“Then one of the lawyers answered and said to Him,
‘Teacher, by saying these things You reproach us also.’
And He said, “Woe to you also, lawyers!” (Luk 11:45-46)
In his classic text Satan and his gospel Arthur Pink does an in-depth study of Satan, showing that he is indeed not “a relic of superstition, the myth of a bygone era”, but alive and well and ruling the planet. The legendary poet and playwright Goethe accurately penned down modern man’s view of Lucifer when he had his Mephistopheles say: “I am the Spirit of Negation”. Often the evil one is seen more as an abstraction than a reality.
The implications of this are very problematic. If Lucifer embodies negation, it means the following – “to thrust, to stop …to deny …to drown, to stifle in water; to drown or inundate” (Websters). If we accept that Scripture often uses water as a metaphor for humanity (see Rev 12:15 – “So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood”) then it is clear that it is the individual that is slowly being drowned by the waters of humanity.
The main reason this occurs is because this notion of Satan is often found in accepted religious packaging. We no longer register when the Word states that “Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light”, and the verse following it completely passes us by – “Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness …” (2 Cor 11:14-15).
Arthur Pink writes about this extensively – “The apostles of Satan are not saloon-keepers and white-save traffickers, but are for the most part ordained ministers. Thousands of those who occupy our modern pulpits are no longer engaged in presenting the fundamentals of the Christian Faith, but have turned aside from the Truth and have given heed unto fables.” There is a satanic priesthood active IN the church.
Christ never attempted to convert the Pharisees and the experts on Scripture, but instead condemned them in the strongest possible language. Examine Christ’s tirade in Matt 23:13-33, which He ends by saying “Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?” Jesus addresses this satanic priesthood which is found IN the church, because “you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (verse 13). Most of this satanic priesthood (without being born again) is tied to the horns in the outer court. How this is possible is examined in the next teaching.
- Sela: Try to determine why Christ acted against the religious leaders in such a harsh manner.
- Read: 2 Sam 22; Prov 26; 1 Thess 2
- Memorise: 2 Sam 22:34-35
