A Poem: Mystery of Iniquity Part 4: The Naming :: By Ron Ferguson

(with footnotes)

O Lucifer,1 O “helel” translated,                      LUCIFER
Who shares the Latin name with the planet
We know as Venus, and was created

By Jerome’s Vulgate to show that facet
Of light – the morning and evening star:
The shining one, as a chief exhibit.

O light-bearer, Assyrian “Ishtar”2
The radiant Lucifer, apostate,
You light-flood the world from your reservoir.

Your appellations revert and relate
To ancient Babylon’s grey hist’ry’s dawning,3
For in that putrid, occult mix, you conflate

Your beauty and your evil. Yawning
Dark wonders of blackened light, for Satan
Is not the true star, ev’ning or morning,

For Christ’s that Claimant, not a charlatan.
For He’s adorned in ascension’s glory,
And owns the true Light, as Custodian.

Yes, Satan, “prince of evil,” sorcery –     SATAN PRINCE OF EVIL
That warring prince intent on dethroning
The total works of God – debauchery!

That great adversary who’s condoning            ADVERSARY
All hatred, lying, murders and deceit;
The god of this world, who is enthroning

Rebellion, hate, and all that might defeat
The loving God. For Satan’s wickedness
Is perversity distilled, with conceit.

Malignant reality who’ll transgress
Until he’s cast into the lake of fire.
His usurped control, God will dispossess.

So rightly called “the devil,” “the liar”             DEVIL and LIAR
From ancient times hostile to God and man,
And scheming maliciously, who’ll not tire

In efforts to frustrate God ev’ry plan,
As evil works insidiously well
Through every nation, language and clan.

You wicked satyr,4 who tricks men to dwell
With unrewarded toil through years of life,
To pass unsaved, with hardened hearts, to hell.

From ancient times “a hairy one”4 so rife
In the display of leaven’s corruption5
So skilled, perverse, progenitor of strife.

“ha diabolos”6 – moral disruption
Of things that are right and good and honest,
We wait for your prophetic abruption.

Yes, diabolical – name and harvest;
His legacy of harm beyond dispute:
In arrogance the prime rank egoist.

The “lord of the flies”7 in great disrepute         BEELZEBUB
Baal-zebub, Ekron’s god so filthy –
In stench and pollution he’s dissolute.

Depravity and decadence we see
Where Beelzeboul has placed his influence –
His fly-blown cesspools of impurity.

His sinfulness becomes the effluence
Contaminating human hearts and minds,
That then seeps through men’s lives to influence

All human institutions, and inclines
Decision-making towards uncleanness,
So with time’s passing, what is right, declines.

O cunning Satan, who works unfairness
And pursues it in your glorious form;
Pretends to uphold a false correctness.

You twisted serpent, who is multiform             SERPENT
In deceiving ways of presentation:
From evil to light, yourself can transform.

Yes, serpent rightly set for damnation,
Contorted form to grovel in the dust –
A jewelled eye-stare, the demonstration

Of latent, cunning, dedicated lust.
That one will lie concealed, yet implements
His strategies to gain man’s misplaced trust.

Your beauty external, man compliments,
Yet serpentine, your character within –
Your heart as foul as sewerage sediments.

But that old serpent, in patterned snakeskin
Will one day glide no more in deception.
The lake of fire will show our God’s sovereign!

A great red dragon8 is one description       GREAT RED DRAGON
That’s aptly given for Lucifer’s form;
A jackal, “tannin”8 since sin’s inception.

Great dragon, and crocodile deiform
With powerful tail for harm maximized
To thrash through creation in vengeful storm.

Attacking fire’s snorted to victimize
The saints who love their God, and Him they serve,
Yet, soon this world will Satan idolize.

When evil gains its peak, and will deserve
The wrath of God that then overtakes it,
The saints for joy’s delight, will God preserve.

This dragon’s evil work will God unknit,
And usher in an earth and heavens new,
When Satan is in hell’s eternal pit.

