Satan Demons Angels and Spiritual Warfare

[face2face]

1Pe_5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

1 Pe 5:8 νηψατε γρηγορησατε οτι ο αντιδικος υμων διαβολος ως λεων ωρυομενος περιπατει ζητων τινα καταπιη​

You seem to have swallowed the very lie that the devil spread, namely that he doesn't exist.

A false assumption on your part!

Lets look at what does exist shall we?

Context:

In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. 5:6 And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand 5:7 by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you. 5:8 Be sober and alert.

Your enemy the devil (false accuser), like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. 5:9 Resist him, strong in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering 1 Pe 5:8–9.

So what is the false accuser here?

You can see the context is speaking about pride which comes from our nature and the faith required to ensure that nature is not given over the lust or weakness of faith!

I'm sure you are already seeing the connection between

Your enemy the devil (false accuser), like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour

AND

your brothers and sisters throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering

What is the connection between this false accuser and the sufferings of Christians all around the world?

Answer:

If you didn't have this fallen angel theology infection you would see the problem lies beneath virtually every verse of the letter! Peter refers directly to the suffering of his readers in three texts. In 1:6, he refers simply to “all kinds of trials.”

This brings you great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various trials. 1 Pe 1:6.

We learn much more from 3:13–17

For who is going to harm you if you are devoted to what is good? 3:14 But in fact, if you happen to suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. But do not be terrified of them or be shaken. 3:15 But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone (humans!) who asks about the hope you possess. 3:16 Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you. 3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if God wills it, than for doing evil. 1 Pe 3:13–17.

But also refers specifically to people who “speak maliciously” against the believers also in 4:5

They (humans) will face a reckoning before Jesus Christ who stands ready to judge the living and the dead 1 Pe 4:5.

Finally, in 1 Peter 4:12–19 Peter labels the suffering his readers are undergoing a “fiery ordeal” which speaks of their sharing in the sufferings of Christ (verse13), and suggests that they are suffering because they bear the name “Christian” (14,16).

Now if you had an understanding that all this is being spoken of in Peters Epistle, you would know these were not the trials of ordinary life (illness, poverty, death) but some kind of real physical and visable persecution!

So whoever the persecutor was, it was the authorities at the time who were "like" a lion devouring at will!

Peter was saying they must be on guard from those they can see, touch and hear, not some make believe invisible power roaming the earth destroying at will.

The gullibility of your doctrine is so hard to take serious.

F2F

 

[face2face]

@Christian Soldier are you keeping up?

So far, we have been able to identify a number of false accusers and adversaries, none of them come close to the fanciful notions of a pitchfork wielding fiery god!

Out of interest can you remember when this was placed in your mind? Were you young by chance?

F2F

 

[face2face]

Jesus is quoting/summarizing the OT there. So Jesus is not 'inventing' a new imaginary character, or individual, or mystical darkness, but referring back to that which was already accepted by the Hebrews in the OT. In koine Greek it is "του σατανα".

Act 26:18 ανοιξαι οφθαλμους αυτων και επιστρεψαι απο σκοτους εις φως και της εξουσιας του σατανα επι τον θεον του λαβειν αυτους αφεσιν αμαρτιων και κληρον εν τοις ηγιασμενοις πιστει τη εις εμε​

Acts. 26:18 does use parallelism, thus equating "darkness" as "the power of the Satan". It is His (the Adversary's, Satan's) "power". The darkness is not the Adversay itself, but that which the Adversary utilizes against God, whose power is Light. You seem to have the confusion of the attribute mixed or co-mingled with the being/person.

Out of Interest, did you look at the OT from where Jesus is drawing his thoughts?

26:17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ Acts 26:18.

“I, the Lord, officially commission you; I take hold of your hand. I protect you and make you a covenant mediator for people, and a light to the nations, 42:7 to open blind eyes, to release prisoners from dungeons, those who live in darkness from prisons. Is 42:6–7.

