THE DECEIVER OF MANKIND
"The devil" means.. "the deceiver".. and is a symbol not a noun. It was never intended to be understood as being the name of some supernatural entity. It was a simply a symbol being employed in order to encompass the idea of a cruel and corrupting system.
A system that Jesus would bring to an end.. by means of his words..
"For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, namely, to break up the works of the Devil."
1John 3:4
The God Inside Us The Devil In the World
The Seven Spirits of God The Seven Wicked Spirits
Loving kindness Cruelty
Righteousness Iniquity
Justice Injustice
Wisdom Ignorance
Peace Belligerence
Truth Deception & Lies
Freedom Tyranny & Oppression
COMMENTARY BY WILLIAM BLAKE
"God isn't up there, you know! Sitting in judgment, as it were, on a cloud with a long white beard, inventing awful rules so people feel guilty all the time, and so on and so on. That's somebody else, entirely. God is within. It's man who is without; Cosmic Man. Now if you don't understand that, don't worry, you're in good company, besides, you'll get the point eventually; I mean by the time your dead, when your spirit will become so agile that you'll find that you can leap from star to star in a single stride.
Oh there are of course people who would dispute that: mathematicians, philosophers, engineers, like Archwright, scientists, like Newton.
Isaiac, bloody, Newton. He's a most perfect symbol of that oppressive and routhless spirit, which is the governing force in our society, and an embodiment of that cosmic spirit, who holds our world in diress subjgation, and who with terrible laws oppresses us all, and sticks us down, and makes us know our bloody place.
Many people worship this horrible abomination and call it God; a good god and just one. They're wrong of course, for if this good god were in fact just, as they suppose, the world he created would be just too. The world isn't just. Society isn't just. Far from it!
I'm not usually so emotional, so volatile. I mean people usually get the impression I'm a steady sort of fellow with a mystical turn of mind and an actually discernable hallow. I'm often rather sorry to disappoint them. Of course what such people don't take into account is that our identities are never constant; we're changing all the time from the cradle to the grave.
When people are young they want to overthrow what's gone before, but when they're old they want to confine everything with laws, to bind and snare and trap. Their inner conservatism creates an political conservatism, which in turn creates the iron authoritorism of our present society and the stifling, choking unfairness of it all.
I've personified this force and given it a human form, his name is Urizon. He's the old man with the long white beard I was telling you about before. Who then can destroy him? Is there anyone? Anyone at all?
The question's not retorical, for I have also conceived another figure in everlasting opposition to the former, youthful, fiery, sparks flying from his flaming red hair. Ork, the demon of ungovernablness. The spirit of revolution.
I see it as an everlasting struggle between two contradicting spirits; a struggle between the state and those who would destroy the state, which neither side can ever really win.
Alright! look at it this way; imagine a desert, a red sun in a slate grey sky. Two figures locked in combat, their feet kicking up clouds of dust. One of the figures is old, he has a long white beard, and tearing at his throat is a boy, sparks flying from his flaming hair. Sometimes the man has the upper-hand, sometimes the boy, but neither can ever triumph over the other."
William Blake
THE TEACHER OF LIES
"I thank you, O Lord. You illumined my face by your covenant. I seek you, As sure as the dawn you appear as perfect light. Teachers of lies have comforted your people and now they stumble, foolishly. They abhor themselves and do not esteem me through whom your wonders and powers are manifest. They have banished me from my land like a bird from its nest, and my friends and neighbours are driven from me. They think me a broken pot. They preach lies. They are dissembling prophets. They devise baseness against me, exchanging yiour teaching, written in my heart, for smooth words. They deny knowledge to the thirsty and force them to drink vinegar to cover up error. They stumble through mad feasts, but you, God, spurn the schemes of
Belial. Your wisdom prevails.
Your hearts meditation prevails, established forever."
Thanksgiving Psalm from the Dead Sea Scrolls
Examples of the Symbol “Devil” in Context
Then Jesus was led by the spirit up into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.
Matthew 4:1
. . .and the enemy that sowed them is the Devil. The harvest is a conclusion of a system of things, and the reapers are angels.
Matthew 13:39
"Then he will say, in turn, to those on his left, 'Be on your way from me, you who have been cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.
Matthew 25:41
Those alongside the road are the ones that have heard, then the Devil comes and takes the word away from their hearts in order that they may not believe and be saved.
Luke 8:12
you are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. That one was a manslayer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.
John 8:44
So, while the evening meal was going on, the Devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him,
John 13:2
. . namely, Jesus who was from Nazareth, how God anointed him with holy spirit and power, and he went through the land doing good and healing all those oppressed by the Devil; because God was with him.
Acts 10:38
and said: "O man full of every sort of fraud and every sort of villainy, you son of the Devil, you enemy of everything righteous, will you not quit distorting the right ways of Jehovah?
Acts 13:10
. . neither allow place for the Devil.
Ephesians 4:27
Put on the complete suit of armor from God that you may be able to stand firm against the machinations of the Devil;
Ephesians 6:11
. . not a newly converted man, for fear that he might get puffed up with pride and fall into the judgment passed upon the Devil.
Titus 3:6
Moreover, he should also have a fine testimony from people on the outside, in order that he might not fall into reproach and a snare of the Devil.
1Timothy 3:7
and they may come back to their proper senses out from the snare of the Devil, seeing that they have been caught alive by him for the will of that one.
2Timothy 2:26
Therefore, since the "young children" are sharers of blood and flesh, he also similarly partook of the same things, that through his death he might bring to nothing the one having the means to cause death, that is, the Devil;
Hebrews 2:14
Subject yourselves, therefore, to God; but oppose the Devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7
Keep your senses, be watchful. your adversary, the Devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone.
1Peter 5:8
He who carries on sin originates with the Devil, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was made manifest, namely, to break up the works of the Devil.
1John 3:8
The children of God and the children of the Devil are evident by this fact: Everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, neither does he who does not love his brother.
1John 3:10
But when Michael the archangel had a difference with the Devil and was disputing about Moses' body, he did not dare to bring a judgment against him in abusive terms, but said: "May Jehovah rebuke you."
Jude 9
Do not be afraid of the things you are about to suffer. Look! The Devil will keep on throwing some of you into prison that you may be fully put to the test, and that you may have tribulation ten days. Prove yourself faithful even to death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Revelation 2:10
So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him.
Revelation 12:9
On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time."
Revelation 12:12
And he seized the dragon, the original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:2
And the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where both the wild beast and the false prophet already were; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Revelation 20:10
