satan - All About Satan

Since God is sovereign he has a monopoly on moral law. Satan and his children have no means of creating moral law apart from God, so they use God’s moral law as a template, simply reversing or distorting God’s law and claiming it as their own.

The animal rights and radical environmentalism movements are an example. The two fit together because both contradict God’s law that man, being made in God’s image, is of greater value than animals or other aspects of nature. We’ll begin by considering how God views animals and the environment.

God created the heavens and earth, the plants, and all living creatures, including man, in six days (Gen. 1:1-2:1). By the time he created man, on the sixth day, he had already called his creation “good” six times (Gen. 1:4,10,12, 18, 21,25). After he created man, he summed up the entire creation as “good”:

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (Genesis 1:31–2:1)

God viewed his creation, including the environment and all living creatures, as “good,” worthwhile, having value. But, he didn’t consider the heavens and earth and it’s creatures in any way equal in value or significance to man. Only man was created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26-17) for fellowship with him. Only man was singularly formed by God, and only man received God’s breath of life:

then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. (Genesis 2:7)

Further, as I’ve noted several times, God placed Adam and Eve as his vice-regents over all creation. Part of this included God allowing Adam to name all the animals (Gen. 2:20):

The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. (Genesis 2:20)

Thus, it’s clear that from the beginning God has valued animals and the environment, but placed them on a lower level than man and gave man authority over them. The natural world was to serve man.

In the Garden there was harmony between animals and between animals and Adam and Eve. The environment was pristine and animals had endless peaceful and comfortable lives. Adam and Eve’s sin changed all that. When they fell they brought corruption to all creation, including death and suffering to animals.

The first victim(s) were the animal or animals God killed to clothe the now naked and ashamed couple:

And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. (Genesis 3:21)

This was the first animal sacrifice for man’s sin. It was a temporary atonement for sin, in anticipation of Christ’s death as the once for all payment in full for all sin. The Israelite animal sacrifices for sin under the Mosaic Law were for the same purpose.

Paradoxically, such sacrifices reinforce the idea that God values animals. Sin is so evil, and such a barrier between man and God, that it could not be atoned for, even temporarily, without significant cost, the shedding of valuable innocent blood. On the other hand, the sacrifices also highlight the truth that animals and man are distinctly different types of creatures in God’s eyes. Though God values animals, he called for their sacrifice for man’s sin prior to Jesus’ death on the cross because he values us infinitely more.

The Genesis account and animal sacrifices aren’t the only Scriptural revelations that God values and has compassion for animals but created them qualitatively different from man, under man, and to serve man. Regarding God’s compassion for animals, Paul tells us that creation eagerly awaits that glorious day when Christ ushers in the eternal heavenly state:

For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (Romans 8:19–22)

These verses reveal that God has compassion for creatures brought low through Adam’s sin. They, as part of creation, are innocent victims of man’s sin.

We find other evidence of God’s compassion for animals in the book of Jonah. God sent Jonah to call the wicked pagan city of Nineveh to repentance. Jonah rejected God’s call at first because he hated the Ninevites, but after the incident with the whale accepted the assignment grudgingly. He preached, Nineveh repented, and God spared Nineveh.

Upset, and hoping for the worst for Nineveh, Jonah went east to the hills overlooking the city, set up a shelter, and waited to see what would happen next. At first, God pleased Jonah by graciously providing him a plant as additional shade from the blistering son. A day later God caused a worm to kill the plant, leaving Jonah in the sun. He also sent a scorching wind, adding to Jonah’s discomfort.

Again Jonah was upset, so much so that he wished to die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live” (Jonah 4:8^b). God pointe out Jonah’s selfishness and lack of compassion for the people and animals of Nineveh:

But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the LORD said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?” (Jonah 4:9–11)

God pointed out that Jonah was upset about the loss of a plant, that was literally there one day and gone the next, and for which Jonah had done nothing. And yet, Jonah was upset with God having spared the people (including 120,000 children), and animals of Nineveh, all of which he had created and sustained. The specific inclusion of the animals reveals God’s compassion for them.

Though God values animals and has compassion for them we don’t need to scour Scripture apart from Genesis to further document the related truth that they are qualitatively different from man in their relationship to God, value, and purpose. That animals aren’t in any way equivalent to humans is a given throughout the Bible–to deny it is to deny God.

Rather, animals are provided for our food (Luke 9:16,15:23; Acts 10:19; 1 Cor. 10:25), to carry us and our burdens (Matt. 21:6-7), for companionship (2 Sam 12:3), and to labor for us (Deut. 25:4). Furthermore, as part of the incredible richness and diversity of creation they, like the rest of creation (Psalm 19:1, 50:6), enrich our lives and are witnesses of God’s power, righteousness and glory (Job 12:7-10; Rom. 1:20).