And now another scene that we may view,         ROARING LION
Of foul-breath rant and diabolic fame;
Intimidating roaring does he spew.

Old evil aggressor, our enemy
Who prowls the saints, working for their downfall;
A roaring lion,9 the epitome

Of Lucifer’s greater destructive brawl –
The spiritual warfare that he heads
To wage the bitter war ‘gainst God, and all.

Accuser of the brethren10 falsely spreads   ACCUSER/BRETHREN
Pernicious lies and hurtful accusations too,
To ruin reputations; cut to shreds

The saints of God, their goodness to undo;
To neutralize their work as well,
Attempting to destroy each good virtue

Wherein the Holy Spirit does excel.
Each accusation takes a chosen route.
Discreditation is used to propel

These hurtful, sharpened stabs of disrepute,
The devil uses through the voice of man;
Those crooked sly barbs, so hard to refute.

Accuser of the brethren, his plan –
Before the bar of God, each sin to cite;
The failings of the saints enjoys to scan,

And throw them in the face of God. Highlight
Deficiencies, sin’s awful consequence,
Where day and night, perverse is his delight.

But in another vein, we have this sense
Of accusations at us squarely aimed,
Of guilt reminders; failings so immense,

To cause us sorrow by our guilt reclaimed,
E’en after God has wiped away each sin.
Our conscience, by accusation inflamed,

Becomes unsettled, and disturbed within,
For we lose sight of God’s forgiving grace;
Allow our souls such fear to imagine.

But soon will come the day, when on God’s face
We’ll fasten our attention with great bliss;
All memory erased of sin’s disgrace.

This great deceiver,11 not a chance he’ll miss     THE DECEIVER
To misrepresent God’s good intention;
Deceiving master of the Judas kiss!

For with his ruse of horrid invention,
He captures nations with his lying tongue,
And glistens error, to win attention

From all who seek not God, both old and young,
To live their lives in false neutrality,
With curtains of blindness before them hung.

The devil has mastered the reality
Of sinfulness and sin’s requirement –
His deceptive impartiality,

That circumcises truth for concealment,
Where Satan’s very lie becomes the fact –
His own deception, to slay discernment.

Great liar he is: from truth will extract           FATHER OF LIES
Sufficient, to dress a falsehood’s physique.
The father of lies12 works hard to subtract,

By using his guile and proven technique,
To dilute, distort, and to contradict.
The “greyness of truth” – the devil’s mystique.

Enhance the lie to strengthen the verdict,
That mankind endorses with fervent zeal.
Their judgment, (yet Satan’s), will contradict

The standards of God; His truth won’t appeal,
But atheism, agnosticism –
Beliefs that people will never repeal!

These system beliefs, like scepticism,
The father of lies has infiltrated,
So evolution, and mysticism

And rationalism, incubated
In student minds with lying deceit –
The father of lies is demonstrated!

Abaddon or Apollyon,13 greatest cheat.    APOLLYON/ABADDON
Your subterfuge in heaven caused your end
To propagate your filth, and to excrete

Destruction on the Lord, and to offend
God’s total character and holiness.
You, destroyer, none can comprehend

The horror of your base odiousness,
Working full to wreak destruction’s terror
To obliterate God’s true righteousness.

Master of demolition, sin bearer,
Apollyon, destroyer of creation;
Over demonic locust horde, carer.13

You have no part in God’s new foundation
Which is holy, pure, good and righteous.
You will not succeed in degradation.

You and your throng, in goodness – hideous
But to God, the destroyer will submit,
For his wickedness has been outrageous.

Wicked “angel of the bottomless pit”13       ANGEL OF THE ABYSS
Commander of your demons, dissolute;
King over your locust horses; and sit

Golden crowns on their heads, but substitute
Men’s faces, lions’ teeth and women’s hair,
As Satan’s demons ride on resolute.

Then for one thousand years God will prepare
The abyss where Satan will be confined.14
For that reason, the world he won’t ensnare.

Now the dark shadow is cast on mankind –     THE ANGEL/LIGHT
Gloomy with hurt, and with goodness withdrawn;
Pretense, with filaments of light, entwined.

