Class Notes: 3/22/2020

Exod 20:1-6; 2Cor 10:3-5; The doctrine of evil part 11

Click to watch Youtube video: https://youtu.be/gQbe4iwfd6Y

Exod 20:1-6; Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2 "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

3 "You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 "You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.

5 "You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

False gods and their associated Idolatry is comprised of anything that is promoted above or in opposition to God consciousness, divine establishment, believing in Jesus, or PMA of Bible Doctrine.

2Cor 10:3-5; For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ...

We are presently in a study of the doctrine of evil that is the product of believing the false narrative of the public lie that satan, the god of this world, fabricates and raises up in opposition to truth and righteousness that are the product of believing the Person and Word of the Living God of the universe.

At this point we are looking at Lewis Sperry Chafer's description of satan's system in his Systematic Theology Volume 2 pages 100-111. Picking up from where we left off...

CONCLUSION TO SATANOLOGY
In the light of that which has been written in preceding divisions of satanology, it may be concluded that, by creation, Satan is the highest of all angels and that he fell into sin, being befogged by the distortion of sanity which pride engenders.

His sin took the form of an assumption to act in independence of the Creator-an undertaking which, of necessity, became a concrete embodiment of untruth as certainly as God is Truth.

According to the divine method of dealing with creature assumption, as seen in all past history, Satan is allowed-if not required-to put his scheme of independent action to an experimental test, and its present development, though manifesting even now its corrupt nature, is yet incomplete.

The inerrant, prophetic Scriptures carry the stupendous enterprise on to the unavoidable, irrational, incomprehensible spiritual bankruptcy which characterizes the consummation of this gigantic experiment.

During these terrible ages of trial, Light is pitted against darkness, and Truth against falsehood. Little attention can have been given to Scripture on the part of men who propose to account for the evil one as a mere influence in the world.

Of such wicked inattention to revelation, Dr. Gerhart writes: "In the history of Jesus the fact of the deadly hatred of Evil to the ideal Good, of fiendlike wickedness toward spotless Virtue, no one can deny.

Those who choose to ascribe such appalling inhumanity and diabolism exclusively to Jews and Gentiles, (instead of referring it to a mighty personal evil spirit, as its background,) do not get rid, as they suppose, of a devil.

Then man is himself resolved into a devil; for he is invested with a kind and degree of malice which dehumanizes human nature, turns earth into pandemonium, and history into an interminable war of incarnated fiends" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, I, 697).

Perhaps both things here stated are true. Not only are Satan and his angels to be seen in their true light as fiends of darkness, but humanity as allied with them is evidently seen by God to be wholly evil, if not diabolical.

It is such who, having cast in their lot with the satanic lie, must, if not saved out of it, share the lake of fire which originally was prepared only for "the devil and his angels" (Matt 25:41; Rev 20:10;).

It is to these fallen, God-repudiating human beings that the gospel of eternal redemption and heavenly glory is to be preached.
How matchless is the grace of God toward these enemies Rom 5:10;)

And how incomprehensibly blessed are the words of Christ, "... should not perish, but have everlasting life"! John 3:16;

*end excerpt*

1John 3:8, "When anyone commits a sin, he has become the agent of the devil."

The old sin nature is usually the source of temptation; volition is the only source of sin.
The decision to sin immediately puts the believer into the cosmic system, where they become an agent of the devil.

The works of the devil can only be destroyed when believers reside and function under the filling of the Holy Spirit inside God's spiritual power system. We are the products of our own decisions; therefore, we bring disaster on ourselves.

Satan's strategy regarding nations is found in Rev 20:8; regarding unbelievers in Luke 8:12; 2Cor 4:3-4; 2Thes 2:7-10; Col 2:8; regarding believers in 2Cor 2:11 and to accuse believers in Job 1:6-11; Zech 3:1-2; Rev 12:9-10;.

© Copyright 2024, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.