The following is an edited excerpt from this author’s fourth book of Wisdom

If you were Satan

Before anyone can understand Satan (or defeat Satan), one must know “who and what” Satan is.  The Bible says Lucifer (Satan) was one of the most beautiful creatures God ever created.  But then, Satan considered his own beauty and sought to make himself God.  Satan placed much importance in himself (the beginning of all vanity):  remember this because it is very important.  Satan, it would seem, was given command over one-third of God’s angels.  More correctly, one-third of God’s angels chose to follow Satan in his rebellion against God.  Now, if Satan can influence one-third of God’s angels (all of whom have seen God’s face), then what chance do we humans have against Satan?  No chance, my friend, regardless of what any religion teaches you (more on this later).

Satan has been given rule over this world:  he has more power here than all other angels.  Satan can appoint rulers, Satan can create nations, and Satan can control your very life in ways you cannot imagine.  (Oh, but you will imagine them shortly).  For the remainder of this letter, please forget everything you have been taught about Satan and you might be able to keep him at arm’s length; by way of your faith.

Given what we know about Satan, the only thing Satan has in this entire universe is this world (us) and his hatred of God (or more correctly, his desire to be God:  this is important).  Remember this because this tells us everything we need to know regarding Satan’s designs upon this (our) earth.

Satan wants to be God so the most natural place to find Satan, and his works, is in religion (sorry, but this is true).  Forget your religion for a moment and see what God commands us to do regarding worship.  The first three commandments (from God’s Ten Commandments) are the only commandments God gave concerning Himself (and they are quite simple):

1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:  thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:  for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

This is all God says (regarding Himself) and He requires very little from us really.  But now, enter religion upon the scene and everything changes.  God never invented religion:  God merely wants us to live decent and simple lives!  (Read all Ten Commandments and see if this is not true.)  Religion was invented by mankind, for the most part.  People devised a manner to meet in certain ways and to be taught about God, but in doing so, they voluntarily placed their future in the hands of those they sought to teach them.  What a perfect environment for someone like Satan.  You do not believe this?  Then answer the following questions.

If you were Satan, and God had commanded us to have no other gods, would you not then teach mankind to do exactly the opposite?  You will find Satan’s work all through the Old and New Testament.  When God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea to help them escape, the Hebrews promptly forgot this and built a golden calf for worship, while Moses was away.  These are the very people who saw the first-born of all Egyptians killed in a single night and saw the Red Sea parted so they could leave Egypt.   Remember that none of this is the story of God:  it is the story of our vanities and failures.  We are no better than those Hebrews!  Satan is as strong today as he ever was.  When the ten tribes of Israel separated from Jerusalem shortly after Solomon’s death, they formed their own nation.  The kings of this new nation were concerned about any loyalties to Jerusalem (and God) so they created false gods (in two golden calves . . . again) and devised the worship of pagan symbols (basically the worship of naked tree trunks).  Yes, the ten tribes of Israel congregated in groves of defoliated tree trunks merely because a few leaders were more concerned about their power (and vanity) than the truth of God in this world:  this is the power (and work) of Satan in this world.  This is the exact opposite of what God commanded and this is how Satan works.

If you were Satan, and God commanded mankind to make no graven image, would you not teach mankind to do exactly the opposite?  In Israel’s early days, God had them sacrifice animals (perfect, unblemished animals of the highest value) to atone for their sins.  God carefully told Israel that, regarding the stones (or altars) upon which the animals were placed, absolutely no tool was to be used to shape these altars.  God knows our minds:  once we build or fashion something, it becomes important to us and we place value upon it.  (As in “my altar is better than your altar.”)  God wanted to make sure that no value was placed upon these stones.  It was the sacrifice that was to be important:  our willingness to part with something of value because of the mistakes we make in life.  Altars were never supposed to be important to us, but of course, Satan caused the opposite to happen (over thousands of years).

Now, examine the religions (and churches) of today.  Find the word “graven” in your dictionary.  “Graven” means anything made by human hands:  ANYTHING!

Exodus 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Exodus 20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them:  for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

The first thing you see when you walk into most any Christian church is a large manmade cross, hanging on the wall behind some sort of altar that was fashioned by human hands.  There is a good chance you will also see a station commemorating Moses and the Ten Commandments.  You might also see a Stations of the Cross, which depicts the final hours of Jesus’ life.  Many faiths, will kneel down before these images and worship before them.  Was any of this commanded by God?  Absolutely not.  Oh, you will hear many excuses as to the purpose of these graven images, but remember that these excuses are merely the result of Satan’s efforts over the past few thousand years:  THEY ARE NOT THE RESULTS OF GOD’S SIMPLE COMMANDMENTS!  (There is nothing wrong with a person, or even a church, taking some time to examine the foundations of their belief!  Indeed, this author would argue that this is among the best things that a person, or church, can do in their life.)

