Go to List of Characters -- Return to
Contents /Writer's Den
The
Nature of Satan
Prelude to Darkness
is a study of two principle characters for the End Times: Satan and the False
Prophet. Evident in this story is
the author’s own perception of this period, which becomes increasingly apparent
as the story progresses. Many of
the traditional notions of the End Times and its chief antagonist are revisited
and given a new twist. Though
seemingly unorthodox in the story’s physical depictions of the devil, the very definition
of this archfiend is subject to a myriad of names, shapes, and personalities. For this reason, I have added this special introduction to this novel.
According
to the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, Satan was not originally evil but was
created as a perfect being by God, exalted above all other angels. The Lord had given him great wisdom to
accompany his beauty. In those
days he was called by Isaiah ‘the son of the morning,’ and yet a Christian
scribe of the early church, translating the original Hebrew text of Isaiah into
Latin, gave him the name Lucifer, which, despite this obvious fiction, is
second only to Satan, as the devil’s most popular name. Though he isn’t mentioned by name by
Ezekiel, the following passages describing the original nature of Satan,
implies that before his rebellion in heaven, which preceded his offense in
Eden, Satan was, in fact, the guardian of Earth.
13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every
precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the
beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle,
and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee
in the day that thou wast created.
14 Thou art the anointed cherub
that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God;
thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.(Ezekiel
28: 13-14)
In spite of his
great potential, Lucifer, who had freewill, was corrupted by thoughts of power
and his own beauty. After his
foolhardy attempt to challenge God, he was promptly expelled from heaven by the
forces of Archangel Michael, along with a faction of rebellious angels,
“falling,” in the words of Saint Luke, “as lightning from heaven.” Isaiah, the same prophet who foretold
the coming of the Messiah, also predicted the devil’s ultimate end:
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.... 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.” (Isaiah 14:13-15).
Appropriately
enough, after this cosmic confrontation, Satan resurfaces as a lowly serpent in
the Garden of Eden only to be rebuffed once more for his deceit against
God. This episode, which inspired
John Milton’s depiction of the devil in Paradise Lost, captures Satan’s basic
nature. It previews for Biblical
writers, such as Isaiah, Ezekiel, John the Devine, and Saint Paul, Satan’s
greatest tool—temptation and the eternal battle between good and evil, in
which, according to Christian tradition, mankind’s original sin resulted from
Adam’s fall. After creating the
perfect couple and letting them roam happily awhile in paradise, the Lord
tested their obedience to him by forbidding them to eat forbidden fruit. Everything else in the garden was theirs
for the taking, but to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, the Lord promised, would
cause certain death.
Soon, after Adam
had left Eve alone in the garden, a serpent looking down from the tree,
slithered quickly down to the woman, who stood gaping up at the wondrous
tree.
1
Now the serpent was more subtle than any
beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, “Yea, hath God said, ‘Ye shall
no eat of every tree of the garden’?”
2 And
the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the
garden: 3 But
of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said,
‘Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” 4
And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die. 5 For
God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then shall your eyes be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil.” (Genesis 3: 1-5)
In
addition to calling God a liar, Satan was using Eve to spite the Lord. After dispelling her fears that the
fruit was poisoned, he convinced her that it would give her a new power she did
not possess: the knowledge of right and wrong. Eve, whose curiosity had been wetted, would commit the sin
of disobedience to God, just as Satan’s second transgression against God would
be to cause the first woman to sin.
And
the Lord God said unto the serpent, “Because thou have done this, thou art
cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life.” (Genesis 3: 14)
Eve, who wanted
to have great knowledge, had talked Adam into sharing the fruit with her,
thereby causing him to sin too.
Adam, whose offense was greater than Eve’s because he was not even
tempted by the devil but merely by his wife, was consigned to hard labor the
rest of his life, while Eve was given the pain of childbirth by the Lord. The gift of freewill had proven, as it
had for Satan, to be their downfall. In the eyes of God they had lost their innocence. The knowledge they gained had made them
ashamed. When the Lord found them
hiding in the garden, they had tied fig leaves to hide their nakedness. The lure of forbidden fruit had been
too great for them; they had failed to obey a simple request by the Lord. After their disobedience, the first
couple were cast out, barred forever from Eden. In place of the lush gardens provided by the Lord, they
would have to wander the wilderness in search of shelter and food.
