We have a problem with squatters today. These are people who move into your house uninvited while you are on a six-week vacation in Europe. They change the locks and set up utilities in their name without your knowledge or permission. Or, you felt sort for a family in crisis and rented them your empty house. But now that they’ve trashed it and haven’t paid a cent in rent for six months, you are demanding that they leave, and they refuse. You call the police. The police come out and tell you that these squatters have certain rights as occupants and that it will take time (and money) to force the courts to evict them.
A newer scam is when a person rents an Airbnb for two or three months and then reports it as their legal residence to their creditors, bank, insurance company, etc. after refusing to pay the host as promised. Now, there is another instance of an uninvited and unwelcome guest living rent free on someone’s property.
Some people live rent free in our minds. Ghosts from the past. Maybe an alcoholic parent, an ex-spouse, a sexual abuser, someone who has caused you pain and grief. The Devil is such an individual as this, and I want to publish part one of a series to explain what this means. First of all, what does “living rent free” mean?
‘Rent free‘”‘ is a term used by young people to mean, ‘allowing someone to occupy your thoughts.’ It is also a slang expression and catchphrase used to describe how someone holds a grudge or allows an individual to occupy their thoughts, often meant to mock that person. This can be seen as an insult because it suggests that the person does not have any control over their own mind. Believe it or not, this is becoming a major problem in today’s society and people are too lenient with themselves and others. It’s interesting to think about how negative energy affects our mental state.
WHO IS THE DEVIL ANYWAY? WHERE DID HE COME FROM?
The Devil is a created being. This makes him fundamentally different from God, so there is no logical comparison between the two. But the Devil is a supernatural being, so in that sense he is not like us. For some reason, God presently allows the Devil a certain but limited ability to create mischief and misery, though ultimately the Devil will meet his just rewards. Why must it be like this? Well, if you think of life as a game, like Monopoly, Chess, Civilization VI or Elden Ring, there are rules built into the simulations. Whether the rules are virtuous or not is a different story. Some games are rigged to provide a happy ending. In other games, the player’s victory or survival is not guaranteed. But generally, there are very few shortcuts and “do-overs” in role-playing games. If you lose your Queen in Chess, then that’s a big yikes!
The study of the Devil’s origin cannot be known with absolute certainty for several reasons. First of all, a good deal of the information on angels comes from rabbinic commentaries on the Old Testament Scriptures. Secondly, when Old Testament prophets spoke of evil, particularly evil in the rulers of the world powers back then (Persia, Babylon, Greece and Rome, etc.), there is a question of whether they spoke specifically of the ruler, or of the Devil, himself. If I were to refer to Adolph Hitler as the Devil incarnate, does that mean Hitler was literally the Devil, or just a plain evil person? Thirdly, some of what we learn about angels comes from a series of books known as the Apocrypha, which were part of the Jerusalem Old Testament in the days of Christ. But the Apocrypha was not included in the Greek Old Testament written for Jews who lived far abroad from the Holy Land in the Roman Empire. Finally, there are differences of opinion among the theologians of the past two thousand years about who was whom where the Devil was concerned. So, what I’ll write comes with certain caveats, but it represents mainstream, classical and especially Protestant thinking, though I’m not sure the Catholics could take this in a different direction. Catholics have the Apocrypha in their Bible, as do Anglicans and other high church denominations. Luther included the Apocrypha in his translation of the Bible, but he put the books of the Apocrypha at the end of the Old Testament. From there, they eventually fell out of use as different Protestant denominations came into being and had their own study Bibles published. Yet, there is nothing in the Apocrypha that changes Judaism or Christianity in any sense in terms of belief, doctrine or dogma.
Like any villain, the Devil has several aliases. His earliest name was apparently Lucifer, which translates into the “morning star, “light bearer” and even the planet “Venus” (referred to back then as the “morning star,” even though we know now that it is a planet.) Lucifer is a translation of the Hebrew word הֵילֵל, (or hêlēl.) Later, he became known as Satan, the “Father of Lies,” the “Prince of Darkness” and, depending on whom you ask, there may be other nom de guerres as well.
