imagine there's no satan

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IImmaaggiinneeTThheerreess NNoo

SSaattaann

How Satan Got Into TheNew Testament

Volume II ofSatan Christianitys Other God

By James R. BrayshawCopyright

September 17, 2010SCOG Publishing

www.imaginenosatan.com


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By James R. Brayshaw www.scog.ca

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Imagine Theres No SatanHow Satan Got Into The New Testament

Copyright 2010 James R. Brayshaw

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system

without the written permission of the publisher except in the caseof brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:[email protected]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses orlinks contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid.

ISBN: 9-781449-61473Printed in the United States of AmericaSCOG Publishing rev. date: 10/15/2010


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Imagine Theres No Satan Volume II ofSatanChristianitys Other God

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BIBLIOGRAPHY-Pg 369

INDEX-Pg 375

INTRODUCTION-Pg 5

CHAPTER 1

Can A Witch Raise A Dead Spirit?-Pg 23

CHAPTER 2

Where Do The Dead Go?-Pg 41

CHAPTER 3

Psychic Power Is Not From Satan?-Pg 75

CHAPTER 4Psychic Fraud Or Satanic Inspiration?-Pg 113

CHAPTER 5

Where Was Satan Before Jesus Showed Up?-Pg 147

CHAPTER 6

Whats True About Satan In The New Testament?-Pg 171

CHAPTER 7

Where Did Jesus Learn About Satan?-Pg 209

CHAPTER 8

The Pharisees Brought Satan To A Synagogue Near YouPg 233

CHAPTER 9

Who Gave Satan His Names? - Pg 243

CHAPTER 10

A Nail In the Coffin For The New Testament Satan-Pg 269

CHAPTER 11

Demons, A Greek Gift To Christianity-Pg 299

CHAPTER 12

Is Satan Revealed In Revelation?-Pg 325

CHAPTER 13

Where Would Satan Be Without The New Testament?-Pg 347

Table Of Contents


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Introduction 5

Imagine Theres No

Satan

Volume II of

Satan Christianitys Other God

INTRODUCTIONSatan has been around for millennia. There is literally no otherdoctrine or idea that has penetrated so deeply into the fabric ofculture as has the doctrine of Satan. Satan, Lucifer, devils, anddemons can be found everywhere today. They are found intelevision programs and movies, they can be seen on clothing andin art work, music with lyrics about Satan are heard every day onthe radio, and video games seemingly have an unceasing stream ofdemonically related content. And the most prevalent place we can

find Satan in our culture is in the churches. The intensity withwhich many religious organizations in our world today believe inSatan varies. Some battle him daily in prayer and with rituals,

while others think him to be an insignificant imp who is worthy oflittle or no attention at all. No matter what you or I feel about theDevil really doesnt matter because the presence of this good angelturned bad, has undeniably left an imprint on the fabric of thiscultures belief structure. But just because some see the devil

behind every bush does not mean he is real. No doubt, there is notone person in North America who has not heard about Satan inone form or another, but should a collective consciousness


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determine Satan really exists? Or should each of us explore theidea and decide for ourselves whether Christian tradition is true or

whether it is a brilliantly spun interpretation of an otherwiseancient myth? What if there is no Satan? And what if there is noHell? What if all the tales, lore, and legends about this fallen angelare mere fabrications of mens minds? Stories made up around anidea that there is something evil out there. Another deistic entitythat is intent on destroying humanity and capturing souls in Hell.

Imagine if you will that there is no Satan. Imagine that theteachings on Satan we receive from religion and from culture are

simply not true. Is it possible that religion has made a mistake inthis area? Imagine that a lie has been told so long that it has

become the truth and now it is time to right it. It is time to placethe Satan of tradition back into the place he came from. Believe itor not, we can take Satan out of our belief system, place him backinto the creative mind of man where he came from, and stillrecognize the sovereign God of the Universe for who He or It is.That is a God who makes peace and creates evil, a God who kills

and makes alive, and a God who shares the cosmos with no othersupernatural being.