Jesus was commissioning Saul who would become Paul, to be Christ to the Gentiles - to complete the work Jesus didnt do during his ministry! Jesus is actually saying here to Saul, that he would suffer for Christ names sake and take a message into the Gentile world, a message which would release people from the condemnation of sin which leads to death (prison)

Paul speaks of this work here: (I will highlight your Satan of Acts 26 in Red)

15:53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 15:54 Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 15:55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 15:57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ! 15:58 So then, dear brothers and sisters, be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Co 15:53–58.

The Power of Sin is personified everywhere in the NT - if you want references, let me know

F2F

 

[Christian Soldier]

@Christian Soldier are you keeping up?

So far, we have been able to identify a number of false accusers and adversaries, none of them come close to the fanciful notions of a pitchfork wielding fiery god!

Out of interest can you remember when this was placed in your mind? Were you young by chance?

F2F

God placed in my mind when I was a child. You really do have a major issue with Gods Word don't you. God talked about Satan a lot and He gave us a bunch of warnings about Him, but you think you're too smart to listen to anything Gods has to say. Do you see Him as some old man, suffering from dementia and confusion.

 

[face2face]

God placed in my mind when I was a child.

I think you mean your teachers.

You really do have a major issue with Gods Word don't you.

No I love it! Its the hidden wisdom which is inspiring - I hope one day you can see it in all its glory.

God talked about Satan a lot and He gave us a bunch of warnings about Him, but you think you're too smart to listen to anything Gods has to say.

As we are finding in this thread this imaginary creature does not exist...so now you can move on to the "good fight" which the Apostle Paul taught you!

Do you see Him as some old man, suffering from dementia and confusion.

Your words

F2F

 

[face2face]

@Christian Soldier - whats also noteworthy is when the falsehood is understood can you imagine how many other parts of the Bible you will need to open your eyes to? This is what is coming to Christianity C.

F2F

 

[Fred J]

Satan and those Angels who rebelled against God, wee all cast down to the earth before Adam sinned. Then when the second Adam came (Christ) He defeated Satan and His Demons and bound them so they could no longer deceive the nations.

Fair enough that's your spin on things, so you're take is, once he's cast down to earth, he can't go up anymore?

Even to participate in the council of GOD in Heaven he is also not allowed?

 

[Christian Soldier]

I think you mean your teachers.

No I love it! Its the hidden wisdom which is inspiring - I hope one day you can see it in all its glory.

As we are finding in this thread this imaginary creature does not exist...so now you can move on to the "good fight" which the Apostle Paul taught you!

Your words

F2F

You don't believe that the Bible is Gods Word, you don't believe that God speaks to His Children through His Word the Bible. That's why you rubbish Gods Word, and claim is was made up by some goat herders from thousands of years ago.

You don't love Gods Word, because you never embrace it. You always twist it to extract some mystical black magic out of it. God is not a Wizard, who rewards wise guys for cracking his secret code. the true God of the Bible, is the opposite. He reveals the truth to dumb Sheep and hides it from the wise guys, so your theology is completely messed up.

What does this good fight, which the Apostle Paul taught involve, according to you. The only fight a Christian fights is to uphold the truth of the gospel and bare a faithful witness of the gospel. There is no secret hand shakes of codes to crack, putting on the armor is nothing more than obeying the gospel, so there's no need to add Gnosticism to it.

 

[Christian Soldier]

@Christian Soldier - whats also noteworthy is when the falsehood is understood can you imagine how many other parts of the Bible you will need to open your eyes to? This is what is coming to Christianity C.

F2F

I'm absolutely willing to be corrected, by anyone who holds to the Orthodox interpretation of the Bible. But I refuse to subject myself to private unorthodox interpretations, as they invariably lead to false Demonic Doctrine which destroys people and leads them straight to hell.

The most important thing in life is, what we believe. Your adversary Satan knows this so He does everything within His power to deceive you and lead you away from the simplicity of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. He confuses you and deceives you into believing that the gospel is very complicated and only those who figure out the formular will be saved.

