Satan's Two-Soul Nature
Dr. Allen M. Barber
April 5, 2009
Ezekiel 28:11-19 NLT
11 Then this further message came to me from the LORD: 12 "Son
of
man, weep for the king of Tyre. Give him this message from the
Sovereign LORD: You were the perfection of wisdom and beauty. 13
You
were in Eden, the garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with
every
precious stone — red carnelian, chrysolite, white moonstone,
beryl,
onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald — all beautifully
crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to
you on
the day you were created. 14 I ordained and anointed you as the
mighty
angelic guardian. You had access to the holy mountain of God and
walked
among the stones of fire. 15 "You were blameless in all you did
from
the day you were created until the day evil was found in you. 16
Your
great wealth filled you with violence, and you sinned. So I
banished
you from the mountain of God. I expelled you, O mighty guardian,
from
your place among the stones of fire. 17 Your heart was filled
with
pride because of all your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for
the
sake of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth and exposed
you to
the curious gaze of kings. 18 You defiled your sanctuaries with
your
many sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought fire from
within you,
and it consumed you. I let it burn you to ashes on the ground in
the
sight of all who were watching. 19 All who knew you are appalled
at
your fate. You have come to a terrible end, and you are no
more."
Most conservative Bible scholars credit this passage as figurative
language depicting the origin and fall of Satan. I concur with
that
position. In order to have a full understanding of the theology of
Satan, the passage in Isaiah 14 needs to read in conjunction with
Ezekiel 28. While I am not going to get into the theological
details of
Satanology in this article, a couple of points are worth noting:
(1)
the narrative moves beyond the King of Tyre as no such king was in
the
Garden of God or the Garden of Eden. (2) No king of Tyre had
access to
the holy mountain of God; a mountain in prophetic scripture is a
type
of a kingdom or earthly power (Jeremiah 51:25; Daniel 2:35; See
Zechariah 6:1; Revelation 17:9). (3) Verse 14 identifies the king
of
Tyre as the personification of the fallen angelic being, Satan,
whom
God created perfect and blameless until the day iniquity or evil
possessed his being. The Hebrew word for evil means that
which is
morally corrupt.
Isaiah 14:12-14 gives the reason for Satan's fall - selfish pride.
He
envied the Godhead, and in my opinion, primarily the Son of God,
the
Lord Jesus. He wanted to be equal with Jesus and sit upon the
throne of
God; the Scripture does not say Satan wanted to be above God or to
usurp His place rather he wanted to be equal to or in the same
place as
Jesus - at the right hand of the Father; however, that place is
reserved for Jesus and Him alone. Isaiah 14:13 says Satan wanted
to
exalt his throne above the stars of God (a reference to the
angelic
hosts) and in Verse 14 it says he wanted to be like or equal to
God;
the Hebrew word for "like" is damah, which means to
resemble.
Whether Satan wanted to be like or equal to God is really not the
point. His sin was that he rebelled against his order of creation.
God
created him as an angelic being and placed him over the Cherubim
(the
other angelic group is the Seraphim). Apparently, Satan was the
chief
of the archangels and was given great power and authority; this is
why
the archangel, Michael, when disputing with Satan about the body
of
Moses, would not rebuke him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." (See
Jude
Verse 9).
Right here lies a truth that the majority of believers do not
understand including most ministers and I do not have time to get
into
all of it today, but it has to do with authority both spiritual
and
human. God established a chain of command with Himself as the
ultimate
authority and delegated authority to mankind to include such in
the
Church. No one is without being under authority. In fact, Jesus
said
one of the signs of the last generation to which He would return
is
"lawlessness" or rebellion against authority. We live in an
age
of blatant lawlessness with children disobeying parents, wives
disobeying husbands (opened a can of worms there!), husbands
disobeying
the Lord, believers disobeying the elders, the people disobeying
the
government (there is a time to disobey the government; when it
violates
the Word of God as well as its own laws inscribed in the
Constitution
like we are seeing today), and more importantly, a disregard for
God's
Word. The final authority in this earth is Sola
Scriptura.
The Church is supposed to set the example to the world of total
obedience to God. The one group in the Church that most
exemplifies
that is the women. This is why Paul said that the women must be
under
authority in the Church because of the angels (See I Cor.
11:10).
During a pastor's conference in which our Church was the host, the
discussion of the role of men and women came up. I listened to the
rhetoric back and forth with some believing women could be pastors
and
deacons while others believed it was unscriptural. I asked
the ministers (probably about 50 or 60 in attendance) if they
understood the meaning of I Corinthians 11:10 and read it to them.
