Imagine

There’s No
Satan
How Satan Got Into The
New Testament
Volume II of
Satan Christianity’s Other God

By James R. Brayshaw
Copyright
September 17, 2010
SCOG Publishing

www.imaginenosatan.com

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 By James R. Brayshaw www.scog.ca

Imagine There’s No Satan

How Satan Got Into The New Testament
Copyright © 2010 James R. Brayshaw

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by

any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system
without the written permission of the publisher except in the case
of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:
jrbrayshaw@scog.ca

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any Web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and
may no longer be valid.

ISBN: 9-781449-61473
Printed in the United States of America
SCOG Publishing rev. date: 10/15/2010

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 Imagine There’s No Satan – Volume II of Satan
Table Of Contents
Christianity’s Other God

INTRODUCTION-Pg 5

CHAPTER 1
Can A Witch Raise A Dead Spirit?-Pg 23

CHAPTER 2
Where Do The Dead Go?-Pg 41

CHAPTER 3
Psychic Power Is Not From Satan?-Pg 75

CHAPTER 4
Psychic Fraud Or Satanic Inspiration?-Pg 113

CHAPTER 5
Where Was Satan Before Jesus Showed Up?-Pg 147

CHAPTER 6
What’s True About Satan In The New Testament?-Pg 171

CHAPTER 7
Where Did Jesus Learn About Satan?-Pg 209

CHAPTER 8
The Pharisees Brought Satan To A Synagogue Near You–Pg 233

CHAPTER 9
Who Gave Satan His Names? - Pg 243

CHAPTER 10
A Nail In the Coffin For The New Testament Satan-Pg 269

CHAPTER 11
Demons, A Greek Gift To Christianity-Pg 299

CHAPTER 12
Is Satan Revealed In Revelation?-Pg 325

CHAPTER 13
Where Would Satan Be Without The New Testament?-Pg 347
BIBLIOGRAPHY-Pg 369

INDEX-Pg 375
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 Imagine There’s No Satan – Volume II of Satan
Christianity’s Other God

Imagine There’s No
Satan
Volume II of
Satan Christianity’s Other God

INTRODUCTION
Satan has been around for millennia. There is literally no other
doctrine or idea that has penetrated so deeply into the fabric of
culture as has the doctrine of Satan. Satan, Lucifer, devils, and
demons can be found everywhere today. They are found in
television programs and movies, they can be seen on clothing and
in art work, music with lyrics about Satan are heard every day on
the radio, and video games seemingly have an unceasing stream of
demonically related content. And the most prevalent place we can
find Satan in our culture is in the churches. The intensity with
which many religious organizations in our world today believe in
Satan varies. Some battle him daily in prayer and with rituals,
while others think him to be an insignificant imp who is worthy of
little or no attention at all. No matter what you or I feel about the
Devil really doesn’t matter because the presence of this good angel
turned bad, has undeniably left an imprint on the fabric of this
culture’s belief structure. But just because some see the devil
behind every bush does not mean he is real. No doubt, there is not
one person in North America who has not heard about Satan in
one form or another, but should a collective consciousness

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determine Satan really exists? Or should each of us explore the

idea and decide for ourselves whether Christian tradition is true or
whether it is a brilliantly spun interpretation of an otherwise
ancient myth? What if there is no Satan? And what if there is no
Hell? What if all the tales, lore, and legends about this fallen angel
are mere fabrications of men’s minds? Stories made up around an
idea that there is something evil out there. Another deistic entity
that is intent on destroying humanity and capturing souls in Hell.
Imagine if you will that there is no Satan. Imagine that the
teachings on Satan we receive from religion and from culture are
simply not true. Is it possible that religion has made a mistake in
this area? Imagine that a lie has been told so long that it has
become the truth and now it is time to right it. It is time to place
the Satan of tradition back into the place he came from. Believe it
or not, we can take Satan out of our belief system, place him back
into the creative mind of man where he came from, and still
recognize the sovereign God of the Universe for who He or It is.
That is a God who makes peace and creates evil, a God who kills
and makes alive, and a God who shares the cosmos with no other
supernatural being.
This Volume of Satan Christianity’s Other God called
Imagine There’s No Satan will take us beyond imagining. As a
work that follows the foundational work of Volume 1, Imagine
There’s No Satan goes further to show you how it is possible to
remove a literal Satan from the teachings of religion and the New
Testament. How it is possible and valuable to begin to separate
fact from fiction and let our belief in Satan drift away into the land
of once believed fairy tales. If you read this volume alone and have
never turned a page out of Volume 1 you will do just fine at
understanding the concept that Satan is not real. That said, I do
encourage you to pick up a copy (or an e-book copy) of Satan
Christianity’s Other God – Volume 1 to explore the foundational
principles that gird up the no Satan idea. Volume 1 covers major
topics that I will not cover here or in the subsequent volumes of
this work.

