SATANISM

The topic of Satanism may be a bit uncomfortable for some people, and it is understandable that some will take offense to our inclusion of it on this website. Though we apologize for any offense taken, we do not apologize for tackling this difficult subject. True Satanism is not the same as Devil Worship, as you will learn in this essay. Satanism is a very serious threat to anyone's spirituality, and we must stand up for our Father, Yahweh, and His Son, our Messiah Jesus, and expose the dangers of Satanism.

The stereotypical imagery of Satanism is largely false: Animal/human sacrifices, Black Masses, Cloaked figures, etc. aren't accurate descriptions of true Satanists. True Satanists actually prefer life over death, because a living being is more useful than a dead one (unless one needs an animal for food). Since most Satanists regard themselves as potentially being their own gods, they don't see a point to making sacrifices to other gods. In reality, Satanism is a very persuasive, very deceptive system that can convince a person that God is either bad or nonexistent, and Satan is a beneficial entity/concept. Anyone without a solid knowledge of bible teachings can fall victim to this religious system because it often times twists bible scripture to make their teachings seem right and Christian teachings seem wrong. Most of us would believe there is no way we could be so deceived and that those that are sucked into it must be weak minded. In reality, far too many of us could be convinced, and it is this recognized danger that compels us to write this particular essay.

To start with, you must discard your notions of Satanism being full of blood drinking, sacrifices, Black Masses, and other hype presented by the media. Bona fide Satanism is a far cry from all those notions. Anyone who does these things under the claim of Satanism are either phonies who are looking for attention or are occultists worshiping the entity of the Devil, which is actually different from Satanism. Devil worship is the worship of the evil entity. Satanism, on the other hand, believes Satan to something beneficial or at least non-evil.

There are various forms of Satanism. This essay will focus on the primary forms of Satanism (LeVeyan, Luciferianism, and Religious Satanism) and show the errors in their perceived "goodness". Although there are various forms of Satanism and each form has its own variations, there are still some common threads that tie all these versions of Satanism together: They tend to teach ideas that seem "good" on the surface: Not harming children or animals, that Satan is actually a good entity, that one needs to continually improve oneself and one's station in life, etc. It creates a lure for people to be interested in learning more of the teachings. Most real Satanists are indeed law abiding citizens, preferring to harm none. However, in spite of the shiny surface, their beliefs aren't as altruistic underneath. This is because Satanism is filled with concepts of ego-centric living, self-ambition and disbelief in Yahweh, leaving no room for the purity of love.

