The Devil Not A Personal Super-Natural Being, But The Scriptural Personification of Sin In Its Manifestations Among Men, continued

"No man can serve two MASTERS . . . Ye cannot serve God and Mammon" (Matt. 6v 24).

"Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of SIN" (John 8v 34).

"SIN hath reigned unto death" (Rom. 5v 21).

"Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, HIS

SERVANTS ye are to whom ye obey, whether of SIN unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? . . . Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of RIGHTEOUSNESS" (Rom. 6v 16, 18).

"When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will guide you into all truth: for HE shall not speak of himself" (John 16v 13).

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding She is more precious than rubies, and all the things that thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honour" (Prov. 3v 13, 15, 16).

"Wisdom hath builded HER house; she hath hewn out HER seven pillars" (Prov. 9v 1).

"Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O Virgin of Israel; thou shalt again be adorned with thy tablets" (Jer. 31v 4).

"I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke; turn Thou me, and I shall be turned; for Thou art the Lord my God" (Jer. 31v 18).

"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto A PERFECT MAN" (Eph. 4v 13).

"There is ONE BODY" (Eph. 4v 4).

"Ye are THE BODY OF CHRIST" (I Cor. 12v 27).

"Christ is the head of the church, and he is the saviour of the body" (Eph. 5v 23).

"He is the head of THE BODY, the church I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for HIS BODY'S SAKE, which is the church" (Col. 1v 18, 24).

"I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (II Cor. 11v 2).

"The marriage of the Lamb is come, and HIS WIFE hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19v 7).

"Ye have put off THE OLD MAN with his deeds" (Col. 3v 9)..

"Put off concerning the former conversation the OLD MAN, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts... put on the NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4v 22, 24).

"Our OLD MAN is crucified with him" (Rom. 6v 6).

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, THE SPIRIT THAT NOW WORKETH IN THE CHILDREN OF DISOBEDIENCE, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind" (Eph. 2v 2, 3).

"Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall THE PRINCE OF THIS WORLD be cast out. And 1v if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die" (John 12v 31-33).

Now these proofs and examples of personification furnish an answer to the question why sin in the abstract should be personified. They show, first, that principles and things are personified in the Bible; and, second, that this is done with great advantage. A metaphorical dress to abstractions gives a palpability to them in discourse, which they would lack if stated in precise and literal language. There is a warmth in such a style of speech, which is wanting in expressions that conform to the strict proprieties of grammar and fact. This warmth and expressiveness are characteristic of the Bible in every part of it, and belong to the Oriental languages generally. Of course it is open to abuse, like every other good, but its effectiveness is beyond question. The subject in hand is an illustration. Sin is the great slanderer of God in virtually denying His supremacy, wisdom, and. goodness, and the great ground of accusation against man even unto death. How appropriate, then, to style it THE ACCUSER, THE SLANDERER, THE LIAR. This is done in the word devil; but through the word not being translated, but merely Anglicised, the English reader, reared with English theological prejudices, is prevented from seeing it.

There is an historical aspect to the question, which greatly tends to place the matter in an intelligible light. We refer to the incidents connected with the introduction of sin into the world, in the contemplation of which, we shall see a peculiar fitness in the personification of sin in the word devil. Adam's sin was not spontaneous. It was suggested by his wife; but neither on her part was the disobedience self-suggested. She acted at the instigation of a third party. Who was that? The answer is, in the words of the record, "THE SERPENT was more subtle than any BEAST OF THE FIELD which the Lord God had made." The natural serpent, more observant than other animals, and gifted for the time with the power of expressing its thoughts, reasoned upon the prohibition which God had put upon "the tree in the midst of the garden;" and concluding from all he saw and heard that death would not be the result of eating, he said, "Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3v 4, 5).

Thus the serpent was a slanderer, a calumniator of God, in affirming that what God had said was not true. Thus he became a devil, and not only a devil, but the devil, inasmuch as he originated the slander, under the belief of which our first parents disobeyed the divine command, and introduced sin and death to the world. He was, therefore, the natural symbol of all that resulted from his lie. "That old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan," is the symbolic description of the world in its political totality at the time when Christ turns it into "the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ" (Rev. 20v 2: 11v 15). The serpent being the originator of the lie which led to disobedience, the fruits of that disobedience might well be said to be "his works."

