Nick, you are told directly that the dragon represents kings, kings whose god is their belly, kings who serve mammon and not God, kings who are evil as they follow the thoughts of their own imagination, kings that are sinful because they serve their desires in an ungodly way from their own imaginations. The dragon/kings is also called the Old Serpent. To be Carnally MINDED you are told is DEATH. Through one human DEATH was brought to all. That human brought DEATH because they were carnally minded. Humans ARE likened to serpents in SCRIPTURE and beasts because humans are like NATURAL beasts, in what they do not know they corrupt themselves. Jesus calls men vipers, for being blind, as a serpent is both blind and deaf. My understanding of the serpent, who lives naturally only through a carnal mind, symbolizing man when he is of a carnal mind is From direct scripture. What is made up is that the serpent was possessed by some rebel wicked angel that spoke to Eve, and Eve didn’t even question how it was possible a serpent could speak. The serpent/ carnal beast, represented Eve’s own Carnal mind, which brought her the punishment of DEATH. Eve was deceived by the serpent, serpents represent being ignorant of God, creatures who are deaf and blind. Scripture says that man through his thoughts/carnal mind deceive himself. Scripture says that humans eat the fruit of their OWN way. Eve and Adam ate the fruit of their own way. We have our OWN imaginations Nick, and we likewise have been given by God certain desires. Eve desired knowledge, you saw her reasoning in her mind saying the fruit looked good and would probably taste good. A wicked rebel angel does not give us desires. God made Adam and Eve curious creatures who desire knowledge, to know things. God gave man tastebuds and eyes to enjoy creation through. God also made us independent creatures who can think for themselves. He gave us an imagination so that we could have our own thoughts. Tell me what I say is not true Nick? We are not God, we are ignorant, God must teach us and give us carnal beasts of the fruits of His Spirit so that we can be in the image of Him, instead of the image of an ignorant beast that only knows what it knows naturally. You are told than man invents evil, he walks after the imagination of his own heart. He is flawed in his own reasoning because he is ignorant and he produces lies, slander through his own imagination, he is not said to be possessed or influenced by a rebel spirit, he IS likened to a beast of carnal mind who has a forked tongue.

Nick,

First off,

By their nature snakes have poor eyesight, some are actually totally blind and they are deaf to sounds that travel through the air.

Psalm 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is LIKE the poison of a SERPENT: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

Biblical fact, Humans are likened to serpents.

Matthew 12:34 O generation of VIPERS, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance OF the HEART the mouth speaketh.

Biblical fact, men walk after their OWN thoughts. So what Nick, you think God gave angels their own thoughts but not man, we are just vessels that are subjected to the thoughts of invisible wicked rebel spirits? That’s NOT biblical, but a delusional fable.

Isaiah 65:2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their OWN THOUGHTS;

Psalms 49:9 That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. 10 For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. 11 Their INWARD THOUGHT is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. 12 Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. 13 This THEIR WAY is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

Jeremiah 18:12 And they said, There is no hope: but we will WALK after our OWN DEVICES, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.

I say man walks after his OWN devices, that is DIRECT scripture. What do you say Nick?

Proverbs 26:11 As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly. 12 Seest thou a man wise in HIS OWN conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.

Another example of humans being likened to a creature on earth, and a man being evil by his OWN thoughts.

Matthew 15:19 For OUT OF the heart PROCEED evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

If I say out of a man’s heart proceeds evil thoughts, you say I am a liar, so Jesus is thus a liar to you also.

Proverbs 16:Consulting his eyes to devise froward things, Moving his lips he hath accomplished evil.

Psalm 10:2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that THEY HAVE IMAGINED.

So another creature is able to have pride and evil thoughts but man is just a vessel according to you, who cannot himself of his own have pride and evil thoughts from within his heart. Talk about a FOOLISH doctrine of which is directly against direct scripture.

Psalm 21:11 For they intended evil against thee: THEY IMAGINED a mischievous device, which they are not able to perform.

Luke 1:51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the IMAGINATION OF THEIR HEARTS.

These passages are all against you and there are more. They tell you directly that we are not just vessels, we are independent creatures with our own thoughts. They tell you that a human’s wickedness comes from within his OWN mind, that evil is devised by man himself.

Explain yourself Nick. All you did in your last post was say how I am wrong “expounding false dogma”. Prove how it is false, you gave no understanding of what you believe is the truth, with scripture to back it up. If you so bother to do so, make sure that you DIRECTLY ADDRESS the scriptures I gave.

Your last post was pathetic, makes we wonder why I ever responded to you after so long in the first place.

I believe in what the scriptures directly say, not in fables.

1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we DECEIVE OURSELVES, and the truth is not in us.

