I sat down recently for some coffee and conversation with a Satan worshipper. I was really curious and honestly wanting to understand how somebody comes all the way around in their mind to worshipping Satan. There is a part of me that understands many young people out in our world would like to rebel against their parents, the status quo, the "norms" of our society, or the expectations that have been put on them, so in that sense I could see a person claiming to love Satan, essentially to piss off those in authority over you. In talking with this individual I came to realize that the devil has weaved a much darker and deeper rooted lie into our culture and into the hearts of young and old alike, the lie that he himself is not evil.
In discussing with this individual I asked frankly what their understanding of God and the devil actually were. They informed me that their understanding is that God is someone who rewards our good deeds and blesses us. The devil is not the opposite to God, but rather adjacent to him, in that their understanding is that the devil is the person who punishes evil people for doing evil things.
I was honestly blindsided and shocked to hear this response. My initial thought was "wow, that is such a cartoony way of thinking of the devil", but even that thought made this lie so very clear. The devil has used his influence for generations to portray himself, not in opposition of God, but rather in partnership with him. God being the deity concerned with rewarding and blessing his children, and the devil being the deity concerned with punishing the wicked.
This brief explanation made it so clear why so many people have become so lost. The way our society is viewing the devil, is almost like he is the hero of the story, stepping forward to challenge those that are evil and punish them to the depths of hell where he will torture them for eternity, while the Lord (in alignment with this purpose) is sitting up on his throne in heaven in agreement with the devil's plans and allowing him to do his works so that God can focus on his job, which seems to be overseeing the good and making sure they get their just rewards.
Al Simmons, a decorated U.S. Marine, becomes Spawn after being brutally murdered during a mission. His murderer is a hired mercenary, and also his best friend, is sent to kill Al because of his obnoxiously persistent sense of morality. Al makes a deal with the devil of this universe, Malebolgia, and becomes a Hellspawn in order to return to earth and seek vengeance on his enemies.
Just typing this out I am thinking of multiple examples in pop culture in which the devil has been portrayed to encourage this lie of who God is and who the devil is. It's really incredible how the devil has worked his way into our society and somehow come out at the end looking like a super hero, an avenger of the weak, a defender of the broken, the hope of the lost, who would step in at the final hour not to save the victim, but to drag the victimizer to hell and as a by-product the champion who saves the poor and meek souls.
Satan of the Marvel universe, Mephisto, is the creator the Ghost Rider. He created Ghost Rider by binding the demon Zarathos to Johnny Blaze, a human man. The Ghost Rider is now able to perform many super human feats, none more impressive than the "Penance Stare," which causes the sinner he is targeting to experience the same pains that they have caused on their victims. Mephisto refers to his domain as Hell, and one story showed his realm to be home and final torture chamber for some notorious historical villains, Adolf Hitler, Blackbeard, and Attila the Hun.
And so I'm sitting down to type out my first blog in over a year on such a simple topic, but clearly one that needs to be relearned because the lie has been rooted deep in our culture and the understanding of the truth of God is muddied. So here are some truths, straight from God's word:
Truth 1: God curses the Evil, He destroys the wicked, He is Justice
Ezekiel 26: 19-21
“This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I make you a desolate city, like cities no longer inhabited, and when I bring the ocean depths over you and its vast waters cover you, then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the earth below, as in ancient ruins, with those who go down to the pit, and you will not return or take your place[c] in the land of the living. I will bring you to a horrible end and you will be no more. You will be sought, but you will never again be found, declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Romans 12:19
Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the LORD .
Proverbs 3:33
The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.
I wanted to emphasize this truth first, because to many Satanists, this is the end goal that they are hoping for in their worship of the devil. Many of these people misunderstand that the devil is not the hero that punishes wicked and evil deeds. If the goal here is to punish the wicked, destroy evil, curse those who curse you, I've got news for you, the person you are wanting to follow is God. God is the defender of his children. God says that revenge is his, and he enacts revenge on those who have cursed us. You may not always see the ways that God curses those who curse you, but trust me when I say that when you see it you know that it can only be from God. Those who choose to love what is evil, those that choose to act without morality, those that choose to follow a path that causes destruction to others, also choose a path of destruction for themselves. God does not reward evil. God curses evil and he blesses his children. In my own personal life I have seen people curse my business, just for their own businesses to fail. I have seen people curse my family, for their stability to give weigh under them. I have seen people curse my God, just for struggles and pain and hardship to overtake them. I have felt immense sadness for my enemies because with every curse they heap onto my head, they are reaping 10 times those curses on their own homes.
Truth 2: God is Love, God Blesses his Children, God is Provider
1 John 4:7-11
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
I very nearly put all of 1 John 4 here. I encourage you to go read it yourself, and then again tomorrow and the next day for the rest of your life. This chapter so perfectly explains and captures the essence of who our God is. Our God is love. He just loves and he puts his Spirit in us and causes us to love one another, even the evil and wicked and sinners and liars and cheaters and adulterers and murderers and those who have caused us personal grief and those who have caused us personal harm and those who have gone out of their way to be cruel and hateful and harmful towards us personally or those that we love, we even love them, because the Spirit has possessed us so perfectly to love God's creation and love his children.
