SATAN THE MEANING OF THE ADVERSARY

The Bible says, “Satan is the prince of power on earth.”

"The whole world is in the power of the evil one."

John 5:19

Let's take a quick look at the actual word “Satan” literally means “adversary" or "opponent/accuser" (In Ancient Hebrew "ha-satan")

The Bible describes the devil as "that which deceives the world." There is only one thing that deceives us, one thing that hides the truth and life from us, but it is too close for most people to see it. You see today, most people think the devil is a literal living creature, frequently represented as a red guy with horns and a pointed tail, a sort-of cosmic criminal. But in actuality, this "satan" is nothing more than a metaphor for our very own animal minds.

The devil (diabolos in Greek) is just a name for the force of deception in all our lives. The adversary of God, the Antichrist, etc. is the mind, the beast within. That ego part of us that defies our true Divine nature. The Divine nature of the Spark of Source Energy/God within each of us.

"And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world."

Revelation 12:9

The beast within, satan/devil, the only one deceiver. It is whatever it is that prevents us from seeing the Truth and the life. It keeps us from from seeing our true life, and from being with God, our true Source of Life. Every breath we take.

The "dragon" is a mythical beast that does not really exist. The Bible’s metaphorical description could not be better. The devil or dragon referred to in the Bible is our base animal mind, the invisible beast that resides within us.

The Bible scriptural allegories say that Christ will slay the Antichrist with Truth. When people learn the Truth and the life, they will have the "mind of Christ" as Paul references, and will use the Truth against the forces of deception to control the devil ... to change the devil.

In the New Testament, Jesus is quoted as having said to Peter, “Get behind thee Satan, you are blocking my way." In this myth and metaphor, Peter is acting as our ego base nature and attempting to lead our Divine Spirit rather than the intended other way around. Notice Jesus does not get rid of the devil/satan (ego-mind); he just takes control of it and puts it in its place in the background, behind life, so that Spirit may lead.

We also read in scripture that "Satan will be transformed into an angel of light." The word Lucifer is from the Latin and means “bringer of light, or bringer of dawn.” Also in Greek the name is "Phosphoros." Once the base ego-mind realizes that it is the problem, it will begin to turn from Satan (darkness) into Lucifer (light). The story is of bad angels and good angels. All angels represent the mind (messengers), a bad mind and good mind, and even the good ones are still mind, something that blocks the Truth and the life. The good ones represent the good mind that helps you see the Truth and life, a guardian angel that fights the bad states of mind. They are metaphors to represent different states of mind. The Greek word for Angel is "Aggelos" and literally means messenger.

The Biblical scriptures present Satan as a fallen angel, the highest angel that turned into the devil, the enemy of God. It just has to do the opposite and turn from the devil back into God’s helper again, and you will become a divine, spiritual being. Your ego-mind is now in front of your spirit, and it needs to be behind you in order for the knowing Spirit to lead.

Until your mind is transformed into your helper, your guardian, the mind is your mortal enemy, the enemy of Truth and Life and the enemy of God. The ego-mind is what the Bible calls Satan and the devil, your adversary. Remember that evil is live spelled backwards. All evil is, is the opposite of true life. Add th "D" from darkness to the word evil and we have Devil.

Religious books are all full of contradictions. Lucifer is seen as bad and good, and there are all sorts of other angels and demons, but you can sort through all the contradictions and see the Truth is actually hidden in there expecting to be revealed (Revelation). If you spend your time studying all the various false interpretations and myths, you will be falling into a trap, and spending your time in the ego-mind instead of living in God/life. That is what most religious scholars are doing, and it is a grave mistake.

There are no good or evil people; there are just those that know the Truth and those that do not. There is knowledge, and ignorance. The battle between good and evil is a battle between the Truth and deception/illusion, nothing more, nothing less. People choose to do good, and they choose to do un-good.

The Bible describes Satan as the “deceiver,” and by definition, that means that Satan has to be your ego-mind. All there is, is the mind and Life, and Life by definition is “the Truth,” so Satan, the devil, has to be the deceptive mind. There is Life and the imagination; there is nothing else. Truth and maya (illusion).

The ego-mind is sneaky like the snake in the Bible; it is the perfect metaphor for the devil/mind. It will slip into your head and your life without you noticing it. It is a thought, a judgment, a belief, an idea, guilt, envy, hate, fear, worry or one of the mind’s other mostly negative manifestations. It takes you out of the present NOW, if you don’t notice it and recognize it for what it is.

This controlling mind is not your friend. It is no more your friend than the snake in the story of the Garden of Eden was Adam and Eve’s friend. It will tempt, distract, deceive and mislead you. It separates you from God/life and paradise. It is a broken and jagged path filled with consequence and suffering for all creatures.

