4. Reflection on Satan "Deceiving the Nations"

Revelation 20:1-3 says, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 2 And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, 3 and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.”

If everything that I write in this blog is true, Satan has not just deceived the nations outside of the Church; he has also deceived the Church. Believing Jesus is God when he is not, for example, is not something small to be confused about. Some may find this discouraging. What is most discouraging, I think, is the violence done in Jesus’ name and the blood spilled throughout Christian history—against other Christians judged heretical, including people who rejected orthodox teachings about the Trinity and Jesus’ divinity, and also against Jews, Muslims, and others. Christian institutions and populations have at times persecuted, coerced, and even killed people over theological disagreement, including through inquisitorial repression of alleged heresy and centuries of Christian anti-Jewish persecution (Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Inquisition”; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Antisemitism: An Introduction”). I find it much less discouraging that many Christians today, even where we may be mistaken on important questions, sincerely seek to love God and neighbor and reject violence or coercion over theological disagreement. It is way better to not understand something and be wrong than to have a violent heart toward others.

That being said, it is best to have a heart that loves God and others and a mind that understands, as fully as we can, who God is, Jesus is, and who we are as God’s children. This can actually help us love others better because this increases our wisdom. Many times, well-intentioned people do more harm than good in their actions. For example, if Jesus is not God, requiring belief in Jesus’ deity may unintentionally create an additional barrier to the Christian message. This concern is especially relevant in dialogue with Muslims and Jews, whose traditions do not accept central Christian claims about Jesus’ divinity; Islam likewise does not acknowledge Jesus as God (Second Vatican Council; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Antisemitism in History: From the Early Church to 1400”).

To give another example, preaching the gospel to others by scaring people with hell fire from an angry God may be done by people with good intentions, but this actually can push people away from God and give them a distorted view of God, who, if what I write is true, wills for all to be saved and whose punishments are corrective and restorative. If the gospel was preached without emphasizing eternal hell fire, which is notably absent from the evangelistic sermons recorded in Acts (just look through Acts and see if you can find any examples of the gospel being preached that include eternal hell fire!), and instead simply emphasizing the truths of what the gospel is (see my tab on “The Gospel”), perhaps more people would be receptive. As I explain in my page "What is God's plan for the world?", universal salvation, rightly understood, does not mean there is not judgment and punishment for sin. Rather, it means that ultimately, God promises in His Word to save all people, and that His judgments are ultimately corrective and restorative. One day God will be "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). Believing in the gospel is not about escaping eternal hell fire from an angry God or a "ticket to heaven" or "fire insurance". It is about turning from death (life without God and selfish living) to life (having a relationship with a God who literally is love, 1 John 4:8, and living a life oriented around loving God and others).

People respond to love and truth as image bearers of God. Love and truth are greater motivators than fear. We should not hide as Christians that God does judge and discipline all people, but the reason is ultimately because of His love, not His wrath. His wrath over sin is part of His love. Moreover, God is never said to “be wrath”, but He is said to be love (1 John 4:8, 1 John 4:16) – twice. He has wrath because of His love, not separate from it. True love must also be just and confront sin. God’s judgment of evil is therefore not contrary to His love but flows from it. But, as I explain elsewhere on my blog, God has not made an eternal conscious torment chamber for most of the human population. He intends to save all, and the Bible says in Acts 3:21 that God will restore everything. I do not think that promise can finally be fulfilled while any person remains eternally lost. See my page "What is God's plan for the world?" to read the over 40 verses and passages that speak of God's plan of universal salvation.

Additionally, much of the Church bars women from teaching the Bible to men. I talk about this at length on my page "Who is God?", but I think this is quenching the (feminine) Holy Spirit and handicapping much of the Church, namely Christian women, from living out their callings. If the Church were united in recognizing that women can lead and teach according to the giftings of the feminine Holy Spirit, the Church would be more empowered to minister to the world and be an example of a community that is “neither male nor female… you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Think of Junia (an “outstanding apostle” in Romans 16:7), Priscilla (a teacher to the man Apollos, Acts 18:26), Phoebe (a deaconess, Romans 16:1), and Mary Magdalene (an apostle, or at least an evangelist, to the apostles), to name some prominent women in the early Church – and this in a society much more patriarchal than our own! Right thinking about men’s and women’s roles would lead to encouragement in and outside of the Church, just as right preaching regarding judgment would lead to greater encouragement in and outside of the Church. How we think about theology and what we think impacts Church life and ministry: for better or for worse.

And who has the belief in Jesus as God, in some ways, negatively impacted the most (if what I write is true)? I think in some ways, sadly, the Church. We are not meant to worship Jesus as God – we are meant to be like Jesus. Now, many Trinitarians may not disagree with that statement. After all, we are God’s hands and feet. We are Jesus’ body. Of course we are meant to be like Jesus in this world.

