Divine Meditations - Part 2, God and the Devil

When I was in my early teens, I would take a lawnmower around the neighborhood and mow lawns for $5 or $10, depending on the size of the lawn. I was once given the address and phone number for an older couple who needed their lawn mowed, but I wouldn't need to use my own mower because they had a mower. When I arrived, I went out to the shed and it was a pretty typical lawn shed except for one thing - it was plastered inside with nudie pictures. I was a little creeped out by this, not because I was repulsed by the photos -- at that age, I was quite interested in them, of course -- but because something felt deeply wrong. Having already gone into the shed, and having already anticipated the $20 I was about to earn, I hauled the mower out and mowed the unusually large back yard. Later that afternoon when I was finished, I got the payment, thanked the old man and his wife, got on my bike and pedaled home. Nothing bad happened but I never went back or called them again and I never told anybody about the photos.

Deep down inside of us, there is a part of us that knows that danger is real, that horrible things happen to people and that one of those horrible things could happen to us. This knowledge is why we have the capacity for fear. From a scriptural perspective, this is an aspect of the fallen world and this knowledge is the very thing that Adam and Eve did not have in the Garden of Eden, having not yet partaken of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In the collective psyche of humanity, the negative potentialities of the human condition have tended to get associated with one another, and this association (like many things) has tended to get personified, anthropomorphized. This anthropomorphic personification of evil we call "the Devil" in English, but it has gone by many names and forms throughout history and across the globe.

In many world religions, it is held that the force for good (God or the gods) and the force for evil (the Devil or devils) are pitted against one another in a form of unending cosmic warfare. This invisible cosmic warfare is taken to be the explanation for evil in this world -- the good does not always win out because sometimes it is simply overpowered by the evil. Today, we might refer to this as Star Wars theology -- the Universe is pervaded by an impersonal force comprised of two, equal halves, each standing in opposition to one another. The "dark side" of the force acknowledges no moral limits and is invariably based on might-makes-right. The "light side" of the force holds to mutuality in relations, and has faith that the soft power of being right will never be completely obliterated by the hard power of might. While the details vary from one religion to another, the sketch outline is remarkably consistent.

This is not the orthodox Christian view of the battle between God and what Paul terms "spiritual wickedness in high places" (the heavens). It is not the view of ancient Judaism, of which Christianity is a sect. In fact, it is not obvious from the texts exactly what the Devil wants. God's goals are clearly spelled out, however. God's highest aim and end is to glorify himself. In John 12, Jesus is prophesying his death and he prays aloud, "Father, glorify your name!" Afterwards, there is a thunderous voice from heaven, audible to everyone around: "I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." In Isaiah 48, God says, "For my own sake, I [delay my wrath]. How can I let myself be defamed [by destroying you completely]? I will not yield my glory to another." The language is very clear, especially in the Old Testament. The imagery is that of the conquering king who, by annexing more and more territory (ultimately, the entire world), makes himself and his immense power famous.

So, the view of orthodox Christian theology is that the battle between good and evil is singularly unfair -- in the end, good wins, completely. It's not even a proper war, since the ending has been written ahead of time and will not fail to come about.

In this post, I want to delve a little deeper into understanding the Devil. I will start by looking at the Bible in reverse -- who the Devil is in Revelation, and then work back towards the beginning of the Bible.

In Revelation, the Devil is a Great, Red Dragon and this dragon is identified with the Serpent of Genesis (Revelation 12:9). Conveniently, this connects the endpoints of the Bible together so that we know that John is speaking of a syncretic character. That is, John is specifically referring to the Devil as a combination of all the ideas of the Devil that had come before him and are included in the text. This is the conception of the Devil that I will explore in this post.

In Revelation, John uses the phrase "the Devil and his angels", a phrase he borrowed from Jesus, in Matthew 25:41. This phrase is very important, because it sets up an antonymy between God (and his angels) versus the Devil (and his angels). This antonymy does not set up God and the Devil as equal-but-opposite -- it merely sets them up as opposites. However, it is symptomatic of an important structural antonymy that is present throughout the entire text, a topic I plan to explore further in future blog posts. For now, it suffices to point out that the Devil has angels and these angels stand in a relationship similar to (yet different than) the relationship between God and his angels.

