Synagogue of Satan

“ These had approached, as it seemed to me, because they had heard mention of “mercy,” and “forgiveness”; and their faces were somewhat sad, as if they also would fain have drawn near unto the God of Israel, that they might receive forgiveness of sins. But the ruler of the synagogue, catching sight of them, drove them away with reproaches, reviling them as children of Satan. “Even your alms,” he cried, “we trample under our feet; away, extortioners and harlots, fit food for fire and worms!” ”

“ Whosoever, therefore, say that they are Christ's true and manifest vicars, knowing that they are living in sin, lie. Therefore the apostle says: How "do they of the synagogue of Satan say that they are Jews, and they are not, but lie"? ”

“ The devil instigated the Jews, and they the Gentiles; and both, the magistrates, to silence the testimony of Christ's witnesses, by which all were tormented. The design of the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning, was to destroy that church; but Christ's design was to try her members. Only some were to be imprisoned, and the time of trial would be limited to "ten days,"—a definite for an indefinite, but short time. Those who resist the truth contradict its advocates, and blaspheme the holy name of God, though professing to be either Jews or Christians, area "synagogue of Satan." ”

“ One difference, no doubt the chief difference, between a church of Christ and a synagogue of Satan is that the former has no other head but the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether or not a given organization has Christ as head is not to be decided merely by a formal claim. "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven." It is possible for a group to have a fine doctrinal statement and pay no attention to it. ”

“ Ah, he had come forward as the pious philanthropist—pious enough then, Heaven knew. Why had Satan thrown such lures in the way of the reputable employer, the treasurer of 'The Gates of Mercy' Synagogue, with children of his own, and the best wife in the world? ”

“ He witnessed with extreme satisfaction the burning of many witches in Heidelberg and other places, and records the most disgusting mass of drivel concerning the orgies of Satan and his female worshipers in what he calls the "synagogue of the sorcerers" Each novice, he says, as she joins this diabolical congregation, is instructed how to invest her staff with necromantic qualities by smearing it with a salve prepared from the fat of roasted children, venomous serpents, lizards, toads, and spiders. ”

“ It is a savour of life unto life, or death unto death, according as it is received or rejected. The twelve men mentioned above received it affectionately, and they were made partakers of the Holy Ghost; the others were hardened, for they refused to believe; and they calumniated the doctrine, and became Satan's preachers among the multitude, to prejudice them against Christ and his religion.
Separated the disciples - Paul, and those converted under his ministry, had doubtless been in the habit of attending public worship in the synagogue: but, on the persecuting conduct of these Jews ”

“ Now that spirit, according to the common way of speaking of the jews, was satan. For thus Christ himself, answering [105] the ruler of the synagogue, who was angry that the woman had been cured on the sabbath day, says, that satan had held her bound these eighteen years. And exactly in the same sense saint Mark employs πνευμα ἄλαλον for a spirit, which obstructed the faculty of speech. [138]
This infirmity often befalls those, who have been very long afflicted with a disorder of the loins: whence the muscular fibres of that part become contracted and rigid. ”

“ VIIIToC SATAN MEKATRIG
"Suffer not the evil imagination to have dominion over us ... deliver me from the destructive Satan."—Morning Prayer.
Without, the air was hot, heavy and oppressive; squadrons of dark clouds had rolled up rapidly from the rim of the horizon, and threatened each instant to shake heaven and earth with their artillery. But within the little synagogue of the "Congregation of Love and Mercy," though it was crowded to suffocation, not a window was open. ”

“ For the synagogues of Satan to give themselves out to be the church or Israel of God is no less than blasphemy. God is greatly dishonoured when his name is made use of to promote and patronize the interests of Satan ”

“ None of them worship Satan. The Muḥammadans must go to the churches of the Christians and the Synagogues of the Jews, and vice versa, the others must go to the Muḥammadan Mosques. They hold aloof from one another merely because of unfounded prejudices and dogmas. In America I went to the Jewish Synagogues, which are similar to the Christian Churches, and I saw them worshipping God everywhere. ”

