Paul was comforted by the Lord in his prayer and understood that the grace of the Lord would be even greater amidst his attack from Satan’s messengers. For this reason, he was able to accept the persistent torment of the thorn which that would curb him from exalting himself.

       Consequently, if we were to interpret this story as “the messengers of Satan (with malicious thought) tormented Paul” for the purpose of “preventing Paul from becoming conceited”, it would be as absurd as saying that “Satan (with all his wits) attacked the Lord Jesus Christ” so that “the Lord Jesus Christ would be glorified”.

       Who were the “messengers of Satan” that Paul mentioned? Was it Satan himself? If we base on what Paul said in the same letter: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan even transforms himself into an angel of light. It is no surprise therefore if his messengers also transform themselves into messengers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works (2 Cor 11: 13~15). It is then obvious that the ones who added the thorn onto Paul were his fellow workers in the church, who covered themselves with sheep’s clothing and harmed him in every way they could! This thorn was the slander they hurled against Paul: “For his letters are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible” (10: 10); they said he was “a fool, not worthy to be an apostle” (cf. 11: 16~23), and accused him of “catching the believers by craftiness and cunningness” (12: 16), all of which added hardship to Paul’s pastoral work.

       This thorn pierced into Paul’s flesh so deep that he could no longer bear the pain and pleaded three times with the Lord to take it away from him. But because of the great revelation he had received, God refused his request; instead God made him understand: the Lord’s power was made perfect in the weaknesses of man. When faced with the attack from Satan’s messengers, as long as one embraces the “weakness” of “I need the Lord”, one will not become conceited, and only then the Lord’s grace will become more abundant. Hence, Paul delightedly told the believers of the Corinthian church that persecuted him the most: “Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities (struggle in the face of attack, I am truly a worthless servant), that the power of Christ may rest upon me (for I know I am lacking and I need the Lord’s providence). Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecution, in distresses, for Christ’s sake”.

       However, at this point of writing, Paul broke down as the brethren of Corinthian church regarded his silence a sign of weakness and he cried aloud, “I have become a fool, you have compelled me!” (12: 11). He would no longer be “weak”, he wanted to tell them that his weaknesses was to the Lord and not men (13: 1~3)! They were wrong, for in nothing was he behind the most eminent apostles (12: 11; 11: 5, 23)!

       If we take this narrative where Paul recounted to the Corinthian brethren the struggles he went through before he was compelled as a fool – how Satan's messenger in their church had given him a thorn, how he had pleaded with the Lord and how the Lord responded to him, and interpret it as “in order to prevent Paul from becoming conceited, the Lord allowed Satan to attack him”, that will be ridiculous!

 

VIII. The Story of Job

 

1. God said: “Job can deliver only himself by his righteousness”

     Undeniably, the experience of Job has instilled in us a powerful misconception, that is unless God is willing, Satan cannot harm us. We have been led to believe that God allowed Satan to attack Job because Job was unaware of his own self-righteousness; God therefore purposely granted Satan permission to launch such an attack so that Job would wake up and become more perfect.

     This typical view of Satan as a training officer helping to sanctify the saints has influenced, for over some thousand years, Christianity's basic understanding of “the relationship between the enemy and us”. It has entrapped us in the nightmarish belief that “no one is to be found perfect on earth, that no matter how perfect a man is, he is blemished in the sight of God and needs to be refined”. So even if a person were blameless and upright, to fear God and shun evil like Job, he would still be found wanting before God and God would allow Satan to try him harshly. Tragically, though this person may become more perfect after such a trial, his continued existence on earth means that he is still categorized as imperfect, since “no one is perfect on earth”. Given this imperfect status, who can be sure that, in an effort to make the person more perfect, God will not decide one day to refine the person again through various trials by the hand of Satan... until that man dies and belongs to the “world” no more? Is it only at that point that will God release him, not permitting Satan to try him anymore?

     How terrible is this kind of belief!

