Issued: 12/3/21  Revised: 1/20/24

“In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.”

Ephesians 6:16

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

 

 In poker the royal flush is the best hand possible.  It consists of five consecutive cards of the same suit ranging from 10, Knave, Queen, King and Ace.  It is the perfect metaphor for the ‘hand’ Satan uses to ‘clean out’ mankind; and since they have always served him well to increase his kitty of souls, he will continue dealing them until doomsday

   Of course no ploy he engineers would hit damnation’s bulls’-eye without men’s help, for without their participation Satan would not be able to accomplish—let alone do—anything.  For centuries men have grappled with the issue of human suffering; but the answer, to borrow Michael Jackson’s metaphor, lies with the man in the mirror.  Human suffering exists because the hearts of men provide the ‘casino’ where Satan discards his trump cards and rakes in the chips.  In this dark place, Father’s hand is never dealt.

   It has been so since Eden’s time.  Man and Woman were not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge but Satan played his ‘human progress’ card:  It was the way to achieve wisdom and be god-like (Genesis 3:5-6).  Today science and technology prolong life spans; clone animal species; offer an immortality of sorts through cosmetic surgery and sperm banks; and are tinkering with the idea—held at bay for the moment by ethical considerations—of perfecting humans and ending disease through genetic manipulation.  Like Baron Frankenstein, they are driven to equal the Creator.

 During the Exodus, Satan played his ‘religious’ card.  The Israelites were bored with manna [the bread from Heaven Jesus symbolized↔John 6:51] and were hankering after the goodies they had enjoyed in harsh servitude under idolatrous Egyptians.  Why rely on an invisible and demanding deity when an idol requiring minimum worship would be more amenable to supply physical needs?  Lo and behold, as the fearful and accommodating Aaron would later explain trying to pass the buck, the gold collected from the people was thrown into the fire and a golden calf emerged (Exodus 32:1-25).  When quails appeared to sate the hankering for meat, Yahweh allowed Satan to strike the Israelites with plague (Numbers 11:4-34). Satan’s winnings:  Nearly three thousand souls (Exodus 32:1-28).

   As we shall see each card of Satan’s winning hand embodies something that resonates with mankind more than the behaviors Father wants us to embrace on our journey to perfection (Hebrews 12:10).  It is absolutely true that pious living demands a level of self-sacrifice and self-denial that chafes against the grain of our evil instincts—hence the enmity between flesh and soul (Matthew 26:41; Galatians 5:17).  The Apostles, toning down the difficulties that Jesus had hinted at (John 16:12↔Exodus 13:17), tried to ennoble a lifestyle that is costly, frustrating, and painful on many levels (Hebrews 12:11; James 1:2-3; 1Peter 1:6-7, 4:12-16)—from a human perspective, a downer.

  Satan, however, keeps suggesting a ‘winner-takes-all’ approach:  Have your cake and eat it too; and for that, he relies on the following:

Satan’s “Ace” Card:  Fear of death

“Therefore, since the children [of God] have flesh and blood, [Jesus] himself also shared the same things, so that by his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death–that is, the Devil–and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

Hebrews 2:14-15

   People are fond of saying that life is hell; that this world is a vale of tears; that there is a better place to go to; but from childhood to crippling old age, nobody seems in a hurry to leave the familiar ‘hell’ for the ‘paradisaical’ beyond—until there are no more options available.  What bridges the gap between doubt and certainty is faith, an elusive concept more felt than understood.  Empiricism demands proof visible and confirmable, but faith is counterintuitive:  It is the assurance that things hoped for will come about, and that what cannot be seen truly exists (Hebrews 11:1).  Men would rather hedge their bets on more concrete odds.

