An investigation into the characters of Lucifer and the Son of God
PART ONE. GENESIS THREE. THE SERPENT IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN.
Can it be that God has said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the Garden?’ Here is a questioning attitude, engendering doubt in God’s word. How often the Serpent uses this ploy. Sometimes the doubts arise quietly in our own brains, and the sun goes in, or else he uses someone else to do his dirty work for him. But the result is always the same. For a while we lose our sense of balance, until we cast out the doubt instead of entertaining it.
Eve answered – ‘not eat – – nor touch – – lest you die.’ Note the inaccuracies. Nothing was said initially about “not touching the tree,” and the certainty of God’s word “You shall surely die” was watered down into “Lest you die.” A certainty had become a contingency. Why? Surely memory couldn’t fail in unfallen man? No, it was the Serpent’s questioning that acted like a sheet of frosted glass across the mind, reducing the clarity of vision. That which had beforehand been crystal clear, was now becoming fuzzy. That is how the Serpent undermines us even today, unless the questions are resisted immediately.
“You shall NOT surely die.” The “Father of lies” now speaks his most damnable lie.
“God knows that when you eat it your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.” In effect the Serpent says, “God is deceiving you. He is withholding something from you that you ought to have. Better follow my instructions.” It’s still unclear as to why they were willing to entertain this denial of God’s original words.
She saw that it was (a) good to eat, (b) pleasant to the eyes, (c) desirable to make one wise. Notice how self-centred these three things are. Eve had paid little attention to the tree before, knowing and accepting that it was best to leave it alone. But now – – her eyes were seeing things in quite a different light.
They ate, and their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked. Instead of gaining something, they lost something. Oh yes, their eyes were opened, and yes, they were aware of good and evil, but they had now placed themselves under servitude to Satan.
PART TWO. BEHIND THE SCENES. ISAIAH 14. LUCIFER’S EARLY HISTORY.
You said in your heart (But probably not in the hearing of others)
1. I will ascend into heaven. By my own prowess and ability, by my own will-power, which is entirely my own.
2. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. My throne is entirely my own, and I have total control over my own will. I WILL be exalted, in the prime place in heaven, over all these other angel-stars. They WILL observe my greatness, and properly recognise it, and worship me.
3. I will sit on the Mount of Meeting, in the sides of the north. And sitting there in solemn conclave, I expect my voice to be heard in ALL matters relating to the government of Earth.
4. I will rise above the heights of the clouds. On the summit, above the cloud layer, that is the place for me. I must have a clear view of heaven’s dominion.
5. I will be likened to the Most High. [NOT “I will be LIKE the Most High.” The verb is passive.] I will be seen AS the Most High. If He won’t take the sceptre of authority and display Himself properly, showing the world just what He is, then I will do it. I want to be SEEN to be doing what He ought to be doing.
Here is the “mind-set” of Lucifer in the beginning. Isaiah’s words come directly from the throne of God. God alone knew what was brewing in the Luciferian mind before he had ever had a chance to work on it. It was of God’s mercy that He gave Isaiah these prophetic insights, because the work of the Serpent is always so subtle, often so difficult to unravel from what God is doing.
It must be stated with firmness and clarity, that one should NOT be looking for the works of Satan in the Public House, the Cinema, the Drug Den, the Amusement Arcade, the Bingo Hall, the Terrorists’ Hideout, the Gambling Den, the Casino, the Race Track, the Television, the Girlie Magazines, the Computer Porno-disk or any other of man’s habits/inventions/playtoys. These are all but the outworking of man’s fallen nature, the legacy he has received from Father Adam. Oh yes, Satan uses them, but they are not the THRUST of his work, they are not the HUB of his activities.
Satan’s MAJOR work is depicted by Jesus in a parable. It is where God sows His good seeds that Satan sows his tares. We should be looking for the Serpent’s Trail RIGHT IN THE CHURCHES. It is there that he operates with the most amazing trickery, subtlety, treachery, and destruction. Mankind in general “lies asleep in the arms of the Wicked One”, and he can happily leave them to get on with their lives. They are no threat to him. But in the life of God’s churches, he must enter, infiltrate, scheme, attack, and if possible wreck God’s work.
PART THREE. BEHIND THE SCENES. EZEKIEL 28. SATAN AS THE KING OF TYRE
You were the blueprint, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. And THAT was how he appeared to Eve.