The individual serpent itself has long since passed away in the course of nature, but the fruits remain, and the principle lives. The idea instilled by it into the minds of our first parents has germinated to the production of generations of human serpents. Mankind has proved but an embodiment of the serpent idea; so that they are all calumniators of God in disbelieving His promises, and disobeying His commandments. Hence, Jesus could say to the Pharisees, "Ye serpents... how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matt. 23v 33); and again, "Ye are of your father the devil (slanderer, serpent), and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning (he brought death upon mankind by inciting Adam and Eve to disobedience), and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own; for he is a liar, and the father of it" (John 8v 44). All who are in the first Adam, are "the children of the devil," because they are the progeny of a serpent-devil contaminated paternity. Their mortality is evidence of this, whatever be their moral qualities, because mortality is the fruit of the serpent-devil conceit operating in Adam to disobedience. But those who, upon a belief of the promises of God, are introduced into "the second Adam" (who in his death destroyed the bonds of the devil in taking away sin), are emancipated from the family of the devil, and become sons of God. Progeny is according to paternity; like produces like; "Children of the devil" must be devil; and hence it is that the world of human nature as a whole is regarded as the devil, because it is the embodiment of the devil principle. That principle originated in a personal agent; and for that reason, the principle retains the personality of the originator in common discourse, for the sake of convenience; and thus by a very natural process, the abstract principle which lies at the bottom of human misery and mortality is personified. Hence, Jesus destroying the devil and his works, is Jesus taking away the sin of the world, which will ultimate in the complete abolition of human nature on the Adam or serpent basis, and the swallowing up of death in victory. It will be the suppression of the prevailing order of things, and the establishment of a new one, in which righteousness and peace will reign triumphant, and the knowledge of God will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

The temptation of Jesus is usually cited in opposition to these conclusions; it is supposed that this incontestably proves the personality and power of the Bible devil. The great feature of the narrative relied upon, is the application of the word "devil" to the tempter; but this proves nothing. If Judas could be a devil and yet be a man (John 6v 70), why may the tempter of Jesus not have been a man? His being called "devil" proves nothing. But what about taking him to the pinnacle of the temple? it is asked: does it not require something more than human power to carry a man through the air to the top of a steeple? If this was what happened, it would, doubtless, be a little difficult to explain; but this is not so. The pinnacle of the temple, as we are informed by Josephus, was an elevated court or promenade, which, on one side, overlooked the depths to the valley of Jehoshaphat to a depth of 200 feet, and offered the facility for self-destruction which the tempter asked Jesus to wantonly brave, on the strength of a promise made in reference to inevitable suffering. To this court, the tempter, doubtless, walked with Jesus, and made the vain proposal suggested by the circumstances. The objector will then point to Christ's conveyance to "a high mountain," from which the devil "showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time." It is obvious that this must be taken in a limited sense; for the fact of ascending a mountain, to see what was to be witnessed, shews that the field of vision was in proportion to the altitude. The tract of country seen would be Judea and neighbouring provinces. The offer of power would therefore relate to these. If it be contended that Christ was absolutely-and miraculously shown "all the kingdoms of the world," what shall be alleged as the reason for the tempter ascending an elevation to shew him then? This would have been no assistance to see "ALL" the countries on earth. If there was anything supernatural in it, there was no necessity for going up a hill at all.

But who was the devil who thus busied himself to subvert Jesus from the path of obedience? The answer is, it is impossible to say positively who he was. As in the case of Job's Satan, we can only be positive as to who he was not. Various probabilities are suggested by the circumstances of the temptation according to the phase in which they are contemplated. Some think the devil in the case was Christ's own inclinations; but this is untenable in view of the statement that "When the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season" (Luke 4v 13). It is also untenable in view of the harmony that existed between the mind of Christ and the will of the Father (John 8v 29). It has been suggested, from the fact that the tempter had power to allot the provinces of the Roman world, that he was a leading functionary of state, or the Roman emperor himself. Others have contended that, not the Roman emperor, but the angel controlling his position, could say concerning "all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them," these "are delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I give them." A fourth suggestion has been that the temptation took place in vision or trance.

Be these suggestions true or false, the temptation affords no real countenance to the popular theory which it is brought forward to prove. In fact, there is no real countenance to that theory in any part of the Bible. The countenance is only apparent; it is all an appearance, the chief power of which lies in the fact that there is a personal-devil theory of pagan origin extant, and taught from the days of infancy. Bible words and pagan theories are put together and made to fit; and superficially considered, the result is striking and impressive, and highly demonstrative of a personal devil. It is, however, a mere juggle and a deception of the most mischievous kind.

DEMONS

It would be unwise to conclude the subject without a few words on "devils," in which the reader may see some lurking evidence of personal supernatural diabolism. As to the Old Testament, the word is only found four times, viz., in Lev, 17v 7; Deut. 32v 17; II Chron. 11v 15; and Psalm cvi, 37. These passages only require to be read for the reader to see, that so far as the Old Testament-is concerned, the word "devils," in Bible use, is applied very differently from that which popular views of the subject would indicate. For instance :--

"They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; TO GODS whom they knew not, .to NEW GODS that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not" (Deut. 32v 17).

