In each blog, I often reference many different topics that I've already covered (or will soon cover), and maybe you've missed. Please review my blogs to read more...
Parts of Christendom have taught that Satan, once the perfect archangel, who somehow had a change of heart and "malfunctioned" himself into the devil and is now a fallen angel... is also one who desired to be God himself, who wanted to overthrow the Throne and rule himself.
This is why he was supposedly kicked out of Heaven and torments us, and recklessly spreads evil here on earth to this day.
Before even cracking open your Bible, you should see a glaring problem with that notion.
Doesn't that suggest that God's perfect design of creation, including the angels (and mankind) have somehow malfunctioned and that God is truly not in control?
That's what it sounds like to me.
Are we to believe that God tried to create a perfect creation but that He somehow failed, and lost control of it all and was also unaware of the potential for it to all run amok?
Are we to believe that after it had all, supposedly fallen to pieces, that He was somehow unable to correct those errors in His creation?
Did God create an unpredictable world?
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Satan entered Eden as "that Old Serpent" and deceived Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit. Satan didn’t sneak into the garden against God’s will. He performed a needful task with our first parents. God preordained what Satan was instructed to do with Adam and Eve. God did not try to prevent it. It was all part of His master plan!
That "serpent" was created to deceive!
Rev 12:9 …that OLD SERPENT, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world…
He was created to devour:
1 Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour [swallow down/eat]
If a thousand Christians were given the assignment to write an essay describing what the world might be like if Adam and Eve had not "sinned", I am fairly certain that the majority of essays would describe the unbelievable beauty, harmony, and total perfection of all creation including man and beast as was found in the original Garden of Eden.
However, would such essays be based on the Holy Scriptures?
Satan never has, or never will, operate beyond his God-given assignments.
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Rom 8:20-22 For the creature [creation itself] was MADE [created] subject to VANITY [moral depravity], NOT WILLINGLY [we had/have no choice in the matter], but by reason of Him [God] who HAS SUBJECTED [to subordinate, to be put under obedience, to subdue] the same in hope, because the creature [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the BONDAGE of CORRUPTION into the glorious liberty [what a great/perfect word!] of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
It was God, Himself, who subjected (who created subordinates) ALL of creation to moral depravity... intentionally.
It is also God, Himself, Who will deliver ALL of creation from the bondage of corruption, pain, and suffering because He takes FULL responsibility for it ALL... including His vessels of dishonor:
Rom 9:21-23 Hath not the Potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
What if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering [patience] the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that He might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory,
Don't you see? This is what I've been trying to tell you. Go read my blog "Why?".
God intentionally created these "vessels of dishonor" to illustrate His power to His vessels of honor!
Did you choose to be born a vessel of honor? NO!
Did they choose to be born a vessel of dishonor? NO!
God has created those vessels of dishonor, and is enduring them with "much patience", AND He is responsible for them in the end! They will learn righteousness:
Isa 26:9-10 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early:
For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of THE WORLD WILL learn righteousness.
One day ALL of creation will confess Jesus as LORD!
It was not possible for Satan to refrain from sin... he was created for the express purpose of being God's Adversary, which is why "he was a sinner from the beginning" (1 Jn 3:8)!
Isa 45:5-7 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded [to bind, like a belt] you, though you have not known Me: That they [us...] may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is NONE beside Me. I am the LORD [I AM THAT I AM], and there is NONE else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, AND CREATE EVIL: I the LORD do ALL these things.
Can it get any clearer that that?
It was also not possible for Adam and Eve to refrain from sin -- they were created for the express purpose of being molded into the "Image of God" and so of course, they had to eat of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would have never reached this first spiritual step into becoming LIKE GOD (in His IMAGE).
That is our goal!
God intentionally placed the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden.
Gen 2:9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow EVERY tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good AND evil.
God intentionally planned on Adam & Eve to eat thereof...
Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil...
It was God Who intended from the beginning (before the creation of the world) that man SIN and that Satan help guide us toward God!
That does not make God a sinner, for a sin is a "mistake", a "missing of the mark", a "falling short of the glory of God", and God has never made a mistake or fallen short of total perfection.
