Get Behind Me Satan!

               

                When I realized what I was reading, I almost couldn't believe it. What I saw seemed as if it was profoundly disrespectful. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be borderline heartless, cold, and downright distasteful. This normally wouldn't have shaken me so much, had what I was witnessing been performed by anyone else. This act, however, was executed by Jesus. I stopped and asked the question: Isn't He supposed to be our example? How could He do this?

                The act I am referring to is the famous rebuke of Peter. The story begins as Jesus asks His disciples a simple question. Who do men say that I am? The disciples throw out various comments they have heard. Peter however, he is different. He has a revelation. He boldly declares that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus is so taken, He comments that this could not have been revealed to him by any man or process of cognition. This revelation was given to Peter by God the Father. Jesus then exhorted His disciples to tell no one.

                So far so good, right? However, Peter had a tendency to put his foot in his mouth. Jesus went on to explain some very difficult concepts to His disciples. He explained to them that He would have to go up to Jerusalem. Once there, He would suffer many things of the elders and priests. He would be falsely accused, He would be mocked, He would be mistreated, and He would be shamed. Ultimately, He would have to die and then be raised on the third day. This proved to be too much for Peter. Like many great friends out there, he went out of his way to do something he perceived to be in the best interest of his friend. He rebuked and attempted to convince Jesus that there must be an alternative course of action.

                Now we arrive at the part of the story that I simply could not believe. While I had read and heard this account on multiple occasions, the book of Mark offers a phrasing that brings out a shocking element of the story. Peter gets up and takes hold of Jesus, rebuking Him (Matthew 16:22). As Peter attempts to talk Jesus out of what he perceives to be a bad decision, Jesus doesn't just rebuke him. Jesus actually begins by facing him and then turns his back to Peter. Before Jesus speaks he fully turns his back on one of His most passionate followers. Talk about making a powerful point! In this position, facing the other disciples with Peter now standing behind Him, He rebukes Peter with the famous words, "Get thee behind me Satan!"

                "But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." (Mark 8:33)

                This takes the situation to another level. It would be one thing if Jesus quietly rebuked Peter to conceal his error and bring private correction. Frankly, even if He wasn't quiet about it, had He at least said it to Peter's face, as I had always presumed, it wouldn't have been so extreme. The idea that Jesus first turned His back to the disciple, and then rebuked Him to everyone else, now that just seemed cold. That is, until I realized what the Lord was illustrating.

                In this case Peter represents any number of people, things, or responsibilities that have a degree of importance in our lives. There is no doubt that Peter was important to Jesus. However, sometimes these things, and even the most well meaning people in our lives become tools in the hand of the enemy. The fact that Jesus rebuked Satan and not Peter clearly indicates that Peter's actions were inspired by the devil, even though He didn't perceive it that way. The words that came out of Peter's mouth were a temptation to Jesus. The Bible is clear that Jesus was tempted in all points and we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

                What Jesus illustrated with his actions becomes a powerful lesson in how to overcome temptation. We first turn our back to it, then we begin to rebuke it. Let me explain. Let's say someone is trying to quit smoking. Does it make more sense to throw away all of the cigarettes in the house first and then pray for God's grace to overcome the temptation? Or does it make more sense to keep a pack of cigarettes in every room of the house, meaning the person is rebuking the habit every time they reach for the next cigarette?

                Sometimes temptation can be so strong in our lives that we have to first turn our backs to it so that our prayers and rebukes are not hindered. Jesus loved Peter so much that he turned His face from him before rebuking the devil! This was no easier for Jesus than it was for Peter. What we need to understand is that attacks often come through those that are closest to us. The devil is extremely intelligent, and seeds deception wherever possible. He will use the most well meaning people at times to seed advice and counsel into our lives that is entirely at odds with the leading of God. He will use what sounds like good advice to point us in the opposite direction of God's purpose for our lives. It is a difficult lesson.

                There are times when following the Lord will require us to turn our backs on the advice and counsel of those closest to us. We may even need to rebuke it. Jesus illustrated this with Peter. The most important thing to Jesus was fulfilling the purpose given to Him by His Father in heaven. God wants you to fulfill your purpose as well. Thus we need to learn to turn our backs on temptation when necessary.