     This very belief has convinced people that even a man of integrity like Job inevitably harbours an attitude of self-righteousness and therefore still needs refinement by God, just as the smith intensely refines pure gold to achieve perfection. Such consensus automatically spreads a strange ambiance amongst believers and distorts the love among them. When a believer encounters a horrible mishap (like a car accident or a sudden disaster), the very first reaction is brief sympathy, followed by a long period of speculation: he appears Godly, fears God and shuns evil, “what fault is he concealing? Otherwise why would he…..?”. A visitor will often bring up the example of Job as an encouragement (speaking as if he does not feel the pain): “Can a mortal be more righteous than his Maker?” (Job 4: 17). Then, acting innocently, they will either urge openly or hint to the afflicted member to grasp the opportunity to “examine” himself: “God has given you a wonderful opportunity to self-examine, do so and repent! Do not be like Job! Do not be self-righteous! Even though you are not aware of any wrongs, there must be some hidden fault!”.

     Bombarded by the echo of “self-examination”, the afflicted member has no choice but to dissect and analyse himself and weep bitterly in repentance, turning a trivial matter into a major issue! Apart from the physical pain, he makes himself even more distraught emotionally! He also has to await further trials that may come any moment at the hand of Satan upon God’s approval because of his “imperfection” in God’s eyes; his journey of faith is one of constraint and fatality, constantly repenting and fearing the sudden appearance of trials. He has to press on to seek that “perfection” that will never happen as long as he has a breath in him; he will be exhausted and in turmoil, unable to lie peacefully in the bosom of the Lord and to enjoy His grace that “does not input iniquity” (Ps 32: 2).

     People seem to have forgotten that God said: “Job can save only himself by his righteousness” (Ezek 14: 14)! Yet we, who are far from righteous in comparison to Job, think ourselves righteous enough to find a hidden iniquity in Job that even God had not seen! Along with his three friends and Elihu, who pretended to be the messenger of light, we judge Job harshly, condemning him for being self-righteous (cf. Job 32: 2; 34: 3~37).

     Was it God or is it men who have so misjudged Job? Why is it that when God said “Job can save only himself by his righteousness”, we still insist that on the contrary “Job’s righteousness was self-righteousness, and he had to be severely punished!” Who is really considering themselves more righteous than God? Job or us?

 

2.  Although I don’t understand, I accept it

     How did the Bible view Job? Aside from the three friends (they must repent for saying what was wrong) who accused Job for being “self-righteous (Job 42: 7; 32: 1) – it’s regretful we joined them in the same accusation, the story of Job actually demonstrates how proud God was of Job, His “servant” (Job 1: 8)! Is that not the case, since the duty of a “servant” is to glorify God our Lord (Isa 49: 1~3)? When God saw Satan appear, He initiated the conversation and spoke of Job, calling him “My servant” and praising him for being “blameless and upright, (one who) fears God and shuns evil”….

     Despite the horrendous turmoil he endured, Job maintained his integrity right to the end (Job 31). God was pleased and took great comfort in him. In two short sentences, God repeatedly addressed Job four times as “My servant”! Before He restored Job’s losses, He wanted Job to first help the friends who had caused him such great sorrow by offering sacrifices and praying for them, thus His anger against their folly could be pacified (Job 42: 7~8).      

     At God’s demand to intercede for his three friends, Job did not seize the opportunity to give them a hard time, neither did he beseech God: “Oh Lord, I have painful boils all over me, how can I go and offer sacrifices? How can I possibly be in the right mood to pray for them? You have to heal me first, for I am a good man!” Job said none of the above because he understood God wanted him to do as He had commanded, just as He had inflicted upon him a great disaster without any cause, “a wonder that was beyond comprehension”.

     Without another word, Job got up from the ashes and with a body full of painful boils, acted submissively to what he “did not understand, but accepted”. He slaughtered the bulls and rams and offered the burnt offering for his friends; that pacified God’s wrath that was going to fall upon Job's three friends because of their folly. Job was not only “blameless and upright, (one who) fears God and shuns evil”, he was also a servant of God who used action to manifest the utmost love; he overcame the attacks of Satan who had planned to turn him away from God, and God was glorified. Hence, as swiftly as the disasters that came, God restored Job’s losses (Job 42: 10) as he prayed for his friends and blessed him abundantly.

