Satan Unmasked examines passages of scriptures concerning Satan and the origins of how he evolved into doctrines and belief systems, taking on many different forms as the embodiment of evil. In Christianity, Satan has developed into God’s adversary, a fallen angel. However, in Psalms and the Book of Job, Satan is likened to a prosecuting attorney in the Heavenly Court.
Satan Unmasked is Book One of a four-part series concerning doctrines that have crept into our theology. Book Two, Spirits Unveiled, examines angelic beings and the spiritual realm, followed by Books Three and Four regarding salvation, tithing, the role of women, generational issues, etc. Read the entire series Unmasking the Unseen to examine doctrines that have evolved.
Christianity is the world's largest religion, with approximately 2.4 billion believers worldwide. The church or Body of Messiah has become entangled in man-made doctrines and points of contention for centuries. These disagreements concerning salvation and baptism, among other theological views, have caused many schisms. According to the Center for Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, the current estimate is 47,000 denominations (2020). The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest worldwide. Why are there so many denominations and non-denominations?
Between denominations, theologians, and comparative religionists, there are considerable disagreements about which groups can be appropriately called Christian, disagreements arising primarily from doctrinal differences between groups.
-pewforum.org
Ironically, all these groups have the exact text: The Bible. Each sect or denomination believes they have truth where the others err.
Since birth and throughout my life, I have attended some form of church. Most, if not all, of the congregations I attended over the years had the same operating model. Besides a few differences in leadership, gifting, music, and healing, the structures were mostly the same. The central belief taught is God sent His Son to die on a cross for our sins. Multiple theologians told me that God is a good God, and the devil is a bad devil. The crux of the matter implied all the God-fearing people who are saved and baptized die and go to heaven, and all the wicked people die and go to a burning lake of fire and endure torture forever with Satan and his cohorts. If a person were born in Cambodia, a country with over fourteen million people, and were shown since birth the religion of Buddhism, which 95% of the population practices, are they just doomed for destruction? If the Jewish people do not see the Messiah in the New Testament or believe Yeshua walked this earth over 2,000 years ago, again, is salvation hopeless?
I was taught that everything evil comes from Satan, although the prophet Isaiah speaks differently: “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things” (Isaiah 45:7, KJV).
When confronted by his wife, Job says this:
But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
–Job 2:10, ESV
According to multiple doctrines taught, Satan is a fallen angel who God created and placed in authority. I was taught Satan, or the Devil, was gifted to play the musical pipes and fell due to his pride. One-third of the angels sided with Satan, but I was assured by multiple theologians that none of them would ever want to be more powerful than the Holy One again. This usurping angelic coup was apparently a one-time event. The verses used to support these doctrines come from Ezekiel, Isaiah, Daniel, and Revelation. However, in the Hebrew perspective, Satan means to be or act as an adversary.
For a season, I worked in the deliverance ministry with a pastor from Africa. During that time, I met with individuals who struggled with many forms of addiction and suffering. I watched as the Lord opened doors for me to minister to a variety of sheep of all ages and from all backgrounds; and in my spare time, I devoured His Word. I began to question certain doctrines that I had been taught. At times, from the pulpit, different scriptures were used in a way that changed the truth of the Holy One’s Word significantly. I heard the Father whisper to me time and again, “That is not sound teaching.”
Shortly after much prayer concerning the truth of His Word, I had a dream that left me in awe. I prayed and asked the Father to give me revelation. In the dream, there appeared a Caucasian man who was Hulk-like, broad-shouldered and in cartoon character form. He was wearing a suit and tie and had a smile as broad as his shoulders. Out of his chest was another head of a man of African descent—both heads talked. The context of the dream was black and white, no grey areas. The backdrop for this vision was a morning show aired in the streets of a large city that looked like New York. In front of the announcer interviewing the gentleman with two heads was a conveyor belt coming out of a stone oven; on the conveyor belt were silver trays with delectable foods. As the smoke rose off the dainty little treats, the announcer held the microphone in front of the large man and said, "I can smell the fresh thyme, rosemary, and garlic, it smells magnificent!"
