Why is this world out of control? Have you ever wondered what could be the reason for all the problems we’re experiencing? Pollution, health, the economy, the weather, …. just to name a few.
You may say that humans are to blame. To a degree, I agree. Do you believe that someone could, or is promoting chaos, from behind the scenes? I believe so!
Who controls this world? Many may say that it is God. Which God are we talking about? Is it the God who created everything, false gods or is it the one who really controls this world? This is what I believe.
1 John 5:19 states in the New World Translation
… , but the whole world is lying in [power of the] wicked one.
Who is the wicked one? Please picture what Revelation 12:7-9 describes in the New World Translation.
And war broke out in heaven: Michael (Jesus) and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but it did not prevail, neither was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called DEVIL and SATAN, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.
The real trouble maker is exposed.
During the 2nd Temple Period the Persians occupied Israel. Many of the myths in Christianity are from the Persian religion. The rest are from the other occupying nation, Greek.
And of course Jewish theology as well.
Satan as an enemy of God is also Persian. In the OT Satan and Yahweh work together. Satan is the Angel of Yahweh in one story. He delivers plagues for Yahweh, tortures Job...There is no hurling down in scripture. Those are stories added later.
Revelations
Zoroaster taught that the blessed must wait for this culmination till Frashegird and the 'future body' (Pahlavi 'tan i pasen'), when the earth will give up the bones of the dead (Y 30.7). This general resurrection will be followed by the Last Judgment, which will divide all the righteous from the wicked, both those who have lived until that time and those who have been judged already. Then Airyaman, Yazata of friendship and healing, together with Atar, Fire, will melt all the metal in the mountains, and this will flow in a glowing river over the earth. All mankind must pass through this river, and, as it is said in a Pahlavi text, 'for him who is righteous it will seem like warm milk, and for him who is wicked, it will seem as if he is walking in the • flesh through molten metal' (GBd XXXIV. r 8-r 9). In this great apocalyptic vision Zoroaster perhaps fused, unconsciously, tales of volcanic eruptions and streams of burning lava with his own experience of Iranian ordeals by molten metal; and according to his stern original teaching, strict justice will prevail then, as at each individual j udgment on earth by a fiery ordeal. So at this last ordeal of all the wicked will suffer a second death, and will perish off the face of the earth. The Daevas and legions of darkness will already have been annihilated in a last great battle with the Yazatas; and the river of metal will flow down into hell, slaying Angra Mainyu and burning up the last vestige of wickedness in the universe.
Ahura Mazda and the six Amesha Spentas will then solemnize a lt, spiritual yasna, offering up the last sacrifice (after which death wW be no more), and making a preparation of the mystical 'white haoma', which will confer immortality on the resurrected bodies of all the blessed, who will partake of it. Thereafter men will beome like the Immortals themselves, of one thought, word and deed, unaging, free from sickness, without corruption, forever joyful in the kingdom of God upon earth. For it is in this familiar and beloved world, restored to its original perfection, that, according to Zoroaster, eternity will be passed in bliss, and not in a remote insubstantial Paradise. So the time of Separation is a renewal of the time of Creation, except that no return is prophesied to the original uniqueness of living things. Mountain and valley will give place once more to level plain; but whereas in the beginning there was one plant, one animal, one man, the rich variety and number that have since issued from these will remain forever. Similarly the many divinities who were brought into being by Ahura Mazda will continue to have their separate existences. There is no prophecy of their re-absorption into the Godhead. As a Pahlavi text puts it, after Frashegird 'Ohrmaid and the Amahraspands and all Yazads and men will be together. .. ; every place will resemble a garden in spring, in which
there are all kinds of trees and flowers ... and it will be entirely the creation of Ohrrnazd' (Pahl.Riv.Dd. XLVIII, 99, lOO, l07).
There is no war going on here?
Hebrew Bible in reference to a supernatural figure comes from
Numbers 22:22,
[7] which describes the
Angel of Yahweh confronting
Balaam on his donkey:
[6] "Balaam's departure aroused the wrath of
Elohim, and the Angel of Yahweh stood in the road as a satan against him."
[7] In
2 Samuel 24, Yahweh sends the "Angel of Yahweh" to inflict a plague against Israel for three days,
killing 70,000 people as punishment for
David having taken a census without his approval.
[16] 1 Chronicles 21:1 repeats this story,
[16] but replaces the "Angel of Yahweh" with an entity referred to as "a satan".
[16]
Some passages clearly refer to the satan, without using the word itself.
[17] 1 Samuel 2:12 describes the
sons of Eli as "sons of
Belial";
[18] the later usage of this word makes it clearly a synonym for "satan".
[18] In
1 Samuel 16:14–23 Yahweh sends a "troubling spirit" to torment King
Saul as a mechanism to ingratiate David with the king.
[19] In
1 Kings 22:19–25, the prophet
Micaiah describes to King
Ahab a vision of Yahweh sitting on his throne surrounded by the
Host of Heaven.
[18] Yahweh asks the Host which of them will lead Ahab astray.
[18] A "spirit", whose name is not specified, but who is analogous to the satan, volunteers to be "a Lying Spirit in the mouth of all his Prophets".
[18]
Book of Job
The satan appears in the
Book of Job, a poetic dialogue set within a prose framework,
[20] which may have been written around the time of the
Babylonian captivity.
[20] In the text,
Job is a righteous man favored by Yahweh.
[20] Job 1:6–8 describes the "
sons of God" (
bənê hāʼĕlōhîm) presenting themselves before Yahweh.
[20] Yahweh asks one of them, "the satan", where he has been, to which he replies that he has been roaming around the earth.
[20] Yahweh asks, "Have you considered My servant Job?"
[20] The satan replies by urging Yahweh to let him torture Job, promising that Job will abandon his faith at the first tribulation.
[21] Yahweh consents; the satan destroys Job's servants and flocks, yet Job refuses to condemn Yahweh.
[21] The first scene repeats itself, with the satan presenting himself to Yahweh alongside the other "sons of God".
[22] Yahweh points out Job's continued faithfulness, to which the satan insists that more testing is necessary;
[22] Yahweh once again gives him permission to test Job.
[22] In the end, Job remains faithful and righteous, and it is implied that the satan is shamed in his defeat.
[23]
