The (Seed) Plot Thickens

If only it was that easy…

Toward the end of our look at the First Dispensation, I mentioned that the curse God pronounced on the serpent in Eden was the seed plot of the entire Biblical narrative.

“…And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.” – Genesis 3:15

I also gave my reasons why I believe that the serpent either was Satan, or represented Satan. This promise that the “seed of the woman” would crush the serpent (and his kingdom) represents a spiritual war  going on in the background of human affairs which greatly affected (and continues to affect) man’s history.  Having a proper perspective of the seed plot and the war is vital to understanding many of the events in the Biblical narrative and the narrative of our own lives.

We took a detour from this important topic during our discussions of the Second and Third Dispensations in order to address faith, organized religion, and human government. However, the events of the Fourth Dispensation present a good opportunity to address this subject again.

The Targets

The Fourth Dispensation was defined by the covenant God established with Abraham and the representative nation formed by Abraham’s descendants (Israel).

I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” – Genesis 12:2-3

The Abrahamic covenant states that the nation comprised of Abraham’s descendants would be a blessing to ALL the other nations in the world.  This blessing is due to the fact that the Seed of the Woman; the One who will redeem mankind, reverse Adam’s transgression, pay the penalty for Original Sin, and reclaim rulership of the earth from the serpent – would be a descendant of Abraham!

Knowing this, it would make sense that Satan and his forces would target the fledgling Jewish nation as a part of the war to prevent the advent of the Redeemer.

The Warriors

Now the term “war” may seem like a bit of an exaggeration, especially since we do not have the ability to directly observe much of what goes on in the spiritual realm, but a look at the end of the Fourth Dispensation provides a dramatic example of the scope and impact of the theater of this war.

At face value, the 10 Plagues visited upon Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt was God’s judgment for the failure of the Fourth Dispensation.  But there was more to it than that.  Each of the plagues specifically targeted a member (or members) of the pantheon of “gods” that the Egyptians worshipped.

Our first inclination is to believe that these so called “gods” were not real, but made up by mystics.  However there is evidence that there was significant supernatural power behind the Egyptian religion.

The Bible clearly states that mystics in Pharaoh’s court could access supernatural power – to the degree that they could even duplicate the first two plagues God sent through Moses!

It seems that the Egyptian gods were either supernatural beings (fallen angels) or were to some degree associated with these beings via the mystics’ machinations.

The Battle

Here is a summary of the Plagues and the associated “god(s)”

Plague 1: Nile water into blood – Hapi: god of the Nile

Plague 2: Frogs in the land  – Hekhet, the frog-headed goddess of fertility, water, and renewal

Plague 3: Lice from dust – Geb: Egyptian god of the Earth (Pharoah’s mystics were not able to duplicate this or any of the next seven plagues.  The lice infestation also made them ceremonially unclean and therefore unable to perform rituals to the gods – if only lice could affect all mystics in a similar manner…)

Plague 4: Infestation of Flies – Khepri: Egyptian god of resurrection, creation, movement of the Sun, rebirth; depicted as having the head of a fly or beetle (lovely).

Plague 5: Death of Cattle/livestock – Hathor: cow-headed goddess of love and protection.

Plague 6: Boils on the skin of Egyptians – Isis: goddess of medicine and peace. Im-Hotep: real person turned deity, patron of wisdom and medicine. Sekhmet: lion-headed deity of plagues, believed to bring about or prevent epidemics or pestilence.

Plague 7: Hail and fire rain down – Nut: Sky goddess. Shu: god of air. Tefnut: goddess of water/moisture.

Plague 8: Locusts– Senehem: locust-headed, god of protection from ravages of pests. Seth- Egyptian God of Storms and Disorde

Plague 9: Darkness – Ra or Amon-Ra: god of the sun.  Osirus: sky god; sun was his right eye, moon his left.

Plague 10: Death of the firstborn – Pharaoh himself who was considered Horus (son of Isis and Osiris) in the flesh.  Min: god of reproduction.  Anubis: god of the dead and embalming.

The Plagues not only resulted in freedom for the Jewish nation, they showed that the God of Abraham was superior to the gods of the Egyptians (some of the mystics were even convinced). They also increased the spread of the reverence and respect of God’s power into other nations ahead of the Israelites.

Monsters under the bed

But this brings up a point I touched on earlier.  When we initially studied the mystics a few months ago, I portrayed them as charlatans who attempted to gain power and rule through guile and deception (as well as exploiting human nature).  And in the vast majority of cases, that’s true.

However, I intentionally left something out of the posts on mystics because I wasn’t ready to examine it until now.

The truth is that the fragile house of cards that the mystics built on secrets and lies would be unlikely to allow them to remain in such positions of power and influence through the ages.  They’ve had help.  Supernatural help.

Some of the most powerful and influential mystics through the ages have used (and been used by) spiritual entities that are in fierce opposition to God’s plan.

These beings are intelligent, powerful, immortal, and evil.  They are at war with God and anyone who chooses Him.  We can’t see them or touch them, but they are all around us and they desire our destruction.

If all this sounds a bit disturbing and spooky to you, that’s because IT IS!  We’re extremely uncomfortable with the idea of beings we can’t see influencing our world.  Even Christians who acknowledge the existence evil spiritual beings prefer to ignore them most of the time.

Unfortunately, unlike the monsters that were under our beds as children, pretending they don’t exist won’t make them go away.

Understanding the enemy

I mentioned them briefly when we discussed the origin of the Nephilim in the Second Dispensation but I haven’t gone into a detailed discourse on the subject until now because I wanted make sure we understood the roles of God and man in our historical narrative first.

Now its time we got to know our enemy.   In the next post we will begin our journey into the dark side with a look at the one who started it all; the greatest enemy of man; the first and grandest failure of creation – the being called Satan.

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E. M.