In the mythical story of the Garden of Eden, the tree Adam and Eve ate from and mankind continues to eat from is the Tree of Knowledge. It is described as the knowledge of good and evil. It is the knowledge of judgment, of comparison, of right and wrong, success and failure, birth and death, past and future, the polar opposites of life.

In this allegory, Adam and Eve learned of the opposites, but not the balance of the opposites, so the grass started looking greener on the other side of the garden. They saw their bodies and felt naked for the first time. They saw death and started worrying. The knowledge caused human beings to start thinking and worrying about life instead of living it. They left the present, because they could no longer see it; they no longer perceived the paradise. They could not see life’s perfection.

Human beings became a mind. Mankind (mind-kind) was created. As a result, we ended up in the land of Nod. The land of Nod is the land of semi-sleep. We were not good enough, so we began living in a dream world; we nodded off. It is interesting that the word nod, a place in a mythical story, came to mean sleep, or not being awake to the Truth and Life.

"Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

Romans 13:11

"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed."

1 Corinthians 15:51

"Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and

Christ shall give thee light."

Ephesians 5:14

The Bible says in many places that mankind is just sleeping or slumbering, and just needs to wake up. The problem is that we are too asleep to know we are asleep. It's like saying that people are who are unaware and unaware that they are unaware.

The other tree in the allegory of the Garden of Eden that mankind is about to start partaking of is called the Tree of Life. Once we know the Truth, we wake up to Divine Life. We metaphorically begin to start partaking of the Tree of Life. We become "born again" as spiritual beings. A spiritual being metaphorically eats from both trees.

"Behold the man has become as one of us to know good and evil, now lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.."

Genesis 3:22

When we eat from the tree of life, we will know both the mind Truth (tree of knowledge) and the living Truth (Tree of Life). We will then know the Truth and the Life (represented as Jesus). The above Bible verse is supposed to represent the voice of God/Source. The key word is “live,” not just exist forever. You can live in God/Life forever, in heaven forever (Spirit Eternal).

God tells Adam and Eve: “If you eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, you will surely die.” They did not die physically, but they did die spiritually. They died to true Life; they died to the present (the NOW where all Life exists), and Paradise was lost. To realize heaven, you have to know the Truth and the Life; you have to metaphorically eat from BOTH trees.

People have been misinterpreting the story. People believe they did something wrong (Original Sin); when the opposite is the Truth. They sacrificed Paradise for knowledge. The serpent did them the ultimate favour in the long run. We needed the mind to learn the Truth, and we needed the Truth to know Divine Life, to get to God/Source and to the state of heaven.

The story of Adam and Eve has many hidden things in it, but the overall message is how our minds were created. It describes how we joined with the devil/mind, and how we can turn this devil/mind back into an angel.

"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

Revelation 2:7

In other words, when you overcome the delusions of the ego-mind, you can see Life as it truly is, and it will fulfill you. The metaphor of Life as fruit or food means Life, when truly seen, will nourish you. Jesus is quoted as having said, "man does not live by bread alone."

The Bible story of Adam and Eve is a myth/metaphor and NOT literal Truth, but it explains the literal Truth exactly. The story metaphorically describes the transition of human beings into mankind perfectly. It also shows us the next step in our evolution. This story came from our collective universal unconsciousness, or the Holy Spirit, if you prefer the religious terminology.

Much of the books of the Bible are misinterpretations or meant for people that lived in those times in the past. Trying to find Truth where it does not exist is just a deception of the mind to distract people from the real truth that the books contain. The Truth in the Bible is all mixed up; things are not in the order of events. Everything about everything is about now, because nothing else exists. Never look for the Truth in the past or future; it is all about NOW.

We must take control of our animal based ego-mind and put it behind our inner Divine Spirit. "Devil” is evil with a letter added (from D-arkness) to turn a condition into a thing. That thing is your own ego-mind. Its presence works to keep you separated from the Truth and true Life. Your mind will use its control over you to stay in control and get more control. Thus, you have to really pay attention to overcome it, but as Jesus is quoted as having said, "those that overcome will have eternal life."

You have to take the time to honestly get to know yourself. You have to know the nature of both your mind-self and spiritual-self to know the Truth and the Life. The more aware you get, the more your mind sees the problem; the more it sees the problem, the more aware you will be. This leads to total clarity.

Jesus said, "Your minds must be cleared of the falsehoods of this realm if you are to be taught Eternal Truth."

You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.

Just a thought ...

~Justin Taylor, ORDM., OCP., DM.