The Nature of Jesus – The Divine/Human Nature of Christ



This one this morning when you were supposed to get the other one so uh those of you who do not have um the nature of christ as related to the nature of man that’s what we’re giving out this time and if you did not get the one that we did this morning which

That was the nature of sin let me know as well and i still have some available uh for you but we want to make sure everybody has this study that we’ll be looking at this afternoon on the nature of christ as we know this is once again a another hot button issue

Within seven day adventism what kind of nature did jesus have did he have the nature of christ or rather the nature of adam before the fall or did he have the nature of adam after the fall and and uh we know that much revolves around this ellen white tells us that

The the nature the humanity of christ means everything to us the humanity of christ means everything to us and it is the golden link which connects our souls to heaven jesus the fact that he came not as god but he came as a human being

In the form of a human being and in having taken the likeness bible says of what kind of flesh sinful flesh in the likeness of sinful flesh we’re going to start out trusting that everybody’s received it we’re going to start out we’re not going to obviously go through each of these and

At the end of this session i also want to give opportunity for questions and answers that you may have um but we’re going to start out we’re not going to go through every single one but the first section is what was the nature of man at creation now this is more or less

Basic foundational uh we know that god created man how in his own image in the image of god created he him male and female created he them this is an incredible advantage that god has given us the fact that we were made in god’s own likeness

In the book sons and daughters of god the very first page is a very powerful statement there sons and daughters of god page one it says that human beings were a new and distinct order of beings you know and and it’s interesting because in genesis chapter 2 we find that the record says

In verse 1 the heavens thus the heavens and the earth were finished and all the host of them so if i’m understanding this correctly human beings were were the crowning act of god’s creation this was the last stop you and me when we were created

And he said we we’re going to make this order of being new and distinct from every other order of being that we’ve made we’re going to make him in our own likeness then she says he alone is made is is capable of partaking of the divine nature you didn’t get that

It said he alone is made capable of partaking of the divine nature what kind of nature does god have what is that what what is divine nature what what consists of the divine nature all knowing right he’s all omniscient what else is part of god’s omnipresent everywhere present he’s he’s in contact

With all of the areas of his vast creation what else pure he’s righteous holy what else he’s omnipotent and omnipotent all power unlimited power so god is telling us that he made us capable of being a sharer in those things are you starting to get this hallelujah i’m serious

It almost sounds like heresy right i mean if it weren’t for the the servant of the lord saying that i’d say it is heresy but god said it and i believe it steps to christ 17 man was originally endowed with noble powers and a well-balanced mind he was perfect in his being

And in harmony with god his thoughts were pure his aims holy 8mr 39 he was furnished with what kind of nature holy nature what else sinless what else pure and undefiled now we we found out this morning that once adam fell he could no longer pass to his posterity

What he no longer possessed and what is that a holy nature sinless so this should forever settle in our minds the the notion because i’m telling you brothers and sisters there may not be anybody here today that believes this but i have talked to a number of seven-day adventists who believe somehow

That infants are born sinless and somehow they don’t become sinful until they make a choice to sin that’s not that’s not what god says you know the bible says we are all as in what unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are filthy rags that’s not even talking about the bad

Deeds that’s that’s your good deeds are like filthy rags and if you go and look at what isaiah is actually saying there in that text it’s talking about women’s menstrual rags and they didn’t have tampons back then so those rags were just good enough to do what with them throw them away

One time use that’s how our good works are in god’s sight see and then job tells us who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean see so it’s impossible by the very nature of the laws that are in operation since creation for adam to have anyone come down line from him

Now that he has fallen being sinless impossible see the only way you and i can attain to sinlessness is by faith in christ jesus he says that’s why in fact let’s go to john chapter three and see something very significant that jesus is saying on this subject because

We need to make sure that we understand these foundational principles of the plan of salvation in john chapter 3 jesus is having this conversation with a church leader and he tells him you should know these things you mean you’re a teacher in israel and you don’t know these things and he tells him

In verse 5 verily verily i say unto you except a man be what born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of god that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit and what is jesus saying there

When you’re born the first time you’re born of the flesh isn’t that right when you’re born the first time you are not born of the spirit otherwise you wouldn’t need to be born again right there’s nobody born of the spirit but one person and who was that jesus christ conceived

Of the holy ghost see so jesus didn’t need to be born again we do isn’t that right we every man he said except a man be born again there’s no exceptions to this now it doesn’t it doesn’t forego the fact that those who may be born into a godly family

They’re going to have some advantages isn’t that right with the mother and father have devoted their lives to christ and even from the earliest moments while that child is in the womb they are singing the songs of zion to it reading the word that child is going to

Have some advantages over somebody who doesn’t have that isn’t that right but it still does not constitute that child sinless why because it the genes go all the way back clear to who adam and none of us escape that okay so we were furnished with this holy nature sinless pure undefiled but

The second part of our study how did sin affect the nature of man now let’s go back there i know you you know this but you know let’s go back there to genesis 3 and look at how sin affected the nature of man right there in the garden

Before we even get put out of the garden watch what happens this is uh genesis 3 starting at verse 8 they heard the voice of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day and adam and his wife did what now did they ever do that before no

It before this time it was a delight to see jesus coming to talk with them right now something has totally changed in them that caused them to want to do the opposite see before there was like a magnet jesus is here now those magnets are turned the other way

And we’re hiding from jesus amazing then it says from the presence of the lord amongst the trees of the god the lord called to adam and said unto him where art thou and he said i heard your voice in the garden and i was afraid what was he afraid of

Where did that come from where did this fear come from sin right sin had totally transformed their whole outlook towards god now totally now watch this i was afraid because i was naked lost the presence the lost the glory of god and i hid myself and he said who told you

That you were naked have you eaten up the tree where have i commanded you that you should not eat and adam said yes lord i did please forgive me that’s not what he said right he said the woman whom you gave to me to be with me she gave me of the tree

And i did it now just a little bit ago adam we’re told by inspiration was looking upon eve and because he loved her he did what he hate because he couldn’t he couldn’t imagine an existence without her so supposedly because he he loved her so greatly he was ready to share her fate

And now who knows this may have been just a hour two later would it he’s ready to throw her under the bus see get her she did it i was not responsible for this i was minding my business doing what i was supposed to do

And you god gave this woman to me see so it’s not my fault yeah it’s your fault and her fault that’s basically what he’s saying isn’t it you see what sin does how quickly the change has come remember this morning we said the principle of what selfishness is now in control

See the law of sin is in the flesh it’s all about me now sorry eve you know i mean i i felt like i loved you before but now that it’s judgment time you’re on your own see what i’m saying that’s that’s what that’s what it came down to

Now let’s see what happens with e okay lord didn’t even deal with that right there he said okay um the lord god said unto the woman what is this that you have done and the woman said lord i am so sorry please forgive me i did exactly what you said not to do

Didn’t do it same principle in her right the woman said the serpent beguiled me and i did eat in other words you know i mean you had this serpent in here i mean if he was if you didn’t allow him to be here we would be all right today it’s not me

Get the serpent he did it see and this this is see again this is now passed on to every one of us in our nature we we naturally do not want to take responsibility for our own sins right we naturally when somebody comes to reprove us for sin

We’re ready to be on the defense isn’t that right we’re ready to think of how that does not apply to me automatic the principle the law of selfishness see this is a ruling dominating force that’s now in control of the thoughts and the feelings of mommy and daddy adam and eve see

All right so when we go over to romans 7 we see paul bringing this out also in a very powerful way this chapter of course being another very controversial part of scripture what does paul actually mean what is what is he actually saying here but paul is underscoring

That we have something operating in our nature that is more powerful than your will okay in romans 7 verse 14 for we know that the law is spiritual but i am carnal sold under sin who sold him unto sin adam and eve right so we were born on a plantation brothers and sisters

We were born on the plantation we didn’t make that choice and this is why god has pitied our estate can you say amen today he knows we didn’t make this choice he knows we can’t be as it were blamed for how we came into the world we didn’t have a vote in that

Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if we could have sat back and say you know in this list of jeans i don’t think i want that one put that one to the side that one yeah i’ll take that one we didn’t have that choice did we no you got whatever

Came from the genetic code of your mother and your father period and who knows what is upline from that tree see they can be things that come back your mother and father is like where did that come from you know granddaddy wasn’t like this i don’t know grandmother wasn’t like this see

Things you know they’re things we are still studying about the genetic code and discovering that that are incredible but this law of heredity it it dictates that like begets like and therefore it is just as impossible for any one of us to be born into holiness innate holiness

As it is for a shark to give birth to a giraffe it’s not going to happen like begets like it’s a law see so as paul goes on he says he he starts breaking down how it has been demonstrated that i am sold under sin 4 verse 15 that which i do

I what allow not for what i would that do i not but what i hate that do i you read the greek there that’s what i practice now just before anybody gets worried i do not believe that this is describing the victorious christian living okay so you can have a sigh of relief

Right but this is what we need to come to grips with in order to get to the other side of victoria’s christian living we first have to realize how hopeless a situation we are in so that we can be ready to be saved by the savior

He says if then i do that which i would not i consent to the law that it is good the law is not the problem is it now then it is no more i that do it but what sin that dwells in me now that kind of verse right there

Doesn’t fit into a whole lot of people’s theology it sounds like paul is abdicating all responsibility for what he’s doing he’s saying i’m not doing this sin that lives in me is doing this is that what he’s saying that’s what he’s saying isn’t it and he says it more than once

He says for i know that in me that is in my flesh dwells how many good things no good thing for to will is present with me you see the choice is here right now this is what he’s dealing with i’m choosing to do good right i’m making a decision

I’m going to do good right then he says but how to perform that which is good what can’t find it where is he looking for it in himself and that’s why he’s not finding it because it’s not here the will to do it you know he says i delight in the law of

God the law is doing its job it’s showing us man we’re in trouble it’s doing its job it’s just showing you you got mud on your face you need something to clean that but you don’t have any cleaner on you see so he says for the good that i would

I do not but the evil which i would not that i do there it is again now if i do that i would not it is no more i that do it paul’s being repetitive here that means this is something we really need to get right repetition deepens the impression

So paul’s saying it over and over again but sin that dwells in me i find then a what there’s that word a principle a law that when i would do good by choice evil is present with me so what happened here as we’re seeing here by this study of the nature

Of christ and the nature of man and how sin affected us the genetic code which started with adam and eve was corrupted does that make sense the genetic code was corrupted and therefore every person coming out from his loins would be receiving corrupted code that’s you and i isn’t that right

It’s a law this sin has been passed down by law and this is what he’s finding out this is what we need to find out for i delight in the law of god after you inward man but i see a what another law where in my members

Warring against the law of my mind and doing what else bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members see oh wretched man that i am who will deliver me from the body of this death now this is the place we have to come to

Before we can be saved we have to see i am messed up and if i’m going to be saved at all it’s got to be jesus coming in and saving me from myself see so we have to see that there’s nothing that we can fix about ourselves nothing that we can patch up

We have to be delivered from this body of death you see when he says that it’s in my members what is a member of body parts that’s literal what he’s saying that’s not just spiritual talk our brother was just mentioning this at the uh the table

You can as it were peel back the skin of your head and you will see starting from your brain what are called nerve patterns and those nerve those brain nerve patterns are the habits that have been developed in you both by inheritance and by cultivation

So we are as as you’ve all heard we are creatures of habit see so these things are written in fact when david says in psalm chapter 51 verse 5 he says i was behold i was what shapen in iniquity and in sin then my mother conceived me now that that’s con

Significant what david is saying there when he says i was shaping in iniquity david is talking there about the formative time when he was in his mother’s womb when those first two cells came together and then started multiplying that’s when the shaping took place for every one of us

And david is saying i was shaping i was formed and developed in the womb in sin it’s written in our very genetic code and this is why every single person since the beginning of the fall has sinned that’s why the bible says if any man says i have no sin

What does he say about you you’re lying truth’s not in you it’s there is a law there are laws in operation here and adam just happened to be the progenitor of the race the one who gets to pass down to every generation past the results of what he did

You see it would have worked the other way if adam had remained faithful we would have been born holy we would have been born sinless see born in harmony with the will of god by law but the law works either way see now jesus steps in this is where some people

Uh have have wondered well doesn’t jesus step in and undo everything that jesus did yes but that’s where we must make a choice see notice in i’m not going to go back there for sake of time but in john 3 jesus actually says that he

That believes not on the son of man he says he’s condemned what’s the next word already in other words your default position in adam is condemnation that’s what we read in romans 5. see so your choice not to believe in jesus and take the escape route out of your lost condition

You are thereby choosing by default to stay in adam and be condemned you’re condemned already that choice was made for you by adam thousands of years ago so you don’t have to do anything but what you naturally do to remain in condemnation but you do have to make a choice

No i’m getting off this ride i’m not going there with you satan amen you know when the when the lifeboat comes by i read this some years ago i think it was by j.h wagner and he was dealing with this very issue of how uh you know people have a hard

Time accepting that somebody else could make a decision for me like adam in the garden and he says you know if somebody pushed you into the water and you started drowning you know and then a uh lifeboat comes by to save you are you going to us

Stay there while you’re struggling to to keep from drowning and say well i i first got to find out who it is that pushed me in here and it’s i’m not responsible for this i didn’t get in here somebody else got me in here are you gonna

Go through all of that are you gonna accept the salvation that’s here to get you right you’d be crazy if you didn’t right so you know we may not be able to fully understand all of these things but the the bottom line is that jesus has made a way of escape for

Every human being on the planet every human being was represented by adam and every represent every human being was represented by the last album praise god now let’s see how much more we can cover of this going on to the the second page um in regards to how

The how sin has affected our nature uh notice in in uh counsels the teachers page 33 on the second page the transgression of god’s law brought woe and death in its train through disobedience man’s powers were perverted and selfishness took the place of love his nature became what so weakened that

It was what impossible for him to resist the power of evil impossible see now the only way it is possible for you to resist evil is by connecting with jesus christ then it is possible then sin is not excusable anymore see but we must first become aware

Of the salvation that is available to us see and that’s where you and i come in see there’s so many people out there that have no idea that the lifeboat is here to get them and jesus has sent you and i to go get them and let them know he has some salvation

For you so his nature became so weakened that it was impossible for him to resist the power of evil all right now skip down to the little statement there from education page 29 notice this one the result of the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil

Is manifest in how many men’s experience every man’s experience there is in his nature a what bent to evil a force a what force which unaided he will have a hard time resisting he cannot resist why because this is a law a principle principles do not respect your freedom of choice

If i go on the top of this roof and decide to violate the law of gravity believing that i’m going to do it am i going to break the law or is the law going to break me yeah exactly right a force which unaided he cannot resist

All right reviewing hero 5 27 84 just before his cruel death jesus said the prince of this world comes and has nothing in me hallelujah satan could find nothing in the son of god that would enable him to gain a victory he had kept his father’s commandments and

There was no sin in him that satan could triumph over no weakness or defect that he could use to his advantage but we are what sinful by nature and we have a work to do to cleanse the soul temple of every defilement was jesus sinful by nature are you sure

Alleluia if he was sinful like us he would need a savior but jesus took sinful nature upon him but he did not become sinful by nature there’s the difference and this is where this is the the distinction we must make right now this one is not in your

Study this is signs of the times 2 13 93 when man sinned all heaven was filled with sorrow can you imagine for through yielding to temptation man became the enemy of god a partaker of the satanic nature the image of god in which he had been created was marred and distorted

The character of man was out of harmony with the character of god for through sin man became carnal and the carnal heart is enmity against god is not subject to the law of god neither indeed can be all right now on to the next page three the words this is from spaulding and

Began 209 this words flesh or fleshly lust carnal us embrace the lower what kind of nature corrupt nature the flesh of itself cannot act contrary to the will of god we are commanded to do what with the flesh crucify with the affections and lusts so it has to have the consent of your

Will now this is on the other side of the equation once we have come to christ and we’ve been made aware that he has power to deliver me from myself now i understand that this slavery this bondage that i’ve been involved in i can break this now with with god’s help

And i don’t have to be a slave to these passions anymore i don’t have to be a slave to this appetite anymore amen these are the things that we come to understand when christ comes into our lives so what is required to read what was required to redeem man from the fall

Into sin okay and in romans 4 23-5 it says now it was written for abraham it was not written excuse me for his abraham’s sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we do what believe on him that raised up jesus our

Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offenses what part of the the work of jesus is that speaking of when he was delivered for our offenses the crucifixion this is the delivering up of himself to pay for the infinitesimal amount of sins that are represented by all of the race

Of adam he delivered himself up for our offenses what’s the next part but and also was raised again for what reason our justification see it wasn’t enough for the debt to be paid justification is where it where jesus now fixes what’s wrong with you ellen white says that justification is not a mere

Judicial act whereby he sets you free from condemnation but it is also reclaiming from sin see that’s justification by faith when we accept the work that christ has done for us he not only says i forgive you but i also give you for your sins my righteousness see what forgiveness entails

It’s not just saying okay i won’t be mad at you anymore it’s also saying i’m gonna reach into your life now and start changing what you are and making you what i am that’s god’s justification making you right praise god all right now notice i’m just going to read this

Last uh sentence of the statement from 2sp that spirit of prophecy volume 2 pages 9 and 10. this is what was required to redeem us his life jesus life was of sufficient value to rescue man from his fallen condition see an angel couldn’t do this because not only do we need to be

Forgiven but we needed somebody who who was whose life was of sufficient value that he could actually impart his life to all of us angel can’t do that because he gets his life from the same source that we get ours from and an angel’s life would not pay all of the debts

Of all of us but jesus could his life was of sufficient value to rescue us how did christ undertake now we get into just what type of nature christ took it says in john 1 14 what somebody read it for me the word was made flesh and dwelt among us

Now one thing we can we can be certain of that when the bible speaks about flesh what kind of flesh is it talking about sinless or sinful i heard both well let me ask you when adam was created in the image of god what kind of flesh did he have sin less flesh

After adam’s sin what kind of flesh did he have sinful so then when jesus comes into the world and receives flesh of man what kind of flesh did he receive sinful sinful flesh there’s only one kind of flesh now that we are on the other side of the garden of eden

Only one kind that’s why uh john says in first john chapter 4 that if if when you’re trying the spirits any spirit that confesses not that jesus is what come in the flesh single article in the flesh he’s not of god see so if you’ve got somebody preaching to

You that that jesus came and sinned less flesh what does that say about that person that’s an antichrist you’re dealing with he failed the test because jesus came in the only kind of flesh that humans have sinful flesh praise god it wouldn’t be in any test for jesus to come in sinless flesh

We don’t have that we’re not tempted adam wasn’t even tempted by sin sin less flesh right so we needed somebody to come down to our level and take our kind of equipment on you know so and then of course romans 8 3 and 4 god sending his own son in the likeness of

Sinful flesh and for sin condemn sin where and if he condemned it where it was in the flesh he condemned it praise god that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled where so you know there goes this idea that jesus fulfilled all the law so we don’t have to keep it

That’s not what he said does it yes that’s right what good would that do if jesus just did it for himself he said in john 17 i say for their sakes i sanctify myself you know that they also might be sanctified by the truth so that the

Law of righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit all right many other excellent texts here that make it very plain hebrews 2 14 to 18 for as much then as the children who are the children that’s us

All right as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death if he had sinless flesh he wouldn’t have been able to die adam would never have died if he had

Remained in sinless flesh and if he had remained faithful to god his flesh would not have become sinful flesh jesus came with sin full flesh so that he could die for us you see that to destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil did you know the devil

Had the power of death but jesus took it away from him praise the lord wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren now is this all things is there no how do i want to put this are there any any particulars in which he was not made

Like like us let’s read the next uh statement here 16 mr 182 but as christ humbled himself to to the nature of man he could be tempted he had not taken on him even the nature of the angels but humanity what read this together with me perfectly identical with our own nature except

So is there any exception except what does the word accept mean that means that that was one area that he was not taking on what we have except without the taint of sin a human body human mind with all the peculiar properties he was bone brain muscle a

Man of our flesh he was compassed with the weakness of humanity as it says later on that he was capable of yielding to temptations now james chapter 1 tells us that god cannot be tempted with evil that means impossible it’s impossible for god to be tempted with evil you cannot tempt god

To overeat you cannot tempt god to commit adultery you cannot tell none of the things that we are tempted with are a temptation for god that’s what james says so he had to come close enough to us to be able to be tempted with these things and that’s what he did see

But he did not take the taint of sin in other words he did just like we said before he did not become sinful he was not born in sin but we are born in sin you see the difference okay now i love this one it’s very short medical ministry page 181 was one

Sentence but very significant it says he took upon his what kind of nature sin less nature our sin full nature that he might know how to that are succeed so if we want to consider this is jesus he comes into the world and in his entrance or as he enters

This world what kind of nature does he have by heritage a sin less nature but he takes upon this sinless nature what our sin full nature how many natures that does that give him two you see the point so we cannot see the problem with so many of us is we are

Trying to do exactly what inspiration said not to do to present him as all together human such a one is ourselves he says it cannot be that’s right he wouldn’t be able to save us at all you know that’s right so he took upon what he already had from eternity

He didn’t get rid of that it didn’t disappear it was still there in him but he clothed it that’s another way that ellen white likes to refer to it he clothed his divinity with humanity see so it was close enough to him that he could feel the promptings of this sinful flesh

He could know what it is like notice it says so he could know how to help us aren’t you thankful for jesus he came that close so that he could literally feel in himself what it is to be tempted in your flesh what it is to feel those promptings to

To want to just lash out of somebody when they get on your nerves see all of the things he covered all the bases inspiration says hebrews 4 15 we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities hallelujah but was in all points

Tempted like as we are what a savior now here’s an interesting point as well you and i we’re born into this world we have our line of lineage our lineage and whatever is imparted to us in our particular line those are our particular temptations you have your temptations i have mine

I may have no problem with some of the areas that you have a problem with and vice versa isn’t that right and it all is determined by what came down your particular line but jesus it tells us um this is in your study as well like every child of adam

I’m not looking at it right now but it says like every child of adam jesus accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity see but now jesus somehow this is mysterious but somehow jesus is partaking and accepting of that law of heredity i believe covered all of the lines

Not just his particular line because he had to be able to be tempted in all points like as we are see there’s another thing that only god could do only a divine being could do because he made us see he had the capacity in his soul and his being

Of being able to cover all of the lines of heredity in himself and feel the temptations that all of us feel that i may not feel or you may not feel but there’s not a one of us who will be able to say that you don’t know what

It’s like to be in my shoes jesus he covered all the bases see only a divine being could do that see this is why colossians chapter 3 believe it is says when christ who is our life shall come christ is our life he doesn’t just give you life

He is our life there’s some deep deep ones on that as well uh notice uh confrontation 78 by experiencing in himself the strength of satan’s temptation and of human sufferings and infirmities where did he experience it in himself in himself okay he had all the strength of the passion of humanity

In himself upon him uh 3sm 139 and 40 he came not to our world to give the obedience of a lesser god to a greater but as a man to obey god’s holy law and in this way he is our example so there’s only a slight difference in jesus test to our test

Jesus test was to maintain the holiness that he had from eternity the test was to to determine whether jesus would be able to resist yielding to this sinful equipment that was upon him throughout his lifetime now we on the other hand come into the world already submitted to it

By the laws of heredity we come into the world with these genetic codes already having pre-programmed you to submit to them before you even know about the gospel or you had sufficient uh development or growth to figure out right from wrong this is why children small children four you know it

You’re telling you alive where did that come from who taught them that see where did that come from yes sir you know yeah this is already hardwired into our very being you see so jesus is coming in to overcome res uh the temptation to yield to our equipment

We are coming from the state a different standpoint we are needing to overcome what we have already been subjected to do you see the difference see we’re in the pit already thanks to adam we need a strong hand to reach down and pull us out he couldn’t save us if he got already

All the way down in the pit but he came close enough so that he could experience what we experience and overcome on our behalf all right now let’s skip on to uh page five um just a few things we’ll notice here in in uh section 5 to what extent did

Christ identify with fallen humanity it says in 5 bc 1080 satan assailed christ through every conceivable form of temptation now just conceive in your mind of the types of temptations you know some some people wonder did jesus ever have to deal with this or did jesus ever have to deal with that