   From the whole story, we can see a reality that was very satirical: the “self-righteousness” of Job that we had previously identified, criticized and taken as a warning turned out to be a “pure conscience”, one that sustained Job throughout the whole unexpected ordeal and eventually led him to gain victory over Satan! For Job knew that he could stand tall before God and men because he was “blameless”; he knew he would see God (without shame), and that God would surely, by His righteousness, give Job a chance to defend himself (Job 19: 25). He was thus still able to exult in anguish (6: 10), and with his unshakeable confidence - “till I die I will not put away my integrity from me, my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live” (27: 5~6) - Job smashed the ruthless attacks of Satan and crushed the slander and bombardment of his three friends and Elihu, who were used by Satan.

     Job walked through the valley of the shadow of death and maintained his place as the servant of God. Finally, he calmly accepted all that God had planned for him with the attitude of “I accept it although I don’t understand”. Therefore, Satan was defeated.

 

3. It was not that God allowed Satan to test Job, rather God was able to overcome Satan through Job

     Biblical records do not indicate that God “allowed” Satan to chastise Job, who was “blameless and upright, fears God and shuns evil”; neither does it say God attacked Job “through” Satan to awaken him from his “comfortable life”! The Bible clearly states that Satan was not convinced of God’s praise for Job. He thus raised slanderous doubt (1: 9; 2: 5) and incited God against Job (2:3), with the intention of starting a battle with God through Job.

     Imagine if the confrontation between God and Satan in heaven had not occurred, how would Job’s suffering have come about? Job’s suffering obviously occurred as a result of the conflict between God and Satan and not because Job was himself in any way reproachable. God said to Satan: “Although you incited Me against him, to destroy him “without cause” (Job 2: 3); this statement explicitly reveals that Job did not suffer because he was “self-righteous”, nor that God had to further perfect him “through” Satan!

     Let us think about this further, how could Satan be God’s “training officer” for the training of His servants? If Satan’s role were indispensable in the course of perfecting the saints and if his help were so valuable in their sanctification, why would God be so resolved to destroy Satan and his works (1 Jn 3: 8)? Did Eliphaz not point out: “If He puts no trust in His servants, if He charges His angels with error” (Job 4: 18)? If Satan were destroyed, who would help God train those servants and angels whom God did not trust?

     We should not think that Satan reports every case to God and awaits God’s command “to attack” before taking action on the saints. If that was true, how are we to comprehend God’s endorsement? Is it the case that when God saw Satan capturing His newly baptised sons and daughters with the first permit, He not only failed to stop issuing permits but continued handing them out one after another to allow Satan to entice His children with ever more cunning schemes? Was God really so foolish that He stood by and watched Satan, permit in hand, creeping up on His sons and daughters (whom He had saved out of Satan’s hands through His own precious blood) to take them back to his dominion and lead them step by step to death? And did He continue to be unaware all this time, issuing permits with even greater magnanimity? Unless, unless we have reckoned that even God had been fooled by Satan and his flattery words, and like a machine, He continued to issue Satan permission to betray His children!

     In actuality, whether God agreed or disagreed, Satan walked about like a roaring lion, seeking those who left the gracious wings of God on their own (1 Pet 5: 8). We should not be so naïve to believe that Satan could only act when God allowed him to! The story of Job did not reflect “God allowing Satan to attack Job” but just the opposite; God was counter-striking at Satan’s slander on His servant. He wanted to overcome Satan through His servant to show His pride in His servant, for His servant worshipped Him in spirit and in truth, which was out of reverence for God, not for the benefits of this world as Satan claimed!

     In terms of faith, we must always remember God’s love and protection for us. On the heavenly journey, we must acknowledge that encounters with Satan’s proactive attacks are only too normal. It is certainly not the case that God was using Satan to try His servant (Job); rather, in this battle encountered God wanted to overcome Satan through His servant (Job), to destroy the enemy and to fulfill His kingdom.