Ephesians 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God THROUGH the IGNORANCE that is IN them, BECAUSE OF the BLINDNESS of their heart:

When someone paints a picture, you want to tell me that isn’t actually their mind through their imagination designing and creating it? When someone writes a story, that story didn’t come from their imagination? When someone tells a true story but then embellishes in it a little, that embellishing didn’t come from their own imagination?

Nick, God designed serpents to have poor or no eyesight at all, and be deaf, God also designed them as ignorant creatures only behaving according to what is in their nature, this is the same for all creatures on earth that He made, including humans. Unlike all other creatures that God had made however, humans were made being self aware, having self identity, they were given the capacity to learn, think, contemplate, reason, form mental images of something not present (have an imagination).

Have you never thought about God’s creation? How we are like and unlike other creatures that He made? Humans were given the capacity to go from being ignorant creatures following their own nature, following their own way by the thoughts of their own imagination, to receiving the mercy of God, God giving man the fruits of His Spirit, so that we could learn from Him and He could make us into His image.

If scripture compares us to animals, there is understanding to be had by it. If God said He made HUMANS in His own image, there is understanding to be had by it.

As said prior, God gave man a desire for knowledge, it is not a sin to desire knowledge. But the source of knowledge the source of truth does not come from our selves, so when we imagine things attempting to establish that which is true from our OWN selves we produce nothing but lies, slander against the truth.

THIS is UNDERSTANDING the scriptures,

10 This evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

False gods are LIES, SLANDER against God, said to be invented by man’s own imagination, as man desires to KNOW, he fills in gaps because he is ignorant and invents through his imagination false beliefs. Superstitions likewise are the perfect example of man’s imagination, displaying how incredibly ignorant and foolish man is. Man’s imagination slanders God, our imaginations are a DEVIL as the word devil means slanderer/liar. Humans falsely accuse others out of their OWN heart, walking according to their own way. A human who is a false accuser is a devil/slanderer. The emperors of Rome were wicked walking after the imagination of their OWN thoughts from within their heart, they falsely accused Christians and thus were rightfully called the DEVIL as they were nothing but slanderers.

You believe in FABLES, not in the written word, you don’t bother to apply understanding of the written word, you trust in fables, not mindful at all to what is clearly given to you.

Very simple understanding of scripture, BASIC unless you are BLIND in fables and hold stubborn foolish pride when the truth is displayed in direct scriptures before you, and you reject it.

A MAN in Revelation is throwing Christians into prison and executing them. A MAN. He is called a devil which means false accuser/slanderer.

Proverbs 10:18 He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander, is a fool.

Psalm 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. 4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

Matthew 15:19 For OUT OF the heart PROCEED evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

A man is throwing them in prison. A man is being called a devil/slanderer, is he not falsely accusing Christians and persecuting them? WHY is this man doing that, what understanding do we have from other passages as to WHY. NOPE he’s not possessed, he’s not a vessel being manipulated or influenced by some invisible wicked creature. According to direct scripture we are to KNOW exactly why!! He’s a devil because as scripture tells us all over the place multiple, multiple times that he follows the thoughts of his own imagination, because he devices evil from within his own mind.

Nick,

You are not comprehending at all what I am getting at, serpents are creatures who literally have bad eye sight and cannot hear, like a bat also is blind. This is not from my imagination this is fact.

God made man with eyes to see and ears to hear. That is likewise a fact.

We read in scripture that God cursed certain people, making them blind. We also read of Jesus healing them from their blindness. This blindness literal means that they cannot see with their eyes.

There is another blindness spoken of within man in scripture however and that is the blindness I have been referring to,

14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Are they literally blind in this passage. NO, it represents their mind, their ignorance, their ways are blind to God’s ways.

As you said, “men are not given the Spirit of God as of right”.

God gives the Spirit as He pleases and those who do not have it are the blind leading the blind. Without God’s Spirit we are blind, such is by our nature that we are blind, by our nature we are ignorant of God. God must call us to Him.

Men are blind they cannot SEE the TRUTH, KNOW of the TRUTH unless God gives it to them. Likening a man to a serpent, as they are literally blind and deaf, is exactly what scripture does.

4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;

God can give man commandments but they don’t hear those commandments, they follow their own ways, they follow lies from their own heart by the thoughts of their own imagination.

Serpents and all other creatures that God made, except for man, are not called by God to know of Him, to learn of Him, He didn’t even remotely give them the capacity to do so. He gave it to us, it is our intellect that separates us from the animals. That intellect can receive of the fruits of God’s Spirit, but without it, it can and does create it’s own path to follow from it’s own imagination. It’s a carnal mind like that of other creatures where it knows naturally not of God, it is by its own self not capable of truth.