They
all sat there like they had never read that Scripture before, so I
explained it to them. It is in the context of "head
covering," which
has nothing to do with a physical head garment. The inference is
spiritual and involves spiritual authority. When Spirit-filled
women
are under the authority of God, they willing submit to the men -
the
elders and their husbands; their willing submission is a testimony
to
the angelic realm that rebelled against the authority of God by
attempting to overturn the order of creation (an angel becoming a
god;
angels are not gods). Angels observe human behavior 24/7 and
remember
what the book of Hebrews says, "Beware lest you entertain angels
without knowing it (See Hebrews 13:2)
This is why it is written in I Samuel 15: 23 that
rebellion is
the sin of witchcraft and insubordination the same as iniquity
and
idolatry. God is serious about authority yet many in
the
Church are rebellious and lawless. All who are will never be part
of
the overcomers. Women who have usurped the role of men in the
Church
and have set themselves up as elders, pastors, and deacons are
rebellious and lawless in the eyes of God. Likewise the Church
that
ordains and appoints them to positions of authority over the men
are
just as lawless. Women who willingly keep their place of
submission in
the body of Christ are an indictment against the evil angels who
sinned
with Satan in the fall. There will be rewards for Spirit-filled
women
who remained in submission to elder and male authority when in
many
cases they were more talented and even more Spirit-filled than
some of
the men and elders. I do not imply that it is easy for the women
to
give place to the men, especially when the men are carnal and
unloving.
On the contrary it is difficult, but know this that God will one
day
honor the women who chose to obey God rather than what was popular
(Do
I have your attention ladies?)
I did not mean to get off on this topic, but in my book on Divorce and Remarriage, I prove from the Word of God that it is not the intent or the will of God for women to be in authority. The following excerpt from my chapter entitled, "Church Leadership and the One Wife Clause" addresses the issue:
I need to digress at this point before I share the excerpt. In I Timothy 3: 1-2, we find the moral qualifications for the elders and teaching pastors (these are not the only qualifications for the elders and pastors; however the denominational churches have made this passage a legalistic acid test for Church leadership when in fact it is not as important as the spiritual qualifications - Spirit-filled, called of God, anointed, and having the spirituals - the gift of the office of pastor-teacher). This is one reason I wrote the book, Set My People Free, God's Position on Divorce and Remarriage, for I saw the legalistic hypocrisy of Church leadership keeping men out of the pulpit and the office of deacon who were victims of unwanted divorces. I address that in detail in my book.
The Greek word for man in Verse 1 is ei tis (actually part of a Greek enclitic indefinite pronoun meaning any person or object; therefore, it is a rather broad stroke of the brush that implies men in general, that is, the man who aspires to be an elder - pastor does not have to have a high social ranking or standing within society for the main qualifications are spiritual). Very few Church leaders know this and I have never met a pulpit committee that understands it.
However, when we come to Verse 2, the Holy Spirit leads Paul to use a word that is not normally used for "man." Before I deal with that, read the Verse:
I Timothy 3:2 NASB
An overseer (elder) then must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable and able to teach.
Here is my excerpt:
"...the usual Greek word for man is anthropos, which means a person of the human race whether male or female; therefore, both man and woman are anthropos; but here in Verse 2 the Greek word for "husband" is andra, meaning a male individual of the human race. The King James translators translated Andra as "husband" because it was connected to the one wife clause (I also address this in detail in my book and prove that it does not mean only one wife forever, which common sense tells you that if a pastor's wife dies, he is free to marry another and yet remain in the office as pastor; I also prove that it likewise refers to a God-called pastor whose wife left him and divorced him illegally making him the victim of an unwanted divorce - you have to take off your legalistic traditional hat to see the truth of it). The literal Greek says, "An elder or pastor must be a male of the human race devoted to only one woman. By using the Greek word Andra, the Holy Spirit ruled out any woman from being in a position of authority in the Church. Those in authority in the Church must be "the men."
I once wrote an article on this subject for the Baptist Standard, which published it. You would not believe the hate mail I received from both men and women; one person even threatened to come to my residence and kill me. The postal authorities paid this person a visit and explained what he did was a federal offense with a prison term attached. I received a second letter of apology.
Now, I am not sure how I got off into all that, but it was free of charge. Perhaps it was for someone who needed to understand it.