This Volume of Satan Christianitys Other God called Imagine Theres No Satan will take us beyond imagining. As a work that follows the foundational work of Volume 1, ImagineTheres No Satan goes further to show you how it is possible toremove a literal Satan from the teachings of religion and the NewTestament. How it is possible and valuable to begin to separate

fact from fiction and let our belief in Satan drift away into the landof once believed fairy tales. If you read this volume alone and havenever turned a page out of Volume 1 you will do just fine atunderstanding the concept that Satan is not real. That said, I doencourage you to pick up a copy (or an e-book copy) of SatanChristianitys Other God Volume 1 to explore the foundationalprinciples that gird up the no Satan idea. Volume 1 covers majortopics that I will not cover here or in the subsequent volumes ofthis work.


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Introduction 7

In Volume I of Satan Christianitys Other God, great carewas taken to show that a doctrine of Satan was not found in the

Hebrew Scriptures. It was also shown the Hebrew Scriptures arethe Bible Christ and the Apostles used. We determined the Luciferof Isaiah 14 was not the name of Satan before he fell. The nameLucifer is a term given to an actual human King who was called thedaystar or morning star. Both terms were used to speak of theancient King of Babylon who was thought to be the God Venus.

And Venus rose before the Sun came over the horizon in the earlymorning. Thus, the title Lucifer is a Latin word that simply

means light bringerand is better translated as daystar.While on the topic of ancient Kings, we can bring to mind the

story of the anointed cherub in Ezekiel 28. Although it is thoughtby some that this passage is a reference to a Satan angel who wasonce in Heaven, we showed that is not the case. The subject ofEzekiels prophecy is repeatedly referred to as a man and thecontext of his entire proclamation is directed at the human King ofTyre. We found that the fallen cherub is merely a man and there is

no teaching on Satan to be found in Ezekiel.Both Job and Zechariah contain references to a Satan;

however, as we explored the meaning of the original Hebrew wordsawtawn,we came to understand the reference was to a humanadversary. In Job, the statement of the adversary coming beforethe Lord was shown in Volume I, to be a reference to menappearing in the common Temple environment as is inferred bythe use of the term elsewhere in Scripture. We found it in such

places as when Moses came before the Lord. Volume I also covered the idea that God created man with

the potential to choose good and evil. No Satan to entice man todisobey and choose evil. This option leaves man as the party fullyresponsible for sin and evil in his own life and thus in the world.

According to the Bible, Satan the mythological malevolent cosmicbeing has nothing to do with man choosing evil, nor causing evil inthe world. The concept of where evil comes from as it pertains to

judgments upon humankind was also articulated in the first Volume of Satan Christianitys Other God. It is found that evil


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proceeds from the Creator in diverse forms, forms such as calamityupon an individual or upon many. As well, we saw that the evil

spirit and the lying spirit were sent from Yahweh as was seen inthe st0ries of King Saul and King Ahab.

Another path we went down in Volume I includeddiscussions about the Persian influence on the faith of theScriptures. As the Hebrew people spent time in exile among theBabylonians and Persians, they adopted many of the paganphilosophies of those nations. The doctrine of there being twoGods, a good God and a bad God, migrated into the land of Israel

from Persia. The religious leaders of the time propagated adoctrine that there is an evil cosmic being who desires to harm

Yahweh, destroy His people, and toils to thwart the plans of theCreator.

Volume I spoke about the early use of the word Satan in theEnglish language Scriptures and elaborated on the significance ofapocalyptic thinking and apocalyptic literature in fostering a Satandoctrine. Both of these topics were explored to reveal that Satan

only existed as a construction of Greek minded theologians whoadopted the ideas of pagan mystics. The Hellenized teachers couldneither understand Hebraic concepts as found in the Scriptures,nor could those teachers reject the desire to fabricate mysticalexplanations for Scriptures they were incapable of understanding.