You have been in Eden, the Garden of God. Not as a “snake”, but as the Anointed Serpent Cherub, a magnificent being. Undoubtedly Eve was overawed by his presence. And the text of Genesis 3 says clearly that Adam was “with her”. She was not confronted by herself.
You were the Anointed Cherub who covers (the glory of God). I set you so. Covering God’s glory. Some find it difficult to understand the “shyness” of God, His absolute abhorrence of “showmanship”. Satan despised Him for it, thinking that HE had the better way. He wanted to blast everything into the open.
You were perfect in all your ways from the day that you were created. Perfect, yes, but he failed to account for the fact that he was a CREATED BEING. All the glory should have been given back to God, not kept for himself.
Until a turning away, a declension, was found in you. It had been growing in his mind for some time of course, but it was not classed as “sin” until he ACTED on it, and deceived Eve. And so the “questioning” attitude had been nibbling away at his mind, long before he tried it out on Eve.
By the abundance of your trade, commerce, they have filled your heart with all the ill-gotten gains of your regime.Heavenly competition. “They” are the other heavenly beings who, being lured into the trap of praising him, were soon to be cast out of the upper heaven with Satan. Their applause for his magnificence only served to magnify his importance in his own eyes. He was the cause of their downfall, as he was Adam and Eve’s.
Your heart became lifted up because of your beauty. Here is the origin of vanity, whereby we imagine that we possess something good which is totally our own.
You have defiled your wisdom because of your brightness. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely, to quote Sir J.E.E.Dalberg Acton. In human history this sad tale was repeated in the life of King Solomon. As a 14-year-old lad he ascended the throne of his father David, feeling overawed at the position he held. When God asked him what he wanted, he asked for wisdom. The Lord was pleased, and not only gave him wisdom, but also riches in abundance. But therein lay the test of wisdom. Would he corrupt his wisdom by reason of his brightness, as Satan did before him? For many years things went well, but eventually he came to rely on his own wisdom/might, instead of remaining humbly dependent on God. This began the downward pathway towards idolatry and self-dependence. The judgment of God then fell, as it did for Satan. The kingdom was removed from him and given to his servant Jeroboam (save a small portion which was reserved because of the faithfulness of his father David.)
PART FOUR. WHAT SATAN SAID TO THE LORD JESUS IN THE WILDERNESS.
Command these stones that they be made bread. “Go on, do something spectacular! You say you are the Son of God, so surely you must be able to cater for your present needs.” But Jesus would have none of it.
Throw yourself down from the Temple roof. “Let everyone see you for what you are! You say you are the Son of God. Surely you can let the crowds have something to talk about! It wouldn’t take long before they accept you as their Messiah, would it? Isn’t that what you’ve come for?” Satan was driving the Lord to do what he had always thought God SHOULD do, in other words EXHIBIT His power, FLAUNT His creative ability, DISPLAY the divine energy. But again, Jesus would have none of it.
Look, all the Kingdoms of the World are in my possession. They’ve been given to me, and I’m able to hand them over to anyone I wish. Isn’t that why you’ve come? Didn’t I hear you say that you wanted to retrieve these Kingdoms from me? Well now, I’ll make a bargain with you. I believe my way is best. Throw in your lot with me and I’ll hand over ALL those Kingdoms to you. This was the crux of Satan’s thinking, and the Lord objected to it so strongly that with anger in His voice he ordered him away, saying that ALL worship should be directed to God alone.
How similar these temptations were to the ones in the Garden of Eden.
The first related to the lust of the flesh – “Eve saw that it was good to eat”. “Jesus was hungry”.
The second related to the lust of the eyes – “Eve saw that it was pleasant to the eyes” “Throw yourself down (and the eyes of everyone will be on you)”
The third related to the pride of life – “Eve believed that it was good to make one wise” “Just accept my way. I’ll give you all those Kingdoms. Don’t you think that is the wisest choice to make?”
But Adam and Eve succumbed to the temptation and fell into the Serpent’s trap, whereas Jesus attacked Satan at every point by quoting the authoritative word of God – “It is written -.”
By the fall of one man (Adam) death has passed through to all men. By the obedience of one man (Jesus) “in Christshall all be made alive.” In all history, in God’s sight, there are but two men, Adam and Jesus. Adam fell, and Jesus has saved him. That is the story of redemption. We who have descended from Adam are born “in Adam”. God’s purpose is for us all to be born again “in Christ.” When that has happened, then God’s work will have been accomplished. Judicially it is already secure. But the task of implementing it is taking much time. But God is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, and He will fully conclude His work.