 

Lead us not into temptation

     The Lord Jesus taught us to pray to the heavenly Father in this manner: “….Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil”. Since God intended to deliver us from the evil one, why would He allow the evil one to attack us? Hence, God shouldered Job’s entire affliction and said: “(I) destroyed him (Job) without cause” (2: 3), so did Job’s friends and family came to him when he was restored, and remarked: “Concerning the adversity that the (Lord) had brought upon him (Job)…” (42: 11); a few centuries later, the apostle James stated: “You have seen the end intended for Job by the Lord---the Lord is very compassionate and merciful” (Jas 5: 11)! Indeed, who could perceive this to be a very compassionate and merciful act of God unless we read the story from the perspective of God’s “love”?

     We often think that it is considered an abundant blessing if we can continue to receive things from God. In fact, true blessing comes from “giving” rather than “receiving”! By stop asking God to “give”, or “hear me”, we can be worthy to fight the beautiful fight for the Lord and to suffer for the Lord willingly and cheerfully. Even in extreme agony, we can have the submission of self-denial, with the attitude that “although I do not understand, I accept it”! Just as Phil 1: 29 points out, the greatest blessing God bestowed on His saints is “to suffer for the Lord”: “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake”.

     God did not lead Job into temptation. He loved Job and, in order that Job might receive greater blessing, He let Job suffer for Him and destroy Satan’s slanders for Him.

     We can conclude that the battle of Job was, to some degree, what God would expect of His saints – to be able to “see all things as rubbish, and see my life as a worm”. It is same as the good “fight” Paul’s fought; it is the glory attained through the love of God.

 

This is the story of Job

     From the story of Job, we also see that one’s “clear conscience” before men and God is very powerful in overcoming the evil one! When a man’s conscience is clear, he knows that there is no reason why God would not be on his side! In comparison to one weeping before God in repentance for his iniquities and asking for strength to lift him up, this noble spirit of a clear conscience truly exhibits a world of difference.

     “A clear conscience” enables one to remain exultant to God even when Satan continues to cause him pain.

     How unfortunate it is today that we do not allow men to feel “shameless” (self-righteous!). We are like Job’s three friends, instilling in men the concept of “who is perfect?”, not remembering it was this mindset of theirs that incurred the wrath of God! We often force others to dig out their faults that are no faults at all, and make them believe that they are great sins that require repentance. As a result, no one is able to lift up their heads before God.

     Today, we are becoming more and more like Job’s three friends and Elihu. We frown when men profess they have a clear conscience like that of Daniel (Dan 6: 23); we take offence when men speak like Nehemiah, confident to be a role model to pray for the people like the Pharisees did (Neh 5: 14: 19); we also abhor at hearing those who loudly defend their innocence like Paul (2 Cor 11). What we want of others is that no matter what they must admit they have at least committed some hidden sins and should weep daily in repentance regardless if they understand why they need to do so. This, they thought, is the key to receiving grace and strength!

     Although Satan mightily attacked Job with sufferings and sicknesses, and through relatives and close friends, and failing all those he resorted in the end to use Elihu to rebuke Job. On the surface, Elihu appeared to be a man of God, but in reality he was a messenger of Satan, similar to the “apostles” who slandered Paul (these people were highly “gifted”, undeserved to be called “apostles”; they were deceitful and ruthlessly slandered Paul). Elihu’s reproach to Job: “Oh, that Job were tried to the utmost, because his answers are like those of wicked men! For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God” (This judgement was totally opposite to what God said in 42: 7 ~ 8 that “Job was right and his three friends were wrong”, hence it is evident that Elihu could not be the spokesperson for God). He intended to add to Job’s physical suffering a mental burden to break up his intimacy with God (Job 29: 4), and to cause Job to forsake his faithfulness toward God. It is moving, though, to see how Job persisted in hope to “argue with God” concerning his innocence, even though he was in such agony of having to scrape himself with a piece of potsherd. He repeatedly said to his three friends that no matter how great his suffering was, he would not give up nor disheartened; he would not rebuke himself of the fact that he was “blameless, upright, fear God and shun evil” (Job 28~31). Although his three friends were never out of words in order to condemn him, Job courageously stood up to their unfounded speculation and slanders.

     Seeing that he had failed before God in all his slanders toward Job the servant of God, Satan surrendered and God was greatly glorified through Job!

