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The Spirit Behind the Present Old OrderHoly Spirit—The Force Behind the Coming New Order!
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And I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Genesis 3:14, 15)
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The Spirit Behind the Present Old OrderHoly Spirit—The Force Behind the Coming New Order!
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But this would not occur before the cursed Serpent had the opportunity to have a “seed,” offspring in a figurative or spiritual way. As a spirit, the Devil has no inherent reproductive powers like man.
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The Spirit Behind the Present Old OrderHoly Spirit—The Force Behind the Coming New Order!
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In course of time the Devil came to be joined in this place by other spirits, by other angels who renounced the Fatherhood of God and adopted the fatherhood of the Devil. These spirits became his “seed.”
15. What do Peter and Jude say about the angels who joined the Great Serpent in sinning?
15 In reference to this spiritual seed of the original Serpent, the Christian apostle Peter wrote: “God did not hold back from punishing the angels that sinned, but, by throwing them into Tartarus, delivered them to pits of dense darkness to be reserved for judgment.” (2 Peter 2:4) The Christian disciple Jude refers to the same angelic “seed” of the Serpent, when he writes: “The angels that did not keep their original position but forsook their own proper dwelling place he has reserved with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day.”—Jude 6.
16. Why did the Devil act single-handedly in tricking Eve into sin, and why do some think that he had been a cherub?
16 At the time that the Devil tricked Adam’s wife, Eve, into rebelling against God her heavenly Father, there was no “seed” of the Great Serpent. The Devil acted single-handedly. He did not choose to have an angelic associate who could become a rival in claiming control over the offspring of Adam and Eve. He coveted the sole control over all mankind. What position he occupied in God’s original organization we do not precisely know. Many Bible students have understood the prophecy of Ezekiel 28:11-19 concerning the king of ancient Tyre to apply also to Satan the Devil, and hence they reason that the self-made Devil was originally a “cherub” among the heavenly “sons of God.” If this is so, then the degree of his abasement as the Great Serpent is all the greater.
17. In what way do rebel angels share Tartarean darkness with the Devil?
17 The other angel rebels against God, who became the “seed” of the Serpent, share the Tartarean darkness with him, like cursed serpents. They no longer have the light of God’s favor and counsel. At their rebellion God took his holy spirit away from them.
18. (a) Why is the future pitch black for the Devil and his angels? (b) What was the question of mystery that was now raised?
18 The future is pitch black for the Great Serpent and his angelic “seed.” God’s day of judgment awaits them, with the prospect of their being ‘bruised in the head.’ God will use the “seed” of his “woman” to do the bruising. (Genesis 3:15) The bruise inflicted is no mere scalp wound. It is the crushing of the head, which results in death to the Great Serpent and his “seed.” There is no room for misunderstanding about this, for, at Romans 16:20, it is written to Christ’s disciples: “The God who gives peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” This is sound reason for Satan and his “seed” to be at enmity with the “seed” of God’s “woman.” At God’s mention of the “seed” of his “woman,” a mystery confronted both heaven and earth. The mystery or sacred secret that now roused universal curiosity was, Who is this woman’s seed?
AN EARTHLY “SEED” OF THE SERPENT
19. Why are Christians exhorted to be the opposite of Cain, the firstborn son of all mankind?
19 The mysterious “seed” of God’s “woman” did not prove to be Eve’s firstborn son, whom she named Cain. Cain’s being the firstborn son of all mankind did not give him the right to serve as that promised “seed.” Moreover, Cain’s heel never did get bruised by the Great Serpent, the Devil. As for bruising anyone in the head, Cain murdered his God-fearing brother Abel, possibly by striking him a crushing blow on the head. Instead of being blessed by God and receiving God’s holy spirit, Cain became the second one in the Bible to be called “cursed,” the symbolic Serpent or the Devil being the first one. (Genesis 3:14; 4:11) In this manner Cain made himself a part of the earthly “seed” of the Great Serpent, the Devil, whom he imitated in lying and committing manslaughter. He loved neither his brother, whom he could see, nor God, whom he could not see. Followers of Christ are exhorted to be the opposite of Cain, in the following words:
“We should have love for one another; not like Cain, who originated with the wicked one and slaughtered his brother. And for the sake of what did he slaughter him? Because his own works were wicked, but those of his brother were righteous.” (1 John 3:11, 12) “Too bad for them, because they have gone in the path of Cain.”—Jude 11.
20, 21. Cain imitated the Devil in committing what kind of sin, and in view of what manifestation was this possible for Cain?