PART FIVE. AN ANALYSIS OF SATAN’S CHARACTER
Satan believed in himself. He was fully aware of how wonderfully he had been created, but for some reason he came to believe that what he was, and what he possessed, were his own property. The wisdom he used was from his own mind, part of his own creating. His will-power was totally his own, to use as he wanted. And because of this, he desired to be appreciated – which God saw as “worship”, and this was disallowed.
This is the root meaning of worship. To accept that everything good comes from God, and to speak well of Him, is equivalent to worshipping God. To believe that anything belongs to us, whether it be our mental ability, our creative ability, even our will-power, is to take from God what is His sole right by creation. Hence the first commandment, that we should worship God alone, and have no other gods to parade before Him.
Note the manner in which the Serpent approached Eve in the Garden. As a result mankind fell, and we have all become a bit like him, and subject to his overlordship. But when man comes to his senses, and asks the Lord Jesus to take His rightful place in his life, Satan is robbed of a member of his Kingdom. That is why he reacts so violently. He has lost some of his property.
What are Satan’s characteristics?
1. Love of power, which leads to ostentation, exhibitionism, pomp and pageant. And this in turn causes people to turn to him and worship him because of the power and display. He likes nothing more than to show off and flaunt himself before man.
2. Love of competition. He encourages us to copy him by creating competitive games, which breed rivalry, lust for position and eminence, superiority and praise. The Olympic Games are perhaps the greatest example of this. But in every sphere of human life, wherever man has set up a competitive exercise, he no longer looks at the beauty and joy of individual achievement, but to applaud the one who is considered the BEST. All the rest get forgotten as “also-rans.”
3. Then he has a love of pleasure, and drives mankind to copy him, by making him focus his mind on food, drink, beauty, sex, possessions, music, and even drugs. Anything to feed the “flesh”. The world obeys without any qualms, because it belongs to him. But his real thrust is to introduce this appetite to the church. The latest pleasure binge has come from Toronto. But Jesus said, “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:25) Even in Solomon’s earlier days he understood this truth – “Sorrow is better than laughter, for by the gravity of one’s countenance, the heart is made stronger. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” (Eccl.7:3-4)
If any of God’s children oppose Satan’s regime of Power, Competition, and Pleasure, they are despised, mocked, and despitefully treated. The sad part today is that the mockery comes from other Christians. By this the Enemy is amused to be able to use us as his own weapons.
PART SIX. QUOTATIONS FROM THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT
Sun Myong Moon. “God and man are one. Man is incarnate God.”
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of T.M. “Be still and know that YOU are God.”
Received from a “Channel”. “The simple truth is to know yourself. And to know yourself is to know God.”
The Maitreya. “Man is an emerging God – – my plan and my duty is to reveal to you a new way – – which will permit the divine in man to shine forth.”
Groups which call themselves “Human Potential” and “Cosmic Consciousness” – “Man is a deity equal to God, and therefore he can do no wrong.There is no sin, no reason for guilt in life.”
John Randolph Price. “The Christ will rule over a new age on earth, and the antichrist is anyone who denies the divinity in man.” [But of course he wasn’t speaking about Jesus when he mentioned “the Christ”]
J.Z.Knight and the channel called Ramtha who speaks through her. “The kingdom of God is within us all. Everyone has the power to master his own destiny and achieve his desires through positive thinking.”
Shirley MacLaine, the actress, who claims the presence of a channel has written a book entitled, “Going within – a guide for inner transformation.” In this book she says, “The total understanding and realisation of myself might require eons for me to accomplish. But when that awareness is achieved I will be aligned completely with that unseen Divine Force we call God. For me to deny that Divine Force now, would be tantamount to denying that I exist. I know that I exist, therefore I AM. I know that the God-source exists, therefore IT IS. Since I am part of that force, then I AM THAT I AM.” [What blasphemy!]
George Lucas. The “Star Wars” films. The “force” depicted in the films presents the same idea that Shirley MacLainebelieves in.
Secular Humanism, which elevates man to the position of God. It is the Western world’s way of expressing Hinduism. “The true self must be treated as sacred. Meditation is essential. Let the ‘divine light’ diffuse throughout your being.”