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In Volume I of Satan Christianity’s Other God, great care

was taken to show that a doctrine of Satan was not found in the
Hebrew Scriptures. It was also shown the Hebrew Scriptures are
the Bible Christ and the Apostles used. We determined the Lucifer
of Isaiah 14 was not the name of Satan before he fell. The name
Lucifer is a term given to an actual human King who was called the
“daystar” or “morning star.” Both terms were used to speak of the
ancient King of Babylon who was thought to be the God Venus.
And Venus rose before the Sun came over the horizon in the early
morning. Thus, the title “Lucifer” is a Latin word that simply
means light bringer and is better translated as “daystar.”
While on the topic of ancient Kings, we can bring to mind the
story of the anointed cherub in Ezekiel 28. Although it is thought
by some that this passage is a reference to a Satan angel who was
once in Heaven, we showed that is not the case. The subject of
Ezekiel’s prophecy is repeatedly referred to as a man and the
context of his entire proclamation is directed at the human King of
Tyre. We found that the fallen cherub is merely a man and there is
no teaching on Satan to be found in Ezekiel.
Both Job and Zechariah contain references to a Satan;
however, as we explored the meaning of the original Hebrew word
“sawtawn,” we came to understand the reference was to a human
adversary. In Job, the statement of the adversary “coming before
the Lord” was shown in Volume I, to be a reference to men
appearing in the common Temple environment as is inferred by
the use of the term elsewhere in Scripture. We found it in such
places as when Moses “came before the Lord.”
Volume I also covered the idea that God created man with
the potential to choose good and evil. No Satan to entice man to
disobey and choose evil. This option leaves man as the party fully
responsible for sin and evil in his own life and thus in the world.
According to the Bible, Satan the mythological malevolent cosmic
being has nothing to do with man choosing evil, nor causing evil in
the world. The concept of where evil comes from as it pertains to
judgments upon humankind was also articulated in the first
Volume of Satan Christianity’s Other God. It is found that evil

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proceeds from the Creator in diverse forms, forms such as calamity

upon an individual or upon many. As well, we saw that the evil
spirit and the lying spirit were sent from Yahweh as was seen in
the st0ries of King Saul and King Ahab.
Another path we went down in Volume I included
discussions about the Persian influence on the faith of the
Scriptures. As the Hebrew people spent time in exile among the
Babylonians and Persians, they adopted many of the pagan
philosophies of those nations. The doctrine of there being two
Gods, a good God and a bad God, migrated into the land of Israel
from Persia. The religious leaders of the time propagated a
doctrine that there is an evil cosmic being who desires to harm
Yahweh, destroy His people, and toils to thwart the plans of the
Creator.
Volume I spoke about the early use of the word Satan in the
English language Scriptures and elaborated on the significance of
apocalyptic thinking and apocalyptic literature in fostering a Satan
doctrine. Both of these topics were explored to reveal that Satan
only existed as a construction of Greek minded theologians who
adopted the ideas of pagan mystics. The Hellenized teachers could
neither understand Hebraic concepts as found in the Scriptures,
nor could those teachers reject the desire to fabricate mystical
explanations for Scriptures they were incapable of understanding.
Many topics were discussed throughout Volume I and there
could still be volumes written to continue to explain all the
nuances surrounding each concept. This four volume series begins
to testify to the magnitude of this topic. As I stated several times in
Volume 1, my explanation of certain Biblical passages is only a
plausible explanation of the account. It is based on the fact that
Satan does not exist. So too, do I provide the disclaimer that
although I am boldly declaring that Satan is not a real cosmic
entity, the explanations I provide are only possible explanations.
They are suggestions if you will, of how to see the traditional
passages differently than how one who believes in Satan might
teach. It would be irresponsible to state Satan doesn’t exist and
then fail to provide an answer to what all the passages about