God knew what He was doing, from the beginning, and how things would turn out BEFORE He created ANYTHING!
"Declaring the end from the beginning..." (Isa 46:10).
All of this is EXACTLY why God planned on our Sacrificial Lamb, Jesus:
Rev 13:8 ... the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
God had a plan in place before creation ever came into existence!
Satan and man are "accountable" for their sins, because we sin from our carnal heart, but God takes/has taken "responsibility" for that sin ("from the beginning..."), and therefore had ALREADY provided them a Saviour (Jesus - Yeshua) BEFORE the foundation (creation) of the world:
1 Pe 1:19-20 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for YOU,
Rev 13:8 And ALL that dwell upon the earth SHALL WORSHIP Him, whose names are not written in the book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Why would God have prepared a Lamb for sacrifice (Jesus) to atone for the sins of the world if He somehow didn't know that Satan was going to go off the rails, or that Eve would eat of the fruit?
Did God say "oops... I didn't see that coming?"
It was God Who created the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
It was God Who placed the Tree in the middle of the Garden to catch Eve's eye.
It was God Who made the Tree particularly attractive and desirable.
It was God Who placed within the humans the desires and passions that would cause them to partake of the forbidden fruit.
It was God Who placed Satan, the serpent, in the Garden to tempt Eve and fill her head with the glories of enlightenment.
It was God Who had ALREADY made preparation for their salvation through the slain Lamb of God.
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Also note, that it was not the physical act of eating the fruit that was Eve's first sin.
Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes [lust of the eyes], and a tree to be desired [lust of the flesh for nourishment] to make one wise [pride of life], she took ["for out of the heart proceed..." Mat 15:19] of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
Eve sinned before she ever sunk her teeth into the fruit...
1 Jn 2:15-16 "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For ALL [is that some things, or ALL?] that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."
She had ALREADY sinned by looking (lust of the eyes), desiring (lust of the flesh), and fantasizing about her potential wisdom (make one wise...). See Genesis 3:6 above.
It was AFTER she sinned in her heart that she "did eat".
More on Satan
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil [the great dragon, old serpent, and Satan (Hebrew for Adversary - 1 Pet 5:8) Rev 12:9], and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the Truth [from the beginning], because there is NO Truth in him [from the beginning]. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar [from the beginning], and the father [the beginner of lies] of it.
Gen 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the LORD God HAD MADE [created!].
Job 26:13 By His spirit He [God] has garnished the heavens; His hand has formed [created] the crooked serpent [Satan].
Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster [Satan] to destroy.
Destroy what? Mankind's flesh (carnal mindedness)...
1 Co 5:4-5 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my Spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God...
... and that we learn not to blashpheme:
1 Ti 1:20 Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
It is the "crooked [fugitive] SERPENT" SATAN who "SIFTS" men like wheat! God created Satan for this express purpose.
What does that mean, to destroy carnal mindedness?
Satan's purpose, in our lives, is to test/tempt us... Satan is a necessary tool, used to point us towards God!
I stated this in another blog, but how can we possibly understand TRUE Love unless we understand TRUE hate? Satan's role is to teach us (give us the opportunity to experience) the opposite traits of God's goodness in order that we may appreciate God's TRUTHS!
1 Jn 3:8 He that committs sin is of the devil [Satan]; for the devil sins FROM THE BEGINNING. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested [made known to us], that He might destroy the works of the devil.
So was it AFTER a supposed "Lucifer, Archangel" metamorphosed into Satan that he sinned, or did Satan the Adversary sin "from the BEGINNING when he was intentionally created by Almighty God as His Adversary to teach His children something about this life?
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Click here for more on the "Lucifer" issue.
Some of these excerpts are from my personal notes copied from 30+ years of studying... some of these notes are direct copies of various sources - I do not claim to have authored every word of this... it's just a mass collection I've tucked away over the years for my own personal studies... I didn't consider a bibliography at the time I directly copied small excerpts from various authors. Also, any emphasis (underlines, bold text, all CAPS, etc.) noted above was only meant to capture my personal attention as I studied...
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