Satan as the dragon

The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

The word dragon (drakon in Greek) appears fourteen times in thirteen verses in the CSB New Testament – all of them in the Book of Revelation. Other English translations, such as the English Standard Version and the New American Standard Bible, sometimes translate the Hebrew tanniyn as “dragon,” “serpent,” or “monster” (e.g., Neh. 2:13; Isa. 27:1; 51:9; Ezek. 29:3; 32:2). The CSB renders tanniyn “serpent” or “monster” in these same verses, but “dragon” never appears in the CSB Old Testament.

In the Septuagint, which includes various Greek translations of the Old Testament, drakon translates a number of Hebrew words for a variety of animals, including the lion (Job 4:10; 38:39), snake and asp (Job 26:13; Amos 9:3), and the jackal (Jer. 9:11; Lam. 4:3; Mic. 1:8). It is also used for the great monster Leviathan (Job 40:20; Ps. 74:14; 104:26; Isa. 27:1). In the Septuagint version of Esther, an apocalyptic battle between Mordecai and Haman is depicted as dragons locked in mortal combat. This is similar to the battle between Marduk and Tiamat in the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation story. According to Peter Bolt, the same myth may lie behind the Septuagint addition to Daniel, the story known as Bel and the Dragon.

The apostle John uses drakon exclusively in Revelation as a symbolic representation of Satan. Further, he links “dragon” and “serpent” to identify this creature as the ancient tempter in the garden of Eden. The dragon is explicitly identified as “the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world” (Rev. 12:9; cf. Rev. 20:2). 

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Amendment to Article VI of the BF&M 2000: The Church

Following is the last in a series of columns on The Baptist Faith & Message 2000.

Messengers to the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting in New Orleans voted to amend Article VI of The Baptist Faith & Message to clarify the role of pastor. 

Messengers approved a motion by Jared Cornutt, pastor of North Shelby Baptist Church of Birmingham, Ala., to amend Article VI: The Church to add the words “elder/overseer” alongside “pastor.” 

The amended portion of Article VI originally read:

“In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

The text now reads (italics added for emphasis):

“In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and deacon. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

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Satan as the serpent

The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

In Greek mythology, Medusa is a gorgeous woman who engages in a tryst with Poseidon in one of Athena’s temples. As punishment, the virgin goddess Athena turns Medusa into a Gorgon, a race of snake-women whose gazes turn people into stone. Gorgons have serpents for hair, long claws, sharp teeth, and scales covering their bodies. Athena later helps the hero Perseus slay Medusa, giving him a shiny bronze shield that enables him to watch Medusa’s reflection rather than look directly at her. After cutting off Medusa’s head, Perseus mounts it on his shield, using it to paralyze his enemies in battle.

Jump forward to a 15th century Polish yarn in which a fearsome dragon lives in a dark cave along the banks of the Vistula River. Day after day, this fire-breathing monster terrorizes civilians, pillaging their homes and devouring their livestock. King Krakus sends out his bravest knights to slay the dragon, but all fall prey to the winged beast’s deadly talons and bone-crunching jaws. In desperation, the king promises his beautiful daughter in marriage to the man who vanquishes the dragon. 

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The mystery of Satan’s fall

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 …

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Article XVIII of The Baptist Faith & Message 2000: The family

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).

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