   In everything He does, Father demands the difficult in order to prevail over the seemingly impossible; and one proof of this is Jesus’ response to Paul:  “My power is made perfect in weakness” (2Corinthians 2:19).  Sounds totally counter-intuitive; but Jesus was talking about human limitations overcome through faith, fertilized by the assurance that what the faithful really want or strive for, however daunting or crippling, was possible to them (Luke 4:23; Mark 9:23).  Jesus was not being metaphorical or inspirational:  He was repeating what he had learned from Father (John 5:19, 17:5) in his pre-existence as Yahweh Son proxy Angel God/Creator (John 1:3, 17:5↔Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2).

   Thus, in order to show Satan that his hold over men through fear of death could be thwarted, the voluntary forfeiting of life became the ultimate proof of indisputable faith.  Hence Jesus’ dual challenge, “For those who want to save their [mortal] life will lose it, and those who lose their [mortal] life for my sake will find [eternal life]“ (Matthew 16:25); and personal commitment, “The Father loves me because I am willing to give up my life, in order that I may receive it back again” (John 10:17).  And Paul’s exemplars, “Others, refusing to accept freedom, died under torture in order to be raised to a better life” (Hebrews 11:35); or in his own case, “I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Philippians 1:23).

   As human faith originated with Abraham (Galatians 3:6-9), [Jesus being the spiritual Author of faith↔Hebrews 12:2], so did the striving to free oneself from the bondage of Satan, who is Death itself (Revelation 6:8).  Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac, the heir to Yahweh’s irrevocable promise (Genesis 15:5-6, 17:19-20, 22:2; Romans 11:29; Hebrews 6:13-18).  We may surmise that like any parent, Abraham initially balked at this request; nevertheless, he loaded his donkey and off he went.  However agonizing Yahweh’s demand may have been, Paul conjectured that even if Isaac were to die, Abraham believed in Yahweh’s power to revive him (Genesis 11:17-19).

   With all due respect to Paul, that was not the whole gist of the story.  In answer to Isaac’s question regarding the absence of a sacrificial animal, Abraham responded that Yahweh would Himself provide it (Genesis 22:7-8), showing, even up to the point of picking up the knife to slaughter Isaac, Abraham’s expectations that Yahweh would intervene somehow—as Yahweh Son Angel God indeed did [Genesis 22:11-12, the message implicit in Psalms 37:5].  “Then Abraham looked up and behind him to see a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So Abraham went over, grabbed the ram, and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son” [Genesis 22:13↔Matthew 7:7, 21:22 and 1John 3:22].¹ 

   Next comes David’s certainty that he would prevail over Goliath:  “Yahweh who delivered me from the power of the lion and the power of the bear will also deliver me from the power of this Philistine” (1Samuel 17:37).²  No fear of death on David’s part:  Yahweh would come through for him.  Since David prefigures Jesus, it is not surprising that the same charge made by Eliab against David for endangering Israelites with his zeal should have been leveled against Jesus by the high priest Caiaphas (1Samuel  17:28; John 11:49-52).  But when Jesus came, he threw down the gauntlet:  “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his [temporal] life for my sake will find it [immortality]” (Matthew 16:25).  The time had come for some of his followers to embrace dying.

   In his role as leader doing the talk, Jesus had to walk the walk; and fated to be preeminent in all things (Colossians 1:18), his crucifixion was a foregone conclusion even before human history had begun (1Peter 1:20).  Though not relishing the torment that lay ahead (Matthew 26:38-42; Luke 22:41-44), Jesus submitted to martyrdom to validate Father’s promises and out of love for those whose sins would be forgiven by his blood (Matthew 26:38-44,53-54); thus earning the moral right to ask others to be martyred for him—as requested of Peter [who needed an assist later in life↔John 21:18-19; 2Peter 1:14], Paul (2Timothy 4:6), and countless others (Matthew 24:9).

