Better The Devil You Know | Satan – Part 1

 

Satan is a divisive figure within Christianity. Jesus says that Satan is the father of lies, and so I suppose he is literally divisive because he is a liar, but Satan is also divisive in terms of what Christians believe him to be. The different beliefs about Satan essentially range from him being a rebel angel who is the nemesis of God, and the cause of all disorder and evil that exists in the world, through to the view that Satan is merely a symbol of evil, the personification of wickedness presented through metaphor, and not a literal figure who is skulking around, trying to cause Christians to sin and turn from God.

 

I do believe that Satan exists, and is a real presence within the world, but both of these viewpoints are lacking in my opinion. On one hand, the view of a literal Satan is so mythologised, that it has lost all basis in reality, and it has become a kind of bogeyman, and on the other, the notion of a Satan has been so watered down that it’s meaningless, a concept which simply represents evil, and a symbolic placeholder that doesn’t really mean anything.

 

Most Christians who believe in a literal Satan, tend to base their understanding on the description given in the Book of Revelation. Here, Satan is described as the cause of all the evil in the world, the ancient serpent who caused Adam and Eve to fall, who now walks the earth trying to deceive and tempt believers to the dark side. Whilst this is argued as the biblical view, I don't know if we can take the Book of Revelation literally. It’s a book which is deliberately obscure, written in prophetic language, which is full of symbolism and metaphor, and filled with poetic language and veiled references. I think people can look at its text and read all sorts of things from it. Besides that, even if we do take a literal understanding of Revelation, I don’t think that’s the purpose of the text, so for now, I want to put aside the idea of Satan that we get from Revelation, as a fallen angel, or as a dragon, or a serpent, or as God's divine nemesis, and look elsewhere in the Bible to gain an understanding of who, or what Satan is.

 

If we look in the Old Testament, the first thing we learn is that Satan is not a name, it’s a title, ‘the Satan’, or Ha Satan in Hebrew, which means ‘the accuser’, ‘adversary’, or ‘opposer'. The earliest instance of the word in the biblical narrative, is in the Book of Job where the Satan is part of God’s legal counsel. In the story, the Satan accuses Job of only being faithful to God because he is blessed. In response to this claim, God allows Job to experience suffering, to see if he still keeps his faith. From this set up we can see that the point of the story isn’t that it is a battle of a good God and a bad Satan, it's about the nature of righteousness and its perceived rewards. We might see the name ‘Satan’ and cast him as the baddie in the story, but actually the Satan is working for God.

 

The second mention of the Satan is in 1 Chronicles 21, where the Satan incites king David to take a census. Again, we might automatically read this passage and see the Satan behaving in an evil, underhand way, causing king David to disobey God and perform a wicked census, however, there is a corresponding account of this event in 2 Samuel 24, and here the text says that God incited king David to take the census. These two accounts might appear to be contradictory, but if the Satan is God’s agent, then it stands to reason that God is behind both instances.

 

It is admittedly confusing that in these passages, God is responsible for causing king David to take a census, which God was against. I’m sure there is a reason for it, but I’ll leave that as homework for you to do!

 

The last passage where the Satan is named specifically, is in Zechariah 3. In this text, the prophet Zechariah has a vision of the temple being rebuilt, after Israel has returned from exile, and he receives God’s promise of the messianic kingdom which is going to come. In the vision, Joshua the high priest is pictured with the Satan, who is there to accuse him of his/Israel’s sin. However, God rebukes the Satan and dresses Joshua in clean garments, to signify the purification of his people. Again, it is hard not to read this as Satan annoying God in some malevolent way, and that he receives a divine bollocking, because he is God’s evil enemy, but actually, Satan is still just doing his job of accusing people, the job that God gave him to do.

 

And that’s about it.

 

There are other places in the Old Testament where people have interpreted the Satan as acting on God’s behalf, bringing disorder, accusation and temptation, and even a view that the Satan was the angel of death, who is sent to destroy Israel’s enemies every now and again, but in all these instances, it seems that the Satan is wholly under God’s power. The main takeaway is that the Satan isn’t completely autonomous, and only does what God allows.

 

By the time Jesus is on the scene in the New Testament, Satan has had a rebranding, and is now also known as the Devil and Beelzebul/Beelzebub. When Jesus encounters the Satan or talks about him, it is represented in several different ways. We have the story of Jesus being tempted by the Devil, in the epic face off which determines the course of Jesus’s ministry. Jesus tells people that they are Satan, like when he rebukes Peter in Matthew 16. He mentions it concerning judgment, that people who ignore those in need will be sent into the fire, which is prepared for Satan and his angels. And finally, Satan is said to be the reason why people act in evil ways, like when Judas decides to betray Jesus. The Satan isn’t just one thing for Jesus, and he uses the word ‘Satan’ in different ways, sometimes in an apparently factual way, but other times it is used symbolically. I make this point because Jesus doesn’t present a clear notion of what Satan is, although more than not, the Satan seems to be a linguistic device used by Jesus.

 

Is he saying that the Satan is real?

 

Yes.

 

Is he using the term Satan in the same way that we use it today?

 

No, not really.

