Who is Lucifer?

(Satan, Devil, Lucifer, BeElZebub)

It is appropriate that the heavenly name of the great Opposer and Slanderer of God is never given in the Bible, though several terms (and one mistakenly) have been used to describe him. Here is a list of those descriptions:

Satan: This is a Hebrew word meaning, opposer, resistor, and/or a wily person who does things to serve his own interests. It was applied to the Evil One in the Hebrew text because of his opposition to God. And so, to keep people from thinking of Satan as a name (which it isn’t), it is translated as ‘the Opposer’ in this Bible.

Devil: This is the Greek word (Diabolos) used in the Bible to describe the evil one. The first part of the word, dia, means through, and bolos means throw (it’s where we get the English words ball and bowl). So, Devil means one who throws through, which amounts to being a Slanderer (using the Greek colloquialism)… which is the word we’ve used to describe him in the NT portion of this Bible.

Lucifer: This word is commonly thought of as the Biblical name of the Opposer, for it appears (just once) as a name in the King James Bible at Isaiah 14:12, where the King of Babylon is referred to as Lucifer, Son of the Morning. However, the original Hebrew words that were translated as ‘Lucifer’ were actually, Helel ben Shahar or, Day/star, son/of the/dawn. So, notice that the Hebrew text wasn’t speaking about ‘the Devil’ at all in this Scripture! Rather, the reason why this description of the king of Babylon was turned into a name was because of a translating error. For the person who made this mistake and changed the words Day Star into a name (Lucifer) was Augustine of Hippo (354 to 430 CE). He did this when he was translating the Hebrew Bible text into Latin, and this error was thereafter copied in early English Bibles that used the Latin Vulgate text as a reference… such as the King James. So, the evil one’s name was never really Lucifer.

BeElZebub: There are eight references in the Bible to this Hebrew noun, and it does refer to the Slanderer. However, this isn’t a proper name either, for it appears to be a title. BeEl (like BaAl) means Lord, and Zebub appears to refer to flies (the insects). So, BeElZebub likely means Lord of the Flies. Is the Opposer (Slanderer or BeElZebub) a real person? All one has to do is look at the titles he was given above to realize that he is. To deny his existence negates the rest of the Bible. For example, when dealing with Adam’s sin; why did God adhere so closely to a law when other options were available to Him? Why didn’t he just destroy rebellious Adam and create another man? The fact is, He created both mankind and His spirit sons (‘angels‘) with the ability to choose whether they would be faithful or not… none were just automatons. And in the same way that a man (Adam) failed to be faithful in the Paradise, we can assume that there were rebels in the heavens also (for the Scriptures support this). And though many fail to understand it; This is the reason why it became necessary for God to create a law for mankind that clearly outlined what rebellion against God constituted, and what the consequences for violating that law would be. It was obviously not just for the sake of mankind, but also for the millions of millions of God’s heavenly spirit (breath-like) sons that the issue of the first rebellion here on the earth had to be resolved by a legal means and in a way that demonstrated the love and loyalty of God’s first-born son, which resulted in the painful need for a ‘ransom’ (Jesus’ death). Notice that the idea (which some religions have promoted) that the Slanderer isn’t real but only a state of mind, creates some conundrums. For example: ·      When Jesus was being tempted in the desert, was he simply struggling with the bad within himself rather than against a real, evil personality? If so, we would have to conclude that there was bad in Jesus.     Is the battle in heaven that is spoken of at Revelation the Twelfth Chapter to be just figurative (not a real war against the Opposer and his messengers)? If so, then in what sense would ‘the Opposer’ and his ‘messengers’ lose the battle and be confined to the earth? Also, why would this entity (if it is just internal evil) be ‘angry’ in knowing that he just has ‘a short period of time’ left? ·      And when the Opposer entered God’s presence and spoke to Him (which we read about happening in the First Chapter of Job); could we assume that this inherent evil was found in God? None of this is likely.