     That is what the story of Job was in the Bible.

 

IX. Discernment

 

Was it the “chastisement” of God? The “evil” of God? Or the “evil” of the devil?

     After the above study, it is inevitable we will raise the question: “If that is the case, how are we to know the “pain” inflicted upon a person is of the God’s “evil” or of Satan’s? Or…… ?

     There are usually three sources of “pain” that befall men: The “chastisement” of God; the “evil” of God, and the “evil” of Satan.

     After the author of Hebrews mentioned about the persecution and suffering of Jesus Christ and His saints, based on these examples he quoted proverbs to encourage the believers who were also going through similar tribulation at the time: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him…” (Heb 12: 5), indicating that the “chastening” here is not because of sin. The same word in the Bible has been translated many times into “instruction” or “training”, just as how Paul advised the fathers to bring up their children in the “training” of the Lord (Eph 6: 4), and how he expounded to Timothy that all Scripture is God inspired and is profitable for “instruction” in righteousness (2 Tim 3: 16; Prov 1: 2). The “chastening” here means the “instruction” for “striving for perfection”; this “chastening” comes from God’s “love” for His children (Heb 12: 7~8), in order that all have a part in “holiness”. In other words, in order that His children can receive a greater glory, God would give them the bread of adversity and the water of affliction (Isa 30: 20) – a path of maturity they have to go through in order to attain that glory. It has, therefore, basically nothing to do with correcting their faults. If the examples brought up by the author of Hebrews – how the saints were persecuted, how they had attained a good testimony through faith, and how Jesus Christ wrestled against sin to the point of shedding blood (Heb 11: 25~12: 6) – were all regarded as “chastening”, we can certainly say that the “chastening” of God only happens to those worthy of His love. It is an inevitable battle that would occur in their life of faith, and is for the purpose of profiting them by adding strength upon strength so that they are prepared to receive greater entrustment of God’s holy work.

     Chastisement is not a negative correction but a positive instruction. It is a battling process through which the heavenly Father allows, out of His love, His children to go through, with the expectation that they will “endeavour to do even better”. Just like how all loving fathers demanded of their children, this “battling process” is definitely something the children can bear (1 Cor 10: 13). Although they may develop feeble arms and weak knees in the midst of “chastening” (Heb 12: 12), they would never fall (1 Cor 10: 13). And with each victory, they will bring to the Father immense comfort and glory.

     As for other causes of pain, did they come from “God’s evil” or “Satan’s evil”? We can understand it with the following:

    The “evil of God” is God’s immediate judgement on the wicked, a display of God’s justice. Many such examples are found in the Bible. Aside from the incidences of Saul and the others that we’ve mentioned, we can see another example from Nabal: As soon as he heard from his wife about her meeting with David, “his heart died within him, and he became like a stone”. After about ten days, God struck him, and he died (1 Sam 25: 3;7~38). Hence, the “evil of God” is for the “wicked”; “it” will come to the sinners and cause them to tremble, to become insane and to even die. However, the believers in the Lord will never meet up with the “evil of God”; all they have is the “love of God”.

     “The evil of Satan” is targeted at all the created things. He is the power and threat of death whose evil resembles a roaring lion posing threat to all the saints. As it is a spiritual warfare, the two camps will inevitably meet, and has nothing to do with “God using Satan to …”. The evil of Satan appeared to oppose the holy work and frighten the saints, so much so that some fell because of that; however, there are others who would become even stronger under the same circumstances. The more adverse the situation, the more the apostles remembered the Lord’s grace and became even more courageous under persecution. Judas was just the opposite; he was deceived by the evil of Satan and betrayed the Lord for thirty pieces of silver. Therefore, to the evil of Satan, a faithful servant will ultimately overcome and gain victory after victory by his experience of war through trust in the grace of God; in contrast, a double-minded disciple will eventually be deceived and devoured.

     The greatest difference between the “evil of Satan” and the “chastening of God” lies in that we should pray for God to not lead us into temptation, while gladly submitting and accepting the chastening of God (Heb 12: 9~10).