Here the "devils" sacrificed to by Israel, were the idols of the heathen. This is still more apparent from Psalm cvi, 35-38:--

"They were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works; and they served their idols, which were a snare unto them--yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed UNTO THE IDOLS OF CANAAN."

It is needless to say that the idols of Canaan were "lifeless blocks of wood and stone," and that, therefore, their designation as "devils" shows that the Old Testament use of the word gives no countenance to the idea that "devils" are personal beings, of a malignant order, aiding and abetting, and serving the great devil in his works of mischief and damnation.

But it is to the New Testament that the orthodox believer will point, as the great stronghold for this belief. Thither we shall go, and with a result, we shall find, as unavailing for the popular creed, as that which has attended all the foregoing endeavours. In the first place, Paul's use of the word in the same way as it is used in the Old Testament, suggests that Paul ignored the Pagan view of the matter. He says:--" The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God, and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils" (I Cor. 10v 20, 21). Now, that "devils" here applies to the idols of Pagan worship is manifest; first, from the fact that the sacrifices of the Gentiles were offered at the shrines of the idol-gods of their own superstition; and second, from the following words of Paul in the same chapter:--" What say I then? that the idol is anything? or that which is offered in sacrifice TO IDOLS is anything?" (verse 19). This is conclusive. Paul applies the word "devils" to idols, of which he says :--" We know that an idol is NOTHING in the world" (I Cor. 8v 4). Thus the word "devils" as used by Paul, lends no countenance to the popular view.

The reader must understand the "devils" in the original Greek, is a different word from that translated "devil." The distinction between the two must be recognised, in order to appreciate the explanation applicable to "devils," as distinct from "devil." While "devil" is, in the original diabolos, "devils" is the plural of daimon, which has a very different .meaning from diabolos. Daimon was the name given by the Greeks to beings imagined by them to exist in the air, and to act a mediatorial part between God and man, for good or evil. These imaginary beings would be expressed in English by demon, evil genius, or tutelar deity, all of which belong to Pagan mythology, and have no place in the system of the truth. We quote the following observations on the subject from Parkhurst's Greek Lexicon in exemplification of the origin of the idea:--

"DAIMONION, from daimon--a deity, a god, or more accurately, some power or supposed intelligence, in that grand object of heathen idolatry, the material heavens or air. Thus the word is generally applied by the LXX., who use it, Isa. 65v 11, for the destructive troop or powers of the heavens in thunder, lightning, storm, etc., in Deut. 32v 17; Psa. cvi, 37, for the pourers forth or genial powers of nature; and, as by the midday demon, Psa. xci, 6, we may be certain they intended not a devil, but a pernicious blast of air---Comp. Isa. 28v 2---in the Hebrew; so from this and the forecited passages, we can be at no loss to know what they meant, when in this translation of Psa. 96v 5, they say, All the gods of the Gentiles are daimonia---i.e., not devils, but some powers or imaginary intelligence of material nature Most expressive are the words of Plato in Sympos, "Every demon is a middle being between God and mortal men." If you ask what he means by 'middle being,' he will tell you, 'God is not approached immediately by man, but all the commerce and intercourse between gods and men is performed by the mediation of demons.' Would you see the particulars? Demons are reporters and carriers from men to the gods, and again from the gods to men, of the supplications and prayers of the one, and of the injunctions and rewards of devotion from the other. Besides those original material mediators, or the intelligence, residing in them, whom Apuleius calls a higher kind of demons, who were always free from the incumbrances of the body, and out of which higher order Plato supposes that guardians were appointed unto men--besides these, the heathen acknowledged another sort, namely, 'the souls of men deified or canonised after death.' So Hesiod, one of the most ancient heathen writers, describing that happy race of men who lived in the first and golden age of the world, saith that 'after this generation were dead, they were, by the will of great Jupiter, promoted to be demons, keepers of mortal men, observers of their good and evil works, clothed in air, always walking about the earth, givers of riches; and this,' saith he, ' is the royal honour that they enjoy.' Plato concurs with Hesiod and asserts that he and many other poets speak excellently, who affirm that when good men die, they attain great honour and dignity, and become demons. The same Plato, in another place, maintains that 'All those who die valiantly in war, are of Hesiod's golden generation, and are made demons, and that we ought for ever after to serve and adore their sepulchres as the sepulchres of demons.' 'The same also,' says he, ' we decree whenever any of those who were excellently good in life, die, either of old age or in any other manner.'... According to Plutarch tom 1v p. 958, E edit Xylander, it was a very ancient opinion that there were certain wicked and malignant demons who envy good men, and endeavour to disturb and hinder them in the pursuit of virtue, lest remaining firm (unfallen) in goodness, and Uncorrupt, they should, after death, obtain a better lot than they themselves enjoy."