   What we are seeing here is the substance behind the shadow of Mosaic holocausts, by which the congregation was sanctified with the sprinkled blood of sacrificed animals (Exodus 24:6-8; Hebrews 9:12-22).  Who did the sprinkling?  Moses, who prefigured Jesus’ roles as Lawgiver, Judge, and sole Mediator between Father and men (Exodus 4:15-16, 7:1, 25:22; Deuteronomy 18:25); a precedent Paul linked to “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better message than Abel’s” (1Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 12:24).  And as we have seen from 2Timothy 4:6, Paul viewed his death [tradition has it he was beheaded] as an offering to God.  As indeed are the souls under the Heavenly Altar, “those who had been slaughtered because of God’s word and the testimony they had given about Him…They had to wait until the complete number of the Lord’s other servants and followers would be killed” (Revelation 6:9,11).  Apparently, there is a quota to be reached for martyrs ‘sanctifying’ the Judeo-Christian nation with their blood.

 So the Good News are not all ‘good,’ at least for neo-Christians doped by evangelical bromides that life is a precious gift that the “Lord” wants us to live to the fullest.  That “lord” may be Baal, but certainly not Jesus’ or Father Who wants us to yearn for the life to come to obtain everything denied us in this one:  world peace, an end to human suffering, immortality, and unity in love through Him in a new order of things.  Our Lord wants us to behave as if dead to the wiles of this world [what baptism by water symbolizes↔Romans 6:11; James 4:4; 1Peter 3:21, 4:1-5; 1John 2:15-17]; and to observe the dignity of penitents meriting grace in darkest days to come (Isaiah 22:12-14, 49:8; Hebrews 4:16)—not as revelers waiting for the next party to start.  It is an either/or choice.  This is one instance where we are asked to push our cake away and not to eat from it.

 With every new transgression, Satan is given more power to wreak havoc upon men; and since men fear death, he will push the bidding to the limit until men are trapped between the literal Rock and Satan’s hard place.  Then a choice must be made:  To save one’s own skin at any cost or to bet on immortality by remaining true to Father while gambling life away.  With Satan we know where it all ends:  He will burn and wants to make ashes out of as many souls as he can (Revelation 20:7-10).  With Father we may be required to endure what most people spend a lifetime fearing or avoiding [the so-called baptism of fire↔Isaiah 48:10; Ezekiel 5:12; Zechariah 13:9; Luke 3:16; 1Peter 4:12-13]; but He keeps two aces up our sleeves to trump Satan’s own:  The guarantee we will not be tested beyond our endurance (1Corinthians 10:13) and a timely assist to help us clear the final hurdle (John 21:18; Hebrews 4:16).

   Though bittersweet, Jesus gave us an early bonus:  The truth does free us from men’s and Satan’s wiles (John 8:31).  And if truth leads to death, an even greater boon:  Absolute and unconditional liberation from Satan’s bondage (Revelation 14:13, 20:6).  So that what men in their ignorance interpret as tragedy, Paul sees as exultation:  “Where, O [Satan], is your victory? Where, O [Satan], is your sting” (1Corinthians 15:55)?

Satan’s “King” Card:  Family Values

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”

Luke 6:32

   In view of Matthew 10:34-38, 19:29; Mark 10:29-30; and Luke 12:51-52, 14:26-27, it boggles the mind that modern evangelism has turned ‘family values’ into a fundamental Christian priority.  Jesus was anything but family-oriented:  His treatment of his own family was dismissive (Luke 8:20-21); where Mary was concerned, he could be curt (John 2:4) and arguably harsh (John 19:25-26); and Joseph seemed to have been a non-entity on grounds of his glaring absence during Jesus’ ministry.  Of course Jesus, being susceptible to loving perfect strangers on sight (Mark 10:21), would not have wished to be curt or hurtful towards Mary; but as he knew Satan would reinvent the proscribed cult of the queen of heaven around her (Jeremiah 44:17-27), Jesus had to let us know of Mary’s irrelevance—postpartum—in the scheme of redemption.  Of all the horrors Jesus could have drawn upon to characterize end-times, it was family values he chose to disparage (Luke 17:26-29).

