Did you know that the base philosophy of Satanism starts in the same place that we often start when considering the origin of evil? God made all things, and evil exists, therefore God must have made evil, right?

Satanists don’t need to go any further than that in their decided philosophy: if God made all, then He also made evil; furthermore, He made death and hell to punish man for committing evil… which He created. With this perspective, it’s easy to see how someone would become a Satanist (assuming you actually believed it), and particularly under the assumtion that God is absolutely sovereign over all things (i.e., He controls time, and all events that happen throughout history). God has all the power: He made evil, forces man to commit it and then punishes him in hell for eternity for it. That paints a pretty evil picture of God, doesn’t it?

This philosophy, and Satanism itself come from the original sin; if we study Genesis 3 in any degree of depth, we can see the origin in seed form of Satanism.

God makes Adam and his wife, and puts them in a garden to tend it. He also creates the serpent (Satan), and a tree called ‘The knowledge of good and evil’ which is in the garden, but which God warned man not to eat from lest he die.

Now we have already somewhat prefaced the story with the Satanist perspective of an evil-creating God, so its easy to see that from this perspective, God is actually creating temptation for man by putting the tree in the garden. AND He’s set up man for failure by creating the serpent and allowing him to be in the garden.

Ah, but in steps Satan as the bringer of knowledge. What was the name of the tree, again? The knowledge of good and evil. Why would God want to forbid man knowledge? Hmm, so god creates evil creates an evil being, creates man, creates a temptation for him… desires to withold knowledge from him… wow, this God guy seems to get worse and worse, doesn’t He?

The children of Satan listen to the devil. That entire picture, and the smaller components of it are clearly accusatory to God when laid out simply from that perspective, however, tidbits of this perspective do creep into Christian theology, especially when it comes to thinking about the source of evil.

I’m an avid thrift-store shopper, I find a lot of really interesting books at thrift-stores, and am pretty much always reading something. Recently I found a few books about the Kabbalah by the same author at a thrift store. I’m really not interested in studying the Kabbalah, because it is at it’s root witchcraft (in fact, Satanism, which is the part I’m getting to), but I did buy one of the books I found because the book was an autiobiography, rather than a comphrehensive philosophical explanation of the Kabbalah. The book is titled ‘Education of a Kabbalist.’ I noted that one of the other books by the same author which was actually about Kabbalist philosophy was titled: ‘Becoming Like God.’

‘Becoming Like God’ was the title, I don’t know about you, but that immediately brings to mind a scriptural quotation which is from Genesis 3, namely the serpent’s deception ‘Ye shall be as God…’ (Gen 3:5 – I should point out that the term used by Satan in Genesis 3 for God, or ‘gods’ as it is ussually translated is the Hebrew word Elohim; Elohim is actually a plural word (thus it is rightly translated, ‘gods’) however, it is also the word used for God the Creator during the creation story earlier in the book, so the serpent’s use of ‘Elohim’ (gods) was indeed a direct correlation to God the creator (also Elohim) contextually. Christian theology makes the use of Elohim (plural) easy, in that we see the plural usage refering to the Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Ghost).)

According to this Kabbalist author, the Kabbalah is about attaining the likeness of God through understanding the hidden knowledge. That’s a pretty interesting correlation with our Genesis 3 story, especially realizing that Kabbalist philosophy lays a lot of emphasis on Eden, and the tree of Eden (consistently is referenced the ‘tree of life,’ however, the pursuit is of study and hidden knowledge, and eternal life thereby – i.e. I conclude, they have their trees mixed up).

But I digress, I read the biographical book, ‘Education of a Kabbalist’ not the other which presumably lays out more Kabbalist philosophy. There were some very interesting aspects about what was said in the ‘Education’ which made further correlation to the Genesis account. According to the author (Rav Berg) Kabbalists believe that mankind is the Messiah, quote, page 19:

‘Although Messiah is commonly understood to mean a single individual who will someday appear and bring about the redemption of the world, Kabbalah teaches that humanity itself is the true Messiah. When humanity achieves a level of spirituality that merits our redemption, that redemption will already have been realized by the spiritual transformation that has taken place.’

That is, as the book explains, humanity can attain redemption for itself through studying the hidden knowledge (the Kabbalah). He later explains in the book: ‘For the cleansing of the soul, one hour of studying Kabbalah [the hidden knowledge] is equivalent to one years worth of studying Torah [God’s Word].’ p. 128 (bracketed definitions by me.)