But how many people actually believe this while also believing Jesus is God? His life is an impossible standard to emulate if he is God. But if he is not…! If he was truly made like us in every respect, as Hebrews says (Hebrews 2:17) and is not God… then, we need to grow up as a Church (myself included) and strive toward the righteousness, holiness, maturity, and Christlikeness Scripture calls us to, realizing that genuine transformation is indeed possible. Jesus did not command, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), while expecting his followers to regard that command as fundamentally impossible. John did not say in 1 John 2:6, “whoever says he abides in him [Christ] ought to walk in the same way he walked” and think this was impossible. Further, Jesus, a human man with the Holy Spirit, did not command something he himself was not willing to follow. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). As I argue elsewhere, Scripture says that Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered, was made perfect, and ultimately offered himself to God “without blemish” through the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 5:8–9; 9:14). He is our model. He had no hidden “God advantage” unavailable to us. He was fully human – is fully human. We have the same Holy Spirit who empowered Jesus. We are fully equipped to become truly like Christ. Where in Scripture does it say differently?

Whatever the source of these misunderstandings, the effect can be to make genuine Christlikeness seem impossible. The doctrine of original sin, as I understand and critique it elsewhere on my page "What is God's plan for the world?", can reinforce the belief that we could never be like Christ in our lifetime – never genuinely overcome sin in any sort of definitive way and truly be like Christ. But is that what God’s Word says? God’s Word says we are fully equipped to live like Christ and God promises to fully sanctify us (Philippians 1:6)!

I think the Church could become extraordinarily powerful for God’s kingdom if we fully understood and lived these truths – that we are to be like Jesus, not worship him as God, no excuses, in addition to not quenching the Spirit (as many churches do) in the lives of Christian women who are gifted teachers and leaders, and also recognizing the incredible truth that God intends to save all and is an amazing Father and Mother. I believe the world would be transformed.

The Church is filled with people who deeply love God and their neighbor. A Church increasingly conformed to Christ, freed from deception, and fully empowered by the Holy Spirit would be extraordinarily powerful for God’s kingdom – and God is at work to accomplish just that.

Finally, the fact that Satan has deceived Christians to a certain degree (if what I write is true), will not backfire on the Church and the world. I believe this will backfire on Satan. Once the Church (if what I write is true) realizes that Jesus is not God, among the other theological topics I have written on, I believe this will only serve to grow the Church’s humility and compassion for the rest of the world more not less. If what I write is true, we have all been deceived by Satan – Christians and non-Christians. We all need grace. We can all learn from each other about what is true – Christians and non-Christians – because we all have some truth, and have been deceived in other areas.

This is true across all religions: if what I write is true, Christians can learn truth from Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and even the non-religious, because they are all image bearers of God who have learned truths we can learn from, and Christians have also seriously erred in our understanding in certain ways too. This deceit of the Church could help serve greater unity globally as we recognize that we can all learn from one another.

For example, if what I write is true, Jews and Muslims are right to insist uncompromisingly that God is one, and I think they are also right to reject the identification of Jesus with God. Hindu and Buddhist traditions preserve serious reflection on compassion, self-discipline, and freedom from selfish desire, even though I do not agree with everything those traditions teach. Biblical Unitarians and Jehovah's Witnesses reject the orthodox identification of Jesus as Almighty God; Latter-day Saints reject the traditional Trinity and preserve a strong concept of both masculine and feminine heavenly reality. Meanwhile, the majority Christian Church is right to proclaim that Jesus is the Son of God, Messiah, Lord, and Savior.

Even nonreligious people can correctly identify hypocrisy, injustice, incoherence, or harmful ideas within religious systems. Their rejection of something Christians have presented as Christianity may sometimes contain a truth Christians need to hear.

None of this means that all religions are equally true. I do not believe that. It means that no human religious community has perfectly understood all truth, and Christians should be humble enough to recognize truth wherever it appears.

What is more, Christians have an opportunity to lead the way, if what I write is true, in confessing we were wrong about who Jesus is, among these other topics, and affirm the truth others from other religions believe and respect them. God is not a respecter of persons. He does not show favoritism. The reason other religions also have truth that is in the Bible, which I believe is completely true, is because God loves all people and reveals Himself to all who seek Him, regardless of religion. Yes, Jesus is the only way and the gospel is what saves – and I believe the Bible is uniquely and completely true, but Christians have not therefore interpreted every part of it correctly. That should serve only to humble Christians more, as we have still been very deceived in some ways, if what I write is true.

People respond to love, respect, truth, and humility. Even this history of deception could become an opportunity for the Church to continue in love, deepen their respect for non-Christians, and humbly acknowledge the errors we have made. If we do this as a Church and unite as a Church, perhaps the world will all be saved and believe in the gospel. Perhaps non-Christians would be more open to the gospel message if they are hearing it from someone who humbly acknowledges the errors they have made in terms of thinking about who God is and also humbly acknowledges they can learn from people of other religions – or even the nonreligious. As humans are all image bearers of God, we can all learn truth from each other, regardless of religion or if someone is nonreligious. I know I have. Christians do not have a monopoly on truth, though again, I believe the Bible is completely true.