   He was not breaking new ground.  “Forget your own people, and also your father’s house.  Then the King will be attracted by your beauty. After all, He is your Master! Submit to Him” (Psalm 45:10-11)!  Breaking up the nuclear family had started with Genesis 2:24 [shadow to the substance of Jesus leaving Father in Heaven to become one flesh with Wife/Church↔Ephesians 5:23-32]; continued with Abraham (Genesis 12:1); and reaffirmed in Micah 7:4-6, who Jesus quoted in Matthew 10:36.  The more vital the implied teaching and the closer one got to end-times, the more or less the relative importance of family values was adjusted.

   For example, during the 70-year- long Babylonian Captivity, Yahweh Son instructed Israelites to build families, to build houses, and to eat the produce of planted gardens:  They were to stay put, behave civilly, and disregard exhortations to the contrary (Jeremiah 29:4-10).  Family values were in.  When the Israelites returned to Jerusalem, Jews who had disobeyed marriage restrictions (Deuteronomy 7:3; Joshua 23:12-13; Judges 14:3) were constrained to dismiss foreign wives (Ezra 9:1-2,10-15, 10:1-44; Nehemiah 10:28-30, 13:23-27).  Family values mattered zilch when in violation of Father’s laws.

   Still it could not have been easy for men of conscience to part with wives—and children?—as had been the case with Abraham (Genesis 21:10-13).  Yet again Abraham trusted Yahweh to take care of Abraham’s parental responsibilities while prioritizing Yahweh’s own (Genesis 21:14-20); which is exactly what Jesus promised to everyone doing Father’s work (Matthew 6: 31-33, 19:29).  Let us not kid ourselves:  This is by no means an easy choice to make, made doubly hard by the emotional baggage it carries and because it must be made on faith alone, which by definition implies going out on a limb with nothing immediate to show for it.  Yet if men accept at face value the promises that secular and religious leaders make to them and on which they perennially default/renege, why hold Father to a different standard?  Hence the merits of faith (1Peter 1:7) and the dividends it pays to those who truly live up to its standards (Hebrews 11:6).

   Nevertheless, despite the Bible’s warning flares, neo-Christians exalt marriage as the preeminent family value.  Jeremiah, given the apostasy rampant in Jerusalem prior to its fall (Jeremiah 4:22, 6:7-14, 8:10-11, 9:4-5), was told not to marry:  Nobody slotted for destruction was worth a plugged nickel (Jeremiah 16:2-9).  How is this relevant to us?  Because Jerusalem housed Yahweh’s Temple, and so it was shadow to the substance of Father’s True and Only Temple:  Jesus’ body/Church, located in Christendom, created by no one but Jesus and wherein Father dwells (Acts 7:48; Colossians 2:9).  Let us GPS it another way.  Where is ‘Mary’ currently worshipped?  Throughout Christendom; and where was a pagan worship to the queen of heaven exclusively proscribed?  In Jeremiah 44:14-27, amongst the people of Judah, Jesus’ “tribe” (Hebrews 7:14).

   Peter was called while married; but Paul, aware of the pitfalls inherent in marriage, cautioned against running willy-nilly into it, whether on sexual considerations (1Corinthians 7:1-5), the impossibility of divorce while spouses were alive (Romans 7:2-3; 1Corinthians 7:10-11), or contingent difficulties (1Corinthians 7:12-40).  As per his own choice, he opted to remain celibate so that no marital constraints could undermine his evangelical work (1Corinthians 7:1, 9:5; 2Timothy 2:4); but in advising others, he was careful to distinguish between his personal opinions (1Corinthians 7:7-8, 12-40) and what Father demanded (Malachi 2:16; Matthew 5:31-32, 19:6; Romans 7:2-3; 1Corinthians 7:10-11).  Marriage was not man’s ideal state:  It was a temporary solution to sexual cravings that could not be suppressed (1Corinthians 7:9), proofs being that Jesus, our example to imitate (John 13:15), remained celibate and that sex will be a non-issue in the world to come (Matthew 22:30).

