The Deeper the Root, The Greater the Fruit
Live from Salt Lake City, Utah, this is heart of the Matter where we do all we can to worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I’m Shawn McCraney, your host.
Show 19 496 Satan Part II
May 10th 2016
Our prayer tonight will be given by:
Remember, we have a new book out now and I personally believe it is the most important thing I have ever put together. It’s called Knife to a GunFight – misinterpreting the purpose and place of the New Testament. It’s what I feel is one of the only reasonable critiques of the man-made doctrine called Sola Scriptura and I would really like to hear a non-religious, non-dogmatic response to its contents. Knife to a Gunfight is available by going to www.hotm.tv
Next Week two hour special with Brother Matt Slick, radio host, founder of Carm – here to converse and discuss things. Join us at a special time – from 7-9 PM mtn time. Have questions, comments. Etc.
Producing Spiritual Fruit
And with that let’s go to our board of direction. (Show BOARD OF DIRECTION intro)
People often wonder, “How can I grow in my Christian walk? You know, overcome my flesh and really walk by the Spirit, producing it’s fruits?” The fruit of the Spirit is Love, but a mighty harvest of Love does not come by moral reform or self-help books. It comes by the Spirit having a greater presence in our life (as compared to our flesh).
The most concise way to answer the question, “What will it take for my walk to be more like His life?” is to share and explain the couplet: “The deeper the root, the Greater the fruit,” summarized by
Isaiah 37:31 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward,” and illustrated in the following manner:
After the seed grows deep enough into the Word of God (soil) its roots (faith) can support the upward growth of life above ground or on life pointing toward God – trunk, branches, leaves.
Once the above ground frame is mature enough (based on the below ground root system) fruits of love begin to show. And
The deeper the root the greater the fruit!
A seed of faith is planted in the “ground of the Word.” It is not expected to bear fruit immediately but is expected to grow and take root first before it can even begin to grow upward.
Then roots begin to grow down into Soil.
Discussion of Satan
And with that let’s continue on with our discussion of Satan.
My good friend and brother Reed the Aphorist, came up with a sign he wants to put in my non-existent office. It reads: “Shawn McCraney, slayer of Sacred Cows.” I do not seek to slay sacred cows for the sake of the slaughter or to destroy peoples foundations. I am not an iconoclast for the sake of iconoclasm. I am one thing – no matter the cost – a seeker of truth and since Jesus is the way and the truth and the life I am a seeker of Jesus and the only true God who sent Him because as He Himself said, “this is life eternal.”
Perspectives on Satan
And so we come to the topic of Satan. Last week we talked a little bit about the term serpent and how it might not be that Satan appeared in the Garden of Eden and that if he did it was not in the form of a snake. Let’s continue on.
Satan in both Mormonism and Christianity is viewed as God’s enemy and as a fallen angel (or course Mormonism’s view of angels differs with Christianity but that Satan fell is agreed upon). Mormons teach that Satan is a “spirit son of God who was born in the morning of the pre-mortal existence.” The Book of Mormon teaches that he seeks
The Relationship Between Jesus, Satan, and Humanity
To make “all men miserable like unto himself,” (2nd Nephi 2:27) and this seems to be because he was cast down to earth without gaining a body due to his rebellion in the premortal councils of heaven. Because Satan is considered an actual spiritual son of God, and because Jesus is too – as are all spirit children in LDS doctrine – Jesus and Satan and all the rest of the human race are spirit brothers.
This differs greatly from the Christian view of Jesus who, as the Word of God created all things (Satan included, who was a heavenly angel that fell) and so to the Christian there is no relationship at all between Jesus and Satan and the ONLY means by which there is a relation between Jesus and humanity is through Him taking on human flesh.
Scholars and higher critics of scripture suggest that a number of our current ideas about Satan have morphed over time.
Satan in the Old Testament
For instance, last week we talked about how Christians today assume that the serpent (which may not have been a serpent at all) in the Garden of Eden was Satan. But nowhere in the Old Testament is this connection made. We might wonder if it was even Satan speaking through what was called the Serpent because Genesis 3:1 says this:
“that the serpent was (apparently of its own accord) “more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”
Then we read God say:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
Does Satan have seed or is this speaking of a creature created by God who forever was going to be at odds with human kind and will afflict human beings when they integrate one with another?