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“satan” mean. Although I do provide an answer to what the

questionable passages about Satan could mean my submissions
are not to be taken as the 100% exhaustive and precise
explanations of the accounts. I do not have all the answers. There
is wiggle room in some of my explanations. There are far too many
specifics missing in the stories supplied by the Apostolic witnesses
for any one proposed answer to be deemed as perfect. The point of
providing an explanation is so the reader might see that there
exists another way to think about the statements about Satan in
the Bible. In light of the fact that there is no Satan there must be
another way to understand the terribly misunderstood references
to Satan in the New Testament. I also hope my submissions
encourage the reader to engage in searching for an explanation
that upholds a One-God belief system and provides a coherent
explanation for the poorly understood words about “Satan.”

Did Satan Or Did God Incite David?

One of the profound apparent contradictions in the Scriptures was

answered in Volume I. It is found in the Books of 2nd Samuel and
1st Chronicles. These accounts seem to oppose each other on the
story of David counting the tribes of Israel. In one account, we are
told that God caused David to count the tribes, yet in the other
account we are told that it was Satan who incited David to do the
count. Who was it, God or Satan? Solutions to this problem were
put forward, and it was determined that either the writer of
Chronicles was misinforming the reader about there being a
second God in the universe named Satan, or he was simply
describing God as the adversarial force that placed a choice in
front of David. It is likely that the Chronicler simply described the
actions of God as “sawtawn” in informing the reader that Yahweh
was the adversary in this instance where David was influenced to
make a bad choice. After all, the writer of Chronicles knew that the
Hebrew word sawtawn was not a name for a cosmic entity but was
a noun or a descriptive term for a behaviour or action. Sawtawn
means adversary.

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 By James R. Brayshaw www.scog.ca

No topic seemed to be more daunting or more

misunderstood than the topic of the Serpent in the Garden. A large
amount of time was spent establishing why so many believe
incorrectly the meaning of the myth of the Serpent in the Garden.
With this in mind the discussion of whom or what the “serpent”
was ensued. It was shown that the serpent is a metaphorical
symbol that was identifiable as such to an ancient people. People
who had been steeped in polytheistic Egypt for generations. In
seeing the writer of that story refer to the serpent as speaking to
Eve, we recognized that a great storyteller relayed the account of
Adam and Eve. His story was full of meaning and the mention of a
“serpent” was simply a reference to the evil inclination in humans.
Evil comes from within man and not from an external force. The
evil inclination is that place in a human’s heart that works
overtime so to speak, to justify the choice to disobey, thus sinning.
Man today has the same struggle with the “serpent” on many
occasions when man is confronted with the opportunity to do
something that does not really seem harmful, yet would be
considered to be a sin for one reason or another. One other
possibility for the identity of the serpent was discussed based on
who Eve was “with” in the garden. We presented the possibility
that Adam just might have been the adversarial influence called
“the serpent,” in the famed garden fruit-eating incident.
At the close of Volume I, we briefly discussed what was next
for Satan Christianity’s Other God. Volume I led the way in
bringing to light more questions that need to be answered.
Perhaps you see that peeling back the layers of this onion will be
no small task. How long of a process should it be for one to come
to a conclusion as to whom or what “satan” is? For some of us it
may be longer than for others, and as you can see, it is not a quick
task to try to unteach or, to unlearn a concept and belief that has
been in our head for years and in our culture for centuries. With
that in mind, let’s consider what we need to accomplish in Volume
II.

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What Will We Learn In Volume II?

Initially, this Volume will clean up any loose ends that may be
dangling around in our discussions of the Old Testament as it
pertains to “Satan” and his demons. In my many discussions with
people over the years, I have had numerous opportunities to share
the concept of Satan not existing. No matter which piece of the
puzzle I choose to disclose, I am always met with a “trump card”
statement that usually goes like this; “Well what about…..” and
then one of the many supposed references they have long believed
to be about “satan” is quickly thrown at me. This is always done
with the attitude that intones what I am saying can’t possibly be
true because this verse that started with “Well what about…” is
certain proof there is a Satan. An example of the “Well what
abouts…” would be; “Well what about when Jesus throws Satan
into the pit of Hell?”

