The Dark Side

Those who are Star Wars junkies understand the phrase “The Dark Side.” The character named Darth Vader was second in command to the Emperor for the evil Galactic Empire who were in opposition to the rebel forces. There was a time when Luke Skywalker, the one who would eventually lead the rebels against the empire, chose to leave his Jedi training so he could go rescue his friends and face Darth Vader. Obi-Wan Kenobi, knowing Luke’s Jedi training wasn’t complete, said “This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the dark side of the Force” (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0000273/quotes). The Star Wars story is great and has captivated many for years. With the next installment in the series coming out on the big screen this coming December, the love for Star Wars has been rekindled and the force has been awakened.

Christians understand there is a real battle of good and evil out there, and we are smack dab in the middle of it. Darth Vader is not the opponent we are fighting; Satan is our opposer. Let us never forget that Satan is real, and there will be many encounters we will be faced with in our lives. With this in mind, let us go back to Scripture to make sure we are talking about him as a reality.

Satan’s Dawning

Many have asked over the years if Satan is a created being. The answer is yes. The only being in Scripture we read about who doesn’t have an origin is God. By that I mean the deity: the Father, the Word (Son) and His Spirit. The Apostle Paul tells us in speaking of God’s Son: “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created by Him and for Him” (Col. 1:16). Since God made everything, Satan is included in that number.

Satan is included among the angels as we look at Scripture. When the earth was created, the morning stars sang and the sons of God shouted for joy (Job 38:7). Jesus talks about the devil and his angels in Mt. 25:41. In Ezek. 28:14 there is a condemnation against the King of Tyre, where Satan is also referenced as “the anointed cherub.” In the first two chapters of the book of Job, Satan was among the sons of God. Angels were created beings, but they were present at the creation of the world. Therefore, Satan would have been included in that number.

Satan’s Downfall

Satan was created perfect. Go back with me to the Scripture in Ezekiel 28 and let’s examine verses 11-19:

Again the word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, you had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the ruby, the topaz, and the diamond; the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper; the lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald; and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, was in you. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, o covering Cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; your corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I put you before kings, that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities I, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; it has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have become terrified, and you will be no more.

Contextually this was against the King of Tyre, but when you examine what is listed much of this is directly applied to the power behind the King of Tyre: Satan himself. The King of Tyre was not perfect; he was not in Eden; he was not on the holy mountain of God. The imagery used in this chapter gives us some of the details behind what happened with Satan that caused his downfall. He was created perfect. In Genesis 1:31 after God was done creating on day six, He said it was very good. This statement included Satan, and we know at this point his downfall wouldn’t have happened yet.

However, when unrighteousness was found in him, he was cast down. Think about what we know from Scripture and put the big picture together. In Rev. 12:7-9 the dragon and his angels waged war in Heaven against Michael and his angels. The great dragon, the serpent of old, Satan was cast out of Heaven along with his angels. In 1 Tim. 3:6, one of the qualifications of an elder is someone who is not a new convert. The reason for this is so they will not become conceited and incur the condemnation of the devil. We learn a bit about the sentence prepared for these angels. In the judgment scene in Mt. 25:41, Jesus talks about the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. In 2 Pet. 2:4 we are told the angels who sinned were cast into hell and committed to pits of darkness reserved for judgment. In Jude 6 we learn that the angels who didn’t keep their own domain abandoned their proper abode and are kept by the Lord in eternal bonds under darkness for judgment day. After the seventy that Jesus had sent out returned and reported that the demons were subject to them in His name, Jesus talks about watching Satan fall from Heaven like lightning (Lk. 10:18). This had contextual reference to what they were able to do, but it seems there is also a reference to Satan’s fall from Heaven. In Is. 14:12 we read that the star of the morning and son of the dawn fell from heaven, cut down to the earth.

Putting it all together, Satan was an angel who became conceited and rebelled against God. He was cast out of Heaven along with those who chose to follow him. His eternal fate is sealed. He was not strong enough to defeat God, much less His angels. Therefore, having received the eternal sentence in Hell, he is waging war against those who are made in the image of God. How does he do this?

Satan’s Devices

Willard Collins used to talk about the three bullets of Satan from 1 Jn. 2:16: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” Paul said of Satan to the church at Corinth: “…we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11). We know from Scripture that Satan is described in many different ways and he employs many different devices in trying to take us down to Hell with him.

He is the tempter (Mt. 4:3). He is the dragon who deceives the whole world (Rev. 12:9). He is the ruler of this world (Jn. 12:31). He is the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2). He is the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). He is a murderer and the father of lies (Jn. 8:44). He is the accuser (Zech. 3:1).

The name Satan means an adversary (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/satanas.html). The word devil means slanderer (http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/diabolos.html). Interestingly enough, this word in Greek is where we get our English word diabolical (https://answersingenesis.org/angels-and-demons/satan/what-about-satan-and-the-origin-of-evil/). I was doing some searching on the internet around this word diabolical, and I ran across a quote from the book The Princess Bride. This quote was left out of the movie, and it’s a shame. The character Vizzini in explaining to the man in black how smart he is speaks of himself in such a manner that we can see the following characteristics in someone much more sinister:

There are no words to contain all my wisdom. I am so cunning, crafty and clever, so filled with deceit, guile and chicanery, such a knave, so shrewd, cagey as well as calculating, as diabolical as I am vulpine, as tricky as I am trustworthy…I am the slickest, sleekest, sliest, and wiliest fellow who has yet come down the pike (https://books.google.com/books?id=5eAwAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA175&lpg=PA175&dq=there+are+no+words+to+contain+all+my+wisdom&source=bl&ots=mOBcqCXTNL&sig=grN_u2XPQoViOw6traGzOqVysHc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=tAT7VKbSG4uZgwSqwYGgAw&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=there%20are%20no%20words%20to%20contain%20all%20my%20wisdom&f=false).

From what we know about Satan, this fits the bill. He has all kinds of tricks in his bag as he attempts to lure us away from God who are Christians, but he also tries to keep people away from God who are not His yet. There are some myths about how Satan operates. First, it is a myth that the devil makes you sin. You’ve heard the phrase “the devil made me do it.” We can even see that in the Garden of Eden when Eve pointed at the serpent.  James tells us that we are enticed by our lusts, and the conception of such leads us to sin (1:14-15). The devil doesn’t make us do anything; we do that ourselves. Second, it is a myth that you can defeat the devil alone. Yoda told Luke about the only way to defeat the dark side of the force: "Only a fully trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080684/quotes). We are only able to resist the devil if we take up the full armor of God (Eph. 6:13).

Satan is going to do everything in his power to align us with him, away from God. The Emperor and Darth Vader tried to pull Luke Skywalker over to the Dark Side, but they were unsuccessful. That was fictitious. What we’re talking about this morning is real. Paul says "...our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12) The devil wants you to go to Hell with him. This morning if you are not a Christian, you are on the Dark Side. You need to become a child of God before your eternal sentence is sealed away from the presence of God paying the penalty of destruction (2 Thess. 1:8-9). You can make sure you are on the Lord’s side by repenting of your sins, confessing Jesus as the Son of God, and being baptized to have your sins washed away. If you haven’t been baptized into Christ, you are without the continual cleansing of the blood of Christ (1 Jn. 1:7; 1 Pet. 3:21). Why not take action now to make sure you are walking in the light rather than walking in darkness?