What did god say he covered all the bases every conceivable okay now this is this next one you might want to put a asterisk beside this because it is not a published statement you have to get this from the from the uh archives but it’s interesting what it says coming

As he did as a man to meet and be subjected with all the evil tendencies to which man is heir notice what we just mentioned how we all receive a heritage of sin that is particular to whatever our fathers and our mothers and our forefathers have passed on to us

But jesus comes and gets subjected to all of those that man is heir to all right in the next statement he was dependent upon the omnipotent for his life christ did nothing that human nature may not do if it does what partakes of the divine nature that’s a good one isn’t it

That lets us know everything jesus did you can do it by god’s grace by dwelling in him by faith all right it says then the next one the humanity of christ was taxed as none of us will ever know so if you’re tempted to think well jesus had an advantage over me because

He was he also had a divine nature you will never know none of us will ever know just how taxing the test was for jesus jesus was if when you put everything together jesus if anything was at a disadvantage to you and to me let me give you one example when

You and i sin the bible says we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous who was jesus advocate should he send who was going to come and save jesus if he sinned one time was there going to be a second chance for jesus

And we’re going to see we’re going to see i’m i’m going to hold your points because we’re going to have a time for questions and answers but i got some statements in here that answer that question powerful way in fact well i want to skip over some of these but uh notice

On page six it tells us in 21 mr 402 and 3 every step christ took was taken in full entire dependence upon god that’s what we need full and entire dependence on god because we’ve learned we’ve understood that there’s nothing in me you know jesus said when you’ve done

Everything that is commanded of you to do then this is what i want you to say we are unprofitable servants we have done what was commanded of us that’s what jesus said and i looked up that word unprofitable and it means worthless i said i had a hard time with that at

First when i read i was like wow lord you mean we we’re worthless how is it that we are to con how to say that we’re worthless servants but that’s what he said this is the this is how we are to regard ourselves when we do all that god has commanded us

When we adopt health reform when we adopt dress reform when we adopt sabbath reform when we adopt all of the reforms that god has called us to re to adopt and god does expect us to do that right we’re not in any way belittling these things because they are very necessary for your

Preparation to pass the investigative judgment amen god gave us these messages and he means business about it right so we’re not in any way belittling these things but when we’ve done all of these things we’re still to understand that they are not the bases whereby i am being allowed into the

Kingdom of heaven you see that’s not the basis what is the basis christ and his righteousness what he did you see jesus the law i think i have this one in here um anyway it tells us and this is based on galatians uh what paul says in galatians that

Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things that are written in the law to do them and then ellen white comments that the law demands of us perfect unbroken obedience throughout the entire existence of man that’s what the law demands of you now how many of us have that to offer

See not one that’s why you can never be saved based on your record it’s all by grace god has loved us and therefore he has imputed christ’s righteousness to us and credited to us so that we when we’re allowed into the kingdom of heaven we’re allowed based on the supposed fact that

You live the life that jesus did of perfect obedience from birth till death you see that that’s what it means by imputing to you is credited to your account see just as fully as it was credited to our account that we did what adam did when we had no choice in that

It is also credited to us that we did what jesus did even though we didn’t choose that either see that’s the gospel brothers and sisters and it’s incredibly good news it’s so good that people can’t blame bring themselves to believe it they think it’s too good to be true

The thought that the righteousness the perfect record of christ is credited to you and me based on no merit of ours at all it’s a precious thought see all right um okay notice this one this is also on page six 16 mr 1 82 and 3. this is this is significant

As well it says the divine nature combined with the human made him capable of yielding to satan’s temptations here the test of christ was what far greater than that of adam and eve for christ took our nature what fallen but not corrupted and would not be corrupted unless what

He received the words of satan in the place of the words of god so he took our nature fallen but not corrupted remember that very important okay all right let’s go forward in uh page seven notice i’m just picking certain things out of here i encourage you of course to

Read the whole context even beyond what i have in here of all of these statements it will be a very fruitful study for you guaranteed it says we should have no misgivings in regard to the what perfect sinlessness of the human nature of christ perfect sinlessness why because he did not once yield

To that sinful flesh only at that point would it have become his own but he never owned it it was only on him by lone you might say for a temporary period of time does jesus have sinful flesh now no he said he has a glorified body

And if we’re faithful what’s going to happen with us we’re going to have a glorified body like unto his glorified body bible says so thank god he came off victorious um okay go ahead and as i said on your time look at the rest of these we’re gonna skip forward fast forward

For sake of time um page 8 signs of times 12 9 1897 the human nature of christ was like unto ours and suffering was more keenly felt by him why for his spiritual nature was what free from every taint of sin so what part of christ’s nature was sinless spiritual nature

You know a.t jones says it this way don’t drag his mind into it see don’t drag his mind into his taking of sinful nature upon him that nature remained perfectly free from sin thank god all right then the next one youth instructor 6 2 98 in his human nature he maintained key words

Maintained the purity of his divine character see so again this underscores that jesus comes into the world with what he had from eternity he didn’t give that up he ellen white says that he didn’t go out of himself to another but he took humanity into himself and gave humanity and existence out of

Himself that’s deep 1sm 250 is where that’s found he didn’t become somebody else it was still jesus there but it says he maintained what he had by the same methods that you and i must gain what he had amen amen amen all right then um notice at the bottom of the page

21 mr page 11 christ did not need to fast for 40 days because of inward corruption or to subdue self he was sinless it was on our account that he fasted all right um now page nine top notice this one that goes together with one we just recently read signs of the

Times 1 16 96 christ did no sin neither was god found in his mouth he corrupted not human nature and though in the flesh he transgressed not the law of god in any particular the humanity of christ is called what that holy thing where did that come from

Scripture of luke chapter 3 believe it is where the angel is speaking of jesus at what stage in his life in the womb and he calls jesus what that holy thing now could any of us be referred to when we were in the womb as that holy thing that’s in your womb

That’d be blasphemy right this is jesus coming here the what inspiration has to say this whole section goes into the subject of infants and the unborn right we’re going to skip past that and on page 10 um d.a desire of ages 5 14 even the babe in

His mother’s arms may dwell as under the shadow of the almighty through the faith of the praying mother isn’t that a blessing john the baptist was filled with the holy spirit from when his birth wow if we will live in communion with god we too may expect what

The divine spirit to mold our little ones even from their earliest moments wow praise god you know so and now interestingly enough again on this point of what this constitutes ellen white says about john i believe it’s in the same book desire of ages that john had by nature the faults and weaknesses

Common to humanity but the touch of divine love had transformed him see so even though this is the same john that was filled with the holy spirit from his birth from the womb but she says that he had what faults and weaknesses common to humanity see so even this great advantage does not

Render an infant sinless see we all need to be born again amen there’s not a single person that does not need to be born again the second time and now this is another one that’s not in your study this is 2t 391 this one sentence children are born with the animal propensities

Largely developed so on the other side of the equation the parent’s own stamp of character having been given to them so if we’re not living holy lives if we’re living sinful lives what happens to our child they receive notice he says they can actually be born with animal propensities largely developed

That’s very significant now when that child is born how would you be able to tell from looking at the child that its animal propensities are largely developed the animal propensities what do you know the child needs to eat right and the answer that i believe to that is you cannot tell

You cannot tell because there’s not sufficient growth or maturity for him to manifest those animal propensities see until that takes place that’s when you will see now what why do why am i bringing this up because once again this this gets into the genetic code and the fact that while we’re being

Shapen in the womb those cells and this this is a fascinating area of study genetics the cells are loaded with information just like computer chips and when those com those cells start coming together and multiplying they are already pre-programmed with information of how to shape you

How to form you what to impart to you from your mother father grandmother grandfather and on back all of that information is already in those first two cells from the time they come together and start multiplying see and so those parents who are giving loose rain to their passions

This is the context of this statement the fact that we can be intemperate even in the marriage con marriage ban in the marriage relation isn’t that right yeah god says that we’re to be temperate in all things even in our marital privileges amen mighty quiet in all things

So she’s talking about marital excess in this very context and she says when we are out of control with our passions in the marital uh union the child is going to be endowed with animal propensities largely developed you see very important that we understand these things all right on the page 11

You in summary section number eight how can the humanity of christ be described nine be a seven bc 904 she says christ could have done nothing during his earthly ministry and saving fallen man if the divine had not been what blended with the human the limited capacity of man cannot

Define this wonderful mystery the blending of the two natures the divine and the human when will it be able to be explained never so you know we’re just scratching the surface here this this afternoon that’s about all we’ll get we’ll never be able to fully explain

But boy we sure try hard don’t we will never be able to fully explain this wonderful mystery now blending notice she’s using the term blending of the two natures when you take a blender and you put some ingredients in it put some water and you know some oats and

We’re going to make some old burgers you know well i i guess you don’t have to use a blender to make old burgers do you but uh let’s make some soy milk then you know we put some soy powder yeah smoothie you know whatever you whatever you prefer

When we put those articles in the blender before we push the button can you tell where the smoothie uh parts of the banana is and where the uh pineapple is can you can you distinguish all those things you can still distinguish all that but once you push that button what happens

You can’t tell where that banana is and where the pineapple is and where the apple is right it’s all blended up see this is what happened when jesus joined himself to this human race it’s mysteriously blended now come on sir forever brothers and sisters jesus is to be this way

He made an eternal choice for us a fundamental change in the existence of jesus has been made forever he’ll never go back to how life used to be before he left heaven all right in in section 9 there’s much more there about the mysteries and so on but in section 9

What were the risks involved in christ’s mission in human form right notice in hebrews 5 7 it says who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplication with strong what crying and tears unto him that was able to do what save him from death

And was heard in that he feared now it says that jesus was engaging in strong crying and tears about what being saved from death do you think this is talking about gethsemane this is not talking about gethsemane i believe this is giving us a window into what

Life was like in general for jesus because as we just alluded to a little bit ago you know we have a phrase of walking on eggshells this is this is was jesus life see we’re told by inspiration that if satan had touched the head of christ

All it would have taken would be one thought of sin and what would have happened to jesus this is it this is it probation is over and and we’ll see that in these statements that follow jesus had no second chance jesus had no backup redeemer to come and redeem him

This was the last stop not only for jesus but also for us okay 7 bc 926 he became subject to temptation what is the next word there endangering as it were his divine attributes what does that mean it means that jesus being who he was as god being kind being loving being caring

Being patient being temperate all of those divine attributes could have become just the opposite with jesus endangering who he was s t 5 10 99 for a period of time christ was what on probation are we on probation yes can we compare our probation to jesus probation no

He took humanity on himself to stand the test and trial which the first adam failed to endure had he failed in his test and trial he would have been disobedient to the voice of god and what else would have happened the world would have been lost next one

10 mr 386 to the honor and glory of god his beloved son the surety the substitute was delivered up and descended into the prison house of the grave the new tomb enclosed him in its rocky chambers if one single sin had tainted his character the stone would never have been rolled away

From the door of his rocky chamber and the world with his burden of guilt would have perished 1sm 256 page 12 could satan in the least particular least particular have tempted christ to sin he would have bruised the savior’s head as it was he could only touch his heel had the head

Of christ been touched the hope of the human race would have perished divine wrath would have come upon christ as it came upon adam christ and the church would have been without hope isn’t this something brother sis you see what was at risk with jesus every day every day was a new possibility

That he just might fail i’m serious and brothers and sisters this means that if he had failed guess what that’s right and guess what else moses elijah enoch come on back down it’s over that’s right it’s all over paul’s in collection page 400 christ has found his pearl of great price and lost

Perishing souls hallelujah he sold all that he had to come into possession even engaged to do the work and run the risk of losing his own life in the conflict and we’ll just stop there i think that’s a good place for us to pause and think diligently

On what it cost us or rather what it costs god to redeem us from sin what would cause jesus to be engaged in strong crying and tears to his father to save him from death see when we’re finding it so hard to give up those things that we love so

Much it’s because we’re not looking at this right here see when we’re told that the cup trembled in jesus hands that his father gave him the drink for us what does that mean it means that it was a struggle for him it means that it was a very real temptation for him

To let ungrateful man die for his own sins and go back to heaven it’s very real this is how serious sin is so before we entertain uh questions answers comments whatever you have let us bow together and once again ask god to help us to receive the hatred of sin

That we must have to enter the eternal kingdom of god oh lord we are humbled as we think of such a great price that was paid for our redemption we can’t understand it we cannot fathom how we are worth so much to you but lord because you have paid the price you didn’t

Draw back even though you were tempted to do so lord we it is just our reasonable service to surrender all to you it’s our reasonable service lord to do whatever you would have us to do it’s only our reasonable service lord to be perfectly obedient to all of your commandments

And lord we surrender this afternoon take us lord you know we’re powerless in and of ourselves to be perfectly obedient but lord we accept your gospel that in christ what is impossible is possible we thank you lord for this window of viewing our savior and eating his flesh and drinking his blood

May this be but the beginning of a continual feast for us of his flesh and his blood and we know lord that the more time we are spending doing this the more easier it will become for us to separate from sin the easier it will become for us to view

Sin like you view it and the more hateful sin will become in our eyes that cause this that we have read thank you father for your great salvation in jesus name amen amen praise god i saw my brother’s hand if you have any questions or comments you would like to

Make now is that opportunity um yes of the sanctuary with this rope and as i studied and studied the scriptures i never could find a rope being in the century right and this uh kind of related to that that’s what i saw when i threw up my hand i mean i saw that

And and i wanted to ask you about that expound on that could you do that for me sir right right from what uh uh from what i have found i haven’t found anything that actually corroborates that tradition now i heard brother corn say it may be in josephus writings okay

From what i understand that is just an historical um point that’s brought out by jose josephus and saying that’s what they did but it’s not it cannot be found in scripture right right okay okay anyone else pastor i had uh read in the spirit of prophecy we were sharing earlier in the beginning

And i read where it says that christ had designed us or we were designed to be the counterpart of god hallelujah he’s awesome that one word right there is very significant counterpart uh of god you know we we we are only faintly understanding our privileges as having been made in the image and

Likeness of god and you know that brings to mind um the fact that we are told that now you know ellen white says in desire of ages that uh the fact that jesus has come into the world and become one of us or be joined himself to us

He says it brings us even closer to god than we would have been had we never sinned amen you see and this is uh i i think i have this statement somewhere in my notes um yeah i can’t find it right away but nevertheless she does say

That uh we have the privilege of partaking of a nature higher than that which was forfeited by transgression see so in other words uh now that sin has come into the picture and god has put in effect the plan of redemption which was made well back in eternity past

We are now even brought to a higher plane of existence than had we never fallen because jesus is now a permanent member of our race of beings hallelujah yes my question is concerning adam and eve um we know that god cannot be tempted with sin

Right so he cannot be even moved to sin and um i know that adam and eve were created in his image when the temptation came to them was it really a okay i know eve started off because she was deceived and she fell there but with adam was he

Moved to sin or was he created in god’s image where he could not be tempted to sin or move to sin or you understand where i’m coming from maybe you may want to elaborate a little more yeah okay man was created in god’s image but man could not be moved to sin yet

Adam was moved to sin he was tempted with sin okay right so uh you know adam in other words even though he was made in god’s likeness uh nevertheless we know that uh he had obviously the ability to be tempted you know but it was not inward temptation

Because he because as we read he was made holy you know there was not an inward pull it came from without and this is why jesus temptation was far greater because it came from in and out outside with jesus anyone else um i would like to say maybe to add to that

To your question it could kind of be like lucifer how we see that he was created perfect in all his ways but yet he still entertains sin so i don’t know how to explain that that’s the mystery of iniquity but that could possibly be a factor into why adam

Agreed to sin yes yes and uh it was strictly we might say a matter of faith see uh adam and eve had never ever seen anything die and so all they had to go on is what god said now here is a totally opposite saying totally opposite talk

Who are they going to believe as all that that was the whole test who do i believe this serpent or god they chose to believe god i mean uh satan you know yes anyone else all right thank you very much jesus had no advantage over us

But the way he was different from us was that he um spiritual nature was without a taint would you consider that being what enabled him not to sin no because once again uh it was not as we read christ did not rely on his power to as god

Resists sin that would have been no contest whatsoever so the way in which christ maintained his purity was the same way in which you and i must attain purity by total dependence on god praise god amen anyone else okay would you like to do so all right let us pray

Kind heaven father we thank you the lord for this time that we have spent in your place of holiness and your presence and may the things having to follow that we have learned be rooted and grounded within us we will hold on to your unchanging hand and not fall that’s right

For this is the only way heavenly father that we will not fall amen is to be consecrated unto your will that’s right and hold on to your hand your leading your guiding through your holy spirit and may we be overcomers thank you

#Nature #Jesus #DivineHuman #Nature #Christ

Biblical diversity vs. secular diversity



– Greetings, I’m Dr. Harold D. Lewis Sr., Vice President of Biblical Diversity, servin’ outta the national office in Orlando, Florida of the Converge movement. One of the questions I get asked often as I go around the Converge community facilitating biblical diversity workshops and seminars, Dr. Lewis, what’s the difference between biblical diversity

And secular diversity? Let that question sink in. What’s the difference between biblical diversity and secular diversity? Very good question and I’m goin’ to try and unpack it for you right now. Let’s start with the premise, first and foremost, that biblical diversity is a God idea.

Ah, let me say that again, biblical diversity is a God idea. Man did not concoct this idea about biblical diversity, however, they did co-opt it and went into a general kind of diversity, played with that diversity. God’s love letter, his word, the scripture, are littered with a number of texts

That talks about biblical diversity and God’s eternal expectation on how we should get along on the planet, not just as baptized and born again believers, but humanity in general. So let’s answer the question. What’s the difference between biblical diversity and secular diversity? Here it is, I’m afraid a mess up someone’s theology,

But it is what it is. Biblical diversity is predicated upon the word of God. Secular diversity is predicated upon the ways of the world. Biblical diversity submits only to God’s theocracy. Theocracy, yes, see God has a kingdom and in his kingdom he is a king and is not subject

To popular opinion or polls. Whereas secular diversity submits to government democracy. All you have to do is put a bill in place and folks vote on the bill and then whether or not God’s word commands it or not, people go contradiction towards it. Biblical diversity yields only to the commandments of God

Where secular diversity yields to polls, politician, and popular opinion. Case and point, in our world, we have all these different laws that are bein’ legislated how we should govern ourselves as, not only, general constituents in the country as citizens, but also regulatin’ the church. But God’s word specifically defines

How we should treat each other. God’s word specifically defines how we should not trespass against each other’s property, each other’s families. God’s word is distinct, the divinely distinguished, between biblical diversity and secular diversity. And so when we look into the world, the church is supposed and is called to be counter culture.

Counter culture, whatever racial tension that’s goin’ on in the world, we shouldn’t have that same racial tension in the church. We oughta come together on the Matthew chapter number 18 we talked about if you have ought against a brother or sister, go to that brother, one on one.

If that doesn’t work, take another disciple with you. If that doesn’t work, bring them before the council or the body and if that doesn’t work, bring them before the congregation. Biblical diversity, again, is predicated upon God’s word. Secular diversity is predicated upon the ways of the world. Until the next time.

#Biblical #diversity #secular #diversity

Biblical Interpretation and Offense in Church — Dean Taylor — Ep. 176



Are Anabaptists guilty of a cultish  approach to theology? Do we all have   to be historical scholars to understand the Bible? As we did in the last episode, we’ve been  responding to some of the comments that we   got on the very first episode we ever did with  Anabaptist Perspectives, and that was with Dean,  

And on this one we’re going to be diving  in specifically about how we interpret   scripture. Again referring – and we talk  about this in a previous episode with Dean,   but the Anabaptist hermeneutic – an uncomplicated  view of scripture. So Dean, I’m going to start  

With a comment that we got on YouTube from someone  who saw that first episode we did with you, and   I’d love to hear your thoughts on that, and the  name of that episode is The Essence of Anabaptism  

Which you can find on our channel. So this person  comments and says, “I recommend that pastors have   an extensive course on textual criticism, learn  Hebrew, Greek and understand the cosmology of   a Jew living in the late second temple period.  Without understanding the textual history of how  

The Bible and Canon came to be we are putting the  cart before the horse. Having a philosophy that   takes the scripture fundamentally and literally is  not good. When reading Genesis 6:2 what exegesis   do you apply? Fallen angels or the line of Seth?  Whichever one you choose how can you prove it?  

How does one reconcile the translation source  text variances between Byzantine, Alexandrian,   Textus Receptus, Septuagint, a Masoretic text,  Sumerian Pentateuch, and the Dead Sea Scrolls?”   Sorry that was a bit of a mouthful. “The fact  is that every single Christian Bible out there   today is an eclectic text. Translators  had to cherry-pick between manuscripts  

To finalize their translation.” So yeah.  This is an interesting perspective coming   in on your episode there, Dean. It’s  not a specific question so to speak,   but yeah. What do you think of this?  How would you respond to this person?

It’s an incredibly packed question with lots of  different pieces to it, but it’s a good question,   and it kind of all represents a concept of maybe  a lower biblical criticism – not higher criticism,   but textual criticism which is valid. I think  these are good arguments that need to be made,  

And they’re good questions that we all need  to ask. We don’t all need to, but at least   it’s healthy to ask. We have a class up here at  Sattler where Finny goes into a lot of details on  

Some of those things, but I’ll try to give you  just a little bit of where I come out on this.   The bottom line is that it is good for  us to know our Bible and to know what   some of the critics are saying about the  Bible. As I said in the other question  

No argument that has lasted more than 500 years is  stupid, and these questions on textual criticism   and higher criticism maybe they’re not 500 years  old – well, some of them are – but they’re still   very old, and they’re still very valid. A lot of  your line of reasoning with the question that was  

Asked goes down the line of a sort of a  critical text model. He used the word eclectic.   This is the Alexandrian idea that the  ancient text and that kind of a trajectory,   and I used to be there. You know me. I’m a  historical theologian, so the older the better  

Was something that I kind of hung on to, and you  do kind of end up in a bit of a ditch where I   think it sounds like maybe our question is coming  from that ditch. Where do you ever end? You’ve  

Got this eclectic Bible that has this piece and  that piece and that piece, and you’re using all   these methods together, and you end up with the  Alexandrian text, the critical text which makes up   a lot of like New American Standard, NIV, and some  of those types. Revised Standard Version. Some  

Of those. It’s not a bad argument, but in general  we would reject that based upon what’s called the   Majority Text or the Byzantine text and for good  reasons. It’s for very good reasons. Is that the   arguments that are behind the eclectic approach,  they’re just putting together all these pieces.  

It never ends, and it begins to just be circular  reasoning that just – well it comes to a point   that I just don’t follow the hermeneutic or  the method they’re using, so for instance.   What is the oldest should be the best. Well,  the place where they were the oldest were mainly  

Around in Alexandria. Well, Alexandria is also  one of the driest climates. They’re also the   place where you had the most place where there  was Gnosticism and that kind of a thing, and   sometimes because something is preserved doesn’t  mean it was the thing that was most used,  

So for instance I’ve got some Bibles – some  eclectic Bibles that I hardly ever touch, but   I have them for a different version and different  type of thing, and I put them here on my shelf,  

But my Bibles were much more worn out. I  write in it, and all that kind of a thing,   and so just to say because they found this in some  monastery more of these more ancient texts then  

Usurps the other more Majority Text group. I don’t  follow. Also some of the reasoning is like if it’s   shorter than it should be used, and so like the  woman caught in adultery is left out of some of   the Alexandrian eclectic texts where the Majority  Text has that. Again the argument just doesn’t  

Follow, and if you look at that, it really comes  down to a lot of times where I think if you look   at areas that has to do with Christology or the  divinity of Christ or particularly even the human  

Aspect of Christ, you can almost – well you can  many times see within these Alexandrian texts and   some of these critical texts a Gnostic influence.  I’m not saying they all are that way, or say that  

This is all just a Gnostic Bible or something, but  I came to the point where I just don’t trust it,   so what I’ve received is the Majority Text which  is based – you usually get like the King James,  

The New King James. I’m not a King James only per  se, but using this Majority Text is that we find   in all different places separated by countries  and cultures and different things this Majority   Text. I will grant you it is much later of what  we have from that textual type than the critical  

Alexandrian text, but the Byzantine text gives  us a more complete picture. It’s what I read in   the early church when I read through the different  early Christian writers. I see their references to   the things that I find in the Majority Text, and  this also gives a credence back to using that text  

Type, so I don’t take it lightly, but I have found  that that is something that I’ve used if that   helps. I also use this hermeneutic. I don’t know  if I’ve talked about this before. I use an acronym   called SCAR. I’ve used the term “an apostolic  quadrilateral” and the image I get is Thomas  

Asking Jesus, I don’t believe you until I see the  scar, so you know see the scar, and so I use an   acronym. I know it’s bad writing. SCAR. So it goes  like this. Here’s the way my interpretation goes:  

Scripture is number one. Nothing. No doctrine from  anybody. I don’t care if they’re Justin Martyr,   Origin or anyone can be held as required for  the faith if it’s not written in scripture, and   I would define that scripture more specifically  in the Majority Text, but in scripture. The next  

Is “C” for Christocentric. I read the Bible and  Anabaptists do in a Christocentric fashion. In   other words if I have to choose between something  that’s written by Paul or Jesus I will always take   both of them. I never will explain away Paul  or the Old Testament, but a Christocentric  

Puts Christ as the top. It’s just the interpretive  tool, the way I would read Christ through all of   the scriptures. The last two I put on a different  plane. “A” and “R” are antiquity and real.  