The Well What Abouts

The difficult thing in all these “Well what abouts…” is that often
the person who is so sure they are bringing up a reference that I
have not considered, doesn’t wait for a full answer. I and others in
a similar position are invariably cut short by the uninformed
questioner and before they hear the answer to their insincere
query, they are ready with another cliché counter-argument that is
understood by them the way they have understood it in the past.
Here’s an example conversation of the “Well what abouts…”
between a man named Jack and me. It may seem to be
unnecessary to recount a personal conversation to express the
point but there are so many who take the same direction of using
the “Well what abouts…” as Jack did that it is helpful to show how
this conversation plays out. Notice how the response hamstrings
the process of sharing truthful information with another.

Jack: “How can you say there’s no Satan when the Bible
mentions Satan a whole bunch of times?”

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Me: “Jack if there is a Satan as so many of us believe, why

does God incite David to number the tribes of Israel in the
book of 2nd Samuel, and then in 1st Chronicles 21 the text
says ‘Satan’ incited David to number the tribes of Israel in
another account of the very same story?” Who incited
David, God or Satan?

Jack: “Well what about when Job’s family is destroyed by

Satan?”

Me: “Well Jack, if you look at the Hebrew word for “satan”
in Job, it really means “adversary” and the most typical
adversary we find in the Scriptures is a human man, being
an adversary to another man. Aside from the fact that Job
himself credits God for the evil that befalls him, we see no
indication of a personal Satan. Even the end of the book tells
us that Job was comforted by his family for all the evil that
God had brought upon him. Doesn’t that seem to indicate
that evil comes on people from other men or from the
Creator and that the adversary is generally another
human?”

Jack: “Well what about when Jesus was tempted by Satan

in the wilderness…
Well what about the appearance of Satan in the garden…
Well what about when Lucifer fell from Heaven….
Well what about ….well what about…well
what about…”

Without ever being allowed to fully answer any of Jack’s

questions, or without Jack ever answering any of my questions,
Jack continued to throw out his hail-Mary trump card to get me to
shut up.
It used to seem odd to see people so quickly and often
vehemently pounce on the, “Well what about…” bandwagon. They

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avoided answering me when I had just asked them a question

contained in the topic, such as, “Why does 2 Samuel 24 say “God”
caused David to number the tribes of Israel and 1 Chronicles 21 say
“Satan” incited David to number the tribes of Israel?” It was as if
they didn’t hear me or maybe they didn’t care and were one of
those types of people who will do whatever it takes to make certain
they are not proven wrong in anything. Perhaps they are so
intensely incapable of relinquishing an entrenched belief that they
must at all cost lay down a trump card to stop the relaying of
information and honest questions about a rather significant topic
for “Christians” and “Messianics.” The Jacks of the world are so
intent on propagating their weak understanding of a character
they have been taught to believe in, that all they can do is
ignorantly throw out cliché references that they have never taken
the time to fully investigate and find out if their view agreed with
the rest of the Bible. This trump card is played with such speed it is
almost as if the person I am conversing with is afraid to hear
anything that might challenge their belief system.

One such trump card I have seen played many times is the
one that says, “Well what about the witch of Endor?” (This will be
discussed in Chapter 1; Can A Witch Raise A Dead Spirit?). To the
player of that card, the story of Saul consulting a medium is
irrefutable evidence that there are spirits and demons. Therefore,
to them it means there is indisputably a “Satan.” The logic is that if
a “witch” could cause a spirit to rise up from the dead then there
must be a Satan because spirits raised from the dead are demon
spirits and therefore would be of the group under Satan.
Granted the story of the witch of Endor does smack of
spiritism and I can readily understand why one would so hastily
play the “Well what about…” trump card. However, in light of a
little research and in light of the remainder of the Scriptures, this
“witch of Endor” episode does not fit with the concept of One God
as many of the Israelites believed and as is taught in the Bible.

When Did Thinking Become So Mystical?