LeVeyan Satanism:
Founded by Anton Szandor LeVey in 1966, the leader of the Church of Satan and author of The Satanic Bible. It first began as a group in the 1950's called "The Order of the Trapezoid". LeVeyan Satanism does not believe in the existence of God, and does not believe Satan to be a living creature either. Instead, it is a very ego-centric belief system, teaching that the self is the most important entity in the universe and an individual is his or her own god. It teaches that individuals must find their own path in life and break free from conformity. It encourages individual diversity and promotes chasing one's own ambitions in life. It encourages its members to seek various pleasures in life. LeVey also encouraged women to take advantage of their femininity in order to get whatever they wanted. They also re-tooled the "golden rule" (Matthew 7:12 - Do unto other what you would want them to do for you), saying instead "Do to others as they do to you". In other words, give kindness only to those who deserve it, dish out vengeance on those who deserve it, and to not "waste love" on ingrates. They also teach that one should not harm animals except for food or in self defense, that one should not harm children, to not bother others (unless they bother you first), to not push sexual advances on the unwilling, to show respect to a host's abode, and to not give opinions or advice unless asked for it. They also teach that if a guest in your abode annoys you then you are to treat him cruelly, and to badly treat those who persist in bothering you. The Church of Satan teaches that one should avoid certain destructive behaviours, listed in their "Nine Satanic Sins" list. The "Satanic Sins" are: Stupidity, Pretentiousness, Solipsism, Self-Deceit, Herd Conformity, Lack of Perspective, Forgetfulness of Past Orthodoxies, Counterproductive Pride, and Lack of Aesthetics.
Summing it all up, this is a belief system in which the Self is glorified, harm is only directed towards those who cause harm, and individuality is key.
Luciferianism:
This is the worship of Lucifer as a god. Lucifer is mentioned in the King James bible once at Isaiah 14:12, which name literally means "bright star" or "morning star". It is descriptive of Satan before he rebelled against God. Therefore, Luciferianism is the worship of the entity Satan...they believe Satan to be a spirit of knowledge and light, and magic, not an evil entity. It is interesting to note that Freemasons regard Lucifer as a "light bearer", thus tying themselves in with Luciferianism (Their book: Morals and Dogma, page 321). Luciferians seek to elevate themselves to a godlike status by living a life of goodness, seeking knowledge through magic and opening themselves to Lucifer's mind to become one with that mind. There isn't a standard dogma in Luciferianism, therefore beliefs vary widely from group to group. Some believe Lucifer to be the god of the universe, some believe him to be one god among many gods, and some actually believe him to be a principle instead of a god. The Children of the Black Rose believe Lucifer to be all of the universe, neither good nor bad, neither male nor female. According to some Luciferians, nothing comes before the Self and its progression into a newly manifested Self. It is considered to be a religion of liberation. The basic premise of Luciferians is that the Self comes first. They seek to be one with Lucifer's mind, with Lucifer being either an entity or principle of goodness.
Religious Satanism:
Depending on the group, these believe Satan to either be an actual god, or a principle. The Satan they follow is not the evil Satan known in Christianity. It is a pre-Christian Satan stemming from the pagan image of power, sexuality, sensuality, and vitality. Their Satan is a force of nature. Their Satan has nothing to do with hell or evil. This form of Satanism also has many different forms of belief, and is therefore various in its doctrine as well. Those who believe Satan to be a god believe him to be the original creator of the universe and a being of light. Some believe Yahweh is the evil one trying to infringe on Satan's right to universal sovereignty. This form of Satanism tends to worship Satan as a force of goodness, either as an entity or a concept, denying Yahweh and the Messiah.

Satanism attempts to elevate humans to god level, which is essentially what the whole hullaballoo was about in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-5 ..."For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil..."). Although some think achieving god-status would be a good thing, in reality it is an attempt to usurp the True God's rightful position as sovereign of the universe. Because Yahweh made all things, we are His. (Psalms 24:1) We do not have the right to become our own masters. In fact, by trying to be their own masters, Adam and Eve ruined mankind. Think about that. Our world is a mess because of their Satanic ambition to elevate themselves to a god-like level. Before this Satanic ambition came into play, they had a peaceful life, a nice place to live, and everything they could every want. Once they succumbed to the satanistic views, all that was lost. See how that worked? So even though the concept of becoming your own person, persuing your own ambitions, and becoming your own god seems like an excellent self-improvement system, our experience as humans proves it is a very dark, very destructive path instead.

Some Satanists who believe in Yahweh and Christ tend to deny God's goodness and Christ's place in human salvation. They believe Yah to be an imposter god trying to usurp Satan's position as the supposed true god, and some even attempt to use the bible to show Christ's so-called unrighteousness. This is the most dangerous form of Satanism for people who are new Christians and have only a rudimentary knowledge of the bible. Their lack of solid bible education makes them vulnerable to the twistings of scripture common to Satanists. This is not a surprise, since the bible shows that Satan adroitly twists scriptures in order to draw people away from God. The most blatant example of this is when he tried to tempt Jesus by twisting scriptures: At Matthew 4:1-11 we see Satan trying to coax Jesus into doing sinful things, quoting scripture to back up his tempting offer. (Satan quoted Psalms 91:12). However, Jesus, with a solid knowledge of God's will, quoted back other scripture (Deuteronomy 6:16) that demolished Satan's attempt. This is one of the major reasons why it is important to have a solid bible foundation, so we can demolish the Satanic arguments if we ever run into them ourselves. Remember, the bible actually warns us that Satan will make himself look like an angel of light to mislead people (2 Corinthians 11:14-15), and accordingly we can see that Satanists have fallen for the trick.

