It could easily be argued that the biggest villain in history is Satan.
After all, according to Christian doctrine it was Satan who tricked Eve
into eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil which set
in motion an incredibly unfortunate chain of events known as the "fall
of man". Here's the story:
Gen 3:1-4,13
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the
LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must
not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees
in the garden, but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that
is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will
die.'"
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman......
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"
The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Notice that the text says nothing about Satan. It states that a talking
serpent confronted Eve and deceived her into eating the forbidden fruit.
Also according to Christianity, all of mankind is under the curse of
"original sin" which postulates that all are born into sin and deserve
to spend eternity in hell unless they are saved by the Christian man/god
savior named Jesus. The curse of original sin via Adam and Eve is established
in the following New Testament verses:
Rom 5:12
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death
through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned--
Rom 5:17
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that
one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision
of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one
man, Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:19
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were
made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will
be made righteous.
In other words, all of mankind which has existed in the past, exists
at this time, and that will exist in the future are cursed as a result
of Satan tricking Eve in the Garden of Eden. Eve then persuaded Adam to
also eat the fruit and thus both of them and all their descendants were
doomed to be "sinners".
Let's take a closer look at this character called Satan, who Christians proclaim is the source of all these problems in the world. To begin, as already noted, Satan never appears in the story of Adam and Eve which is described in the book of Genesis. Satan's name never even appears in the book of Genesis at all. Eve was tricked by a "talking serpent" which is never identified as a being called Satan.
Where do Christians get this idea that the talking serpent in
the Garden of Eden was Satan? They establish their claim on a few verses,
none of which are found in the Old Testament(OT). Two New Testament(NT)
verses are:
Rev 12:9
The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the
devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the
earth, and his angels with him.
Rev 20:2
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or
Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
But these verses are built on thin air. We have NO reference from the
OT which confirms that Satan is a serpent, or a talking serpent, or that
Satan was even in the Garden of Eden. The Christian claim that it was Satan
who tricked Eve is entirely concocted from a few verses in the NT which
cannot be confirmed by any OT scripture.
Jesus was recorded as saying he saw Satan fall from heaven:
Luke 10:18
He (Jesus) replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
This also cannot be confirmed by the OT as there is no scripture which
establishes this. Also lost in all the Christian advertising about Satan
is that God cursed the serpent who tricked Eve.
Gen 3:14
So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will
crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
The serpent will be doomed to crawling on it's belly and it will eat
dust all the days of it's life. God didn't mention if the serpents ability
to talk would be taken away so we don't know if the serpent would be able
to talk after the curse was invoked. Now if this serpent was really Satan
as Christians proclaim to the world, then we have a few problems here:
Satan was doomed to crawl on his belly and eat dust ALL the days of
his life. However the NT states that Satan tempted Jesus long after the
incident in the Garden of Eden.
Matt 4:8-10
Again, the devil (Satan) took him (Jesus) to a very high mountain
and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this
I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: `Worship
the Lord your God, and serve him only.'
If Satan took Jesus to the top of a very high mountain, it would have
taken a rather long time since Satan was doomed to crawl on his belly the
whole trip. And how could Jesus bow down and worship Satan if Satan was
already on his belly? Could Jesus have bowed down lower than the ground
itself?
And if Satan was the talking serpent who was doomed by God to crawl
on his belly, how then could we have the following verses from the book
of Job?:
Job 1:6-7
One day the angels (or sons of God) came to present themselves
before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to
Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming
through the earth and going back and forth in it." (Satan in the OT
is man's accuser, and not an adversary of God)
Satan is one of the angels or sons of God. The text does not say that
a talking serpent also presented himself before God. Satan says he has
been roaming the earth, going back and forth in it. This would have taken
a great deal of time if Satan was crawling on his belly, occasionally stopping
from time to time to eat some dust. In other words, there is no reason
to believe that God EVER cursed Satan with the same curse that he used
on the talking serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Contrary to what mainstream Christianity proclaims to the world, the talking serpent and Satan are not the same entity and have nothing to do with each other. The OT does not support the assertions by Christians that Satan is responsible for the deception of Eve and Adam. Nor does the OT support the often made Christian claim that Satan is the source of "evil" and the enemy of God.
There is not one instance in the OT where Satan disobeys a command from
God. The book of Job also reveals that Satan and God wanted to wager against
each other regarding the character of mankind who Satan would like to find
fault with. God then suggests to Satan that he consider Job for a test
of endurance.
Job 1:8
Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?
There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who
fears God and shuns evil."
God then gives permission for Satan to begin the torment of Job:
Job 1:12
The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in
your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger." Then Satan went
out from the presence of the LORD.
This sets in motion a series of deaths and calamities upon the livestock,
servants, and family of the righteous Job so that God and Satan can see
which of them is right about the character of Job. All of these events
were allowed by God. Satan was given permission to use whatever means he
deemed appropriate to "test" Job. However God instructs Satan not to harm
Job himself.
Satan obeys the guidelines which God gave to him. As Job doesn't curse
God, the torture is continued as God again suggests that Job would be an
ideal candidate for this type of cosmic wager between two "higher" beings.
The angels once again present themselves before God in Job 2 and
Satan again asserts he is roaming the earth. God then, for the second time,
suggests the unfortunate (yet righteous) Job as a good candidate for a
torture test..
