Can Satan Make Me Do Something I Don’t Want to Do?

Gustave Doré, Depiction of Satan, the antagonist of John Milton’s Paradise Lost c. 1866 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Question: Can the devil tempt a born again christian into doing something they do not want to do?

Answer:  Temptation is, by definition, an enticement to do something wrong.  So yes, the devil not only can entice us to do wrong, but in fact is looking for every opportunity to do just that.  Will he entice us to do something we don’t want to do?  Yes, if it serves to get us to disobey God.  Of course, there are some things we don’t want to that he doesn’t want us to do either.  We may not want to serve God in the face of difficulty or danger, and Satan would be perfectly fine with us not serving God in such circumstances or any circumstances.

Perhaps your question is really can the devil make us do something wrong even when we don’t want to.  And the answer to that question is no.  He cannot make us do anything.  He can lie to us, seek to persuade us to do wrong things, and even create pressure for us to do wrong.  But we must choose to either believe his lies, follow his persuasion, or yield to his pressure.  Even if there were not devil, we are capable of choosing to do evil.  Our desire to be our own god is the same one Satan is following and so we are in one sense quite on the same wavelength with each other.

There are some people who have so fully yielded to Satan that they seem to lose control of their lives (see the case of the man in Mark 5:1-20), and children who somehow come under Satan’s influence might also be subject to his control (Matthew 17:14-20).    This is what is sometimes called “possession.”  The demon seems to have ability and freedom to operate through the body of the host he infects.  But even here there is a person there who can will for these demons to depart and who can be delivered.

Paul describes (Ephesians 2:1-4) three influences to evil in our lives:  Satan (the prince of the power of the air), the world (our coporate desire to be our own gods expressed in encouragement to one another to follow this instinct), and the flesh (our own inner yearning to be god and trust ourselves rather than Him).  On the day when Jesus establishes his millennial kingdom on earth (Revelation 20), he will greatly minimize the world’s influence (all people starting out will be believers) and he will banish Satan for a thousand years, and yet, at the end of that period, when Satan is released, there will be people ready to follow him in a military campaign against Jesus.

That is how crazy sinful we are.

Does Satan Have the Power of Death?

Question:  When someone goes in for an operation and others say it’s in God’s hands, is it, or is it in Satan’s hands, since he can give death not God–because God does not kill and God gave Satan the power of death.

Answer:  I presume you are thinking about this from the standpoint of the teaching in Hebrews:

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14).

I think, however, that you may be interpreting this without taking into account what the rest of Scripture says about who holds the right to determine whether someone dies or not.  You may recall that in the garden in Eden that God told Adam that in the day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he would die (Genesis 2:17).  Satan, through the serpent, contradicted that statement (Genesis 3:4).  But God declared to Adam after he ate it that he would return to the ground from which he was taken and also removed the couple from the garden so they couldn’t eat from the tree of life and live forever (Genesis 319, 22-24).  God also delivered one of Adam’s descendents, Enoch, from dying by simply taking him (Genesis 5:24).

When human sin became so great that God decided to send the flood, he told humans that this would happen in 120 years (Genesis 6:3) and decided to end all life but Noah’s and his family’s (Genesis 6:13).  After the flood God told Noah and all mankind that He was giving them the responsibility to take human life from those who murdered other humans (Genesis 9:6).  In Genesis 22 God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, but of course withheld his hand and provided a sacrifice in his place.

In the Exodus from Egypt God required the lives of all the firstborn of Egypt, saying that He would go through the land to accomplish this (Exodus 11).  In the laws He gave Israel through Moses He required the death penalty for several infractions other than murder (for example, kidnapping, Exodus 21:16) to be carried out by Israel’s leadership.

Now, in the book of Job, when Satan engineers the deaths of Job’s children, Job does not blame Satan, but says, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21).  Perhaps Job was just ignorant that it was really Satan who made that decision.  But we are assured that is not the case when Satan wants to afflict Job.  God specifically tells Satan that he must not kill Job (Job 2:6).  In other words, it is God alone who determines who dies.

