01 September 2022
Do you suppose we've had way too many claims of "Satanic this" and "Satanic that" in recent times? On the one hand, it's what you would expect from standard political hyperbole. The problem is we have some really smart people using it literally, and they tend to influence a lot of people with their bad doctrine.
I've written extensively on the biblical doctrine of Satan here (try this one). Propaganda blather about Satan these days rests on Germanic mythology, as if Satan were equivalent to Loki. He's not. Satan began as God's Covering Cherub, a distinctly Ancient Near Eastern concept. He was demoted for cause to serving as God's Left-hand. It's not a pleasant job, and nothing so glorious as he had before. He is now the Enemy of God's people, but he's good at it, and serves faithfully. His rebellion took place prior to the Creation of Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, and his temptation of them can be treated as his first assignment in his new job.
So, the real problem here is a very bad doctrine of what Satan does, so as to call some human action "Satanic" or now. The Ancient Hebrew outlook was otherworldly to begin with, very much of the mystical approach to things. This human existence is flawed and not precious at all. It is punitive in nature. The limitations we suffer here are part of the sentence against mankind, the Curse of the Fall. We should assume up front that we don't see things clearly, and the only possible way we can know about eternal matters is by divine revelation alone. We know about Eternity only what God is willing to tell us.
Thus, a certain amount of human suffering is simply par for the course. That human governments can cause great numbers of people to suffer and die is also par for the course. That's not especially Satanic. The whole human race is by default born into Satan's realm, so he need do nothing at all to gain dominion over them. And abusing them through his proxies is simply what was should expect. When you and I, the people of God, get swept up in this crap, it's still par for the course. That we should suffer as part of the general human course of sorrow does not reflect any Satanic targeting.
The only justification for using the term "Satanic" is when we refer to something Satan does to target God's people. This is complicated by the recognition that God's protection is not on His people at large, but is granted only to His people under Covenant. If you, as a follower of Christ, are not living under the Covenant Covering, you have no grounds for complaint. You can either live by the Covenant or find yourself subject to all the sorrows of the vast heard of humanity under Satan's control.
In particular is this pernicious idolatry of children and childhood. The West is obsessed with youth and worships childhood. Anything that serves to taint a so-called "normal" childhood is therefore regarded as especially Satanic. This quite alien to the Bible. The Hebrews did have a certain sensitivity about childhood, but only as the symbol of someone defenseless, alongside widows, not a symbol of innocence. Westerners don't want to hear that in the Bible times, the death of a child was a tragedy only for the family household. It was nobody else's business.
This concept that society at large somehow has a vested interest in someone else's children is an abomination to God. It arises from idolatry. Further, the only "innocent" children are those living under Covenant Covering. All of the children in this world outside of the Covenant are inherently defiled from birth. The abuses that fall into their lives are simply par for the course, and not particularly Satanic.
The only proper use of the term "Satanic" refers to various efforts to deceive and manipulate those who are consciously seeking to walk in the Covenant. This is the only thing that represents a change. Satan already has the rest of the world; his abuse of humanity is not particular "Satanic". There's no loss to the Kingdom of Heaven in that. It's his efforts to pull Covenant people back into his realm that is a change, a genuine loss to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Yes, we can talk all day long about how individual rulers and groups of elites are doing evil, but there is nothing particularly Satanic about that. It's all par for the course in Satan's domain. It is not a transgression of any kind. It does not represent a rebellion against divine order. Civilization is certainly not divine order. Walking in the Covenant alone is divine order. It should be obvious how Satanic it is to confuse this issue.
I'll grant you that there's nothing we can do to keep people from abusing the terminology. That's fundamental to propaganda. It's part of the Fall itself to insist that what mankind can do without God's revelation still has value. It is trash, all of it vanity and waste. What I'm asking is that you not get wrapped up in defending what mankind can do without God. Only what we do within the Covenant boundaries is blessed and protected, and Satan is highly constrained by the Covering. Trying to define as godly something entirely human in origin is a primary tactic of Satan.
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