Both heads spoke in agreement, and then the announcer replied, "And you say it's all made with human dung?" "That's right," the men agreed, "and they never know it. The people just eat it up and never suspect a thing!" The announcer said, "Amazing. Well, you heard it here first people, now back to you, Rita."
I awoke and prayed until the Holy One revealed to me that these cartoon characters represented shepherds (ministers) who were taking the Word of God and making it look good, smell good, and taste good. Still, through ignorance, these leaders were feeding the people a load of crap by twisting and manipulating the Bible. Ironically, silver represents redemption, but the serving tray of silver in my dream held dung and not the bread of life to free those being held captive. I believe most ministers mean well but are simply passing down what they had been taught through ignorance. My earthly father had passed it down to me, and I had passed it down to others. "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit" (Jeremiah 16:19, ESV).
Adolph Hitler quoted Joseph Goebbels when he said, "If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed." Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle's Greek doctrinal influence have trickled into our church houses for over two thousand years. By the first century, the religious culture of Israel had nearly 400 years of Hellenized practice. Many theologians with good intentions have told us the same lies taught to them. We have all heard doctrines that did not add up, but we have listened to them so frequently that we have accepted these lies as truth, often never researching the Holy One’s Word with a mind free of preconceived notions.
Once we are taught a particular way of doing something, it is hard to reverse it. New wine placed in old skins causes the skins to burst. I drove a five-speed Mitsubishi for years. After it died, I bought an automatic, but my foot still pushed down on the imaginary clutch. It is the same with dogmas. Once we have heard Biblical passages strung along and placed in a specific order, that is all we know. We become so accustomed to how the teaching was presented to us that changing its structure appears shameful. Paul explains more:
I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
–II Timothy 4:1-4, KJV
Paul instructs Timothy to remain in Ephesus to combat erroneous doctrines. Two grievous problems with the false teachers in Ephesus were myths and genealogies. In this context, myths are traditions not found in the Scriptures. These doctrinal myths add to or contradict biblical instruction. Not all traditions are bad, but those which are contrary to or twist the Word are bad:
But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth. To this He called you through our gospel, so that you may share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brothers, stand firm and cling to the traditions we taught you, whether by speech or by letter.
–II Thessalonians 2:13-15, BSB
Having been raised and educated under the Assemblies of God doctrines, even as a young girl, I was taught things that disturbed me. The ministers from my youth proclaimed authority to summon angels at their command, rebuke every sickness, and scream at demons they felt controlled everything. These ministers in leadership seemed to have power overall, including whether a person prospered or not. One man could pray for wealth and favor to be transferred; all the person had to do was give money to his ministry or plant a seed, as he called it. Another could break every generational curse brought by Satan on a family. Many of these men boasted about their airplanes or how many millions with which the Father had blessed them. In II Timothy 4, we learn of men who wanted their ears tickled:
For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
–II Timothy 4:3-4, BSB
This type of “itching ear” teaching began to grow stronger in the United States in the early 1940s. By the 1990s, the prosperity gospel had gone full circle, spreading across the globe swiftly. Motivational teachings appeal to our human desire to be successful, healthy, and prosperous. It screams, “Live your best life and speak positive words.” There is nothing wrong with speaking life or positive words, but these teachings are often unbalanced, focusing on our fleshly desires, emotionalism, and not our inner condition. Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993), the pastor of Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, popularized the doctrine of positive thinking and self-focus with his book The Power of Positive Thinking (1952). The first chapter of Peale’s book is titled Believe in Yourself. This type of doctrine makes the reader believe that if they have a positive attitude and speak words of affirmation, nothing terrible will happen to them. The Bible makes it clear that the troubles we experience in this life are not simply the outcome of negative thinking. Insinuating we can overcome by tapping into our potential through positive thinking when in all actuality, we can overcome by the blood of the Lamb and our testimony:
And they have overcome him by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony; and they have not loved their life unto death.