Antiquity is where I would say that I try to in my  interpretation of the scripture to find something   in antiquity – the early church – and because of  the belief that as in Jude 3 would say we should  

“contend for the faith that was once for all  delivered to the saints” and that keeping to   this faith. Why I read the ancients, and why I’m  a passionate historical theologian is because   I’m trying to look at the antiquity to see what’s  there, and that weighs a lot into my hermeneutic  

Of how I interpret scripture, and then finally  the most fluffy of these is real. In other words   is this a practice that has gone on through the  church through the course of 2000 years or is this  

Just something that’s made up in the 21st century,  and so I’m usually suspicious if some new guy says   you know what? I’ve got a new way to translate the  scripture that no one has ever done before, and  

I’m like, yeah. I’d probably say – I’m not going  to necessarily doubt him. If it’s scriptural,   I’ll look at it. If it’s Christocentric, I’ll look  at it, but I’m going to bring up a big amount of  

Doubt, so I also give the benefit of the doubt  to the Holy Spirit working through the church,   but not at the level that I put scripture  and Christology, so that’s my SCAR,   and that’s the way it’s an  interpretive tool that I use often.

Thank you, Dean, for giving that a little more  context, and I guess a bit more nuance to what   you were saying in that original interview. I find  that helpful to understand okay, here’s a little   more where you’re coming from, and I understand  you in that original interview too. We were just  

Kind of hitting the high points, and this is good  to go in a little deeper with this, so in that   vein, I’m going to read another comment that we  got here from someone named Donald, and he’s had   some disappointments with Anabaptism which you’ll  see in this comment, so this is what Donald says:  

“I am drawn to much of the Anabaptist  theology, and yet totally repulsed by   its profound implosions in practice. Having  been ‘Anabaptist’ for over 40 years, it at   its best has a solid core biblical theology yet  somehow this theology seems encased with cultish  

Feel that seems unwilling to critically analyze  its own theology. The last 15 years has left me   very disillusioned with the ‘vision.’ ” Harold  Bender he’s saying. “The movement of peace has   more fractures than less ‘peaceful’ movements. The  movement of ‘scripture alone’ has moved from the  

Gospel that brings peace to a gospel that equals  peace. The movement that stood resolutely with the   word of God and against society now redefines  the word of God through the lens of society,   but of course mentioning such things makes one  disloyal and out of fellowship just like any good  

Cult would do. Overall it seems like Anabaptism  has more in common with pipe dreams than working   theology.” So, he’s got a lot of pushback here  for you. So yeah, I’d be curious what would you   have to say to someone like Donald who sees  this and is like this doesn’t work for me.

I guess I’d say “ouch” first of all. I mean he’s  talking about his 40 years of experience, so who   am I to say that it’s not real? He’s talking about  his pain. He’s talking about what he’s experienced  

In his church, so wow, I’m sorry. I will say  this, Donald. I will say this first of all.   There’s nothing, nothing harder  to do in my life than church.   I was working over in Lesvos, and I’m so  excited to bring some of these Muslims through  

To Christ and try to get them  into the church, and then I see   them getting offended by very little things.  I’m like “wow” if you got offended by that,   you’ve got a lot to go through, and I don’t know  how to say this. I’ll say this that God uses the  

Church in a sanctifying way that is just a cross.  I mean it really is, and if we go into the church,   and I didn’t get from his letter. I got from his  letter more of personal pain. I mean it didn’t  

Seem just accusations. I mean it sounded like  someone who’s trying and like I’ll be disloyal and   that type of a thing. I have found that with most  circles that I’m surprised is when I’m charitable,   but honest people will actually want to sit and  talk, and that bubbling all this up inside and  

Having these objections and having these things  I want to believe that you would find that your   ministry and your church would be more receptive  than you think they would be. You’re not a young   man. You’ve been in this at least 40 years,  and so you’re going to say back ‘You don’t know  

My church.’ Maybe, but I do think we got to be  honest. I do think we got to be transparent. And   God I think does call us to what the Anabaptists  calls a gelassenheit. It’s the emptying that Jesus  

Talks about. This have this mind within you that  was also in Christ Jesus, Paul says. This kenosis.   This only way to survive in one of these kind of  churches. On the other hand I don’t think we’re   supposed to be empty-minded and just you know  go through this because you know some things are  

Wrong, and we’re human beings, and we make a lot  of mistakes, and we’ve done a lot of dumb things,   and I’ve been in a lot of situations myself that  have been toxic, but I do think that talking  

Through those things and being really honest is  the way to go, and then allowing yourself to hear   and say reason, and so I’m challenged about this  way we’re looking at peace that’s we just end   up becoming. Peace is the gospel. I totally  agree with you. When I was first becoming a  

Conscientious objector liberal pacifism, and it’s  sort of peace gospel stuff almost derailed me.   I believe that the factions and the things  that are bad too, so yeah. John the Baptist.   He’s in jail, and you know he would have heard  maybe I guess, or he would have at least heard  

Of the Luke 4 passage that Jesus said that I come  to set the captives free. John the Baptist sitting   in jail now who would have known more than anyone.  “Behold the Lamb of God who comes to take away the  

Sins of the world” is setting in jail, and he’s  like, so where’s the setting the captive free   part? I’m in jail and about to lose my head,  and that’s when he sends his own disciples   to go ask Jesus, ‘Are you the one?’ What Jesus  says there I think is really profound. You know,  

Firstly tell him I did these things, and then he  says, ‘Blessed is he who is not offended in me.’   Blessed is he who is not offended. Offense. Being  offended is the way Satan works in the church,  

And we’ve got to go past that, and Jesus is  somehow saying, I’m there with you. This is   part of it. I’ll walk through this with you.  Be honest. Be real and don’t get offended   and don’t lose the faith. Jesus is with you  there just like he was with John the Baptist,  

And he’ll see you through it, but yeah. Thank  you for that honest pushback. I think it’s good. Yeah, thanks for tackling that. These are hard  things. You know, Donald, if you’re watching this,   we’d love to hear back from you a follow-up  comment, and yeah, I think you had a really  

Good point there, Dean. I mean human beings can  be a bit messy and complicated and inconsistent   and sometimes not very nice to each other, and  there’s a lot going on there, and I think Donald  

Is pointing out this is an area that all of us  can – we can always be growing in this where we   can say one thing, and it sounds all nice and  idealistic, but then when it’s walked out day  

To day there’s some real gaps there. Yeah, I know  that is definitely the case for my own life. Yeah,   it can look really good, but then sometimes it’s  not 100% of what it should be. Well, thank you for  

Taking the time to come in here, Dean, and answer  some of this feedback from that very first episode   we did. What was that? Four years ago I would say  about now. Wow! Time moves on, but yeah, would  

You have anything else you would like to share  with our audience before we end this episode? Just one last thing. I was thinking as  I just answered the one question there,   and I was giving my SCAR, and all that  about the hermeneutic. All that to say  

The question was back about the simplistic reading  of scripture. I believe the Word of God without   complicated interpretation, and the words of  our Lord is meant to be put into practice.   You don’t need a SCAR or a hermeneutic. You don’t  need to understand the Byzantine and Alexandrian  

Text. I mean I think it’s good for us. I don’t  hide from those questions like he was asking.   I like for us, our students up here to ask those  questions and come up with sound answers to the   postmodern liberal world that we’re fighting  against. However the scriptures do tell us to  

Receive it as a child, and so taking the Word  of God and just making it applicable in your   life and using it as a blueprint I really think  is the genius of Anabaptism. It’s the genius of   Christianity. It’s the genius of the early church.  Is just that simplistic and beautiful keeping of  

Jesus, and I honestly can’t imagine anything  that we would do that we’re just honestly   obeying the Word of God. On Judgment Day I think  that’s what’s really going to matter. Lord,   I did this because this is what you said, and  holding on to that and doing that and being real  

With that is the emphasis that I really want to  leave not the being able to explain our way out   of the Alexandrian text. That’s good to know, but  just taking it as a child and obeying Jesus like a  

Child is beautiful, and I encourage us all to keep  doing that. It’s a journey. Let’s keep doing that. Thank you for joining us for this episode. We  invite you to join our monthly partner program.   Monthly partners are key to the financial  sustainability of Anabaptist Perspectives.  

Partners also gain access to bonus content  including our exclusive podcast where we   respond to audience questions and comments.  Sign up at anabaptistperspectives.org.

#Biblical #Interpretation #Offense #Church #Dean #Taylor

What Biblically Accurate Angels Look Like (And Why You Wouldn’t Want to Meet One)



Angels, as we’ve come to understand them, are  beings that reside in a higher plane of our own –   celestial beings, if you will, that go about doing  God’s bidding and also offer a certain, ambiguous   protection to the righteous man. Typically,  they are depicted as glorious, beautiful  

Winged creatures that gracefully glide across the  heavens, humanoid in appearance and the epitome   of physical perfection. Some come with halos,  some come with wings but a common misconception,   at least, according to the bible,  is that all of these angelic beings   are wonderful to behold. In actuality,  nothing could be further from the truth…

We’ve seen angels appear in the bible quite  frequently from the very beginning of Genesis   and in these pages we’ve come to see the  angels perform a variety of roles. Most often,   they are seen as messengers – those delivering  the word of God to either bring warning,  

As we see them do in Genesis 19 where they  warn Lot to leave Sodom before its destruction,   or to bring hope, as we see them do in Genesis 16  where they bless Hagar with numerous descendants.   It’s easy to imagine the angels in these  more innocent and nurturing roles as being  

Beautiful and graceful and full of such virtue  that their physical appearance would reflect that.   But in other accounts, we see  them behave more violently,   such as where David is punished for numbering  his people, which sees an angel sent to destroy   Jerusalem. Or when Jerusalem is later  attacked, which sees an angel of death  

Slaughter the one hundred and eighty five  thousand Assyrians who were responsible. With these more destructive and vengeful  characteristics, it becomes more conceivable   that the angels were not these handsome champions  of regal charm and glamour, but instead something   far more menacing and perhaps something truly  terrifying to witness. In today’s episode, we’ll  

Be exploring some of these more uncanny angels in  detail in an effort to discover what they looked   like, what their purpose was and how bizarre  and downright fearsome some of them really were. The Cherubim… Sometimes considered to be the highest form  of the angelic beings, the cherubim are  

Occasionally scattered throughout Scripture  and appear to take on a varied set of roles.  The Cherubim, or in their singular form ‘Cherub’,  were considered to be angelic servants of God,   those who performed divine duties upon  the earth and set about to ensure his will  

Was being carried out. But primarily, their  occupation far preceded the antics of man,   where they were initially thought to have been  created by God to guard the gates of Eden.  We’ve all likely seen the Cherubim from western  Christian artwork where they appear to be small,  

Plump boys with wings – sometimes even  babies – that hover around the clouds   looking pretty innocent. It’s likely that  this was inspired by the putto – a figure   in classical artwork depicted by a chubby  child and that the use of a child in this  

Instance in accordance with the Cherubim,  was to exemplify their purity and innocence.   The putto would also become closely associated  with that of the Roman and Greek god Cupid or   Eros and so, it is not uncommon for the Cherubim  to be confused with the mythological deities.  

But this stout and chunky form of the Cherub  would not be its only representation, for it   would come across as far more intimidating in  the descriptions from the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel.  In the bible, Ezekiel is seen to have noticed  the Cherubim transporting the throne of God  

Across the river Kebar in Ezekiel 1:5-11 titled  Ezekiel’s Inaugural Vision, where the beings   are described as having the likeness of man, but  with the addition of four heads – that of a man,   a lion, an ox and an eagle. We are told, “I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out  

Of the north—an immense cloud with flashing  lightning and surrounded by brilliant light.   The centre of the fire looked like glowing metal,  and in the fire was what looked like four living   creatures. In appearance their form was human,  but each of them had four faces and four wings.  

Their legs were straight; their feet were like  those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze.   Under their wings on their four sides they had  human hands. All four of them had faces and wings,   and the wings of one touched the wings  of another. Each one went straight ahead;  

They did not turn as they moved.” (Ezekiel 1:4-8) Here, we get a pretty good description of what   these beings looked like – that they had four  wings, that they were human in form and that  

They had four faces made up of animals. We also  see that some of their limbs appear to be like   those of animals – notably their feet which belong  to those of a calf. It is understood that the four  

Faces are representations of the four domains  of God’s rule – man which stands for humanity,   the lion for wild animals, the ox for the  domesticated animals and the eagles for the birds.   It’s also interesting to note that  they moved like flashes of light,  

Implying that they were swift and were likely  far beyond the power of a regular human man.   Interestingly, Ezekiel does not actually refer to  them as Cherubim in this part of the bible, but   confirms their identity in chapter 10, telling us “I looked, and I saw beside the cherubim  

Four wheels, one beside each of the cherubim;  the wheels sparkled like topaz. As for their   appearance, the four of them looked alike;  each was like a wheel intersecting a wheel.   As they moved, they would go in any one  of the four directions the cherubim faced;  

The wheels did not turn about as the cherubim  went. The cherubim went in whatever direction   the head faced, without turning as they went.  Their entire bodies, including their backs,   their hands and their wings, were completely  full of eyes, as were their four wheels.  

I heard the wheels being called “the whirling  wheels.” Each of the cherubim had four faces: One   face was that of a cherub, the second the face of  a human being, the third the face of a lion, and  

The fourth the face of an eagle. Then the cherubim  rose upward. These were the living creatures I   had seen by the Kebar River.” (Ezekiel 10:9-15) Now, you might’ve noticed that his description   of them slightly changes from his account in  chapter one. You’ll notice that here, the face  

Of the ox is replaced by the face of a cherub –  though the reasoning for this is ambiguous. There   is also an implication here that the Cherub face  looked strikingly different from the human face,   though Ezekiel does not go on to explain what  these differences were. Furthermore, another  

Difference that’s quite profound in this chapter,  is that the entire cherub is described as being   covered with eyes and is either centred within or  around a set of ‘whirling wheels’ – that which is   also covered with eyes. The wheels themselves  are quite an interesting feature for they are  

Otherwise referred to as the ophanim in hebrew  and are sometimes thought to be the wheels of   a chariot used by God – but more on those later. This is an east orthodox art piece from the 5th or   6th century that depicts Ezekiel’s vision and is  referred to unofficially as the tetramorph cherub.  

In this mosaic and other pieces of Christian  art, the tetramorph shows us a being with wings   and the four animals as described in Ezekiel  1:4-8. It also believed that each of these four   components represent the four Evangelists  with Matthew being the man, Mark the lion,  

Luke the ox and John the eagle. The mosaic is  also thought to be an amalgamation of the seraphim   that Isaiah sees in Isaiah’s Commission or  the six winged creatures found in Revelations   where John sees what might have been  another set of Cherubim in chapter 4.  

Often in Christian mythos, the Cherubim are  thought to be second to the Seraphim in the   angelic hierarchy and whilst details can differ  between the two classes depending on the source,   the key distinction between them appear to be  their closeness to God (with the Seraphim being  

Above the Cherubim) as well as their form, with  the Seraphim appearing with up to four wings.   Yet again, even these details can  be altered depending on the author   where one can expect to find even the mechanics  of their wings to be a point of contention.  

Whilst Ezekiel’s account of the Cherubim appears  to be one of the most vivid, we are still left   in the dark as to who the Cherubim are and what  exactly their role is, other than to serve God.   We see them carrying his  throne across the Kebar river  

And we see their presence amongst the  whirling wheels in Ezekiel’s vision,   but beyond this Ezekiel does not tell us what  purpose they serve in the grander scheme of   things. Some ideas propose that the Cherubim are  merely just another sect of angels or celestial  

Beings – similar to the seraphim, or that they  are physical representations of God’s judgement.   This likely stems from the account in Genesis 3  after God has banished Adam from the Garden, where   we are told “So the Lord God banished him from  the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which  

He had been taken. After he drove the man out,  he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden   cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and  forth to guard the way to the tree of life.”  Here, the role of the Cherubim is  primarily to guard the gates of Eden  

And to prevent man from getting back in. After  Adam had taken fruit from the tree of knowledge   of good and evil, his natural progression would  have been to take fruit from the tree of life   and to gain immortality. But after having  betrayed God by falling for the serpent’s words,  

God deemed man unworthy of immortality and so  denied him from ever supping from the tree.   Taking no chances, we even see him here give  the Cherubim (as if they weren’t strong enough   already) a flaming sword, to fend off man  should he dare find his way back to Eden.  

Yet another idea regarding the Cherubim also  relates to the fall of man, in that they are   considered by some to be a symbolic representation  of a redeemed humanity – or a humanity   who had never sinned. The Cherubim by this idea  are perfect in appearance, eternally youthful,  

Powerful and the closest to God. By this, they  serve as a reminder of what could’ve been had   Adam and Eve not given into their temptations  and remind believers that they should strive   to be better. There is also hope in this idea, in  that should one be righteous and not make the same  

Mistakes as Adam and Eve, they might yet achieve  the Cherubim status and become closer to God.  There is also an idea that the  Cherubim are a symbol of God’s mercy,   for in Exodus 25 we see God make a covenant  with the children of Israel as he sets out  

Instructions for the construction of the Ark –  that which was a golden chest which contained   the tablets of the covenant. He tells them, “Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and   a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.  And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the  

Ends of the cover. Make one cherub on one end and  the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim   of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. The  cherubim are to have their wings spread upward,   overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim  are to face each other, looking toward the cover.  

Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the  ark the tablets of the covenant law that I will   give you. There, above the cover between the two  cherubim that are over the ark of the covenant  

Law, I will meet with you and give you all my  commands for the Israelites.” (Exodus 25:17-22)  As can be seen, God’s instructions state that  two cherubs are to be fashioned out of gold   and placed on the cover of the ark. This is  otherwise referred to as ‘The Mercy Seat’ – a  

Term which has hubraic meaning to ‘cover,  appease, cleanse or make atonement for.   It was believed that once a year, a high  priest would sprinkle blood of a sacrificed   animal onto the Mercy Seat so as to atone for  his own sins and the sins of the Israelites  

In an effort to appease God’s anger. It was also  believed that here in the presence of the Ark,   was the only place where forgiveness  from God could be truly achieved.   With that, the inclusion of the Cherubim atop  the Mercy Seat certainly make them seem like  

Advocates for God’s mercy and figures that  represent God’s compassion towards mankind.  God also tells the Israelites that “There, above  the cover between the two cherubim that are over   the ark of the covenant law, I will meet with you  and give you all my commands for the Israelites.”  

(Exodus 25:22) and by this, it might be said that  the Cherubim are something of a bridge towards God   or perhaps as close as one can ever get on the  mortal realm. By promising the Israelites that   he will meet them there before the Cherubim, the  Cherubim automatically become hallowed tokens or  

Characters – those which are still held today in  high regard as they signpost the way to God.   The Seraphim It is in chapter 6 of the book of Isaiah that we  

Are given a look into what exactly the prophet had  seen in one of his more compelling visions. It was   in the year that King Uzzah had died and Isaiah  tells us in what is known as ‘Isaiah’s Commission’  

That he had seen God seated upon a throne. But  it wasn’t just God that had caught his eye,   but also the six winged angelic creatures that  floated above him. These, as Isaiah tells us, were   the Seraphim (or the singular Seraph), otherwise  known as ‘The Burning Ones’ or ‘The Fiery Ones’. 

Isaiah tells us, “In the year that King  Uzzah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted,   seated on a throne; and the train of his robe  filled the temple. Above him were seraphim,   each with six wings: With two wings they covered  their faces, with two they covered their feet,  

And with two they were flying. And  they were calling to one another:   “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;  the whole earth is full of his glory.”   At the sound of their voices the  doorposts and thresholds shook and  

The temple was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4) We understand from this passage, that the Seraphim   had six wings and that Isaiah had seen these  creatures flying around the exalted throne of God.   You’ll notice, he described them as having their  wings covering their faces and feet, though  

The reasons for this are uncertain. It has been  suggested that they cover their faces to protect   Isaiah, for they shone so brightly, that they  would blind him if they were to reveal themselves.   We know that the word Seraphim was the hurbraic  root word for ‘Seraph’ meaning, ‘to burn’,  

Hence ‘burning ones’, so by this it could be  understood that the Seraph were akin to fire   and thus, did indeed emit fierce, radiant light  that Isaiah would not have been able to bear.   You’ll notice that whilst Isaiah recognises that  they do have faces, it is unclear whether he gets  

To see their features, or is merely assuming they  have human facial features based on the rest of   their composition. Additionally, the covering of  their feet might be in respect to God, who they   constantly circle around, for they would not want  to reveal any dirt or uncleanness in his presence.  

This could also be another reason why they use two  of their wings to cover their faces, for they wish   to remain humble in the presence and God and deem  themselves to be unworthy to even look upon him.  With this constant circling, they repeatedly  proclaim the holiness of God and his glory, making  

It clear that he is the highest being and that he  is the one that they hold in the highest regard.   The declaration of him being holy outlines God  as being sacred and certainly determines him   as greatness personified – an entity that is  and should be constantly worshipped – perhaps,  

An example to believers that their celebration of  God should never be forgotten. What’s interesting   about this passage is the Seraphim’s declaration  of the word ‘Holy’ three times in a row. In   ancient Jewish culture, the number three was  considered to be a representation of fulfilment  

And so, anything that came in  threes was usually a good omen.   In this instance, holy is used three times not  just as an affirmation of the holiness of God,   but also the wholeness of God, which believers  see as evident in the past, present and future.  

The use of holy thrice, also connotes  the appearance of God in the Father,   the Son and the Holy Spirit, suggesting that the  Seraphim’s repetition of the word Holy three times   is not coincidental, but actually meaningful  and to promote the greatness of God. 

Amongst this, Isaiah also speaks of the sound of  the Seraphim voices, those which are so intense   that the doors shake and the entire temple in  which he stands is flooded with smoke. Whilst this   could be merely a sign of their power in that they  cause the foundations of the building to rumble  

With just the sounds of their voice, it might also  be said that this was symbolic of earthquakes or   tremors, those which in ancient times could have  been equated with the divine presence of God,   or associated with God because of the  tremors he was seen to evoke in the bible. 

Isaiah’s account continues with him becoming  painfully aware that he is unprepared for this   encounter and that unlike the Seraphim,  he has not hidden his face nor his feet,   and has not shown the high levels of humility  that God would have likely expected. With this,   he immediately begins to panic, telling us 

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a  man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of   unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the  Lord Almighty.”Then one of the seraphim flew to me  

With a live coal in his hand, which he  had taken with tongs from the altar.   With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this  has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away   and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6:5-6) As we can see, Isaiah fears the worst. He  

Recognises that he is unclean and a sinner  and that he has come from unclean sinners,   yet he has now seen his God in the flesh –  something he deemed himself unworthy of doing.   Yet, it is perhaps because of  his immediate realisation of this  

And his subsequent repenting that the Seraphim  take pity on him and rush to absolve him of his   sin. They realise that his sorrow is genuine  and that going by his reaction, he probably   would have taken better precaution to be humble  had he been more prepared for this encounter.  