But this leads us to think of a very helpful distinction we must always observe.  There is the primary cause of all things, God, and there are secondary causes that God uses to accomplish His purposes.  He determines who dies, but He puts it in the hands of human officials to carry out the sentence, and sometimes allows Satan to carry out the work of bringing a deadly situation to a human life.

So when the author of Hebrews says Satan has the “power of death” we need to think clearly about what that means.  Does it mean he has the absolute power to determine who dies and who doesn’t?  Apparently not.  In the context the author speaks of the slavery we are under to fear of death.  Could the “power of death” be referring to the power Satan has to make us afraid of death?  This makes much more sense in context.  In this sense, then, Jesus has broken his power by making it clear that death leads to an eternal life with God through Christ’s sacrifice.  Satan no longer has the ability or “power” to enslave us with the fear of death.

Randall Johnson

Related articles

• How much power does Satan possess? (altruistico.wordpress.com)

Who are the sons of God in Genesis 6 and Job 1?

Question:  In Genesis 6:2 and now in Job it refers to the sons of God and I’m sure  in other places.  We’re just beginning so I need to understand who the verses are speaking about.

Answer:  In Job the “sons of God” definitely are angels who appear before God along with Satan.  This has led many to suggest that this is the correct identity for those in Genesis 6:2.  On this view, angelic beings, particularly rebellious angelic beings, those who followed Satan, took wives from human women.  Their offspring were called the Nephilim.  Some have suggested that when their offspring died the spirits of these half-men, half-angels, became what we refer to now as demons, desiring to be in human bodies again and therefore eager to possess humans.

The problem with this view is that it assumes it is possible for two completely different “species” to mate and produce offspring.  This is especially difficult to believe of angels since they do not have bodies (they are “spirits” according to Psalm 104:4 and spirits do not have flesh and blood, Luke 24:39).  Angels seem to be able to adopt a physical form to appear to us, since we cannot see spirits normally with our physical eyes.  But does this enable them to also send sperm compatible with human female ova in order to produce offspring?  Seems very doubtful.

Another view is that the “sons of God” are men of accomplishment, rulers among men.  There is evidence that this is a way the Hebrew for this phrase could be used.  This might also help explain how new Nephilim came to be after the flood, when presumably fallen angels were no longer allowed to sire children by human women.  In Numbers 13:32,33 the spies sent by Moses to explore the promised land report Nephilim in the land.  This makes sense only if this is a general term for large and unusual people.  It cannot refer merely to offspring of angels.  Typical of such men is that they want more than the God-given allotment of one wife and they feel they have the power and influence to accomplish this.

A third view is the the “sons of God” refer to godly believers who contradicted God’s desire to marry only other believing women and instead married the “daughters of men,” meaning unbelievers. This resulted in a dilution of the faith in the subsequent families that were raised and resulted also in the sheer number of ungodly persons living at the time of the flood.  Only Noah and his family remained believers worthy of saving.

It is hard for me to decide between the last two views, but I see a lot of problems with the first view.  It can’t be ruled out but it is highly unlikely in my view.

Randall Johnson

Who Is the Destroying Angel in Numbers 16?

Question:  Who exactly is the “destroyer” referenced in 1 Cor 10:10, when interpreted in light of the wording of Exo 11:4, 12:23, and 12:29 in the NKJV translation?

Answer:  The incident referred to in 1 Corinthians 10:10 actually refers to an event that occurred in Numbers 16 when several Levites were challenging Moses’ authority as leader.  The leaders of the rebellion, Korah, Dathan and Abiram, were standing at their tents and God told Moses He was going to destroy all the assembly who was supporting them.  Moses asked Him to only deal with the leaders.  God opened the earth and swallowed them and their families alive.  Several of their followers who were offering incense on the altar were killed by fire.  When the next day the assembly came again to Moses and accused him of killing these leaders, God began to kill them with a plague.  Moses and Aaron offered a sacrifice on their behalf so that more did not die.