What apparition this, in the pre-dawn?
Transformation – darkness in light’s attire15;
Helel, the satanic Venus, has drawn

The curtain of light, so it will transpire
That men see darkness as light, and ascribe
Good to evil, in all their desire.

To their evil deeds, all peoples subscribe,
Because they love darkness rather than light,
So on hearts and minds, dark light they inscribe.

The “angel of light” has blinded the sight
Of people and governments, so any act
Then performed, is in the shadows of night.

One despicable and mutant impact
That’s generated from darkness transformed,
Is that all “religion” has been hijacked –

True Christianity’s becomes deformed;
New Age beliefs, Buddhism, Hinduism,
And many other “isms”; also have swarmed

A multitude of cults and their schisms.
Darkness transformed, is light that’s mutated –
Paganism, Mystics, Atheism.

The angel of light has aggregated
For himself, all manner of distortions.
All that’s light with God, he’s abrogated.

Evil one16 (πονηρου), vileness of great proportions;      EVIL ONE
Great are wicked sins that in you abide;
Great are murders, killing and abortions.

You acquired baseness through lust and pride –
Malignant, corrupt, worthless and vicious –
Expelled from heaven; to goodness, you died.

Your evil aligns with the pernicious
Evil of the fallen, human person,
Two in one, both are surely malicious.

God has informed us that times will worsen
As to the end of the age we progress.17
He has equipped us well, as we hasten

To that end, when the Rapture will redress
What the evil one did to so many;
And never again will he them oppress.

Diabolical work – the enemy18                         THE ENEMY
Of our eternal souls, who creeps by night
To grasp the human soul in mutiny –

Removing the gospel seed in despite.
His wicked tares by night also he plants
As part of his vindictive appetite.

Over the power of Satan, God grants
To us to walk with His authority.
Never fear the enemy’s assailants.

It is clear, that for the majority,          THE GOD OF THIS WORLD
The god of this world,19 their minds has blinded,
Of those who have placed in God, no priority;

They are unbelieving and close-minded;
Eyes that refuse to see the gospel light,
For darkness won’t accept being reminded.

Intellectuals are often forthright
In their blinded, anti-Christian contempt,
And just can’t help, with students, to incite

Anti-God sentiment, in an attempt
To spew out their subversive eloquence,
And all things Christian, are not exempt.

The god of this world has scoured adherence
For minds of men and women, to movements
Such as climate change, to force convergence.

His purpose is to compel agreements
To coalesce all people into one,20
For the pleasure of Satan’s engulfments.

Satan’s airy domain had not begun           PRINCE/POWER/AIR
Until from heaven’s glory he was expelled.
Malevolence, and revenge have undone

All creation’s glory that God beheld,
And declared, “It was good”; all its wonder
Has been marred by Lucifer who rebelled.

This relentless grind to break asunder,
By the prince of the power of the air,21
And his demonic army to plunder,

Means a war against souls they will not spare.
They inhabit and rove the atmosphere.
The state of the human heart they impair,

Then defeat through sin, or use a veneer
To gloss over the true state the soul.
Wicked spirits pretend to be sincere.

Christian look up! Satan’s not in control.
But the full armour of God we must take.
He can’t possess us – not in part, or whole,

But we struggle against that evil snake;
Against powers, dark forces, and rulers,
Against those, who like of evil, to partake;

In heavenly places against numbers –
Spiritual forces of wickedness.
In this battle, God’s saints are the winners!

The foul, crafty one, filled with bitterness     THE TEMPTER
Against his expulsion, sought his revenge.
To collapse Eden’s joy with bitterness,

Was Satan’s desire, so he could avenge
Himself on God, and mar God’s creation.
Among his obscene filth, he would scavenge

Techniques allied to his gross vocation –
Lust of the eyes, and flesh; and of the mind,
And to Eve came with quiet sedation.

The devil’s temptation was more refined,
When to the Lord, he came with subtleness.
His vile temptations were promptly declined.