As we can see, one of the Seraphim flies over  to him and places a coal, which he had taken   from the altar, upon his lips. There he tells  Isaiah that because this had touched his lips,   his sin and guilt was now removed. Because  the coal would likely have been boiling hot,  

It links in with an idea that Isaiah was  purified by the fire – or by the Seraphim   who were in essence the ‘fiery ones’. There is  also an idea established here that the Seraphim,   along with being the eternal worshippers of  God, also have the ability to remove people’s  

Sins if they believe them to be authentic  in their repentance. With his sins cleaned,   Isaiah was then able to speak to God directly and  proceeded to nominate himself to do God’s bidding.  Whilst Isaiah’s account appears to be the  only reliable source of Seraphim in the bible,  

In that he literally does identify and describe  them as such, the Seraphim do exist in other   biblical apocrypha including the Book of Enoch,  where Seraphim are mentioned alongside Cherubim   as they coexist around the throne of God. Both  entities are described as relating to the sun,  

Or that they are elements of the sun itself, which  would fit in quite well with the Seraphim being   known as the ‘Burning Ones’. The implication  here would of course be that the Seraphim   shine so brightly that it would not  be possible to perceive them – well,  

Not without blinding yourself anyway – or that  they can produce such a high intensity of heat,   that only God can bear to stand next to them. In other ideas of Christian theology,   the Seraphim can be seen as the caretakers of  God’s throne and much like Isaiah’s account,  

They too continuously sing the words ‘Holy, Holy,  Holy’. There are also ideas that the Seraphim   assisted God in maintaining order in the world,  though the specifics of this are often vague.   Other ideas focus on the heat or the fire  that the Seraphim have been associated with,  

And that the fire is a symbolic notion of  themselves and their relationship with God. Fire’s   movement is constant and gradually rises upward  – much as the Seraphim do as they fly above God,   and the constant crackling of the fire could be  linked with the constant praising of his name.  

The other idea that paints the Seraphim as fire is  that fire consumes that which it touches and thus,   destroys – or in the case of the  Seraphim, destroys the sin of a person,   much like that which is done for Isaiah. Some  might say that the fires cleanse and in this,  

The Seraphim are indeed quite similar. There is  also the idea that we’ve already discussed that   fire emits light and the Seraphim share that same  property, though a far more divine and intense   light that can be comparable to the sun itself. In Judaism, Isaiah’s vision is recognised in  

Various Jewish services and the Seraphim are  acknowledged. In the Kabbalah for example,   the Seraphim are seen to drift from God,  only to burn up and return to his side.   Whilst in other beliefs, the Seraphim become  equivocal to that of the Cherubim as seen in  

Ezekeil’s vision. But in more conservative  Judaism, the Seraphim and angels in general   are seen as more symbolic than anything else. In Islam meanwhile, a hadith by Persian scholar   Al-Tirmidhi speaks of a conversation between the  prophet Muhammed and Allah where they speak of  

The ‘Exalted Assembly’ – those being the angels  amongst Iblis who disputed the creation of Adam,   or who had refused to bow to him. It is  believed that the Seraphim are included   within this category, or that Iblis had been of  the Seraphim himself, or perhaps the only Seraph,  

For he was created from fire – fire being  a key trope for these angelic beings.   Though this belief and idea is not  universal, nor is it specified in the Quran.   In fact, Seraphim, at least in the way described  by Isaiah do not seem to have much of a presence. 

Another interesting idea regarding the Seraphim  paint them in a more malevolent light where they   adopt the form of serpents. In Numbers 21:6 for  example, God sends venomous serpents amongst   the Israelites after their rebellion in the  wilderness, but in some translations and ideas,  

The serpents are replaced with that of the  Seraphim. This is also true for Deuteronomy 8:15,   where the wilderness is described as being  a thirsty and waterless land with venomous   snakes and scorpions. In the original hubraic, the  term ‘seraph’ can be found instead of ‘snakes’,  

Suggesting that God might have sent the Seraphim  as a means to punish those who had rebelled.  Some have interpreted the meaning of  this translation as a particular type of   snake – this ‘Seraph Snake’ and that they might be  referring not to an angel, but instead a reptile  

Of some kind. There is also the idea that the  snakes were venomous and so, their bite could   be linked with the burning sensation one might  feel should they have come across a fiery Seraph.   Another cool idea is that the snakes in the  wilderness are described as flying – something  

They certainly would have in common with the  Seraph. Other ideas propose that the Seraphim   were the angels who supported Lucifer in his  rebellion, or that Lucifer himself was a Seraph   which some believe facilitated his transformation  into a serpent in the garden of eden.   The Ophanim One of the most strangest and  

Downright weirdest creatures that are thought to  exist within scripture are the Ophanim – those   that are believed by some to be just a  mechanism of God’s chariot and by others to   be angelic beings with significant powers. The reason why they are called the Ophanim  

Is because in ancient hubraic, the word  Ophanim was thought to have meant wheels.   It was also believed that the word could  be spelled as auphanim or ofanim, as well   as a third variation as ‘galgalim’. In other  beliefs, Ophanim are also described as spheres or  

Whirlwinds, or again the very wheels that  were attached to the chariot of god and the   reason for all three of these ideas can likely be  pinpointed once in the visions seen by Ezekiel.  As mentioned earlier, Ezkiel’s Inaugural Vision  consists of some pretty wild and extraordinary  

Things, but as far as the Cherubim and the  Ophanim go, Ezekiel tells us, “As I looked   at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the  ground beside each creature with its four faces.   This was the appearance and structure of the  wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four  

Looked alike. Each appeared to be made like  a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved,   they would go in any one of the four directions  the creatures were faced; the wheels did not   change direction as the creatures went. Their  rims were high and awesome, and all four rims  

Were full of eyes all round.” (Ezekiel 1:15-18) The ‘living creatures’ that Ezekiel sees here   are indeed the cherubim as we’ve already  established, but he spends an equal amount   of time taking in the sight of these four wheels  – these Opahnim. He describes them as glistening  

Like topaz and that all four assembled to make  the shape of one wheel intersecting another.   He also adds that whilst they appeared  independently mobile, they only moved wherever the   cherubim were facing, which has since led some to  believe that the Cherubs controlled the Ophanim,  

Or was a symbol for their outranking of them.  He continues to state that they do not appear   to ever change their direction, and that all the  rims of their being were covered with eyes.   But with this passage alone, it only raises  our intrigue as to what these wheels were  

And what exactly their function was. Ezekiel  is able to paint a somewhat vivid picture   of what these wheels looked like, but perhaps  what makes them so stark and fascinating is how   elusive they are. These wheels are not something  that appear frequently throughout the bible  

And the fact that God allows Ezekiel to see  them only teases the idea that they do have   some significance that we are not grasping. One interesting idea that further supports the   notion that these wheels were the wheels of  God’s chariot comes from a song of praise  

By David in Psalm 18, where we are told  “He (God) mounted the Cherubim and flew.   He soared on the wings of the wind.” (Psalm  18:10) In this rather unique imagery,   it could be said that Cherubim had more of  a practical function as they served as God’s  

Vehicle, or a means for which to transport  him across the sky, or from heaven to earth.   The Cherubim in this instance become the  chariot and by this, the wheels that they   are seen to manipulate become the wheels of  that very chariot. Those being, the Ophanim.  

But Ezekiel does not make this connection, but  is instead taken aback by what he continues to   witness. He tells us, “When the living creatures  moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when   the living creatures rose from the ground, the  wheels also rose. Wherever the spirit would go,  

They would go, and the wheels  would rise along with them,   because the spirit of the living creatures  was in the wheels. When the creatures moved,   they also moved; when the creatures stood still,  they also stood still; and when the creatures  

Rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with  them, because the spirit of the living creatures   was in the wheels.” (Ezekiel 1:19-21) Here, he essentially confirms the idea that the   wheels were controlled by the Cherubim, and that  they did indeed have power over these elements,  

And that wherever the cherubim went, the  Ophanim would go too. He also adds that   the very spirit of the Cherubim exists within  the Ophanim, suggesting that on some level,   perhaps these strange creatures are extensions of  the angels, as opposed to being angels themselves.  

Touching once again upon the chariot idea  as hinted by the song of David in Psalm 18,   one might also say that the Cherubim were the  drivers of the chariot and the wheels were   merely just that – wheels. With this idea, they  are not angelic and they do not have sentience,  

But instead are more along  the lines of machinery.   Yet, the idea that the Ophanim were indeed angels  – perhaps, the weirdest of angels given their   appearance, remains to be consistent within some  communities and traditions. We can agree from  

Ezekiel’s account that despite their association  to the Cherubim, there is nothing particularly   angelic about the Ophanim. They do not appear to  have human characteristics like all other angels,   they do not speak and bring prophecies and they  do not appear to even have wings. Reference of  

Them is made in the second book of Enoch, where  we see Enoch ascend before the throne of God.   He tells us, “ I saw there a very great light,  and fiery troops of great archangels, incorporeal   forces, and dominions, orders and governments,  Cherubim and seraphim, thrones and many-eyed ones,  

Nine regiments, the Ioanit stations of light, and  I became afraid, and began to tremble with great   terror, and those men took me, and led me after  them, and said to me:Have courage, Enoch, do not   fear, and showed me the Lord from afar, sitting  on His very high throne.” (2 Enoch 20:1-2)  

Whilst again not specifically  mentioned as ‘Ophanim’,   Enoch does refer to them as the ‘many-eyed ones’,  which correlates with Ezekiel’s description.   What’s interesting here is that he later  identifies all the present entities   including the Cherubim, Seraphim and these ‘Many  Eyed Ones’ as being men and that these men took  

Him and led him to the throne of God, where they  reassured him he was safe. Whilst hard to say   given that Enoch does not explicitly determine  these Many Eyed Ones to be the Ophanim,   it could be said that in this story, that the Many  Eyed Ones did maintain some characteristics of men  

And that instead of wheels, they possessed a more  expected and relatable form. They also share the   same compassion as the Cherubim and the Seraphim  and seek to comfort Enoch when he would otherwise   panic, thus suggesting another layer of benignity  to these otherwise misunderstood creatures.  

The second book of Enoch continues to  tell us of the Many Eyed Ones that,   “And the Cherubim and Seraphim  standing about the throne,   the six-winged and many-eyed ones do not depart,  standing before the Lord’s face doing his will,  

And cover his whole throne, singing with gentle  voice before the Lord’s face: Holy, holy, holy,   Lord Ruler of Sabaoth, heavens and earth  are full of your glory.” (2 Enoch 21:1)   Here, we get a sense that the Many Eyed Ones  guard the throne of heaven and along with the  

Cherubim and the Seraphim, they will remain  here for eternity at the beck and call of God.   It is also established that they sing with gentle  voices, which yet again humanizes the Many Eyed   Ones and portrays them as more relatable,  perhaps even as a charming set of characters.  

With the Many Eyed Ones singing, it could also be  associated with several Jewish prayers known as   the Kedusha, where the Ophanim are told to offer  praise upon God and glorify him as the creator.  

Whilst the second book of Enoch refers to them  as the Many Eyed Ones, the first book of Enoch   refers to them directly as Ophanim and they are  said here to also guard the throne of heaven   and that together with the Seraphim and the  Cherubim, they do not sleep. Enoch tells us here,  

“And round about were Seraphim, Cherubim and  Ophanim: And these are they who sleep not. And   guard the throne of His glory.” (1 Enoch 71:1) There appears to be some variation in these very   angels when it comes to both their  ranking and their closeness to God.  

Most commonly in Jewish expositions of angelic  hierarchy, the significance and purpose of the   Cherubim, Seraphim and the Ophanim seldom seem  to coincide across all traditions. To some,   the Cherubim are the closest to God and  as mentioned before, they are his chariot.   More significantly, they are  much more prominent in the bible  

And actually appear to Ezekiel, thus giving  them the edge at least in terms of recognition.   The Seraphim by comparison are also seen in a  variety of ways including as a caretaker to God’s   throne, and as the bible shows in Isaiah’s vision,  the Seraphim can be viewed as absolvers of guilt.  

To more conservative Judaisim though, the  Seraphim are more symbolic in nature.   These inconsistencies, if you will, are  the same for the Ophanim in Jewish beliefs,   with some believing them to be the closest  of all the angels to God (as told to us by  

Medieval Jewish philosopher Maimonides) or as  ‘the thrones’, another classification of angels.   Many other Jewish philosophies confirm this idea  that the thrones and the Ophanim are one in the   same and one of the ways that this is done  is by one interpretation of Daniel’s Vision,  

Where Daniel tells us he sees God in  his chariot. He states, “As I looked,   thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days  took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow;   the hair of his head was white like  wool. His throne was flaming with fire,  

And its wheels were all ablaze.” (Daniel 7:9)  With this idea, the thrones become established   as the wheels of God’s vehicle and are set  in place before he takes his seat upon it.   A quote from American spirituality writer Rosemary  Ellen Guiley sums up the notion of the thrones  

And the Ophanim being the same quite concisely,  where we are told “The ‘thrones’; also known as   ‘ophanim’ (offanim) and ‘galgallin’, are creatures  that function as the actual chariots of God   driven by the cherubs. They are characterized by  peace and submission; God rests upon them. Thrones  

Are depicted as great wheels containing many  eyes, and reside in the area of the cosmos where   material form begins to take shape. They chant  glorias to God and remain forever in his presence.   They mete out divine justice and maintain  the cosmic harmony of all universal laws.”  

As we can see, going by this interpretation,  the thrones – or the Ophanim – lose their more   typical angel appearance and again resume the more  biblically accurate depiction as a mechanism.   In any case, one might say that the function  of the Ophanim, whilst intriguing and novel,  

Is not essential to believers, which is why  concrete information about them is so scarce.   Whether it be from the characters of the  bible themselves or scholars who studied them,   the wheels are only vital in their accordance  to God. They serve to remind believers that  

Their mystique and uncanny form is just one of  many of the creations that God has made that man   cannot understand and in some cases, it might  serve to humble believers into realising that   they do not have all the answers. It also brings  God’s enginerial ingenuity into the limelight,  

For whilst many may take for granted  the way in which the world was created,   elements like the Ophanim remind them of how much  of mechanical mastermind a supreme being like God   must be – especially given we to this day would  not be able to create something so unusual.  

Others might see the Ophanim as a representation  of God himself, in that because they are covered   with eyes, the eyes become symbolic of God being  all-seeing. If the Ophanim have a multitude of   eyes and spin omnidirectionally, then it would  be believed that they can see everything from  

Every angle. This would imply then that God  could very well do the same – as we know he can   from very specific mentions in the bible that God  is everywhere and God knows everything. Thrones

As previously mentioned, the Thrones are  a class of angels that are similar to the   Ophanim – and sometimes, are outrightly assumed  as being the same as the Ophanim. Very little   is actually known about this type of angel  and its appearance in the bible is scarce.  

One of its more notable appearances is in  Collisians where we are told “The Son is   the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over  all creation. For in him all things were created:   things in heaven and on earth, visible and  invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers  

Or authorities; all things have been created  through him and for him.” (Collisians 1:15-16) What the Thrones actually looked like is up for  some speculation, with some believing them to look   similar or identical to the Ophanim or for them  to appear as a combined image of the Throne of God  

-hence their name. In some interpretations,  it is believed that the Thrones are also   wheels within wheels and that these wheels  are also spinning and covered with eyes.   In another interpretation that coincides  with the idea that the Ophanim are the  

Wheels of God’s chariot, some believe that the  Thrones take on the form of the chariot itself. Another interesting idea proposes that the Thrones  show up much later in Revelations 11 as ‘Elders’.   John of Revelation tells us that these Elders  appear to be gathered around the throne of God  

And are all praising him. Whilst the Elders  are not described, it is their proximity to   God that is most interesting to us. It could  be the case that these are not just older men,   but instead the very Thrones that are described in  Collisians. Of course, this can also be dismissed  

Given that the only reason this is speculated  is because the Elder men appear to have actual   thrones of their own, those that are gathered  around the one throne of God. Others believe that   if these are the Thrones, they have likely taken  the form of old men so as to make it easier for  

John to digest what he is seeing, for John had by  this point seen so many ghastly and bizzare things   that it may have pushed him over the edge to  see the Thrones in their truest appearance. In his work De Coelesti Hierarchia,  Greek author and Christian theologian  

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite tells us  that the Thrones were the third highest of   the 9 classes of angels, ranking just  below the Seraphim and the Cherubim.   In many classifications, these are considered  to be the ‘First Sphere’ of angels,  

And these are the angels that serve God directly  and thus, are closer to him than any others. It should be noted that many angels in the  Old Testament do not even get a description   and instead are believed to have appeared simply  as men. They had no halos, no wings and no  

Tangible physical aspect that separated them from  the common man if not for a certain demeanour.   For example, the men who appear to Abram to bear  prophecy and also have their feet washed by him   are not visibly angels, but Abram can tell  that there is something special about them.  

The same could be said for the angel who wrestles  all night with Jacob, and whilst this character   was later depicted as an angel in classical  art, the bible simply describes him as a man.   These angels, you might say, were what 12 century  Jewish scholar Maimonides described as the  

Mal’ak – the ancient Hebrew word for ‘Messenger’  and whilst they had a certain distinction about   them, they were not as outlandish in appearance as  the Cherubim, Seraphim or Ophanim. You might say   that they adopted a guise that was more suited to  their task, choosing to appear in a more humanoid  

Form to deliver their message, instead of scaring  the living daylights out of the recipients.   The Mal’ak, or the Malakim (plural), were  just one type of angel that appeared in   Maimonides’ classification of angels – a  sort of angelic hierarchy, if you will,  

But the question still remains that if these  Mal’ak, these messengers, took the form of men   instead of appearing in their natural state…  what horrors were they sparing us from seeing? On the subject of angels appearing before man,  there is a concept from several classifications  

That incorporate the ‘Second Sphere’ of angels,  these being the angels that govern over earth   and thus, are not as close to  God as the aforementioned angels.   Of this second sphere, the angels  adopt a more familiar look… Dominions The classifications of these ‘Second Sphere  angels’ do not appear in the bible as such.  

However, several of the angels who do appear  in the bible have been classified into these   various groups. The Dominions for example can be  angels who help keep the world in order. They act   on behalf of God, often carrying out his tasks  and or directly implementing his divine plan.  

According to many classifications, these angels  also bring about God’s judgement against sinful   situations within the world, and whilst humanity  might not understand or agree with the work that   takes place, the Dominions are believed  to enforce the biblical God’s perspective.

Of course, because the Dominions operate on Earth,  they are believed to take the form of humans,   much like the Malakim, perhaps in an effort to  avoid scaring the humans they interacted with. An   example of Dominions at work could be when angels  are sent down to Sodom and Gomorrah to inspect the  

Land of what the biblical God perceived as ‘sin’.  These Dominions took the form of men so as to   not arouse suspicion, although ironically,  this is exactly what they ended up doing.  The Dominions are also believed to  deliver the wisdom of God to humans,  

Most notably to those in leading positions  such as world leaders. In essence,   it is believed those that pray or seek the  aid of God will be answered by the Dominions   who may appear in physical form to guide  one into taking the best course of action.  

To some, these angels are led by the Archangel  Zadkiel, an angel whom some believe prevented   Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac. Dominions  in this essence are believed to take on the same   role, intervening (often at the last minute) to  spare someone from making a terrible decision.  

Naturally, to those of us with a more  sceptic nature, it would be natural to   argue that angelic beings do not descend from the  heavens to stop us from making mistakes. However,   some rationalise that these Dominions act from the  shadows and or are imperceptible to the human eye.  

In this, they can alter our fate  without us really knowing it,   or may put obstacles in our path so as  to prevent us from making a wrong choice. Virtues One of the more baffling entity of angels  that appear in the ‘Second Sphere of Angels’  

Are the Virtues. Unlike the Dominions, the  Virtues aren’t necessarily believed to possess   a form at all, but instead appear as a flash  of light, which would explain their secondary   moniker as ‘The Shining Ones’. Their role  within the universe is much less understood,  

Though it is believed that they have  some influence over the elements   and over nature. To others, the Virtues can  be interpreted as a sort of ‘divine energy’,   one that can both encourage and strengthen  one’s belief in God. In some classifications,  

The Virtues are believed to perform miracles  to the deserving, where they reward the noble,   the righteous and those who are doing their  best to get back into the algorithm. Hi. Powers or Authorities The Powers or Authorities are angels that as you  might imagine, ensure order within the earthly  

And the celestial realms. You wouldn’t be wrong  for considering these angels as ‘warrior angels’,   those who do battle against evil spirits and  demons. Whilst not specified in Revelation   where the ultimate battle between good and evil  took place, it is not a stretch to assume that  

The angels who battled against Lucifer in his  rebellion were likely the Powers and Authorities,   those who would’ve been donned in full  shining armour and wielding fantastic weapons.   However, in other beliefs, it is these  very angels who were swayed by Lucifer  

Given that he was believed to be the Chief of  Powers. This may have led to the strength of   Lucifer’s army and why the rebellion was not  so easily thwarted by God in the first place. Despite maintaining a human appearance, the  sight of such an angel is believed to be quite an  

Intimidating one. These were mean faced soldiers  that probably stood a whole head height taller   than the tallest man, with wings that were sharp  to the touch and with weapons too heavy for any   mortal to wield. To some, these angels could be  viewed as God’s taskforce against evil entities,  

Those that don’t necessarily have to be of the  demonic persuasion. The angel of death that is   sent to destroy Jerusalem may very well have  likely been of the Powers or the Authorities,   which goes to show their immense and dastardly  strength given that God only sends one of them.  

Yet again though, the original authors do  not give a vivid description of these angels,   making their actual image all the more elusive. Principalities Beyond the ‘Second Sphere’ of angels, we  have the ‘Third Sphere’, these being angels  

That are believed to exist on the earth, and thus  are the most likely set of angels that a human   might run into. Luckily for us, these angels,  much like the Dominions and the Malakim, adopt   the form of humans and so out of all the angels,  it’s probably these ones that you’d have the  

Most in common with. Unlike the other angels the  Principalities also live on the earth, and by this   you might say that these angels are more in touch  with what is happening in the world and thus,   more relatable. To some, these Principalities,  or ‘Princes’, directly inspire world leaders,  

Nations and in some cases churches, in an effort  to keep things running smoothly. Given their   status as ruling various areas of the earth,  or at least, imparting power to various people,   these angels are believed to wear crowns and carry  with them a staff or a sceptre. To some believers,  

It is the Principalities who bless mankind with  art, science, maths or some wholesome intention   that will benefit the world in some way. In other  cases, the Principalities are believed to give   strength to those who will go on to do  something miraculous. Ideally, as mentioned,  

If you were going to run into an angel, the  Principalities might be your safest bet. Or maybe not, if you ask St Paul. St Paul believed that it was actually  the Principalities who joined Lucifer  

In his rebellion (as well as the Powers), where  he tells us in his letter to the church of Ephesus   “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,   but against the principalities, against the  authorities, against the powers of this dark world  

And against the spiritual forces of evil  in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) Here, St Paul speaks of man’s struggle not being  with each other, but instead with a more spiritual   threat – the principalities and the powers. This  leans into the idea that the principalities,  

Along with the powers now worked against  mankind in an effort to corrupt them.   With the idea that these angels joined  Lucifer, you may very well label them as fallen   angels – those who now do the opposite of what  the Principalities were originally created for.  

Indeed, where they were once dolled out wisdom,  inspiration and even strength, St Paul gives us   the idea that they would now sooner give out lies,  demotivate man and even sap away his strength. Nephilim The Nephilim predominantly appear in the  Book of Enoch, where they are described as  

Performing exceptionally evil deeds. Whilst  not actually angelic beings themselves,   the Nephilim were produced by  the angels and the mortal women   in the times before the flood. Now, if you  thought some of the angels were scary to behold,   you’ll likely find that their offspring  are simply the stuff of nightmares.