18 Thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 19
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return.” (Genesis 3:18-19)
Because of their
original sin, Adam and Eve lost their immortality and their places in paradise,
yet as the first parents, according to Saint Luke, they had begat all the races
of men. This feat, accomplished by
error by the first couple, had also condemned their descendents to death until
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, whose resurrection, in the words of Saint
Paul, defeated the devil once and for all: O death, where is thy sting? O
grave, where is thy victory?
Almost as
important as the comprehension of original sin in the Garden of Eden is the
understanding that Satan was, from that day forward, the author of sin. The second repudiation by God to Satan,
however, does not lessen the fact that He used the devil to test Adam and Eve,
a task that Satan would be called on to perform again and again. The most significant outcome for the
understanding of the prophets, Apostles, and later Judeo-Christian and Muslim
theologians, however, was the connection in the Garden of Eden between the
Tempter and man’s inclination to sin: a cause-to-effect relationship that would
last, if we are to believe Saint John the Devine, until the End Times, a
subject covered later in the Prologue.
******
Except for the
episode in the garden, Satan’s importance diminishes greatly in the Old
Testament after Eden, until God decides to test his faithful servant Job. Job, a prosperous but god-fearing man
loses all his goods, the lives of his children, and his health—all as a result
of a wager between God and Satan about whether or not a “perfect and upright”
man will remain faithful to the Lord after overwhelming misfortune befalls him.
8 And the LORD
said unto Satan, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like
him on the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and
escheweth evil?” 9
Then Satan answered the Lord and said,
“Doth Job fear God for nought? 10
Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that
he hath on every side? Thou hast
blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 11
But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse
thee to thy face.” (Job 2: 3-5)
In this case, Satan had tempted God. He did not even bother trying to tempt
Job, himself. Though the book of
Job falls in the middle of the books of the Old Testament, after the
deliverance of the law to Moses and several other Biblical stories, it is
considered by many theologians to be an older work. It’s tone, in fact, has much in common with those portions
of the Bible preceding Exodus in which the law had not yet been given to the
children of God. During this
period, tribal leaders such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would make covenants
directly with the Lord. The Lord
would occasionally test them, Himself, as he had when he asked Abraham to
sacrifice his son Isaac but then, at the last moment, stayed Abraham’s
hand. When searching for answers,
Jacob didn’t wrestle in his sleep with the devil as Christ had in the
wilderness of Judea. Rather than
being tempted by Satan with doubt, Jacob, in searching for answers, wrestled
directly with God. Appeasement to
God, not sin, was the issue. The
devil was scarcely even mentioned during this period. When misfortune befell the patriarchs, it was not because
they had been tempted to sin by Satan but because their deeds were not pleasing
to God. With
the writing of Job by an unknown Hebrew author, Satan, the Tempter, after lying
dormant for centuries, returned once more to influence man’s destiny, but this
time to also tempt God.
As the patriarch
Abraham, Job had kept his covenant with the Lord and had been a perfect
servant, and yet he was struck down by Satan, not the Lord, after receiving
permission by God. Satan was
certain that, like many of the fair-weather tribal leaders before him, this
rich patriarch would crumble under pressure and curse God. Yet Job, in spite of his adversity,
proved to be a sure bet for the Lord.
A group of
friends came with Job’s wife to mourn with and comfort him, sitting beside him
for seven days and nights as he suffered Satan’s tests. After Job had lost everything,
including the deaths of his children and household servants, he rent his
clothes and poured ashes over his head. When this failed to affect Job’s faith, Satan asked,
and was given permission, to afflict him personally with painful boils. As he sat, half mad with grief
and wracked with pain, however, he spurned his wife’s advice to curse God. He couldn’t agree with his friends who
were certain that he must have offended God grievously to be treated this
way.
In response to
everyone’s advice and logic, Job replied
“the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord.” (Job: 1:21). After seeing his suffering and hearing
his righteous lamentations, God, having won his wager with Satan, returned
Job’s wealth tenfold, multiplied his children, and blessed his righteousness
before all men.
In spite of its
apparent great antiquity, the book of Job, as it fell in the chronology of
scriptures, marked Satan’s high water mark in earthly power but also his
limitations over mankind. The Lord
had personally, on equal terms, sought the devil out to test His servant Job. Though Satan was allowed to inflict
great hardships upon him, he could not take his life. Everything he did was dependent upon God’s will. God, not the devil, had ultimately been
responsible for Job’s misfortune.