In Exodus 12 Moses told the Israelites that Yahweh would go “through the land to strike down the Egyptians” but that if they applied the blood of the lamb to their doorposts God would “not permit the destroyer to enter” their houses (verse 23).  Though it does not say a “destroying angel” did this in Numbers, Paul is undoubtedly assuming the Jewish tradition that the same angelic activity that occurred in Exodus with the slaying of the firstborn of Egypt (see Psalm 78:49) was repeated in Korah’s rebellion.  Whether the angel from God opened the earth, sent the fire that killed those offering illicit fire on the altar and sent the plague, or whether the angel was commissioned for just some of that action, we do not know.

It is possible that the destroying angel was the angel of Yahweh.  The angel of Yahweh (this means, the messenger of Yahweh) is a separate person from God but at times is identified as Yahweh (compare Genesis 16:7-11 with Exodus 3:1-6).  It seems best to understand this by positing that Jesus, the Son, is the angel of Yahweh.  We can understand this because we know that Jesus, the Son, is both equal with God and yet a separate personality from God the Father.  This helps make sense in this passage of Yahweh taking responsibility for opening the earth, sending the fire and the plague.  Yahweh did, but it was Yahweh the Son, not Yahweh the Father.

We see this stand out in stark relief in Genesis 19:24 when the text says that in judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, “Yahweh rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from Yahweh out of the heavens” (when you see LORD in all caps this is the English representation of the divine name, Yahweh).  The Son was bringing down judgment from the Father in heaven.

Interestingly, in 1 Corinthians 11 we read that some of the Corinthians were sick and some had died because they were violating another sacred symbol of God, the Lord’s supper, by their inappropriate behaviors.  God still does not tolerate wanton abuse of His holy symbols and leaders.  And that is the intent of Paul in this passage, also, to warn the Corinthians against offending God’s holy ordinances.

Randall Johnson

Can Satan Read Our Minds?

Question:  I believe that Satan cannot possess me but can he put thoughts in my head. It seems that he can, but if so how? How would he know my thoughts or control them without being inside of me?

Answer:  I wish I knew all the answers to these questions.  It could be that he knows human beings well enough from our behavior, having watched us for many millennia.  This enables him to predict our thoughts to a fair degree.  I don’t believe he can read them, but I can’t prove that.  It seems too God-like a thing for him to be able to do. 

How he influences our thoughts, I don’t know.  It has seemed from my experience that he or demons can create an ambiance, air, feeling of something like fear or shame or whatever, that we pick up on and adopt as our own.  But when we take authority over the unclean spirit or spirits in the name of Jesus the ambiance disappears.  We may have some of our own legitimate fear, shame, or whatever, that still remains, but it seems to have been magnified by what Satan or a demon does.

Perhaps you’ve been around someone who was down or fearful and it began to arouse in you the same feeling.  This may be what is going on when demons purposely seek to sway us in wrong responses to the situations in our lives.  They don’t want us to see the truth that God is with us and that we need not despair, or be distraught with fear, or controlled by lust, or whatever other inhibiting attitude or concern they might induce us to.  Standing on the truth of God is the key to overcoming their evil influence (Ephesians 6:10-18).

The corollary to this truth is that we can be people of positive influence in the lives of others as we display courage, faith, purity and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Randall Johnson

Related Articles

• Jesus, Scourge of demons (thimblefulloftheology.wordpress.com)

Can We Be Booted Out of Heaven Like Satan Was?

Question:  Were angels created on the first day when God made the heavens and earth? Or do we know when they were created?