Many topics were discussed throughout Volume I and therecould still be volumes written to continue to explain all thenuances surrounding each concept. This four volume series begins

to testify to the magnitude of this topic. As I stated several times in Volume 1, my explanation of certain Biblical passages is only aplausible explanation of the account. It is based on the fact thatSatan does not exist. So too, do I provide the disclaimer thatalthough I am boldly declaring that Satan is not a real cosmicentity, the explanations I provide are only possible explanations.They are suggestions if you will, of how to see the traditionalpassages differently than how one who believes in Satan mightteach. It would be irresponsible to state Satan doesnt exist andthen fail to provide an answer to what all the passages about


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Introduction 9

satan mean. Although I do provide an answer to what thequestionable passages about Satan could mean my submissions

are not to be taken as the 100% exhaustive and preciseexplanations of the accounts. I do not have all the answers. Thereis wiggle room in some of my explanations. There are far too manyspecifics missing in the stories supplied by the Apostolic witnessesfor any one proposed answer to be deemed as perfect. The point ofproviding an explanation is so the reader might see that thereexists another way to think about the statements about Satan inthe Bible. In light of the fact that there is no Satan there must be

another way to understand the terribly misunderstood referencesto Satan in the New Testament. I also hope my submissionsencourage the reader to engage in searching for an explanationthat upholds a One-God belief system and provides a coherentexplanation for the poorly understood words about Satan.

Did Satan Or Did God Incite David?

One of the profound apparent contradictions in the Scriptures wasanswered in Volume I. It is found in the Books of 2nd Samuel and1st Chronicles. These accounts seem to oppose each other on thestory of David counting the tribes of Israel. In one account, we aretold that God caused David to count the tribes, yet in the otheraccount we are told that it was Satan who incited David to do thecount. Who was it, God or Satan? Solutions to this problem wereput forward, and it was determined that either the writer of

Chronicles was misinforming the reader about there being asecond God in the universe named Satan, or he was simplydescribing God as the adversarial force that placed a choice infront of David. It is likely that the Chronicler simply described theactions of God as sawtawnin informing the reader that Yahweh

was the adversary in this instance where David was influenced tomake a bad choice. After all, the writer of Chronicles knew that theHebrew word sawtawn was not a name for a cosmic entity but wasa noun or a descriptive term for a behaviour or action. Sawtawnmeans adversary.


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No topic seemed to be more daunting or moremisunderstood than the topic of the Serpent in the Garden. A large

amount of time was spent establishing why so many believeincorrectly the meaning of the myth of the Serpent in the Garden.

With this in mind the discussion of whom or what the serpent was ensued. It was shown that the serpent is a metaphoricalsymbol that was identifiable as such to an ancient people. People

who had been steeped in polytheistic Egypt for generations. Inseeing the writer of that story refer to the serpent as speaking toEve, we recognized that a great storyteller relayed the account of

Adam and Eve. His story was full of meaning and the mention of aserpent was simply a reference to the evil inclination in humans.Evil comes from within man and not from an external force. Theevil inclination is that place in a humans heart that worksovertime so to speak, to justify the choice to disobey, thus sinning.

Man today has the same struggle with the serpent on manyoccasions when man is confronted with the opportunity to dosomething that does not really seem harmful, yet would be

considered to be a sin for one reason or another. One otherpossibility for the identity of the serpent was discussed based on

who Eve was with in the garden. We presented the possibilitythat Adam just might have been the adversarial influence calledthe serpent, in the famed garden fruit-eating incident.

At the close of Volume I, we briefly discussed what was nextfor Satan Christianitys Other God. Volume I led the way in

bringing to light more questions that need to be answered.

Perhaps you see that peeling back the layers of this onion will beno small task. How long of a process should it be for one to cometo a conclusion as to whom or what satan is? For some of us itmay be longer than for others, and as you can see, it is not a quicktask to try to unteach or, to unlearn a concept and belief that has

been in our head for years and in our culture for centuries. Withthat in mind, lets consider what we need to accomplish in VolumeII.