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This second Volume of Satan Christianity’s Other God, will

explain the intense spiritual thinking found to be prevalent in the
intertestamental period. The period after the return from exile of
the Jews and leading up to the first years of the A.D. period
nurtured a great amount of damage to the true and correct
teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures. Our discussion on this period
that entrenched a demonology into Judaism and Christianity
informs the reader about the pertinent issues to consider. A
complex demonology and angelology flourished in those years and
to this day confusion abounds because of the clever and intricate
doctrines of demonology that flowered in this period.
We will also find out where the dead go according to the
Bible. This discussion will allay all your fears that you or your
loved ones might be burning in Hell for an eternity.
Understanding where the dead go is important if we are to
recognize there are no spirits raised from the dead.

Discussing What The New Testament Is

A huge piece of fat we will chew on in the following pages is one

that often sends religious leaders running to the hills crying,
“Heresy! Heresy!” If I told you today that archaeologists found a
letter written in the late first century, by a man named Paul who
claims to be an Apostle of Christ, would you expect it to be added
to the Bible and to call it Scripture? Not likely! However,
something not far from that has occurred with the Bible that many
have come to venerate today. A Bible containing letters from
devout apostles that were written to individuals and to groups of
believers. These letters were not identified as important until the
late second century. No originals of these letters have been
discovered as of today and the writers of each of the letters in the
New Testament clearly state their document is a “letter.”
Regardless of those facts, the copies of letters that were available
in the early “Christian” period stayed in the hands of the Roman
church. This was a group of men who eventually decided that the

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letters ought to be elevated to the status of Scripture. Ultimately,

the New Testament was formed and in large-part, it took a very
anti-Hebraic tone because the Roman religious system wanted to
eradicate any nuances of Jewishness from the pagan Christianity it
had incubated for centuries.
Within this work, the reader will be fully informed as to why
one should not consider the New Testament to be equal to the
Scriptures. The definition used for what the term “Scriptures” is, is
one that coincides with both Paul the Apostle and Yeshua the
Christ. Neither of those persons considered any writings other
than the “Old Testament” to be Scripture.
The Apostolic writings, which include the gospels, are
valuable for many things that can aid a believer in understanding
their faith as compared to that of the first century. The testimony
the apostles provide about the life, ministry, and death of Yeshua,
is indeed invaluable. It is certainly a gift from Yahweh in light of
the fact that there are no living eyewitnesses available for us to
hear from today. However, man should not use his self-imposed
ecclesiastical authority to declare a letter from an apostle is
“Scripture.” These letters are often believed to be so based on the
fact that the letter speaks of Yeshua as the Messiah. Had we access
to all the documents of the period Paul wrote his letters in and the
eras immediately beyond, we would see there were other
documents resembling Apostolic writings that identified Yeshua
was the Messiah. Facts remain though; even Paul taught from the
Old Testament that Yeshua was the Messiah. If the reader is
willing to have their belief about the New Testament examined,
then the chapters on exploring the claim that the New Testament
is Scripture will be most informative. Time will be spent explaining
what is meant in the New Testament when words such as Satan,
demon, devil, unclean spirit, and dragon are used. We will see
clearly how it is possible that Christianity has mistakenly
understood the Greek writings about satan. And now, 2000 years
from the times when the New Testament took place; religion has
cemented its stranglehold interpretation into the minds of its
leaders and followers. Because of this, few are willing to accept

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another possibility for learning what a satan is in the New

Testament.

Explaining Every Passage About Satan

Volumes 3 and 4 of this work will provide a catalogue of every

passage that speaks of these Satan related things. It would be
foolhardy to assert that each explanation provided requires no
input from other sources to interpret the meaning of some difficult
passages. However, every passage in the New Testament that
seems to speak of a cosmic supernatural, God-like entity is
considered. A plausible explanation of each passage is put forth
using the foundational interpretation principle of understanding
the context of the passage, and recognizing what the writer is
speaking about at the time. The literary context is joined with the
linguistic, cultural, social, and historical context, to decipher the
underlying Hebrew understanding of a very Greek sounding
writing. Based on the fact that, Hebrew men wrote the “New
Testament,” and the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures do not teach a
doctrine of a cosmic Satan who is battling against all that is good,
the explanations suggested herein are put forth on the certain
premise that Satan does not exist in the mind of a Hebrew apostle.
As I have stated, because Satan does not exist the passages must
mean something other than a reference to a cosmic Satan. These
successive volumes share a verse-by-verse, understanding of what
all the talk about Satan is in the New Testament.