Also, if Lucifer could be kicked out of heaven, is the reason we can’t be kicked out of Heaven because we are sealed with the Holy Spirit? Or when God makes a “new heaven and a new earth” will it be different than the old heaven and no one will be able to be kicked out because there won’t be sin? Or can we be kicked out just like Lucifer was?

Answer:  We might infer from Genesis 3 that angels were created before humans since we see the devil already fallen and speaking through the serpent in the garden to tempt Adam and Eve to disobedience.  Of course, this gets us into questions about whether Genesis 1 depicts 24 hour days or day-ages, etc.  If you subscribe to the Day-Age theory of creation I suppose you could have Satan and the other angels created on the first day of earth creation or before and that would be way earlier than humans.

Job 38:7 makes it sound like the angels were already in existence and rejoicing over God’s creative work on earth, so my thinking is that they predated the creation of earth.

 Apparently angels (who it seems are created in God’s image and are each individual creations of God [see below]) included those who were chosen for salvation and those who were not (1 Timothy 5:21).  Satan was not, and he chose to rebel against God (though Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are said by some to refer to Satan’s fall, I think there is good reason not to see it as a direct reference to him).  The elect angels could not rebel, and we, as you noted, being sealed with the Spirit, cannot turn away from God either.  Heaven will only consist of those whose “spirits” have been “made perfect” (Hebrews 12:23).  Many other Scriptures make it clear that we cannot lose our salvation.

The new heaven and earth is the place where heaven ultimately will reside.  Revelation 21,22 describe the heavenly Jerusalem coming to earth as its resting place, and God dwelling in its midst.  So we’re safe in either place.

BIBLICAL DATA ON ANGELS

            Ps. 148:2,5; Col. 1:16; Job 38:7; Heb. 1:14; (Lk. 24:39; 8:30)

             A.  Angels are created

            B.  Angels were created before man, perhaps before earth

             C.  Angels are spirits and do not have bodies of any kind 

• spirits do not have flesh and bones
• spirits do not take up space
• spirits can not be in more that one place at a time

  

            2 Sam. 14:20; Mt. 24:36; Eph. 3:10; 1 Pet. 1:12; 2 Pet. 2:11

             D.  Angels are intelligent but not all knowing

             Mt. 25:31; Mk. 8:38; Lk. 9:26; Ac. 10:22; Rev. 14:10

             E.  Angels are holy

             Lk. 20:35,36

             F.  Angels are immortal and non-reproductive (each is an individual creation of God)

            Ps. 103:20; Dan. 10;  Col. 1:16; Eph. 1:21; 3:10; Heb. 1:14

             G.  Angels are God’s servants and stand in various ranks before God

             Dt. 33:2; Ps. 68:17; Mk. 5:9,15; Mt. 26:53; Rev. 5:11

             H.  Angels are multitudinous

Related Articles

• How was it possible for Satan to sin if he was in a perfect state in heaven? (askthepastors.wordpress.com)
• Has Satan been cast out of heaven with two thirds of God’s angels? (askthepastors.wordpress.com)

How Do Angels Interact with People Today?

Image via Wikipedia

Question:  Four questions my wife and I are discussing:

1. Are there any examples of angels engaging in combat in the Bible?
2. Are there any examples of angels engaging in a healing process in the Bible?
3. What are the methods of angels interacting with humans and do you have any references
4. Do angels deliver messages today to believers and if so, is there a limit here to what messages and could they deliver it through other people?

Answer:  There is a surprising amount of information in the Bible about angels.  In answer to your questions… 

