The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.
Scripture offers no clear answers as to when and how Satan originally falls – or even why a sovereign God permits the evil one’s rebellion and all its horrific consequences. Genesis 3 does not introduce us to the origin of evil, but reveals the presence of unexplained evil in the serpent. Adam and Eve are created innocent, and shortly thereafter the already-fallen serpent shows up. John Piper’s candid perplexity is a welcome perspective. In response to a listener’s question about where Satan even got the desire to sin, Piper replies, in part:
As far as I can see, no explanation is offered in the Bible for how Satan became evil…. How could a perfectly good being – with a perfectly good will and a perfectly good heart – ever experience any imperfect impulse that would cause the will to move in the direction of sin? The answer is that nobody knows …
Following is another in a series of columns on The Baptist Faith & Message 2000.
Marriage, family, and gender are gifts from God. They are established for the good of all people, who are created in the image of God.
Article XVIII of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 reads:
“God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
“Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
“The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.
“Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.”
Southern Baptists added Article XVIII to The Baptist Faith & Message in 1998, thus making it part of the 1963 confession and carrying it forward into the 2000 edition. Witnessing the erosion of our culture’s view of marriage and family, Southern Baptists boldly reaffirmed God’s unchanging standards as revealed in Scripture and embraced by Christians throughout the centuries.
Today, the prevailing secular view is that marriage is an archaic, man-made institution in need of revision, while family is an evolutionary unit that may be restructured to meet changing societal needs.
The Bible says otherwise. Marriage and family are gifts from God. They are established and fixed for the good of all people, who are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27).
When considered together, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 invite different interpretations. Three rise to the top: (1) the authors are describing the depravity of earthly kings, using exaggeration and/or sarcasm; (2) the authors are describing both earthly kings and – in Ezekiel 28 in particular – the fall of Adam; and (3) the authors are describing both earthly kings and Satan, peeling back the curtain to expose a supernatural creature who pulls the strings of his marionette monarchs.
Trusted Bible scholars vigorously debate which interpretation best fits the text. So, let’s briefly survey each view.
View 1: earthly kings
Many commentators see Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 as graphic depictions of wicked earthly kings, with hyperbole and/or sarcasm employed to show the folly of the rulers’ bloated self-esteem.
Kenneth Boa and Robert Bowman favor this view. In Isaiah 14, the prophet directly addresses the king of Babylon (v. 4) and specifically refers to him as a “man” (v. 16). But the prophecy also draws on pagan mythology to depict the king’s fall from power. For example, in one Canaanite myth, a god named Athtar (meaning something like “son of Dawn” or “morning star”) wanted to rule on Baal’s throne from Zaphon, a sacred mountain to the north. Compare “the North” (CSB) with “Zaphon” (NRSV) in verse 13 and see the connection. So, according to this view, Isaiah likely is using religious imagery typical for his time to describe the humiliation of an arrogant earthly king.
This excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan from High Street Press. Order your paperback, Kindle, or Audible copy here.
Scripture offers no clear answers as to when and how Satan originally falls – or even why a sovereign God permits the evil one’s rebellion and all its horrific consequences. Genesis 3 does not introduce us to the origin of evil, but reveals the presence of unexplained evil in the serpent. Adam and Eve are created innocent, and shortly thereafter the already-fallen serpent shows up. John Piper’s candid perplexity is a welcome perspective.
In response to a listener’s question about where Satan even got the desire to sin, Piper replies, in part: “As far as I can see, no explanation is offered in the Bible for how Satan became evil…. How could a perfectly good being – with a perfectly good will and a perfectly good heart – ever experience any imperfect impulse that would cause the will to move in the direction of sin? The answer is that nobody knows ….”
Piper goes on:
Here is what I do know. God is sovereign. Nothing comes to pass apart from his plan, which includes things he more or less causes directly – things he more or less permits indirectly. There is no doubt in my mind that Satan’s fall and all the redemptive plan of God for the glory of grace afterward were according to God’s eternal plan….
God can see to it that something comes to pass which he hates. This is what he did, for example, when he planned the crucifixion of Jesus, according to Acts 4:27-28. The murder of Jesus was sinful, and it was planned down to the detail by God.… I think the Bible leads us to believe that he is sovereign over all sin and that he never sins. That is what I believe the Bible teaches.
Following is another in a series of columns on the Baptist Faith & Message 2000.
Practically speaking, religious liberty means equality before the law for Christians and non-Christians alike. It means the freedom to worship God, or not to worship God.
Article XVII of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000 reads:
“God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”
Religious liberty is the God-given right of all people to worship according to their consciences. As Herschel Hobbs notes, “Religious liberty is the mother of all true freedom. It is rooted in the very nature of both God and man created in God’s likeness. It implies the competency of the soul in religion, and denies to any person, civil government, or religious system the right to come between God and man.”
Practically speaking, religious liberty means equality before the law for Christians and non-Christians alike. It means the freedom to worship God, or not to worship God. If our creator does not compel us to acknowledge him in this life, no human being should force another to adopt any belief system, no matter how true or widely held.
At the same time, the Bible is clear that our beliefs have consequences – in this life and in the life to come. One day, all people will stand before God and give an account of our lives – not just what we believed, but how we acted on those beliefs (see Dan. 12:2; Rom. 14:10; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor. 5:10; 2 Thess. 1:6-7; Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:11-15; 22:12).
That means religious liberty is neither a license to live recklessly, with no regard for others, nor is it merely toleration of those who believe differently. Religious liberty does not stand on political platforms or hang from legal pillars. While civil authorities may proclaim religious tolerance, only God may grant religious freedom.
George W. Truett, the longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, and president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1927-1929, preached a message from the steps of the U.S. Capitol in 1920. In part, he proclaimed, “Our contention is not for mere toleration, but for absolute liberty. There is a wide difference between toleration and liberty…. Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. Toleration is a gift from man, while liberty is a gift from God…. God wants free worshipers and no other kind.”
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