Perfect in beauty: anointed cherub?

[brakelite]

@amadeus Then the whole wilderness scenario with Jesus and Satan was just a metaphor?

 

[VictoryinJesus]

@amadeus Then the whole wilderness scenario with Jesus and Satan was just a metaphor?

Satan, demons and evils spirits all remain a mystery for me. But here is just a thought: how are we tempted? We love to say “the devil made me do it.” Is that true? How could Jesus be tempted of satan in the wilderness? Jesus was hungry and weak (as man) beyond what we can comprehend. The flesh was to the point of starvation...why? What was being tested? What does the flesh do when it is deprived? Who is to say Jesus’ flesh didn’t tempt Him with: to satisfy the appetite of the roaring flesh that said, “go after the world. It is mine to give you. You are God, take it! Claim the power. Rise up now at my will. Eat the bread of the world and satisfy your hunger.” The flesh taunting, “worship me!” Again, how are we tempted?

Who has dominion over the world?

Who is to have dominion over us(those that are His)?

 

[brakelite]

I have met demons in person. They are as real as you. @VictoryinJesus No, convincing ourselves that "the devil made me do it" is as much a cop out today as it was in the garden. We are tempted by our fleshly lusts...but Satan knows how to make those lusts harmless and attractive.

 

[Stranger]

Satan, demons and evils spirits all remain a mystery for me. But here is just a thought: how are we tempted? We love to say “the devil made me do it.” Is that true? How could Jesus be tempted of satan in the wilderness? Jesus was hungry and weak (as man) beyond what we can comprehend. The flesh was to the point of starvation...why? What was being tested? What does the flesh do when it is deprived? Who is to say Jesus’ flesh didn’t tempt Him with: to satisfy the appetite of the roaring flesh that said, “go after the world. It is mine to give you. You are God, take it! Claim the power. Rise up now at my will. Eat the bread of the world and satisfy your hunger.” The flesh taunting, “worship me!” Again, how are we tempted?

Who has dominion over the world?

Who is to have dominion over us(those that are His)?

Understand the trial of Jesus in the wilderness was set up by God. Not satan. I am convinced that satan didn't want any part of it as he knew who He was dealing with, God the Son. But he had no choice. (Matt. 4:1) "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."

Of course Jesus was tempted. That was the purpose of the trial. He felt it. Yet he said...no. He denied Himself.

Stranger

 

[amadeus]

@amadeus Then the whole wilderness scenario with Jesus and Satan was just a metaphor?

I am not here to win arguments or even necessarily to get involved in them. I do not have answers to everyone's questions nor even answers to all of my own questions. I believe the central part of what we need to be and to be part of is found in I Corinthians 13 and in Matthew chapters 5 through 7. The details of how to get there is available to each person who is really interested in getting there. The Bible itself, I believe, when it is understood through the Holy Spirit will show us the Way.

As to your question on satan and Jesus, I have already indicated my inclinations about it. But, I also believe that it is by faith that we live for God, not by knowledge. [Are we real?]

Is satan real? The question to me is simply asking whether or not we really do have an adversary or adversaries? The answer is, yes, but the next question for me is, what is the reality of the adversary or adversaries? The answer is that reality is God. Is anything that in the end of the matter is not of God or is not allowed by God to continue real? Is anything that is temporal real? It seems to be to the senses of my flesh, but will the senses of my flesh continue when the flesh returns to the dust and that which is good is able to see God face to face?

There are many other things we seem to perceive with the five natural senses and with what we call the mind, but are any of them real as God is real? They are as real as He has made them, but is that a meaningful reality for anything that ceases when our allotted time is finished if we do not continue with Him? Jesus told us about our future. If we don't believe in Him, do we even have a future?

 

[amadeus]

I have met demons in person. They are as real as you. @VictoryinJesus No, convincing ourselves that "the devil made me do it" is as much a cop out today as it was in the garden. We are tempted by our fleshly lusts...but Satan knows how to make those lusts harmless and attractive.