   Now let us put on our thinking caps and ask ourselves why Satan would play his ‘family values’ card.  Family comes first, right?  Wrong:  For Father, Who wants us to partake of His Holiness (Hebrews 12:10), everyone ranks the same (Deuteronomy 10:17; 2Chronicles 19:7; Romans 2:11, 10:12); for which reason He raked His own Son over the proverbial burning coals in order to make it abundantly clear that even Jesus would not be given special considerations (Isaiah 53:1-12).  And as shown by Luke 6:32, loving Daddy, Mommy, Junior, Missy, Granny or Granddad better than anyone else gets us no brownie points with Father.

    What about housing, putting food on the table, or providing those family needs that require work and money?  Without going into details, let us consider any human enterprise or business that while subsidizing family values manages, directly or indirectly, to hurt people or outright kill them.  The candidates are mind-boggling; in point of fact, they contribute a substantial chunk of gross national products worldwide.  But as long as money is put in banks to take care of family needs, it does not seem to matter whether it is drenched in blood or steeped in the suffering of others.  Surely family providers cannot be expected to be their brothers’ keepers, can they?  And while we all know who that came from (Genesis 4:9), family ‘valuers’ cram places of worship singing hosannas for divine protection, which is perhaps the reason for the disgust Father expresses in Isaiah 1:13-15—not to mention Paul’s pithy observation in Titus 1:16.

 Is it OK to violate Father’s Sabbath in the pursuit of these goals?  That mentality doomed Jerusalem (Nehemiah 10:31, 13:15-21); and it is a violation of a Commandment [the Fourth] amongst Ten that must be observed to be rewarded with eternal life. “If you want to enter [into eternal] life keep the Commandments…you will not murder, you will not commit adultery, you will not steal, you will not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 19:17-19). Break one, and you break them all (James 2:8-11).

 Being All-Wise, Father had called men’s bluff centuries ago:  “So My people crowd in to hear what you [Ezekiel as stand-in for Jesus] have to say, but they don’t do what you tell them to do. Loving words are on their lips, but they continue their greedy ways.  To them you are nothing more than an entertainer singing love songs or playing a harp. They listen to all your words and don’t obey a single one of them.  But when all your words come true, and they will come true, then they will know that a prophet has been among them” (Ezekiel 33:31-33).  Like Jesus warned, today’s family ‘valuers’ are as clueless as past generations facing extermination (Luke 17:26-30).

 But are family values spiritually wrong?  No; only so to the extent of prioritizing one’s relatives over others.  Paul endorsed familial duties (1Timothy 5:8); but in Christianity ‘family’ is defined not in terms of shared DNA but in terms of spirituality, of faith.  Mary and his brothers were Jesus’ earthly relatives [though not genetically]; yet his dismissal of them was pregnant with meaning:  “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21).  Paul, who never married, portrayed himself as Onesimus’ spiritual father (Philemon 1:10), as did John calling his readers “my little children” (1John 2:1,12,18).

   The word “brothers,” which the Apostles used extensively (Acts 2:29, 23:5; James 1:2, 2:1, 3:1; 1John 1:7, has a special connotation in the Bible.  In Matthew 23:8-9 Jesus was not indulging in hyperbole:  Men are brothers because they share a single progenitor in terms of the flesh, Adam; and a single Progenitor in terms of the soul, Father (Hebrews 12:9↔Ecclesiastes 12:7).  By no means was Jesus belittling human parenthood:  An entire Commandment demands honoring it (Exodus 20:12).  But in the ‘logic’ of Scripture, given that souls give life and the flesh profits nothing (John 6:63), the Giver of souls is the Animator of human bodies.  Following the first resurrection, it is the soul which will make the transition from earth to Heaven; human flesh will be discarded like the chrysalides left behind by fully formed butterflies, along with daddy’s and mommy’s chromosomal contributions.