Angels and Demons Part 1

Greetings,

                We are going to begin a journey this week in order to answer the following question: Is there a difference between fallen angels and demons? Why does this matter? If we remain unable to differentiate between fallen angels and demons it will hinder our ability to effectively conduct spiritual warfare. My job is to equip you for success. Only once we begin to make this distinction can room be made for God to explain to us the truth about what the kingdom of darkness is really up to. Therefore, over the next few weeks I will discuss the difference between fallen angels and demons and then move into deeper elements regarding the kingdom of darkness.

                We will begin by setting up the typical misunderstanding of Satan and demonology. The theology most Christians believe goes something like this. Satan (also called Lucifer) is in heaven as the anointed cherub (Ezekiel 28:14). The multitude of his merchandise (Ezekiel 28:16) and the incredible beauty and wisdom he possesses (Ezekiel 28:17) among other things leads to the iniquity that God finds in him (Ezekiel 28:15). As a result there is a war in heaven (Revelation 12:7-9) and God kicks Satan and his army of angels out (Revelation 12:4). This army comprises one-third of heavens hosts. As a result of getting kicked out of heaven, Satan slams into earth. This is why Jesus says, “I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven” (Luke 10:18). Satan is then present for the Garden of Eden incident and all of the hosts of heaven that fall with him become demons. Is that simple enough?

                The problem with this theology is that it’s too simple. Not only is it too simple, it’s actually very sloppy when we begin to apply careful exegesis.

 In order to begin discussing the issue of fallen angels we will begin with Lucifer, the first and most powerful angel to rebel against God. The two famous passages dealing with the history of Lucifer are found in Ezekiel 28:12-19 and Isaiah 14:12-17. Interestingly enough, neither of these passages mentions other angels joining him in his rebellion. While Lucifer did birth iniquity (Ezekiel 28:15) and as a result was cast out of the mountain of God as a profane thing (Ezekiel 28:16) it seems that at least initially he was relatively alone in these things. Note that there was only one serpent in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Not a serpent with a huge army of cronies.

After the incident at the Garden of Eden, the Bible does not mention any more activity specifically attributed to Satan for a long time. However, the next event involving heavenly hosts occurs in Genesis six. The story goes as follows:

“When people had spread all over the world, and daughters were being born, some of the heavenly beings saw that these young women were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked. Then the Lord said, I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years. In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings. They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago.” (Genesis 6:1-4 GNT)

So according to Genesis 6, giants began to exist because heavenly beings (or angels) began to produce offspring with human women.  This was obviously a separate rebellion from the fall of Lucifer and it was a rebellion based on different reasons. Lucifer rebelled because of the multitude of his merchandise, his beauty, and his corrupted wisdom (Ezekiel 28:16-17). The angels in Genesis 6 rebelled because they lusted after human women. The Bible is clear that the angels that sinned were cast down to hell when God chose not to spare the old (pre-flood) world. These angels that rebelled were locked up in chains under darkness until the judgment of the great day. Since they were locked in hell while Satan wasn’t, it actually suggests that Satan had little if anything to do with this rebellion.

“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:4-5)

                “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” (Jude 6)

                According to the book of Jude these angels did not keep their first estate (Greek arche), which was their origin or original heavenly appointment. They left their own habitations (Greek oiketerion) which were spiritual bodies and assumed physical bodies in order to accommodate the act of physical union with human women. We know that the term oiketerion is referring to their spiritual bodies because the same term is used to describe the spiritual bodies we will one day receive.

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house [oiketerion] which is from heaven” (1 Corinthians 5:1-2)

The idea that angels can put on physical bodies like humans put on clothes is illustrated when God and two angels visit Abraham. That these angels are wearing physical bodies is obvious because they eat food and get their feet washed.

                “And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men [the LORD and two angels] stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, And said, My LORD, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree… And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.” (Genesis 18:1-4, 8)

                Thus it is established that physical union between an angel and a human woman is not really much of a feat at all. The rebelling angels assumed physical bodies and began to have children with the human women. These children were hybrids being half human and half angelic, and as a result of their hybrid nature they were also giants when compared with normal men. This is why the Bible says, “In those days, and even later, there were giants on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings” (Genesis 6:4 GNT).

To be continued…

The Book of Life

11/5/11

Greetings,

                After ten months of teaching on the purpose of unity in the body of Christ, my prayer is that the importance of this message is coming alive in you. My passion for unity does not only stem from the fact that it is beneficial. It also comes because I understand that it will be absolutely necessary. The fact of the matter is that very difficult times are coming. Not just economically difficult times, but times during which things will happen that will bend the imagination. In order to stand until the end, unity will not be an option, it will be a requirement.