The Nephilim – these sons of the fallen  angels could technically be considered as   part fallen angel, part human and  part giant. Indeed, they were large,   hulking beasts that were more animal than man,  and when they weren’t tearing apart the landscape  

And devouring the fields for food, they were  spilling blood like it was going out of style.   We see that when man can no longer  sustain the Nephilim’s diet,   they begin to hunt man, devouring them without  hesitation, and when they run out of men to hunt,  

They turn cannibal, consuming their own  kind to satiate their ungodly appetite. There’s an idea that these Nephilim obtained their  tremendous size and strength through the merging   of angelic DNA and human biology, something that  even the biblical God shudders at the sight of. In  

Fact, he is so disgusted by the offspring of the  angels that he is seen to send down his archangels   to destroy them. In other ideas, some believe that  this purge of the Nephilim wasn’t enough for God  

And that he deemed the Nephilim to be so hideous,  that their existence is what warranted the flood.   What you might take away from this is that these  sons of the angels must’ve been truly ghastly   monsters, for if even Enoch’s God is disgusted by  them, then surely man would be outright repulsed. Fallen Angels

The Fallen Angels certainly have a  lot to answer for given that in the   case of the Powers and Principalities,  they still conspire against mankind.   Meanwhile, in the Book of Enoch –  where they are known as ‘The Watchers’,  

It is they who fornicate with the mortal women and  bring to life the dreaded abominations that are   the Nephilim. But would you believe it, there’s  another trick the Fallen Angels are believed to do   in some Christian Mythos, and that is  to transform themselves into demons.

Whilst this belief was not shared by the original  authors and translators of the Hebrew bible,   it has since become a popular trope – especially  when used in conjunction with the fall of Lucifer,   where the angels who side with him appear to  go through something of a demonic transition.  

As you might’ve guessed, these are probably the   worst kind of angels you could come  into contact with, for like Lucifer,   they hate mankind and will do whatever needs  to be done to lure them away from their god. 

As far as what these now evil angels look like,  the bible doesn’t really give us much to go on.   Instead, we have to look to more mythological  sources or even rely on literature. John Milton’s   Paradise Lost shows us several fallen  angels that are unique from one another,  

Including Beelzebub, Moloch, Chemos, Baal, Dagon,  Belial and even the Egyptian Gods themselves. In various classifications, the likes of  Beelzebub, Moloch and Baal have each earned   colourful depictions, showing us that if we  were to come into contact with these entities,   we’d probably faint from shock. The fallen  angel Beelzebub, after his demonic transition,  

Can be seen in some stories as being  made up of flies – likely owing to his   moniker as the ‘Lord of the Flies’. In other  depictions, he appears as a grim, bloated fly. Moloch on the other hand is often portrayed with  a bull’s head and with his arms outstretched  

Over a fire. His role is to sacrifice  children and so, you can imagine that   running into this fallen angel would be pretty  detrimental, depending on how old you are. Baal, often determined to be the nemesis of  Yahweh, also appears similarly to Moloch,  

Opting to wear a bull’s head. Despite being listed  in Milton’s Paradise Lost as a fallen angel,   Baal was also considered to be a Cannanite deity,   showing us that perhaps Lucifer isn’t the only  angel wishing to step out of his God’s shadow.

There is an idea that the reason the bible is  not keen to describe the angels that appear   before men, is because to do so would either  be impossible, in that there were no words   to illustrate such a creature, or that they  were so horrendously abnormal that to do so  

Would scare anyone out of ever being open  to seeing one. You might’ve noticed that on   more than one occasion, the first words out of an  angel’s mouth is ‘Do not be afraid!’. We see this   shortly after the birth of Jesus when an angel  appears to the shepherds in the nearby field,  

And we see it when Paul sails for Rome and an  angel appears to him to declare the very same   thing. Now, this may simply be the angels being  courteous for having dropped in unannounced and   attempting to placate the sudden alarm one might  experience after being snuck up on. But some argue  

That this is because the angels in question  are so inexplicably strange or even monstrous,   that they have to first convince the recipient  of their message that they are not a threat. In   this sense ‘Do not be afraid’ is not a directive,  it is an earnest request from the angels, seeking  

To soothe man’s fears and anxieties in the wake of  beholding something that they cannot comprehend. The exact nature of an angel’s appearance is  still relatively unknown to us, though it would   not be out of the realm of possibility to assume  that angels can pretty much take whatever form  

They want – or that perhaps more likely, God has  specifically designed each one with an intended   purpose. It should also come as no surprise that  in heaven, or a cosmic environment that is beyond   us in some spiritual plane, there will likely be  elements and characteristics that simply cannot be  

Explained, much less imagined. The Cherubim,  Seraphim and Ophanim for example may be the   least weird angels that exist in such a celestial  region. Indeed, it is not farfetched to suggest   that there are probably far more diabolical  things lurking in our own universe, let alone  

A spiritual plane that we know even less about. Let me know in the comments below which angel   stuck out for you the most and which  angel you think you’d be most scared of. As always guys, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode   then don’t forget to give it  a thumbs up and don’t forget  

To subscribe for more content just like this. If you’d like to continue supporting the channel,   you can do so by hitting the blue Join button  beneath the video to become a channel member.   You might also find more incentive to become a  Patreon where I have some merchandise available! Until next time

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A to Z of Biblical Demons



You ‘ve heard of bible accurate angels, but what about Bible-accurate demons? You’ll be familiar with them from pop culture, but demons in the Bible – that’s a murky subject. For example. Where does Satan really come from? Who came before him?

Welcome to the realm of evil spirits, fallen angels, and ancient gods. Where the boundaries of good and evil are not as clear cut as you d expect. This is… an A to Z of biblical demons. I suppose I ought to get something clear. What even is a demon?

In its broadest sense, a demon is an evil spirit. A supernatural being that’s up to no good. Demons appear across all world religions in one way or another, but the demons we’ll be exploring are from the Bible. The sacred text plays a key role in Christianity, and to some extent, Judaism and Islam.

The Bible is made up of two halves: the Old Testament, ancient Jewish writings about the history of Israel; and the New Testament, early Christian texts about the life of Jesus. Now, not every letter has a suitable demonic counterpart. So sometimes, I’ll have to get

Creative with the term “biblical”. From books that didn’t make it into the Bible, known as the Apocrypha; to the wider world of demonology inspired by these religious texts. But enough caveating and demon-splaining. It’s time to learn our ABCs. Starting with A for Asmodeus

Asmodeus is from the Book of Tobit. It’s a strange story, not included in all versions of the Bible. In one tale, Asmodeus falls in love with a woman called Sarah. But Sarah is already betrothed. In a fit of jealous rage, Asmodeus slays the groom and repeats this every time Sarah remarries.

Seven times no less! Asmodeus is eventually banished with an unusual spell. The heart and liver of a fish are placed onto a bed of burning hot embers. The smoke it produces smells so bad that the demon flees to the deserts of Egypt. Sarah moves on to her eighth husband and lives happily ever

After. B is for Belial Belial never chose the demon life, the demon life chose him. The word “beliya’al” appears throughout the Old Testament, but not as the name of a demon, but instead as the Hebrew word for “wickedness”.

But over time, people began to read this word as a name. It’s not clear why exactly, but beliya’al became Belial and *poof* a demon was born. This newly created demon appears throughout the Dead Sea Scrolls, a group of Jewish writings found in pots beside the Dead Sea.

In the amazingly named War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness, Belial commands a vast legion of evil. It’s real Lord of the Rings stuff, shame it never got included in the Bible. This version of Belial offers the blueprint for Satan from the New Testament. More on that demon later.

From a Hebrew word that meant “wickedness”, to the demonic embodiment of wickedness itself, Belial has a surprising origin story. C is for Chemosh One person s deity is another person s demon. Chemosh appears in the Old Testament and was the chief god of the Moabites.

Now, a core biblical belief is that there is only one God, the God of Israel. So having another god in the picture simply won’t do. Chemosh became the victim of a biblical smear campaign. His worst crime: an apparent appetite for human sacrifice. Especially children.

Outside the Bible, Chemosh is far less bloodthirsty. He appears on this, the Mesha Stele, a carved stone dating to 840 BC. It was made by King Mesha of Moab to honour Chemosh. The god kindly gave them victory against their rivals, including Israel. This rock was a way of saying thanks.

D is for Dagon Dagon is another pagan God from the Old Testament. He was the god of wealth and prosperity and for some reason was depicted as a mermaid. A reference to lost treasure maybe? I say this as Dagon appears in an episode featuring the Ark of the Covenant, a golden

Box that supposedly housed the Ten Commandments. In the story, the ark is stolen by the Philistines and is placed at an altar to Dagon. Being the biblical superweapon that it is, the Ark destroys the statue and causes a deadly plague. It was returned shortly after E is for Exorcism

Mixing it up now, a key part of studying demons is learning how to get rid of them. A process known as exorcism. In the New Testament, many of Jesus’ miracles are exorcisms. In one story, Jesus encounters a man living in a cave. Inside him are not one, but several

Demons. When asked their name, they respond: “Legion for we are many”. Realising they are about to be forcibly ejected from their host, the demons persuade Jesus not to be destroyed. Jesus kindly agrees to transfer them into a nearby herd of pigs, which then run off a nearby cliff to their death.

This story establishes a quirky tradition in modern-day exorcism: asking a demon its name. Apparently being on a first-name basis helps banish them F is for Fallen Angel Another key word in demonology, a fallen angel is a good spirit that has been corrupted.

The idea of the fallen angel doesn’t really appear in the Bible but is common in those apocryphal books. Like the Book of Enoch. It s about a group of angels called “The Watchers” who visit earth one day. Things take a turn when they start falling in love with human women who

Then give birth to a monstrous race of giants called “Nephilim”. It s another great story that’s apparently too spicy for the Bible. The myth of the fallen angel really influenced Christian writers and works of fiction like Paradise Lost. It gave rise to the figure of Lucifer, God s right-hand angel who went rogue.

G is for Grimoire A Grimoire is an occult textbook. Full of magical spells, dark incantations and of course demons. One of the most famous is The Lesser Key of Solomon, a comprehensive compendium of demons. It s a staple of demonology today as it contains advice on how to summon them.

Like Gaap, a prince of Hell who is the patron demon of philosophy. Conjure Gaap to get help with learning the difference between Plato and Aristotle. Grimoires are not biblical per se, but many demons that appear in them do stem from the

Bible. Like the demon Belial from before, he is described as having a “comely voice”. H is for Hades You may have heard of Hades from Greek mythology, but it appears in Biblical mythology too. In the New Testament, Hades is the underworld a realm of fire and brimstone, demons and sinners.

When our spirits are not on the surface world harassing human women or leading legions of darkness, they’re in Hades. Blowing off some steam. It s very different to the Old Testament’s version of the underworld by the way, a gloomy chasm called Sheol.

All souls go here, regardless of whether you’ve been good or bad. I is for Ipos Finding a biblical demon with the letter “I” is a challenge. But I’ve settled on Ipos. Ipos is a little strange looking: it has the head of a goose, the body of a lion and the

Feet of a chicken. You can find him in The Lesser Key of Solomon, a demonic grimoire According to his entry, Ipos is one of the sixteen dukes of Hell, and has this rather splendid seal. He knows all things, past, present and future J is for Jezebel

J is another difficult letter for biblical demons, especially as this letter doesn’t technically exist in either language the Bible was written in, Hebrew or Greek. Jezebel is a character from the Old Testament, the wicked wife of King Ahab. She isn’t a

Demon, but there is a demon in her name: Ba al, the Lord of the Underworld. The name Jezebel is from the Hebrew phrase “ezeh Ba’al” or “where is Ba’al?”. A prayer used at ancient funerals to encourage Ba al to claim the souls of the deceased.

This demonic name might explain why Jezebel is a villain in the biblical story. For her various crimes, including Ba al worship, she gets defenestrated (aka thrown out of a window). Jezebel may not be a demon, but if there s an opportunity to talk about Levantine Death gods, I’ll take it.

K is for Kokkabiel Kokkabiel is one of our fallen angels from the book of Enoch. This angel is responsible for corrupting humans with the dark art of stargazing. Kokkabiel teaches the people astronomy. Apparently, that s a bad thing? Maybe it s because the

Sky was seen as the realm of God and shouldn’t be the subject of scientific study. Kokkabiel later appears in the Kabbalah, a series of Jewish mystical texts. But now he s a good guy: his knowledge of celestial bodies is regarded as a worthy thing to teach. Which is it Kokkabiel? Angel or demon?

L is for Lilith The demoness Lilith is perhaps the oldest one on this list. She appears in the Old Testament s Book of Isaiah, lurking in a ruined town. Lilith is surrounded by creatures of the desert: jackals, owls and goats.

But she goes back way further than this, to a Mesopotamian demoness called Lilitu a shadowy being who prowls the night. References to her reach back to the Epic of Gilgamesh the world’s first written story. Lilith s name also appears in old pottery. This is an incantation bowls: along the side

Are prayers to be read aloud, prayers that trap demons. In the centre is a figure who has been ensnared by the bowl. Many believe that this is Lilith. M is for Mastema We’re mid-way through the alphabet, and what better way to celebrate this milestone than with Mastema: the demon of persecution.

Mastema is from the Book of Jubilees. Again, another apocryphal book. Those banned biblical texts certainly contain the juiciest demonic lore. His job is to punish people. But strangely, Mastema gets his orders from God. Whether that be sending plagues to wreak havoc, to torturing folk who may or may not deserve

It. He’s kind of like a divine hitman. Mastema blurs the line between angel and demon. And what does this say about God? He not only allows demons to exist but actively uses them to carry out his punishments. Maybe demons aren’t so evil after all N is for Nephilim

The Nephilim are a race of demonic giants. In the Old Testament’s Book of Numbers, they are so big that people look like grasshoppers in comparison. The Nephilim also appear in the Apocrypha. Enter our old friend the Book of Enoch, which explores how they came to be.

In the story, the Nephilim are the cursed offspring of fallen angels and humans and go about causing trouble on Earth. At 450 ft tall they become a very big problem, so God decides to wipe them out with a big flood.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. The Nephilim are an enigmatic bunch for sure, and not much else is known about them O is for Ornias Ornias is a demon from one of the oldest grimoires in existence, The Testament of Solomon. Despite

The name, it was not written by the biblical King Solomon. It s a bizarre book, especially as it’s about how Solomon was a secret demon slayer. His first assignment is to deal with Ornias. He s been harassing a man by stealing his

Money and draining his life energy, classic demon stuff. Solomon traps Ornias by sealing him in a magical ring. Then he goes around collecting more demons. It’s a biblical precursor to the Ghostbusters franchise. None of King Solomon’s demon-busting exploits are in the Bible by the way. This story is

Biblical fan fiction at its finest. P is for pseudo-Christos We’re back in the New Testament to talk lies, deceit and false messiahs. That s what “Pseudo-Christos” in Greek: false messiah. You don’t have to be a biblical historian to know that Christians believe in one messiah: Jesus.

But there are others who claim to be divine, others that will deceive unwary followers. There are hard to spot, like a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”. One of these false messiahs is quite literally that. In the apocalyptic Book of Revelation,

The Antichrist takes the form of a little sheep monster, just with a few more horns. His job it is to hail the arrival of The Beast and get everyone to believe that somehow this creature isn’t evil. Q is for Qeteb We’re back in the Old Testament with Qeteb. The demon of disease.

Or maybe not. Depends on how you translate Qeteb. He appears in the Book of Psalms, alongside his brother, Deber. The poem encourages readers not to fear these demons. Whether that be: “Deber that stalks in the darkness or Qeteb that destroys at midday”.

But in Hebrew, the word Qeteb also means plague; and Deber, means pestilence. So it could also be translated as: You shall not fear: “pestilence that stalks in the darkness, or plague that destroys at midday”. Instead of demons, what if the poem is about disease? What if this is a case of personification,

Where the idea of plague is given demon-like behaviour for creative flourish. R is for Ruach Elohim Ra-ah Speaking of language, this next demon I’ve highlighted is the Hebrew phrase, Ruach Elohim Ra-ah. Which translates to: “an evil spirit of God”.

As we saw with Mastema, when God wants to punish someone, he sends a demon to haunt them. In the Old Testament, this happens too. In one story, an “evil spirit of God” is sent to torment King Saul, driving him to madness.

This has stumped people for a while. Is God responsible for evil? After all, he gets demons to do his dirty work It s an uncomfortable thought, we like to imagine God as all peace and love. But in early biblical texts, God is more morally questionable.

As time went on, people didn’t quite like the idea of a vengeful God. By the New Testament, people placed evil upon another figure S is for Satan Here we are. The big one. The demon of demons. Satan. In Christianity, Satan is the arch-prince of evil. From tempting Jesus in the desert

To a red multi-headed dragon, for the past two thousand years, Satan has been evil incarnate. Early Christian thinkers believed that the snake in the garden of Eden story was Satan himself. If so, all human suffering can be traced to him.

Before Christianity however, Satan was a little less well-defined. In the Old Testament Book of Job, there is a mysterious character known as “The Satan” literally meaning “the adversary”, who challenges God s judgement. A literal devil s advocate.

But The Satan doesn’t seem to be a bad guy, he s just one of the angels. Originally, the word satan didn”t exclusively apply to angels and demons. It’s common for people be called satans, even countries get called satans. Everyone s a satan!

It seems like the classic picture of the devil hadn’t yet evolved by this point. Satan grew into his horns by New Testament. T is for Titivillus Over our journey into biblical demons, they seem to spring out of spelling mistakes and mistranslations. But who is behind those errors?

Introducing Titivillus, aka The Printer’s Devil. The patron demon of typos. His speciality: biblical errors. Imagine if you had to write out the King James Bible by hand, that s 783,137 words. Mistakes are bound to creep in. In fact, they often did.

Like in 1631, when someone accidentally removed a “not” from one of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not commit adultery” was changed to “Thou shalt commit adultery”. Cheating on your partner was now permitted! Of course, the demon Titivullus was blamed, not the careless hands of an overworked bookmaker. U is for Unclean Spirits

Unclean spirits is what the New Testament often calls demons. But what has hygiene got to do with it all? There seems to be an idea that demons are dirty, if they touch you, you are spiritually contaminated. This partly explains the idea of Baptism, a literal bath to wash away your sins… and

Those demons. As they say: a shower a day keeps the demons away. V is for Vampire Yes, you heard me, vampires appear in the Bible. Well, only once. There s a quote in the book of proverbs which says this “The Vampire has two daughters. Give! Give! they cry”.

This pithy saying is not about the reality of being a Vampire dad. Instead, the two daughters in question could be a reference to two thirsty fangs. “Give! Give! they cry”. It’s either that or the passage is talking about leeches. Another bloodthirsty animal with sharp teeth.

Regardless, this biblical Vampire appears in Jewish folktales. The “alukah” is a beast that takes the appearance of a human but lives entirely off blood. When threatened it will transform into a fearsome werewolf. The question is, is a vampire a demon? It depends on how far you want to stretch the

Term “evil spirit” I suppose W is for Witches First vampires. Now witches? The Bible has a bunch of rules against the practice of witchcraft and divination. Like: “Thou shalt not allow a witch to live”. These biblical rules against magic were used to support the witch trials throughout Europe

And the Americas. There was a fear that witches lived among the population, and that they were in cahoots with demons. You’d even get specialised witch hunters who’d go accusing people of sorcery, predominately older women. These hunters took the Bible’s laws very literally. The punishment for witchcraft? Death. X is for Xezbeth

Xexbeth is one of the only demons out there beginning with the letter X. Xezbeth is from the “Dictionarre Infernal” or “Hell’s Dictionary”. A little catalogue of French demons. There s not a lot of information on this one. Perhaps for the best. Xezbeth is the demon

Of lies and deceit. Whether it’s a white lie or full-blown tax fraud, Xezbeth is behind it. No one knows the origin of this demon. There is an Islamic demon called “al-Khadab”, Arabic for “the liar”. But that’s pretty much it.

Khadab, Xezbeth maybe those names are related somehow. Or maybe it s all just lies. Y is for Yamm It s time for Yamm. But not the food, the Mesopotamian god of the Sea. Yamm appears in several ancient myths about Earth’s creation.

These stories take the form of a giant battle between Yamm, his giant sea serpent pet, and a heroic god. To the Babylonians, it was Tiamat vs. Marduk. To the ancient Hebrews, it was Leviathan vs El (aka. God). Once Yamm’s sea beast is vanquished, the god creates the earth out of its body parts.

German scholars refer to these myths as the “Chaoskampf” the primordial struggle. Today, it s widely agreed that life began in the ocean. So, I can t help but feel a bit sorry for Yamm. He doesn’t get the respect he deserves. Z is for Zedek

The final letter, one that I m cursed to pronounce as “Zed” not “Zee”. We’ve spoken a lot about demons, but not about the angels appointed to deal with the ones that get out of hand. Enter Zedek or Melki-Zedek. The “Angel of Righteousness”.

His big moment is in the Dead Sea Scrolls, in the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness. In this epic battle at the end of time, Zedek defeats the demon Belial and his legions of evil. Truth, happiness, and love abound. And the demons are no more.

A good place to end this list. Twenty-six letters later we’ve covered biblical demonology from A to Z. It s a ragtag bunch, all from different stories and eras in time. But we can unscramble this lot, and draw out some wider themes.

You may have noticed that lots of biblical demons do not originally come from the Bible. Instead, they come from the Apocrypha: those books that didn’t quite make it into the canon. It seems that fallen angels, demonic hitmen, and giants were too scandalous for mainstream audiences.

The Bible itself has a mixed picture of demons. Take the Old Testament for example demons either take the form of ancient Gods like Chemosh, Dagon and Yamm, or “evil spirits” sent from God himself. Others like Belial, Qeteb and Satan were not originally demons, but just plain, everyday words that became names over time.

But then, fast forward to the New Testament writings, this had all changed. There’s an explosion of demons! Satan becomes a name and exorcisms are now a thing. These Christian writings were clearly inspired by those apocryphal books and their rich collection of demons.

From then onwards, demons have been a big part of Christianity and the Abrahamic faiths. Scholars of religion believe that demons offer a neat explanation for the problem of evil: if God is all good, where does evil come from? Answer: Demons.

Exploring evil spirits in the Bible and its Apocrypha reveals how these demons took root and began to grow and evolve. Nowadays, the study of demons is livelier than ever before. There is demonological content for every occasion, and enough to fill an entire alphabet.

Hey! Thanks for watching. I really hope you enjoyed this one. Any demons you think to deserve an honourable mention? If you liked this video and want to see more, why not subscribe? A like and comment also go a really long way.

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What The Devil ACTUALLY Looks Like



Lucifer, Satan, Father of Lies, Prince of Darkness…the Devil goes by many names, and almost all of them sound like Scandinavian heavy metal bands. In Christian religious writings, the Devil is a fallen angel that rules over hell. So what does the Devil actually look like?

And is it even possible to make a video about Satan and Christianity without offending a whole bunch of people? Well, we sent our world-class team of researchers through a portal to hell to find out. [Said as an aside:] We expect them back any day now.

Most Christians today have an image of the Devil as a red, horned creature. But what does the Bible actually say about the fallen angel that became Satan? Well, surprisingly, not a whole lot. In fact, the Bible alludes to the fact that the Devil doesn’t have a specific physical form at all.

In essence, the Bible describes the Devil as a spirit being with no physical form. When the book refers to angels – of which the Devil is a fallen one – it refers to them as spirits. Furthermore, since Satan is depicted as a master of deception and manipulation, he,

She, or them – we will use the traditional historical “he” for the purposes of this video – can apparently take many forms. And what better disguise is there for manipulation purposes than appearing as a beautiful angelic being? In 2 Corinthians 11:14, the passage reads “and no marvel; for even Satan fashions

Himself into an angel of light.” Many Christians believe that the first time the Devil appears in the Bible is early on, in Genesis 3. According to your one aunt who disapproves of you living with your girlfriend, the serpent

That tricks Adam and Eve into falling from grace is the Devil, or at least possessed by the Devil. This is taken from a line in Revelation 20:2 that says, “he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.”

