[aron]

Originally Posted by Exodus16

How do these beliefs about satan shape my actions and relationships with others?

My (provisional) belief is this:

Fall 1. Satan

Originally Posted by Isaiah 14:12

How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!

13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.

14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”

15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.

Originally Posted by Ezekiel 28:12

“Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘You were the seal of perfection,
full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
every precious stone adorned you:
carnelian, chrysolite and emerald,
topaz, onyx and jasper,
lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.
Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
on the day you were created they were prepared.

14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God;
you walked among the fiery stones.

15 You were blameless in your ways
from the day you were created
till wickedness was found in you.

16 Through your widespread trade
you were filled with violence,
and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,
and I expelled you, guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones.

17 Your heart became proud
on account of your beauty,
and you corrupted your wisdom
because of your splendor.
So I threw you to the earth;
I made a spectacle of you before kings.

Fall 2. Humanity.

Originally Posted by Genesis 3:1

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

Pretty familiar. We know the rest of the story.

But Fall 3 isn't widely known. I talk to people who go regularly to church and they go, "huh?"

Originally Posted by Genesis 6

When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

The third fall is significant to the narrative because:

1. The Book of Enoch goes into this story in some detail. The Epistle to Jude quotes Enoch's epistle, showing that a detailed narrative of the angelic fall was known to the early Christian believers. Additionally, Jesus quotes commonalities to Enoch, such as the "spirit flies out of a man and goes through waterless places, seeking rest", and that Hades is composed of 2 parts, quite distinct, with an impassable gulf in between.

2. Jude v. 6 also talks of "angels who didn't keep their assigned places, but fell" which seems to reference this same story.

3. 2 Peter 2 also references disobedient angels, now chained in gloomy Tartarus. Both Jude and 2 Peter 2 are parallel texts. So there are 2 witnesses in the NT. If they're referencing something other than Genesis 6 it's hard to imagine.

4. Revelation 12:4 speaks of the tail of the great serpent taking 1/3 of the stars from heaven. Again, I strongly suspect this is the Genesis 6 story, re-cast. Or else there are "two falls" (or more) of angels, with the subsequent narratives now lost, which I don't see suggested anywhere. Given that the Genesis 6 story looms so large in the NT imagination, I suspect the Revelation 12 and Genesis 6 are two views of the same fall.

Now to your question: All of this operationally shapes our views and actions towards others, how?

Answer: Jesus dealt with all 3 falls. He destroyed him who had the power of sin and death. Hebrews 2:14

He set the prisoners free. Humanity. See Isaiah 61:1, quoted in the gospels. See also Psalm 68:18, quoted by Paul in Ephesians 4.

But aftermath of the third fall is not often dealt with by the church, to its detriment. But look how often Jesus dealt with the third fall, operationally!

Originally Posted by Mark 1

23 Suddenly a man with an unclean spirit cried out in the synagogue: 24 “What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are — the Holy One of God!” 25 But Jesus rebuked the spirit and said, “Be silent! Come out of him!”…

So when Jesus said, "Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?", I think He was referring to the aftermath of the third fall.

Notice that the third fall depended on the second, just as the second fall depended upon the first. The daughters of (fallen) men were attractive to the angels, and lured them just as satan used the tree of knowledge to attract and lure Adam and Eve.

So the way back, as I see it, is to deal comprehensively with the narrative in scriptural text, not truncate it to our simplistic liking. If this informs your relations with your neighbors that probably would be a good thing. It certainly seems to be quite relevant to the gospel narrative.

Acts 10. The gospel (good news) to the gentiles:

37 You yourselves know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee with the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him. 39 We're witnesses of all that He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem.…

If you saw a treasure map, would you only use half of it? Would you assume any detail was irrelevant, before the treasure lay in your hand? Paul said, "I've not yet laid hold" (Phi 3:12); if Paul elsewhere said he saw so dimly (1 Cor 13:12), shouldn't we also humble ourselves, continue to examine, and look, and question both ourselves and the text?

The main problem with the Protestant reformation is we think we know so much. We really don't know much at all. And this really impinges upon our ability to affect the world: to smash the evil forces, to set the prisoners free, proclaim the light, wreck the gates of Hades, obviate sin and death, and ruin the prince of this age. It isn't our ignorance so much that's the problem, as it is our ignorance of our ignorance. If you know what I mean.

Lee's "high peak" theology is Exhibit A. It was high only in his presumptive, fallen imagination. It needs a small Bible to survive. If you quote the "wrong" texts in the Lc, they get nervous. Their kingdom begins to totter in front of them.

What kind of gospel is that?