A Little Encouragement To Seek Answers For Your

Questions

When we are part of a culture that so deeply is looking for

recognition and acceptance, particularly by those who we perceive
to be people of position and influence, it is an incredibly difficult
challenge to go against the grain. Few people involved in religion
will question the very leaders from whom they are seeking favour.
I suppose one must ultimately conclude whom it is better to please

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and obey, God or men? I am one of many who found it was not
easy falling out favour with those whom during my church years I
worked so hard to stay in favour with for so long. Are we supposed
to passively sit by under the teaching of a “shepherd” who is
trained to teach and lead in ways that muddy the water for those
who numbly follow a seminary trained pastor? Am I suggesting
anarchy? Not at all, it is good for us to voluntarily submit to proper
authorities, but as the Bereans in the book of Acts did, so too
should we ensure through searching the Scriptures, that what
those leaders are saying is true. Are we in fact submitting to
proper, Biblically sound authorities? For some who sheepishly
follow their “leader,” laziness is the reason they don’t invest time
in finding answers for themselves. Laziness becomes an acceptable
excuse, relying on others with credentials to give them the
answers. Mindlessly deferring to the person of position and
influence will only set you up to be seen as honouring that person
as your God. Where possible, it is always best to search out the
answers for oneself and rely on others and other sources to add
information, insight, or questions to the process.
I know how difficult it will be to start challenging the
established leaders of your chosen religion, so in an effort to help I
will suggest a plan to get you started. If you are a regular attendee
of a church try this. The next couple of Sundays stay home and
study one or two of the stated doctrines of your church or faith
group. Look up the verses they quote and then try to see how the
present position fits into the Hebrew Scriptures that Messiah and
the Apostles used. Next go to your computer and if for instance
you are studying on “the gift of tongues” do an internet search with
the following wording… “the truth about tongues.” This will give
you many differing perspectives but I guarantee you it will open up
your eyes to a number of potentially more correct and true
understandings of the issues. You can use “the truth about….”
searches for anything to launch your studying. Try “the truth
about Sunday,” “the truth about Easter,” “the truth about
Christianity,” or “the truth about Satan.” The last of these is where
I started searching out the truth of the “Satanic being” and began

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to unravel the centuries old myth and misinformation that “the

leaders” of Christianity generally pontificate without exploring the
other options for the matter.

But I’m Not A Theology Student Some Might Say!

At one time the Scriptures were kept from the common folk so
only the religious elite with special training could study them.
They then passed on what they learned to the people, the
uneducated common folk. In today’s society we have an amazing
access to information readily available at our fingertips. Also in
today’s society, we have freedom of speech like never before. One
thing that is not so prolific in today’s society is the acceptance of
what seems to be new ideas without coming up against sharp
criticism. Criticism will often be directed at a person’s character, at
the way they share their information, or at the resources they have
used to accumulate evidence to support their idea. And truthfully,
constructive criticism can be helpful and should always be
welcome. But should resources be thought of as not credible
simply because the potential for them to contain error exists?
Today the use of the internet has allowed people to learn things
that were only known by the intellectual elite of past societies. I
encourage the use of the internet for any who desire to learn truth
or deepen their understanding on a topic or issue. Although, it
would be good if the internet is not your only source.
Regarding the internet as a source to determine if Satan
exists or not, I can hear some of you voice a similar caution given
to me over the years. “Be careful with what you find on the
internet, the internet is full of crap you know.” I’m not sure why
they are compelled to give that caution. Maybe it’s because they
are cautioning themselves to be careful and are setting up their
excuse to not go and search a matter out. Perhaps they have a fear
that they may find some truth that causes them to honestly
question their beliefs and face the ugly monster of change. On the
other hand, maybe it’s because they truly believe the internet

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articles, opinions, and theological positions found therein are crap.

