The Will of God
Human life on Earth is subject to opposing powers:
God
jesus-saves-signDefined by the essential characteristic of omnipotence (ultimate power)
Loving by nature
His Will is a state of eternal perfect truth, peace and harmony (Heaven)
As a consequence of His loving nature, He endows man with free will rather than exerting absolute control over man, even though it is within His power to do so
Free will allows individuals the ability to choose to align their will with God, or to oppose His Will and rebel against God (sin / evil)
The existence of evil at a holistic level is therefore within the ultimate scope of God's Will. Freedom is risky, but God thinks it's worth the risks.
Tends not to reveal His presence or influence to man in any way that would convince man unequivocally of God's actual existence, power and nature, because armed with such knowledge man would be sure to choose to align his own will with that of God, thus rendering the choice a product of coercion rather than of free will.
Therefore, God tends only to reveal His presence and power to man via miniscule hints that suggest His presence, but leave a sufficient degree of doubt possible to the reasoning mind of man so that his free will is preserved.
Without a sufficient degree of opposition to God's own Will, man will have no opportunity to make a free will choice to align his will with that of God, so God requires that an opposing force of sufficient power, influence and intelligence be introduced into the equation.
Satan
A created being according to Bible doctrine
Ultimately subordinate to God at the holistic level, therefore not co-equal
Exercised his own free will choice to defy God's Will and attempted to elevate himself to the status of God. This fulfills God's need for the existence of an opposing force, and God therefore grants Satan significant influence in worldly affairs.
Seeks to rule and dominate man, but must operate within the constraint of respecting each person's free will just as God respected his.
To maximize his power over humanity, key areas of operation for Satan are government, banking and religion.
Extreme degrees of pressure, torment and influence can be brought upon man in an attempt to obtain man's free will choice to surrender to Satan, so long as the pressure is not so great as to leave man no other choice, which would be a free will violation
satanic-one-eye-signMost rational men would not knowingly make an explicit choice to give up their freedom, therefore Satan must be an excellent salesman and "seal the deal" using any and all means possible, and he must convince man that such a decision is something other than what it actually is
Deception is therefore the fundamental tactic, upon which all other tactics and operations will be built.
100% deception would constitute a fraud, and therefore a free will violation. Since God's law requires Satan to respect human free will, Satan may create a pervasive environment of deception, but somewhere within there must always be a disclaimer of truth in order that free will is not actually violated. Satan will minimize such disclaimers as far as possible ("the fine print,") but they must nevertheless be present. Therefore, if man decides to ignore the warning and purchase Satan's bill of goods, he can be held accountable for having made an informed choice.
Satan's disclaimers in the midst of deception may take any form, and no two situations will be alike -- they will be tailored to the individual person and their situation -- just as God's "hints" described above are.
Major Tactics of Satan
Appeal to man's doubts concerning the existence of God. If man doubts the existence of God and perceives Satan as all-powerful, man will conclude that it would be foolish to oppose Satan and therefore will submit to his domination (cults, organized crime, totalitarian governments).
Appeal to man's doubts concerning the existence of either God or Satan. If man doubts the existence of non-human powers, and believes man is the highest form of intelligent life, he can be led to deify his own God-given faculty of reason, which Satan can then use against him. Reason and logic absent from God can be used to convince man that Satan's will is the rational, logical and in fact obvious choice (atheism, communism).
Appeal to the yearning of man to be closer to God by masquerading as the agent and steward of God ("an angel of light" as the Bible puts it). If Satan can convince man that he is not actually Satan but is in fact God, he can then encourage man's natural inclinations toward good in areas of no importance to gain credibility, then use that earned trust in an attempt to influence and divert man's key decisions in areas that do bear upon Satan's goal of co-opting men's free will (some organized religions and quasi-religious organizations).
codex-sinaiticusThe Bible
In order to help communicate His Will to many people over long periods of time, God caused men thousands of years ago to commit their thoughts, ideas, stories and records to writing. Over time, He caused others to eventually compile these writings into what we today refer to as the Bible.
The Bible contains an enormous amount of written material which was written by human beings under the Divine inspiration of God. God also intended for some material of human invention such as the customs, practices and laws of certain people to also be preserved as part of His record. For example, certain Old Testament books call for the execution of people by stoning or burning at the stake for things we wouldn't even consider crimes today, such as cursing one's parents or breaking the Sabbath.
Many religious people today will tell you that God requires you to follow these rules, but Jesus' own words show them to be deceivers. The word "Christian" itself implies the simple meaning that someone is a follower after Christ. Today, though, many people find it easier and more convenient to just attend their chosen place of worship once a week and quote rules like the Pharisees did. But they are still following the teachings of the Pharisees instead of the teachings of Jesus, even if they wear a cross on a necklace or have a certain bumper sticker on their car. Many of them never think very long about the fact that it was the Pharisees -- the religious authorities of the day -- who conspired with the government to have Jesus put to death.
So we can see that various rules and other historical materials, though not purely spiritual in nature, are nevertheless recorded in the Bible. The important point is that God intended for this material to be there for us to know about, for His own reasons. Therefore the entire Bible is correctly referred to as God's Word.
Since the Word of God includes documentation of certain historical laws and customs that were not themselves of God's Will, Satan will find certain susceptible types of people and convince them that those laws and customs not only were God's Will, but that God still requires people to follow those rules today! He will inflate their egos and senses of self-righteousness, and try to get them to promote those laws, customs and rules and enforce them on others. This is called legalism, and is a trap that people from many different religious backgrounds fall into.
This tactic will only work, though, if Satan can get people to stop talking to God directly and praying sincerely for His guidance in their lives. Satan wants people to instead believe that they already KNOW God's Will and that it is their job to enforce it on others. If he can get them to worship "every jot and tittle" written in the Bible INSTEAD OF ACTUALLY WORSHIPPING GOD HIMSELF, then Satan has got them firmly in his clutches. They are damned, while remaining the entire time totally convinced that they are warriors for God.
Satan will also find lots of other people who didn't fall for the scam. When he approaches these people, he will very cleverly use the opposite approach and say, "look at those religious fundamentalists, trying to impose their beliefs on everyone else. They are obviously very dangerous, violent and backwards people for believing what they do. If there is a God and He is just, He would not be promoting these horrible doctrines. It is clear that this whole business of people believing in God is an outmoded idea that has no place any more in this day and age. Let us band together to stamp it out once and for all from the face of the Earth." And many people, some quite intelligent, will agree with the logic of this argument and turn away from God entirely. And they, too, will never realize that they have been tricked.
jesus saves_brickGod does not personally appear to most of us in a cloud of fire, pointing His finger at us and instructing us "This is My Word and you must follow it!" The reason He does not do this is because He has given us the free will to make up our own minds. As a result, there are many people who do not believe that the Bible is truly the Word of God.
Since Satan's purpose is to oppose the Will of God, he will do whatever he can to discredit God and sabotage God's work. Satan does not necessarily care if you believe in God or not as such; rather, he is more concerned with whether or not he can con you into working against God's Will, regardless of whatever religious or philosophical framework you are coming from.
are coming from.
are coming from.
makow-dont-give-in-to-evil
Comments