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Introduction 11

What Will We Learn In Volume II?

Initially, this Volume will clean up any loose ends that may bedangling around in our discussions of the Old Testament as itpertains to Satan and his demons. In my many discussions withpeople over the years, I have had numerous opportunities to sharethe concept of Satan not existing. No matter which piece of thepuzzle I choose to disclose, I am always met with a trump cardstatement that usually goes like this; Well what about.. andthen one of the many supposed references they have long believed

to be about satan is quickly thrown at me. This is always donewith the attitude that intones what I am saying cant possibly betrue because this verse that started with Well what about iscertain proof there is a Satan. An example of the Well whatabouts would be; Well what about when Jesus throws Sataninto the pit of Hell?

The Well What Abouts

The difficult thing in all these Well what abouts is that oftenthe person who is so sure they are bringing up a reference that Ihave not considered, doesnt wait for a full answer. I and others ina similar position are invariably cut short by the uninformedquestioner and before they hear the answer to their insincerequery, they are ready with another clich counter-argument that isunderstood by them the way they have understood it in the past.

Heres an example conversation of the Well what abouts between a man named Jack and me. It may seem to beunnecessary to recount a personal conversation to express thepoint but there are so many who take the same direction of usingthe Well what abouts as Jack did that it is helpful to show howthis conversation plays out. Notice how the response hamstringsthe process of sharing truthful information with another.

Jack: How can you say theres no Satan when the Biblementions Satan a whole bunch of times?


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Me: Jack if there is a Satan as so many of us believe, why

does God incite David to number the tribes of Israel in thebook of 2ndSamuel, and then in 1st Chronicles 21 the textsays Satan incited David to number the tribes of Israel inanother account of the very same story? Who incited

David, God or Satan?

Jack: Well what about when Jobs family is destroyed bySatan?

Me: Well Jack, if you look at the Hebrew word for satanin Job, it really means adversary and the most typicaladversary we find in the Scriptures is a human man, beingan adversary to another man. Aside from the fact that Jobhimself credits God for the evil that befalls him, we see noindication of a personal Satan. Even the end of the book tellsus that Job was comforted by his family for all the evil that

God had brought upon him. Doesnt that seem to indicatethat evil comes on people from other men or from theCreator and that the adversary is generally anotherhuman?

Jack: Well what about when Jesus was tempted by Satanin the wilderness

Well what about the appearance of Satan in the garden

Well what about when Lucifer fell from Heaven.Well what about .well what aboutwell

what about

Without ever being allowed to fully answer any of Jacksquestions, or without Jack ever answering any of my questions,Jack continued to throw out his hail-Mary trump card to get me toshut up.

It used to seem odd to see people so quickly and oftenvehemently pounce on the, Well what about bandwagon. They


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Introduction 13

avoided answering me when I had just asked them a questioncontained in the topic, such as, Why does 2 Samuel 24 say God

caused David to number the tribes of Israel and 1 Chronicles 21 saySatan incited David to number the tribes of Israel? It was as ifthey didnt hear me or maybe they didnt care and were one ofthose types of people who will do whatever it takes to make certainthey are not proven wrong in anything. Perhaps they are sointensely incapable of relinquishing an entrenched belief that theymust at all cost lay down a trump card to stop the relaying ofinformation and honest questions about a rather significant topic

for Christians and Messianics. The Jacks of the world are sointent on propagating their weak understanding of a characterthey have been taught to believe in, that all they can do isignorantly throw out clich references that they have never takenthe time to fully investigate and find out if their view agreed withthe rest of the Bible. This trump card is played with such speed it isalmost as if the person I am conversing with is afraid to hearanything that might challenge their belief system.

One such trump card I have seen played many times is theone that says, Well what about the witch of Endor? (This will bediscussed in Chapter 1; Can A Witch Raise A Dead Spirit?). To theplayer of that card, the story of Saul consulting a medium isirrefutable evidence that there are spirits and demons. Therefore,to them it means there is indisputably a Satan. The logic is that ifa witch could cause a spirit to rise up from the dead then there

must be a Satan because spirits raised from the dead are demonspirits and therefore would be of the group under Satan.

