What Do We Do Without a Satan?
I was very leery of dealing with anything that could be construed as "Satanic." I knew that Satan, "who deceiveth the whole world," prowled the earth looking for those he could devour. My first spiritual experience BEFORE I became a Christian, which motivated me TO become a Christian, was being confronted by the deceiving spirit which had led me into occult meditation practices. It was at the point of possessing me in a meditation, but someone opened my mind's eyes to see what was really going on. Seeing the demon, I realized that he was there, there must be a Satan; and if Satan existed, then so did Jesus, who must have been the one who opened my eyes without needing my permission, because he has authority greater than mine, and I was going the wrong way!
As a Spirit-filled Pentecostal Christian, I have perceived the work of Satan's hoard deceiving the world and repeatedly trying to deceive me again. The lurking lion doesn't ever seem to rest, so I actively disprove and test every subtle teaching which might persuade me to lower my guard to accept anything other than "the pure milk of the Gospel" by which I have been set free from the works of Satan.
Imagine my chagrin, then, when I found out that there is no Satan. "He" is my IGNORANCE that God is one, and that I am included in that one.
That is what the Bible is telling us. The "Serpent" in the Garden who "deceived" Adam and Eve is the same "Angel of YHWH" who spoke to Moses in Exodus 3, because they are the same story. Moses' Mt. Horeb experience (Exodus 3) was so pivotal that he put it up in front of his teaching about it (Genesis 3). Moses was Adam, and he, contemplating Jethro or "His excellence," found God--the Serpent. Finding God alive in himself--Christ--wanton-living, profligate Moses was struck by conscience. It is only after we get a conscience that God can really start dealing with us.
"Hey, wait a minute. If there is no Devil or Satan, then that makes ME responsible."
Yes, and it makes God responsible. This is his plan, his doing, his doctoring (and you are him). "He is the perpetrator, and he is the victim." So who is he going to find guilty? Him who does not hear that YHWH is the one and only God and does not accept that he himself is that one ans only! Guilty, deceived by his own ignorance, 'round this man goes again wailing as a baby and gnashing his teeth at all the afflictions until in some life he "gets" it--he meets the Serpent, gets a conscience, and finds the map in the scriptures to becoming one with God, AS God.
What do we do without a Satan? Live as God, imagine like the Ineffable.
As a Spirit-filled Pentecostal Christian, I have perceived the work of Satan's hoard deceiving the world and repeatedly trying to deceive me again. The lurking lion doesn't ever seem to rest, so I actively disprove and test every subtle teaching which might persuade me to lower my guard to accept anything other than "the pure milk of the Gospel" by which I have been set free from the works of Satan.
Imagine my chagrin, then, when I found out that there is no Satan. "He" is my IGNORANCE that God is one, and that I am included in that one.
That is what the Bible is telling us. The "Serpent" in the Garden who "deceived" Adam and Eve is the same "Angel of YHWH" who spoke to Moses in Exodus 3, because they are the same story. Moses' Mt. Horeb experience (Exodus 3) was so pivotal that he put it up in front of his teaching about it (Genesis 3). Moses was Adam, and he, contemplating Jethro or "His excellence," found God--the Serpent. Finding God alive in himself--Christ--wanton-living, profligate Moses was struck by conscience. It is only after we get a conscience that God can really start dealing with us.
"Hey, wait a minute. If there is no Devil or Satan, then that makes ME responsible."
Yes, and it makes God responsible. This is his plan, his doing, his doctoring (and you are him). "He is the perpetrator, and he is the victim." So who is he going to find guilty? Him who does not hear that YHWH is the one and only God and does not accept that he himself is that one ans only! Guilty, deceived by his own ignorance, 'round this man goes again wailing as a baby and gnashing his teeth at all the afflictions until in some life he "gets" it--he meets the Serpent, gets a conscience, and finds the map in the scriptures to becoming one with God, AS God.
What do we do without a Satan? Live as God, imagine like the Ineffable.
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
1:02 AM
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