If you were Satan, would you teach people to bow down and pray to someone other than God?  Well, there are people all over this world who pray to dead people such as Saint this-or-that, to the Virgin Mary, or to some Holy Spirit that God never, but ever, said to pray to.  Your praying to Saint Peter to help you through some pearly gate is about as useless as a Jew praying to Moses:  Jews know better.  Jews have always known better!  Satan has never even attempted to teach the Jews to do this:  this should tell you a lot.  Why?  Because God’s second Commandment forbids this.  God wants us to pray to HIM only.

If you were Satan, would you not teach mankind to forget the seven Holy Days that God laid out for mankind?  These seven days would outline God’s true Plan for this world.  Just imagine how these seven special days would tell us exactly what day God would arrive as someone we called Christ (The Feast of Tabernacles which comes in the autumn, not at Christmas), the day we would kill Christ (Passover, which fell on a Wednesday evening, not Good Friday), the day Christ would return to this world at the end-time, and the day Heaven will descend down to this world.  (Imagine that:  God giving us a schedule!)  There are Holy Days not yet used by God in His Plan, such as the Feast of Trumpets and the Last Great Day.  No, if you were Satan, you would definitely hide this schedule of God and what better way to accomplish this than by creating your own religious schedule such as Easter, Pentecost, Good Friday, Christmas, and All Saints Day (imagine that . . . a day for dead people!).

Think about God for a moment:  He, early on, laid out seven simple days for us to remember.  These seven days were important to Him and were supposed to mean something to us.  God even gave us the exact days of the year these events were to happen.  Now, think about Satan for a moment.  Satan is an angel who understands God’s Plan and Satan is very intelligent.  Satan has had six-thousand years to slowly influence us.  Satan knows us in that, once something becomes a tradition for us, it remains for a very long time, becoming more embedded in our tradition as time goes on.  Satan knows that all he has to do is to start something (with but a piece of the real truth).  Satan has a lot of time and Satan knows us very well:  one small thing in this generation and one small thing in that generation.  Remember “opposites” because this is your first clue in identifying Satan.

Now, here is your test regarding what you think Satan is capable of in your life, what Satan has accomplished in your life, and if you can identify the works of Satan throughout mankind’s history.

If you were Satan, and God told mankind to keep holy His Sabbath (the last day of the week) would you move this day to Sunday (the first day of the week)?  Remember that Satan’s best work is through opposites.

If you were Satan, and God gave mankind seven days each year, to keep holy and celebrate, would you discard every one of those days (knowing they signify every major event by God in mankind’s past . . . and future) and then create your own holy days such as Good Friday and Easter?  Think about this:  Satan even has power to influence our math!  How can a man (Christ) promise to lie in a tomb for three days and three nights, die on Friday afternoon and then rise on Sunday morning?  Do the math, my friend, and realize the immense influence of your traditions;  and of Satan’s powers in our lives!  Satan has truly caused us to believe that 1 + 1 + 1 equals a day-and-a-half!  So, has Satan had an influence upon your church?  Has Satan accomplished anything in your life?  If you want to know the complete truth, read your Scriptures once again and do the math yourself, just once.  Christ did not rise on Sunday morning; Christ was only found missing from His tomb on Sunday morning.  Christ rose Saturday night!

No . . . you say?  Please set your Christian beliefs aside, for a moment, and learn what your Scriptures teach you:

Do the math . . . remembering that Christ said, “three days and three nights.”  He never said, “three days and four nights!”  Learn when the Passover is supposed to begin, in God’s Torah.  In the Torah, God commanded the “unblemished lamb” to be killed in preparation of the Passover which begins at sundown.  (You can find God’s instructions in Exodus 12:6.  By the time Christ came down, using the body of Jesus, the Jews had moved this event to the end of the Passover day!  Mark 15:34 – 42 teaches how Christ, our Lamb, died about the ninth hour of daylight just before the Passover ended.  This is the exact hour that the High Priest kills the ceremonial lamb in Jerusalem.)

Christ died just before sundown and was buried, hurriedly, without the necessary Hebrew preparations being made, because of the onset of Feast of Unleavened Bread.  Christ (meaning God!) rose three days and three nights (meaning 72 hours) after He died:  give or take a few moments.  Please, please, do the math!  Forget God!  Forget Christ!  This lesson is only about you!  God and Christ already “know” when all of this happened; God and Christ already know the influence Satan can have on your life.  So please learn, yourself, how Satan has possibly influenced your life:  and what you might believe to be true!