 

The idea we have of Satan, is that he is a powerful, evil being, who is out to get us, but I don’t think that is exactly what Jesus understood Satan to be, or how he presented the idea of Satan. Even when we read the story of Jesus in his face-to-face encounter with Satan, I don’t think that representation of Satan is meant to be taken literally.

 

This may be problematic for some people, but the reason I think this is the case, basically comes down to the way the story is told. The story follows a formula which is very much like a parable, and as we know, parables were used by Jesus to paint a picture of something else that was happening. We might be tempted to read the story as a literal account, because Jesus is at the centre of this particular story, and it’s not about a fictitious character. It sounds like it’s an eye witness account, which might also persuade us that this interaction really happened, but it wasn’t. In the story Jesus is alone in the wilderness. If we read it as an eyewitness account, then we have to believe that someone secretly followed Jesus into the wilderness, hiding behind rocks and bushes, so as not to be seen, then remain quietly hidden when Satan appeared, somehow follow Jesus and Satan to the pinnacle of the temple, and then to the high mountain where they could see all the kingdoms of the world. He would have also had to have been within earshot of Jesus and Satan, and remain covert as he listened to them talk. I mean, it’s not impossible that this happened, but I don’t think anyone actually believes that some note taking, third party, was secretly spying on Jesus and Satan. The most likely explanation for us having this story, is that Jesus told it to his disciples, as an explanation of something that happened at the start of his ministry, and he told it as a parable. Jesus was a great story teller, and I can imagine him sitting down with the disciples one night, and him telling them this story. I imagine they would have been completely aghast, but as with most of his parables, I think this story was representing another truth, which is actually much more serious than the literal representation we see. That the Satan described in the story, is something that existed and was present within Jesus.

 

Jesus could’ve explained how he went of a kind of vision quest in preparation for beginning his ministry, where he was forced to deal with his own ego, wrestle with his own desires, and confront his own weaknesses, but that wasn’t his style, and if he had done that, then his disciples probably wouldn’t have understood what he was talking about either, because they weren’t always the sharpest of followers. However, if he spoke to them in terms they understood, and in a way that made them listen, then that would’ve been all the better.

 

So, am I saying that Satan is not real in this story?

 

No, I think the Satan is very real in this story. I think the Satan in this story is more real and more terrifying, because it is something that was within Jesus, and because of this, and because of how Jesus speaks about Satan, I believe the Satan is a very real problem today, because it’s something which is within us too.

 

With all of this said, I think there are two things that Christians need to be concerned about. The first is the reality of the Satan and the satanic in the world we live in, and the second is how we deal with them.

The Satan is mentioned throughout most of the Bible as an accuser and an adversary. This is closer to what I think the Satan really is when it is mentioned in the Bible, and when we think about the Satan in this way, then we should be worried and concerned about the power of Satan in our world today, and of the Satan within ourselves. If we look at the world we live in, then we see people everywhere standing against, and accusing those who are considered to be ‘other’. We live in a world that embraces this kind of satanic power, and which has itself become the Satan. This isn’t anything new, the world has always been this way because it is fallen and broken, but the Christian church has embraced the satanic, and is perhaps collectively, the most powerful instance of the Satan in the world today. Christians have led ministries in accusing people, telling them how and why they aren’t good enough to be loved by God. The church has been the adversary of those who are considered ‘other’, such as the LGBTQ community, people of colour, and people of other faiths; and of those who are in need, like refugees and the poor. The church has become anti-Christ and has openly ignored the teachings of Jesus. It has failed to love those who are otherwise unloved, neglected the poor, shunned the stranger, exploited those who are in need, and called for those who are in prison to be executed. The church has looked to the world to sustain it, rather than relying on God; it has tested God for signs and fabricated miracles when it ran out of patience and so created its own, and it has bowed down to the ways of Satan for the sake of power, rather than seeking God’s kingdom.

 

This all comes down to the fact that we have failed to deal with the Satan which exists within us individually. We have failed to face our own demons and deal with them, and we have bowed to our own egos. We have taken the Satan as it exists within us, and have projected it onto something external, which we can then choose to ignore. We have passed the problem onto God, and in doing so we have washed our hands of our failings and weaknesses. In just the past couple of years, so many stories have surfaced of church leaders who have committed numerous sex offences, pastors who have stolen from and defrauded their churches, vicars who have been complicit in covering up abuse in the church, and there have even been people high up in church organisations who have committed murder.

 

This is deplorable and whilst we might put these failings down to a few bad apples who have incorrectly professed themselves to be Bible believing followers of Jesus, I think we have to admit that we have all embraced the Satan. I know I have. I have judged and accused people, I have neglected the poor and those in need, I have chosen to ignore the teachings of Jesus, but I know that those failings come down to me. I need to change and I know I need to keep seeking God in order for that to happen. I think it’s important that we own this for ourselves, and not blame it on the shadowy figure of an external Satan. We need to deal with the darkness that is within us.

 

The church has become known for its judgment rather than its love, and that needs to change.

 

 

Text taken from “Unanswerable: Exploring the Complexities of the Christian Faith and Biblical Truth”, which is available from Amazon, and from all good book shops. An audiobook is also available at https://mindmole.bandcamp.com/music