The Verse I want to stress is Ezekiel 28:18 where God says He brought fire from within the midst of Satan. In this Verse God passed judgment on Satan by giving him a divided nature thereby making Satan literally a schizophrenic - a divided soul. The Hebrew meaning of in the midst is "to bisect or divide." Now, you know why Satan is confused and why his doctrine is one of lies and deception. God literally set Satan against himself. This spiritual schizophrenia will ultimately destroy Satan for he is actually waging war against himself. After the fall, he recognized or realized that he had both a good and a bad nature (this is not to be confused with man who is born with an inherent sin nature without the nature of God - without God's spirit; just keep in mind that in regard to Satan, we are dealing with the supernatural - he was not created evil, but a good angel; then he choose to become evil in his nature). In contrast, man is not a supernatural being otherwise he would not be human (New Age doctrine teaches that man is a supernatural being who has recessive genes that just needs to get in touch with the masters of the universe in order to be set free of a lower existence and reach nirvana- that is poppy-cock nonsense of course).
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is not meant to be a literal tree such as an apple or pear tree. The meaning is symbolic and is the personification of Satan for he was the first created being to experience both good and evil in his nature. Since God created him, and angels will forever be of the angelic realm, his good nature came from God, but when he sinned, his soul (See I Cor. 15:40 where Paul uses the word flesh [soul] to describe the different forms of God's creation) was split-off or divided. He knew both "the good" and "the evil." Likewise, the Lord Jesus is the Tree of life. The test God placed before Adam and Eve was to see if they would obey Him and partake of the Tree of life, the Lord Jesus, or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Satan. Unfortunately for them and us, they chose to partake of Satan's doctrine and became like him - a core soul or personality inherited from God and a sin nature inherited from Satan. The only difference is that man's spirit is completely darkened by the sin nature, which Satan gave him in the fall; therefore, man must be born-again of the Spirit of God in order to have relationship with his Creator. No manner of good works is sufficient.
In reality, in the fall of man, Satan a divided soul at war against himself, convinced Adam and Eve there was a plurality of gods, and if they partook of his leaven (doctrine) they would join the gods and become one of them. They fell for it and learned that Satan was a liar and the epitome of evil. They were already on a higher plane than the devil, but he succeeded in deceiving them that God was holding them down in a lower sphere of the gods. What he did was bring Adam and Eve down to his level - a creature laded with a nature in rebellion and opposed to the will of God.
Those experienced in deliverance ministry know the meaning of James 1:8 - "...a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." The Greek word for double-minded is dipsuchos, which means two-souled - the soul has been torn or split off. People who are MPD have divided personalities or personalities split off from the core personality - the one God thought up and gave us when we were created in the womb. In addition, when an AD (ancestral demon) is present in a demon invaded victim (can be both a lost or saved person), he splits off the core personality and creates a flip-side (second personality) and controls the victim through the Flip-Side (Note: Dr. Joe Allbright, a renowned anointed deliverance minister was given the revelation of the AD and the Flip-Side Personality. I highly recommend his book, Liberating the Bruised, for anyone doing deliverance ministry).
Any person, family, nation or kingdom divided against itself, know for sure the one behind it is the two-souled devil for in creating division, he is able to conquer the person and nation. This why we must guard our spirits and minds against all false doctrine and practice for it can lead to a divided soul, which is the seat of confusion. Do you realize both the Hebrew and Greek word meanings for homosexual is "confusion" or two-souled (double-minded)? Homosexuals do not realize that by giving in to the lie that God made them homosexual, they have received from the devil a double soul or divided soul and are in essence at odds with themselves, that is, everyday of their life they live a lie and are at war with their core personality (soul) - the one God gave them in the womb at conception. This is why it is difficult to for a homosexual to come out of that lifestyle - their minds are in utter confusion about who they are. Every homosexual has a demon, that is, has a demon-produced personality. Demons thrive on confusion for it is what they are and what their father the devil is.
The reason the United States of America is a divided nation is that Satan has become its father and has given our leaders and many people a spirit of delusion (confusion) whereby they do not recognize the truth anymore. They believe the lies they are fed everyday by the media, the politicians, and the false clerics as the truth. (See II Thessalonians 2: 11-12).
The New World Order is the Order of Confusion because the one behind it is the two-souled devil.
When God speaks of Israel or the nations whoring after other gods, the spiritual implication is they have committed spiritual fornication with the world. The Harlot Church of Revelation 17 is guilty of spiritual idolatry or fornication - worshipping other gods than the God of the Bible - the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have no part with the two-souled schizophrenic devil, but keep your vessel - spirit, soul and body as one unified whole in union with the Holy Spirit by which we all have fellowship with the Father and Son and all true believers.
God bless you.
Dr. Allen M. Barber, a bond-servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.