Your enemy wants you to rely on your wisdom and your own good works, to impress God and cause Him to accept you into heaven. This is what all false religions, sects and cults teach. But there's no place for that nonsense in the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

[face2face]

I'm absolutely willing to be corrected, by anyone who holds to the Orthodox interpretation of the Bible. But I refuse to subject myself to private unorthodox interpretations, as they invariably lead to false Demonic Doctrine which destroys people and leads them straight to hell.

And that worked well for Judaism, right? It was a "sect" which Paul said he belong to and not Orthodox Christianity!
Every post of yours "always" has error.
"The Way" today is not in Orthodox Christianity which was polluted 2000 years ago!
Hopefully you will live long enough to see...
F2F

 

[BlessedPeace]

When I was a kid I use to think Demons were metaphor. Not really existing anywhere at all.

God created all things including the evil and the good both of and from Himself. Demons had to be metaphor of a kind of scapegoat to cast all evil upon.

Then I saw one. I think God opens our ability to see in direct proportion to our capacity to understand his language and direct communication with us.

When I saw that first Demon within someone I know professionally so to recognize how her face had morphed on this particular occasion so to make her natural appearance vanish, I knew what I had to be seeing. And it explained what many have witnessed in her temperament and consider to be her Sociopathic and Bipolar personality disorders.

After that, I think our eyes are opened more as we trust what God allows us to see.

Demons are here. It's fascinating to know this because I see that.
Quite frankly, Id have preferred to remain ignorant.

 

[Christian Soldier]

Fair enough that's your spin on things, so you're take is, once he's cast down to earth, he can't go up anymore?

Even to participate in the council of GOD in Heaven he is also not allowed?

Satan is currently bound and disabled, so He can't come into the presence of God to falsely accuse the brethren. Jesus stripped Satan of His legal right, to bring charges against Gods elect.

Satan did have the legal right to keep people in His prison, but that ended when Christ came and overpowered Satan and kidnapped His prisoners. Now Satan's prisoners belong to Christ and Satan has never been released so He has never been able to bring any new charges against Gods elect.

If you studied the bible, all of this would become simple to understand.

 

[BlessedPeace]

Satan is currently bound and disabled, so He can't come into the presence of God to falsely accuse the brethren. Jesus stripped Satan of His legal right, to bring charges against Gods elect.

Satan did have the legal right to keep people in His prison, but that ended when Christ came and overpowered Satan and kidnapped His prisoners. Now Satan's prisoners belong to Christ and Satan has never been released so He has never been able to bring any new charges against Gods elect.

If you studied the bible, all of this would become simple to understand.

Ephesians 2 and 6,and other books, are wrong?

 

[Christian Soldier]

And that worked well for Judaism, right? It was a "sect" which Paul said he belong to and not Orthodox Christianity!
Every post of yours "always" has error.
"The Way" today is not in Orthodox Christianity which was polluted 2000 years ago!
Hopefully you will live long enough to see...
F2F

Paul was a devout Jew, who became a devout Christian after Christ converted him. It's ridiculous to suggest that Paul remained a practicing Jew after he was converted to Christianity. only a fool w would miss this fact.

Jesus Christ established Orthodox Christianity and it remains exactly the same as it was 2000 years ago when He established it. I don't have the time to sift through the dirty laundry of those who you say polluted Christianity. I know those Devils have always been around, but I give them ZERO oxygen but you obsess over them.

I don't know why you're in awe of false prophets, why don't you focus on those Shepherds God appointed to teach dumb sheep like you and me. We don't benefit from having our heads buried in the gutter examining all the filthy trash the enemy dishes out. We should ignore the enemy and focus on God and His people.

 

[face2face]

Satan is currently bound and disabled, so He can't come into the presence of God to falsely accuse the brethren. Jesus stripped Satan of His legal right, to bring charges against Gods elect.

Satan did have the legal right to keep people in His prison, but that ended when Christ came and overpowered Satan and kidnapped His prisoners. Now Satan's prisoners belong to Christ and Satan has never been released so He has never been able to bring any new charges against Gods elect.

If you studied the bible, all of this would become simple to understand.