Granted the story of the witch of Endor does smack ofspiritism and I can readily understand why one would so hastilyplay the Well what about trump card. However, in light of alittle research and in light of the remainder of the Scriptures, thiswitch of Endor episode does not fit with the concept of One Godas many of the Israelites believed and as is taught in the Bible.

When Did Thinking Become So Mystical?


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This second Volume of Satan Christianitys Other God, will

explain the intense spiritual thinking found to be prevalent in theintertestamental period. The period after the return from exile ofthe Jews and leading up to the first years of the A.D. periodnurtured a great amount of damage to the true and correctteachings of the Hebrew Scriptures. Our discussion on this periodthat entrenched a demonology into Judaism and Christianityinforms the reader about the pertinent issues to consider. Acomplex demonology and angelology flourished in those years and

to this day confusion abounds because of the clever and intricatedoctrines of demonology that flowered in this period.

We will also find out where the dead go according to theBible. This discussion will allay all your fears that you or yourloved ones might be burning in Hell for an eternity.Understanding where the dead go is important if we are torecognize there are no spirits raised from the dead.

Discussing What The New Testament Is

A huge piece of fat we will chew on in the following pages is onethat often sends religious leaders running to the hills crying,Heresy! Heresy! If I told you today that archaeologists found aletter written in the late first century, by a man named Paul whoclaims to be an Apostle of Christ, would you expect it to be addedto the Bible and to call it Scripture? Not likely! However,

something not far from that has occurred with the Bible that manyhave come to venerate today. A Bible containing letters fromdevout apostles that were written to individuals and to groups of

believers. These letters were not identified as important until thelate second century. No originals of these letters have beendiscovered as of today and the writers of each of the letters in theNew Testament clearly state their document is a letter.Regardless of those facts, the copies of letters that were availablein the early Christian period stayed in the hands of the Romanchurch. This was a group of men who eventually decided that the


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Introduction 15

letters ought to be elevated to the status of Scripture. Ultimately,the New Testament was formed and in large-part, it took a very

anti-Hebraic tone because the Roman religious system wanted toeradicate any nuances of Jewishness from the pagan Christianity ithad incubated for centuries.

Within this work, the reader will be fully informed as to whyone should not consider the New Testament to be equal to theScriptures. The definition used for what the term Scriptures is, isone that coincides with both Paul the Apostle and Yeshua theChrist. Neither of those persons considered any writings other

than the Old Testament to be Scripture.The Apostolic writings, which include the gospels, are

valuable for many things that can aid a believer in understandingtheir faith as compared to that of the first century. The testimonythe apostles provide about the life, ministry, and death of Yeshua,is indeed invaluable. It is certainly a gift from Yahweh in light ofthe fact that there are no living eyewitnesses available for us tohear from today. However, man should not use his self-imposed

ecclesiastical authority to declare a letter from an apostle isScripture. These letters are often believed to be so based on thefact that the letter speaks of Yeshua as the Messiah. Had we accessto all the documents of the period Paul wrote his letters in and theeras immediately beyond, we would see there were otherdocuments resembling Apostolic writings that identified Yeshua

was the Messiah. Facts remain though; even Paul taught from theOld Testament that Yeshua was the Messiah. If the reader is

willing to have their belief about the New Testament examined,then the chapters on exploring the claim that the New Testamentis Scripture will be most informative. Time will be spent explaining

what is meant in the New Testament when words such as Satan,demon, devil, unclean spirit, and dragon are used. We will seeclearly how it is possible that Christianity has mistakenlyunderstood the Greek writings about satan. And now, 2000 yearsfrom the times when the New Testament took place; religion hascemented its stranglehold interpretation into the minds of itsleaders and followers. Because of this, few are willing to accept


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another possibility for learning what a satan is in the NewTestament.