The tribulations inflicted by Satan had been necessary to prove Job’s
perfection when put to the test.
From this point on, the devil’s power was limited to his ability to
tempt, most often from the sidelines, mortal men. The Old Testament prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and
Zechariah placed great stress upon man’s struggle with the devil. Daniel’s bizarre visions were, in fact,
the first glimpse of the Apocalypse in which Satan would, during the Great
Tribulation, reign openly on Earth, testing, on the Lord’s behalf, all of
mankind.
From Cain’s
murder of Abel through constant battles for souls in the Age of Prophecy and
then the time of Christ, God tacitly allows the devil to have influence in men
and women’s lives, even to tempt Jesus when the Holy Spirit led Him into the
wilderness to test his faith.
In spite, and also because, of the current secular age, which tends to
make fun of the belief of God as well as Satan, that same power is stronger
than ever today.
The
Many Faces of Satan
In the words of
Saint Jude, “Satan is kept in darkness and is bound with everlasting chains.”
Yet these chains, which may be symbolic constraints placed upon him by God, do
not prevent him from appearing and reappearing throughout history, often using
his cohorts topside to control the affairs of men. Often in disguise, hidden completely, lurking in the
shadows, or appearing in men and women’s dreams, the world is nevertheless
under his control, as Jesus Christ and his Apostles claim, allowing Satan to
lead sinners astray through temptation, enchantment, and guile.
In both secular
and sacred literature Satan often appears as an angel of light, deceiving
sinners from his real nature, which, after his true self is revealed, often
turns into a horned, fork carrying fiend—a product of Greek mythology and
Medieval myth.2 These extremes are but two of the
countless manifestations and interpretations of the arch enemy of God. With his ability to shape-shift, he or
perhaps more accurately it is in reality an amorphous being, who can
appear in any gender, age or form.
As the Tempter or Temptress,
he makes sin appear irresistible.
This, of course, is the compulsion that mortals feel when confronting
temptation. Whether it be out of
curiosity, as Eve’s yearning for forbidden fruit, or the basic greed, jealousy,
and hate of men and women, the knowledge of good and evil instilled that first
day is the same. Sometimes writers
would have us believe, as the Enchanter or Enchantress, Satan lures us by his
or her very nature to commit sin.
Instead of a mere voice in our head or unseen compulsion, the devil
comes in the flesh. A beautiful
vixen, handsome stranger or innocent-looking child may act as an intermediary
for Satan’s designs, unless the devil appears in disguise, himself. As the Comforter, he may even pretend
to offer better solutions than the troubling ones lying before one’s path,
appearing as a kindly looking old man or woman or someone held dear in the
sinner’s past. But he, she or it
is no less the devil in these innocuous shapes. The greatest trick of the devil, of course, is to make us
believe he doesn’t exist.
Since the devil has so many disguises, it’s no
wonder that there are so many names and titles for him, especially in the New
Testament, where Jesus and his Apostles constantly remind their listeners who
is the chief cause of sin.
It will be noted that students of the Bible have crammed countless books
and web sites full of nicknames and allegories for Satan, many of which are
beyond the scope of this work.
Within the list of actual names and nicknames of Satan, there have been
placed by well meaning theologians, characters which are more properly thought
of as demons. Among this group are
many of the “devils” which had
once been local Canaanite gods. In
other cases, it will also be noted, interpreters of scripture have used
allegorical expressions to personify the devil, most of which were the poetic
expressions from the Apostles and Jesus Christ, Himself.
The most famous name of the architect or evil,
Satan, did not appear until late in Old Testament history and was popularized in
the New Testament. The
original name satan or satanas was a Greek translation of the
original Hebrew sathanes, meaning the accuser, the adversary, or the
opponent. In original usage, “the
satan” was the adversary, not of God, but of mankind and the angel charged by
God with the task of proving, through temptation enchantment, and guile that
mankind is unworthy of the Lord’s creation. In the Book of Job, Satan, whose name is finally
capitalized, is portrayed as a formidable, almost respectable, opponent of
God. Near the end of the Old
Testament, Zechariah, the greatest of the prophets ministering to the chosen
people during restoration of the temple after Babylonian Exile, foreshadowed
the tone New Testament writers would take toward Satan as the personal
adversary of God and tempter of mankind.