Job 2:3
Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job?
There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who
fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though
you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason."
The cosmic wager continues with new guidelines issued by God:
Job 2:5-7
(Satan states) But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and
bones, and he will surely curse you to your face."
The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, he is in your hands; but
you must spare his life."
So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job
with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Job is then subjected to a number of revolting physical ailments and
torments. As an aside, the fact that the blameless, righteous Job was afflicted
with physical torments of any type exposes a major Bible contradiction
in that Prov 12:21 declares:
Prov 12:21
No harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of
trouble.
During the entire scenario in which this cosmic wager between God and
Satan plays out, Satan never once disobeys God. Satan never "rebels" and
shows no signs of ever having fallen from heaven as Jesus declared in Luke
10:18. It is God who recommends (twice) that the righteous Job would be
a good candidate for torture. Job's servants, his cattle and his children
are all killed as part of this cosmic wager and God never lifts so much
as a holy finger to restore those who were exterminated in the process
of this wager being played out. Nor does God express any concern
over the fact that innocent bystanders were killed.
Satan is simply one of God's court of angels, whose function is to find
fault in man and to be his accuser. Satan was created by God and serves
Gods purpose. Who is the villain in this story? There isn't one verse
in the entire OT where a character named Satan ever disobeys God or is
identified as a fallen rebellious angel. Another insightful example into
the nature of the Bible God and Satan is found in the following:
1 Chron 21:1
Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census
of Israel.
This verse would appear to indicate that Satan stirred up trouble against
Israel. However from another book in the Bible, the same incident is described
much differently.
2 Sam 24:1
Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited
David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."
What we have here is one event with two different protagonists. In
one case it was God who incited David to take a census of Israel, while
in another case it was Satan who incited David.
Bible apologists will often attempt to explain this contradiction away by claiming that God simply used Satan to accomplish his work of inciting David in an attempt to smooth over this glaring problem. The problem doesn't go away however. It manifests into an even bigger problem if the NT claims about Satan are to be believed. If Satan is a rebellious angel who was cast down from heaven, there is no reason to believe that he would wish to cooperate with God in any way.
If Satan was the tool which God used to incite David then that means Satan is easily used and controlled by God. God can harness Satan anytime he wishes. This leads to the embarrassing conclusion that all the hype and hoopla from Christians about Satan being a clever, deceitful enemy who sneaks up on people and leads them into sin, overlooks the fact that all the time, God is controlling and using Satan to accomplish whatever whims he wishes to indulge in. Satan is but a puppet on the manipulative hand of God. The incredibly "evil" Satan is in actuality, one of God's tools which God uses to do his will.
The most disturbing conclusion awaits just ahead. If it was God who
incited David to take a census of Israel, either by himself or using Satan
to do it, we are left with a revolting display of Godly behavior. After
the census was taken, the story continues:
2 Sam 24:10-15
David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting
men, and he said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done.
Now, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done
a very foolish thing."
Before David got up the next morning, the word of the LORD had come
to Gad the prophet, David's seer: "Go and tell David, `This is what the
LORD says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to
carry out against you.'"
So Gad went to David and said to him, "Shall there come upon you
three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your
enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now
then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me."
David said to Gad, "I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the
hands of the LORD, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into
the hands of men."
So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the
end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan
to Beersheba died.
God first incites David to take a census:
2 Sam 24:1
Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he incited
David against them, saying, "Go and take a census of Israel and Judah."
David does exactly as he is instructed by God. David then realizes
he sinned. How David realizes this is unknown. How was doing what God instructed
him to do a sin? The Bible elsewhere states that David had always done
what was right in the eyes of the Lord except in one matter unrelated to
this census issue:
1 Kings 15:5
For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had
not failed to keep any of the LORD's commands all the days of his life--except
in the case of Uriah the Hittite.
If David obeyed God, how could he have sinned? If he sinned by carrying
out God's instructions, what do you suppose would have happened if he had
disobeyed and decided not to take a census?
As 2 Sam 24:10-15 shows, the Bible God then sinks deeper into psychosis by offering David three "options" of punishment for his "sin". David turns the decision over to God after declaring that he doesn't want to fall into the hands of men and God proceeds to kill 70,000 people by using a plague on them.
The Bible God has incited a man to do his bidding, then establishes that by following his instructions, the man has sinned. God then exterminates 70,000 innocent people for the "sin" of a man who was following God's instructions in the first place. This is the same God Christians claim is all holy, all righteous, all loving, who cannot tolerate sin, deserving of all praise and worship, and who holds the moral high ground of the universe. These same Christians chirp about how loving their God is, while decrying Satan as the epitome of "evil" who is responsible for all the ills of mankind and the world.
In light of the behavior demonstrated by God and not by Satan, it would
be hard to find a verse more absurd than the following often quoted verse
used by Christians to inspire their faith in God:
Eph 6:11
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against
the devil's (Satan's) schemes.
In reality, the evidence from the Bible indicates that it's God who
is the schemer and not Satan.
This is the type of theological swamp in which Christianity has laid
it's foundations . The next time you hear a Christian attempt to tap dance
around these types of disturbing issues relating to their God and their
arch enemy Satan, the response should be: If you really believe the
Bible is the word of a God worthy of your worship, then you're stuck with
exactly the type God you deserve.
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