God’s Plan of Creation and the Origin of Satan: A Summary
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Forward:
Ever since I presented my humble view at the “Bible Research Conference” held by the International Assembly in 2001 concerning “God’s plan of creation and the origin of Satan”, many believers expressed desires to read a shorter version of it in an summarised form to help them obtain a general idea so that they can delve into the subject more easily.
Here is that summary; and despite much having been said, the saying remains the same as what appears on top of the web page: “Truth belongs to the Church, and I’m only pursuing with you to perfect Her. I’d always give you the best I know/I can do, but my best may not always be right/what you want. Sadly that happens quite often when you are in love”
In actuality, the concept of “Satan came from the fallen angel” began in the patriarchal era. The book ‘The Ethiopian Enoch’ greatly influenced people who believed that devils had already become the heathen gods and that they had in turn come from fallen angels. Some were the offspring of women according to Gen 6 (Clementine Homilies was a typical writing of this era). Origen disagreed with the theory of The Ethiopian Enoch; neither did he believe that devils came from the fallen angels due to envy (cf. The Wisdom of Solomon 2:24). He equated the Lucifer in Isa 14:12-15 to Satan, who rebelled against God out of pride and fell. Augustine agreed with Origen.
Thomas Aquinas, a 13th century Theologian, believed that the devil was the source of all evil and proffered that the devil was most probably the highest ranking angel who, due to pride, fell before the creation and enticed those who followed him to be his messengers (data taken from the ‘Contemporary Bible Dictionary’).
Like the “Theory of Evolution”, the presumption that “the devil came from the fallen angel” had turned, from what seemed to be possible, into a “legitimate concept” just because everybody said so, even though they were wrong. Anyone against it was considered an heretic. However, this theory has not been accepted into our “common beliefs”. It is not our doctrine, and at most it can only be regarded as one of the traditional views of Christianity; it contains no element of “truth”, neither is it included in the article of faith of any Christian denomination in general.
Thus, my duty and aspiration are to:
- Follow in the footsteps of our forefathers who, under the pressure of the traditional Christian faith, brought men back to the Bible and pioneered the complete truth of Salvation through the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
- Reorganize the concepts of traditional Christian faith. As our forefathers were dedicating themselves to the ‘doctrines of salvation’ and building churches worldwide, they had no time to ponder on these concepts but to preach them accordingly.
- Weed out inaccuracies whilst upholding the truth so that the faith of the True Jesus Church remains pure and not contaminated with secular ideologies.
- Ensure the truths understood by the True Jesus Church will surely be “exalted” above the hills and not “be suppressed” by them! (The question begs: How can the rights and wrongs of the truth be judged by secular, traditional Christian faiths that do not possess the Holy Spirit?)
I have reconsidered the origin of Satan and maintained that Satan was self-existent (but is not eternal) for the following reasons:
1. To restore God’s absolute holiness: As soon as one asks: “Where does an evil spirit come from?”, the immediate instinct is to realize that the Holy Spirit and the evil spirit can never come from the same source! The Holy Spirit, who is absolutely good, is incapable of transforming to an evil spirit that is wholly wicked; neither would the appearance of Satan have anything to do with God. However, according to the traditional view of Satan’s origin, all things came from one source, that is the true God, the Creator. In other words, the most holy true God is also the source of all things and all spirits, including the evil spirit, Satan and lies, etc. This is contrary to “in God is no darkness at all” (1 Jn 1: 5). The only way to resolve this issue is to exclude Satan’s existence outside of God’s creation, to completely separate him from God.
2. To restore God’s absolute love for His children: The Lord said: “They hated Me without a cause”, “He who hates Me hates My Father also”, “It hated Me before it hated you”, “Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (Jn 15: 18~25); therefore, the Satan’s hatred towards God’s children comes from his own accord. It is inevitable for the saints to meet with Satan’s attack (for they no longer are of Satan); the encounter between the saints and Satan is a “war” (initiated by Satan) and it is erroneous to say “God tries the saints through Satan who hates even God Himself” (Satan is passive). If we think about it, since Satan hates God, the Father, how would he then listen to God? The Bible clearly records that Satan is God’s enemy, so why would God seek out His enemy to try His own children whom He has purchased with His precious blood through much hardship? Our wholly good God would never use His enemy who is wholly evil and hates God to fulfill His great love for His children! On the contrary, our loving Father has sacrificed His life to deliver His children from the dominion of Satan and has protected them from the harm of the evil one with His precious blood!