   Notwithstanding genetics, it is Father Who set the process of gestation in motion (Psalms 139:13; Job 10:11, 31:15; Isaiah 44:2,24,  46:3; Jeremiah 1:5), endowing embryos with human souls just as the breath of life was infused into Adam’s nostrils.  Viewed like this, we get the gist of Jesus’ distinction:  Human parents lack both the means to confer lasting, immortal life and to make siblings out of the whole human race; so that the One Who is able to accomplish these objectives is truly deserving of being called Father of all equally conceived ‘brothers’ (Matthew 23:9).  The human definition of ‘family,’ as reinforced by Satan, is a shoddy construct compared to spiritual bonds where race, sex, ethnicity, heritage, and traditions matter naught (Galatians 3:28-29).

 The great sin in championing ‘family values,’ [or rather clannish ones since everybody’s family comes first and all others are ‘not my problem’], is the rejection of Father‘s far-reaching and pragmatic vision, where by prioritizing everyone’s needs, everybody else’s are equally taken care of—what living faith in action is all about (Acts 4:32-35; 1Corinthians 16:1-3; 2Corinthians 8:14).  One need not entirely deprive kinfolk while helping others; rather Solomon’s advice to do one and the other covers all bases (Ecclesiastes 11:6).  The goal is equality, not preferential treatment: What every satanic, human minion demands, expects, and practices.  They appear in daily newscasts.  Identify them or ignore them at your peril (Matthew 7:16, 15:18-19; Luke 6:45).

   Yet sometimes a hard choice must be made so that Father’s vision may prevail.  Himself a father, an internet blogger trashed Abraham for consenting to sacrifice Isaac, arguing that no ‘loving’ dad would ever consent to that.  Thank our lucky stars for Abraham’s choice:  It is because of his initiative that mankind had a shot at salvation. Was this the moral gravitas motivating Yahweh to heed Abraham’s request (Genesis 18:25-32↔see also Hebrews 11:7)?  Daddy blogger prefers to prioritize Junior over everyone else in the planet; and when push comes to shove, he and Junior may end up being bulldozed into the place where the crying and the gnashing of teeth will be.  With fathers like this, who needs enemies?

 Now Abraham was not the model of moral rectitude Rabbinical literature makes him out to be:  He married his half-sister, a no-no in Mosaic Law (Leviticus 20:17); and placed her in harm’s way to protect his own skin (Genesis 12:11-13, 20:11-13).  Perhaps for these reasons Paul downplayed Abraham’s earthly accomplishments (Romans 4:2), but not in terms of the faith compelling Abraham to raise the knife against his own son (Hebrews 11:17-19).  There was more at stake in that act than the life of a child:  An as yet unborn nation, from whom salvation would come (John 4:22), depended on his willingness to submit to Father’s demands.  Yes, Abraham hoped against hope that Isaac would be spared, but until he heard the voice from Heaven staying his hand, Abraham’s emotional turmoil must have been unimaginable.

   Likewise, when Elijah was instructed to visit the widow in Zarephath with the assurance she would feed him, she initially prioritized her need and her son’s to eat over Elijah’s; but upon the Prophet’s assurance, she fed him first and received miraculous bounties, from which she and her household ate for many days (1Kings 17:8-16).  What is the story’s implicit message?  Father’s needs come first; family values come second; prioritize the first and trust Him to remunerate in spades on the second—underlying themes in Scripture (Job 42:10-13; Joshua 2:12-13, 6:22-25; 1Kings 3:11-13; Ecclesiastes 11:1-2; Jeremiah 29:11; Matthew 19:29; 1Corinthians 2:9; Revelation 21:4-7).

   What of the alternatives?  If family values must trump Father’s will, people are in default of His covenant and He has no obligations to keep His side of the bargain; in which case children suffer the consequences along with the defaulting parents!  Enter the litany of horrors outlined in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.  Do not overlook the fact that these were spelled out early in the game, along with the proviso that Father’s terms were accessible to all (Deuteronomy 30:11-20).  Whether through the Scriptures, preaching, and all forms of mass communication, Father’s conditions are no longer limited to tablets of stone, but printed, broadcast, and digitalized, so that there is no excuse for anyone to claim ignorance of them (John 9:41, 15:22↔Romans 3:20).