God’s holy word answered the putridness
Of Satan’s crafted falsifications.
God’s word always preserves the sacredness.

Do not say in your communications,22
“It is by God I am being tempted.”
God tempts no one, but by hesitations

In your life, enticing lust has prompted
You to fall into sin. Flesh is to blame.
However, a life that is bankrupted

Can be delivered from failure and shame.
O God, lead us not into temptation.
Let us be faithful to Your holy Name.

Come the day, when the tempter’s location
Will be eternal in the lake of fire,
And holy, will be the new creation.

END OF PART FOUR

  1. See Footnote 2 in Part 1 for Helel, and Lucifer.
  2. (From The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica) – Ishtar, (Akkadian), Sumerian Inanna, in Mesopotamian religion, goddess of war and sexual love. Ishtar is the Akkadian counterpart of the West Semitic goddess, Astarte. She was associated with the storehouse and thus personified as the goddess of dates, wool, meat, and grain. The Akkadian Ishtar is also, to a greater extent, an astral deity, associated with the planet Venus. With Shamash, the sun god, and Sin, the moon god, she forms a secondary astral triad. In this manifestation her symbol is a star with 6, 8, or 16 rays within a circle. As goddess of Venus, delighting in bodily love, Ishtar was the protectress of prostitutes and the patroness of the alehouse.

Part of her cult worship probably included temple prostitution. Her popularity was universal in the ancient Middle East, and in many centers of worship, she probably subsumed numerous local goddesses.  In later myth she was known as Queen of the Universe.

  1. See Footnote 18 in Part 3. Satan was very much behind Nimrod, this wicked founder of Babel (Babylon).
  2. Satyr – hairy one. Mentioned in Greek mythology as a creature composed of a man and a goat, supposed to inhabit wild and desolate regions. The Hebrew word is rendered also “goat” (Leviticus 4 v 24) and “devil”, i.e., an idol in the form of a goat (17 v 7; 2 Chr 11 v 15). When it is said (Isaiah 13 v 21; comp 34 v 14) “the satyrs shall dance there,” (KJV) the meaning is that the place referred to shall become a desolate waste. Some render the Hebrew word as “baboon,” a species of which is found in Babylonia.  (Easton’s Bible Dictionary) The word is used once in the NASB – 2Chr 11 v 15 and he set up priests of his own for the high places, for the satyrs, and for the calves which he had made.

It was the time when a wicked man called Jeroboam set up evil and destroyed the true worship of God.

(Strong’s Concordance) – Usage: “Devil, goat, hairy, kid, rough, satyr.” Satyr, may refer to a demon possessed goat like the swine of Gadara (Matthew 8 v 30–32).

Isaiah 34 v 14 (KJV) – “The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest.” (NASB) – “The desert creatures shall meet with the wolves, the hairy goat also shall cry to its kind.  Yes, the night monster shall settle there and shall find herself a resting place.”

