Did God Create His Own Enemy?

Did God create his own enemy, Satan? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life. We would love to hear from you. In fact, our phone lines are open right now for the next 25 minutes, and you can call us with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. There's a couple other ways to ask questions. You can post a question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts. You can also post a question on our YouTube channel, and we're live on YouTube right now. And you can email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Lee in the state of Kansas. Hi, Lee, welcome to the program.

Good afternoon. I'd like for you to explain to me a saved Christian that appears to be full of unforgiveness and hate and mean behavior. Can they be like demons inflicted along with the Holy Spirit?

Or give me some clarification on their behaviors. Yeah, Lee. Well, forgiveness is one of the most difficult things for many people. There was a Barna study that came out some time ago that said one in four Christians has someone in their life that they feel like they simply cannot forgive.

And I always thought that that was just really interesting. 25% of professing believers saying, oh, there's just a person in my life who I will not, cannot forgive. And there really is a serious issue with this, not to minimize the ways in which we've been hurt by others and sinned against by others. But the fact of the matter is, is Jesus calls us as his followers to be characterized by forgiveness and mercy. It's very clear in the Gospels, in Matthew chapter six, you know, when Jesus gave his disciples the Lord's Prayer, you know, one of the petitions, verse 12 there, forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And then he goes on to say in verse 14, for if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Forgiveness, forgiving others is supposed to be a mark of what we do as Christians, because we've been forgiven so much. The apostle Paul talked about this also in the book of Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter four, he says in verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Now that last part of the verse there, Lee, is really, really important, as God in Christ forgave you. Now I think that one of the reasons many people struggle with forgiveness is because they're so focused on the offense, what this other person has done, and they're not thinking about the forgiveness that they've received through the work of Jesus from a holy God. And so I think there's a disconnect that sometimes we can have as Christians, and what we have to do is fix our eyes not so much on the offense, and again, that's not to minimize the ways in which we've been sinned against.

There are things that should make us angry and should cause us to say, hey, I need to be careful in this situation or with this person, with this relationship, maybe build some boundaries. But the fact of the matter is we're called to forgive as Christians, and we forgive as God in Christ forgave us. And so I think when you have a believer, someone who's a professing Christian who's fighting with bitterness, or maybe they've just given into it, and they're not willing to forgive. I think they need to be reminded of the gospel, of God's mercy to them in his son Jesus, of the fact that we were all enemies of God. We had sinned against God in grievous ways, and yet God didn't cut us off. He sent his son to bleed so that our sins might be forgiven. And I think when we lose sight of that reality, when we lose sight of the great mountain of sin that God has forgiven in us, it's really easy for us to begin to be judgmental and to look at others and to withhold forgiveness. And so we need to recover that vision of what Christ has done for us, of the mercy that we've received, and then extend that mercy to others.

Thanks for giving us a call, Lee. Great reminder for all of us, not to mention the fact that resentment and bitterness can just eat us up psychologically and cause health problems. It's obvious why God wants us to let go of those things and forgive others.

I mean, it's best for our spiritual and our physical and emotional well-being as well. This is Core Christianity. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and we'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Let me give you the phone numbers. You can call us at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

Our phone lines will be open for the next 20 minutes or so, so give us a call. Let's go to Buck in Kansas City, Missouri. Buck, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? My question is, if you give your heart to the Lord, and as the Bible says that He forgives you, but then you constantly feel like you're not forgiven, does that mean you're not forgiven, or does that mean that you have to ask Him to forgive you every single day? Does that make sense what I'm trying to say? Yeah, it does, Buck, and I think it's a struggle that many believers have, and you use that word there, and this is a key word in your question, the word feeling. When I've asked for forgiveness, when I've given my life to the Lord, maybe you're talking about saying a prayer or something like that, or just trusting in Jesus, and yet I still don't feel like I'm forgiven.

Well, what does that mean? There are times in our lives, I think, brother, where we experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, and that sense of my sins have been forgiven. There are other times where those feelings aren't there, where it's harder for us to believe. I think it's really easy for us to believe we're sinners.

Nobody has to convince us of that, typically. We know deep down inside, as believers, when we look in, there's a lot that needs forgiveness. What's really hard for us to believe is that God is gracious to sinners. That requires faith. It requires faith to say, God, I know I'm messed up, but I believe that you forgive me, and I think that's where many people struggle. What I would say is, you have to put your confidence not in how you feel when you wake up in the morning, but in what God has said in His word.

That's the key. The book of 1 John 1, verse 9 makes this absolutely clear. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

So again, just think about the language that John uses here. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just. This is a part of God's promise.

He says, this is who I am. I am faithful and I'm just to forgive your sins when you confess them. In other words, if God didn't forgive our sins when we came to Him and confessed those sins truly in repentance, if He didn't do that, it would go against His very nature, who He is, the just and holy God. So, Buck, you can be confident when you go to God, broken and contrite of spirit, like David says in Psalm 51, when you go to Him saying, Lord, I know I've sinned, I need your mercy, that He forgives you and that you are forgiven. Now, we do continually throughout the Christian life confess our sins every day, day by day. It's a part of how we experience that continued fellowship with the people of God and with the Lord Himself. And so, yes, continue to confess your sins, but rest in the fact that you are forgiven, not on the basis of how you feel, but through what Jesus Christ did for you when He died on the cross. That's objective, that's real, and it's yours when you go to the Lord in faith.