Explaining Every Passage About Satan

Volumes 3 and 4 of this work will provide a catalogue of everypassage that speaks of these Satan related things. It would befoolhardy to assert that each explanation provided requires noinput from other sources to interpret the meaning of some difficultpassages. However, every passage in the New Testament that

seems to speak of a cosmic supernatural, God-like entity isconsidered. A plausible explanation of each passage is put forthusing the foundational interpretation principle of understandingthe context of the passage, and recognizing what the writer isspeaking about at the time. The literary context is joined with thelinguistic, cultural, social, and historical context, to decipher theunderlying Hebrew understanding of a very Greek sounding

writing. Based on the fact that, Hebrew men wrote the New

Testament, and the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures do not teach adoctrine of a cosmic Satan who is battling against all that is good,the explanations suggested herein are put forth on the certainpremise that Satan does not exist in the mind of a Hebrew apostle.

As I have stated, because Satan does not exist the passages mustmean something other than a reference to a cosmic Satan. Thesesuccessive volumes share a verse-by-verse, understanding of whatall the talk about Satan is in the New Testament.

A Little Encouragement To Seek Answers For YourQuestions

When we are part of a culture that so deeply is looking forrecognition and acceptance, particularly by those who we perceiveto be people of position and influence, it is an incredibly difficultchallenge to go against the grain. Few people involved in religion

will question the very leaders from whom they are seeking favour.I suppose one must ultimately conclude whom it is better to please


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Introduction 17

and obey, God or men? I am one of many who found it was noteasy falling out favour with those whom during my church years I

worked so hard to stay in favour with for so long. Are we supposedto passively sit by under the teaching of a shepherd who istrained to teach and lead in ways that muddy the water for those

who numbly follow a seminary trained pastor? Am I suggestinganarchy? Not at all, it is good for us to voluntarily submit to properauthorities, but as the Bereans in the book of Acts did, so tooshould we ensure through searching the Scriptures, that whatthose leaders are saying is true. Are we in fact submitting to

proper, Biblically sound authorities? For some who sheepishlyfollow their leader, laziness is the reason they dont invest timein finding answers for themselves. Laziness becomes an acceptableexcuse, relying on others with credentials to give them theanswers. Mindlessly deferring to the person of position andinfluence will only set you up to be seen as honouring that personas your God. Where possible, it is always best to search out theanswers for oneself and rely on others and other sources to add

information, insight, or questions to the process.I know how difficult it will be to start challenging the

established leaders of your chosen religion, so in an effort to help Iwill suggest a plan to get you started. If you are a regular attendeeof a church try this. The next couple of Sundays stay home andstudy one or two of the stated doctrines of your church or faithgroup. Look up the verses they quote and then try to see how thepresent position fits into the Hebrew Scriptures that Messiah and

the Apostles used. Next go to your computer and if for instanceyou are studying on the gift of tonguesdo an internet search withthe following wording the truth about tongues. This will give

you many differing perspectives but I guarantee you it will open up your eyes to a number of potentially more correct and trueunderstandings of the issues. You can use the truth about.searches for anything to launch your studying. Try the truthabout Sunday, the truth about Easter, the truth aboutChristianity,or the truth about Satan.The last of these is whereI started searching out the truth of the Satanic being and began


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to unravel the centuries old myth and misinformation that theleaders of Christianity generally pontificate without exploring the

other options for the matter.

But Im Not A Theology Student Some Might Say!

At one time the Scriptures were kept from the common folk soonly the religious elite with special training could study them.They then passed on what they learned to the people, the

uneducated common folk. In todays society we have an amazingaccess to information readily available at our fingertips. Also intodays society, we have freedom of speech like never before. Onething that is not so prolific in todays society is the acceptance of

what seems to be new ideas without coming up against sharpcriticism. Criticism will often be directed at a persons character, atthe way they share their information, or at the resources they haveused to accumulate evidence to support their idea. And truthfully,

constructive criticism can be helpful and should always be welcome. But should resources be thought of as not crediblesimply because the potential for them to contain error exists?Today the use of the internet has allowed people to learn thingsthat were only known by the intellectual elite of past societies. Iencourage the use of the internet for any who desire to learn truthor deepen their understanding on a topic or issue. Although, it

would be good if the internet is not your only source.