1 And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing
before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist
him. 2 And the LORD said unto
Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem
rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (Zechariah 3: 1-2)
By the time John the Baptist tied both testaments
together neatly with the exhortation “Behold the Lamb of God,” Satan had
evolved into a personality that would be recognizable to a modern day minister
or priest. The continuity
for the Lamb, however, did not run quite as smoothly for the goat. The great void between Job and
Zechariah, in which Satan is alluded to as the serpent, Lucifer, the Leviathan,
and the satan, make the preceding passage by Zechariah especially
important. The devil had
socially evolved into a complex, insidious fiend. After his personal conflict in the wilderness, Jesus Christ,
Himself, through his Apostles, became relentless in his warnings about Satan
for both contemporary and End Times. Satan was a personal enemy to all mankind, even to his
disciples, one of whom betrayed Jesus after falling victim to his wiles.
26 And when he had
dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. 27 And after the
sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, “That thou doest, do
quickly.” (John 13:26-27)
Job 1: 6-12, 2: 1-7; Matthew
4: 10, 12: 26, 16: 23; Mark 1: 13, 3: 23, 26, 4:15, 8:33; Luke 10:18, 11:18,
13:16, 22:3,
31; John 13:21-25, Acts 5:3,
26:18, Romans 16:20; 1 Corinthians 5:5, 7:5; 2 Corinthians 2:11, 11:14, 12:7,
1 Thessalonians 2:18; 2 Thessalonians 2-9; 1 Timothy 2:20, 5:15; and Revelation 2:9, 13, 24, 3-9, 12-9, 20:2, 7.
The
Devil 2
In the Greek New Testament the Hebrew word Satan
is also translated into the Greek word diabolos, which most commonly is
translated into English as “the devil.” The first occurrences of the word devil as a general
concept, however, are in Leviticus 17:7 and 2 Chronicles 11:15, in which Moses is referring to foreign
gods, who were collectively evil, but not yet the Satan tormenting
Job. Although, during the time of
the Patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had treated foreign gods as equals,
this attitude changed drastically after the Exodus when the Israelites claimed
the Promised Land. Moses, the law
giver and the self-righteous judges of Israel, who followed him, were scandalized
by the horrors of pagan worship.
As a result of their demotion of all foreign deities to the category of
devils, this general term had a plural meaning during this period.
And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto
devils, after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute forever unto them throughout their
generations. (Leviticus 17:7)
And he ordained him priests for the high places, and
for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.” (2 Chronicles 11:15)
Throughout the New Testament, this word is used both
personally, as in the letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, and generally by
Christ during an exorcism of a demon-possessed man.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
(Ephesians 6: 11-12)
And Jesus
asked him, saying, “What is thy name?” And he said, “Legion: because many
devils were entered into him.” (Luke 8:30)
Additional References to
the Devil
Matthew
4:5, 8, 11, 13:39, 25:41; Luke 4:2-3, 5, 9, 13, 8:12; John 8:44, 13:2; Acts 10:38, 13:10; Ephesians 4:27, 6-11; 1
Timothy 3:6-7, 2, 2:26, Hebrews 2:14; James 3:15, 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8; 1 John 3:8,
10; Jude 9; Revelation 2:10, 12-9, 20: 2, 10.
The
Tempter
This word for Satan or the devil, which is often
used in a general sense too, is the most basic of Satan’s names, for it clearly
defines his nature seen in the Garden of Eden as the cause of the original
sin. In deed, Eve, herself,
was as the serpent, a tempter, after tempting Adam. It is in the first book of the New
Testament that this word can be capitalized to denote an actual character. Beginning as a mere verb in the
first sentence of Saint Matthews account of Christ’s temptation in the
wilderness, it quickly becomes a noun.
Note also that the three most important names listed so far for this
Biblical character are used by the Lord, who knew him best: the tempter, the
devil, and Satan.
1 Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil... 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, “If thou
be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, “It is written, Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God.” 5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city,
and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6 And saith unto him, “If thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself 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
thou dash thy foot against a stone.” 7 Jesus said unto him, “It is written again, ‘Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God.’” 8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding
high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of
them; 9 And saith unto him, “All
these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, “Get thee hence, Satan:
for it is written, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt
thou serve.’” (Matthew 4: 3-10)
Additional
Reference to the Tempter
1 Thessalonians 3:5.
Lucifer
3
Lucifer makes his appearance in the fourteenth
chapter of the Old Testament book of Isaiah, at the twelfth verse, and nowhere
else. The problem with this
passage, as pointed out earlier, is that Lucifer is a Latin name. Lucifer, it might be recalled, was the name given by Roman
astronomers to the morning star (the star we now know as Venus, the Roman
goddess of love). This morning
star appears in the sky just before dawn, heralding the new day. The name Lucifer is actually derived
from the Latin term lucem ferre or bringer, or bearer, of light. As explained earlier, Satan’s pride led him to challenge
God, at which time he was cast from heaven to earth where he still abides.