Old Testament scholar Theodore Heibert says the following: “Jewish and Christian interpreters of Genesis 3:15 understood this verse as a reference to the Messiah’s coming victory over Satan.”
We might ask why does Paul say
2nd Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Is this a reference to the Garden of Eden and the term serpent being used there? The Greek term here that Paul uses is Ophis and it means snake. It is the same word used in the Septuagint in Genesis. But the Greek term appealed to and used in the Septuagint Genesis does NOT correlate with the Hebrew word Nachash, which better means to whisper, enchant through spells, and not necessarily the hiss of a snake and especially not a snake itself.
The Symbolism of Serpents
We might also ask why on earth, if the serpent was the symbol of evil that Moses, when he was in the wilderness, was told by God to John 3:14 “lift up the brass serpent in the wilderness” as a symbol of Christ in order for the COI to be healed?
Moving on from this debatable point on serpents and the true identity of them, in the Old Testament there is only a subtle evil force or influence in operation that is against God – if there is one at all. The story of Job speaks more of Satan than any other book by far and there we read that when “the sons of God gathered that Satan was also among them.” It appears from this reading that Satan is more of an accuser sent about under the direction of God to try and test and accuse those God select.
Harrell says that in the Old Testament God is seen as the source of both “good and evil” and Yahway himself is more the cause of things than Satan or the Fall or Demons.
Exodus 4:11 says:
“And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?”
Deuteronomy 32:39 says:
“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.”
Job said to his complaining wife:
Job 2:10 “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”
The Psalmist, speaking of God wrote:
Psalm 105:25 He turned their heart to hate his
Understanding the Role of Satan in Ancient Texts
People, to deal subtilly with his servants.
Biblical Perspectives on God's Sovereignty
Isaiah 45:5
I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Amos 3:6
Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Isaiah asks:
Isaiah 63:17
O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?
Lamentations 3:37
Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?
38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?
Job opens with the following insightful pronouncement
Job 1:21
Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
I mention all of this not to suggest there is not Satan but to try and see him from a biblical stance.
Ancient Israel's Concept of Satan
Writes Harrell about Ancient Israel and Satan:
“The concept of another super-natural power, beyond God’s control, causing evil, was not conceived in their belief system.”
Remember what 1st Samuel 16:14 says?
1st Samuel 16:14
“But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.”
In his book, A History of the Devil, Gerald Messadie summarizes the Old Testament view of Satan, and says:
“The essential thing is that until the third or second century BC, the image of Satan as God’s declared enemy is absent from Judaism. Satan and demons – who do not seem to have a master-servant relationship, the former being nowhere referred to as the chief of the latter – are the servants of God. As troubling as this may seem, the texts are there to prove it.”
Additionally, the Hebrew term translated Satan is “ha’satan” and literally means “The Satan” or “the accuser.” In the sense of being an actual office or role.
Roles and Titles in Ancient Texts
This is why we have passages that say things like:
Job 1:6
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Satan came also among them.
And then
Job 1:12
And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
As a result of passages like these, Elaine Pagels concludes in her book, “The Origins of Satan” (page 39) that “the Satan is not the name of any particular, let alone evil, character.”
The Harpen Collins study Bible adds:
“The use of the article (ha) before the word satan in Hebrew makes clear that this is a title and not a proper name. The satan is a member of the divine council whose task it is to discover and indict malefactors.”
Now, we obviously have a shift in meaning and understanding when we get to the New Testament.
I am NOT denying this and admit that the text presents us with a much more detailed explanation of the Satan and demons and all.
But we must not think that all of this was known or in operation from the beginning. It was not.
Could it be that the accuser for God started off this way then slowly embodied all things dark and evil?
Could it be that with the incarnation of Jesus (the word made flesh) that the darkness of the Satan also became personified?
I don’t know.
We don’t know.
