The Satanic Utterances
unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 2 Timothy 3:3 NASB
Malicious gossips– Paul chooses a very interesting word, a word we probably couldn’t imagine would be translated as “malicious gossips.” The word is diaboloi. It is the plural, nominative adjective of diabolos, the word that obviously is often translated “devil.” Is Paul suggesting that in the last days “devils” will be running around all over the place? Hardly! He is not hinting that there are “demons” among us. But he has something very strong to say about people who slander, gossip, seduce, or accuse falsely. He says exactly what we would expect from a Jewish rabbi. Such behavior is precisely the same behavior as the Accuser. It is therefore, in Greek, “of the devil.” In the last days the Devil won’t have to do much convincing. He won’t need to be a great and persuasive orator. Men and women will do all the talking for him.
Didn’t Yeshua call the Accuser the father of lies? Perhaps we haven’t understood how serious this is. We perpetuate the destruction of God’s order with every lie, every bit of gossip, every slanderous innuendo. That has been true since the end of the vacation in the Garden. But Paul tells us that in the last days, “devil-speech” (for that’s what it is) will reach epidemic proportions. Men and women will not consider the destructive power of their words. They will judge according to the media, the culture, and their own feelings. Opinion polls will be more important than the truth. In the last days the power of the word will be turned inside-out and vocal vomit will be the norm. The stench will smell to high heaven but those who spew it forth will not even notice their own regurgitated filth.
The words of God are the most powerful dynamics in the world. They create. They heal. They forgive. They judge. They condemn. God created moral free agents with the same linguistic capability. The risk God took was enormous. Suddenly there existed in the well-ordered world an agent who could alter the course of God’s purpose with a word. The story of the first seduction is about this alternative world of words. The father of lies was present in the Garden in our form and he continues to ply his trade by training his victims to imitate his methods. Just a tiny variation from ‘emet is all that is necessary to push the public into the arms of the satanic utterances.
Let’s pause right here. Do you believe that last statement? Do you really believe that all it takes is a tiny variation of God’s words in order to undermine, misdirect and delay God’s purposes? Do you really believe that God allows human free agents the capability to change the face of the universe with an idea, a proclamation, a creed? I’m going to suppose that you do, just for the sake of argument. Because if you do, then why are you going to church on Sunday? Why are you eating pork? Why are you following the Church’s holidays but not the Scriptural ones? Why do you waffle on the question of circumcision? Why do you think “Jesus” changed the Law? Where, o where, is the scriptural support for any of these common assumptions? Did God really change His mind when His own son said that the Torah will not pass away until heaven and earth pass away—or maybe until the Pope says that the Torah passed away? Who is the father of lies now? Who is following the father of lies now?
In the last days, says Paul, a great number of people will be “malicious gossips.” But that’s not really what he said, is it? What he said is that in the last days a great number of people will speak Satan’s vocabulary. Now who do you suppose that is?
Topical Index: malicious gossips, diaboloi, devil, Accuser, 2 Timothy 3:3
ADDITIONAL NOTE: The description of ha-satan in the Tanakh is very different from the Christian idea of Satan. There was considerable development of this idea in the period before the apostolic writings and the concept was further enlarged in apostolic material and subsequent Christian and Jewish thought. You might be surprised how much of our thinking about Satan really isn’t biblical at all. Start with the article in TDNT, Vol. 2, pp. 70 ff.
Skip, you asked, “Is Paul suggesting that in the last days “devils” will be running around all over the place? Hardly! He is not hinting that there are “demons” among us.” You are right, he is not hinting at it, he states it plainly, loudly and unashamedly. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:10-12)
The fact that moderns cannot even allow the possibility that there are unseen powers all around us and “in” some of us is disturbing, disgusting and disconcerting. 1 Corinthians 1:19-21 acknowledges this intellectual quandary. “Indeed, the Tanakh says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent.” Where does that leave the philosopher, the Torah -teacher, or any of today’s thinkers? Hasn’t God made this world’s wisdom look pretty foolish? For God’s wisdom ordained that the world, using its own wisdom, would not come to know him. Therefore God decided to use the “nonsense” of what we proclaim as his means of saving those who come to trust in it.”