So, what are the aims and ends of John's Devil? What is the war with God all about? Is he angry with God? Is he trying to build an empire and God is standing in the way? What is it that the Devil wants so badly that he is willing to hazard certain destruction in order to attempt to achieve it?

To answer this question, we are going to look at the main appearances of the Devil in the Bible. The first major appearance John alludes to in Revelation 12 -- the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. Here, the Devil has taken on the role of the Deceiver. The second major appearance is in the murder of Abel by Cain (I John 3:12). Here, the Devil has taken on the role of the Murderer. The third major appearance is in the possession of Judas (Luke 22:3). Here, the Devil has taken on the role of the Betrayer. And the last major appearance is in the book of Revelation, where the Devil is fully unmasked (no longer pretending to be the good guy), where he takes on the role of the Rebel. An important side-appearance of the Devil in the Bible is in the book of Job, where he plays a prominent role in the story. Here, the Devil takes on the role of Satan, that is the Accuser (see also Revelation 12:10).

These roles are very important in decoding what the Devil wants. To say that the Devil is a deceiver, a murderer, a betrayer, a rebel and an accuser is true enough, but it fails to penetrate through to the heart of the matter. What is the unifying theme that ties all these various activities together? What is the overriding motive that has driven the Devil to take on each role, by turns, of deceiver, murder, betrayer, and so on?

The answer is found by taking a longitudinal slice of the entire Bible and looking at its own big themes. It can be argued that the largest themes of the Bible are (a) the glory of God and (b) whole-hearted devotion to God (the rejection of idolatry). When the Bible presents God-in-himself, it does so in a way that consistently and persistently emphasizes the glory of God. And when the Bible considers the relation between God and man, it consistently and persistently emphasizes that a relation of utter devotion to God is the only relation that does not result in destruction.

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. (Romans 1:25)

Here, Paul sets up the contrast between idolatry and devotion to God in the simplest and starkest terms. The alternatives are worshiping and serving the Creator (the true, original cause), on the one hand, or worshiping and serving things that are just another creature, like yourself. So, this is the fundamental aim of the Devil, who is a creature -- to cause men to turn their worship away from the Creator and onto any created thing besides. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul prophesies the coming of the anti-Christ and he refers to the Lie, the lie-of-lies:

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. (2 Thess. 2:9-12)

What use are "displays of power through signs and wonders (miracles)" if not to convince people to believe that the anti-Christ is a divine being, deserving worship? So, this is the lie, it's the lie that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden when the Serpent first sowed the seeds of doubt into the minds of Adam and Eve -- "You will not certainly die" if you eat of the tree, he said. When Adam and Eve took the word of the Serpent over the word of God, they rejected God's worshipfulness and turned their worship to a created being, instead.

But it is a mistake to think that the Devil's ploy to turn human worship away from God and onto himself is merely one of imposture or some kind of chivalrous competition between gentlemen. When we look at the roles that the Devil has taken down through the ages in order to further his agenda, we can work out a very specific pattern of thought. Specifically, the Devil believes he is worthy of worship and utilizes deceipt, murder, betrayal and the like, because he is implicitly accusing God of utilizing the very same means to secure the worship of his creatures. The Devil's argument with God boils down to the most childish argument of all: "If you can do it, then so can I." If God can receive worship, then so can I. And if I can't receive worship, then God is evil because he has a double-standard in that he takes for himself what he denies to others. And since God has this double-standard, he is no more worthy of worship than any other being. In fact, God must be willing to use any means to achieve his ends (to glorify himself), so how am I any worse than God if I, too, utilize any means to achieve my ends, including murder, betrayal and, ultimately, knowing rebellion against my Creator?