Nick we are likened to serpents and other creatures for a reason, but you don’t want to be mindful of such.

Besides serpents being literally blind and deaf, they are of a carnal mind, a mind that knows not God. We also are of a carnal mind, and of our own selves we cannot come to know God, He must call us.

We are not said that we do evil because we are vessels possessed or influenced by wicked rebel spirits. We are said to do evil because we follow a carnal mind, which brings us death. Animals also have carnal minds, and that is all they know to follow, and that is all that God gives them to follow. Those carnal minds, by their nature serve their flesh in order to live, by their nature they fight or flee, they display dominance and set up territories and will fight or flee from that territory, depending on the perceived threat. Does that not sound to you like the behavior of man also? Man likewise serves his flesh in order to live, he fights or flees depending on the perceived threat. Man is desperate and eats his own young, is that because they have been possessed by a wicked spirit, or is it because they are like a beast of carnal mind, far from the knowledge of God and His ways, only knowing to serve the flesh? Our carnal minds are different from animals, it has an imagination, it can invent, it is only capable of inventing superstitions and fables however without the Spirit of truth that God gives.

Nick, as I said we are likened to animals in scripture, such is for a purpose, of which one is to be mindful of. We are like a dog that returns to his own vomit, we are like a dog as we are carnally minded like a dog, and thus we behave like they do. Lions fight and are territorial that is in their nature, such is true for man, it’s not that they are possessed or influenced by wicked rebel spirits. Do we ever see lions change, overcome their instincts and not be aggressive and dominant and fight?
No we do not, because God doesn’t give them the fruits of His Spirit. We do see man change, however. We see man have self control, and be gentle and not aggressive. When we see that change in man and compare that to men who have not changed, those men then become seen as no good. Now men who are gentle, have self control and are kind, does that mean that they also know of God, have faith in God? No, God gives the fruits of His Spirit as He pleases, and this world would be exceedingly of no good anywhere if God wasn’t giving some mercy to people all around the world in some form, and keeping us from all acting like total brute beasts all of the time.

Beasts do not invent new ways to serve the flesh, they don’t have the imagination to think of new ways to serve the flesh, they are not capable of inventing their own truths and walking according to them, but man most certainly does.

Serpents are likewise blind of God, they are ignorant creatures

the last sentence in my post was to be deleted FYI.

Nick you say I am avoiding the obvious, and you give me 2 passages from Revelation? You are the one avoiding the complete obvious.

9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

The great dragon is said to be kings and all the kings messengers, THEY ARE the old serpent, THEY are called the Devil/false accuser, THEY are called Satan/Adversary.

Peter was called SATAN/SAW-TAWN/Adversary for having in MIND the things OF MEN. NOT for being possessed or influenced by invisible wicked rebel spirits.

A dragon directly told to you to represent Kings called Satan, and a MAN Jesus calls Satan for having in his MIND the things of MEN. NO invisible wicked spirits to be spoken of.

Give me one scripture Nick that equates to man having in mind the things of men that it means that they are possessed or influenced by wicked rebel spirits being mere vessels.

What are the things of the MIND of MEN? Are we not told that we are to not be carnally minded for such is DEATH. If DEATH was brought to man, it would be because he was Carnally MINDED.

The carnal mind is at enmity against God, the carnal mind is an adversary to God, it is a SATAN, and when a MAN, or when kings and their armies, have in mind only the things of men, walking after their own devices, eating the fruit of their own way, they are rightfully called Satan/Adversary.

Give me one scripture Nick where the carnal mind of man is deceived by wicked rebel spirits?

Scripture says that man deceives himself and he goes forth to deceive other men.

I said this before, so you believe that God created certain spirits that have their own imagination and can invent evil, but man was created just as a mere vessel, which these spirits possess and influence?

You believe that when it is said that man invents evil from his own imagination, from his own thoughts, that those thoughts aren’t really his? …they are given to him and they are the thoughts of another being, and he follows them, or he is just possessed and there is actually know thought involved at all?

An old serpent does not represent a wicked rebel spirit, it represents a carnal mind, as that is all that men are without God’s Spirit, they are beasts of a carnal mind, why many men (kings and their messengers of carnal mind) acting as one force would be called a DRAGON.

Nick, can you acknowledge scripture and the Hebrew word that phonetically is sounded out as SAW-TAWN, that it means an adversary? That this word SAW-TAWN we see Peter is titled for having in mind the things of men? That this word is given unto God and his faithful angels when He is cursing man? That this word is given unto the human enemies of David? This word is not a name or a title for ONE being, and though this word IS DIRECTLY given to God, His angels, and to man, there is not ONE scripture where this word IS directly represented as a wicked rebel spirit who is being an adversary to man, influencing or possessing man to sin?