     Having said that, to maintain a clear conscience before God and men (Acts 24: 16) is the best way to discern if whatever befalls us is God’s chastening, the judgment of God’s evil or the temptation of Satan’s evil.

 

What Accord Has Christ with Belial?

     Nowhere in the Bible is it written that “God used Satan to do this and do that”, but everyone has talked about it so much that it seems true; some are convinced that it is the truth. The Bible clearly stated: “What accord has Christ with Belial?” Regretfully, no one has ever seemed to diligently desire to understand that there is only animosity between God and Satan, and that they would never work together or associate with each other!

     The obscure and wrong concept of “God uses Satan to…, God allows Satan to…” has entrapped many in an illusion of believing that “Satan is very obedient to God as he would do exactly what God instructs him”. To bring a matter to fruition, it requires the “permission” of one party, and the “close cooperation” of the other. It appears, in this instance, that although Satan is the evil one and a liar himself, who is also aware that not only would God spare him no mercy but has prepared the fire of Hades to await him (cf. Mt 8: 29; 25: 41), he would still report every case to God and would not dare to act without God’s permission or to step over God’s boundary. If we compare him to the angels who “did not keep their proper domain” (Jude 6) and God’s children who every so often rebel (Jer 5: 21~23), Satan is truly more worthy to receive the “Holy Spirit” whom God would give to those who “obey” Him (Acts 5: 32)!

     This tells us how wrong it would be to say that “God uses Satan to…or God allows Satan to…”.

     Based on our study concerning God and Satan, we have at least realized that God will absolutely not seek out Satan to help Him perform justice, and Satan is definitely not the evil one who would obey God! God and Satan have been enemies since antiquity, and they have been opposing each other to the point that Jesus Christ resisted in bloodshed (Heb 12: 4)!

     Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial?” (2 Cor 6: 14~15). He candidly warned not to weave together the good and the bad and “put them under the same yoke”. In this light, those who think that God and Satan would perform their duties respectively in order that the will of God can be accomplished have truly deviated from the teachings of the Bible!

 

X. Conclusion

      Based on the Bible, we have garnered the truth that good and evil existed before the world was created, and that they are in enmity with each other. This spells a world of difference to the theory of “dualism” in which the secular sector believe that both the good and the evil exist alongside each other in infinity. What the Bible has revealed to the world is: “Through “creation”, God has completed the process by which ‘death’ has been swallowed up by “life”, and through this process, God has fulfilled the utmost honour of being the “one and only everlasting origin”.

        We have seen the true identity of Satan who cannot wait to devour us; we have also understood that on us God and Satan are “contrary” to each other (Gal 5: 17) – there is no such accord as “you allow me to … or I use you to … ” The evil one will always be the evil one who opposes God, and neither will God ever use Satan’s evil to accomplish the goodness of God’s kingdom (Rom 3: 8). God is more than capable to “independently” refine His saints in all good things (Pro 17: 3), without needing Satan to “intervene to help”. As for Satan, he has the power to roam “independently” to seek out those he could devour. He does not need the permission from God; on the contrary, he maliciously resolves to destroy the works of God!

        In the spiritual warfare these days, the first and foremost urgent matter we need to clarify is: knowing the enemy! knowing Satan!

        In the garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus was “troubled and distressed, His soul was exceedingly sorrowful, even to death” (Mk 14: 33), and three times He prayed to God the Father to take the cup away from Him. If we had knelt beside Him, listening to how He pleaded and seeing how frightened He was, could we have comprehended it? Would we comfort the Lord and say “Do not be afraid, say ‘Hallelujah’ and you will overcome? Indeed, the Lord was distressed to the point of death, because…because He knew what kind of an entity His enemy was! For the sake of fulfilling God’s plan and accomplishing God’s salvation, in prayers where His sweat dropped like blood the Lord Jesus Christ gave up Himself and overcame fear!

  Faith is not “to do nothing, just pray and look to the sky, and push everything to God”; faith is “since the Lord has commanded, I will follow immediately with all my best, whether it is good or bad” (cf. Gen 22: 3). Faith is not to order God around as if He were a servant: I only have to open my mouth (pray) and do some part, leaving everything for God to arrange; faith is to regard God as the Master. After receiving His commands, we execute it with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, after which we present it to the Lord and ask Him to help in our lacking. James said: Faith without works is dead! Indeed, when confronted with the power of Satan, we must show our confidence in winning with actions.