“ By that sacred name and strange arrangements, their prophets, they thought, performed miracles. The devil was supposed to have the power of accusing mortal man at the great day of propitiation, so the Jews endeavoured to appease him with presents. They believed that on that day only he had the power to bring a charge against them, and therefore, to deceive him, they had recourse to a singular stratagem. In reading the accustomed portion of the law, they left out the beginning and the end,—an omission which was expected to cause Satan to overlook the important time. ”

“ This Christian devil-worship, for it can be called little else, crept into Judaism during the Babylonian captivity, and was originally a recognition of the dual powers of good and evil, seemingly coequal. By placing Satan in opposition to God, in giving him eternal life, and endowing him with miraculous powers, and even allowing him to upset and vanquish the plans of God, Christians have made Satan equal, if not superior, to the Deity. ”

“ Does not greater harm come from this place since the Jews themselves are demons? In the pagan temple the impiety is naked and obvious; it would not be ease to deceive a man of sound and prudent mind or entice him to go there. But in the synagogue there are men who say they worship God and abhor idols, men who say they have prophets and pay them honor. ”

“ This dualism of the ancient Persians has exerted a powerful influence upon the development of Christian theology. The very idea of an archfiend Satan, which Christianity received from Judaism, seems either to have been suggested by the Persian Ahriman, or at least to have derived its principal characteristics from that source. There is no evidence that the Jews, previous to the Babylonish captivity, possessed the conception of a Devil as the author of all evil. ”

“ The emergence of Satan as a definite supernatural personality, the head or prince of the world of evil spirits, is entirely a phenomenon of post-exilian Judaism. He is portrayed as the arch-adversary and accuser of man. It is impossible to deny Persian influence in the development of this conception, and that the Persian Ahriman (Angromainyu) , the evil personality opposed to the good, Ahura Mazda, moulded the Jewish counterpart, Satan. But in Judaism monotheistic conceptions reigned supreme, and the Satan of Jewish belief as opposed to God stops short of the dualism of Persian religion. ”

“ No atonement would have been made, and the whole world would have gone to hell. The success of the Devil would have been complete. But, according to this story, the Devil outwitted himself.
How thankful we should be to his Satanic Majesty. He opened for us the gates of Paradise and made it possible for us to obtain eternal life. Without Satan, without Judas, not a single human being could have become an angel of light. All would have been wingless devils in the prison of flame. In Jerusalem, to the extent of his power, Satan repaired the wreck and ruin he had wrought in the Garden of Eden. ”

“ And in the synagogue there was a man, that had a spirit of an unclean demon; and he cried out with a loud voice, "Ah! what have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Nazarene? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God!" ”

“ The Spirit of God, persistently resisted, is at last withdrawn from the sinner, and then there is left no power to control the evil passions of the soul, and no protection from the malice and enmity of Satan. The destruction of Jerusalem is a fearful and solemn warning to all who are trifling with the offers of divine grace, and resisting the pleadings of divine mercy. Never was there given a more decisive testimony to God's hatred of sin, and to the certain punishment that will fall upon the guilty. ”

“ Such are the monstrous conceptions of reason, when it pauses on the verge of extinction and slavishly worships its destroyer, so that it may reach the end of its torment by the destroyer absorbing it. According [Pg 192] to the Kabalists, the true name of Satan is that of Jehovah reversed, for Satan is not a black god but the negation of Deity. He is the personification of atheism and idolatry. The devil is not a personality for initiates but a force created with a good object, though it can be applied to evil: it is really the instrument of liberty. ”

“ The ease with which man believes in unearthly powers working for his hurt prepares a people to admit into its creed the doctrine of evil spirits, and although it is certain that the Jews had no belief in such spirits before their captivity in Babylon, they spoke of Satan (which means an adversary) as a messenger sent from God to watch the deeds of men and accuse them to Him for their wrong-doing. ”