  1. Leaven. Through the scriptures without exception, leaven is always a symbol for evil. The most misunderstood aspect of this is the Kingdom Parable in Matthew 13 – Matt 13 v 33. He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal until it was all leavened.” This has nothing to do with a good, permeating effect of yeast, for the gospel does not seep through the world until all is righteous. The opposite is true. The leaven is evil. See Part 5 Footnote 15.
  2. The Anglicized form of the Greek – “ὁ διάβολος” meaning “the devil.”
  3. Beelzebub or Beelzebul is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshipped in Ekron. The name Beelzebub (more correctly “Beelzeboul”) is associated with the Canaanite god, Baal. The meaning is “lord of the flies” but it has others as well. The Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons through Beelzebub.
  4. The dragon represents Satan in the book of Revelation. Dragon is translated from three different Hebrew words; tannin (or its plural form: tanninim), tannim, and tannoth. Tannim and tannoth are the plural forms of the Hebrew word tan, which means “jackal,” so, tannim really should have been rendered “jackals” (as it is in the NASB) rather than “dragons,” mainly in the KJV. From the biblical context, the Hebrew word “tannin” seems to mean “great reptile” and therefore represents a large category of creatures, rather than one specific species. Satan, though, is termed the “great red dragon” (Rev 12 v 3), and chapter 12 of Revelation is Satan’s attempt to wipe out the Jewish saints of the Tribulation who are fleeing for their lives as the Lord mentions in Matthew 24 v 15-22.
  5. Roaring lion. 1Pet. 5 v 8-9 “Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, but resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.”
  6. Accuser of the brethren. Rev 12 v 10 “I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.”
  7. Deceiver. Satan is the great deceiver and that trait is passed to all those under his control as we have in this verse – 2John 1 v 7 “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.”
  8. Father of lies. John 8 v 44-45 “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.”
  9. Apollyon. The key verse here is Rev 9 v 11 “They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon. “Abaddon”(Hebrew) means “destruction/destroyer,” and “Apollyon” (Greek) means “destroyer.” The fifth trumpet judgment in the Tribulation is a terrible one, but still men do not repent. The account is in Rev 9 v 1-11 where the bottomless pit is opened and a mass of demons emerge, and John described them as being a bit like demons. Their leader is Apollyon. Rev 9 v 3 “And out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth, and power was given them, as the scorpions of the earth have power.”
  10. Satan chained in the abyss. The relevant passage is this one – Rev 20 v 1-3 “And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed. After these things he must be released for a short time.”

The event is very clear. Straight after the Second Coming of Christ, when the Battle of Armageddon will occur, and Christ returns to Jerusalem, the Antichrist and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire. Satan is seized and chained for 1,000 years in the abyss, during which the Millennial reign of Christ happens. This ensures a time of total peace as frequently detailed by the Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah chapter 11. Some bible versions translate as “bottomless pit”.  The great Greek scholar, F B Meyer said this, “ἐπὶ τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ.  Cf. Revelation 5 v 1.  “In” the hand, [Strongs 4147] the chain could not be held because of its great weight.  It lies “on” the hand, and hangs down on both sides.”

  1. An angel of light. Satan’s great deception is to confuse light and darkness. He can transform himself.  2Corinthians 11 v 14 and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
  2. The evil one. Eph. 6 v 16 “in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.” 2Thess 3 v 3 “but the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.”  1John 2 v 13 “I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning.  I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.
  3. See Part 5 Footnote 10. Days are darkening quickly now like a fast-developing cataract. It is subjective, but I believe this has become so much worse from the 1980s onwards. In the last 20 years, it has accelerated.
  4. The enemy. Matt. 13 v 39 “and the enemy who sowed them (tares) is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.” 1Tim 5 v 14 “Therefore, I want younger widows to get married, bear children, keep house, and give the enemy no occasion for reproach.”
  5. The god of this world. 2Cor 4 v 3 “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 2Cor 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.” The world is in the devil’s control, but that extends only as far as God’s permissive will is concerned.  It could be said that Satan is on a tight leash.  The glorious fact is that one day – Rev. 11 v 15 “The seventh angel sounded and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.'”
  6. I have my definite views on climate change, but whether, hoax, delusion, or real, it is a diversion dismissive of all history. What this movement is doing is attempting to unite the world like nothing before it has done.  After the Rapture which ends the Church age, the beast that comes from the sea (the leader of the new Roman Empire/Antichrist [book of Daniel; Revelation 13]) will unite all peoples and bring them into submission with the mark of the beast.  It is said the world is global but it is fast becoming uniform.  Climate change frenzy seems to be one of these uniting aspects.
  7. Prince of the power of the air. Eph 2 v 2 “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Satan’s domain is the earth and its atmosphere.  In a spiritual sense Satan possesses the atmosphere/air but in no way is threatening to Christians.  He is powerless in that regard.  This next verse indicates that the demonic world is in a hierarchy and that is the place of spiritual struggle.  We don’t battle worldly forces and powers for we are not of this world.  Eph 6 v 12 “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
  8. See James 1 v 13-15.

ronaldf@aapt.net.au