Books by Ian Rogers
Books by Ian Rogers
The existence or otherwise of Satan, the Devil, a mighty but evil opponent to God and tempter of mankind, is a thorny biblical issue. Some say he is a literary device, a personification of the human mind’s tendency to selfish, immoral and deceitful thoughts and actions. Satan, in effect, is us. Others point to Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness when Satan approached Jesus three times (Mt 4 v 1-10). The temptations were:
We see these temptations enacted when
when those running for high office claim a Christian faith that they barely follow to win the votes of “the religious constituency”.
Devil-doubters ask: How did the gospel writers (or anyone else) know about the temptations which took place when Jesus was alone? ’Because Jesus told his disciples and then it was recorded for us’ the Devil-accepters answer. ’Since Jesus wouldn’t lie, and as Satan ’appeared to him’ Satan must exist’. However, the ’Satan is part of us’ camps would say
Jesus could have been speaking metaphorically
the disciples could have misinterpreted his description of being tempted and then personalised Satan, and
even if the disciples correctly recalled Jesus’ description of his own internal battles, the gospel writers may have externalised Satan because they believed Jesus was too pure to be internally tempted!!
While the first principle for Christian belief is to look at what Jesus said, it’s worth looking both forward and back in the Bible for the derivation and meaning of terms. According to William Barclay’s Gospel of Mark commentary, first published in 1954, the term ’satan’ originally eant ’adversary’. For example, the false prophet Balaam was prevented from cursing the Israelites (Numbers 22 v 22) by an angel who obstructed his way. The angel from God is referred to as the ’satan’ - adversary- against Balaam - even though this was a good angel.
In the book of Job ’Satan’ is the name of the ’prosecuting angel’ who’s task was to present a person’s shortcomings before God, the prime ’witness for the prosecution’. The alternative word ’devil’ or ’Devil’ means ’slanderer’ i.e. false accuser. Barclay claims that the personalisation of Satan to ’Satan - the great deceiver’ happened during the Israelites exile in Babylon because they took on Babylonian ideas of a cosmic war between Good (Ormuzd) and Evil (Ahrimak). This is current today as Zoroastrianism or even as Yin and Yan. In Hebrew thought ’Satan’ was always subsidiary to God - an opponent but not an equal. he was always a ’cosmic loser’!
Exactly how the concept of Satan developed depends on one’s view of Bible accuracy; on how often it has been revised and on the dating of various books. Biblical scholars differ widely so I’m afraid, without a pre-existing leaning towards one view or another, they shed little light on the ’internal’ or ’external’ debate’. We tend to confirm our own prejudices by selecting scholars/denominations/groups that bolster our own views.
The New Testament seems more helpful. It is here that the majority of references to Satan, the Devil and the Accuser occur. Some say that when Jesus, the Christ, appeared in history the Devil (- or Satan, the two having become synonymous) was forced into more open earthly activity rather than working discreetly through, for example, Pharaoh against Moses or through Jezebel against Elijah; or that, his cover having been blown, his activities were more visible to Christians. Whatever the reason, Satan is seen by St Paul as a very personal active being, for example (1 Corinthians 5 v1 & v5) “a man (in your church) is living with his father’s wife… deliver him to Satan for destruction…” Similarly the author of Revelation writes: “When the thousand years (of reign by Christ) are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison…to deceive the nations” (Revelation 20 v 7). However, Revelation is a notoriously metaphorical book and, beyond expelling the incestuous man from the church, just how does one hand over a physical man to a spiritual being?
In an earlier blogs I describe how, in my agnostic years I investigated both the major religions and looked for ‘scientific’ evidence of a spiritual world by examining paranormal phenomena. I concluded that paranormal events did occur, classified them into subgroups and noticed that these paralleled - or were corrupt examples of - the gift of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12 v 7-11). I felt there was enough evidence - though not scientifically repeatable or testable - for the existence of spirits both good (angels etc) and bad (e.g. evil spirits driven out of people), all in accordance with Christ’s ministry and Biblical teaching. The rightness of the Bible and its clean, wholesome feel compared to some occult texts was partly what led me to Christ.
The greater prompt, however, was a recognition of sin in my life, my experience of temptation and a dawning understanding that forgiveness and release were only available through Christ’s sacrifice as the son of God. While I recognised our human ability to invent evil for ourselves I also realised that if bad spirits exist then it is likely a top-dog, evil spirit exists. It doesn’t matter whether we call him Satan or Humperdink - he’s not nice, should be avoided and, when encountered, needs to be opposed, standing firm in Christ and using the armour of God (Ephesians 4 v 27. Eph 6 v 11). It is still a struggle sometimes but we can trust St Paul’s words: ’(we can be) confident… that he (God) who began a good work in (us) will carry it on to completion …’ (Philippians 1 v6). It makes no sense to have a God who is less than all-mighty and, if He is almighty, He will not fail!!!
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