“He was a murderer from the beginning”
by Sandy Simpson, 8/14/14
John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil,
and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning,
not
holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his
native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Revelation 21:8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the
vile, the murderers, the sexually
immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters
and all liars—they will be consigned to
the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
Revelation 22:15 Outside are the dogs, those who
practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the
murderers,
the idolaters and everyone who
loves and practices falsehood.
Satan is the “father of lies”. He is the father of “all liars” who are unrepentant. They will be in hell with him. But he is also a “murderer from the beginning”. We often associate this with the story of Cain and are right to do so.
1 John 3:12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil
one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own
actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
Cain was tempted by the evil one and therefore gave himself over to Satan’s leadership. We must remember, however, that it was a choice Cain made and God warned him not to give in to evil, not that the devil caused him so sin.
Genesis 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is
crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
The devil can only tempt. He cannot sin for a human being. Those who sin are choosing to do so, and in so doing are bending to the will of the father of murder and lies. When the devil tempts people they have a choice between good and evil, between God and Satan, if they are born again. If not they will follow their sinful nature. Cain made the wrong choice and allowed his first sin of disobedience to God to blossom into the sin of murder. Unrepentant murder is a sin that ultimately will send a person to be with their mentor, the devil, in hell (Rev. 21:8).
But where did the sin of murder originate? Was it with Cain the first human murderer? We have to go back further to realize that Satan rebelled in heaven in attempting to be “like God”. He convinced a third of the angels to follow his example.
Revelation 12:4 Its (Satan’s)
tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.
The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it
might devour her child the moment he was born.
Thus he, in effect, murdered them by guaranteeing their
judgment in hell. The word in John 8:44
for “murderer” in reference to Satan is “anthropoktonos”.
This means murderer or manslayer.
Satan certainly set the course of human beings when he tempted Adam and
Eve and they caused the sin nature to affect all mankind. But he also caused a
third of the angels to sin, and thus be condemned to judgment and hell. He continues to try to bring as many as he
can into God’s judgment with him. So he truly was the first to lie, the first to set his will against that of God …
Isaiah 14:12-15 How you have fallen
from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you
who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the
heavens; I
will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I
will make myself like the Most High.” But you are
brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of
the pit.
… and the first to murder (John 8:44). Anyone who follows the example of Satan from his rebellion in heaven till today is also destined to his destiny.
1 John 3:15 Anyone who hates a brother or
sister is a murderer, and you know that
no murderer has eternal life residing in him.
Numbers 35:31 “‘Do not accept a ransom for the life of a
murderer, who deserves to die. They are to be put to death.
The penalty for murder is death (Numbers 35:31). The penalty of sin is death (Romans 6:23). The Bible states from the beginning to end that people are not to follow Satan and commit murder.
Exodus 20:13 You shall not murder.
But we cannot blame the devil if we commit the sin of murder or any other sin. It is a choice we make to give into temptations of the enemy because we are both born with a sin nature and because we choose to sin.
Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil
thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
We also cannot blame God as He does not tempt or cause people to sin.
James 1:13 When tempted, no one
should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does
he tempt anyone;
The fact is that, before Babel when a false world religion was being put together by the disobedient sons of Noah, and after God had to forcefully disperse them away from their Polytheistic and Animistic worship of Nimrod and Semiramis (who they considered to be the sun and the moon), everyone outside of the line of Shem decided to go their own way. Therefore God gave them over to their sins and disobedience. It would only be through the witness of Noah, Shem Job, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and finally Moses that anyone could find out about God (Deut. 32:7-11. Later under the New Covenant it remains a similar same situation where the only way to hear about God and His Son is through the preaching of the Gospel by a Christian (Rom. 10:14).