Perhaps it is just nit-picking. Still, I am troubled by a mythology that is used to justify all kinds of manipulation and plunder among people who claim Christ.
Satan did not want Christ on the Cross. He did his level best in the Temptations to keep Jesus from taking the path that would lead to the Cross. Instead, Satan wanted Him to claim the title of the Talmud’s version of the Messiah, a form of proto-Zionism. It was secular and worldly, not spiritual and otherworldly. Satan already knew that Jesus could and would raise Himself up from the grave. He knew that this business of railroading an innocent Lamb of God would turn out for a loss to his Kingdom of Darkness. Things were much better for Satan before the Cross. His profits took a major hit after the Cross.
So this notion that Satan was caught by surprise by the resurrection is a lie Satan himself tells. If he can get Christians to believe that lie, he keeps them from understanding and claiming their divine heritage. There was no battle in the Garden of Gethsemane except in the soul of Jesus Himself. He was tempted to call those legions of angels and refuse the Cross. That would have been a victory for Satan. The suffering on the Cross was not Satan trying to silence the Messiah; it was not an attempt to snuff out redemption. It was too late for that.
So I get a little visceral reaction when I hear otherwise marvelous songs parrot this old lie of the Devil in the second line here:
On the cross God loved the world
While all the powers of hell were hurled
No one there could understand
The one they say was Christ the Lamb
(“Lamb of God” Phill McHugh and Greg Nelson;
most popular recording by Steve Green)
You could make the case that the composers didn’t mean what everyone thinks those words do. I am in no position to ask them about it. But what I do know is how most listeners use those lyrics to support that vile mythology that Satan is somehow an enemy of Christ, that Satan is not operating fully under the authority of our Savior. Western Christians want a nice Western Jesus, not the hard and mysterious Master of ANE feudalism. That kind of false imagery of Western niceness weakens our vision of God’s authority over His own Creation. When sorrow comes, it is most certainly the hand of God; His power hasn’t failed. Maybe we could trace the lie to Zoroastrianism, with its western Asian version of yin and yang. Good and evil are not in balance; it doesn’t work like that.
This is part of the foul mythology that insists anything we find unpleasant is somehow an attack from Satan. The thing you are experiencing is wholly in God’s control; the only problem is your reaction to it. God is sovereign. Suffering and sorrow are part of this fallen existence. The flesh cannot be redeemed; this world is inherently false. It can be subjected to spiritual and moral controls, but it cannot be redeemed. This it the root of the lie that stands behind all the attempts to “make the world a better place.” It’s behind the deception that this world can be saved, that we can somehow seize human governments and compel them to obey God’s Law.
At the Burning Bush, the ground was sacred only because God’s Presence was there at that moment. Once His Presence departed, the ground was just dirt and rock. There is no sacred soil on this entire planet. It’s the intrusion of Divine Presence that changes things. Your church house is not a sacred place; it’s the Presence of God that matters — provided He’s actually feeling welcome there in the hearts of the people. This is why “inviting people to church” is a meaningless act. We are the church on foot. Proclamations that some facility is devoted to God don’t change anything; it’s whether His people actually manifest Him there by their obedience. Once the building is empty of that manifestation, it’s just a building. It may be invested in your mind with a lot of sentimental value, but you should not imagine God wouldn’t burn it down in a second for ineffable purposes. Everything in this world is ephemeral.
There’s a reason the Temple Veil was torn in two that day: The symbolism died on the Cross. That was “the hour” —
Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:21-24 NKJV)
The Temple was not for God, but an accommodation to fallen men who struggled to understand what Jesus told the Woman at the Well. In order for this to have meaning, we must ditch the notion that Satan is a rebel against God. The Devil’s current role is a punishment for rejecting the boundaries of his previous role as God’s Covering Cherub. The Devil does not enjoy tempting, but it’s his job, and like any other angelic being, he’s good at his job. But you can never claim that the Devil made you do something; as a believer you have full authority to reject his lies.
I’m not really fussing about the song, but how people interpret the lyrics through the popular mythology.
