Sunday, January 22, 2012

Wintertime For Hitler

Bear with me for a few as I head into odd territories, an expidit which has been kicking around in my head for awhile now. (sidenote- you wouldn't want to be in my head-scary architecture)
I believe that satan is a fallen angel, who attempted an uprising in Heaven, sought to be like God. Satan and his minions, fellow fallen angels, are noted all throughout Scripture; there could only be no devil if the Bible were false-since it is true, what it declares is true.
So...satan and his angels fell, and are stuck here. From the beginning he had sought to corrupt the things of God, spoil His Creation.
At the cross, Jesus Christ defeated all of satan's plans by redeeming this dross world, these clay pots of sin we like to call "Us".
But lets start back a few thousand years, after Adam and Eve messed up and started populating the earth.
Genesis 6:1-8
1Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, 
2that the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 
3Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 
4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 
6The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 
7The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” 
8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
That's quite a chunk, but basically men evolved from sinners to evil nasty sinners who only looked to do evil.
You can find plenty o' books written about "The Nephilim" (noted above-in the middle of the text) which conjecture all kinds of crazy things, such as hybrid demon/men.
Dr. John MacArthur suggests in his study notes that the Nephilim were humans possessed by fallen angels, which I find more reasonable, as we have examples of such possession all through Scripture.
Here's where I get to add a conjecture: that satan and his minions sought to hold all of humankinid in thrall, would have loved to exterminate any thought of God, any mention of Him from the lips of Man.
(Guess how they're doing these days!)
Put in in understandable terms: Imagine if Hitler had won, and his Reich held sway over the entire planet for thousands of years. That's the sort of corrupt kingdom that satan/ the Nephilim were heading. It got so bad that Democrats won the...scratch that...so bad that MAN was totally corrupted, with the exception of one man, Noah, who found Grace in the sight of the Lord.
Think about that. Satan thought that he had won down here, as 99.9999999999999999% of the world was in his control. Overconfident much?
But God has everything under HIS control, always. Noah, one witness, was enough for God to restore humanity. God's Grace on Noah extended to his children with him in the ark, and here we went again, downgraded and growing more evil in each succeeding generation.
We read in Daniel of spiritual conflicts between the forces of God (angels) and the forces of satan (fallen angels), the latter of which hold sway over kingdoms here on earth...for now.
We read in Revelation how the whole thing turns out- satan and all of his icky ilk are tossed into 'The Lake of Fire' and God continues into eternity with His redeemed Creation. Game over. 
I don't fear demons, or satan- they are defeated. I fear God.
In fear of God are elements of right respect and love-just as when I was a child I loved, respected and feared offending my father, so it is with God. May you come to know that fear.

1 comment:

Doug said...

It's amazing to me how these posts sometimes end up far from where I intended-look for another post soon about a tangential topic.