The fact that a major part of Yeshua’s ministry dealt with many people’s deliverance from demonic forces somewhere “inside” them ought to give us pause. We have to be careful when we charge Yeshua of believing in and acting upon superstitions, old wives tales and lies. Just as we don’t subscribe to the notion that the Torah, the Sitz im Leben and the community practices radically changed after Yeshua’s death, resurrection and ascension we should not be quick to dismiss the supernatural and the supernatural world view held by most followers of Yeshua in the 2nd Temple era. Do I believe that there is a demon behind every bush? No. Don’t be silly …there are probably multiple demons hiding, waiting and watching. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” 1 Timothy 4:1 warns us as well as in many other passages, including Rev 12:7-12 – 7 “And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
I know we utterly disagree on this issue so I am not trying to start an argument or even a conversation, but I did want to make my objection noted for the record one more time before the opportunity vanishes.
It is good to seize an opportunity you make your point quite clear. Our group just did a little study on the table of Satan, as compared to the table of the Lord. 1st Corinthians 10:21 even going to the point of the bread of either one the Lord or Satan. From my own background. I was either a child of rebellion, or a child of obedience. People would say I was too dramatic but I told them that the battle line seems scripture were drawn. The choice was mine to make alone and so on for each individual. Whether they read or believe scripture or not. To avoid scripture as a whole is to avoid the choices. To avoid the choices is to accept what you do not know. I was also brought up believing that if my lifestyle changed in the words of my mouth need to change also. As if to say conversion of life equaled conversion of conversation. Conversion is a controversial term I use it loosely. Thanks shalom.
If we don’t believe there are demonic forces then we HAVE to believe that WE are those forces: that we are the origin of lies: that we tempt ourselves and that we provide our own torment as well as our own tutelage in evil. Really?
I remember the day I lost all hope as a child. I remember every detail of the incident. My beloved mama: the rock of my entire world: had been ‘off’ for months by this time after losing a baby. Today we have a name for it: post-partum psychosis. Well, we children were sensing there was not a real, present authority in the house and we were starting to run wild. She, in desperation, took us into the pantry and pulled a jar off the shelf: in it was the baby she had lost, in formaldehyde. I forget what she said: the message was clear without words: “if you screw up in this house, you can end up dead”. I remember looking around at my siblings, who did not even KNOW that mama had lost a baby: I at least knew, because I had been present at the event when she went crazy. She knew she had lost her ability to be a real parent, so she had reverted to previous, dark programming from her ancestral past. She had no idea what she was doing. I remember looking at each of my siblings and wondering how we were going to pull out of this one. I saw the disconnect in my older brother’s face: the rage in my younger brother’s; the saving innocence of my baby sister. But then I felt the fear hit my stomach. Years later I would figure out that it was more precisely my uterus: I was in sympathy. That fear instantly transformed me: I remember ‘seeing’ the situation again through the eyes of that fear, and it was the sight of an old person: way, way too ‘wise’ for my years. I was instantly deluged with thoughts I knew I was not manufacturing: impressions and conclusions that I knew I had not reached on my own. I felt invaded. My (by then) thin sense of sacrosanct childhood vanished. I knew I was no longer alone: I had been ‘joined’ against my will – with fear. The next day I woke up with full-blown chronic fatigue and at least three other diagnoseable conditions. I was, essentially, schitzo to boot. I was lost. I also ‘knew’ a whole lot of stuff that I had not thought out: I instantly was thinking and feeling things that were entirely foreign to me. I had been taught the rules of health and I loved reading my Bible, and I followed all I knew religiously. I think that enabled me to last as long as I did, but I could do NOTHING against the reign of darkness in my soul.
I thought it was just ‘me’. That was a lie from the pit of hell!!!! When I fell for that, I had no way out: I know, because I tried them all. 38 years later, I would sit in a deliverance ministry and agree against a spirit of death in my life. I felt a really strange sensation in my stomach. At the edge of menopause, I would have the first normal periods of my life. I put these pieces together after that. I only lost one baby, but all my pregnancies were high-risk miracles, looking back.