Regarding the internet as a source to determine if Satanexists or not, I can hear some of you voice a similar caution givento me over the years. Be careful with what you find on theinternet, the internet is full of crap you know. Im not sure whythey are compelled to give that caution. Maybe its because theyare cautioning themselves to be careful and are setting up theirexcuse to not go and search a matter out. Perhaps they have a fearthat they may find some truth that causes them to honestlyquestion their beliefs and face the ugly monster of change. On theother hand, maybe its because they truly believe the internet


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Introduction 19

articles, opinions, and theological positions found therein are crap.Should we not then receive the similar exhortation to be careful

what you find at the library, the library is full of crap?Alternatively, by not stating the exhortation about the library andin stating the exhortation about the internet are they saying theshelves of the library are full of only no-crap material? I supposethere is some level of fear of the internet still out there that causesone to exhort another intelligent person of the perils of usinginternet material to educate oneself. Do you know that it is nowpossible to get a university degree via the internet? Do you know

that the internet is like any library in any city of any time?My point is this, before you decide that the internet cant help

you find information to help you understand issues of truth,understand this, yes there is crap on the internet, as one friendput it to me. However, so is there crap on the library shelves.Nevertheless, there is also exceptionally clear and true informationon the library shelves and the internet. If you sign out ten books ona specific topic, from the biggest library in the world, you may find

garbage in a number of them. Nevertheless, you may findinformation that is valuable in helping to lead you to the truth.Many people get themselves in hot water because they look overtwo or three articles and perspectives on an issue and then formtheir opinion. You will come to a much more sound opinion andposition if you read through and study 10 or 20 articles on anissue. Besides the Scriptures and History books, encyclopedias andcommentaries, as well as other writers who have put out books on

the topic of Satan, I have been through hundreds of articles on thesubject of Satan. I am not saying you have to go through that muchmaterial to cover every topic you begin to question. I just want toquell the fear around using the internet as one of your resourcesfor research and express to you that it is not a good practice to takeonly a few thoughts and opinions from the internet to form aposition on an issue. That said I also want to share that still today Icontinue to look at the many sides of an issue.

Ask Questions, Seek Answers, And Take Your Time


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One tip I would like to give you to help you to apply this

process of coming to a more correct understanding of issues oftruth is this. Ask questions, seek answers, and take it slowly. You

will not likely get answers from the traditional body of religiousleaders. You will have to search things out on your own. There aremillions of leaders who will try to prevent you from gaininginformation that will change the way you live your life. In largepart because they only know what they have been taught atseminary. It seems there is a fear, a fear that you becoming

knowledgeable will confirm to them that they have failed to showyou the way of truth. Truth is for everybody and everybody oughtto embrace the opportunity to discover it. An adverse reaction tothe truth you discover is often the result of the fear the hearerpossesses. However, truth will set you free but it will cost yousomething to get it. The book you are reading right now is anexcellent starting point to finding the truth about Satan. Germanphilosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer said;

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed.Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

Part of my experience in organized religion has revealedthis fear. The church I was involved with had about 800 or sopeople who could be recognized as regular attendees or members.

The Board of Deacons, which was chaired by the Senior Pastor,had nine members on it if I recall correctly. It was the duty of theseelected officials to mange the administrative matters of the systemand to help direct the spiritual matters of the church. I served as aDeacon for two terms, which is 6 years, and resigned near the endof the second term. My resignation came after I realized that thissystem, although a thriving social environment, was in oppositionto numerous tenets found in the Bible.