All we do know is the accuser, the Satan was either in development or was processionally revealed over time to man and did NOT apparently operate in the Old Testament as he did in the New.
One thing before we go on to the New Testament ideas of Satan, the LDS, and then his place today – it's about the name most people still use for him – Lucifer.
Christians and Latter-day Saints have all taken some passages in Isaiah 14: and used them as proof that another name for the satan is Lucifer.
It just sounds so “juicy- Luciferian,” doesn’t it? And admittedly the passages sound like they are speaking of Satan.
In fact, I’m going to read.
Understanding Isaiah 14
Them to you and preach them as if they are about the Satan to help show how easy it is to believe that Isaiah is describing Satan. Ready?
You wanna hear about Lucifer? The devil, that old Serpent. Turn to Isaiah 14:9. Read with me. Hear the truth of that black-bellied, spiney spined, forked toothed, horned demon!
Isaiah 14:9 Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
10 All they shall speak and say unto thee, “Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?”
11 Thy pomp (Satan) is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, “Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.”
19 But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
It could be – it could be – that these verses indirectly lend insight into the heart and mind of Satan. But their primary purpose – and the name Lucifer and Son of the Morning, have nothing to do with him and this should be understood.
Context of the Text
How do we know this? Verse four of this chapter says:
Isaiah 14:4 “That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!”
This proverb against who? The King of Babylon. And then verse 20 plainly says:
Isaiah 14:20 “Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land . . .”
It was not uncommon in Hebrew literature for earthly kings to be compared to deities and accordingly, the king of Babylon is described as “falling from his glorious reign as though he were falling from heaven.” Almost every respectable Christian scholar admits that Isaiah 14 has its primary reference to the King of Babylon but many say it also alludes to Lucifer or Satan.
The Term "Lucifer"
Unfortunately the Hebrew expression translated Lucifer is helel ben shachar, which means, “shining one son of dawn.” In an article, “An Anthropologist looks at the Judeo-Christian Scriptures” Richely H. Crapo (???? BEAT SMILE TWIST OF HEAD) points out that the gods of near eastern religions were often identified with stars and planets. For example the planet venus is called Helel, son of the moon god Shahar. Accoring to Near Eastern mythology, Helel was banished from heaven for trying to usurp the throne of the Most High God of the assemblies of the gods and it is helel whom Isaiah gives as a metaphor for Nebuchadnezzar who, it is prophesied, would fall for seeking to rise above his station and become king of all the earth.
Therefore, the Hebrew term translated Lucifer, was a reference to the non-Israelite Astral God, and NOT to Satan. So who got us going on the Lucifer Satan connection? Jerome, at the turn of the fifth century translated helel in the Latin Vulgate as Lucifer (which means light bearing) and which was also the Latin name for Venus. But even THEN it was not a synonym for the Satan.
But because many Christians then (Jerome included saw this passage as an allusion to the Satan, LUCIFER eventually became a popular name for him. And wrongly! Theologian professors T.J. Wray and Gregory
The Misunderstandings Surrounding Lucifer and Satan
Mobley write (in their book, The Birth of Satan, Tracing the Devil’s Biblical Roots) that – “Post-biblical (POST-BIBLICAL) writers are responsible for connecting the dots between DAY STAR, LUCIFER, and Satan, an identification that was never made in the Bible.
When Luke 10:18 mentions Satan’s, “fall from heaven like lightening” it unintendedly lent to the use of the name. Adam Clarke, a great Christian commentator was utterly bewildered as to why Christians would ever link Lucifer (a morning star) with Satan (the prince of Darkness) and says about the reference in Isaiah 14:
“the text speaks nothing at all concerning Satan nor his fall, nor the occasion of the fall, which many divines have with great confidence deduced from this text.”
Examining Mormonism's Interpretation
But here’s the important key to all that we are about – and we will leave the discussion off until later – Mormonism has adopted these false applications and now refers to Satan as Lucifer.
Analyzing the Implications
It is here (and in places like it) were we more certainly prove its counterfeit, plaguerized nature – through admitting our own failures and then showing how the supposed restored Gospel did NOT improve upon them.
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REMEMBER . . . Next week, Matt Slick
