“Disarming the cosmic rulers and authorities…” (Colossians

2:15)

“He could have pricked his finger and solved the problem, but he wanted to go all the way.” – Mel Gibson

“…if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them to life on the last day. For my flesh is the real food; my blood is the real drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood live in me, and I live in them.” (John 6:53-55).

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness (“erasing the charges [handwriting] that were brought against us”), which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15 (GNB)

“He stripped away the power of spiritual (cosmic) rulers and authorities…”

Charges: cheirographon – a handwritten document of a legal nature. Blotted out or erased with an “X”

“In view of all this, what can we say? If God is for us, who can be against us? Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all!..Who will accuse God's chosen people? God himself declares them not guilty! Who, then, will condemn them? Not Christ Jesus…(Romans 8:31-34)

“For I am certain that nothing can separate us from his love: neither death nor life, neither angels nor other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future, neither the world above nor the world below---there is nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

The Father is for us – he sent his only Son The Son is for us – he died and intercedes for

us to bring us to the Father (Hebrews 7:25) The Holy Spirit is for us – he also intercedes

for us by revealing Jesus to us (Hebrews 8:26) “The Father judges no one. He has given all

judgment entirely to the Son.” (John 5:22)

“I have been speaking to you in parables – but the time is coming to give up parables and tell you plainly about the Father. When that time comes, you will make your requests to him in my own name, for I need make no promise to plead (intercede) with the Father for you…

for the Father himself loves you… (John 16:25-30)

“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.” (Zechariah 3:1)

“In his quarrel with the Devil, when they argued about who would have the body of Moses…” (Jude 9)

“The huge dragon was thrown out---that ancient serpent, named the Devil, or Satan, that deceived the whole world. He was thrown down to earth, and all his angels with him…For the one who stood before our God and accused believers day and night has been thrown out of heaven.” (Revelation 12:9-10)

Paul: “the god of this age” and “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” (2 Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2)

John: “the whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) and that Satan “leads the whole world astray” (Rev. 12:9; 20:3, 8)

“Now is the time for this world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown (exposed).” (John 12:31)

“The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the Devil had done.” (1 John 3:8)

“Jesus himself became like them and shared their human nature. He did this so that through his death he might destroy the Devil…” (Hebrews 2:4)

He came as “the light of the world” (John 8:12) “because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness (“erasing the charges [handwriting] that were brought against us”), which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Colossians 2:13-15

“Then war (polemos) broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, who fought back with his angels…” (Revelation 12:7)

“Through the Son, then, God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself. God made peace through his Son’s blood on the cross and so brought back to himself all things, both on earth and in heaven.…” (Colossians 1:20-22)

[The beast] began to curse (slander) God, his name, the place where he lives, and all those who live in heaven.” (Revelation 13:6)

“The mudslinger” God is not a giving Person; God is not a

respecter of freedom God has lied; he cannot be trusted God is vengeful, punishing, unforgiving,

and a severe tyrant

“In the cross we have a glorious revelation of the heart of God. Here again, Satan has blinded man to the true character of God. In the minds of many he has made God to appear as a blood-thirsty tyrant, demanding the life of the sinner; and if it were not for Jesus Christ, it would be just too bad for man. However, the cross is not a picture of a God demanding a sacrifice of appeasement. Rather, the cross is a picture of a living Father God giving himself, through his Son, as a sacrifice of at-one-ment.” – Paul Heubach

“God is not the kind of person His enemies have made Him out to be - - arbitrary, unforgiving and severe. Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” God is just as loving and trustworthy as His Son, just as willing to forgive and heal…” – Graham Maxwell

The cross of Calvary would be looked upon by the unfallen worlds, by the heavenly universe, by Satanic agencies, by the fallen race, and every mouth would be stopped....Who is able to describe the last scenes of Christ’s life on earth, His trial in the judgment hall, His crucifixion? Who witnessed these scenes?–The heavenly universe, God the Father, Satan and his angels.” The Signs of the Times, July 12, 1899 (4ST 44:1:2)

“From the beginning it has been Satan’s studied plan to cause men to forget God, that he might secure them to himself. Hence he has sought to misrepresent the character of God, to lead men to cherish a false conception of Him. The Creator has been presented to their minds as clothed with the attributes of the prince of evil himself,–as arbitrary, severe, and unforgiving,–that He might be feared, shunned, and even hated by men. Satan hoped to so confuse the minds of those whom he had deceived that they would put God out of their knowledge.” Testimonies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 738; In Heavenly Places, 8; Review and Herald February 15, 1912

“It is beyond the power of the human mind to estimate the evil which has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment. The religion of the Bible, full of love and goodness, and abounding in compassion, is darkened by superstition and clothed with terror. When we consider in what false colors Satan has painted the character of God, can we wonder that our merciful Creator is feared, dreaded, and even hated? The appalling views of God which have spread over the world from the teachings of the pulpit have made thousands, yes, millions, of skeptics and infidels.” The Great Controversy 536 (1888); 4SP 356 (1884)

“One of the criminals hanging there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ The other one, however, rebuked him, saying, ‘Don’t you fear God? You received the same sentence he did. Ours, however, is only right, because we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong.’ And he said to Jesus, ‘Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King!’” (Luke 23:39-42)

“The army officer saw what had happened, and he praised God, saying, ‘Certainly he was a good man!’ (“This man was really the Son of God!”) When the people who had gathered there to watch the spectacle saw what happened, they all went back home, beating their breasts in sorrow.” (Luke 23:47-48 – GN)

“Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star which had fallen down to the earth, and it was given the key to the abyss.” (Revelation 9:1)

“They have a king ruling over them, who is the angel in charge of the abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon; in Greek the name is Apollyon (meaning "The Destroyer").: (Revelation 9:11)

“He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.” (Colossians 2:15, The Message)

“Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age (archonton), who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” (1 Corinthians 2:6-8)

“The truth is I slipped by mere carelessness into saying that the Enemy really loves the humans. That, of course, is an impossibility. He is one being, they are distinct from Him. Their good cannot be His. All His talk about Love must be a disguise for something else—He must have some real motive for creating them and taking so much trouble about them. The reason one comes to talk as if He really had this impossible Love is our utter failure to out that real motive. What does He stand to make out of them? That is the insoluble question.

His throne depends on the secret. Members of His faction have frequently admitted that if ever we came to understand what He means by Love, the war would be over and we should re-enter Heaven. And there lies the great task. We know that He cannot really love: nobody can: it doesn't make sense. If we could only find out what He is really up to! Hypothesis after hypothesis has been tried, and still we can't find out. Yet we must never lose hope; more and more complicated theories, fuller and fuller collections of data, richer rewards for researchers who make progress, more and more terrible punishments for those who fail—all this, pursued and accelerated to the very end of time, cannot, surely, fail to succeed.”