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Starkman
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 2/21/2003 5:08 AM (GMT -6) |   | Hey all,
I was reading Hebrews yesterday, and for the first time I thought of something that is now puzzling me. Hebrews 2:14 says this:
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death, He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil (NASB).
The NKJV gives the verse a slightly different flavor.
Inasmuch then as the children as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had power of death, that is, the devil (NKJV).
I have two questions: first, how did Satan end up with the power over death; and second, how does destroying Satan--or rendering him powerless--free us from the power of death?
When God told Adam that if Adam were to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil he would die, there is no mention (nor even the presence of) Satan at the time of this utterance. God could have been thinking about Satan when He uttered the sentence: "If Adam does eat of the tree, he will and then be under Satan's power of death," but this seems awkward.
Satan temps Eve, but that's all he could do; he couldn't make her eat it, and there's nothing in the passage suggesting that were Eve to eat the fruit, she would become subject Satan's power of death. It was clearly Eve (and later Adam) who put herself under the power of death; not Satan. And it would seem that whether Satan existed or not--except, perhaps, for the clear presentation that there must be the possibility of evil in order to have free choice--both Adam and Eve would still die, thus becoming subject to the power of death, upon disobeying God.
Hebrews 2:15 (NASB) continues the theme (and the sentence) with and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. But even this, in my opinion, does not explain Satan's power of death over individuals; it simply states that people have fear of death and it's eternal consequences. But it still seems enough that the theme of the book of Hebrews is that Christ died as a propitiation, and atonement--sufficient to fufill the law's demands; not that something must be done to stop Satan and his power over death.
Any thoughts?
Starkman
So, how does Satan hold any power of death
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Starkman
Registered Member
Date Joined Oct 2001
Total Posts : 1747
| Posted 2/23/2003 12:44 PM (GMT -6) | | DOC!
Hey, you're da man on this subject.
Help me out here, eh!
Starkman
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