MINIMIZING SATAN?

MINIMIZING SATAN?

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Genesis [ISV] 3:1-5 Now the Shining One was more clever than any animal of the field that the LORD God had made. It asked the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You are not to eat from any tree of the garden'?" "We may eat from the trees of the garden," the woman answered the serpent, "but as for the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You are not to eat from it, nor are you to touch it, or you will die.'" "You certainly will not die!" the Shining One told the woman. "Even God knows that on the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you'll become like God, knowing good and evil."

  I’ve been accused of or asked before and most recently since publishing SATAN & COMPANY DT series, “Why do you minimize Satan?”

  I have not, do not, and will not minimize Satan. I have, am doing and will continue to place Satan as he is according to God’s Word. All else is assumption, supposition, fable and myth fabricated by his company (Gen.3:1-5;  1Tim.1:4; 4:7; 2Tim.4:4; Tit.1:14; 2Pet.1:16), propagated by those unknowledgeable, tragically even Christians including those vainly attempting Adam and Eve defense. (Gen.3:11-13) Exceedly awful has been and continues to be the art and myths promulgate by factions in the church.

  Why am I doing so? As an elder it is my responsibility to teach sound doctrine counter to false beliefs about Satan. (1Tim.1:10; 2Tim.2:2; 4:3; Tit.1:9; 2:1)

  Some important points from God’s Word about Satan.

·         Satan is real, an absolutely actual being. He is never in God’s Word presented as mythical or ethereal.

·         Satan has power. (Eph.2:2)

·         Satan does not however have the power to make us do things. He could not make Eve, then Adam, disobey God as they did. Nor can he make you or me to sin and fall short of the glory of God. (Rom.3:23)

·         Satan is not as is God. He is not omniscient (all-seeing and knowing), omnipresent (present at all places at the same time), or omnipotent (all-powerful).

·         He does, after Jehovah, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit rank next highest in knowledge of humankind’s free will. The primary example of this is recorded in Genesis 3, and his methodology is still just as limited and unchanged.

·         Reading the Genesis account and related passages throughout Scripture we see that we are individually responsible for our actions. As it was so with Adam and Eve and Satan so it is with you and me. This is also is unchanged.

·         Adam brought sin into this world. We continue as Adam excepting when we Biblically honor God as spelled out clearly by the Word. (Rom.5:11-12; Eph.2:1-3)

  In summing it is I that am responsible before God for what I do or don’t do. I cannot shift blame to Satan, Adam, a tree or snake or the One that made the allowance.

EBB4