Because Satanism lies and blasphemes our Father and His Son, we feel a moral duty to demolish some of these lies with the pure truth. Although there is a plethora of scripture twistings some satanists use to make God and Christ out to be evil, we will show you seven examples of how to reveal the real truth, demolishing their arguments. The basic premise is: Satanists will take scriptures out of context to twist a point, or they will add thoughts into a passage that aren't originally in the passage. (The following quotes are taken from the King James Version)

Example #1: Satanism states that Christ was arrogant and prideful. To support this lie they cite the scripture at Luke 10:38-42 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. They claim that Christ stating Mary chose the good part is evidence that he was arrogantly trying to hog the attention. This is twisted logic because, although the scripture states the words above, they don't consider the actual motivation for Christ's words. Realize that when Christ told Martha that her sister Mary had chosen the "good part", he was not speaking egotistically of Mary dropping everything to listen to the teachings of himself. Christ came, not to promote his own teaching, but that of God's (John 4:34, John 5:30, John 17:16-18). This is evident throughout Christ's ministry, as we can see that he never taught his own doctrines, but that he was assigned to teach what the Father taught him: (Luke 20:21, John 11:1-2). Therefore, as Christ was teaching Mary, he wasn't pompously elevating himself, he was pointing out that she was learning the teachings of YAHWEH, the Father. Since there is nothing more important that the teachings of Yahweh, then naturally Mary was choosing the "good portion"! They also support their belief that Christ was arrogant by pointing to Matthew 10:37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more then me is not worthy of me. They consider this to be against the teaching of "honor thy father and mother", and as a sin of envy that anyone might love him less than anyone else. There are two twisting here: One is that they are erroneously equating love with honor. In reality, honor can be expressed regardless of the level of love you have for someone. For example, you can honor a judge in a court of law, yet you don't necessarily love him. The second point is that in reality, Christ didn't say you couldn't love others as well, he simply said we have to love him more. There is no envy here, just a matter of laying out the priorities: Loving Jesus more than other people is sensible, since he is the means by which we have salvation. Loving Jesus more than others does not require us to discontinue our current love for the others, that's nonsense. Again, they are twisting the scripture to make it sound like it's saying things it's really not.

Example #2: They accuse Christ of being a thief, quoting the passage at Luke 6: 1-5 And it came to pass on the second sabbath after the first, that he went through the corn fields; and his disciples plucked the ears of corn, and did eat, rubbing them in their hands. And certain of the Pharisees said unto them, Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbath days? And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him; How he went into the house of God, and did take and eat the shewbread, and gave also to them that were with him; which it is not lawful to eat but for the priests alone? And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath. They state the Pharisees caught Jesus stealing grain, and thus confronted him about it. However, this is again, twisting what was really going on: The pharisees weren't accusing him of stealing, for they were specifying he was doing something unlawful towards the sabbath itself. Since stealing is unlawful on any day, not just the sabbath, obviously this is not an accusation of stealing. So, then, what was it that they were supposedly doing unlawfully regarding the Sabbath? Work! (Exodus 20:10 ). Remember, these Pharisees were always looking closely to accuse Jesus of something (Luke 6:7)....and since they were accusing him of breaking the sabbath, they were accusing him of performing work: harvesting grain, and perhaps even threshing/preparing it (since they were rubbing it with their hands). Another passage used to accuse him of stealing is at Luke 19: 29-35 And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him. And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them. And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt? And they said, The Lord hath need of him. Another twisting of what was really done. In reality, Christ knew ahead of time the whereabouts of the ass and her colt, for it was a "meant to be" situation, in relation to a prophecy (Zechariah 9:9). On top of that, Christ knew that his men would be questioned, and he directed them to explain the situation. There is no indication that the owner refused to lend the animals out. Therefore, the idea of Christ "stealing" is merely a supposition designed by the Satanists to accuse Christ of sin.