Amen. By the way, Buck, we have a wonderful resource on our core questions. What's the difference between justification and sanctification? And it might be helpful to you as you learn about growing in Christ and what that looks like on a daily basis. You can find that by going to corechristianity.com forward slash questions. Again, it's called the difference between justification and sanctification or learning about personal growth. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Mason in Springfield, Missouri. Mason, what's your question for Adriel?

Hey, thanks for having me. Yeah, my question is, in regard to ecumenical kind of unification within the church, what are some doctrines or beliefs that we are, as Christians or as church leaders, that would cause us to disassociate from followers or from other churches? And then what are some secondary issues that we can, while we don't necessarily agree, be unified anyway? I'd like to get your thoughts on that.

Yeah. Well, check it out. First, let's talk about the issues that we can and should divide over. I mean, and it really gets to the heart of the gospel, and I think even biblical authority. The apostle Paul made it absolutely clear, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. So you have the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the 12, and then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, but some have died. That's what Paul says. He says, look, this is what's of first importance.

This is what was delivered to me. And the language that he uses there, it's actually a sort of technical language for the sort of passing on of this tradition, this gospel tradition from Jesus to the apostles and from the apostles to other faithful men who would be able to teach and continue to pass the baton on to subsequent generations. And so at the heart of it, this is what sometimes in the ancient church, the church fathers referred to the rule of faith, the regula fide. It's the central doctrines of Christ's life, death, burial, resurrection from the dead, the gospel. If you go to a church that rejects those things, then you're not in communion with one another. If somebody rejects Jesus, the identity of Jesus, his divinity, if they reject the vicarious work of Jesus on the cross, his actual physical resurrection from the dead, if they just sort of try to spiritualize that, those kinds of things, they're outside the faith. They're outside of core Christianity.

And so I think that those are some of the key issues there that we really have to hold fast to. And I also mentioned the importance of biblical authority. And the reason that's the case is because the moment churches begin to reject the authority of scripture, that's really when they start also to reject these other core doctrines of the Christian faith. They begin to deny the identity of the God-man, of Jesus Christ. They begin to reject salvation by grace through faith. Now with regard to secondary issues, we can still love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

I still think and trust that you're a believer, even though we disagree on this. I think some of those things might be reference to things like church government. I might have a brother who doesn't agree with my understanding of church governance, but embraces the gospel.

And that person is truly a brother or a sister. Just because they have a different ecclesiology, that is understanding of the way in which the church is supposed to be governed, doesn't necessarily mean that they're not a believer. And so things like that, I think, would be more secondary issues and issues that throughout the history of the church, Christians were willing to work together even though they had differences with regard to things like church government.

So those are just a couple of examples. But core Christianity, at the heart of it, is those elements of first importance that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15. And another thing I could point you to is just the historical creeds of the church, like the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed, which I think really helpfully summarize those core doctrines, those vital doctrines that all Christians need to hold onto. Hey, Mason, we'd love to send you a copy of our book, Core Christianity. We think that will really be helpful to you in discerning some of these particular issues. So we'll send that to you. Hang on the line for one moment, if you would. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, our phone number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Today we want to offer you a wonderful book that will help you grow in your faith and really get a grasp of God's tender heart towards each of us. Yeah, I'm excited about offering this book. It's a book that I've benefited from. I've shared it with many people in our church.

It's called Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. Really getting to the heart of Jesus and Jesus' love for and care for sufferers and sinners, broken people. If you struggle, even with assurance, we've already talked about it on the broadcast today, and it frequently comes up, you know, how can I know that I'm really saved? I don't feel forgiven.

If you struggle with that, let's get a hold of this book because it's going to help you understand the love of Jesus for you, even though we fail, even though we do indeed struggle. And so, again, the book is called Gentle and Lowly. And, Bill, would you let them know how to get a hold of this resource? Just go to our website, corechristianity.com forward slash offers, that's corechristianity.com forward slash offers, and look for that book, Gentle and Lowly. We'd love to give that to you for a donation of any amount this week. You can also call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-THE-CORE. One of the ways you can leave a question for Adriel is by calling our voicemail.

It's open 24 hours a day at 833-THE-CORE. And let's go to a voicemail we received from Tom. Hi, Adriel. I appreciate what you do and your ministry here.

It's been very beneficial to me and I know to many others. My question is about Satan being raised in church. I've always been told and I've heard many people say that Satan is a fallen angel.

He was in charge of music and his name is Lucifer. Now, having come into faith on my own and learning to study the Bible and how important context is, I see that the verses used in Ezekiel and in Isaiah, referring to the fallen angel on the head of music, is actually talking about the king of Tyre and the king of Babylon. In the New Testament, it said that Satan was a liar and that he had sinned from the beginning.

