{"id":2880,"date":"2017-02-17T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2017-02-17T13:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewaywesee.com\/religiondetoxnetwork\/?page_id=2880"},"modified":"2025-08-27T05:30:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T10:30:52","slug":"serpent-devil-satan-adversary-demons-evil-spirits-and-anti-christs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thewaywesee.com\/religiondetoxnetwork\/mystery\/symbols-signs-types-copies-shadows-and-patterns\/people\/religion-is-the-kingdom-of-false-prophets\/serpent-devil-satan-adversary-demons-evil-spirits-and-anti-christs","title":{"rendered":"Serpent, Devil, Satan, Adversary, Demons, Evil Spirits and Anti-Christs"},"content":{"rendered":"

BIBLICAL IMAGERY AND MYTH<\/strong>
\nSatan, the devil, demons, and their mythical cousins (i.e. the serpent, evil spirits) have a history in mythology and culture that precedes Judaism. They are all based on the many kinds of spirits with which Israel was well acquainted during its bondage in Egypt where Israel was surrounded by multiple Egyptian deities who regularly interacted with Egyptian people<\/a>. These mythical, religious figures are the models that God employed to represent his relationship with his people and their relationships with each other.<\/p>\n

One of these gods was Apep, the god of chaos, who was constantly at war with Ra, the sun god. <\/a>We know that Apep is the model for satan and the devil in the Bible because he is represented as a serpent in Egyptian mythology. In other words, God used the symbolism of Egyptian religious deities to represent his spiritual truth about the chaos and conflict that religion brings to our lives. This is one application of the “first the natural and then the spiritual<\/a>” principle in the Bible.<\/p>\n

God used the myth of ongoing conflict between Apep and Ra to represent the ongoing conflict between good and evil that is first introduced in the Garden of Eden where the serpent (i.e. the devil) deceived Eve, and later represented in the temptations of Jesus.<\/p>\n

STUDY TIP:\u00a0 See this link<\/a> for more about the temptations of Jesus.<\/p>\n

Current cultural acceptance of these entities is documented in a 2008 Pew research report that says that two-thirds of Americans believe that angels and demons are active in the world today.<\/a> Comparing this data with another study that reports that four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan \u201cis not a living being but is a symbol of evil,\u201d<\/a> we find that there is some disagreement among Christians about these entities.<\/p>\n

See this link<\/a> for research by others on what other people believe about the reality of Satan and the Devil.<\/p>\n

AUTHORS’ NOTE: Jews have their own views on these subjects as found in the following links:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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