-Revelation 12:11, BLB
Author and teacher Russell S. Woodbridge from the Gospel Coalition explores the dangers of the prosperity gospel movement in his blog Prosperity Gospel Born in the USA. Woodbridge covers one of the founders of the prosperity doctrine, a man named E.W. Kenyon, who led the way for Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Frederick Price, and Robert Tilton, among others:
One can discern some of the key recurring elements of the prosperity gospel: speaking the right words, invoking a universal law of success with words, and having faith in oneself. The ideas of New Thought influenced, among others, E. W. Kenyon (1867–1948), an evangelist, pastor, and founder of Bethel Bible Institute. His approach to theology is the basis for one of the prosperity gospel’s most distinctive features—speaking the right words to bring about a new reality; what you confess, you possess. Kenyon served as a link to the popular prosperity preachers that formed the foundation of the modern prosperity gospel movement.
However, this “name it and claim it” theology did not concern only prosperity. During my earlier years, I can recall sitting in the pew and hearing ministers pray with authority over spirits, sickness, and every demon that had come to torment the person standing before them. Yet, despite all their binding and loosing, my mother remained sick. She suffered for years and was prayed over by some of the biggest names on the scene. Still, my mother was plagued with Parkinson's disease and other ailments. She went on to die after colon cancer surgery, contracting Clostridium difficile or C. diff, a bacterial infection while in the hospital. My mother was a woman who did ministry, worked the prayer line, handed out tracts, and told people about Yeshua often.
As I grew older, more and more doctrines crept into the church from well-known evangelists and television ministers. One night in my early thirties, I decided I wanted to know what the Bible said for myself. I no longer wanted to go to church on Saturday or Sunday and take what one man behind a pulpit taught me as truth. Learning became a passion for me. And it started with a reverence for the Holy One:
He has commanded mankind: To fear the Lord—that is wisdom; to move away from evil—that is understanding.
–Job 28:28, ISV
After a personal life encounter, I went swiftly to work researching the Bible concerning sickness, spirits, and Satan. I sought to search and fully investigate His Word. I also wanted to comprehend why my praying mother had become mentally tormented and diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, a form of Parkinson's disease. Was this suffering a demon of darkness? Was this a curse on my family? Why didn't any of the tactics used in the church bring restoration, healing, or peace? Why didn't binding and loosing work?
On this journey, I discovered many different denominations had accepted strange doctrines of men having their own set of rules and formulas for victory. It made me speculate and ask who had the correct theology. Even the Roman Catholic Church, which claims to be undivided, is now disagreeing on divorce and birth control, among other topics. Why were there no Christian denominations in the Bible? Wasn't Yeshua a Jew? How can people be sure their faith is teaching the absolute truth? And why was there so much finger-pointing? Why did Yeshua say, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24, KJV)? Who are these sheep? One of the common claims among the followers of the Messianic movement is that those who are now discovering their Hebrew roots are part of the “lost tribes of Israel,” but is this true? Is salvation a one-time prayer said with a pastor or in private?
This four-part book series will examine topics that have divided the Body of believers for some time now. Remember, that number reaches almost 50,000 Christian sects alone. Sadly, many of the false doctrines from our past have found their way into the Christian community, and the Messianic and Torah communities. After reading Book One, Satan Unmasked, you will better understand Adonai, His creation, and the adversary, who many refer to as Satan.
Have I found new truths no one else has discovered? No, it’s not new; it’s ancient. It is truth found by doing an excavation. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; But the glory of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2, ASV). This type of archaeological dig involves traveling back to the 1st century and the days of the Apostles written about in the book of Acts to uncover it.
Nevertheless, I believe some have found truths no one ever told them about at the local watering hole. Paul said:
For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.
–Acts 20:29-30, NKJ
Join me as we uncover a plethora of erroneous tales and traits concerning the adversary, ha-Satan.