What I see here in your statement and in the ways of many church groups and other individuals is a lot of "faith" in satan. The Bible certainly speaks to us of an adversary, but I try not to spend much time describing him or understanding him. Rather I hope to describe and understand God and allow the God in me to kill finally and completely the adversary [be he called satatn, or the serpent, or lucifer, or the devil or a demon] and/or the old man of me which works to interfere with my movement toward Him. If satan is dead, it doesn't matter what he is. If he is not dead to us then it is all the more reason to surrender more completely to God for alone we cannot defeat the adversary. God can.

You say you have met demons, but more importantly have you met Jesus; have you met God?

 

[Helen]

My own way of seeing it is to consider the man, the first man who was created "very good" and then he disobeyed God. When Adam and Eve disobeyed they then moved themselves away from the "very good" where they started.

What I am suggesting of course is that satan is the man when the man is following his own will instead of God's will. I am not arguing that everyone should believe it this way but for me it is a better answer than the separate satan entity/being which is seemingly built on a presumption and then described or supported by the several verses of scriptures [and others] people have posted on this thread.

Man is the devil. Man is the serpent that tempted Eve. Man is the satan fallen from heaven. Man is one who moved himself from "very good" to evil. And so on...

I don't know how I missed this. I have only just read this thread.

I like the above very much.
I've always known that it was something "in them" speaking and not some snake in an apple tree!!!

This make my mind go to " when we see the abomination of desolating standing in the Holy Place.."
I believe this is the heart of man. Fallen, totally rebellious, and reprobate...practicing every evil sin openly.
It will be a dark totally evil time.
I hope it is "not yet" !! Since time began, I am sure this earth has never seen such evil and darkness that it will yet see.
The heart is God's, the place of His throne within us.

Just my own thoughts. Bless you...H

 

[brakelite]

If we are going to treat the confrontation in the garden as a metaphor, and ascribe to that story all manner of existential reasoning and philosophical interpretations, then we may as well do the same with every depiction of Satan in scripture. Then we completely lose the central theme of the controversy between good and evil. It is a war between Christ and Satan. This war has real protagonists. Throughout the course of history there have been billions of casualties. Much collateral damage. And the prize is your mind. If you start to believe that one of those protagonists is nothing but a figment of man's wild imagination, and that Christ's greatest enemy is actually inside ourselves, then the entire gospel becomes skewed.
Now I am not going to give Satan airtime he doesn't need. But when Jesus spoke of the 'prince of this world', and the 'father of lies', I tend to think He was speaking of a real life entity whose greatest weapon is the ability to deceive millions into thinking he doesn't really exist.

 

[rockytopva]

I find myself reminding people more and more that the unction of the Holy Spirit is not human ego. The origins of ego is with one who was called Lucifer.

 

[GUANO]

Because man was put out of the garden of God (heaven) and the only way back in to the presence of God and to eat of the tree of life, is by the mercy seat.

Numbers 7:89
[89] And when Moses was gone into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, then he heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the mercy seat that was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubims: and he spake unto him.

God appointed the Cherubims after man was drove out.

Genesis 3:24
[24] So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Why would God appoint Satan as a cherubim over the mercy seat?

I'm familiar with both the Bible and the occult. There are no scriptures or Luciferian legends of Satan being associated with the Mercy Seat in Rabbianic rites and rituals. Satan is the goat Azazel in the rituals of the Hebrews. The scapegoat onto which all sin is ascribed...

I think the "covering cherub" is a reference to Satan being prince of the powers of the air, Aka the Babylinian god Anu, the Egyptian goddess Ma'at, the Roman god Zeus, etc... the gods of the air.... the atmosphere, defined by Webster as "the pervading mood or tone of a place or work of art..." similar to a spirit called a Zeitgeist which rules the atmosphere of a specific time period...