1. Daniel 10 depicts an angel who came to answer Daniel’s prayer with a message from God.  He related to Daniel that the “prince of Persia” resisted him until the archangel Michael’s arrival to help him get free to come to Daniel.  It seems the conflict between angels in heaven affects the lives of people on earth.  Various political entities have angelic and demonic beings associated with them seeking to accomplish things in and through them.  The demonic prince of Persia did not want the angel from God to encourage Daniel, but Michael made sure he got through.  In addition to this passage many others speak of angels as the Host of God and angels are seen in battle or ready for battle in such passages as Numbers 22; 2 Samuel 24; 2 Kings 19; and Matthew 25:63 among others.
2. After Jesus’ temptation (Matthew 4:11) and his prayer in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43) angels came to Jesus and ministered to or strengthened him.
3. Angels are seen in Scripture accompanying the Israelites in the Exodus (Exodus 32:34), bringing messages from God (Matthew 1:20; 2:13; Luke 1:11-13, 26-28; Acts 10:3-6; 27:23,24; et al), participating in the last judgment (all through Revelation) and various other activities involving humans.  Admittedly, these are few and far between, but they on occasion act on behalf of God to accomplish His purposes.
4. It is entirely up to God as to whether He wants to use angels today to deliver messages to believers and He may indeed choose to do so, as many have attested.  Hebrews 13:2 encourages us to entertain strangers since they might be angels.  This isn’t the only reason Scripture gives for helping those in need, but it shows us that God may still use angels in this way.  The only limit I can think of as to what they might communicate to people is that it cannot be in contradiction to God’s revealed Word in Scripture.  As to whether they can communicate through another person, that seems a little too much like demon possession and the Scripture never represents angels as doing that.

Related Articles

• Do we have guardian angels? (askthepastors.wordpress.com)
• Will we be married in heaven? (askthepastors.wordpress.com)

Are We Being Visited by Aliens?

Some recent videos from Jerusalem have caused quite a stir lately.  Taken on January 28, 2011, they purport to chronicle a strange light that appears to come down and hover over the Temple Mount, the original site of Israel’s temple, now home to the Dome of the Rock (a Muslim shrine to Muhammad).  After the light hovers over the place for a few minutes it suddenly takes off straight up into the sky.  You hear the startled expressions of the videographers.  Here are the videos:

You will notice that in each different perspective the lighted object is noticed by the videographers with a great deal of surprise.  If this is a hoax it is hard to explain the unique responses of each different one.  However, you will also notice that in one there seems to be a flash right before the “lift off” that is missing in the video taken more close up.  What do we make of this experience?  Here are some possibilities.

1. It is an elaborate hoax.  Several have pointed out issues with the videos that make them think they have been tampered with to make us believe we are seeing a UFO.  It is not surprising that people would want to fabricate something like this and go to great lengths to do so.  We have had too many such hoaxes perpetrated in the past.
2. It is an angelic visitation.  Biblical accounts of angels visiting humans have similar elements to these videos.  For example, in Ezekiel 1 we are given a very strange description by the prophet of a windstorm coming out of the north with a fiery cloud containing four strange angelic creatures.  The question would be, why are they visiting us, or more specifically, the temple mount, in this fashion.  It is possible that God has sent them for some purpose, but so far we are ignorant as to what that would be.
3. It is a demonic visitation.  Demons imitate the messengers of light (2 Corinthians 11:14) and would not be above seeking to use some display like this to deceive people who are predisposed to believe that there is an explanation for our universe that leaves out God.  Of course, if extraterrestrials do exist, that is, another race from some other part of our universe, they too would have to have been created by God.
4. It is an extraterrestrial visitation.  There is nothing in Scripture that precludes the possibility that God created beings in His image on other planets in our universe.  Questions would naturally arise as to whether they too sinned as Adam and Eve did, or if they chose better.  But if they advanced in their technology enough to travel to our solar system it is possible that they have visited our earth.  What their purpose in visiting is would have to be explained by them.
5. It is earthly technology in action.  It may be possible that new technology has been developed by our own race that can do what was seen in this video.

The last thing we may assume is that this experience, whatever its cause is, is reason to doubt the truth of Scripture.  Scripture still gives us our worldview, not experience.  And reason tells us that our biblical worldview is the most rational explanation of all that is.

How much power does Satan have over us?

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Question: How much power does Satan have over our lives?