Read the Word of God that has been placed in the Gospel of Matthew!  Set aside all of your lifelong beliefs, all of your religious teachings, everything your parents (and grandparents) taught you, and all of your personal vanities.  Learn the Word of God here!

Matthew 28:1  In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

Matthew 28:2  And, behold, there was a great earthquake:  for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

Matthew 28:3  His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

My dearest friends!  With our LORD, every day begins at sunset!  The sabbath of Matthew 28:1 ended as the sun was going down on Saturday!  The first day of our LORD’s week begins when the sun sets on Saturday!  There is not one religion, upon this Earth, that can deny our LORD’s counting of days!

So . . . just what is Easter?  Is it the day we currently observe as “when a few people discovered a long-since empty tomb?”  According to Scripture, Christ died at the beginning of the Hebrew holy day called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.  According to Christ’s own words, He rose at sundown of the last day of the week:  meaning the sundown of the Saturday Sabbath.  But we, today, celebrate at the sunrise (morning) of the first day of the week?  Oh, how Satan works amongst mankind:  almost always using opposites!

My friend, learn your Scriptures (both Hebrew and Christian), and discover how Satan has influenced this world for (at least) the past two-thousand years.  If Satan can influence what we believe regarding some of the greatest “moments” of all time, just how much can Satan influence mankind over the past six-thousand years?

If you were Satan, and God gave mankind seven days to keep holy and to celebrate, would you discard every one of those days (knowing they signify every major event by God in mankind’s history . . . and future) and then create your own holy day such as Christmas?  Read your Bible.  Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because Caesar called for a census.  The census, that year in Israel, took place in the autumn.  This Roman edict required that each person return to their nomes (cities and sites of their family birthplace).  This is why Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem regardless of Mary’s pregnancy:  the Roman penalty was severe, including the loss of all possessions, or even one’s freedom.  The Feast of Tabernacles occurs in the autumn.  Is it just happenstance that the Roman census (the time of the counting of heads) happens in the autumn?  Is it just happenstance that the Feast of Tabernacles lasts for seven days and Hebrews are required to live in tents (any temporary domicile, or tabernacle, such as a manger) for these seven days?  Is it just happenstance that God, Himself, was coming to this earth using a temporary domicile (a human body, or in His terms, a tabernacle)?  Hence, we have God’s true meaning, and our common sense realization, of God’s Feast of Tabernacles.  Listen to your common sense:  your common sense can always see the truth.  But of course, no Christian religion would ever tie the actual birth date of Christ to some “Hebrew” tradition (that came from God’s own Word in the Old Testament) because this might move some peoples’ hearts toward the ancient Hebrew ways (such as the Sabbath falling on the last day of the week; or not having graven images present in the place of your worship).  Imagine that:  a Christian church afraid to have its flock return to the Ten Commandments!  (To Christian churches of today, none of this is your fault!  It happened almost two-thousand years ago and is revered today only because it has become “our” tradition.  Remember, it is not your fault!  But remember also:  at best, most Christians are currently only obeying seven out of the Ten Commandments.  At best!  God only desires mankind to return to His Commandments and His Ways.  And to Christian churches of today, you most certainly CAN make that last sentence happen; the only requirement here is that you find the desire to obey your LORD!  He is watching and waiting.)

So, has Satan had an influence upon your church over the past two-thousand years?  Has Satan accomplished anything in your life (such as forgetting the Ten Commandments?)  Now, if you are Jewish, has Satan accomplished anything in your life?  Such as forgetting the Feast of Tabernacles where you must live in a tent (or any other temporary domicile) for seven days?

If you were Satan and knew you had been given control of this world, would you convince the religions of this world to teach all people that Satan had no power over their lives (as long as they believed this or that)?  If you were Satan, would you not realize that since mankind does not even know you, that it is good for them to believe that you have no part in their life?

(My friend, you see this very deception every day in your own life and do not even realize it.  Have you ever seen a credit card advertisement on television showing how bad other credit cards are?  But, if you keep their particular credit card, you will be trading others’ evils for “their good.”  This credit card company knows that we are absolutely incapable of comparing things we do not understand to other things we do not understand.  This is not your fault; just know that you do not understand what’s in your wallet.)

If you were Satan, would you take what mankind calls God’s Golden Rule and then completely remove God from it?  God’s Eleventh Commandment is “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”  With Satan’s help, we have perverted this into mankind’s Golden Rule:  “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  We all know how God loved us:  He created us, allowed us to live our lives with free will, and has only asked us to show this very same love toward all others that He created.  God’s love is as solid-as-a-rock (and simple), but Satan has slowly removed God from this rule to where we should only treat others as we believe they should treat us.  Well, this opens up many shades-of-gray.  Never mind that God’s love is written in stone; we today, should only treat strangers the same way we expect strangers to treat us.  So how do you expect a stranger to treat you?  This is all you have to do for them.  Christ never taught us this!  Christ might meet the lowest form of human life (as indeed He did, and so do we) and then show that person great love.  Satan’s law never says this:  Satan’s law says that we are to only treat that poor destitute stranger the same as they would treat us if we were in their shoes.  Oh, how Satan has influenced our lives:  with and without religion.