Example #3: They accuse Christ of arrogantly calling people names, indicating that humans were beneath him. They cite Matthew 7:6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. They also cite Matthew 23:33 Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
This is woefully taken out of context. Upon reading the entire accounts, one can see that Christ wasn't calling all humans "dogs" "swine" and "vipers" . If you read the surround text, you will see that those particular references were directed towards overly judgemental people, overly self-righteous people, and nobody else.

Example #4: Christ is accused of the sin of wrath, citing John 2:15 And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables. Again, this is taken out of context. If you read the full account in John 2:14-17, we see that in actuality, these merchants had the audacity to sit in the temple and ply their trade right there in God's Temple! We fail to see how that can be construed as unrighteous wrath! He is also accused of wrath for cursing a tree because it has no fruit he could eat at Mark 11:12-14, 20-22. However, what they fail to see is that the owner of the tree had to pay a ten percent tithe from the tree (Leviticus 27:30). If a person wanted to keep his tenth, he had to pay one and a half times the value of the tithe for it (Leviticus 27:31). Since this otherwise healthy tree was bearing no fruit, it was becoming an expensive liability to the owner. Christ was actually doing the owner a favor by doing away with the tree, lifting the tithe burden off the owner.

Example #5: Christ is accused of the sin of lust. They claim that he was intimate with certain women, citing the scripture at Luke 8:1-3 And it came to pass afterward, that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him, And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, And Joanna the wife of Chuza Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.
According to them, they fact that the women "ministered unto hm of their substance" his proves they gave Christ sexual favors . In reality though, according to the original language rendering of the scripture (which can be found at www.scripture4all.org ) the meaning was "served to them out of their belongings". This is agreed with in bible versions such as New International Version, New Living Translation, The Message, etc. Therefore, they are again applying erroneous meanings to the words stated.

Example #6: Christ is accused of discouraging personal cleanliness because he and his disciples didn't wash their hands before eating a meal at Mark 7:1-9. This is a stretched supposition on the part of Satanists. We know this because Christ knew of the Pharisees evil intent to constantly accuse him, so this is what he was really responding to, similar to his response at Matthew 23:25-26 The bible shows that Christ did actually did not discourage cleanliness in the following passages: Matthew 6:17, Luke 7:37-38, John 13:1-5.

Example #7: Christ is accused of being a drunkard and a glutton, citing the scripture at Luke 5:33 And they said unto him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink? Although they accuse Christ of being a glutton, there is nothing in this passage to lead the reader to believe Christ overate or drank excessively. All is says is that they didn't fast. Again they are adding ideas that are simply absent from the verse. They also cite the passage at Luke 7:34 which states: The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! However, This passage is about Christ being accused of such things, it isn't saying these things were necessarily true.

As for Yahweh, they accuse Him of being a bloodthirsty murderer bulldozing through the entire Old Testament, citing the many many examples of wars and battles fought in His Name. They claim it to be sinful for Yah to supposedly ruthlessly kill all who were in the way. In reality though, the only ones killed were those living in direct defiance to Him. Those who committed the heinous acts of sacrificing their children to gods (Deuteronomy 12:31, 2 Kings 17:17, Jeremiah 7:30-31 etc.), and those who rejected Yahweh in favor of false gods (Exodus 22:20, Acts 12:21-23). Anyone who truly knows the bible will see that Yahweh never killed anyone who became a worshiper of Him. Some examples of this are: Noah and his family were spared from the global wrath of Yahweh (Genesis 6:9, 13 with 7:7, 21), Rahab the prostitute was also spared even though Yahweh destroyed her entire city (Judges Chapters 2 and 6:22-25), and the entire nation of the Gibeonites were spared among the region of the holy land (Joshua Chapter 9 supported with 2 Samuel 21:1-2). The only ones that were killed were those who rejected Yahweh, and nobody else. They also try to claim Yah is bloodthirsty by the account of Abraham having to sacrifice his son Isaac at God's command ( Genesis 22:1-2). However, if one reads the entire account, one will see that God didn't actually allow Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, that it was just a test of Abraham's loyalty to Him. God halted the procedure before it went too far. They try to claim that Yah was bloodthirsty because He commanded the sacrifice of animals to atone for sins in the Old Testament (Leviticus chapters 1-5). However, they fail to remember that forgiveness of sin and shedding of blood are tied together (Hebrews 9:22). Along with this, Christ shed his blood to cover all sins, and thus animal sacrifice was done away with (Galatians 3:16,19). Since sacrifice is no longer a requirement, and hasn't been for over two thousand years, this unravels the claim that God is bloodthirsty being. Thus their claim that Yahweh was a murderous, evil God who enjoys blood and sacrifice is pure blasphemy. For more information regarding sin and sacrifice for forgiveness, you can read our essays titled:
Forgiveness
Law Covenant
New Covenant
The Lamb