“ The Satanic ideal of this age is, then, an improved social order, a moral and cultured people, who are devout worshippers of himself, though for the present they may imagine they are worshipping Jehovah through their empty religious forms and ceremonies, while they are really in a state of God-dishonoring unbelief, and all their thoughts are energized by Satan alone. The Satanic message for this age will be reformation and self-development, while the message of God is regeneration by the power of the Spirit. ”

“ What were the causes of this evil, wise men have asked, and have given no certain answer. They at Jerusalem said that it was a chastisement because of men’s neglect of worship in the Holy Temple; and certain it is, that Gentiles and outcasts from the synagogue were more often possessed than the devout. Nay, I have known some (more especially women) that, having been possessed, were cured by the offering of sacrifice, or by a more constant attending on the worship in the Temple. Others said that it was a punishment for eating swine’s flesh ”

“ The Jews were building monuments for the slain prophets of God, while by their deference to the great men of earth they were paying homage to the servants of Satan. Absorbed in their ambitious strife for place and power among men, they lost sight of the divine honors proffered them by the King of heaven. ”

“ A Syrian shepherd pointed out the vale,
And thither brought the camp-artificers
To fabricate the engines doom'd to scale
The City's sacred towers and turn her people pale.
Canto IV. The scene now changes to the infernal regions, where Satan deems it time to frustrate the Christians' aims, because it would ill-suit diabolical ends to have them recover possession of Jerusalem. Not only does Satan stimulate his hosts by reminding them of their forfeited bliss, but he encourages them to thwart the Christians by reminding them of the great deeds they have already done. ”

“ If God wills it he will send some prophet, and they are so many, who would carry out his order. So I think it is not your duty, why then trouble yourself?”. “But I belong to the chosen people of Yahweh, and I am in duty bound to do so”, replied the hermit. Whereupon they again began to wrestle and eventually Satan was thrown down. “O! I see” cried Satan “An idea has just come into my mind; let me go please, and I will tell you.” Thus obtaining his release, the Evil One addressed him as follows: “Is it not the case that you are poor and have to live on the alms of those who are devoted to you? ”

“ We must not suppose that he has the least right to this kingdom, or dominion, in which he sets himself against the divine government; yet sinners who rebel against God, are said to be Satan’s subjects. Where the gospel is not preached, he reigns without controul; and false churches, that oppose the faith contained therein, are called, Synagogues of Satan, Rev. ii. 9. and, indeed, in all those places, where Christ’s kingdom of grace doth not extend itself, there persons are said to be subjects of Satan’s kingdom ”

“ Above the great main entrance, the most common of all representations still shows Satan and his imps scowling, jeering, grinning, while taking possession of the souls of men and scourging them with serpents, or driving them with tridents, or dragging them with chains into the flaming mouth of hell. Even in the most hidden and sacred places of the medieval cathedral we still find representations of Satanic power in which profanity and obscenity run riot. ”

“ Satan was a copy of Angro-Mainyus, but he was not placed in juxtaposition to the God of Israel, for this would have been a denial of the fundamental doctrine of the Judæans. He, the Holy One, high and mighty and all-powerful, could not be limited, or in any way interfered with by one of His own creatures. Still the first step had been taken, and, in the course of time, Satan grew to be as strong and powerful as his Iranian prototype, and was endowed with a kingdom of darkness of his own, where he reigned as the supreme power of evil. ”

“ The disciples asserted that Jesus had imparted to them the power of healing the sick, of awakening170 the dead, and of casting out evil spirits. With them the practice of exorcism became common, and thus the belief in the power of Satan and demons, brought from Galilee, first took form and root. In Judaism itself the belief in demons was of a harmless nature, without any religious significance. Christianity first raised it to be an article of faith, to which hecatombs of human beings were sacrificed. The early Christians used, or rather misused, the name of Jesus for purposes of incantation. ”