Only when we have a deep understanding of Satan, can we then develop a profound entrustment unto the Lord and not let our guards down. Paul, the apostle chosen only after Christ has destroyed the power of death, fought countless battles and was full of power. Yet he did not think that Christ’s victory over Satan meant all things would be accomplished by God’s good will when the times come. Rather, he repeatedly reminded the disciples to “put on the full armour of God” and to “rely in the power of His might” in order to triumph over Satan’s attack; he knew the enemy’s power would not be defeated by those who were only believers by name and were still of the flesh who profusely utter words like “entrust”, “see the will of God” or say “hallelujah”.

Having a thorough knowledge of Satan is not meant for us to be afraid of Satan’s power that is great enough to challenge God. But the more we know, the more we can relate to the wonderful love of God, and know how to imitate the Lord Jesus in how He confidently faced death after the struggle. Moreover, the Lord has gone before us and has overcome the world; although we still have tribulation during battles from now on, we are able to simultaneously receive the true peace that comes from overcoming tribulation (Jn 16: 33). The Lord wants us to be of “good cheer” (in Him we may have peace) for the power of “death” which men could not conquer had been destroyed by the Lord’s resurrection. The Lord’s death and resurrection brought us back to life; therefore, although the “remaining” power of Satan could “kill the body” it would not be able to “kill the soul”. Apart from relying on the Lord, so long as we are willing to act and to discipline our bodies (deny and sacrifice oneself in the battle for the Lord), we will be able to see God.

Peter said: “Resist him, steadfast in the faith”; James declared: “Submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you” (Jas 4: 7). These verses tell us that as disciples we can proactively strike back when facing Satan's attacks. When the apostles saw the works of Satan, they never asked in hesitation: “Was that allowed by God? Or was that the good intent of God?” for they knew when Satan obstructed the path to salvation, his only motive was to frighten us into forsaking God. Therefore, the apostles urged us to spare Satan no time and opportunities but to courageously resist him at once.

Only by knowing clearly “what accord has Christ with Belial?” can the saints rise up without any hesitation, to overcome any attacks and destruction of Satan!

Of course, we have also realized that an age-old concept cannot be changed overnight by a mere word of “inspiration from the Holy Spirit”. Just as after the Holy Spirit and the apostles had decided that “the Gentile converts to the Lord need no circumcision”, Paul preached everywhere but the truth of circumcision was not readily accepted by the fellow brothers, even though it had been determined by the Holy Spirit. Instead, all the churches (including Jerusalem) where many brethren still embraced the Jewish tradition opposed and persecuted him. He was incarcerated, slandered everywhere and went through a lot of sufferings (2 Tim 2: 9; Acts 21: 21~30; Phil 3: 1~4). Then by the grace of God he was able to spread this gospel to us, the latter generations, so that the burden of us observing the laws is lessened.

In addition, it is expected that “to preclude Satan in God’s creation” will violate the century-old tradition of Christianity and incur sensitivity and fear to the concept of dualism. Hence, we shall endure the pressures and criticism from everywhere, similar to the situation when the true church was newly established. Because of the teachings preached was in accordance with the Bible and the hope that she could “correct all nations” under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the true church marched forward courageously by relying on the Lord. However, in the first step she took, not only did this truth that was revealed by God Himself not receive any consensus from the masses, but it was bombarded with all kinds of scepticism and slanders from everywhere.

     We know very well that it is still a long way to go to reach the depth of the truth; we are convinced that Satan will surely incite from all aspects to increase our sufferings in our fight for the truth. However, since the Lord has overcome the world and entrusted to us the truth, no one can ever stop us!

    Finally, “let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth, for Your love is better than wine”. May the kind and loving true God personally teach us so that we may taste, by our knowledge of the truth, His overwhelming love for the saints. Amen.

 

 

2000/8/27

Submitted to: International Assembly’s Discussions for Special Topics in the Bible, March 2001