Asyncritus,
I understand your point about Jesus possibly speaking about Himself, given the structure of the sentences in John 12:30-33, but in drawing the meaning out of scripture we first need to look at context (Jesus referring to the cross and His victory over death, the fear of which is the principle tool of Satan.) Then we have to consider other related text, comparing scripture with scripture:
5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Luke 4:5-8
You'll notice that the devil said "all this authority I will give you," he didn't promise ownership as it was his to rule, but not his possession. God gave the angels authority to rule over the earth until the arrival of the One who is the rightful heir of His kingdom. The scriptures also refer to these as principalities, powers, etc.: 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:11-12
The Lord of all creation gave authority to the devil, but the devil had no desire to give it up or to submit to the rightful heir of creation. We also see Jesus referring to the Jewish rulers in the same terms, calling them sons of their father the devil. These also understood who Jesus claimed to be, but resisted Him and sought for an excuse to put Him to death and so He gave us the parable of the vineyard and the vinedressers: 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Matthew 21:37-39
I realize that this last verse also uses the words "cast out" and in this case was a reference to the Lord, but given the entire context of the passages I don't believe the subject in John 10:31 was intended to be the same. Such an interpretation leads to luciferian blasphemies, which are condemning by their very nature.
We know exactly when Satan's authority was overthrown: at the cross, and we have the words of our resurrected Savior as proof: 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Matthew 28:18
Kind of funny that we use two of the same verses to prove opposite points, but I hope that my expansion proves helpful to your understanding.
I understand your point about Jesus possibly speaking about Himself, given the structure of the sentences in John 12:30-33, but in drawing the meaning out of scripture we first need to look at context (Jesus referring to the cross and His victory over death, the fear of which is the principle tool of Satan.) Then we have to consider other related text, comparing scripture with scripture:
5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”
8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ” Luke 4:5-8
You'll notice that the devil said "all this authority I will give you," he didn't promise ownership as it was his to rule, but not his possession. God gave the angels authority to rule over the earth until the arrival of the One who is the rightful heir of His kingdom. The scriptures also refer to these as principalities, powers, etc.: 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:11-12
The Lord of all creation gave authority to the devil, but the devil had no desire to give it up or to submit to the rightful heir of creation. We also see Jesus referring to the Jewish rulers in the same terms, calling them sons of their father the devil. These also understood who Jesus claimed to be, but resisted Him and sought for an excuse to put Him to death and so He gave us the parable of the vineyard and the vinedressers: 38 But when the vinedressers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Matthew 21:37-39
I realize that this last verse also uses the words "cast out" and in this case was a reference to the Lord, but given the entire context of the passages I don't believe the subject in John 10:31 was intended to be the same. Such an interpretation leads to luciferian blasphemies, which are condemning by their very nature.
We know exactly when Satan's authority was overthrown: at the cross, and we have the words of our resurrected Savior as proof: 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Matthew 28:18
Kind of funny that we use two of the same verses to prove opposite points, but I hope that my expansion proves helpful to your understanding.