Lucifer was created as a special angel. The word “angel” means messenger. Often, but not always, God uses angels to deliver messages to us, as he did to Daniel, the Virgin Mary and so on. The highest class of angels seem to be the archangels, such as Michael, Gabriel, Uriel and Raphael. Then, there are other heavenly creatures which are not properly angels, such as the Cherubim and Seraphim mentioned in Ezekiel and those that stand around the Throne of God which are mentioned in Revelation.
At some point, the Devil (Lucifer) rebelled against God and took a third of the Angels with him. Though some evangelical fundamentalists are absolutely certain that they know the cause, it is not that clear for the reasons I mentioned above, though it may have something to do with the creation of Adam and Eve and the favor God had for the first humans, which caused Lucifer to become envious and rebellious. And Lucifer lost the coup, though he is still very active among us. He knows more than we do. He may even know more about ourselves than we do, because he understands just what buttons to push with us. He knew who Jesus was, and tried to assassinate him until finally Jesus was crucified. But Satan (née Lucifer) was blindsided into thinking Jesus was dead and that was that. The Devil did not know that God planned to resurrect Jesus from the grave.
As a created being, the Devil cannot harm God, of course, but he can indirectly cause God pain by attacking who God loves, and that is humanity. God the Father, and the Holy Spirit of God have feelings, and we can hurt those feelings, else, why would Paul tells us plainly not to grieve the Holy Spirit? The Devil has no qualms about doing so.
The Devil is a bit like the wizard in the “Wizard of Oz.” He appears to have all this “sound and fury” which signifies nothing. His bluster is only an illusion, however, and he’s nothing more than the clueless guy behind the curtain. Of course, unlike the hapless Wizard in the Emerald City, the Devil does not have a heart of gold. He’s treacherous, evil, and as welcoming as a pit full of deadly snakes.
Today, our secular culture has let its imagination run wild as far as Satan is concerned. Tens of thousands of parents will dress up their children as Devils for Halloween. This supernatural being has inspired countless millions of murders, rapes, people tortured, and other horrors perpetrated thoughout the ages, but many today see it as totally appropriate for their innocent childen to impersonate him. What a guy!
THE DEVIL IS A LIAR
A good starting point in kicking out this unwelcome freeloader is to know that the devil is a liar. He’ll plant all sorts of unfounded, lascivious, occasionally vicious or vain thoughts in your mind to distract you and pull you down. For example:
“God doesn’t love you. Why would She?”
“God won’t forgive you . . . you really screwed up this time.”
“Who do you think you are, believing that God is actually interested in your incredibly boring life?”
“Why waste your time reading the Bible? It’s boring and full of contradictions.”
“You are so gorgeous! Most guys would love to get you in the sack! What are you waiting for?”
“Everyone lies sometimes. You’re only human.”
“If God really loved people, why would He send them to Hell?”
“There is no God. It’s just a myth.”
“You can’t help it. God made you this way.”
“What’s the big deal? Everyone does it.”
“Jesus was a nice guy, but that’s as far as it goes.”
“I hope you realize by now that your “ex” is a real bitch.”
“Christ never rose from the dead because he wasn’t dead. It was all a hoax.”
“How can you say you love God and still do the stuff you do?”
“There are some people you just can’t forgive.”
“You are a hypocrite and God hates hypocrites.”
“Who says Christianity better than Islam, or Buddhism or Judaism?”
“What gives you the right to preach to people? Are you better than them?”
“Being a Christian is just a cop-out for people with weak minds.”
“Your boss totally needs to have his ass kicked. You should complain to HR first thing Monday morning.”
“It’s too late for you to change.”
“You’ve committed the unforgivable sin.”
“Wait a while yet before you decide to become religious. You’ve got plenty of time later on.”
“You have nothing left to hope for.”
“You should vote for Donald Trump. He will make America great again.”
The Devil loves to take a promise of God and twist it. For example, he spoke to Eve in Genesis, Chapter 3: “Did God really say, ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The Devil knew very well what God had said the Adam and Eve, but the Devil was messing with her to confuse her. I’m sure he has likewise confused my students in the past, probably by whispering to them: “Did Velten really say you couldn’t use your textbook to complete this assignment?”
The Devil was a way of suggesting things to you that make you think the thoughts are your own. This creates doubt in your mind, and doubt often corrodes the will.
This is a good point in whch to pause. Watch for more posts on this topic in the weeks ahead.