20 Cain imitated the Devil, his spiritual father, “the wicked one,” in sinning against God’s holy spirit. This does not mean that Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, ever had the holy spirit. His earthly parents had lost holy spirit because of willfully breaking God’s commandment. But Cain saw the operation of holy spirit. When and how?
21 This was at the time that Cain presented to God an offering from his farming, whereas his younger brother Abel presented to God a sacrifice from slaughtered animals of his flock of sheep. Were the presentations of both of these brothers acceptable to God? Genesis 4:4-7 tells us: “Now while Jehovah was looking with favor upon Abel and his offering, he did not look with any favor upon Cain and upon his offering. And Cain grew hot with great anger, and his countenance began to fall. At this Jehovah said to Cain: ‘Why are you hot with anger and why has your countenance fallen? If you turn to doing good, will there not be an exaltation? But if you do not turn to doing good, there is sin crouching at the entrance, and for you is its craving; and will you, for your part, get the mastery over it?’”
22. What manifestation of holy spirit did Cain observe?
22 Of course, God did not appear to Cain and Abel on this occasion. How he looked with favor upon Abel and his sacrificial offering, we are not told. But there must have been some visible evidence of this. An operation of God’s holy spirit this was. Cain saw this and, also, with no word from God. So he grew hot with great anger and his countenance fell. He did not react humbly and with repentance at the visible operation of holy spirit from the God to whom he was making an unacceptable offering.
23. Cain’s sin against holy spirit took what form, and why?
23 Plainly, Cain was not doing right. God’s voice out of the invisible explained to him the situation. Too proud to humble himself, Cain did not repent and turn to doing good, even though sin was crouching as if at the door of his home and craving to seize him as its victim. He did not want to get the mastery over it, no matter what God’s holy spirit indicated to him. Not wanting an exaltation of his countenance, he schemed against the one approved by God and killed him. Thus he sinned against holy spirit.
24. What can be said about whether the one now the Devil had holy spirit and saw the operation of holy spirit?
24 This displeased God and brought his curse upon Cain. But it pleased the Great Serpent, the Devil, for he now saw an earthly son of his who acted in true copy of his spiritual father. The Devil himself had sinned against holy spirit. Besides seeing God himself, the one now the Devil had seen all the operation of holy spirit with regard to the heavenly realm and with regard to the creation of the earth and of perfect man upon it. (Job 38:7) During the time of being free from all selfish enticement, he himself had a due measure of his heavenly Father’s spirit. What this holy spirit had enabled him to do, he knew. He also saw the “spirit of undeserved kindness” expressed by God toward Adam and Eve in providing for them to enjoy perfect human life in an earthly paradise. And yet what did the heavenly ‘son of God’ do?—Hebrews 10:29.
25. How did that ‘son of God’ proceed in sinful action against holy spirit and thus what did he make of himself?
25 He misrepresented the “spirit of undeserved kindness” by telling Eve that it was motivated by selfishness on God’s part. Also, that the prohibition that God placed upon the eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and bad was motivated by God’s fear that his human creatures might gain the ability to make decisions independently of him, decisions as to what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. So, when the spirit ‘son of God’ willfully and designedly twisted the plain facts of the case and lied to deceive Eve into sinning, he sinned against the holy spirit, a sin that has no forgiveness. He had let himself be enticed by the selfish prospect of wielding sovereignty over the earth and its human inhabitants and then acted to seize that sovereignty. At that he lost God’s holy spirit. The fruitage of God’s spirit in his life shriveled up and died. He made a Devil of himself, fit only for destruction.—Hebrews 12:29; 6:7, 8.
26. How did the Devil become the “ruler of the demons,” and why will those practicing spiritism have no share in God’s kingdom?
26 This first sinner against holy spirit made a demon of himself. Angelic “sons of God” who later joined him in rebellion against God became demons like the Devil. These demons became the “seed” of the Great Serpent, and thus the Devil became the “ruler of the demons,” who came to be called Beelzebub. (Matthew 12:24-27) These are the promoters of demonism, to turn people away from worshiping the one living and true God, Jehovah. They are classed as “unclean spirits.” (Matthew 10:1, 8; 12:43-45) The practice of spiritism under the influence of these demons can result only in spiritual uncleanness to the practicer and make him unclean in God’s sight. The practice of spiritism is one of the works of the fallen flesh and will debar a person from having any share in the kingdom of God and its blessings. The unclean spirits are opposed to God’s holy spirit, and he condemns a person for having anything to do with unclean spirits.—Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Galatians 5:19, 20; Revelation 9:20, 21; 21:8.
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