Satan, The First Postmodernist

The Devil and Jesus Christ

Matthew 4:1-11 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: "‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’" Jesus answered him, "It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’" Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me." Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’" Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Notice the diaprax of Satan in his three attempts to tempt Christ. He tries to get Jesus to prove He has power by making Himself something to eat. This appeals to the humanity of Christ on the levels of body and soul. But for Christ to break His fast and use His Divine power after making Himself "nothing" (Phil. 2:7) in obedience to the will of the Father would have been the end of salvation for men.

Postmodernism appeals to the mind and to the flesh and seeks to satisfy the desires of them, but is ignorant of the things of the spirit. In the second temptation Satan tries the same tactic, only this time he pulls Scripture from its context to do so. This is another mark of postmodernist teachers. They pull what they want out of context from Scripture to serve their own paradigm, their own agenda. Many postmodernists are fooled by this ploy because they don't bother to look up the biblical context to see if it is correct. They don't bother because critical thinking is not part of their daily existence. Facts really don't matter to them, it is how they feel about what they hear and how it fits into their sensibilities. But Jesus rejects this false argument because He is the author of the Scriptures and knows their context. He rejects this temptation with Scripture that is not taken out of context but used according to it.

The third temptation is Satan's grandest attempt. He knows that Jesus is on a mission to save men from sin who believe in Him and must die in order to achieve it. Satan tempts Christ to take the dominion of the world from Satan who is called the ruler of the kingdom of the air (Eph. 2:2) the prince of this world (John 12:31). Jesus knows that "the whole world is under the control of the evil one." (1 John 5:19). So this was a real offer. Jesus could have the world now instead of going through pain and suffering if He will simply worship Satan. But Satan failed to realize this offer was not what Jesus wanted. He did not need the world, He wanted to save people. The world would be His because He created it (Col. 1:16). But this world would be destoryed.(2 Pet. 3:10) In the course of time the devil and his angels would be thrown into the lake of fire forever (Rev. 20:10). Satan's goal had been, from the time of his sin in heaven, that God would worship him. Like postmodernists, the facts did not persuade Satan. What mattered to him was that his personal agenda be fulfilled come hell or high water. In this case, come hell.


Satan, False Apostles, False Prophets And False Teachers

2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

2 Peter 2:1-2 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them— bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Finally, we have to deal with the issue of false apostles, prophets and teachers. False apostles pretend they are serving the Lord but actually they are serving their master Satan. They may not even realize they are serving Satan, but you can only serve one master (Matt. 6:24). Postmodernists do not realize that you cannot serve God if you are serving yourself and your own agenda your own way. Like Satan before them, they serve their own desires instead of God. Thus they end up serving the agenda of their master Satan. This never occurs to them because they believe that life is all paradox and oxymoron, that it is full of gray areas of truth instead of black and white truth according to God's Word. To the postmodernist life is subjective. God's truth is objective. To them truth is relative. To God truth is absolute. To postmodernists truth is existential. Existentialism is defined by the dictionary this way:

A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts.

God views existence just the opposite from this. What postmodernists fail to realize is that, behind half truths and heresy lies the work and kingdom of Satan. The postmodernist's paradigm is then completely in the domain of the evil one. It was begun by him and it is sustained and bolstered by his temptations. It is propagated by postmodernist false apostles, prophets and teachers whom true believers are to test because of the spirit of antichrist that pervades their teachings and actions. Postmodernists see no reason to test anything because they have been taught not to judge by false Satanic teachers. But God says that we are not to suspend our critical thinking, our minds that He created in us, rather to submit them to God and use them to test the spirits.

For a postmodernist to be saved they must be reprogrammed by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to think correctly. Their world view must be entirely changed. This is why people like Leonard Sweet and other Emerging Church teachers are so dangerous. They cater to an evil mindset instead of attempting to change it through education in the Word. This is why we are living in the end times generation. The postmodern paradigm will bring in the reign of the Antichrist, Satan himself. We can only thank the Lord Jesus Christ that it will be short-lived and that the devil, the first postmodernist, will be put down forever.