“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!” (Isaiah 14:12)
The serpent is the most obvious allegorical
expression of Satan, the fallen cherub.
Outside of the episode in the Garden of Eden already covered, the Bible
gives various general expressions of the serpent’s natural evil, cunning,
untrustworthiness, and also danger to unsuspecting souls, but this name does
not reappear as an appellative for the devil until we are reminded by Saint
Paul in 2 Corinthians 11:3 of the original story of the Tempter:
But I fear, lest by any means, as the
serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from
the simplicity that is in Christ.
In Revelation, covered subsequently, this important
appellative is used in conjunction with the title dragon, referred to also by
the Revelator as “that old serpent, called the Devil,
and Satan,” but
Paul is speaking of the youthful serpent, recently cast out of heaven in his
concern that members of the new faith would succumb to the same temptation as
Eve. Paul understands most clearly
the central theme of the serpent in scriptures as the devil whose purpose it is
to corrupt mankind, competing with the Lord at every turn in His mission to
redeem mankind.
Additional References to the Serpent
Genesis
3:1-2, 4, 13-14, Isaiah 27:1, Revelation 12: 9, 14-15, and 20: 2.
Though
used in a general sense throughout the Bible as a word for someone who is
worthless, reckless, and lawless, this appellative for Satan used by Saint
Paul, is one of the most important characterizations of the devil in the
Bible. Belial is compared to
Christ as the prince of darkness against the prince of light, respectively, and
as the ultimate incarnation of evil to be reckoned with on earth.
14 Be ye not
unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with
darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? ...(2
Corinthians 6: 14-15.
Other than the three main demons mentioned in the
Old and New Testament—Abaddon, Beelzebub, and Leviathan, there are in fact
scores of fallen angels in demonology lists who allegedly served Satan in
heaven before their collective fall. Most of them appeared to have been foreign gods that
had been turned into devils by the Israelites soon after Joshua and the twelve
tribes reclaimed the Promised Land.
A representative sampling of those demons with at least a Hebraic
tradition have been included at the end of this section. Many of the remaining “devil gods,”
however, are not from Judeo-Christian tradition at all but have been
extrapolated by demonologists from the works of John Milton, HP Lovecraft, and
Johann Wier’s Pseudomanarchia Daemonum, and, in many cases, are aberrations of
the black arts.
Due to his status as “the angel in the bottomless
pit,” this demon, who is second only to Satan in his importance for the
Christian concept of hell, is often mistaken as another incarnation of Satan,
himself, but was, in fact, born from both Greek and Hebrew legend long before
arriving in Saint John the Divine’s pen.
Outside of the single passage written by John in the Book of Revelation,
this important servant of the devil is mentioned by name only one more time in
the Apocryphal writings of Saint Thomas and yet, because of the frightening
words of the Revelator, the passage brings to mind frightening images of
Dante’s inferno and Medieval Christian hell.
And they had a king over them, which is the
angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in
the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
(Revelation 9:11)
Though referred to by demonologists as King of the Cricket
Demons, Abaddon’s true form was originally that of a serpent. Apollo-Python was the original serpent
deity in the Pit of the Delphi oracle.
This god was the solar god of the heaven during the day, and the lord of
death in the underworld at night.
In his evolution, came the inspiration for Dante Alighieri and John Milton’s visions of hell. In Hebraic lore he became, under Greek influence, Apollyon,
the “Spirit of the Pit and also Abaton or Abbadon, which was the Greek
and Hebrew words, respectively, for pit.
Later this general word, not only became synonymous with the Christian
hell, but as the actual name of its gate master, Abaddon or Apollyon, the angel
of the bottomless pit.
Beelzebub ~ Prince of the Devils
This demon, whom the Pharisees blamed for Jesus
miracles, is also referred to as “lord of the flies,” but was originally known
as Baal-Zebub, a Canaanite god.