Apart from God’s telling Adam and Eve to subdue the earth, and the teaching that he is revealed in nature, the Bible doesn’t say much about the environment in general. It does tell us however that this world is temporary. At the end of this age, God is going to destroy this heaven and earth by fire (2 Pet. 2:7-10). He will usher in the eternal state with a new heaven and earth for his people (Rev. 21:1-22:5). The lost will have no part in the new heaven and earth but will spend eternity in the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14-15).

With the above as background we can summarize how God views animals in particular and the environment in general. First, in all ways God places man above all other creation. Second, regarding animals specifically, he values them and has compassion for them, but made them qualitatively different from man. Man is made in God’s image, can have fellowship with God, is morally responsible to God, can be adopted as a child of God (Eph 1:5), and is worth so much to God that he sent his own Son to die for our sins (John 3:16; Gal. 1:4). None of this is true of animals.

Third, regarding the environment in general, the Bible tells us that as part of creation God called it good. It also tells us that God appointed Adam and Eve as his vice-regents and told them to subdue the earth. We may be confident that though the charge implies putting the earth to the use of man, it didn’t include destroying the earth wantonly. Surely he expects his people to be good stewards of the earth, not needlessly destroying his glorious creation–it’s wrong to destroy anything God calls good. But just as surely he doesn’t intend for the material earth to be placed above the interests of man. It is for man’s use–man is the pinnacle of creation, not an interloper. Furthermore, this earth is temporary–God will destroy the earth in the end.

With that, let’s turn to false moral laws related to animal rights and radical environmentalism. As I said, we can consider them together because both contradict God’s law that man is of greater value and significance than animals or other aspects of nature. Man’s unique relationship to God as a morally responsible being, created in his image and having a spirit that lives on after physical death is a core concept. To deny it is to reject God himself and the entirety of his revelation in Scripture.

God declares that man is special, made in his image, and placed over nature. Animal rights activists, radical animal welfare activists, and radical environmentalist say the opposite, that man isn’t special, isn’t made in God’s image, and has no rightful authority over nature. Arguing from various lies and worldviews that deny God they declare that man is either of the same or less value and significance as the rest of creation. Therefore man is entitled to no more than the same, and in some cases less, consideration and rights as the rest of creation.

We may use an argument from Naturalism as an example. Since the basic premise of Naturalism is that everything arises randomly from a mindless, purposeless, and spiritless material universe, it follows that man is no more significant than a rat. For animal rights activists it then follows that animals should be viewed as “persons” rather than property, and should have equal protection under the law. Any human use of an animal, from keeping them as pets to eating them, is a violation of their rights. Animals should be able to get relief from these violations in court, aided by humans sympathetic to their cause.

Many animal welfare activists come to the same essential position of denying that humans are of greater value than animals and that animals are rightly used to serve and feed man without specifically calling for their legal personhood. They declare that virtually all the traditional ways man has used animals are immoral. For instance, animals shouldn’t be eaten, used for clothing, kept as pets, used for experimentation, or used for labor. In cases where there is a conflict of interest between man’s need and animal welfare, animal welfare has priority.

Radical environmentalists push a similar lie that man has no special God-given place within creation. Further, echoing the views of many animal rights and welfare advocates, they declare that the earth is more valuable and significant than man. They see man as a negative, an interloper whose very presence defiles the environment. They believe that at the very least man’s needs should be considered subordinate to the interests of the environment. For some, abortion, euthanasia, and mandatory population control are seen as useful tools in protecting the environment from the plague that is man.

Radical animal rights and welfare activism and radical environmentalism are two sides of the same coin. In the end neither’s purpose is as stated. The ultimate goals aren’t the right treatment of either animals or the environment. Rather, the ultimate goal is the rejection of God by denying man’s unique relationship to God. Break the link between God and man and God becomes irrelevant.

The false moral laws that animals and the environment are equal to or worth more than man are examples of not only simple reversals of God’s template, but also of Satan’s practice of distorting true moral law to sell evil. here Satan sells evil through the distortion of the truth that it is good for us to mirror God’s views by having compassion for animals and being good stewards of the earth.

That’s why images of abused animals and wanton pollution rightly disturb us. They are evidence of man wrongly treating God’s creation and it is right to work against such wrongs. But it’s right because God exists, not because he doesn’t exist. It’s right because we who are in his image and above all other creation are to reflect his will, not because there is no value distinction between animals, a mountain stream, and man.