Traditions Die Hard

Tradition a very powerful thing. Fiddler on the Roof, a fantastic musical, has a great song called Tradition, addressing the way of life of a jewish family in russia. Traditions when held over a long period of time become very deeply held. Strong emotional bonds and relational.familial ties are linked together. Quite a hard habit to break as the song goes. The church has developed quite a lot of traditions over the centuries,and they are highly valued and cherished to a large extent, or respected and held to depending on the kind of tradition it is. Supposing that these long-held deeply adhered to traditions were not true however??? What kind of reaction will that espouse???

Satan,demons,Second Coming,born again,Biblical Israel. Just what if all these realities are NOT as they have traditionally been held to be?? Let's start with satan. Calm down church lady it will be ok lol. The tradition of satan is that he is a fallen angel who rebelled against God, was cast out of heaven and took a legion of other fallen angels with him. The definition of satan is accuser or adversary. The hebrew word is very close to looking and sounding like the english transliteration satan. Devil,dragon,serpent,beelzebub- all are seen and known as terms to describe this supernatural being.

Revelation 12:9-great dragon,ancient serpent,devil,satan.

Revelation 20:2- same words as above

Matthew 23:33- Jesus calls the pharisees snakes and serpents.

Ezekiel 29- pharaoh was called a great dragon.

jeremiah 9:11- jerusalem would become a den of dragons.

1 Peter 5:8- satan is called a roaring lion

There are other verses but these are a few to lay the groundwork. The Scriptures that have been shown here indicate a man at times, as well as referring to animals by using hyperbolic language and imagery. In John 8 Jesus tells the pharisees they are of their father the devil. 1 John 3:8-he who commits sin is of the devil. Who is this devil??

If we look back to the garden of eden and we see the scenario where eve ate of the fruit. Eve was tempted by the serpent, note serpent was used referring to men in the other verses. In james we can read where it says God tempts no one but all are tempted by their own lusts or desires. Now if God knew a supernatural being whom He had cast out of heaven was going to appear and seek to lure His perfect creation to rebel against Him and risk death shouldn't He have warned them????? The reason eve was decieved and not adam is because adam had become the deceiver and was acting as a serpent, an adversary, wanting to see what eve would do and to see what would happen. Adam had chosen to rebel against God and by adams actions, sin entered the world and caused physical death as well as curses brought upon all the entire human race until Jesus Christ, the second Adam, lived in perfect obedience to God the Father and was resurrected after shedding his blood for our sins so we could be restored to a right relationship with God!!!

In jeremiah there is a verse which declares the heart of man is wicked above ALL things. Deceitful,scheming and cunning, who can bear it??? If that is true then the heart trumps satan so why would we even need him around, we do a bad enough job of tempting ourselves as it is!!!

When i fisrt heard this idea of adam being the serpent i chuckled and thought come on now are you kidding me??? The screwtape letters by CS Lewis ran through my mind. All the images of satan i had heard or been taught over the years. Adam is satan???? Look in the mirror and see satan??? Get Real!!!!! BUT.......... gotta love capping a but lol as I checked various verses and thought about our sin nature and what adam did, as well as who Jesus was called and what Jesus came and was sent to do, it began to start to fit together like a puzzle. Made a great deal of sense and it is right there hiding in plain sight. God ALONE has supernatural power. In deuteronomy He lists all the curses that He would send down upon people if they fell into idolatry. Demons are idols and those being said to be possessed by them, mentally ill. Evil came about from Adam and his choice to disobey God and seek to make himself a god. Isn't that exactly what satan is said to have done???? The 3 main temptations we face in life- lust of the flesh,lust of the eyes, boastful pride of life. Jesus faced all these in the wilderness. Adam and eve carried them out when the fall happened.

I hope this has been thought-provoking enough to cause you to wonder and think more. Then again you may think i have gone off the deep end and need a rubber room lol I know i have wrestled over this for close to 2 years, and it has become very understandable and what is being said in the Scriptures. Hope to have any and all feedback .