   And if Deuteronomy’s curses appear to be the payola of a vindictive God, think again:  What these curses elucidate is Father’s foreknowledge of what Satan is capable of dishing out if given the opportunity to vent his homicidal nature.  Recall Jesus’ profiling:  Satan has been a killer from the beginning (John 8:44); a ‘beginning’ not referring to Satan’s creation, for he was created perfect in all his ways (Ezekiel 28:15); but when he urged Cain to kill Abel after inflaming the former’s animosity against his shepherd brother (Genesis 4:2)—what Satan personally replicated through Judas when the latter betrayed the Shepherd of souls (Zechariah 13:7; Luke 22:3; John 10:11; 1Peter 2:25). 

   We have become inured to such distinctions due to our proclivity to rally behind evil men blaming others for their own failings/egregious acts, let alone preachers telling us what we want to hear (Isaiah 30:10); while Satan, their unspiritual father (John 8:44), pays out the line for them to tow.  In His loving kindness, Father restricts Satan’s ability to torment mankind; but while Scripture identifies Satan as the de facto dispenser of human suffering (Exodus 12:23; 2Samuel 24:16; Job 1:12-19, 2:7; Luke 13:16), Father accepts responsibility for Satan’s actions, for Satan can do nothing unless Father allows it.  We should give Father credit when it is due:  The buck truly stops with Him (Isaiah 45:7).  This bears repeating ad nauseam given Satan’s relentless, human-abetted propaganda disparaging Father.

   To summarize, if Satan encourages people to behave contrary to Father’s will, He gives Satan leeway to torment them commensurate to their degree of transgression.  When that happens, will ‘family values’ win the day?  When a parent’s, child’s or relative’s survival is at stake, will he/she forfeit his/her life across the board so that the rest may live?  In normal times—let us extend the benefit of the doubt­—some people are capable of such generosity; but in times of unrelenting dangers, calamities, and hopelessness we are now heading for (Ezekiel 7:26-27; Matthew 24:21; Luke 21:26), the reality is another:  “Brother will hand brother over for execution, and a father his child. Children will rebel against parents and have them put to death” (Matthew 10:21).  And why will they do these things?  Because they will fear for their lives and try to save their own skins at any cost.

   And worse yet, “Even the compassionate man among you—the very sensitive one—will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons…Likewise, the most tender and delicate of your women, who would never think of putting even the sole of her foot on the ground because of her daintiness, will turn against her beloved husband, her sons and daughters.”  Whereas these prophecies were fulfilled during Jerusalem’s siege by the Babylonians, and led to the cannibalizing of children, they were not specific to Jerusalem alone as it is pointed out, but would befall men “during [attacks] and the misery by which your enemy [what “Satan” means] will oppress you in all your cities” (Deuteronomy 28:53-57).

   Poor Jeremiah had to witness the horror of it all.  Like Jonah (Jonah 1:1-3), he tried to circumvent Father’s designs by trying to escape the siege but was caught  (Jeremiah 37:11-15); as in Jonah’s case (Jonah 3:4-10, 4:11) his reluctance to bite the bullet had to be squashed in order to perform a more valuable task ahead:  Recording what he had seen and learned as a warning to future generations.

   Hence Lamentations 2:17,19-21:  “Yahweh has done that which He purposed; He has fulfilled His word that He commanded in the days of old [↔Deuteronomy 28:53-57]; He has thrown down, and has not pitied: He has caused the enemy [Satan, the symbolic King of Babylon↔Isaiah 14:4-20] to rejoice over you; He [Father] has exalted [empowered Satan] the horn [leader↔Daniel 8:20-21] of your adversaries…Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward Him for the life of your young children who faint for hunger at the head of every street.  Look, Yahweh, and see to whom You have done thus! Shall the women eat the fruit of their wombs, the children that are dandled in the hands?…Young men and the aged lie on the ground in the streets; my young women and young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them in your anger, slaughtering them without pity.”