Apart from his place in demonology, which is influenced by the Apocrypha
as will as the Cabal, he has come to be identified erroneously, as with
Abaddon, with Satan, himself. One
particular passage, frequently quoted, is used often to make the connection.
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “This
fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.”
(Matthew 12: 24)
The term demon and devil were used interchangeably
by Biblical writers during Old and New Testament times. More likely seen as a chief demon by
the priests, Beelzebub suffered the same fate of other local deities after the
return of the Children of Israel into the Promised Land. During the Satanic Mass, Jesus
was denied in Beelzebub’s name, and at witches’ Sabbaths Beelzebub became the
master of all rites. In spite of
his vilification, this god had been consorted by Israelite Kings during the
Prophetic Age. When King Ahaziah
was ill, he instructed his messenger “Go enquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of
Ekron, whether I shall recover of the disease.” (2 Kings 1:2)
Additional
References To Beelzebub
Matthew
10:25, 27; Mark 3:22; and Luke 11:15, 18-19
The
Leviathan ~ The Great Sea Monster
According
to Hebrew tradition, the great sea monster, the Leviathan, who existed from the
fifth day of creation, represented the forces of chaos harnessed by God. In spite of his record in demonology as
the prince of liars, master of the ocean, and king of beasts, later Hebrew
tradition has him vanquished in a battle with the archangel Gabriel, after
which a tent is made of the monster’s skin in which a banquet will be held for
the Messiah. The root meaning of
the word leviathan can be translated from Hebrew to mean twisted or
coiled. One famous passage of
Isaiah, who may have been referring prophetically to the fall of the Assyrian
and Babylonian empires, carries an apocalyptic ring to it because of its
allusion to the dragon, one of Satan’s names during the End times in the Book
of Revelation.
“In that day the Lord with his sore and great
and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan
that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1)
Additional References to the Leviathan
The
following selection of lesser archdemons found in Hebraic tradition, includes
Asmodeus, who many Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians feel is an
appellation for Abaddon or Apollyon.
Belfagor:
Moabite deity (Baal-Peor) personified as a beautiful young girl,
originally
worshipped
by the Israelites.
Dagon: Originally a Semitic god from
ancient Ur, adopted by the Philistines and
portrayed as half man and half fish. (Samuel 5: 1-7.)
Sephiroth:
Ammonite
god, identified with Moloch, translated as “King.” This god
demanded
sacrifice of firstborn by fire to avert disaster for the community.
Sammael:
Originally a Hebrew god, an angel of death personified as a serpent,
playing the role of accuser, seducer, and destroyer, as Satan, himself.
Asmodeus: The
Destroyer, from the Apocrypha Book of Tobit (iii, 8), often
correlated to Persian myth but more likely another name for Abbadon.
Nicknames
for Satan
Nicknames for Satan, both allegorical and
clear-cut, are numerous in the New Testament. To his circle of disciples, the Apostle Peter, who offered
two such epithets, counseled, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour.” Saint Paul and Saint John
both had pet names for the Tempter, too, but most of the nicknames for Satan
came from the Jesus Christ, Himself, who sometimes used two or three epithets
for the devil in the same passage.
The following list covers most but not all of the most important of
Satan’s nicknames, including significant passages in which the they occur.
This allegorical nickname for Satan was used
exclusively by Saint Paul.
In 2 Corinthians 4:4 the great missionary writes “In whom the god of
this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them.”
What does this mean? Why would Paul give the devil such an exalted title? Is he really calling Satan a
god?
It has already been established that the devil has a
great deal of control in this world.
In what on the surface strikes many Bible readers as enigmatic, however,
is the notion that Satan is called a god by the learned Paul. On closer inspection of the missionary’s
total perspective are other passages that clarify his position. It’s true, of course, that Satan is a
prince of this world, which is another expression given by Saint John for the
devil, but it was Christ who came to deliver us from this evil world. But there is, as there was in the
time of Paul, another layer to the world ruled by Satan and his minions: a world of moral rebellion against God,
which the apostle meant when he referred to Satan as a god.
Most of the world does not knowingly worship Satan,
but, as in Bible times recognize by Christ and his Apostles, men and women are
filled with self-love and worship worldly urges and goods. By blinding the minds of unbelievers,
Satan, as the god of this nether world, works against Gods plan. Christ, on the other hand, the
God of Earth, everlasting, as written by Paul, “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from
this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.”