This unfortunate reference would go on to give a bad reputation to snakes everywhere. Well…the poison doesn’t help either. Nor does the movie “Anaconda”. However, some modern scholars dispute that the Devil took the shape of a snake. Or, again, even that the Devil was that important in the Bible at all.

Henry Ansgar Kelly, a UCLA professor who published “Satan: A Biography”, believes our current interpretation and image of Satan is all wrong. According to Kelly, not only is Satan not nearly as important or ubiquitous in the Bible as most Christians currently believe, but he’s also not such a uniformly evil character,

And certainly not the antithesis of God. In the 45 books that make up the pre-Christian scriptures, Kelly only counts three direct references to Satan. That’s about as often as you’d mention the weird barista at your local coffee shop in a biography of your life.

Furthermore, in these books, Satan’s job “is to test people’s virtue and to report their failures”, according to Kelly. Even when the word Lucifer appears in the bible, Kelly explains that Lucifer was latin for “light-bearer”, and is unlikely to be a reference to Satan.

Rather, it’s the name the book gives to various other entities, such as Venus and the morning star. So any description of Lucifer can’t be used as an accurate assessment of the Devil’s appearance. Going back to Adam and Eve, Kelly believes the Revelations passage that casts Satan as a serpent is mistranslated and misunderstood.

“Nobody in the Old Testament – or, for that matter, in the New Testament either – ever identifies the serpent of Eden with Satan.” Christian philosophers of the second and third centuries were the ones who originally attributed all these references to Satan, as they considered him a figure of great importance.

If all that is true, then where did our ugly, horned, horrifying vision of the Devil come from? Turns out, a lot of it was due to one pissed off Italian literary genius named Dante Alighieri. Dante, as those who were at least partially awake in World Literature classes know, wrote

“The Divine Comedy” between 1308 and 1320. The narrative poem, now considered one of the best works of literature in history, was divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso. Because a lot of Italian really is just about adding O’s to English words, these mean, as you may have guessed: hell, purgatory, and paradise.

Therefore, the book included a lot of descriptions of the Devil. In Dante’s “Inferno”, the Devil is grotesque. He is a giant, winged demon, frozen in ice up to his chest, trapped in the center of hell. In Dante’s disturbing vision, Satan has three heads, each with a pair of bat wings under each chin.

To top it all off, his three mouths are always chewing on the following historical figures: Judas Iscariot, Marcus Junius Brutus, and Gaius Cassius Longinus. Judas was, of course, the disciple that betrayed Jesus, Marcus Junius Brutus was of “et tu, Brutus?” Caesar-killing fame, and Cassius was the guy that started the Caesar-killing plot along

With him. As gross as this vision of the Devil sounds, Dante’s version of the Father of Lies was a little more pathetic than in other descriptions. Dante envisions Satan as a slobbering, wordless demon subject to the same terrifying punishments of hell he is doling out.

Furthermore, Dante emphasizes that Satan once used to be beautiful until he rebelled against God. A line from the poem states, “Were he as fair once, as he now is foul”. Another medieval book, the Codex Gigas, also has very detailed images of the Devil.

Codex Gigas, which means “Giant Book”, is also nicknamed “The Devil’s Bible”. Given that the tome weighs a staggering 165 pounds, we actually think that “Giant Book” is the more accurate of the two names. We have also never been so grateful for Kindles.

Throughout the several, several, hundred pages of the book, the devil is depicted with a greenish face bearing red horns, eyes, and claws. This comes closer to our modern image of the Devil. But according to some scholars, it turns out Christianity also borrowed bits and pieces

From other religions and belief systems to fill in the Bible’s blanks. Bernard Barryte has curated an exhibit titled “Sympathy for the Devil” at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center, which somehow escaped the notice of Mick Jagger’s legal team. Barryte says, “bits and pieces from lots of now-defunct religions got synthesized:

The cloven feet from Pan, the horns from the gods of various cults in the near east.” This image was highly popular in the 15th and 16th centuries, which depicted the Devil as the sworn enemy of Christianity and of all mankind. A horned, furry beast, barely human in appearance.

As we dive further in, the research shows that the image of the Devil, besides being influenced by important literary and artistic works of each era, changed along with the interpretation of what the Devil symbolized. For example, John Milton’s work “Paradise Lost” drew Satan as a sad figure deserving of pity.

This depiction, combined with the effects of the French and American Revolution, led to images of the Devil as a more human character. As Barryte says, “people interpreted the figure less as a demonic creature and more as a heroic rebel against the oppression of the paternal god.”

At this point in time, many Christians wanted to remove the superstitious elements of their religion altogether, considering them a bit backwards. Therefore, this new more human look for the Devil suited them just fine. By the 19th century, Goethe’s “Faust” leaned into the image of the Devil as a sly, cunning manipulator.

At this point, the image of Satan switches to a more weasley-looking trickster. Many bronze statues of this era depict him as a thin, drawn, frequently hunched over man with pointed features One thing many depictions share in common is the color red.

That’s usually a theme for images of Satan, which makes sense as he rules over a place where fire is eternally burning and people are bleeding from being tortured. Some Christians believe that the Devil still occasionally walks the Earth, presenting himself in the form of demonic possessions.

Popular shows and cartoons show him carrying a trident and wearing a red cape. A few last-minute, ahem, “sexy” Halloween costumes depict him in a red bodysuit and horns, wearing nothing much else at all, and prone to being fined for public intoxication.

Nowadays, many works of art depict the Devil as embodied by a person, or institution, right here on Earth. The Devil has been depicted as a tailor sewing Nazi uniforms in Jerome Witkin’s “The Devil as Tailor”, or even as a red-clad papal figure next to a bloody woman in “Heaven and Hell”.

We will not be showing that second image in this video, and trust us, your brain cells will thank us for that. In fact, as corruption and sex scandals came to light regarding the Catholic Church, it became common to depict the Devil as existing within the church itself, or at least its important figureheads.

Whether drawn by religious Christians or non-religious artists, as society moves more towards addressing issues and injustices right here on Earth, the concept of the Devil appears more and more in human form. Brutal dictators, genocidal psychopaths, and serial predators are all seen as evil to the point of non-comprehension.

Aka…”they have the Devil inside them.” However, the concept of an evil spirit, religious or otherwise, is hardly unique to Christianity. Most cultures and religions around the globe have a being similar to “the Devil”, and each has its unique take on what this spirit may look like.

Islamic mythology speaks of a demonic creature below the level of angels and devils called the Jinn, a spirit that can take human or animal form. They live in inanimate objects and are responsible for mental illnesses, destruction, accidents, and other maladies. In English we know them as…genies.

Clearly, Disney sanitized this creature a bit for its movies. In many Caribbean countries, their folklore speaks of evil spirits known as Jumbees. These Jumbees come in all different shapes and sizes, and carry different intentions as well. In Guyana, native people speak of the Massacooramanis, a large, excessively hairy man-like creature

That boasts a sharp set of teeth protruding from its mouth. He always lives in rivers, where he drags boats into the water and feasts on the men inside. The Moongazer, on the other hand, comes out only during the full moon.

He looks like an extremely tall, slim, muscular man who straddles a road and stares at the moon. Anyone who tries to pass the road underneath him instantly gets crushed to death. And really, if you see a naked 8-foot tall creature straddling a road and try to pass

It anyway, your death might be a little bit on you. The most terrifying spirit of all is the Dutchman Jumbee. It unfortunately makes sense that indigenous and Black Caribbeans would name the most horrifying demon after the colonizers that enslaved and slaughtered them.

These Jumbees are said to be the spirits of Dutchmen who killed and buried slaves. They reside in Dutchman trees, and if anyone climbs these trees, the Dutchman will make them horribly ill, break their bones, or even kill them. Some of the strangest looking devils in the world might be the Baku of Japan.

According to Japanese legends, the gods created the Baku with all the leftover parts they had after completing the rest of the animal kingdom. In one manuscript, the Baku is said to have an elephant’s trunk, rhinoceros’ eyes, an ox’s tail, and a tiger’s paws.

Other illustrations show it with an elephant’s head and tusks, claws, a hairy body, and horns. The Baku isn’t necessarily all bad. Children in Japan would call on the Baku to come eat their nightmares. However, the legends warned that people who called on the Baku too often would make the

Creature too hungry, and it would end up eating their dreams, hopes, and desires, leaving their life empty and miserable. So the next time you dream that you are naked in class and forgot to study for the past four years of school while your crush points and laughs at you…maybe just deal with it

On your own. The Devil has taken many shapes throughout both Christian history, and in whatever analogous demonic form he takes in cultures around the world. Frequently, the Devil changes appearance depending on beliefs of the time, holding a mirror to

What role religion is playing in society during each era rather than having one fixed appearance. Now that you hopefully have a good grasp on how to identify the Devil and various other demons, as well as several images to fill your nightmares tonight – remember, don’t

Call on the Baku unless you really need it – check out some of our other stories and legends on The Infographics Show!

#Devil

What are the proofs for the resurrection of Jesus?



– The word proofs is a loaded term in philosophy and in many cases people will push back at us for using that in the Christian faith, but the Bible itself, Acts 1:3 says that with many convincing proofs Jesus appeared to his disciples for 40 days after his resurrection.

In fact, the apostles were faced with this accusation that they had actually stolen the body of Jesus. And so as early as the New Testament all the way to this present day there have been attacks on the notion that Jesus was raised from the dead. And through the next almost 2000 years,

If we were to come up to today, there are a series of what we call counter theories to the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus through the centuries has responded to these counter theories such as, well his body was stolen, or maybe he wasn’t really dead

When he was put in the tomb, and so on, have been responded to powerfully such that I’m convinced today the very best answer is, in fact, rationally, that Jesus was historically raised from the dead. Now some of the actual historical evidences that have been discussed through the centuries

Are that Jesus was really dead. That is to say, there is no question that he just swooned when he was put into the tomb, to Romans knew how to kill you when they crucified you. Two, the fact is that his tomb was empty. The early Christians even lost where the actual tomb is,

We don’t know for sure even where you’re taken as a tourist today is actually where he was buried. Why? Because they didn’t care about it, he was raised from the dead. His enemies would have presented his body were he actually still in the tomb. Three, his disciples believed that they were seeing Jesus

After his resurrection, that is in a post mortem raised state, so much so that they were willing to die for this, this is remarkable. And in fact, they changed, four, their belief system. These early believers were Jewish, and so they began to worship on the first day of the week,

That is Sunday instead of the Sabbath day. They celebrated the Lord’s supper, which is a proclamation of his death, and burial, and resurrection until he comes, and baptism, which was a symbol of buried with him in the likeness of his death and raised in the likeness of his resurrection.

Interestingly enough, the various theories like swoon, or conspiracy, or they lost the body, and so on, only a handful of these are still used today by skeptics and the irony is they fail miserably simply to deal with what now the majority of New Testament scholars, even those

Who are not Christians, agree on those historical facts that I presented. The bottom line is the significance of the resurrection of Jesus is intensely personal. The reason is simply that if he’s not raised from the dead then Christianity is silly, there’s no forgiveness for our sins,

My having lived my life believing that he’s raised from the dead was a waste, I could’ve lived it any other of a number of ways. But if he is raised from the dead, then in fact, the hundreds of millions of people who trusted in him through the centuries

Really do have hope for eternal life. I remember 43 years ago when I was not a Christian, 20 year old pagan, hated Christianity, yet woke up on Easter morning with a bad hangover as a hippy with long hair, God has a sense of humor, it seems, I had been told recently by Christians

That on Easter, that was the day they celebrated Jesus having been raised from the dead. And the fundamental question of life that I was facing, like is there a God and could I be forgiven for the evil that I actually was fully caught up in and was convinced I was guilty of,

Could I be forgiven? I didn’t connect all those dots, but something bothered me that morning, this is the day Jesus rose from the dead. And that’s what makes Christianity so very special, the love of God displayed in the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus for us, has been demonstrated

To be true, and that’s what gives me hope, and it should you, too, if you belong to him. – [Narrator] Thanks for watching. You can submit your questions by email, Twitter, or in the comments section below. And don’t forget to subscribe to find out the answer to next week’s question.

#proofs #resurrection #Jesus

Ancient Aliens: The Satan Conspiracy (S6, E5) | Full Episode



NARRATOR: He is the personification of evil. Satan was the source of torture and death and destruction. NARRATOR: He is the ruler of hell. He grew arrogant, and he lost his heavenly position. He was thrown out of the heavens and fell. NARRATOR: And he commands an army

Of demons united on a vengeful quest to destroy mankind. A demon needs a body to accomplish its evil purposes– You can’t have her. So they can bring about their plan of death and destruction. NARRATOR: But is the character known as the Prince of Darkness merely a myth?

Or could he be something much, much more? Satan may well be a person, a god, an angel, an ET who’s been maligned in a sense. NARRATOR: Millions of people around the world believe we have been visited in the past by extraterrestrial beings. What if it were true?

Did ancient aliens really help to shape our history? And if so, could evidence be found in centuries old stories of a fallen angel? Could there really be a Satan conspiracy? [theme music playing] He is called Satan, Lucifer, the devil, and his name conjures up horrifying images

Of a horned demon whose sole purpose is to corrupt and destroy mankind. Satan is portrayed as the enemy of God, trying to destroy good people, to make good people bad, and to keep them from being saved, keep them from going to heaven so that they can go

To hell where he’s in charge. KATHLEEN MCGOWAN: Satan has become the catchall for the embodiment of evil. When we think of Satan, I think there are two different ways that our brains can go. The first is this almost comical character that rules over the land of flames,

The red guy with the horns and the pitchfork. But then on the darker side, I think that Satan has become this very, very terrifying, frightening embodiment of evil who causes man to do terrible things, who is the source of torture and death and destruction. NARRATOR: But are these perceptions of Satan correct?

Is he really the master of all things evil in the universe? Lakeland, Florida, 2012. Hundreds of faithful followers congregate at the Ignited Church to witness the removal of demons from those who believe they’re possessed by the devil. You let him go. All the pain and the hurt you’ve caused this man,

You let him go. The devil wants to get even. How else to hurt the heart of God to the greatest possible extent but to harm the beloved of his creation, the height of his creation, the thing that God loves most, humanity, human beings, me, you, every single person on Earth?

NARRATOR: In the ritual known as exorcism, a priest or minister performs a sacred right in order to confront Satan and drive him back to hell. It is a ceremony that dates back hundreds and perhaps thousands of years and is considered quite controversial even within the Catholic church.

I torment you by the blood of Christ. When I’m battling Satan, there are a lot of mind games going on, and it’s a bit of a chess match. You think you have her, don’t you? Don’t you? – Yes. You think she’s yours, don’t you? Well, she’s not.

So I have to be mentally and spiritually prepared for that. How long have you had her? Long time. Yeah? Well, now it’s going to be a short time. Torment to you. Torment! Torment you. NARRATOR: But just who or what is Satan? And why is he determined to corrupt all of humanity?

Perhaps the answers can be found in the myths and legends that describe Satan’s ancient origins. ADAM BLAI: In the beginning, Satan was one of the angels that was created by God before the physical universe was created, and there was basically a sphere of angels around God, worshiping God.

And Satan at that time was Lucifer or the day star. He was the brightest of the angels. KATHLEEN MCGOWAN: Satan is actually one of the archangels. He is one of the high angels, one of the highest ranking, one of the most beautiful, the most beloved. He is beloved of God.

He is a bringer of light. When God created man in his image, he ordered all the angels to worship his image in this man. And Satan refused. He says, look, they’re mud people. We’re made out of fire. I’m not going to do it. And so he gets kicked out.

He grew arrogant. He began to challenge God. And for this arrogance, he lost his heavenly position. He was thrown out of the heavens and fell. ADAM BLAI: When Lucifer was cast down, it was instant and abrupt and total. And he was cast down to Earth to roam here

Until the end of time. NARRATOR: Although few references are made to Satan in the Hebrew testament, he is depicted as an opposer or accuser and is generally acknowledged to have been the inspiration for the serpent in the Garden of Eden. BRETT PETERSON: One of the great stories in the Bible

Is Adam and Eve in the garden. You know, we have this picture of a beautiful garden scene, and Adam and Eve in their innocence just enjoying God and each other and this beautiful creation. And all of a sudden enters Satan in the form of a snake.

And he finds Eve close to the one thing, the one law God gave mankind. NARRATOR: According to the book of Genesis, God placed two trees in the garden, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge and forbade Adam and Eve to eat fruit from the tree of knowledge.

Satan convinces Eve to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and she convinces Adam to do that. And, of course, we see that suddenly their whole personality changes. BRETT PETERSON: Prior to eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve were sinless.

It means that the one law that God gave them, they had not disobeyed. Satan himself decided that if he could get them to break that one law, then sin would enter mankind. And when Adam ate, all mankind from that point on has been selfish, prideful, and were genetically

Given the ability and really the desire to rebel against authority and thus obtained the knowledge of good and evil. NARRATOR: But is this story of Adam and Eve really a fanciful account of how evil entered the world? Or might there be another even more profound explanation?

You can make a case that Eve actually wants to mature. She wants to grow up. God wants to keep us in a state of perpetual innocence, infantility perhaps. Eve decides that knowing everything she can know about this world into which she has been placed

Is more important even than obeying a particular command of God. The serpent enables her. Satan’s wanting to give humanity all this incredible wisdom that maybe can even elevate humankind to the level of gods. But the Old Testament God Yahweh is saying not so fast. Humankind aren’t perhaps worthy of this knowledge,

And this becomes then the battle between God and Satan. NARRATOR: Was the serpent’s temptation of Adam and Eve really a case of sabotage? Was it a deliberate effort to seduce mankind into sinning against its creator? Or might Satan’s real purpose have been to encourage mankind to share the fruits of God’s wisdom?

Ancient astronaut theorists believe more clues may lie in another book of the Hebrew testament. Southern Israel, this dry sun-blasted desert was once the realm of Edom, an ancient kingdom that some researchers believe was home to the biblical figure Job. According to the Hebrew Bible, Job was among the wealthiest men in the kingdom

And owned enormous herds of cattle, sheep, and camels. He was also among the most righteous, making sacrifices to the Almighty God to atone for his transgressions and the sins of his family. BARRY H. DOWNING: In the story of Job, Satan as part of the heavenly council of angels

And the council meets and God is at the council meeting and basically he and Satan have a discussion. WILLIAM FULCO: And God says, you know, look at Job. He’s very faithful. And Satan, in charge of quality control, and says, well, of course, you know. You give him everything. What do you expect?

KATHLEEN MCGOWAN: And Satan actually challenges God and says if Job were tempted, if he no longer had all of these wonderful things that God had given to him, what happens to him then? Satan convinces God the Job should be tested to see if he is really all that good.

And this is where Satan becomes the first adversary, the first tester of humans. JONATHAN YOUNG: So it’s interesting in this story, Satan is actually working with God as a kind of member of his staff or his heavenly council. WILLIAM HENRY: The divine council of God is very interesting because we learn

That it is composed of various angelic beings including Satan. And the idea is that these are advanced beings who carry out God’s orders and God’s wishes from the commands of this council. It really seems like we’re seeing some kind of divine bureaucracy, something like you would see in a corporate

Or a governmental bureaucracy. NARRATOR: Could our notion of Satan as an evil force be incorrect? Ancient astronaut theorists believe there is much more to this story and that the answer may be found not only in the pages of the Hebrew Bible but on ancient scrolls, scrolls whose origins date back thousands of years.

Qumran, the West Bank. Here during a series of excavations beginning in 1949, archaeologists unearth hundreds of ancient scrolls. They are believed to have been written by a Hebrew sect known as the Essenes more than 2,000 years ago. Several of the scrolls contained fragments of what has become known as the Book of Enoch

And the account of a rebellion launched by a group of angels called the Watchers. One of the most famous parts of the Book of Enoch is the story of the Watchers. This is a story about 200 angels that were charged with watching over mankind in its early stages and basically taking care

Of us, looking out for us. The Watchers are a group of angels who were dispatched to watch humans and to help humans. Now the Watchers are very interesting because they are angels who interact with humans. ADAM BLAI: There’s a brief reference to this in Genesis,

But the Book of Enoch essentially expands that story and tells a more full story. This was taken out of the canon of the Bible early in the church’s life, but it was in for a period of time. KATHLEEN MCGOWAN: Once the Watchers begin to interact with humans, they become infatuated

With this new species, and they become lustful of this new species. And all of the sudden, the original idea, the original commands that they were given seem a lot less interesting to them. ADAM BLAI: They came to a point where they wanted to take wives and have children, and so they decided

To rebel, create bodies, marry, and bear children. NARRATOR: According to the Book of Enoch, the leader of this rebellion is a watcher known as Samyaza or Sataneal. Could this be the same character we know as Satan? So what we’re seeing in the story of Samyaza

And the Watchers is very similar to the story of Lucifer in charge of the angels. In both cases, we are confronted with a hierarchy of a species which is between us and God, the leader of which disagrees with God and basically wants to live amongst mankind.

When you look at a different versions of the Book of Enoch, the one thing that combines all of them is that they talk about the Watchers, the Watchers from heaven, and they are the ones who gave knowledge. And when I look at terms such as Watchers from heaven,

Then personally I interpret them as possible extraterrestrials. NARRATOR: Do the ancient accounts of Samyaza’s revolt and Lucifer’s fall suggest that Satan’s efforts to corrupt mankind in the Garden of Eden were actually an attempt to give man forbidden knowledge? And might these legends be based not on myth

But on actual historical events, events involving extraterrestrial visitors? Ancient astronaut theorists say yes and believe that close examination of the Book of Enoch may point to physical evidence of where Satan’s so-called rebellion against God may have actually occurred. Mount Hermon, Lebanon. Straddling the border of Syria, this legendary mountain

As described in the Book of Enoch is the peak where Samyaza and the Watchers descended to Earth. ADAM BLAI: In the Book of Enoch, there’s a reference to Mount Hermon. We see the angels basically descending to Mount Hermon. So Mount Hermon was both a place of connection with heaven

And kind of sally port between Earth and heaven. The Watchers being angels from heaven knew the sciences of heaven. Samyaza was basically an expert in enchantment and lute cutting. You could think of it as basically witchcraft, the casting of spells, creating magic, and using roots to create potions.

The Book of Enoch lists very specifically the subjects that are taught to humans by the Watchers, by these angels, who begin to share their wisdom with them. NARRATOR: The Book of Enoch describes Mount Hermon as the place where Samyaza taught humans about magic and medicine.

Other powerful angels passed on knowledge of metallurgy, weapons, astrology, science, and even warfare. SCOTT ROBERTS: The Watchers delivered to humanity the forbidden knowledge of God. All the stories in ancient cultures cross-cultural had these tales of beings that would deliver the forbidden knowledge of the gods to humans,

And they were all condemned for it. KATHLEEN MCGOWAN: The Watchers through Samyaza give us extraordinary tools which make our lives much, much better on Earth. So is Samyaza really a bad guy, or did he in fact liberate humans from ignorance? And if Samyaza actually is the forerunner of Satan,

Has Satan actually been misrepresented all of these years? NARRATOR: Is it possible that Samyaza and the other Watchers were extraterrestrial beings that gave humanity the foundations for civilization? Then if so, how did Satan come to be so misunderstood and misinterpreted by history? PHILIP COPPENS: If we equal Samyaza and Satan, what we’re

Confronted with here is a larger framework which basically tells us that Samyaza, Satan we’re here to civilize us. The Watchers were civilizing deities. They basically helped us to develop our skills of civilization. And so what we are confronted with here is basically the conclusion that civilization

The way we know it is not something divine but is literally satanic. It was Satan who gave us the tools of civilization. NARRATOR: Was Satan really a civilizing force for early humans as some ancient astronaut theorists believe? And if so, might further evidence be found by examining other ancient myths and legends?