So by STUDY [attaining knowledge – specifically hidden knowledge: Kabbalah] mankind can perfect itself unto the likeness of God. (Which becomes even more like what the serpent said: ‘Ye shall be as gods [Elohim] KNOWING…’

Another interesting facet of the Kabbalah is that not only is humanity its own Messiah, it is also its own judge. According to Kabbalah God is not the judge, of man, we are our own judges. Page 131:

‘According to the Zohar [one of the main books of Kabbalist study], the judgment of our souls is enacted by the souls themselves. …The Zohar teaches that we are are fully in control, and responsible for what becomes of us, even after death.’

He explains that when a soul chooses to die (we are apparently in charge of our own death as well), it returns to the Garden of Eden (interesting correlation) where it is not judged by God, but DECIDES for itself whether to be reincarnated, or endure a ‘purging’ for a period of time. It could also transcend to a higher level of existence if it is deemed ‘worthy.’ (Not sure who gets to determine whether the soul is ‘worthy’ since God isn’t judging the soul.)

Long story short, the book convinced me that Kabbalah is indeed a philosophical form of Satanism, which directly complies with the original deception. Man is his own savior, and judge – what role does God have then, other than creating, and hiding secret knowledge from us? If that is so, and the hidden knowledge is our salvation, then the serpent truly is the bringer of light (Lucifer) who helps us transecend the spiritual limitations that God has put on us.

But knowledge is not eternal life, nor does the pursuit of knowledge equate to the pursuit of eternal life. Eternal life is knowing God (knowing as in fellowship, not knowing as in intellect (John 17:3)).

Satanism, and the Kabbalah (if they can reasonably be considered seperate ideologies) are humanist perspectives whose origin is traceable to the original deception of the serpent in the garden.

The root of this deception – and the original deception – is humanism; specifically, it’s man’s desire for self justification: that someone other than man created evil.

Just as I mentioned at the begining of this post, Satanist philosophy starts at about the same place most Christians start when determining the source of evil. The first assumption we make – without even realizing it – is that it wasn’t us. God is sovereign, we are not… right? We aren’t God, we can’t create anything… right?

God is the Creator… but then, Christians (as opposed to Satanists) know better than to blame God so who do we jump to next? The devil! Of course! The devil was an angel, he must have had the sovereignty in the earth to create evil… right?

Biblically, God made man and put MAN in charge of the entire created universe (Genesis 1:26-28; Psalm 8). The serpent (the devil) was a created being. Rhetorical question to contemplate: If God put man in charge of all of His creation, and the serpent was created by God, then was man subject to the serpent, or was the serpent supposed to be subject to man?

If the serpent was supposed to be subject to man (and according to Hebrews 1:(13 &)14 as an angel, he was), did he have any delegated authority over creation as man had?

According to scripture, man (not the devil, and certainly not God) is the originator of evil:

‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into he world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned.’ (Rom. 5:12)

Paul was not the only biblical teacher who declared man responsible for wickednes in the world (rather than Satan), in Psalm 82, the word declares that God stands in the congregation of His children and exhorts them to do justice in the earth (he is not speaking of angels, demons or nephilim, here as I have heard some assert for Christ, Himself quoted Psalm 82 and declared it spoke of men (John 10:34 & 35)).

Psalm 82 is an interesting reversal of our typical philosophy in which we so often asks: “If God is loving, why is there so much evil in the world?” But in Psalm 82, God asks those whom He has redeemed why there is so much evil in the world!

The serpent was a murderer from the begining (John 8:44), but he didn’t have authority to introduce evil (sin) into the world. Adam had authority over the serpent, but instead of exercising that authority, he chose to disobey God. The serpent had no authority, he was manipulative; but it was Adam who sinned. From the outset, man has dishonored the Word of God – that is the origin of evil.

The interesting thing about the way we typically create our philosophical view of the origin of evil is that it is exactly the way that Adam and his wife responded to the allegation that they had just created evil: they tried to hide heir guilt. They put on fig leaves so they would APPEAR innocent, and then, when judgment came to them they blamed everyone else.

From the outset of sin mankind has been pointing the finger first at God (Gen 3:12), then at Satan:

‘And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.’ Genesis 3:13

This humanism – this desire for self-justification, rather than justification by God – is the philosophy of the serpent in the garden, which mankind still puts faith in.

The tree of life is not of knowledge and self-justification, but of fellowship with the Creator that we may be justified through faith in His word. When our philosophy is self-justifying, and seeking knowledge in order to transcend the need for God we are actualy in complete arrogance, holding ourselves aloof from the Living God who seeks fellowship with us. In this state, we do nothing but create evil… and again, we then blame God for the evil we made. Should not such behavior merit death?

But look to Christ, who paid the price for mankind’s creation and use of evil by shedding His blood as a perfect, cleansing sacrifice. By this we are not self-justified, but justified by God, and enter into eternal life, which is not knowledge, but KNOWING [personal fellowship] God.