A conversation with the scribes

Jesus was once in the temple early in the morning (John 8:2). Then the scribes and Pharisees came to him with a woman who had been caught in adultery. Should they now be stoned, as Moses commanded (John 8:3-5)? They asked this in order to find a reason to accuse Jesus (John 8:6).

A conversation then develops between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees. It is an exciting debate from which you can learn a lot. I will skip part of the text so that we can get to the statement about the resister. This is the introduction:

[Jesus:] “You do the works of your father.”
[Die Schriftgelehrten und Pharisäer:] They replied to Him, “We were not conceived in fornication; we have one Father, God!”

Then Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, because I came forth from God and have arrived here from Him; for I did not come from Myself, but He sent Me forth. Why do you not recognize My language? Because you cannot hear My word!” (Jer 6:10).

You are from the father, the counteractor, and you want to act according to the desires of your father. The same one was a man-killer from the beginning and has not stood in the truth, because there is no truth in him.
John 8:41-44

The conversation with the scribes and Pharisees was about the claim that they had God as their father. Self-righteousness speaks like this. Jesus counters this self-assessment and overconfidence by referring to Satan, not God, as their father. So we’re talking about comparisons here.

In the New Testament, both the Hebrew “Satan” and the Greek “diabolos” are used. Etymologically, diabolos can be derived from dia (through) and bolos (to throw), which can be interpreted as Durch-Werfer (in German: Durcheinanderwerfer) or Widerwirker. They are two words from two different languages, both used at the time of Jesus to express the same thing.

A man killer from the beginning

Satan was “a slayer of men from the beginning.” This statement clarifies in conversation that the attitude of the Pharisees and scribes had a wrong origin. The comparison can only work if in fact the resistor was wrong from the beginning.

Not only is there no evidence in the Bible that this figure was once a being of light (there are already refutations of Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14), but it is clearly stated here that the adversary was a murderer of human beings from the very beginning.

There is no morally good start from the resister. Not in the Bible. These stories exist in many traditions, but they contradict everything that can be found in the Bible. This can be seen especially well here in John 8:44.

The resister did not stand in the truth

Jesus completes the first statement with a repetition in a different way. He says: “The same … did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him” (John 8:44). The doctrine of the alleged fall of Satan claims that Satan was once a shining being, with an impeccable reputation. Only by the “fall” now the today’s Satan and Widerwirker is supposed to have originated. This assumption clashes with Jesus’ statement. There is no truth in the Widerwirker and this never existed.

In his first letter John writes:

“The resister sins from the beginning.”
1Joh 3,8

Those who want to reinterpret this will probably try to relate the beginning to the supposed “evil beginning” of Satan. He would then have had a “good beginning” before, which later caused a second “evil beginning” through the Fall. This is an attempt to undermine these clear statements.

Soberly considered, the scripture itself (without tradition) allows only one conclusion: The counteractor sins from the beginning. There is nowhere (!) a statement in the Bible that Satan was once a being of light and later fell into sin. Such things must first be read into Scripture by eisegesis before reading that out again. John, on the other hand, is very direct: there is no truth in him and there never was.

Satan, God and Hell

The fall of Satan fulfills a certain role as an idea. We must become aware of these if we are to untangle the theological knot here. The starting point is that God is above everything. Everything is of Him, through Him, and to Him (Rom 11:36). Nothing is exempt there – not even Satan.

Therefore, we can also acknowledge with faith that God creates evil (Isa 45:7), and the corrupter to destruction (Isa 54:16). He brings about everything according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11). This would solve all problems and it seems to me a consistent finding in all Bible books.

The fall of Satan only appears in a certain context, namely that of the doctrine of heaven and hell. That is where it is needed. The function of this teaching is this: It is to free God from responsibility for evil. This is again a necessity, because people wrongly assume that God is “only good. A dualistic image of God was created, with God as the “good God” and Satan as the “bad God. However, God is not “only good,” but rather it is that “only God is good.” This is something different.

The doctrine of hell is not only a dark chapter in Christian thinking, but it is also a dishonor placed on God. It says that God keeps the very greatest part of mankind alive for eternity, only to torment them in hell. It is a terrible image of God, of which the Bible knows nothing. Now you want to free God from every disgrace and need various auxiliary teachings to do so. The doctrine of the fall of Satan is one of them. The doctrine of absolute free will is another support.

Especially the doctrine of the fall of Satan wants to put the origin of evil from God to Satan, while the doctrine of free will wants to shift the responsibility for hell from God to man. These two teachings are directly refuted by the Bible. They are foreign thoughts that are interpreted into Scripture. Both teachings are clearly contradicted, as shown in this article, for example, that Satan was a problem from the beginning.

If we correct false assumptions, we gain confidence in God’s work. We also recognize more simply the good end, that God once saves (1 Tim 4:10), justifies (Rom 5:18), makes alive (1 Cor 15:22), and brings the whole universe to mutual reconciliation by making peace through the blood of the cross (Col 1:20). Why does recognizing biblical statements become easier? Because God is 100% in charge and He can do it. Because in Christ He is working towards this goal. For even evil, even Satan, even all the misery of this world, injustice and death, will one day be replaced by His righteousness and life.

That is the goal. That’s where it goes. This is my God. I trust him at his word.