                One of the most difficult things for me to explain to people is that right now Satan is in the process of building an army. “Sure,” one might say, “he’s building an army of evil and corrupt people like he’s always done.” This is not the end of the matter.

                Satan wants to build an army of subservient slaves that will conform to his every whim and comprise not only his end-time army, but his entire last day empire. Satan has it in mind to make humanity obsolete by introducing society to a new class of beings. These beings will have no choice but to bow the knee to Satan and submit to his beast (antichrist). They will not be human, but they will have intelligence and consciousness nonetheless. Sound like science fiction?

                In order to properly understand this clear prophecy of Scripture we will begin with a passage from the book of Revelation:

“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the beast/antichrist), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8)

In the last days the beast will receive power, a throne and great authority from Satan (Revelation 13:2). As a result he will be worshipped as a god. Here is the interesting part. It is written that all will worship him whose names are not written in the book of life. This may not seem like anything important at first glance. Why should it? Isn’t it simply pointing out that anyone who doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ will worship the beast?

We must understand how the book of life works in order to truly understand the ramifications of this passage. It is difficult for people to comprehend that Satan is currently in the process of engineering the population described in this passage. However, without telling you how he is doing it (because of limited space), I will concern myself with proving to you why this passage speaks of that activity.

According to the Bible we learn that God knows us before we are formed in our mother’s womb (Jeremiah 1:5). This is because God forms our soul and spirit in the lowest parts of the earth before joining it to our body in our mother’s womb. The Bible clearly explains this in the following passage. It is from this same passage that we learn that the creation and conception of every human born is recorded in God’s book, along with all the days of our lives. This is the book of Life.

“I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery]. Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.” (Psalm 139:14-16 AMP, brackets in original)

                It is absolutely essential that we understand that every person born is initially written into the Lamb’s book of life. This is why it is not the will of God that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). With that said, a word study on the book of life will reveal three populations.

1.       Those that are written into the book of life (Philippians 4:3, Revelation 3:5, 21:27)

2.       Those that are blotted out of the book of life (Exodus 32:33, Psalm 69:28, Revelation 22:19)

3.       Those that are never written into the book of life (Revelation 13:8, 17:8)

In the Bible there is not a single passage that makes mention of names being un-blotted in the book of life. This means that the only time a name gets blotted out of the book of life is when there remains no ability for a person to receive the salvation of Jesus Christ. For most, this point will come at death. Until we die, there is provision for our salvation and this is upheld by the presence of our name in the book of life.

Now we will address the group that is never written into the book of life. As we discussed, if a person is human they are formed by God and knit to their body in the womb. At this time they are written into the book of life. The only way a person won’t be written into the book of life is if they are not human. If someone is never written into this book there is no provision for their salvation.

The population that is never written into the book of life will have no provision for salvation because they will not be human. This is the only way they can fulfill the requirement of “never” being written into the book of life. This makes reference to a new class of beings that will be released into the earth specifically to comprise large portions of the antichrist’s kingdom. This makes sense when we realize that this population only shows up during the antichrist’s rule (Revelation 13:8, 17:8). All of those not qualified as “human” will worship the beast. This is the emphasis of Revelation 13:8. Satan is in the process of creating the population of non-human entities that fit this bill because prophecy must be fulfilled.

This is a major reason why the Bible says that as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:37). The days of Noah were characterized by the sin and lawlessness that resulted when the world was introduced to a new population. This population was half-human and half-angel. They were called the Nephilim.

“When people had spread all over the world, and daughters were being born, some of the heavenly beings saw that these young women were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked. Then the Lord said, I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years. In those days, and even later, there were giants [nephilim] on the earth who were descendants of human women and the heavenly beings. They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago.” (Genesis 6:1-4 GNT)

How will a divided, scattered, weak church deal with the reality of these types of circumstances? Yet in spite of these things the Bible says that the people that know their God shall be strong and do exploits (Daniel 11:32)! In order to stand against such remarkable circumstances unity will not be an option. It is imperative that we begin to work towards the destiny God has appointed for His people now.

Discussion

1.       Is the need for unity in the body of Christ becoming real to you?

2.       What are the three categories formed by the book of life?

3.       What is the emphasis of Revelation 13:8?

4.       What happened in the days of Noah?

5.       Considering what the Bible tells us will come, can unity remain optional?