Answer: Satan is called the “ruler of the kingdom of the air” by Paul in Ephesians 2:2 and the “the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.” Paul says elsewhere that teachers are to instruct those who do not believe the gospel so that “they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). He also tells us “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). John tells us that “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). And Satan himself declares to Jesus when he offers him the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship, “I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to” (Luke 4:6).

Wow! Those are quite some declarations and if that was all we had we would despair of anyone ever getting freed from Satan’s grips. But of course, the mighty power of God is so much greater than Satan’s that He is able to break the grip Satan has on people and bring them to Himself. Jesus describes this activity as God’s drawing men to Jesus (John 6:44). Those who have been so drawn are now described in new ways with regard to Satan:

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. (1 John 5:18)

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. (1 Peter 5:8,9)

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. (Ephesians 6:10-13)

This last passage is especially emphatic that we have a role to play in resisting Satan and fighting against his power in our lives. Our role is to walk in the power that God has provided so as to live lives of holiness and truth. Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44). Consequently it is truth that is most effective in subduing him. This is how Jesus succeeded against him during the temptation, as Jesus quoted Scripture and applied it with accuracy to Satan’s temptations. This is the weapon Paul has in mind when he says we do not use “weapons of the world” (2 Corinthians 10:4) but “divine power to demolish strongholds” (v.4) and “the knowledge of God…[to] take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (v.5).

Can Satan read our minds? For me the jury is out on that one. It seems only God would have the ability to read our minds, but there is some indication that at least demons have the power to suggest things to our minds, false things, of course, and we must sometimes exercise our authority in Christ to get them to stop. Peter seemed to have listened to Satan’s suggestion that Jesus didn’t need to go to the cross and this evoked Jesus’ “get behind me Satan” remark (Matthew 16:23).

If Satan doesn’t read our minds does he at least probe our spoken words for ways to attack us? Some Christians will not pray out loud for fear that Satan will hear and have an edge on them, but Christ and the apostles never feared praying out loud. Our prayers are protected. And it seems foolish to constantly monitor our conversation to make sure Satan doesn’t hear something we don’t want him to hear. The only admonition Scripture gives us about our speech is to monitor it for how it impacts others, making sure our words are wise, loving and life giving.

Can Satan possess a believer? Doubtful. But there are various levels of influence Satan or his demons can have over believers who fail to understand the power God’s truth has in their lives and who choose to stray from God and His protection. Peter says that Satan seeks to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). Persecution is one of his devouring tools (see verse 9). He is also able to inflict us physically if God so allows (see Job and Luke 13:11,16 for examples).

For more on Satan see these articles: Can Satan heal people? Has Satan been cast out of heaven with two thirds of God’s angels? Can believers be possessed by Satan? Can we chase demons through the attic?

Randall Johnson

How was it possible for Satan to sin if he was in a perfect state in heaven?

Question: If Lucifer was one of the most beautiful angels in Heaven, and Heaven is a perfect place without sin, how did he sin against God in Heaven and become a fallen angel with many angels following him?

Answer: The short answer is, “I don’t know.” You have made some assumptions here, which I mostly hold to myself. Satan (the term “Lucifer” may not be the correct translation of Isaiah 14:12; most modern translations translate “morning star”) is probably not the one being openly described in either Isaiah 14 or Ezekiel 27, but is apparently a created angel who somehow chose to rebel against God. Remember, earth was not in a state of sin either, and Adam and Eve did not have sin natures, and yet they both rebelled. The how of this is a mystery that the Bible does not address, either in terms of Satan or our first parents.

And why did many other angels choose to follow him? We don’t know. But the original temptation he made to our original parents was that they might have the right of self-determination and not need God’s guidance. There is something in us that still struggles to trust God with everything He determines for our lives. Something in us still wants to have the control, thinking that we would make better decisions about our lives than He would. This is the lie that has led the world into chaos and tragedy for all these millennia.

Randall Johnson