Folks, the day I was convinced that all the above was NOT ME was the day I had the tools to do something about it. I don’t care what you call spiritual forces of darkness, or what ‘they’ are or aren’t. What we think is rather immaterial, anyway. But, I can testify that I did not make it up, nor could I make it leave, either. When I identified, through the grace of God, what was in me not of God, and repented for participating with it, it left. People that think they can ‘control’ the stinking thinking and the temptation to disaster perhaps may be in a more dangerous place than even the worst of us who at least recognize that it is NOT US, and that we could use some help! As I have testified before, the day I realized that the fear was a: real, and b: not ‘just in my head’ and prayed it out in the name of Yeshua Ha Maschiach (Um, “Jesus Christ” works too, y’all!) the chronic fatigue left, too. I have not felt that fear since. If it tries to come back, I tell it to leave again, in that same Name. Whole days, months, and now years without fear means my body has recovered from the stress-induced diseases, too. I am a happy girl now, but I do not believe that a: it was all ‘just in my head’ or b: that ‘I’ did something about it. I believe there is a fight on this planet, and that we are the objects of that war. I don’t fight evil by thinking it is ‘just me’ these days: I call in heaven instead. Halleluah!
Thank you for sharing your story Ms Hayes. I have never read anybody write about the demonic spirits taking residence as a child. My story is similar in its differences. Bottom line, all praise and glory to God for setting you free…all of us! Shalom!
Laurita, Theology is a poor substitute for experience. Thank you for sharing your encounter with evil incarnate. I, too, have my own personal stories of demonic oppression, possession and deliverance and I’m sure others here do as well. The point is not to convince others of the existence of these disembodied spirits, nor to glorify their form, function and power, but to substantiate the reality we testify to and “know, that we know” to be true. Most importantly we are to bear witness to Yeshua’s power over “all the power of the enemy” in His Name. He is still setting the captives free and we have been invited to participate in this grand adventure, beginning with ourselves, our families and our communities.
As always, you rock my world, Mr. Skip. I love it when I can’t fully comprehend what someone is saying because that means I am learning. As such, please help me understand your statements about going to church, eating pork, circumcision. What I read is that if I am not following these words (“commands”) of the Lord, I have already altered His Word, the emet, and therefore I have opened the door for the Enemy? I relish your wisdom and instruction and do not remotely study the Hebrew language and Tanakh as intensely as you but I sure do appreciate your dedication to The Word. Thus, elaborate if you would. Shalom!
Kasandra, have you heard back from Skip privately? If not, begin at Gen 1. God Himself rested on the SEVENTH day. He has asked us to acknowledge Him as Creator by doing the same. You may have to read up to Exodus 31 before it strikes your heart. The very first instruction to man about not doing something involved not eating (!) a certain thing. What and how we feed ourselves, physically, emotionally and spiritually, are very important to YHYVH. If we consider ourselves “His” He has some very specific instructions about how to connect ourselves to Him whether we are physical descendants of Avraham, Yitzhak, and Ya’acov or have attached ourselves to the promises He covenanted with them, which He swore by Himself to uphold. Physical circumcision of males acknowledges belief in these covenant promises. There is so much more!
Spiritual warfare is sadly true, as both Michael and
Laurita bravely attested.
It is tragically playing out in front of our very eyes.
If it’s not happening to you directly (praise God!),
it’s for sure happening to people you know, and
people you hear about as the media loudly shouts
about Satanic influences hour by hour.
God inspired Isaiah to write about how God’s
remedy would unfold in IS 61:1-3. Yeshua repeated
the good news in LK 4:18-19. The oppressed were
released by the power of His words . . . and the
mighty power later exhibited at the cross.
Paul speaks to us one on one as directed by God’s
Spirit when he wrote from his own experiences:
“Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ
will shine on you. Be very careful, then, how you live —
not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every
opportunity, because the days are evil.” EPH 5:14-16
It appears more folks today are seeing the clear evidence
of the evil. I pray they’ll also see Him who promises:
“I will give you rest.”
About the last question “who do you suppose that is? I might say that is you and me and all of us for we are the free agents.
And excellent read Frank Peretti, this present Darkness. This has been used to lead many people to the lordship of Yeshua by asking the question is this book fiction? Or is it? I heard the author characterization. It was done excellently. It was done through Focus on the Family with James Dobson. Many many years ago
Found it on Kindle. This present Darkness. Frank Peretti.