(Galatians 1:4)
The
Prince of this World
For Christ and His Apostles and Christian ministers
and priests down through the ages, Satan was and is the evil one, who is
ultimately responsible for deliberate evil in the world. According to Jesus, through the pen of
the Apostle John, Satan is the Prince of this World, ruling the world system of
politics, business, and society, until the day of judgment when he shall be
cast out.
Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the
prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.... Now is the judgment of
this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” (John 12: 31 and
14:30)
Not only is Satan called the prince of this world
but he is also the prince of the power of the air, ruling over all the demonic
hosts (the fallen angels) who operate in that “other world,” working against
God's plan. To the Christians at
Ephesus, the Apostle Paul wrote, “Wherein in time past ye walked according to
the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” (Ephesians 2:2)
The
Enemy
When the Disciples were commissioned by Jesus to
preach the word, Jesus gave Satan yet another name as he sent them on their
way: “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and
over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt
you.” (Luke 10:19)
The Wicked One
Once
again, this time in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Christ, with a veiled prophecy of
the End Times, refers to Satan as the enemy and this time gives three different
names for the devil to press his point:
38 The field is
the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the
children of the wicked one; 39 The enemy
that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and
the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore
the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of
this world. (Matthew 13: 38-40)
The Thief and the Wolf
Jesus gave one of his most
important parables in the temple in Jerusalem, that of the Good Shepherd in
which he alluded to the devil as both a thief and as wolf:
10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to
kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might
have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd: the
good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. 12
But he
that is a hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth
the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf
catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. (John 10: 10-12)
A
Murderer and the Father of Lies
To a crowd of idlers in the temple, Jesus rebuked
them with two more names for the devil:
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will
do. He was a murderer from
the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and
the father of it.” (John 8:44)
It
was, of course, the Revelator, who first referred to Satan as the Accuser of
the Brethren, knowing all too well of a believer’s frailties and temptations
but knowing also that a darker time than even those of Emperor Nero would come
when a great and dark tribulation would grip the world.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now is
come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before
our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:10)
This appellation for Satan
is used exclusively in the Apocalypse of Saint John, the Devine, and yet,
before turning to future events, the Revelator recounts the war between God and
Satan and the devil’s expulsion, with his angels, from heaven. This time four of the chief names
for the Tempter are given in only a few passages: the Dragon, the Devil, the
Old Serpent, and Satan. Saint
John, the Devine, like Jesus, understood the complex and many faceted nature of
Satan.
7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they
lost their place in heaven. 8 And they prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and
his angels were cast out with him.
(Revelation 12:7-9)
The previous names of Satan covered in this
passage, had denoted throughout the scriptures both a general faith tester for
God and a personal adversary to man.
In the Book of Revelation, if we are to believe the doomsday forecaster,
John paints a frightening picture for the future, not of the past or present,
but of the dragon persecuting the faithful during the End Times:
12 Rejoice, ye heavens, and ye
that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the
devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he
hath but a short time. 13 And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted
the woman which brought forth the man child .... 17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went
to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God,
and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Revelations 12:12-13, and 17)
Following the twelfth chapter of the Book of
Revelation, both the Antichrist and the False prophet are introduced as the
first and second beast. Briefly
summarized, the False Prophet who prepares the new world church, is equivalent
to an antipope or evil messiah, in that he serves the religious portion of an
evil trinity, in which the Antichrist stands on the secular side while Satan,
the dragon, stands in the center, the inspiration for the former and the power
behind the latter’s throne. The
antecedents preceding the rise of this trinity--the nation of Israel, a united
Europe and a moral and religious climate conducive to the new world church—will
already be in place before the future seven year period called by Jesus Christ
“the Great Tribulation” in which faithful are tested once again by Satan, in
ways reminiscent of the Nazi Holocaust for the Jews. The appearance of two witnesses warning the world of
worse things to come and the re-emergence of the Chosen People, as
proselytizers of the true faith, occur during the darkest days of the End
Times.
In the end, we are reminded, Christ returns
to gather up the faithful before the final battle of Armageddon destroys two
great armies gathered in the Middle East.