But what of the Devil's angels? Where has the Devil collected this rotten band of minions? The best hint is found in Jesus's discourse with the Jewish leaders in John 8:

Jesus replied, "... I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father."

"Abraham is our father," they answered.

"If you were Abraham’s children," said Jesus, "then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father."

"We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself."

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God 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 desires. 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. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God." (vv. 38ff)

Here we see that Jesus has identified these deceptive religious leaders as the children of the Devil. But note that Jesus is disputing with the Pharisees -- these are men of repute, these are the popes, priests, televangelists and rockstar missionaries of that time. Yet Jesus is calling them the children of the Devil. Not the Romans. Not the lepers, the demoniacs, the prostitutes or the swindlers. The influence of the Devil in the world is through the idolatry of the heart, and it is this idolatry that is the unifying, global force of the synagogue of Satan (Revelation 2:9). This idolatry is found in its purest, most crystalline form only among the ranks of the devoutly religious, especially the religious leaders.

The Devil has been frequently and variously depicted in literature, film and the arts. The Lucifer comic series by Neil Gaiman depicts something very close to the set of motives of John's syncretic devil, the Great, Red Dragon. In that series, Lucifer is depicted as mostly aloof and indifferent to human matters. As a being that was once first among God's creations, Lucifer has only one over-arching motive: to remain eternally separated from God. God is depicted in the series as having complete omnipotence, even over time itself (he has the power to un-create the entire material world). After obtaining the power to create matter (something he does not have at the beginning of the series), Lucifer creates a Garden of Eden of his own -- the only rule in this Paradise is that no one must worship anyone else. Gaiman is not really presenting a positive theology of God but he has perhaps accidentally depicted the conflict between the Devil and God in almost exact agreement with orthodoxy.

Lucifer's point-of-view in the comics is not so bizarre or irrational. After all, why should the glory of God matter to his creatures? I do not have to desire to displace or one-up God in order to ask this question in all honesty. The Bible's answer begins with God's transcendence. In Isaiah, God says of himself,

"My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Neither are your ways my ways,"
Declares the Lord.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are my ways higher than your ways
And my thoughts than your thoughts."

God's glory matters to us because he tells us it does. Because God is transcendent, we have no basis on which to meaningfully question his assessment. We think of small things and we work in small ways. God thinks of higher things, and he works in unimaginable ways. We could accuse God of having a double-standard -- "Do as I say, not as I do" -- but this ignores the fact that God sent his only Son to Earth in order to unify us with God himself, where he dwells (in heaven). There are questions whose answers we cannot understand. The Bible answers them this way: You cannot understand it now but, one day, you will understand it through the supernatural assistance of God himself. In the meantime, God asks you to love him and devote yourself completely to him alone, and no one else. This is your whole duty.

In the culmination of history, this will be the issue over which the battle-lines of Armageddon will be drawn. The kings of the Earth, the whore of Babylon, the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet will be gathered together for war against God's son. The angels will call out to gather the birds together for a great feast because the defeat of the Devil is certain. That it is certain is God's answer to the Serpent's deception in the Garden, "You will not certainly die," he said to Eve. Adam and Eve certainly did die. The fate of the Devil and his rebellion is also certain.

In the Gospels, Satan enters into Judas after dipping his hand into the bowl with Jesus. [This would likely have been a traditional Passover meal consisting of lamb, prepared as a stew or curry and eaten with an unleavened flatbread, somewhat like dipping crackers.] After this, Judas seeks an opportunity to betray Jesus to the authorities. He leads the Jewish authorities, along with a large band of men, to a place where Jesus went to pray, a place likely known only to Jesus and the twelve. There, Jesus is arrested and taken to be crucified.

Satan's participation in the crucifixion stands in contrast to God's faithfulness. John 3:16 says, "God so loved the world, that he gave up his only, begotten son". God has not created us in order to betray us and abandon us to fate. He has not wormed his way into our lives in order to lead us into a trap or see us destroyed. It is true that we suffer, sometimes bitterly. Rarely is our suffering the direct result of our own, personal sins. But God has not betrayed us. His faithfulness is proclaimed prolifically throughout the Old Testament. Psalm 119:90 says, "Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures." The imagery in this passage is that God's loyalty to his creation is as enduring as the very earth upon which we stand.

