Satan. Lucifer. T-mobile. The Devil takes many names, but even if you're
a devout Christian you may just be surprised about what the bible does- and doesn't- say
about Satan. The traditional biography of Satan as accepted
by most Christians is that he was once amongst one of God's most beautiful angels, but in
his vanity, rebelled against God and inspired a third of the heavenly host to wage war against
their creator. For this, Satan and his angels were cast out
of heaven and condemned to hell, where they will spend eternity. Satan however has occasion to leave his hellish
prison. His most famous appearance is perhaps his
arrival in the garden of Eden, where he transforms himself into a snake. Once he finds Eve, he tempts her to eat from
the one tree in all of the garden that God had forbidden Adam and Eve to eat from- the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Having succeeded in inspiring mankind's first
rebellion against God, Satan then makes numerous smaller appearances throughout the books of
the Old Testament. His grandest appearance by far however is
in the Book of Job. Job is a good, honest man who dutifully worships
and obeys God. He is one of the richest men in the land of
Uz, blessed with vast flocks, a large family, and great wealth. Job is kind to his workers, and generous with
those in need, and God is well pleased with him. Then one day Satan arrives at God's court
along with a group of angels, and God asks him where he's been. Satan tells God that he's been roaming the
earth, and much like a proud father, God asks Satan if he's considered his servant Job. Satan challenges God, and tells him that the
only reason Job is so righteous is because of his vast blessings- if God removed his
favor from Job's life, then surely he would rebel against him. God agrees to allow Satan to strike down Job,
but forbids him from actually killing him. Satan then descends to the land of Uz and
in one day causes a catastrophe that kills most of Job's family, inspires raiders to
steal his flocks away, and strikes Job down with painful boils. Job, though showing frustration towards God,
refuses to curse him, and for his reward God restores twice as much as what was taken away
from him and gives him supernaturally long life. Satan's next major appearance is nearly two
thousand years later. Jesus, at the very start of his ministry,
retreats to the desert for forty days. While there, Satan appears to tempt Jesus,
seeking to corrupt God's son and doom his ministry on earth. Fasting for the duration of his desert trip,
Jesus has not eaten much if anything in those forty days, and Satan first tempts Jesus by
telling him to turn a stone into bread so he can eat it. Jesus rebukes Satan, telling him, “It is
written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God.” While Satan is trying to tempt Jesus to fulfill
his earthly desires of food, Jesus rebukes him, making it clear that spiritual matters
are more important than earthly matters, even if they require sacrifice. Next, Satan transports Jesus to Jerusalem,
to the very top of the holy temple. Then he tells Jesus, If you are really the
son of God, cast yourself down: for it is written, “He shall give his angels charge
concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time you dash your
foot against a stone.” Jesus once more rebukes Satan, telling Satan
that you should never tempt the Lord your God. In this rebuke, Jesus is rejecting the idea
that he should use his supernatural powers for his own personal edification or gain. Next, Satan takes Jesus to a very high mountain,
from where the duo can see all the kingdoms of the world and the riches they contain. Satan promises Jesus that if he commits but
just one act of worship to him, he'll give him dominion over every kingdom. Jesus promptly rebukes Satan a third time,
telling him “It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and only him.” In this final rebuke, Jesus rejects the idea
of gaining material wealth and political power at the cost of his service to the people of
the land- the poor, the needy, and the spiritually lost. Rejected three times by Jesus, Satan retreats
as Jesus is then attended to by angels. Satan doesn't reappear during Jesus's time
on earth, except in parables and when the Jewish religious authorities claimed that
Jesus was casting out demons because he was in league with the devil. However, Jesus corrects them, saying that
if one is to rob a strong man's house, then first he must tie up the strong man. In essence, Jesus couldn't possibly be exorcising
demons unless he had already overpowered Satan. Satan makes his big comeback however in the
Book of Revelation. Here we get some glimpses of the end of the
world, when Satan appears- described as a great red dragon with seven heads adorned
with seven crowns, ten horns, and one massive tail. Satan knocks a third of the stars out of the
sky, and then pursues a pregnant woman who is about to give birth. God however saves the child and helps the
woman escape from Satan. This woman is widely believed to symbolize
the virgin Mary, who faced rejection by her own family after becoming pregnant out of
wedlock, and was terrified that her husband-to-be, Joseph, would also reject her. God however sends an angel to explain the
situation to Joseph, who agrees to take her as his wife despite her pregnancy, thus enduring
great shame from their local community. After giving birth to Jesus however, Herod-
the Roman-approved king of Judea- orders all male children two years old and under to be
killed. He has heard of the arrival of the Jewish
messiah, and like most Jews expected that the messiah would be a conquering figure which
would restore the ancient Jewish kingdom. That would inevitably mean that Herod himself
would be removed from power, and thus he ordered his troops to kill all children under 2 years
of age. Satan is widely believed to have been the
fearful influence driving Herod's actions. However, an angel comes to Mary and Joseph,
and instructs them to flee until it is safe to return. Satan is once more foiled in his attempt to
derail the arrival of the messiah. Next, the war in heaven is described, with
the arch-angel Michael leading God's armies against the rebellious host led by Satan. Defeated, Michael throws Satan out of heaven
and down to the earth. In hindsight, maybe Michael should've thrown