Deuteronomy 28:2-13 (CEV)
The Lord will bless you in many ways. The Lord will make your businesses and your farms successful. You will have many children. You will harvest large crops, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats will produce many young. You will have plenty of bread to eat. The Lord will make you successful in your daily work. The Lord will help you defeat your enemies and make them scatter in all directions. The Lord your God is giving you the land, and he will make sure you are successful in everything you do. Your harvests will be so large that your storehouses will be full. If you follow and obey the Lord, he will make you his own special people, just as he promised. Then everyone on earth will know that you belong to the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. The Lord will give you a lot of children and make sure that your animals give birth to many young. The Lord promised your ancestors that this land would be yours, and he will make it produce large crops for you. The Lord will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won't need to borrow any yourself. Obey the laws and teachings that I'm giving you today, and the Lord your God will make Israel a leader among the nations, and not a follower. Israel will be wealthy and powerful, not poor and weak. But you must not reject any of his laws and teachings or worship other gods.
God's word is chock so completely full of all of the blessings that he has for his children, and all of the ways that he will care for us and does care for us, I honestly had a hard time pinning down just one passage here. Here is the truth about God. God is the one who blesses us. God is the one that we can rely on. God is our father, he takes care of us. Even when things seem like they cannot possibly come out to our success, God will allow all of those around us to fall and will save us from destruction. He treats us like we are his children, he keeps his promises and he blesses us continually.
Luke 12:22-34
Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
God is our provider. He is first the creator of all things, then he is provider. When he says he is our heavenly Father he means just that. When we submit our lives to his will, he provides for everything that we need. In this way we don't have to wonder if we will make it, will we have a home, will we have food, will we have our basic needs, emotional needs, mental, spiritual needs met. If we are God's children, then God will provide everything that we need always. We don't have to wonder where our provision will come from tomorrow, it will come from God. We don't even have to worry about the worldly things that try to invade our thoughts and cause us stress. God already has a plan, he already has the answer. We just need to trust the question to him and he will provide the answer.
Truth 3: The Devil is the Father of nothing except Lies, He is the One who curses people to become evil and wicked
John 8:42-44
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
The devil is not the super hero in this tale. The devil, the real true life actual devil, Satan, Lucifer, cursed from heaven for betraying God, he is no deity and no god. He doesn't deserve your worship. He has lied to you. He has made you think that he is working with God to bring justice to a fallen world, but this is the fallacy of his lies. Satan himself caused sin to enter our world when he tempted Even in the garden. He brought sin to our doorstep and has continued from that day to bring it into our homes and schools and workplaces. Satan is not to be trusted, God has told us he is the Father of lies.
Revelation 12:7-12
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Does the devil love you? The devil loves that you love him. He has you ensnared in his trap. He wants you to believe that he is like God. He wants you to believe that he is love. He wants you to believe that he is trustworthy. He knows that his reign on this earth is short, because the seal is broken, the lamb is slain, Christ is alive after dying for our sins. The devil is completely terrified that he will not have the power to continue to rule. He is terrified of God's children. His power is limited and becoming more limited each day. The devil knows that the only thing he can do at this point to get back at God is attack God's children.
1 John 3:7-10
Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Beloved, God loves you more than you can even imagine. He wants for you all of his blessings. When you are wandering from his safety to follow the devils lies and persuasions you are harming yourself. You are experiencing the torment of sin, the anguish of separation from God, and the depression of a life lived without provision. You struggle financially, you struggle emotionally, mentally and spiritually. You experience depression, anxiety and other mental health problems. You toil and labor to not even have enough to live in a safe home. You work hard and have to decide between food and water, or gas and electric. You harm yourself in following the devil, who leads you away from a life of blessing and into the arms of slavery. And why would your precious Satan whom you love want this life of toil and misery for you? You are a good person, a hard worker. By societies metrics you should be receiving blessing, yet you are victimized. Why would your beloved Lucifer lead you to ruin? He harms you so that he harms God. He has no power. His only power is in manipulation and lies. He manipulates and lies you, God's child, to lead you away from your heavenly Father and his provision and blessing, so that God will grieve the pain and hurt of his own child. The devil wins because God hurts for you. In following your beloved Lucifer you are walking away from your provider, leaving the safety of your Father, and causing harm and chaos in your own life.
Zechariah 3:1-4
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”
Do you Love Lucifer enough to die for him?
Once I felt I had a good understanding of my friends perspective on Satan, I wanted to make sure they were left with this kind of final question. Do you love Lucifer enough to die for him? Jesus loves you enough to die for you. He proved that up on that cross. He could have walked away. He could have called the angels down to rescue him from his pain. But he chose to take that cross because it was the only way to give you life, to save you from death, and to prove to you that you are so much more valuable than any other creation ever made. God loves you, he's proven that. Would the devil die for you? Would you die for him?
John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
How can you resist the devil?
I am hopeful for some that you've come to the end of this read and are now looking for answers to help you walk away from Satan worship. God's got great news for you in that. You are already redeemed! You can accept the gift Christ has given you on the cross and you will be saved. You can resist the devil, you can bind him and ban him from your life. You can walk back to Christ's protection and provision and start again new living a blessed and fulfilled life under the wing of your Father.
Ephesians 6:10-12
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Acts 2:21-32
And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. David said about him: ‘I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, you will not let your holy one see decay. You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.’ “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.
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