The story of Cain and Abel is the story of the first murder and illustrates the direct fruits of Adam and Eve's choice to abandon God's protection and provision in the Garden. God warned them that to eat of the would bring death. And no sooner had they eaten, than death began to spread upon the earth. In I John 3:12, it says that Cain "belonged to the Evil One" which can be taken to mean he had been possessed by the Devil. Whether or not he was possessed, he was doing the Devil's work and, thus, belonged to the Devil. This is an important point because it shows how choice is the glue that holds together the Devil and his angels -- it is the choice to do the Devil's work that makes one a child of the devil, see John 8 above. This choice does not always appear evil (as murder always does). Matthew 23 contains Jesus's famous pronouncements of woe upon the Pharisees. He says,

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. (v. 15)

Here, we see that proselytizing is itself part of the Devil's work on the earth, and Jesus identifies the religious leaders of his day as the children of hell (literally Hades, god of the underworld) who perform this work.

In the Garden, God told Adam and Eve, "Of any tree of the Garden you may freely eat." Think for a moment what a blissful state-of-being that would be. No odious toil. No deadlines. No paperwork. No hustle and bustle. Just peaceful, quiet, harmonious abundance and comfort. Lest he be accused of imprisoning Adam and Eve in this Paradise, God also gave them the capacity for choice. "You must not eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, for when you eat from it you will surely die."

When the Serpent questioned this claim to Eve, he did so by planting the seed of doubt into her mind. "You will not certainly die," he said. The Serpent is a realist. Be reasonable, he is saying, no one can know the future with certainty, not even God!

God is completely honest about himself, his motives and his relationship to Adam and Eve. They know that God is their Creator. They know that his motive in creating is to bless them with perfect comfort and bounty, to see them multiply and fill the Earth, to have them rule over the birds, the fish and the land animals, and to tend the Garden and keep it. They know that God's relationship with them is open and mutual -- it says that God walked in the Garden in the cool of the day, indicating that this was his daily routine.

God is the Creator of everything in Heaven (including the angels) and Earth. Even the Devil is a creature, a creature that is in rebellion against God. God informs us that his knowledge of the future is exhaustive:

I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, "My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." (Isaiah 46:10)

There is no possibility of confusion about who God is, what he wants from us, what he gives us, and what our relationship with him is. This was true of Adam and Eve and it is equally true of us.

The battle between God and the Devil is not a battle of equal-opposites. Rather, it is God's work to overcome the fallen world and to redeem it and bring it back to life, the life that it had before humankind rebelled against God and put the world under the power of death. It is the battle between God's truth and the lies of fallen creatures. It is the battle between God's life-sustenance and the murder of fallen creatures. It is the battle between God's faithfulness and the treachery of fallen creatures. It is the battle between God's rightful supremacy and the rebellion of fallen creatures.

The name "Satan", in Hebrew, literally means "accuser" and is the word that describes a prosecutor in a court case. In Job, Satan takes on the role of the accuser and claims that Job only serves God because God so bountifully blesses Job. God then turns Job over to Satan's power, to do as he wishes, except he is not to kill Job. This book captures the essential nature of human suffering. Suffering is not the result of random chance, as the modern doctrine asserts. Suffering can be a test, but it is glib to wave away everyone's suffering as a test -- is God testing the poor child who is dying of leukemia? Ultimately, suffering always serves some purpose and it is rarely obvious to the one who suffers what that purpose is. But it is the Accuser who drives the furnace of suffering because the accusation contains within itself the seed of doubt, the suspicion of ill-intent. To Eve, the Accuser says, "God does not really have your best interests at heart." And to God, the Accuser says, "Job is only devoted to you in return for all the good things he gets from you." In a future post, I plan to address the problem of evil and suffering in more depth.