   Why should any of this be a warning to Christians?  Because as explained in Part V of this series, it is Scripture’s way of warning Christians about horrors to be faced during the unprecedented [Jerusalem was only a dress rehearsal] Great Tribulation overtaking us at end times (Matthew 24:21).  Could these things happen again?  Quite possible given Jesus’ lament:  “How terrible it will be for women who are pregnant or who are nursing babies in those days” (Matthew 24:19)!

 One way or another Father will not let anything happen unless giving us ample warning to put His proverbial fear in us (Amos 3:7-8).  That fear is the beginning of wisdom and the foolish dismiss it (Proverbs 1:7).  Does this mean, as Satan-led God detractors habitually argue, that Father is an angry demiurge wanting us to cower in fear?  No; it means that once He has decided on a course of action, He will see it through no matter who Satan crushes in the process (Numbers 23:19).  As Father cast away Esau, once He rejects a human being, there is no way back to Him (Ezra 8:22; Hebrews 10:26-27,38,  12:16-17; 2Peter 2:21).  Jesus himself encouraged that fear:  “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell [Armageddon]” (Matthew 10:28).  And who is that One?  Father.

   The really “bad” news about the Gospel is that no matter how often these things are repeated, they will inevitable come to pass.  Contrary to neo-Christian bromides, Father is pulling away from us like the Moon is from Earth:  From entreaties to anger, His appeals keep falling on deaf ears (Jeremiah 35:15; Ezekiel 33:11; Matthew 21:33-41).  There is only one opportunity for reconciliation, in which obedience and faith are prerequisites; plus a pre-determined time to attempt it:  “’At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I helped you.’” Look, now is the ‘acceptable time.’ Look, now is the ‘day of salvation’” (Isaiah 49:8, 55:6; Zephaniah 2:2; 2Corinthians 6:2).

   When the period of grace expires, all bets are off; and Satan will have his grandest field day making mincemeat out of families worldwide that swallowed his playbook hook, line and sinker.  Tragically, belatedly, and only then, people will come to realize that the human version of ‘family values’ was Satan’s most perverse deception, promising fulfillment yet delivering literal hell to those who prioritized earthly concerns over heavenly ones (Matthew 16:23; Colossians 3:2; James 4:4).

¹ It bears repeating, [though at this late date, if the message has not sunk in, it never will], that this story involves both Yahweh Father and His Son, Yahweh Son proxy God.  The noun ‘God’ in Genesis 22:1-2 refers to both Yahwehs:  While it was Father’s intention to test Abraham’s faith, the speaking Yahweh could only have been Yahweh Son, for no man has ever heard Yahweh Father’s voice (Isaiah 42:14; John 5:37).  Genesis 22:11 makes the distinction clearer by identifying the speaking deity as “the Angel of Yahweh,” who then informs Abraham that he showed his fear of Father by not resisting the sacrifice asked of him (Genesis 22:12).  Verses 15-16 corroborate the differentiation between Son and Father:  The “Angel of Yahweh,” quoting verbatim what he has heard from Father, states the promise Paul would later ascribe to the God who knows no god higher than Him (Hebrews 6:13); whereas Jesus, the former Yahweh Son proxy God, admits to having a God higher than him on earth (John 14:28) and in Heaven (Revelation 3:12).

  Yahweh Father and the Holy Spirit are a Dyad, not a Trinity; and Yahweh Son is a created being inferior in rank, reverence, and wisdom, to Them [↔John 14:28; Matthew 22:24; 1Corinthians 15:24-28 / Matthew 12:31-32 / Mark 13:32; Acts 1:7; Revelation 1:1, respectively].

² Echoes of Daniel 7:4-5 beasts; and given that David is Jesus’ preeminent symbol in Scripture (Isaiah 22:22-23↔Revelation 3:7; Revelation 5:5, 22:16), perhaps implying that David’s victories over those animals foreshadowed Jesus’ ascendancy over earthly powers battling against him.