In ancient Sumeria, you have these very curious stories of the Annunaki. The Annunaki where half god, half man who came down from the stars. They were instructing the Sumerians in various arts of civilization. They were very strange looking. They had elongated heads. They looked almost like insect-type people

Or what they call reptilian features in a sense or a viper visage as the Watchers were called in the Bible. In global cultures, we find constant references to these giant celestial beings coming to Earth and initiating or instructing humankind. Satan himself is considered to be a Seraphim, which means

Winged serpents or fiery serpents, but yet the word Seraphim contains the word ser meaning serpent and raphim them meaning giant. NARRATOR: Was the character we know is Satan really an extraterrestrial being, one who broke with his own species in order to live among our distant ancestors?

Did he, along with other so-called fallen angels, actually break with God not out of spite or arrogance but instead to help mankind? Perhaps further clues can be found in legends of a flying serpent and in the story of a titan who is savagely punished for all eternity. The Yucatan Peninsula.

Here in the jungles of Southern Mexico lie the ruins of the great Mayan city Chichen Itza. Constructed more than 1,000 years ago, Chichen Itza was one of the largest and most powerful cities in the Mayan world. And dominating the site is the Great Pyramid El Castillo.

A temple built to honor the Mayan serpent god Kukulkan. WILLIAM HENRY: Kukulkan is a name for Satan or for the winged serpent. He’s always portrayed as a wisdom burying being who delivers this cosmic knowledge to humankind. Often we’ll see Kukulkan portrayed

As half human or half serpent or as a human being coming out of the mouth of a serpent. This is how Christianity will traditionally portray Satan as a dragon figure or a serpentine like being. The question is why is he depicted as such,

And I think we really can find out that Kukulkan is not unique in this sense. NARRATOR: One of the most powerful gods in the Mayan pantheon, Kukulkan was believed to have descended from the stars. He is also credited with teaching astronomy, mathematics, and agriculture to mankind.

WILLIAM HENRY: This is identical to the Christian tradition of Satan being the serpent of the tree of knowledge delivering the forbidden wisdom to humanity. In the Book of Enoch, we learn of the Watchers who are described as having visage as of vipers or the face of a serpent and delivering

This powerful knowledge to humankind. So it’s possible that what we’re seeing in all of these instances is the same figure or representative of the same tribe of angels, the satanic beings or these serpentine like angel beings. NARRATOR: Are the stories of Satan and Kukulkan

Really based on the same being as many ancient astronaut theorists believe? And if so, might this same character also be found in the myths and legends of other ancient cultures. PHILIP COPPENS: Satan is a creature who comes out of nowhere to live amongst mankind

And teaches is not something which is limited to the Bible. We find it in most traditions across the world. NARRATOR: According to the legends of ancient Greece, the titan known as Prometheus sinned against the gods by stealing the secret of fire and giving it to man. For his transgression, he was doomed

To suffer a gruesome eternal punishment by being chained to a rock and having an eagle eat his liver only to have the organ grow back each night so that the eagle could continue to feast on it the next day. RICHARD RADER: He’s a God that becomes associated with humans

Because he is a champion for humans. Right and the mythological stories talk about how Prometheus is basically like they’re representative. NARRATOR: Another such deity was the god Viracocha. Worshipped by the ancient Inca in the Andes of South America, Viracocha was a powerful creator god who came to Earth to pass on celestial knowledge.

Like Prometheus, this Incan god was described as a bringer of light and is depicted in ancient Incan sculpture as holding two lightning bolts and wearing the sun as a crown. WILLIAM HENRY: The Inca describe a luminous being called Viracoco or Viracocha who brought knowledge of medicine, astronomy, and other advanced sciences.

It’s possible that Viracocha is the same as Samyaza or Satan as a figure bringing this liberating wisdom to humankind that seeks to bring us along the path of advancement and enlightenment. So you have to ask yourself why would such diverse cultures have such similar mythologies. PHILIP COPPENS: In the case of Viracocha,

What we see is a deity which manifests itself from Earth, lives amongst mankind, gives us sciences, and after a number of years, disappears again. NARRATOR: The ancient Egyptians had cults that worship the god Set, a divine being who like Satan ruled over darkness and chaos. PHILIP COPPENS: The tradition traditional civilizing deities

Who go around civilizing, educating us is something which we find in all traditions whether they are the great cultures of Egypt, Inca, or the Mayan empires, or smaller cultures elsewhere in the universe. And so what we’re finding is that the story of Satan has a civilizing deity is definitely not unique

But sits within a clear framework across the entire world. And it shows you that the importance of Satan is not just something limited to the Bible but really tells us an awful lot about civilization as a whole. NARRATOR: Could it be that these ancient myths were actually

Describing the same creature, the fallen angel we now refer to as Satan? But how then did a creature who is so often credited with bringing mankind knowledge and enlightenment become thought of as the personification of all things evil. ERICH VON DANIKEN: The word Lucifer comes from Latin, makes looks fiery, making light.

It’s the same as in the Greek mythology from Matthaios, who stored the light from the gods. It’s really a sympathic idea that all these figures are finally just one figure in different languages but they were all sympathetic to the humans. It is quite possible that our religious traditions and those

Who selected the old holy texts some thousands of years ago, they made out an evil figure out of Lucifer and the devil. And maybe it was the other way around. He was the good one. PHILIP COPPENS: When we’re looking at something like Satan, we’re not necessarily

Talking about morality, but we’re actually exploring things about our ancestors. We’re exploring mythology. We’re exploring accounts of our ancestors saying that they developed civilization not on their own but with the help of non-human intelligences. And in the case of one such story, we see that that intelligence is Satan.

DAVID CHILDRESS: In many ways, Satan may well be a person, a god, an angel, an ET who’s maligned in a sense. Lucifer is Prometheus. He’s the light bringer. He’s the god of hard work. He’s the one who brings us fire. He’s the one who gives us the opportunity to do things ourselves.

NARRATOR: If the biblical character of Satan is really based on an extraterrestrial being, one who stole technology from his masters in order to benefit early man, then why is he now reviled as a creature of consummate evil? Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answer may lie not in ancient scriptures

But in numerous accounts of demonic possession. Klingenberg, Germany, located 32 miles southeast of Frankfurt. This small city is home to one of the most famous and frightening cases of demonic possession ever recorded. In September 1973, a young woman named Anneliese Michel began hearing voices that told her she was damned

And would rot in hell. When medical treatments failed, she sought the help of an exorcist. [speaking german] Demonic possession is perhaps the most frightening and visceral of all phenomena associated with Satan. According to Christian tradition, possession occurs when a demon enters the body, corrupting a person’s physical and spiritual being.

The belief in demonic possession is widespread. It seems to show up pretty much all over the planet. It was believed to be the presence of a satanic energy, truly dark, terrible evil that could take over a person, take over their body, take over their mind.

And they would be acting with no free will. They would be a complete slave to the power of the dark side. ADAM BLAI: Demons manifest on Earth to interact with people to afflict us and tempt us in various ways. The oppression involves physically wounding us attacking us, causing effects

On our body and our mind. Possession is when we surrender our lower faculties to them and they take over our body and use it as their own. And in rare cases, they can appear visibly to multiple people as supposed human spirits. NARRATOR: Most Christians believe

Demons are evil incarnations of the other angels who followed Lucifer in his rebellion against the Almighty God. They bear names like Beelzebub, Asmodeus, Moloch, and Mammon and are dedicated to corrupting the souls of mankind. Biblically speaking, the demonic comes from the fallen angels, those who fell with Lucifer during the great wars

In heaven. And their purpose is to deceive humanity, to lead them astray, to distract them from God, and there are many castes. They range from your basic thugs in the bottom all the way up to your, if you will, your intelligentsia that is governing behind the scenes of the affairs of mankind.

ADAM BLAI: It is essentially you can imagine a military structure with generals, officers, privates. There’s basically nine levels which are fallen angels of various ranks serving under each other, ultimately serving Satan. NARRATOR: In many religious traditions, there are sacred rites to exorcise these demons from the bodies of the afflicted.

Let her go. Let her go. I come against you again, Satan, by the blood of Christ. NARRATOR: The Reverend Bob Larson is an evangelical minister, an exorcist, who says he has come face to face with the demonic and the truly satanic. The blood of Christ, I torment you, Satan.

You can’t have her. She belongs to God. Torment you. I torment you by the blood of Christ. Torment you! I’m here to be an instrument of God to cast out the devil, to free human souls. It’s not my power that does it. It’s God’s power. I’m simply the instrument that he uses.

But my mission is to get every demon possible out of every possible human being and send them straight to hell. How long have you had her? Get me some oil please. I anoint you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. How long have you had this woman?

How many generations? How many generations? The demon is metaphysical. It is invisible. It’s spirit. Doesn’t have a physical body so a demon can’t really do anything evil. A demon can’t start a war, can’t pull the trigger of a gun, can’t rape anybody. A demon needs a body to accomplish its evil purposes.

So demons are looking to inhabit human souls so that through the physicality of human beings, they can bring about their plan of death and destruction. NARRATOR: According to Larson and other Christian theologians, demonic forces have always been present on Earth, and demons are continually traveling to Earth to sow the seeds of ruin.

But where exactly are they coming from? Is it hell or perhaps someplace else? BOB LARSON: Both the Jewish and Christian scriptures as well as other religious books that delve into the subject of demonism never fully describe the nature of their existence, where they operate.

It seems to be in a kind of parallel reality, another dimension, out of our time, space continuum. They’re there. We’re here. Einstein opened a little bit of a door into the possibility of other realms. We are getting a small glimpse of the reality that exists beyond our understanding.

We just need to know there’s another realm out there, and when I do an exorcism, I step in and out of those realms. I’m in the physical natural realm, but I’m also invading the realm in which demons operate. So I step from the physical into the metaphysical.

I don’t have to understand what’s going on there. I’m on a simple mission, not to find out everything I can about that world but to get the demon out of the human soul. NARRATOR: Might devils and demons really be beings from another realm?

And might that realm not be hell but an actual extraterrestrial world? And are they really malevolent? Or might they have another perhaps even more profound agenda? Ancient astronaut theorists believe the answers may be found in the mysterious prophecies of the Book of Revelation. Megiddo, Israel. Located 11 miles from Nazareth, this ancient city

Is mentioned more than a dozen times in the Bible, most prominently in the prophetic Book of Revelation. According to the religious text, it is outside this city on the so-called plains of Megiddo where the forces of the Almighty God will wage a final battle against Satan and the forces of evil.

The Book of Revelation is certainly one of the most complicated books in the Bible, and it belongs to a separate set of material that’s called apocalyptic. It is a book that gives visions of the future to come. BRETT PETERSON: There’s a battle that will take place

In a valley in Israel called Megiddo or Har Megiddo, thus Armageddon we get the term. Satan himself will gather the armies of the world to Megiddo to fight Jesus Christ. Satan takes on a more physical appearance, uses various technologies to enslave more and more of mankind.

Ultimately, he becomes a geopolitical force, basically essentially a dictator of the entire world. NARRATOR: The Book of Revelation further describes that this battle will be fought in heaven and on Earth. Angels will descend from the sky. Demons will spread out across the land to destroy with fiery swords.

And the Almighty God will reign destruction down upon Earth. KATHLEEN MCGOWAN: The Book of the Revelation is really a pretty terrifying document if we’re to look at it and think that these things could happen literally. I mean, when you look at what’s happening in the book, we have cataclysms on the Earth.

We have earthquakes. We have fire raining from the sky. We have angels doing battle in heaven. And then repeatedly we have Satan coming back. NARRATOR: But could it be that this biblical prophecy isn’t a doomsday prediction of cataclysm and war but it has another even more profound interpretation?

The Book of Revelation gives us some of the clearest depictions of what not a few moderns would call extraterrestrial activity. Think about it. We have supernatural beings flying through the cosmos blowing trumpets, casting fire upon the Earth. We have great conflict between light and darkness, good and evil.

There’s a cosmic dualism going on here that involves in the end the reassertion of divine authority over those wayward angels who had gone astray so long ago. NARRATOR: Extraterrestrial combat? Could the Bible’s Book of Revelation really be referring to a galactic war, one waged over the ultimate fate of mankind?

If so, who or what is Satan? Is he a demon, the devil, the personification of evil? Or was he, in fact, a benevolent extraterrestrial being, one who stole technology from alien beings in an effort to lead early man out of darkness and ignorance?

If so, then why did Satan become a force for evil? Does he seek to punish mankind for siding with our creator against him? Perhaps he is testing us, using alien technology to modify human behavior in ways we have yet to understand. He’s this idea of an adversary, this idea of a liar

Or a tester combined with this concept of Lucifer, the fallen angel, combined with this leader of the Watchers who also leads rebellion. I think that ultimately what we find is that Lucifer is a conflation, a character who is a composite of all of these different ideas and different characters.

It’s important for us to remember that Satan is part of the class of angels called Seraphim. The Seraphim were sent to Earth as benefactors of humankind bringing wisdom. The church has created this evil monster out of Satan, perhaps even out of thin air, when in reality Satan’s entire mission

Was about bringing knowledge and wisdom to humanity and, in fact, caring about humanity, not seeking to destroy humankind. DAVID CHILDRESS: In a sense, Satan’s not such a bad guy. You cannot have the light without the dark. You can’t have right without wrong. And we have to learn these things for ourselves.

And ultimately through choice, wrong and right, we grow, and we become who we are. And ultimately that is to be like our makers to become gods ourselves. NARRATOR: Might Satan’s reputation as the personification of evil really have been his punishment for giving mankind scientific knowledge? If so, might his evil acts really

Be expressions of revenge against the human creatures that abandoned him? Or are the evil deeds associated with Satan really a part of a grand plan, a series of moral challenges intended to prepare us for our next and perhaps final close encounter?

#Ancient #Aliens #Satan #Conspiracy #Full #Episode

2. The Resurrection of Jesus (The Historical Evidence)



As we said in the introduction the resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of Christianity without it all of Christianity is a lie in a false religion but unlike most miracle claims Christians claim there is good historical evidence for the resurrection so what is this evidence and how can we

Use it we already went over the basic underlying philosophy in the introduction and pointed out that we already gave natural theology arguments for God’s existence argued the New Testament documents are reliable and established miracles are not impossible however as we noted in the introduction we will not assume the New Testament

Documents are inspired or even accurate in every detail instead we will only argue from facts that are agreed upon by the majority of New Testament scholars and have good evidence to infer they are true this means even if the rest of the New Testament is a fabrication it will

Not show these facts are false since even many skeptical scholars doubt the historicity of the entire New Testament but at least agree these facts are true so now with this as our underlying foundation we can begin to look at the historical evidence and see if it infers a resurrection first two underlying

Facts about the death of Jesus it is almost unanimously agreed that Jesus died by crucifixion just outside of Jerusalem sceptical scholar John Dominic Crossan says this is as sure as anything historical can ever be sceptical scholar EP Sanders lists this as one of the most indisputable facts about Jesus’s life so

There is no question for historians whether or not Jesus died by crucifixion second it is widely agreed that Jesus was buried in nearby tomb the evidence for this is pretty overwhelming we have multiple attestation from early sources like Paul and mark and Josephus agrees crucified victims were allowed to receive a proper burial

Jewish law demanded that even foreigners and criminals had to be buried we have archaeological evidence for this as well the burial count of Jesus also meets the criteria of embarrassment since they had to admit they could not afford their own tomb to bury Jesus but had to you

Kim of a member of the court who had just executed him there are just too many facts would support the burial of Jesus only a few skeptical scholars in the Jesus Seminar deny this but the majority does not and we’ll come back to this later and discuss it more but both

Of these facts could still be true and Jesus would still be dead in the grave the real question is what happened next what caused the events which followed and led to the rise of Christianity from a small backwater province in Rome there have been a wide variety of theories

That have been proposed in order to explain what took place three days after Jesus was buried and this video will cover the four most popular in general theories to see which best fits the data the first theory is the mythic theory this is probably the most popular among

Laymen sceptics it argues that all the events in miracle claims of Jesus were made up at a later time and were not made up by early eyewitnesses the disciples never claimed Jesus rose from the dead and was only made up by later Christians the second is like the mythic

Theory but it is called the conspiracy theory historical evidence that justices probably the earliest competing theory offered to challenge the resurrection account it says that the disciples made up the story of Jesus rising from the dead and simply lied about it all for their own gain third we’ll look at the hallucination

Theory which comes in many variations and it’s probably the most popular among skeptical New Testament scholars it basically says that after Jesus died the disciples were grief-stricken and had hallucinations or visions that Jesus had arisen from the dead and that propelled them to think he was alive again and

Finally we’ll compare these two the resurrection theory which is that Jesus actually did rise from the dead and the disciples believed it because they witnessed it so let’s look at the facts and see if any of these theories can fully explain the data the first piece is something that is accepted by almost

Unanimous scholarship which is that after Jesus died his disciples said he appeared to them again alive there is not a lot of doubt among scholars that the disciples believed this had happened Bart Ehrman says I don’t doubt at all that some disciples claimed this Paul writing about 25 years later indicates

That this is what they claimed and I don’t think he is making it up EP sander says it is an equally secure fact that Jesus disciples saw him in what sense is not certain after his death thereafter his followers saw him the reason for this is because it has multiple attestation in various

Sources including Josephus and there is no way to explain the rise of Christianity if this did not happen something had to happen which compelled the disciples to begin the world’s largest religion with seemingly nothing well people claim may see all sorts of things so why should we take the claims

Of the disciples seriously how do we know their testimony is reliable and they were not simply making the appearances up well in our previous series we’ve already established a new Testament it’s very early and reliable in what it reports so there is plenty of evidence their testimony is reliable but

Putting that aside we should at least evaluate when eyewitness testimony is unreliable for instance when events happen quickly or over a period of a few seconds it is hard to retain memory of an event or when people go out looking for what they want to find people that are desperately

Desiring to find Bigfoot will sometimes fool themselves into thinking they found something or when the participants are all strangers like during a bank robbery it is hard to retain memory when you were around unfamiliar people and last it is hard to retain memory if there was a weapon involved for the simple reason

That everyone is focused on the weapon and not anything else however if we examine the resurrection reports none of these seem to be a factor there is certainly not a weapon involved and it is not with strangers the disciples are familiar with each other and who they are witnessing they believe had risen

The disciples were also not expecting Jesus to rise from the dead all the accounts embarrassingly report that the disciples had misunderstood the Scriptures in what Jesus had claimed and they did not expect him to come back and the reports do not seem to happen quickly but over a period of time where

Jesus would eat and drink with him and engage in conversations or give them instructions even if you could write off the Gospels and acts as later myths we still have preserved for us early creeds and oral sermons handed down which report these as well so the reports on the surface level do

Not match circumstances that create unreliable testimony as EP Sanders admits they definitely experienced something which doesn’t bode well for the conspiracy theory so what if these accounts which is made up at a later date well this seems to be rejected by most scholars since Paul preserved for

Us an early Creed in first Corinthians 15 which is a list of witnesses that Jesus was said to have appeared to they include Peter the rest of the disciples a group of five hundred at once then James and then all the Apostles most scholars believe this list of witnesses

In the Creed goes back to within three years of Pentecost the reasons for this are simply overwhelming it is formed in a mnemonic structure and with parallelism and it is less than fifty words and all this seems to meaning was an early Creed for katha sizing new Christians it was something easy to

Learn and memorize Paul also says of the Corinthians I delivered to you when I received this is a rabbinic statement for a teacher passing on something to his students so it had to have come from the disciples themselves very early on before they could teach it to Paul the

Creed also calls Peter Cephas and not by his name Peter Cephas was an early name for him only later on was he called Peter and it has an independent tradition that is not contingent on the Gospels such as the appearance to James in the independent appearance to Peter Geritol Collins says

That he doesn’t know of any New Testament scholar who dates the Creed after the mid 40s so all the evidence suggested is very early and this means the reports of appearances are very early on as well that rules out the mythic theory what about the hallucination theory well the problem is

The appearances happen in group settings even in the early Crete and group hallucinations are exceptionally rare and because of this there was not a lot of scientific literature to explain them in a private email with scholar Michael Kona psychologist dr. Gary sabzi says I have surveyed the professional literature peer-reviewed journal

Articles and books written by psychologists psychiatrists and other relevant health care professionals during the past two decades and have yet to find a single documented case of a group hallucination an event for which there is more than one person purportedly sharing in a vision or other sensory perceptions

Where there was clearly no referent so there is not a lot of scientific evidence group hallucinations can happen peer-reviewed work on hallucinations also reports that they most often manifests in one sensory mode such as auditory or visual and then multimode hallucinations are exceptionally rare yet the appearances of Jesus contain at

Least both of these elements making the hallucination theory exceptionally improbable for an elucidation to explain the appearances you would have to say that the disciples are all each having a rare multi-mode hallucination that they are all agreeing Jesus is doing certain things like eating and drinking and giving them the exact same instructions

And this would need to have happened multiple times not just once even if you could write off the Gospels and acts as later myths we still have the early Creed preserved in 1st Corinthians 15 in other early sermons preserved in acts which report that Jesus ate and drank

With the disciples CH Dodd notes the speeches and acts seem very early because they lack influence from Pauline theology or vocabulary they contain a high degree of Semitism meaning they were likely originally Aramaic and they lack resemblance to the original written elements of Acts and Luke meaning they

Likely predate acts and seemed to be very early Aramaic speeches so the reports are very early and appear in group settings multi-sensory and over a period of time in hallucinations with these elements are so improvable it would have to be a miracle to cause one let alone several but what about the

Power of suggestion sometimes one person can cause others around them to he’ll loosen eight the same thing through the power of suggestion such as people in a lifeboat where one thinks they see a ship in the distance and they all think they see the same ship in anomalistic psychology a study of extraordinary

Phenomenon behavior and experience authors Lucy and Jones are at some of the very little literature on group hallucinations and theorize that if there is an expectation emotional excitement and people having been informed beforehand that a group hallucination may be possible it is also believed they will vary in what is

There’s a and Jones site an event from 1917 where 70,000 people said they witnessed a public miracle however the reports varied although the children reportedly saw the Virgin the crowd at least many of them witnessed a color phenomenon in which the son in the shape of a fiery disc

Began to move and approached the earth however Zeus nee and Jones also had to conclude with the final answer to these questions has yet to be obtained so they still maintain a scientific explanation has yet to explain collective hallucinations however even if they could it is interesting how their

Criteria doesn’t fit the resurrection appearances expectation and excitement were definitely not present the narratives embarrassingly portray the disciples as cowardly running for their lives after Jesus was crucified they even doubted the report of the women and when they first saw Jesus they were frightened which shows they were not

Excited and didn’t understand what was going on second it is interesting that if the appearances of Jesus were hallucinations then they do not for the criteria of varying drastically between reports all report a bodily resurrection of Jesus where he looks sort of like himself but also slightly different and

His body has new powers that do not have before as William Lane Craig says the fact remains that there is not a single instance in the case books exhibiting the diversity involved and the post-mortem appearances of Jesus but the biggest problem with the hallucination theory is this even if you discount the

Gospels is unreliable one still is to account for the early Christians preaching bodily resurrection and not a spiritual appearance the first Christians were very familiar with visions and claim to actually have some in acts 12 when the servant girl finds Peter at the gate she runs a tell

Everyone and they tell her the appearance she had with just an angel so the Christians firmly understood what visions and spiritual experiences were yet they never interpreted the appearances of Christ as just spiritual visions they firmly believed it was a bodily appearance and that is what they preached from the beginning as even

Sceptical scholar curlew Daman agrees so since the appearances were in group settings multi-sensory do not vary or were interpreted to be spiritual but always physical there was no expectation or excitement for them the hallucination theory cannot account for these appearances so what about the conspiracy theory well despite the early facts we

Mentioned about how the resurrection appearances do not match factors that make testimony unreliable it would be hard to explain how the Christians could hold together such a radical conspiracy with over 500 people involved before Christ was crucified they couldn’t even keep Judas from betraying them however

If all we have to go on is the appearances themselves and no other piece of data we have to accept that this theory could at least tentatively account for the reports of appearances even though it seems like a stretch so I don’t see any reason why the conspiracy

Theory could not account for this piece of data if especially there was no more data to go over finally the resurrection theory can account for this since if Jesus did rise from the dead reporting his physical appearance makes perfect sense the next piece of data is appearances to skeptics it is almost