Again, no basis! You are not alone with this deception...so many in this forum speak of this thing nowhere written in the Word and so deceived are they perpetuate it over and over until like Blessed they see dead people.
The mind is affected by the stream of thought which runs throughout and when that thought is set on deception it can produce all manner of evil.

F2F

 

[face2face]

Paul was a devout Jew, who became a devout Christian after Christ converted him. It's ridiculous to suggest that Paul remained a practicing Jew after he was converted to Christianity. only a fool w would miss this fact.

Where did i say that? Are you doing that thing again C?

Jesus Christ established Orthodox Christianity and it remains exactly the same as it was 2000 years ago when He established it.

The same as Judaism... the house was vacated (they went out!) - after 2000 years the house is there, but its run by falsehood but a day is coming when that house will be cleaned out!

 

[Christian Soldier]

When I was a kid I use to think Demons were metaphor. Not really existing anywhere at all.

God created all things including the evil and the good both of and from Himself. Demons had to be metaphor of a kind of scapegoat to cast all evil upon.

Then I saw one. I think God opens our ability to see in direct proportion to our capacity to understand his language and direct communication with us.

When I saw that first Demon within someone I know professionally so to recognize how her face had morphed on this particular occasion so to make her natural appearance vanish, I knew what I had to be seeing. And it explained what many have witnessed in her temperament and consider to be her Sociopathic and Bipolar personality disorders.

After that, I think our eyes are opened more as we trust what God allows us to see.

Demons are here. It's fascinating to know this because I see that.
Quite frankly, Id have preferred to remain ignorant.

I know exactly what you mean by saying you would have preferred to remain ignorant of the knowledge that there are cases of demonic manifestations. I witnessed a friend turn violent, and he was running at strangers in traffic and trying to attack the occupants inside the vehicles. I ran after him and tried to stop him, but he seemed to have superhuman power and he just threw me off him like I was a rag doll.

He was frothing from his mouth and his voice changed, this happened in a busy part of the city and the local security guards tried to subdue him but they couldn't restrain him either. A bunch of police cars arrived and a group of officers finally restrained him by using their tasers, I think they tased him four of five times while they tried to cuff him.

He was finally cuffed and his ankles were also tied together and they placed a mask over his head and then strapped him to a stretcher then took him to hospital, where the Doctor injected him with a powerful tranquilizer. He was later transported to mental health facility where he was was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

I visited him after he was released and I asked him what that was all about and he wasn't able to explain it. He had never previously experienced anything like it before, but he did tell me that something strange happened that evening before we went to town. He told me that while he was sitting at home answering some messages on his phone, some dog like creature manifested on his back and it was barking and growling at the side of his face.

He shouted at it and turned and wrestled with it for a moment and it disappeared. He insists that it wasn't an illusion because he grabbed it's head and the sound it made was real. I asked him why he didn't mention it to me when I came over on that evening and he said because I knew you wouldn't believe me and you'd think I was going insane.

He sought the advice of various secular and religious experts, and he eventually found a spirit board in his house after he was advised to search the house to see if it contained any occult items. It turned out that his sister used the spirit board in the house with a few of her friends. They were supposedly communication with some dead friends.

That experience lead my friend to the Lord, he realized that there are wicked enemies in the spiritual realm. So that experience had a good outcome, it frightened him so much that he ran into the arms of the Lord for protection and he has stayed close to the Lord since then.

 

[face2face]

Early discussions of the Satan tradition were predominantly theological in their approach. Interpreters took for granted that the canonical texts bore witness to a uniform doctrine. In particular, they assumed that the authors of the Hebrew scriptures conceived of Satan in the same way as the authors of the NT. Such theological presuppositions characterized treatments of the topic well into the modern era. More historically minded scholars, on the other hand, were reluctant to take up the topic of Satan and evil spirits, perhaps in part because they did not consider such doctrines of invisible evil forces to be appropriate to critical historical inquiry. In the late nineteenth century, critical scholars finally entered the discussion of Satan. These interpreters were more attuned to diversity among the biblical writings than their less critical predecessors had been. These scholars were unwilling to assume that the authors of the Hebrew scriptures had the same beliefs regarding Satan as did later Jewish and Christian writers. Nor did they assume that the Hebrew Scriptures were themselves completely uniform in their depictions of this figure, but they discerned diversity and development even among these early biblical writings. Ryan E. Stokes, The Satan: How God's Exucutioner Became the Enemy (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2019), 3.