European legions will rush into counter an attack by a great eastern
army, who have been identified by speculators as a Chinese army or even a great
horde of Muslim fanatics, crying out Jihad. Whomever this army will be, will be destroyed along with the
European legions by Archangel Michael on behalf of the Lord. And then on the eve of the
thousand-year reign, during Judgment, when the Antichrist, the False Prophet
and their followers are thrown into the Lake of Fire, an angel, probably
Michael, will come down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit and a
great chain in his hand,
“.... 2 and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent,
which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him
up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till
the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a
little season.” (Revelation 20:
2-3)
Satan’s
Place At the End Times
The prophets of the Old Testament and the authors of
the New Testament are concerned with both the present and future of Satan—the
devil’s reign on earth. Isaiah and
Ezekiel’s fears of the devil, along with the promise of the Messiah, are
reflected in the Gospels, but this dread of Satan is expressed most acutely in
the Book of Revelation. The
continuity of both testaments, embodied in John the Baptist’s exhortation “behold the Lamb of God,” can also be
seen by the pervasive and growing antithesis to Jesus: Satan. From his fall from grace, through
his humiliation in the Garden of Eden, until his defeat during Christ’s
resurrection, when the Lord conquered death by his blood to overcame original
sin, whereby mankind would not suffer Adam and Eve’s fate, it appeared as if
Satan faced one defeat after another.
And yet Christ, Himself, warned the world of a latter day when the devil
would have greater powers. The
Apostles, who were normally concerned with a present, ongoing devil, often
cited Christ’s words verbatim, which had been influenced heavily by the
prophets of the Old Testament. The
continuity between the Old and New Testaments on this subject carries, in
itself, a prophetic ring of truth.
“For
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall
be famines, pestilence, and earthquakes in divers places. (Isaiah 19:2, Mark
13:8 and Luke 21:10)
“When
yet therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the
prophet, stand in the holy place.
Whosover readeth, let him understand…” (Daniel 9:27, 12:11 and Mark
13:14)
“For
then shall be a great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the
world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” (Daniel 12:1 and Mark 13:19)
“Immediately
after the tribulation shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give
her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens
shall be taken…” (Isaiah 13:10, Mark 13:25 and Luke 21:26)
Apocalyptic literature, which primarily includes the
book of Revelations and Daniel, are concerned with what Satan will be doing in
the future. Though neither book
clearly states this goal and, in fact, are cloaked in bizarre symbolism that
can be interpreted various ways, they have become the bedrock of a generation
of doomsday literature known as eschatology (the study of the End Times or Last
Days preceding the Final Judgment.)
Central to Apocalyptic literature is, of course, the devil, who, after
his war in heaven and corruption of Eve in the Garden of Eden, fell from
Heavenly grace—from God’s favorite archangel into the boogie-man and archfiend
of literature and Biblical tradition.
Briefly stated now, because of the Satan’s successful corruption of most
of mankind, a countdown to doomsday has already begun because of several
historical events, including the rise of the state of Israel, the European
union, and the many indicators of religious and moral decay in the world. At the forefront of this great age, is
the chief antagonist, the author of evil, who deserves a volume all to himself.
After all things are considered, regardless of
whether you accept a literal or dynamic interpretation of the Holy Scriptures,
you must admit that Satan is arguably among the most important characters in
the Bible, second, perhaps, to only Christ by virtue of his impact on
Judeo-Christian, Mormon, and Islamic thought. To deny his existence, is in the minds of conservative
Christian theologians and scholars of the Talmud and Koran tantamount to
denying the existence of God, Himself.
This shadowy character, who is mentioned by many different names
throughout the Bible, is, after all, the faith-tester of God and central
to the doctrine of original sin.
In the mind’s of conservative Christians, Mormons, Orthodox Jews, and
Muslims, he continues to be a living force—the opponent of God, of believers,
and all that is right and good.
It is to all faiths struggling with this dark force
that this book is dedicated. The
words of the greatest seer and prophet of them all, Our Lord Jesus, outlines
the Satanic age ahead of us best—that greatest of testing grounds for believers
and non-believers alike:
21 For then shall be a great tribulation, such as was
not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22 And except those days should be shortened, there
should be no flesh saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be
shortened. 23 Then if any man shall say
unto you, Lo, here is the Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false
prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were
possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 27 For as the lightening cometh out of the east, and
shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
(Matthew 24: 21)
2 The stereotype image of the devil, with cloven hoofs and horned head, was borrowed by Medieval Christian clerics from Greek mythology. After replacing the serpent, the symbol of the devil during Bible times, the goat-like satyr, whom the Greeks called Pan, remained the most popular image of Satan in both Medieval and modern literature.
Go to List of Characters -- Return to Contents /Writer's Den