them into space and not here on earth amongst us. Satan is imprisoned for one thousand years,
and then is at last set free. He gathers up his armies for one final battle
against the righteous of the earth and Heaven's armies, but God sends down a pillar of fire
to burn up Satan's forces. Satan himself is captured and thrown into
the lake of fire, and the righteous are forever free of his influence. There's just one small problem with Satan's
official biography- much of it isn't about him. The ancient Jews who wrote the Old Testament
never had any inclination to believe in a figure that was ultimate evil, let alone a
rival of God. As lord and creator of all things, God could
not possibly have a rival, and thus it would be foolish to assume any one being could rise
to the position. In the original Hebrew, the word satan means
accuser or adversary, and is used to reference humans and a celestial being. When used to reference a celestial being,
the word is accompanied by the definitive article, making it clear that the name Satan
is not a name at all, but a title. Satan is not Accuser, but The Accuser- it's
his job title. Satan is not a fallen angel opposing God from
the depths of hell, but rather, Satan is actually part of God's court, and carrying out his
assigned duties. We see this best in the Book of Job. Here, Satan actually arrives with a group
of angels, making it clear that he himself is also an angel. Satan doesn't 'make a bet' with God that he
can break Job, as is the common Christian narrative, but rather Satan merely points
out the apparently obvious- Job is only faithful to God because he has abundantly blessed him. In order to prove that this isn't the case,
God allows Satan to carry out his duties as the accuser, but within parameters. Further difficulties arise when the Book of
Job is taken as a historical account by Christians, who then use the book to support a living
biography of the deeds of Satan. However, it is quite clear from the way that
Job is written that it is a work of poetry, a text meant to explore some of the deepest
and most painful theological questions such as why do bad things happen to good people-
and how should they respond when they do. Jesus's reference to Job is not a surprise
then, as Jesus himself taught exclusively through parables. The writers of the Old Testament did not believe
in a literal devil, but rather understood that the temptation to do evil lived in all
of us. However, these beliefs began to gradually
change, and sometime in the late BCs and early ADs, Satan became a specific being which was
diametrically opposed to God. Coincidentally enough, this is also when Zoroastrianism
began to exert a greater and greater influence on Jewish culture. In Zoroastrianism, good and evil exist in
equal measures and are diametrically opposed. However, evil is limited by space and time,
while good is not. Thus, when the world ends and space and time
run out, evil will simply cease to exist, leaving only good to triumph. This powerful duality clearly had an influence
on Jewish beliefs, who began to identify Satan as a specific figure forever in opposition
to God and his people- as evidenced by Satan’s greater role in later Jewish books of the
Old Testament. Satan developed many of the parallels of Zoroastrianism
duality, including a near-peer opposition to God, but an inability to outright defeat
him. Satan too would eventually be defeated at
the end of days, and only good would remain to rule over creation. Exactly like in Zoroastrianism. Jesus himself likely saw Satan in the same
traditional sense that the ancient Jews did- as an internal temptation and not a physical
being with the power to do evil and oppose God. This is because the account of the three temptations
of Christ are widely accepted as having been a symbolic representation of Jesus's internal
struggles and doubts at the start of a ministry he knew would end in his death, and not literal
events. Once more given the fact that Jesus almost
exclusively taught in parables, this is a very likely conclusion. His first temptation was the temptation to
use his power to fulfill his own selfish needs- or hedonism. If Jesus could heal the sick, he could use
that same power to fulfill every lust and desire in his heart. His second temptation was the temptation to
glorify himself, instead of God. Often pressed in on all sides by adoring crowds,
Jesus would have easily been tempted to use his massive influence and support to take
leadership of the nation for himself, or to simply develop a cult of personality. The biblical account of Jesus atop the temple
was a representation of how Jesus could show off his supernatural powers in front of crowds
of people and gain their support or adoration. His third temptation was to use his power
to indulge his materialism. With his god-given power, Jesus could have
become a great ruler if he wished- yet he didn't come to grow political or economic
power, but to begin a spiritual revolution. While he could have been a king, he instead
chose the role of a servant. The fact that no mountain peak could actually
show all the kingdoms of the earth makes it clear once more that this is a symbolic representation
of Jesus's early internal struggles. The early Christians certainly believed that
Satan was a physical being completely opposed to God- the pinnacle of all evil. That belief has continued to the present day
and even influenced non-Christians. Yet the earliest biblical accounts, unadulterated
by the growing influence of Zoroastrianism and other dualistic religions, make it clear
that Satan is not a devil hellbent on overcoming God, but rather merely another member of God's
angelic court. However, as God's prosecutor, he is the closest
that a Jew, Christian, or Muslim has to a supernatural enemy- even if The Accuser is
not trying to destroy faith, but rather grow it by pointing out where it is weakest. A modern belief in Satan as the enemy of God
is simply doctrinally unsound, as humanity itself only rebelled against God when they
ate the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil. As they were the first, and only beings to
eat this fruit, no angel could have possibly rebelled against God in the way that mankind
did. When you're done yelling at us in the comments,
go watch 50 things you didn't know about Satan. Or we tempt you to click this other video
instead.