Clearly there is doubt at the state of this work! Incredible to say the least that an author of a book would open say "did not consider such doctrines of invisible evil forces to be appropriate to critical historical inquiry"

And right they were! The foundation of this doctine is built on sand and all the fabrication is forced on passages so called Scholars know nothing about!

That word developement is a dangerous word dear readers! Dangerous indeed!

F2F

 

[face2face]

I know exactly what you mean by saying you would have preferred to remain ignorant of the knowledge that there are cases of demonic manifestations. I witnessed a friend turn violent, and he was running at strangers in traffic and trying to attack the occupants inside the vehicles. I ran after him and tried to stop him, but he seemed to have superhuman power and he just threw me off him like I was a rag doll.

He was frothing from his mouth and his voice changed, this happened in a busy part of the city and the local security guards tried to subdue him but they couldn't restrain him either. A bunch of police cars arrived and a group of officers finally restrained him by using their tasers, I think they tased him four of five times while they tried to cuff him.

He was finally cuffed and his ankles were also tied together and they placed a mask over his head and then strapped him to a stretcher then took him to hospital, where the Doctor injected him with a powerful tranquilizer. He was later transported to mental health facility where he was was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Yes, early first century did not have diagnosis for such illnesses, but thankfully today we have the tools to properly label these illnesses and deseases.

I visited him after he was released and I asked him what that was all about and he wasn't able to explain it. He had never previously experienced anything like it before, but he did tell me that something strange happened that evening before we went to town. He told me that while he was sitting at home answering some messages on his phone, some dog like creature manifested on his back and it was barking and growling at the side of his face.

He shouted at it and turned and wrestled with it for a moment and it disappeared. He insists that it wasn't an illusion because he grabbed it's head and the sound it made was real. I asked him why he didn't mention it to me when I came over on that evening and he said because I knew you wouldn't believe me and you'd think I was going insane.

He sought the advice of various secular and religious experts, and he eventually found a spirit board in his house after he was advised to search the house to see if it contained any occult items. It turned out that his sister used the spirit board in the house with a few of her friends. They were supposedly communication with some dead friends.

That experience lead my friend to the Lord, he realized that there are wicked enemies in the spiritual realm. So that experience had a good outcome, it frightened him so much that he ran into the arms of the Lord for protection and he has stayed close to the Lord since then.

No evil spiritual realm C. All explainable no different to that of Legion!

You need to understand the first century nuances, which the Lord worked with and will do so again in a world wise to the ailments of the flesh.

F2F

 

[Christian Soldier]

Ephesians 2 and 6,and other books, are wrong?

Paul was reminding believers in Eph 2 that we all once walked according to the Prince of this world. But that was before we were saved and all the unsaved are still walking according to his ways to this day. The binding of Satan was for Gods elect only, Christs victory over Satan is of no use to unbelievers, they are still in bondage to Him.

Christ came to redeem that which was lost, God never lost the reprobate as they were never His people to begin with. Christ only came to pay for the sins of the elect. The rest are going to pay for their own sin in hell.

The armor of God is the gospel, Christians put on the gospel and it protects them from the lies of the enemy. The wrestling match is for our integrity and credibility, the enemy wants to disable us by exposing some weakness in our testimony. You can't bare a good testimony and witness for he Lord if your doctrine is false or your theology is unbiblical.

So the real battle is to defend the truth of the gospel and proclaim it to every creature while the enemy is constantly attacking you with slander and false accusations and picking on any weakness in you. We wrestle against the enemy and the temptation to sin, we also wrestle against the world because it's also the enemy of God. So our three enemies are Satan, self and the world, we wrestle all three at the same time so we need the full armor and our weapon needs to be sharp at all times.