Satan knows this world better than anyone.  If we do not understand God (and those simple things He expects from us), then how easy is it for Satan, over the course of SIX-THOUSAND YEARS to teach us “his own version of God” and then teach the things that he wants from us, using the name of God?  It is a huge misconception that we believe Satan wants to destroy us.  This is all that religion teaches us and religion has a lot of things backward.  Your Bible teaches that Satan merely wants to BE GOD.  Satan can only be God if we believe him to be God.  Satan has never, but ever, tried to destroy mankind.  Satan is as simple as this:  he wants us to do well, according to his terms, while we believe that he (through his lies) is God.  Satan does not want your soul:  Satan only wants to be God.  We are mere pawns to Satan, but he absolutely needs us so he can continue to believe he is the “god of something.”  In other words, Satan is all about Satan:  we are the means to his end (and nothing more).  Satan only cares about the “little while:”  and Satan will enjoy his “little while.”  Given this, Satan has taught us to only care about the “little while.”  Who today, would argue that mankind, truly, should only care about our “little while?”  (Well, this author will!)  God is all about “us” because God is our only Father:  this is the difference between vanity and truth.  To us, here in this world, living this pathetic and short-lived life, the difference between vanity and truth is but a simple decision that has immense consequences:  the “little while” or ETERNITY.

My friend, this author is a horrible historian:  this author knows his abilities and inabilities. This story of Satan was absolutely the truth, but this author has presented only a fraction of Satan’s truth to you. Go to your library, or somewhere on the internet, and get a book titled, The Tracks of the Devil by Ronald L. Dart.  It is currently purchased at one of his websites.  That website is  www.borntowin.net  then click “Shop,” click “Printed Materials”, click “Free Literature,” scroll down and click on Page 3, and scroll down to “The Tracks of the Devil.”  (Or click here to go directly to the publication; scroll down when you get there.)  Once there, you will see instructions on how to obtain one copy for free.  You do not need other people to tell you how to live your life, but if you care to learn how Satan has influenced your life and influenced many things you hold so dear, then you will never find a better book than that written by Mr. Dart.  (This author, jpw, has no affiliation with Mr. Dart nor any of Mr. Dart’s websites.  Also, this author can attest to no other publications found at the above website.)

Sometimes, just sometimes, it is good for us to let go of some things that stand in our way of this life.  It is always good for us to examine our beliefs and whether they have slowly “wandered away” from God’s Word.  Your vanities (and beliefs) are part of what you should understand and then be able to let go of in this life.  There will be two ways to understand this book:  both shall help you immensely.

First, by you knowing exactly who Satan is (and was) regarding our life.  You know your vanities:  you absolutely know your vanities.  But Satan started all vanities in this world, long before you were born.  When you come to understand the beginning of something, you can truly see that “something” for what it was, is, and should be.  Every vanity in your life can be better understood if you see how Satan uses it against us in our life:  you can even accomplish this knowing nothing about God.  So this author strongly encourages you to put this book down now and read Mr. Dart’s book first.  Remember, this letter is merely an excerpt from this author’s fourth book of Wisdom.

Second, by your ability to cast aside traditions, beliefs, vanities, and what you have been taught in your life regarding anything that has to do with God.  Mankind knows little about God:  what we do know is quite often in error; this author has written four books teaching this.  The journey of reading Mr. Dart’s book first will, by far, be the easiest:  you may decide you do not even need this book after you read his.  This book merely presents the truth of God and the truth of mankind:  these, you can find on your own!  Mr. Dart’s book will teach you everything you need to know before going out on your own to make those last few adjustments which will make your life right.


2011 Addendum

A very interesting story which illustrates the tracks of the devil (through time) is “linked” below.  It will only take a few minutes of your time to read.

Would you like to know where Satan was at 9 AM on Sunday, September 4, 1881?  This author can prove where he was.

Satan was at a church (in England) . . . reading a Bible . . . and he was grinning from ear-to-ear, because he had just accomplished one of his greatest feats ever!  And as usual, he was working by way of “opposites.”

Please click on the tab titled “What?  Two Bibles?” on the left side of this page.  Or click here.  Once there, you shall learn a great deal about Satan’s ability to deceive this world.

 

 

 

Copyright (2005) by jpw@wisdomi.org