So was Satan created as an evil being or do you believe that he really was an angel? Tom, I love that you're reading the Bible so carefully and that you want to understand it in its context. And you brought up two verses or passages of scripture that are oftentimes pointed to as talking about the fall of Satan, both in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 14, and in the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 28. And you noted, I think rightly, that in their immediate context, they're talking about these wicked and arrogant rulers. In Isaiah 14, for example, it's the hottie king of Babylon.

So I think that's a really good thing to know. But you also have to realize that sometimes passages like this, these prophetic texts of scripture, have multiple reference or dual reference. That is, it can refer to this wicked king, but it can also refer to the evil one, Satan.

And it seems to me like Jesus actually says that this passage in Isaiah 14 does refer to Satan, the evil one. Verse 12 of Isaiah 14 says, How you are fallen from heaven, O day-star son of dawn, how you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high.

I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. And it goes on to talk about him being brought low because of his pride, because of his arrogance, because of his conceit. Well, Jesus, in the gospel of Luke, in the context of him talking to his disciples, if after they had gone out and had been casting out demons, Luke chapter 10, verse 17, the 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, and it sounds like he's quoting Isaiah 14, 12 here, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. You see the correlation there, Jesus' words in Luke 10, 18, and then Isaiah 14, 12, How you are fallen from heaven, O day-star son of the dawn. So Jesus seemed to apply this text to Satan.

So it seems like there was this fall. That is to say that God did not create Satan as evil, but as good, and it was pride, the sin of pride in Satan that caused him to fall. In fact, Paul, in 1 Timothy chapter 3, he talks about elders in the church not being new converts, so that they don't become conceited and fall into the same condemnation of the evil one. And so God created Satan, this angel, good, and yet he fell. And that's what you have described in Isaiah 14 and confirmed by Jesus in Luke 10, 18. Thanks for your question. Thanks for that great explanation, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity, and let's go to Joe in Memphis, Tennessee. Joe, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Yes, sir, thank you for having me. If Jesus Christ bore all the sin on the cross, and so during Judgment Day, are we going to be judged on what we do as Christians, and none of that sin that Jesus bore on the cross? I hear you speaking about forgiveness. And if you don't forgive somebody, will Christ Jesus remember all your sins since you didn't forgive? My question is on the Judgment Day. Will you be judged for how you act as a Christian since Jesus took away all sin at the cross? Yeah.

Hey, thank you for that question. It does seem to me like when you look at the passages that talk about the final judgment, that we as believers are there. You know, it's something that we experience. Acts 17, verse 31, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, Revelation 20, when Jesus talks about this great white throne judgment, this judgment where all people are standing before the Lord, and yet for us as Christians, we don't have to be afraid during the judgment because Jesus bore our sins and because we've been forgiven. And John, I think, makes this absolutely clear in the book of 1 John. In 1 John, chapter 4, verse 17, he says, By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in the world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. What a comfort that is that we can have confidence in the day of judgment, not because of what we've done per se, not because we've lived these perfect lives. You know, we fail. We sin.

We struggle to forgive, Joe. I'm sure you know this. I know this. All those listening right now, you know this. And yet, John says, you and I, we can have confidence for the day of judgment.

Wow, how is that? Well, because we've already passed from death to life. Jesus said that in John, chapter 5. He says that the one who believes in him shall not enter into judgment, but has already passed from death to life. So while our works are examined, and we're going to be commended for those things on the day of judgment, the good things, we're not going to be destroyed because of our failures, because Jesus has borne our curse.

We can have confidence in the day of judgment, not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Amen. Hey, Joe, thanks so much for your call and for listening to Core Christianity. Let's go to Greg in Mount Pleasant, Texas. Greg, welcome to the program. What's your question for Adriel?

Thank you for having me. My question is, the Bible says to keep holy the Sabbath, and even when Christ was walking amongst us, the Sabbath was Saturday. Why has the Christian church gone to worshipping on Sunday?

Hey, Greg, thank you so much for that question. Well, the Sabbath, the first time we even have that word is in the early chapters of Genesis, where God rested on the seventh day. And that rest that God entered into is something that we as believers in Jesus Christ are called also to enter into. This is something that you see in the book of Hebrews in Hebrews, chapter 4.

It's ultimately a picture of the heavenly rest, the rest that is God's very own rest that we enter into through faith in Jesus Christ. Hebrews, chapter 4, verse 3, For we who have believed enter that rest. That is God's Sabbath rest. Jesus himself said in Matthew, chapter 11, towards the end of the chapter, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. So that rest, that heavenly rest that was really given to us or pictured in the Sabbath, God's very own rest of the early chapters of Genesis, is something we enter into by faith in Jesus Christ, who worked perfectly, obeying the law of God, fulfilling it, then died for our sins and rose again from the dead on the first day of the week. And ever since the days of the apostles, Greg, Christians have been gathering in commemoration of what Christ had accomplished on the first day of the week. We see this in Acts, chapter 20. We see this in 1 Corinthians, chapter 16. The Christian church began to gather for worship. The apostles themselves gathered for worship on Sunday.

Why? Because something monumental had happened. God the Son came to earth, accomplished salvation, rested in the tomb on the Sabbath day, and then rose again from the dead for us. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.