Job 4:17
Job 4:12-21
Now a word was brought to me stealthily, and my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, and made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed by my face; the hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: “Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker? He puts no trust even in His servants; and against His angels He charges error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth! Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; unobserved, they perish forever. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, yet without wisdom.”
Whenever an angel startled a person, it was often followed up with, “Do not be afraid.” (Matthew 28:5; Luke 1:13, 30; 2:10) In contrast, the actions of the spirit of Job 4:12-15 is clearly demonic, and is especially evident in its mischaracterization of God’s love. After all, Jesus did not seem to share the evil spirit’s view of God’s alleged disconcern for mankind, when He said: “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7) Moreover, the true reflection of Jesus’ indiscriminate compassion for mankind is reflected at Matthew 9:36: “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.” Not everyone will be saved, as most will end up in hell, but God, for His part, is willing that “all to come to repentance.” (2nd Peter 3:9)
Satan sought God’s company to solicit his challenge (Job 1:9-11) and he was a two-time loser, both at Job 1:21-22 and Job 2:10. However, Satan is tenacious, and he found Job’s three friends as a means to mess the Job’s mind, and that worked somewhat, as Job became confused, and thought that God was out for him.
David Robison: “The truth of the matter is that we
are all precious to God. We are not insignificant
and our lives are not spent hidden from the
loving eyes of God. Not even a sparrow falls
without God noticing, how much more us?
Eliphaz may have received a message from a
spirit, but that spirit, and his message, was not
from God.” (Close Encounters of the Scary
When Satan asks, “Can mankind be just before God?”, can Calvinists answer “Yes,” when they simultaneously reject that Jesus died for “mankind”, but only dying for a comparatively small, select group? In fact, some Calvinists warn that you shouldn’t randomly tell someone that Jesus died for them, because you could be lying to them, if they are not of the secret elect. God gave Jesus to the world according to John 3:16, but to the 5-Point Calvinist, that’s just an elect world, as the vast majority of mankind is doomed from the womb, eternally passed by through “Preterition” or “Reprobation.”
Consider the Calvinistic perspective:
John Calvin: “Two people may hear the same teaching together; yet one is willing to learn, and the other persists in his obstinacy. They do not differ in nature, but God illumines one and not the other.” (Acts: Calvin, Crossway Classic Commentaries, p.229, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “When God prefers some to others, choosing some and passing others by, the difference does not depend on human dignity or indignity. It is therefore wrong to say that the reprobate are worthy of eternal destruction.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, pp.120-121, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “...the secret counsel of God whereby He chooses some to salvation and destines others for eternal destruction.” (Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, p.53, emphasis mine)
John Calvin: “At this point in particular the flesh rages when it hears that the predestination to death of those who perish is referred to the will of God.” (Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Romans and Thessalonians, p.208, emphasis mine)
Calvinist, George Whitefield: “I believe the doctrine of reprobation, in this view, that God intends to give saving grace, through Jesus Christ, only to a certain number, and that the rest of mankind, after the fall of Adam, being justly left of God to continue in sin, will at last suffer that eternal death which is its proper wages.” (A Letter from George Whitefield to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, emphasis mine)
The Calvinistic spirit: “Can [the non-elect] be just before God? Can [those whom God passes by] be pure before his Maker? He puts no trust even in His servants; and against His angels He charges error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth! Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; unobserved, they perish forever. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They [the non-elect] die, yet without wisdom.”
One Calvinist explains: “God could have justly left all mankind to perish in their sin and misery, as He left the angels which kept not their first estate, but according to the good pleasure of His will, He chose in Christ, before the foundation of the world, all whom He purposed to save.”
And what of those He allegedly, purposed not to save? According to Calvinism, therefore, the theology of Satan is perfectly in line for the vast majority of mankind, whom God allegedly “passes by,” and has “justly left,” and destines for eternal destruction. After all, according to Calvinism, it’s only the elect that can be “just before God” and “pure before his Maker.” As for the vast majority of mankind, “they die, yet without wisdom.” It makes you wonder if Augustine also had a visit from an invisible spirit when he taught his form of predestination in the 4th century. The reality, though, is he didn’t actually need that. He just needed to be influenced by someone who was, such as by the Platonic Philosophers, whose origin in philosophy was through Plato, and his teacher, Socrates, who admitted to spirit influences, which of course Augustine defended against being demonic, since Socrates transmitted such great teachings, preserved by his student Plato. So there you go; Calvinism and the doctrine of demons.