In view of the heathen origin of this "doctrine of demons," it is a natural source of wonder that it should appear so largely interwoven with the gospel narratives, and receives apparent sanction both from Christ and his disciples. This can only be accounted for on one principle; the Grecian theory that madness, epileptic disorders, and obstructions of the senses (as distinct from ordinary diseases), were attributable to demoniacal possession, had existed many centuries before the time of Christ, and had circulated far and wide with the Greek language, which, in these .days, had become nearly universal. The theory necessarily stamped itself upon the common language of the time, and supplied a nomenclature for certain classes of disorders which, without reference to the particular theory in which it originated, would become current and conventional, and used by all 'classes as a matter of course, without involving an acceptance of the Pagan belief. On the face of it, the nomenclature would carry that belief; but in reality it would only be used from the force of universal custom, without any reference to the superstition which originated it. We have an illustration of this in our word "lunatic," which originated in the idea that madness was the result of the moon's influence, but which nobody now uses to express that idea. The same principle is exemplified in the phrases "bewitched," "fairy-like," "hobgoblin," "dragon," "the king's evil," "St. Vitus's dance," etc., all of which are freely used denominatively, without subjecting the person using them to the charge of believing the fictions originally represented by them.

Christ's conformity to popular language did not commit him to popular delusions. In one case, he apparently recognises the god of the Philistines: "Ye say that I cast out demons through Beelzebub: if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them. out?" (Luke 11v 18, 19). Now, Beelzebub signifies the god of flies, a god worshipped by the Philistines of Ekron (II Kings 1v 6), and Christ, in. using the name, takes no pains to dwell upon the fact that Beelzebub was a heathen fiction, but seems rather to assume, for the sake of argument, that Beelzebub was a reality; it was a mere accommodation to the language of his opponents. Yet this might, with as much reason, be taken as a proof of his belief in Beelzebub, as his accommodation to popular speech on the subject of demons is taken to sanction the common idea of "devils."

The casting out of demons spoken of in the New Testament was nothing more nor less than the curing of epileptic fits and brain disorders, as distinct from bodily diseases. Of this, any one may be satisfied by an attentive reading of the narrative and a close consideration of the symptoms, as recorded:--

"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic, and sore vexed, for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him .... And Jesus rebuked the devil (demon) and he departed out of him (Matt. 17v 15-18).

From this the identity of lunacy with supposed diabolical possession is apparent. The expulsion of the malarious influence which deranged the child's faculties was the casting out of the demon.

"Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb; and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw" (Matt. 12v 22).

"And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit" (Mark 9v 17).

There is no case of demoniacal possession mentioned in the New Testament, which has not its parallel in hundreds of instances in the medical experience of the present time. The symptoms are precisely identical--tearing, foaming at the mouth, crying out, abnormal strength, etc. True, there are no exclamations about the Messiah, because there is no popular excitement on the subject for them to reflect in an aberrated form, as there was in the days of Jesus, when the whole Jewish community was pervaded by an intense expectation of the Messiah, and agitated by the wonderful works of Christ.

The transference of "the devils" to the swine, is only an instance in which Christ vindicated the law (which prohibited the culture of the pig), by acting on the suggestion of a madman in transferring an aberrating influence from the latter to the swine, and causing their destruction. The statement that the devils made request, or the devils cried out this or that, must be interpreted in the light of a self-evident fact, that it was the person possessed who spoke, and not the abstract derangement. The insane utterances were attributable to the insanifying influence, and, therefore, it is an allowable liberty of speech to say that the influence---called in the popular phrase of these times, demon or demons--spoke them; but, in judging of the theory of possession, we must carefully separate between critical statements of truth and rough popular forms of speech, which merely embody an aspect, and not the essence of truth.

It is needless to say more on the subject: enough has been advanced to show the unfounded mischievous nature of popular views, and to furnish a key for the solution of all Scripture texts which appear to favour those views. This accomplishment, if successfully achieved, will suffice for the present effort. The doctrine of a personal devil, or devils, is a spiritual miasma; it is itself an evil spirit, of which a man must become dispossessed before he can become mentally clothed, and in his right mind. It obscures the shining features of all divine truth from the gaze of all who are subject to it. It is companion to the immortality of the soul, to which, with other fables of heathen invention, men have universally turned according to Paul's prediction (2 Tim. 4v 3, 4); and, in accepting which they have necessarily rejected the truth proclaimed by all the servants of God, from Enoch to Paul.