Of course, they go on and on with other lies and blasphemies against our Messiah, but in the end it's always the same basic tactics: Either taking something out of context, or adding thoughts/ meanings that really aren't in the passages. Of course, they don't really believe in the bible, but still they try to use the bible to convince Christians that Christ was a sinner and Satanism is true religion. As for Satanists that don't believe in any god or a real Satan to begin with, they are atheists who have turned to Self Worship. This is still Satanism though, for it adheres to the Satanic teaching of elevating oneself into a kind of god.

Interestingly, we can see the influence of Satanism throughout other world cultures and religions, even if they don't seem to be directly into Satanism. Just a few of such examples:
Buddhists teaches that one continues into a cycle of death and rebirth until they achieve "Nirvana". Nirvana is considered to be the highest spiritual plane that a person can attain, complete liberation, complete enlightenment. Essentially, this is a person achieving god status.
Hindu: Hindu Nirvana, a.k.a. Moksha, teaches that one lives a cycle of death and rebirth until one eliminates all his/her bad karma and unites with the universal god. Again, this is a person achieving god status.
Mormons: They believe if they live according to all their doctrines and teachings faithfully, after they die and go to heaven they can become a god. More of people achieving god status.
Catholics: They believe the pope to be equal to God, caling the pope "Holy Father", and they fully believe the Pope to be God on earth. A man achieving god status.
Then of course, there are other signs of Satanism: The same selfishness and ego-centric ambition promoted in Satanism also causes war, inflation, poverty, and other "diseases" of society. None of these would exist if instead of the Satanic laws of self ambition, we'd live according to God's law of love and generosity. So even though many do not claim Satanism as their relgion, the influence of Satanism is all around us in different forms. Because Satanism is so prevalent throughout our planet, this is why Satan is referred to in the bible as the god of this world (John 14:30, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Ephesians 2:2, 1 John 5:19). This is also why the bible states that if we are to follow Yahweh and Christ, we will be no part of the world (John 15:19, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15). Being a part of this world will slide us into the selfishness and "me-ism" that Satanism enjoys. We become a "part of the world" when we fall into the self-centered attitudes of the world: Doing things for self gain at the expense of others. Lying, cheating, or stealing to achieve our goals falls into Satanism. Neglecting the welfare of others to reach your ambitions also falls into the Satanistic method. Putting yourself above all others is also a part of this. Although we may not fall into full fledged Satanism itself, we will do well to avoid it's influence whenever possible. Just as we wouldn't want to be near an uncaged lion, neither do we want to dwell in the fringes of Satanism.

True Satanism may seem like an enlightened path to many people, yet in reality it is a subtle way to draw mankind away from the love of God. If we take care to keep others' well-being in mind in everything we do, we can avoid slipping into the influences of Satanism that surround us on a daily basis. It actually takes very little effort to successfully keep others' well-being in mind, even little things can make a difference: Give a little money to the poor, give a half hour's time to your kids after work, let someone in ahead of you at the supermarket checkout line. Every thing you do, no matter how small, keeps you one more step away from the influence of Satanism, and one step closer to the Love of Yahweh.

May our God and Father bless you in all your efforts.