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Satan's Responsibility for Sin
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Leviticus 16:8-10  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) The English word scapegoat is not a correct translation of the Hebrew word God inspired. The original word was azazel. Azazel, among the early Semitic dwellers in the Sinai desert, referred to Satan the Devil! James Moffatt therefore translated this as "Azazel the demon." William Gesenius wrote this: "This name was used for that of an evil demon. . . . The name Azazel . . . is also used by the Arabs as that of an evil demon" (Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, page 617). "The devil, named Eblis in the Koran, was once one of the archangels in heaven, and was called Azazil, but by disobedience fell" (J.W.H. Stobart, Islam and Its Founder, p. 114). Hermann Schultz wrote: "Azazel is . . . an Aramaic . . . name for an unclean and ungodlike power, which has its abode in the wilderness, in the accursed land outside the sacred bounds of the camp" (Old Testament Theology, translated by Paterson, 1892, v. 1, p. 405). "The high priest . . . cast lots upon the two goats. One was to be for the Lord for a sin-offering. The other was for Azazel (the completely separate one, the evil spirit regarded as dwelling in the desert), to be sent away alive into the wilderness" (F. Watson, The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, 1893, page 161.) Modern commentaries often misunderstand this azazel goat. This is not too surprising, since Satan has deceived the whole world, and deceived many into thinking he does not exist. Some commentators claim that this azazel goat represents Christ. Such theories have no biblical or symbolic support. Let's notice a modern Jewish commentary that makes it clear that the azazel goat represented—Satan the devil: "Azazel . . . was probably a demonic being. . . . Apocryphal Jewish works, composed in the last few centuries before the Christian era, tell of angels who were lured . . . into rebellion against God. In these writings, Azazel is one of the two leaders of the rebellion. And posttalmudic documents tell a similar story about two rebel angels, Uzza and Azzael—both variations of the name Azazel. These mythological stories, which must have been widely known, seem to confirm the essentially demonic character of the old biblical Azazel" (Union of American Hebrew Congregations, The Torah—a Modern Commentary, p. 859). The word scapegoat carries a wrong connotation. Originally it meant "escape goat"—the goat that was allowed to escape. But today the word scapegoat signifies "one who bears blame or guilt for others." This is definitely not the meaning that God inspired. Azazel—Satan—bears his own guilt in deceiving mankind. Satan is not a scapegoat for another's sins. He will be punished for his own guilt. The real cause—the actual author—of human sin is Satan the Devil (John 8:42-44; Ephesians 2:2). Satan is guilty of inspiring the sins of mankind. Christ paid the penalty for our part in every sin we repent of. But He did not pay for Satan's part in these sins, or the sins of the other demons. Demons are not offered salvation, and they refuse to repent! So here, in this Levitical ritual, all of man's Satan-inspired sins were symbolically put back on Satan's head, where they belong! When Jesus Christ returns, Satan's part of the blame for mankind's sins will be placed on him, and he will then be removed from the presence of man. Justice will be done. The Day of Atonement: The World at One with God

Ephesians 2:2-3  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) Incredible as it may sound, the natural state of man—what we commonly call "human nature"—is imparted to mankind by that great fallen archangel known as Satan the Devil! Satan is revealed as "the god of this world" (II Corinthians 4:4), who has deceived all nations (Revelation 12:9). He is further revealed as "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience" (Ephesians 2:2). Satan works in people by "broadcasting" his basic attitude to the mind. He is actually "on the air," so to speak, surcharging the air around the world. The spirit that is in every human (Job 32:8; I Corinthians 2:11) is "in tune" with Satan's "wavelength." The Devil does not broadcast in the words of any language; he does not broadcast in sounds. He broadcasts attitudes of vanity, selfishness, greed, covetousness, lust, jealousy, criticism, envy, resentment, hatred, bitterness, and rebellion which our minds receive. These attitudes of Satan in the human mind are actually what we call "human nature." It is in reality Satan's nature which he broadcasts to our minds. Few people realize that "human nature" has a spiritual side and a physical side. On its spiritual side, it is vanity. Vanity loves to exalt the self. It is self-centered. It is selfish and greedy. It "comes natural" to resent and resist authority. Even a child begins very early to resist the authority of his parents. As he grows and matures, this tendency to be hostile toward authority increases. On the physical side, there are "natural" physical pulls and drives that seek to be satisfied regardless of any resultant injury or harm that may come to others or the self. Obviously, there are certain physical desires that are not wrong and which God created in us. But when lust and improper use enter the picture, these desires become sin! What Is Real Repentance?

Ephesians 2:2  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) A major characteristic of the human spirit is that it is habitually self-centered rather than God-centered. A simple example illustrates how it became this way. In Genesis 1:31 God takes satisfaction in all He had made, declaring it "very good." Included in this is Adam and Eve's nature, as they were already created by this time. Thus, at the beginning, mankind's nature was not corrupted by contact with this world. Genesis 3 records the episode of their confrontation with Satan that began the evil transformation of their basic nature. God did not create their nature as evil, but it became evil through the influence of another spirit that they chose to follow without any intervention from their Creator. The same process continues to this day, as each of us is born into this world and comes under the influence of the same spirit that influenced Adam and Eve to turn from God. We are all born with a slight pull toward self, but not with the evil that eventually develops and manifests itself in our conduct. Evil is not—cannot be—passed on through procreation, but it is fashioned anew by the spirit of the age into which each person is born. It is a converted parent's responsibility to God and to his children to ensure the right spirit dominates his home so the children can be properly nurtured. People in the world understand this to some extent when they observe with maxims like, "The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree," "Like father, like son," or "Like mother, like daughter." This world's Christians, to avoid responsibility for their evil, have blamed God for creating us this way. But God did not make us this way. Mankind, represented by Adam and Eve, chose to become this way, and all of their descendants, including us, have chosen the same path under the influence of the same evil spirit who offered Adam and Eve the choice. This accounts for the course of this world. Jeremiah 17:9 shows us how evil God judges the source of our unconverted motivations to be: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" The Revised Standard Version translates this as, "The natural heart of man is desperately corrupt; incurably sick." It is so bad, so evil, it cannot be salvaged by repairing it! It must be completely replaced. This is what the conversion process—our calling, repentance, justification, and sanctification—accomplishes. We need to understand more completely why this aspect of God's command to flee Babylon is so important. We can be easily deceived about it, misunderstanding why God says the human heart is incurably sick. In Luke 11:13, Jesus makes an easily overlooked comment: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!" The way He says this implies that those before Him were thoroughly, not partly, evil. He flat out calls them evil! There is no equivocation, no modification of this verse in the heart of the sermon on the mount. Jesus Himself was called "good" in Matthew 19:16, but He immediately corrects the speaker, saying, "No one is good but One, that is, God." This is God's assessment of human nature, not man's. Jesus is saying that, just because human nature knows how to and actually does some good things, it does not alter the fact that it is still incurably evil. Our pride tends to blunt God's assessment, rising to defend us from the condemnation of what we are compared to, the standard—God. John W. Ritenbaugh Communication and Leaving Babylon (Part One)

 

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