A journey through the history of Christianity will reveal tothe searcher when and how men changed Gods plan for the faith


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Introduction 21

into a model which was intended to assimilate and integrateanyone and everyone who would became part of the Roman

Empire. The Roman philosophy of bigger and better wassufficiently implanted in the Roman version of faith in God andtheir tainted form of Gnostic Christianity fell together nicely for aculture that was sold out to do whatever it took to become the

biggest empire. Suffice to say, Christianity today is a far cry awayfrom the pattern of the first century believers. In seeingChristianity as a mosaic of adopted and man-made doctrines, I

was compelled to become less involved in organized religion rather

than more.

What Do You Have To Lose By Learning Satan is NotReal?

Many of us believe we stand to lose something if we realize ourbelief in Satan is incorrect. Most of us are not the religious leaderswho draw a salary in part, by teaching Satan is real. Therefore our

loss is only as big as we make it. On the contrary, a religious leadermight feel differently about altering his or her dogma. Upton

Winifred Sinclair Jr. was born in 1878 and died November 25,1968 at the age of 90. He was a novelist, writer, journalist,political activist, blacksmith, and was a prolific American author

who wrote over 30 books in many genres. Sinclair was consideredone of the best investigative journalists of his era. He understoodimplicitly how difficult it is for those of position to come to an

understanding of something that might force them to alter theirphilosophy; he spoke it well when he said;

Its difficult to get a man to understandsomething when his salary depends upon hisnot understanding.

Perhaps your salary doesnt depend on whether or not youunderstand the doctrines of your religious belief system or if Satanexists or not. Perhaps you simply desire to stay the course and not


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rock your philosophical or theological boat. Change is never easybut after you have turned that ship around and are floating with

the current again, the turbulence subsides, and life moves alongsmoothly once again. The decision, as always, is left up to thereader. Who better to decide than yourself if you believe in oneGod, two Gods, many Gods, or no God? Nonetheless, after reading

Satan Christianitys Other Godand this book, Imagine Theres NoSatan, you may still choose to stand on confused logic and faithalone if you still persist that Satan is real. Because the evidence isoverwhelmingly in favour of the non-existence of Satan. Faith is

imperative to a belief but truth cannot be ignored and all the facts,history, and the full counsel of God must be considered. In this

book series, the scales of proof have been loaded and once botharguments are critically considered, Satan as an evil, supernatural,cosmic being weighs in to be an ancient and evolved myth littlemore than a man made legend, lore, and lie.


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CHAPTER 1 Can A Witch Raise A Dead Spirit? 23

CHAPTER 1

Can AWitch Raise A Dead Spirit?Is it possible to raise a spirit from the dead? Think about that. Can

a person be dead then have their sleeping spirit awakened in orderto be consulted about the future? In the book of 1st Samuel chapter28, we are confronted with a story that is more than a little creepy.

We find there, a story thought by many to be a certain indicationthat Satan must exist. In that story, we seem to see a woman callupon the spirit of a dead man and the spirit appears. This womanhas been said to be a witch by many interpreters. But is she reallycontacting the dead? This story is not so much related to how the

word sawtawn is used because the word sawtawn does not appearin the story. But any story that talks about what we call a witchdoes pertain to our overall topic of Satan. To put it simply, thespirit of Samuel could not have been physically present in front ofthe witch of Endor; otherwise, the entire Scriptural understandingof what happens to a dead person must be ignored.

The connection of this story to our theme today is that a deadperson is supposedly raised from the dead in spirit form. Being

dead means a person cannot appear in spirit form or any otherform. Therefore one can dismiss this obscure yet famous story ofSauls encounter with the witch of Endor as a tale of a literalresurrection of a dead spirit. We no longer have to view it as a talethat suggests support for some kind of a possible after-deathexistence. An existence that is variously affixed to a cosmic,supernatural, evil spirit-god. In this chapter and the chaptersfollowing, I will address how it is incorrect to simply suggest God

raised the spirit of Samuel from the dead in this instance alone.Had God done so, He would have applied a practice that isostensibly contrary to all He teaches about the state of the dead.

imagine there's no satan

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