Peter Russell, in a book entitled “Global Brain.” “All cancer cells in the global brain must be exported into the non-physical realm. – – All defective seeds, if allowed to live will destroy for ever the opportunity of Homo Sapiens to become HomoUniversalis. The self-centred members must be destroyed. There is no alternative.” [He defines the “cancer cells” as (a) true Christians, (b) orthodox Jews, (c) orthodox Moslems, all of whom believe in one God.]
Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961) formulated the theory of the “collective unconscious” whereby images, ideas, prophecies, and dreams, are drawn out of the “world-pool of archetypes.” [This theory is much in favour with all the New Age movements.]
David Spangler, a leading figure in the New Age. “When man entered on the pathway to SELF, he entered into a great creative adventure – – of learning the meaning of divinity by accepting to himself the responsibility of a microcosmic world unto whom he is god. – – The being who helps man to reach this point is Lucifer, the Angel of man’s evolution.
Here then is the “bottom line”. David Spangler openly admits that the mind and the energy behind all the New Age teaching is none other than Lucifer himself. He is not the only one to admit this, but others have realised that to advertise the fact too openly may be a deterrent to obtaining a following. For example Benjamin Creme used to be the head of The Lucifer Trust.But of more recent years this has been changed to The Lucis Trust.
Benjamin Creme has been adopted by The Maitreya, (who calls himself The Christ,) to act as his intermediary with mankind. Hence the huge adverts that appeared in the major newpapers some years ago, (25th April 1982 and Jan 12th 1987) announcing the “Coming of the Christ.” Exactly as Jesus prophesied, we now have a world flooded with bogus Christs. To most Christians there is no possibility of being taken in by these. They destroy themselves by foolish publicity. But behind it all there is a subtle force at work.
However, the Christian Church is being sucked in to various “global activities”. Of recent years we have seen the “Global Prayer for Peace” organised by Pope John Paul II, along with Tony Verna. This was on the day of Pentecost, 6th June 1987. This was an event within the year that was designated “The United Nations International Year of Peace.”
Later in the year there was the “Global Day of Peace” at Assisi in Italy, to which 140 leaders of the world’s major religions were present, and where we were shown photographs of the Pope sitting with Archbishop Robert Runcie, the Dalai Lama, Sheikh Mohammed Nasir Al-Aboudi and others. It was an act of syncretism, based on the almost insane craving of people for “peace at any price.” That sort of peace is the promise of Satan, as long as people are willing to have it his way.
Then we were presented with the “Peace Prayer” and the “Great Invocation” The peace prayer was introduced by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and adopted in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury. There is nothing Christian about it. The Great Invocation was advertised by the Lucis Trust on page 202 of the October 1982 edition of Readers Digest. Strangely enough many churches have these prayers and invocations posted up, and the clergy advocate daily repetitions of them. But in essence they are not prayers, but mantras.
The end is in sight. Global war is being waged. Lucifer is struggling to hold on to his empire. But we are at the cross-roads of history. The Lord’s return is near. That is why deception is so rife.
PART SEVEN. CHRISTIAN QUOTATIONS
Goethe, the 18th century philosopher. “People never notice the Devil, even when he has them by the throat.”
Martin Luther. “Where God builds a Church, there the Devil would also build a Chapel.”
George MacDonald. “The one principle of Hell is ‘I am my own.'” And – “The love of our neighbour is the only door out of the dungeon of self.”
John Ruskin. “When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.”
Oswald Chambers. “What we possess often possesses us – we are possessed by possessions. ‘This is mine, you must not touch it!'” And – “I have a right to my own opinions” [The cry of the natural man]
PART EIGHT. THE MIND OF CHRIST
Philippians chapter two.
Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who –
1. existing in the very form, or essence, of God
2. deemed it not robbery to be equal with God
3. but emptied himself
4. taking the form of a servant (a slave)
5. being made in the likeness of mankind
6. and being found in fashion as a man
7. he humbled himself
8. and became obedient unto death
9. even the death of the cross.
10. Wherefore God highly exalted Him,
11. and gave Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, (all the angelic throng) of those on earth, (all those alive at any one time) and those under the earth, (all those who have died from Adam onwards)
12. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
This is the true way, the only way, and we are encouraged to be followers of Jesus, in humility, self-denial, and worship of God.