Unanimously accepted that James and the brothers of Jesus were not his followers during his crucifixion it is also unanimously accepted that Paul was an enemy of the church originally in a later convert the reason for this is Paul admits it himself and cites an early Creed in Galatians 1 22

To 23 he who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy if we add the account and acts we have multiple attestation and it meets the criteria of embarrassment since Paul reports it himself that he was once the enemy and was in the wrong

The same goes for the conversion of James it is clear in the early material Paul the leader of the Jerusalem church was none other than James the brother of Jesus however all the evidence suggests that James did not believe his brother was the Christ during jesus’s ministry the Gospels embarrassingly report that

The Brothers of Jesus were skeptical of him no early Christian would dare attack a prominent leader in the church by claiming he was once jesus’s enemy James was also not listed as one present at the cross and Jesus surrendered his mother over to the Beloved Disciple

But why not his own brothers if they were in the Christian ranks this is why most scholars accept James and his brothers or early skeptics and only converted after the crucifixion so what happened that turned these enemies into believers well the mythic theory is a hard time explaining this since Paul was very

Early on writing and quoting a Creed about his own conversion also mentioning the changes in early skeptic would not have been made up as no Christian would dare to dishonor shame her lie about one of their own leaders in such a terrible way so this fact would not have been

Made up later on yet it is clear James was the early leader of the Jerusalem church as Paul and Josephus record could James and Paul of lied the question must be asked why on earth would they have done that the early church was a small persecuted and

Hated minority with a messiah who is just shamefully crucified as a criminal it was too poor to even afford their own tomb Jesus had dishonored the family and James has already opposed to him why would James suddenly feel the need to make up an appearance of Jesus’s resurrection if there was nothing to

Gain and only shame and dishonor to suddenly reverse but claim his brother was Lord after he had already mocked him openly to do such a thing would make no sense Paul also had no reason to try this he was at the top of his game a prominent leader on the rise and making

A name for himself while he persecuted the church he had everything going for him and suddenly he has an urge to leave all that and join the persecuted minority he had already hated such a sudden conversion he knew to be a lie would take a miracle in itself of nothing else

So what have they both hallucinating well adding more hallucinations to this theory begins to multiply its assumptions and causes it to lack parsimony it is even harder to explain since neither them were grieving that Jesus had died especially Paul who hated the church James may have been in grief

For his brother but he didn’t believe he was the Lord and would never have expected or even considered a physical resurrection says a dying rising Messiah was not part of second temple Judaism beliefs as scholar Michael ocona says James and his brothers would have regarded their dead brother as a heretic

Rather than rushed to Jerusalem and be caught up in the group ecstasy it seems more likely that Jesus’s execution as a criminal on a blasphemer would have supported their continual unbelief rather their conversion the plausibility of Paul having hallucination is even far lower than James since hallucinations usually happened for people who are

Expecting them and grieving over the death of the loved one neither of these would have been the case for Paul nor would a mere vision have caused his sudden conversion as we said earlier the early church knew what visions were and if Paul simply had a

Dream he would have called it a dream and moved on a hallucination would be very improbable as the cause of Paul’s sudden conversion however the Christian theory can easily explain the conversion and appearance to skeptics if Jesus really did rise and appear to them that would be enough to

Cause their miraculous conversion now we have surveyed the appearances but that is only half the battle since we cannot interview them personally today or perform a psychoanalysis but what we can do is look at the surrounding facts that accompany these appearances for us today and see which theory is the most

Plausible for them so now it’s time to fill in the gaps first up the expectation of the gospel to the surrounding world the message of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins may sound loving and warm to us but to the ancient world a culture that thrived

On honor and status such a message would be nothing but disgusting and horrendous Walter bear said the enemies of Christianity always refer to this gracefulness of the death of Jesus with great emphasis and malicious pleasure a God or son of God dying on a cross that

Was enough to put paid to the new religion david de silva knows the same thing in his work christianity was founded on a premise that should have failed from the moment it began the christians preach to the Gentiles to worship a man that was shamefully executed on the cross not only that but

A Jew of all people who the Romans looked down upon but even more than that a Jew who was a carpenter which it was also a position that was looked down upon Cicero said that such an occupation was vulgar and compared to slavery on top of that they preach physical

Resurrection to the Roman world which was detested by most pagans who thought the purpose of death was to escape the evil material universe and make it to the spiritual realm yet the Christians taught the Jewish idea that heaven would be the restoration in eternal Kingdom on earth which was not something

Pagans hoped for but even more the Christians place ethical demands on the new converts that would have shocked most pagans no temple prostitution or even extramarital affairs morality was radically challenged by the Christians that flew in the face of most pagans as they Sylvan knows the message about this

Christ was incompatible with the most deeply rooted religious ideology of the Gentile world as well as with the most recent message propagated in the Roman Imperial ideology this is seen in how the Christian opponents like Kelsey’s attacked Christianity he attacked Christians for worshipping a God who

Could not beat the Romans or even escape from the cross Justin Martyr had to respond to these attacks because pagans were calling the Christians mad for putting a crucified man next to the eternal God the Jews also thought the message of Christ was embarrassing they’re supposed Messiah was shamefully

Crucified and murdered by the Roman enemy the Messiah was expected to be a conqueror who would defeat Rome and restore the Kingdom of Israel Jesus was shamed and disgraced to follow him was to give up on the Jewish idealization of a conquering Messiah and a restored Israel on top of that Jesus

Was from Galilee and Nazareth of all places areas were looked down upon by the Jews his father was not known to them so he had a shady family history which the Jews were not keen to forget everything the Christian stood for was working against them they had better

Have good evidence and truly thought Jesus had been raised because the odds were completely against them on every front as NT Wright says Christianity was born into a world where its central claim was known to be false this being so knowing the expectation the gospel would have no group of conspirators

Would ever have made it their core doctrine if you’re going to make up a message the gain of following you want to make up something that is appealing and will work to your advantage not something that was expected to fail so the conspiracy theory could not explain

Why the Christians would make up such a story neither can the hallucination theory as we said before the crucifixion of Jesus is almost unanimously accepted by scholars as well as the fact that Jesus did it advocate lie ethical loads so unless the entire population of Jerusalem hallucinating Jesus’s crucifixion and message this

Would not be something that Christians were fallen to believing hallucinations also usually happen to grieving people as a psychological way to comfort themselves you would not hallucinate things to believe that would cause you more trouble and grief so the hallucination theory cannot explain what the disciples would preach

An utterly embarrassing message in a way to win converts and again as we’ve already noted the disciples and early church knew what visions were yet they preached the physical resurrection as part of the gospel not a spiritual vindication it would have been easier for their Gentile audience and even

Jewish audience who didn’t expect a resurrection to happen until the end of time to preach a spiritual assumption over a physical return and transformation hallucinations would have inferred this not a reanimation of the body since we know crucifixion was preached early the mythic Theory cannot explain

This either it would also fail for the same reasons the conspiracy theory does but all this fits perfectly with the resurrection theory this is what was preached by Christians because this is how it happened and they preached this embarrassing message because it was true the next factor look at is the low

Status of women in the ancient world it is unanimously accepted that in the ancient world the testimony of women was not to be trusted but let not the testimony of women be admitted on account of the levity and boldness of their sex any evidence which a woman

Gives is not valid to offer let the words of the law be burned rather than given to women there is a whole host of other sources we could look at which shows women were believed to be less trustworthy than men the ancient world was very clear the testimony of women

Was not to be trusted now take that and marvel at the fact that in the Gospels the women are the first and primary witnesses to the empty tomb this fact was utterly embarrassing for the early church first they admit they didn’t even trust the testimony of the women then

All the early sermons found in acts and the epistles always skip over the fact of the women were the first to discover the tomb that doesn’t contradict the Gospels but they tend to stay on this matter in order to make their early case because women were not deemed

To be credible witnesses yet when they write down the accounts of how it happened they cannot leave this fact out because they played such a key role discovering the empty tomb this is a serious claim because as Richard baulkham says in these stories women are given priority by God as recipients of

Revelation and thereby the role of mediators of that revelation to men the Gospels claimed the women were an intricate part of the revelation of God and the first key eyewitnesses to the resurrection thereby making their testimony necessary and telling how the empty tomb was found for an ancient

Writer this was not something you would ever make up Cal says even uses to try to discredit Christianity who claimed the entire argument for the empty tomb rested on the testimony of women NT Wright says as historians we are obliged to comment that if these stories have

Been made up five years later let alone thirty forty or fifty years later they would never have had Mary Magdalene in this role put Mary there is from the point of view of Christian apologists wanting to explain to a skeptical audience that Jesus really did rise from

The dead like shooting themselves in the foot but to us as historians this kind of thing is gold dust the early Christians would never never have made this up so the mythic theory or the conspiracy theory lacks any explanatory power with this one as Michael okona says even if the disciples

Had fled Jerusalem Joseph of Arimathea or Nicodemus may have been better candidates than women for discovering the empty tomb what about the hallucination theory it is difficult to say if the hallucination theory could fit with this one if all we have to go on is this fact I suppose you could say

Someone had a crazy dream and thought women discovered the empty tomb before anyone else but why they weren’t expecting it in multiple sources seem to agree this is how it happened plus it was such an embarrassing fact that everyone involved would have wanted to make sure it actually happened and

That it was not a dream or a subjective vision so will allow this one to pass just to be fair but there was really no reason why one would hallucinate this since it was not comforting or expected to happen but even though it lacks explanatory power will allow to tentatively pass

Until we can evaluate the evidence for the empty tomb and finally the Christian theory has no problem explaining this because the writers were reporting how it happened and of course because God is no respecter of persons and there is neither male nor female for we are all

One in Christ next fact the immediate proclamation in Jerusalem the majority of scholars could not deny that the resurrection was first preached in Jerusalem all the evidence leads to Jerusalem as being the home base and happening very early on such as the development of early Christian Creed’s and how all the sources suggest

Jerusalem is where Christianity began Tacitus mentions off the cuff that Christianity began in Judea and spread from there in one of Paul’s early epistles he mentions off the cuff that the Apostles are still preaching in Jerusalem now why does this matter well when we look at the importance of time

And when you proclaim a miracle that fact can make a serious impact as James siren said the Apostles proclaim the resurrection at Pentecost when Jerusalem expected the spread of the report and endeavored to prevent it well the eyes of their enemies were yet sparkling with rage and madness

While Calvary was yet died with the blood they had spilt there do imposters take such measures would they not have waited till the fury of the Jews had been appeased till judges and public officers had been changed until people had been less attentive to their dispositions if the evidence was not in

Their favor it would have made sense for the early church to go elsewhere as cults often do cult leaders ran up their followers and take them away from civilization or to a different area from the place where you can be disproven even with Mormonism Joseph Smith’s led his people away from New York

But the disciples walked right up to the Sanhedrin and said you crucified your Messiah and he has been raised now these people are either crazy or they are absolutely convinced they are right so the conspiracy theory has no hope of explaining this if you’re an impostor

You go off to Spain or India and proclaim your miracle not in Jerusalem where they have the evidence then motive and the means to debunk you since we know the resurrection was proclaimed early on and it was in Jerusalem it is hard to say that the mythic theory can

Explain this either this was not something we can say with developed later if the created first Corinthians 15 is roughly dated within three years of Pentecost that means there were Christians right there on Jerusalem developing this which set a foundational belief for Christians to be able to

Memorize so there is no reason to think it was developed later on or far off elsewhere so the mythic theory cannot explain this fact either but what about the hallucination theory well if all we have to go on is this fact I suppose a miraculous hallucination could convince

The disciples to preach the resurrection immediately in Jerusalem but it is still doubtful because hallucinations or visions don’t really imply a physical resurrection or do they fit with group hallucinations as we discussed earlier but it is possible if all we have is this fact alone so just in case we miss

Something we’ll allow this one to pass but the resurrection theory explains this with the most ease because if Jesus was resurrected of course the disciples had the boldness to proclaim the resurrection God would have been on their side and all the evidence would have been in their favor

Next fact the voluntary suffering of disciples and witnesses this is an important fact we cannot ignore multiple attestation from Christian and non-christian sources testifies that the early witnesses of the risen Christ were persecuted martyred for their faith Tacitus and Suetonius mention events and Josephus as well who even tells us how

James was martyred in Jerusalem first belief Jesus was the Risen Messiah Paul also admits to intense persecution early on in fact his scholars like NT right note 2nd Corinthians was written as a response to the Corinthians who asked Paul to provide some evidence of good fortune to show God was on his side

Asian people believed like some still today that if you were suffering persecution it was evidence you were being punished by God and needed to turn from your ways Paul responded with the opposite despite the cultural norms and it was meant to challenge their beliefs of how God worked a later Epistle from

Clement of rome talked of how Paul and Peter were martyred in Rome for their faith and axor course how the early witnesses were persecuted and murdered the evidence for this is multiple attested so what some people may say people die for their faith all the time why are the

Christians any different people will and have often died for things that were false but they don’t tend to die for something they know to be false we’re not talking about Christians who were martyred but the founders of Christianity who were murdered these men and women did not die just for faith but

Something they claim to have seen with their own eyes the root meaning of the word martyr is witness over time we’ve expanded the word to mean anyone who dies for their beliefs but originally they referred to someone who was a witness of an event and died for his

Truth the disciples didn’t just die for their beliefs they died for events they claimed had happened and knew very well they were true are made up fliers make lousy martyrs when you have nothing to gain it doesn’t make sense to make up or hold to a theory that is going to get

You nothing and the Apostles were not getting a whole lot out of their new religion they were constantly facing persecution from the Jews and threats of death nor do they become wealthy from what they were doing they were doing it because they were insane than one of the

Cult following they did some things that didn’t make any sense like establishing churches in other regions which it did not have total control over Paul moved from city to city raising up believers and then moving on you’re trying to establish a cult in a controlled group

Of people you do as cults do you gather your followers remove them from society where there’s a threat they’ll be pulled away by reality and you keep them very close to keep them brainwashed the Apostles didn’t do that they stayed in populated cities and left their new

Churches to go start more churches in other cities which leaves your followers vulnerable to corruption and if we read the epistles that is exactly what happened the Apostles had to revisit them and write letters to correct them constantly so it doesn’t seem like there was anything to gain from starting

Christianity unless it was an elaborate plan to be martyred so the conspiracy theory is hopeless in explaining this one the mythic theory doesn’t work either because the voluntary suffering has multiple attestation and even from secular authors and there is nothing that challenges that the disciples were

Persecuted or that many of them died for the events there port it is true if the disciples hallucinate the whole thing that it is possible they would be willing to take it to the grave but it would have to be a wild miraculous hallucination to utterly convince them of it and as we

Have seen such hallucinations are very improbable but it is slightly slightly slightly possible if the resurrection theory is true then this fact makes perfect sense the disciples were willing to suffer because Jesus was resurrected and it was better to deny men than to deny God who they witnessed with their own eyes

Final fact the existence of the empty tomb Gary Habermas has surveyed the material written by scholars on the resurrection and it’s found that 75% of them accept that tomb was found empty on Easter morning for example skeptical scholar Jacob Cramer says by far most exegetes hold firmly to the reliability of the

Biblical statements concerning the empty tomb the evidence for this is simply overwhelming however some scholars like John Dominic Crossan do not think Jesus was buried in a tomb but thrown in a trench for dogs to eat because the Romans who not have a lot of proper burial for criminals but such a theory

Flies in the face of a mountain of evidence first Dale Alison who is skeptical of physical resurrection points out the word in the cretan 1st Corinthians 15 for bury would rarely be used for dumping of criminals in a trench for dogs to eat so the earliest

Account of the burial of Jesus would be incompatible with Crossing’s argument we also have multiple attestation crucified victims were buried and two different sources say Jesus was buried we also have archaeological evidence a crucified victim received a proper burial and there was no reason to think the Romans

Would not have allowed this practice they were certainly okay with allowing other Jewish practices to go on in Jerusalem that’s just temple worship which they detest it because it meant a rejection of Roman gods they allowed to juice a conductor on trials have their own temple guards keep the Sabbath and so forth

There is no reason they would not have allowed this as well and it fits with archaeological and textual evidence Jesus’s burial not only has multiple attestation but it meets the criteria of embarrassment since they say he was buried in the tomb of a Sanhedrin member which would have been dishonouring for

His followers such a group had just their lorry and now they needed the Bama tune for him from one of its own members to the public this would have looked pretty humiliating and the fact that they mentioned he was in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea means the tomb was

Public knowledge and its whereabouts were known so the public at any time would have known about it and could have readily debunked it if the tomb was not empty but the account of the empty tomb is also embarrassing because it was discovered by women and we have already

Discussed this is not something you would have made up Matthew also mentions the competing theory that the disciples stole the body this is odd because why would Matthew want to mention the competing theory which could possibly start up doubt among the people he was trying to convert Justin Martyr writing

Later has to respond to this theory because it was the official story Jews were telling people which is an interesting admission because it says the body could not be found if the Sanhedrin still at the body they could have had Gentiles bring it out for them

And show the tomb was never empty but the Christians never had to respond to this charge so both sides agreed the body was missing finally we have the Nazareth inscription a stone found in the area and it has written on it an imperial decree from around 41 ad which

Says that the penalty for grave robbing was death which is interesting because it is very severe for how Romans punished thieving the Romans would not normally give such a high penalty for stealing something but this will make sense with the rise of Christianity and what Suetonius tells us in Rome there

Were riots among the Jews on accounts of Christus which was a common Roman mispronunciation of Christ and eventually Claudius expelled all the Jews because of it if some Jews in Rome were preaching Christ was resurrected and riots resulted from it and the tomb was not empty there would be no need for

An imperial decree because they could just produce the body but because the only alternative explanation was the body was missing because it was stolen Rome’s only option would be to issue a decree to try to combat the accounts of a missing body if there was a body then

Rome could have just dispelled the riots with the body and not have to indirectly admit the body when missing so it appears to be that from all sides the body was missing away there’s no evidence the empty tomb was just a fabrication and this is why most scholars today accept that tomb was

Found empty all the evidence simply favours it so if the body was stolen who did it would Rome of course not because they would not have cared how about the Jewish leaders why would they they wanted Jesus crucified shamed buried and forgotten the last thing they wanted was

Suspicion of him coming back to life of course the Sanhedrin claimed it was the disciples but that is unlikely their rabbi had just been crucified and a movement was dispersed in shamed they were in fear the Jewish authorities would come after them as well there is

No reason to think they would have been in the position to steal a body and create a mass hoax second if they had stolen the body there is little reason to think they would have reported the theory that Jewish leaders were spreading if it was true the last thing

They would have wanted would help spread the rumor they had stolen the body and if they had stolen the body they would not have reported to their shame and dishonor that they had not believed the reports of the women when they found the empty tomb nor would they have

Embarrassingly reported that they had not understood that Jesus had predicted his rise these were very embarrassing and shameful things to report later Christians would not have made this up and attack the honor and authority of their leaders nor would have the disciples unless they wanted to shame

Themselves and most of all where would they have taken the body a common overlooked fact is that this was Passover and the city was flooded with pilgrims they would have been seen and they would have been caught it would have been very hard to pull off especially getting the body out of the

Sanhedrin section of town so for the conspiracy theory to work you need to deposit the disciples were in fear for their lives yet somehow decided to steal the body and faked a resurrection even though none of them were expecting that then they managed to get the body out of

The Sanhedrin section of town where the tombs were and hide it in an overcrowded City the entire theory becomes overwhelmingly unlikely the hallucination theory doesn’t work either did the entire population of Jerusalem hallucinate so the theory it was not really discovered empty fails as well what about the mythic theory so I’ve

Tried to claim the empty tomb was made up later because it is not specifically mentioned in the Creed Paul gives us in first Corinthians well this just ignores the amount of evidence we already gave and that the empty tomb and physical resurrection are both mentioned in the early passion

Narrative found in mark but most of all it overlooks what the Korean first Corinthians says it says that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures he was buried and raised it is pretty obvious that what was buried

Is what was raised and therefore the tomb would have been empty as NT Wright says the fact that the empty tomb itself so prominent the Gospel accounts does not appear to be specifically mentioned in this passage is not significant the mention here of buried and raised no

More need to be amplified in that way then one would need to amplify the statement I walk down the street with the qualification on my feet so the mythic theory fails here as well but there is one theory they can’t account for all the data it is the theory that

Jesus was raised and vindicated by God no other Theory out there can account for all the data the mythic theory fails because we only argued from facts that we know are early and could not have been made up the conspiracy theory could not account for the quality of the

Testimonies of the disciples the empty tomb herwise skeptics would join a small persecuted minority the hallucination theory could only work if you posit some pretty miraculous hallucinations to cause the disciples to change their idea skeptics to convert and posit crazy ideas no one was expecting or looking

For it has to posit such a wild hallucination it would take a miracle itself only the theory that was reported can account for all the data because of that it has explanatory scope because they can explain all the data with the least amount of effort it has explanatory power it provides

Illumination as well which means it can explain other areas of history like the rise of Christianity and the belief in physical resurrection in fact this means three pieces of the criteria are filled that historians use when judging an historical hypothesis behan mccullough who has outlined the criterion for weighing historical theories accepts the

Resurrection hypothesis meets these three things better than any other hypothesis but claims it fails the other two pieces of criteria this Christian hypothesis is of greater explanatory scope and power than other hypotheses which try to account for the relevant evidence but it is less plausible and more ad hoc than

They are so McCullough accepts the resurrection meets three out of five of the criteria for historical investigation but fails the other two however there have been replies to challenge this dr. Travis Campbell has why is the resurrection theory ad-hoc to be ad hoc according to McCullough means a number

Of new suppositions are made by hypothesis that are not already implied in existing knowledge so the hypothesis adds extra assumptions in order to explain the data that is not already present but dr. Campbell points out the resurrection theory only adds one extra assumption not multiple it is difficult

To see why the resurrection hypothesis is extraordinarily ad hoc it requires only one new supposition that God exists surely rival hypotheses require many new suppositions the hallucination theory requires we say group hallucinations plus multi-sensory experiences happened on multiple occasions and that they were so powerful that the disciples took it

To their death preaching something that only brought in poverty and turmoil as well as a crazy Mass City hallucination that there was an empty tomb the conspiracy theory wants us to believe a bunch of frightened followers of Jesus stole a body in secret in an overcrowded

City to makeup up the story they were not expecting or was not in line with Jewish messianic expectations in order to get themselves murdered and that some of the skeptics decided to join their poor persecuted movement for no reason at all the mythic theory expects us to believe an extra assumption for each

Fact that it was actually made up later in spite of hard evidence these facts were very early and unlikely made up the resurrection theory only wants us to add the assumption that God exists which is not @ha if we combine the resurrection argument with other arguments we’ve already presented which infer theism

Since we’ve already argued for theism the resurrection hypothesis would hardly be ad hoc as dr. Campbell says moreover for the person who is already a theist the resurrection hypothesis does not even introduced a new supposition of God’s existence since that is already implied by existing knowledge so the resurrection hypothesis cannot be said

To be ad ha simply by a virtue of the number of suppositions it introduces what about plausibility a historical theory is plausible if other areas are known with confidence and suggests the same theory yours is suggesting so if other things suggests the same conclusion is your theory that would make your theory

Plausible and in line with other beliefs but as we’ve already suggested why would the resurrection theory not be plausible if we have other arguments to infer theism as William Lane Craig says only if the naturalist has good reasons to think that God’s existence is implausible or is intervention in the

World implausible could he justifiably regard the resurrection hypothesis as implausible so if one insists on assuming naturalism is true and leaves no reason for theism as a possibility then they can say the resurrection theory is implausible but that is arguing from a presupposition and not being open to evidence regardless of how

One feels about it and we can say that in conjunction with other arguments the resurrection hypothesis is not ad hoc nor is it implausible has already been shown God exists thus we can see why Anthony flue was bold enough to say the resurrection has more evidence than any

Other miracle claim the resurrection is the only theory that can explain all the data and it can do it while not being at hawk or implausible the evidence infers that God has acted in the world to raise Jesus from the dead as Paulo Frederickson admitted they must have

Seen something in all the evidence favors that what they saw was the risen Savior

#Resurrection #Jesus #Historical #Evidence

What The Bible Actually Says About the Devil



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.

#Bible #Devil