3. To restore the everlasting oneness of God and His infinite all-knowing and all-powerful nature: The self-existence of Satan does not mean he is on an equal footing with God (Dualism); it does not mean he is everlasting either! If people were to say things, such as, “Before the creation, God would have known that tonight this light bulb would blow” to demarcate the all-knowing and all-powerful nature of God, this is indeed trivializing God, which is utterly meaningless! The infinite all-knowing and all-powerful nature of God relates to the spiritual level: He can destroy even Satan who is self-existent (one and a half monism) and cast him into the lake of fire! Imagine, if the Creator only overcomes the created things that sinned, would He need to be “all-knowing” and “all-powerful”? A three year old child can easily destroy the things he created, is not that so? Try and compare “God had overcome the angel who sinned (or the created thing that sinned)” with “God had overcome Satan who was self-existent”, which one will manifest better God’s absolute all-knowingness and all-powerfulness? As for the unparalleled oneness of God, that too has been displayed throughout from the beginning with the creation, to the end when His enemies are destroyed (Isa 41: 25~26; 46: 9~11; 1 Cor 15: 24~26; Rev 20: 10~15).
4. To explain God’s plan of creation: God prepared Christ before the creation for the purpose of destroying the works of Satan (1 Jn 3:8). It was evident that Satan’s works existed before the creation, which made it unlikely that his existence had any relation to the things created by God; he merely existed by himself. Furthermore, all things were created through and for the Lord; thus, creation was closely related to the destruction of Satan. The moment God “called out light from darkness”, He had overcome Satan, the ruler of darkness! And when he is thrown into the lake of fire, the former creation will have completed her duty and will pass away. Hence, a new heaven and a new earth, where death is no more, will come down from heaven!
5. To clarify the concept of faith: Since the Lord taught us to pray for “His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven”, people cannot hold that ‘all things that happen on earth are according to the will of God’ because if everything, whether good or bad, happens out of the will of God, there would be no need for us to ask for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven! In addition to that, since it is ‘in the end’ that God claims victory over Satan, people cannot claim that Satan is completely controlled by God ‘at the present, for why would God need to combat and destroy Satan if he were already under God’s control?
6. To sow the confidence of victory and point out the way to salvation: Although Satan is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, God had overcome him through His creation. And the Lord Jesus also rendered powerless the devil - who holds the power of death, and He is now by the right hand of God the Father, interceding eternally for us. The elect therefore do not need to worry about Satan’s attack but only need to follow closely the Ark of the Covenant and they will surely become more than conquerors, living a peaceful and joyful life (Rom 8: 37).
7. To draw clearly the line between God and Satan; holiness and filthiness: Before creation, God had resolved to destroy the works of Satan (1 Jn 3: 8). However, the thought of Christianity in general makes it look as if God and Satan are working closing together; that God often needs to “use” Satan to finish this divine work (grace of salvation) or that divine work (to try the believers). As well, it is as though God has never rejected any of Satan’s requests: Just look at the world, all that the men do and think everyday is evil. If this is measured by the standard “unless God willing, Satan will accomplish nothing”, God must have allowed Satan over “a million times” a day to go entice the whole world to think evil and act evil! This has greatly violated the truth that says “what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness; what communion has light with darkness; and what accord has Christ with Belial (nickname of Satan).
This is just the summary.
For the rest of it, please refer to the thesis “Discussing God’s plan of creation and the origin of Satan” which I have submitted in 2001 at the conference. For over a decade, the devotion to understand the truth in the Bible has resulted in the penning of this thesis. No other theories have been used for references in the writing except my humble reflection. If the traditional view is able to answer 60% of my questions, this thesis will only satisfy me 80%; a far cry to being “perfect”. Your unceasing prayers and comments will be most appreciated.
May the Holy Spirit exalt the truth of the true church above the hills and bring to pass as soon as possible the glory of “out of
Appendix:
I have known quite a few fellow workers who have devoted to study the truth that despite differences in the perspective of “Satan’s origin”, most have avoided discussing the traditional Christian view of “Satan came from the fallen angel”. Instead, they provided many wonderful reflections and enhanced the knowledge of the believers, thus opening up a direction for discussion. May God have mercy on His servants that by humbling themselves and setting their hearts to understand, He will one day give the whole church a clear revelation (Dan 10: 12). May the Almighty God add to us strength upon strength and grace upon grace and constantly guide us. Amen! Thank you. Peace!