Cohoon/Gary Debate on satan

 
 
 Proposition: 
 The Scriptures teach that God created a ...being that fell...and 
now is the epitome of evil known as "Satan."

AFFIRM: Bobby Cohoon
DENY: James Gary

We know that the Bible is filled with “types.”  Melchezedik was a 
type of Christ. The animal slain for the skins that covered Adam 
and Eve also a type of Christ who would have his blood shed as a 
covering of our sins. The King of Tyre represents also a type: a 
type of Satan. Of the King of Tyre Ezekiel recorded “Thou hast 
beene in Eden the garden of God” (Ez. 28:13 KJV 1611).  How could 
the king of Tyre have been in the Garden of Eden? The king of 
Tyre was a type of Satan. 

In his last sentence James asked “Then why does the Bible say sin 
was introduced to the world by one man (Rom 5:12)?”  It is 
recorded that Adam sinned. Satan was never given a command to not 
eat from the tree, Adam was.  Satan was already fallen; man was 
not. Satan had already assumed his “adversarial” role while man 
and the world was yet sinless. When man acted on the temptation 
he, man, introduced sin to the world. Thus Paul recorded in his 
epistle to the Romans “Wherefore, as by one man sinne entred into 
the world, and death by sin: and so death passed vpon all men, 
for that all haue sinned.”

Sin entered the world when Adam followed the course laid out by 
James as the path to sin: “But euery man is tempted, when hee is 
drawen away of his owne lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath 
conceiued, it bringeth forth sinne: and sinne, when it is 
finished, bringeth forth death.” (James 1:15 KJV 1611). 

To the New Testament world Satan was a very real being. Our 
Savior was tempted by him after His baptism (Matthew 4).  Jesus 
believed in a “real” Satan: out of 29 passages in the Bible that 
refer to Satan, 22 are from Jesus. Throughout the New Testament 
Satan, “satanas,” is used as a proper noun. 

In referencing the testing of Job, James said that it was 
actually God who gave Satan the power. That though is not what 
the Bible records. Satan asked God “Hast not thou made an hedge 
about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on 
euery side?” (Job 1:10). God has a “protecting” hedge around Job, 
no?

That hedge protected Job from Satan’s power. God tells Satan “And 
the Lord said vnto Satan, Behold, all that hee hath is in thy 
power” (Job 1:12). God never says, “Here Satan let me give you 
this power.” Satan already had the power. God simply lifts the 
hedge of protection from around Job. God inflicts nothing on Job, 
he simply allows it to happen. James says he believes that God 
Himself inflicts the problems on Job, yet the Bible does not even 
suggest that. The Bible says That Satan has the power as God has 
lifted the hedge from around him. 

I will admit that God does use those who are “evil” to His 
advantage (The Book of Habakkuk) but God doesn’t  create the 
evil. In Matthew 12:24 it says “But when the Pharisees heard it, 
they said, This fellow doeth not cast out deuils, but by 
Beelzebub the prince of the deuils.” Matthew then records “And 
Iesus knew their thoughts, and said vnto them, Euery kingdome 
diuided against it selfe, is brought to desolation: and euery 
citie or house diuided against it selfe, shall not stand” 
(Matthew 12:25 KJV 1611). 

I asked you brother James, if God were the “adversary” in the 
Book of Job would God not be a house divided?

Matthew records in Chapter four “the Temptation” of Jesus.  Jesus 
was tempted by God or the Devil? Matthew writes, “Then was Iesus 
led vp of the Spirit into the wildernesse, to bee tempted of the 
deuill” (Matthew 4:1 KJV 1611).

Could Jesus have been tempted by God and not the Devil? The 
answer is a solid NO. It would have again created a situation of 
a “House Divided.” And, Jesus has said that a house divided 
cannot stand. But had Jesus not said that we could still rest 
assure that the temptation was from the Devil, Satan, and not God 
as James wrote the following: “Let no man say when he is tempted, 
I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with euill, 
neither tempteth he any man” (James 1:13 KJV 1611).  Just as Job 
was cursed by Satan, albeit God allowed, Jesus was tempted by the 
same Satan. 

As for the spiritual being of Satan, Jesus cast demons out of 
people. These demons were called “evil spirits” (Luke 8:2; Luke 
7:21).  To inhabit the body of a person they would have to be in 
spiritual form. These “evil spirits,” “devils” were inside 
possessing the bodies of men. Jesus spoke to the spirits inside 
of one such man: And Iesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? 
And he said, Legion: because many deuils were entred into him 
(Luke 8:30 KJV 1611). 

James has made a point of saying that in the Old Testament 
adversary was a translation and if it had been a “name” it would 
have been a transliteration. In the New Testament Satan is not a 
translation but a transliteration. IN his 1385 Bible Wycliffe 
does not translate the Greek “satanas” but merely transliterates 
it as a proper noun: And if Satanas castith out Satanas, he is 
departid ayens him silf; therfor hou schal his kingdom 
stonde?(Matthew 12:26  Wycliffe 1358).  In both cases the Greek 
word was “satanas.” It was not translated but transliterated and 
it was a proper noun. Satan was a real spiritual being. Jesus 
recognized this as did the New Testament writers. 

One other statement that was made by Brother James is “We’re told 
by some “scholars” that the book of Revelation was written until, 
as late as 96 AD.” Having nothing to do with this debate, that is 
an intriguing statement: Maybe a possible debate subject in the 
future? There is no internal evidence to suggest a date as late 
as 96 AD, as a matter of fact all internal evidence points to a 
date before AD 70, internal evidence suggest that the entire New 
Testament could have been written before the fall of Jerusalem in 
AD 70. Any takers?

James has laid out a nice presentation of his ideas but he fails 
when he suggest that God is his own adversary. For God to be such 
would present the very situation that Jesus says cannot work: A 
house divided cannot stand. Satan was a very real spiritual 
being, acknowledged by Jesus, created by God (as all things were) 
and thus he was created good. We have no knowledge of God 
creating anything past the creation week. And, at the end of that 
week the Bible records “And God saw euery thing that hee had 
made: and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31 KJV 1611). 
Satan fell from that state of righteousness and became the 
epitome of all that is evil: “SATANAS”

In Him,
Bobby Cohoon