Should we not then receive the similar exhortation to “be careful
what you find at the library, the library is full of crap?”
Alternatively, by not stating the exhortation about the library and
in stating the exhortation about the internet are they saying the
shelves of the library are full of only no-crap material? I suppose
there is some level of fear of the internet still out there that causes
one to exhort another intelligent person of the perils of using
internet material to educate oneself. Do you know that it is now
possible to get a university degree via the internet? Do you know
that the internet is like any library in any city of any time?
My point is this, before you decide that the internet can’t help
you find information to help you understand issues of truth,
understand this, yes there is “crap” on the internet, as one friend
put it to me. However, so is there crap on the library shelves.
Nevertheless, there is also exceptionally clear and true information
on the library shelves and the internet. If you sign out ten books on
a specific topic, from the biggest library in the world, you may find
garbage in a number of them. Nevertheless, you may find
information that is valuable in helping to lead you to the truth.
Many people get themselves in hot water because they look over
two or three articles and perspectives on an issue and then form
their opinion. You will come to a much more sound opinion and
position if you read through and study 10 or 20 articles on an
issue. Besides the Scriptures and History books, encyclopedias and
commentaries, as well as other writers who have put out books on
the topic of Satan, I have been through hundreds of articles on the
subject of Satan. I am not saying you have to go through that much
material to cover every topic you begin to question. I just want to
quell the fear around using the internet as one of your resources
for research and express to you that it is not a good practice to take
only a few thoughts and opinions from the internet to form a
position on an issue. That said I also want to share that still today I
continue to look at the many sides of an issue.

Ask Questions, Seek Answers, And Take Your Time

Introduction 19
 By James R. Brayshaw www.scog.ca

One tip I would like to give you to help you to apply this
process of coming to a more correct understanding of issues of
truth is this. Ask questions, seek answers, and take it slowly. You
will not likely get answers from the traditional body of religious
leaders. You will have to search things out on your own. There are
millions of leaders who will try to prevent you from gaining
information that will change the way you live your life. In large
part because they only know what they have been taught at
seminary. It seems there is a fear, a fear that you becoming
knowledgeable will confirm to them that they have failed to show
you the way of truth. Truth is for everybody and everybody ought
to embrace the opportunity to discover it. An adverse reaction to
the truth you discover is often the result of the fear the hearer
possesses. However, truth will set you free but it will cost you
something to get it. The book you are reading right now is an
excellent starting point to finding the truth about Satan. German
philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer said;

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed.

Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-
evident.

Part of my experience in organized religion has revealed

this fear. The church I was involved with had about 800 or so
people who could be recognized as regular attendees or members.
The Board of Deacons, which was chaired by the Senior Pastor,
had nine members on it if I recall correctly. It was the duty of these
elected officials to mange the administrative matters of the system
and to help direct the spiritual matters of the church. I served as a
Deacon for two terms, which is 6 years, and resigned near the end
of the second term. My resignation came after I realized that this
system, although a thriving social environment, was in opposition
to numerous tenets found in the Bible.
A journey through the history of Christianity will reveal to
the searcher when and how men changed God’s plan for the faith

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 Imagine There’s No Satan – Volume II of Satan
Christianity’s Other God

into a model which was intended to assimilate and integrate

anyone and everyone who would became part of the Roman
Empire. The Roman philosophy of “bigger and better” was
sufficiently implanted in the Roman version of faith in God and
their tainted form of Gnostic Christianity fell together nicely for a
culture that was sold out to do whatever it took to become the
biggest empire. Suffice to say, Christianity today is a far cry away
from the pattern of the first century believers. In seeing
Christianity as a mosaic of adopted and man-made doctrines, I
was compelled to become less involved in organized religion rather
than more.

What Do You Have To Lose By Learning Satan is Not

Real?

Many of us believe we stand to lose something if we realize our

belief in Satan is incorrect. Most of us are not the religious leaders
who draw a salary in part, by teaching Satan is real. Therefore our
loss is only as big as we make it. On the contrary, a religious leader
might feel differently about altering his or her dogma. Upton
Winifred Sinclair Jr. was born in 1878 and died November 25,
1968 at the age of 90. He was a novelist, writer, journalist,
political activist, blacksmith, and was a prolific American author
who wrote over 30 books in many genres. Sinclair was considered
one of the best investigative journalists of his era. He understood
implicitly how difficult it is for those of position to come to an
understanding of something that might force them to alter their
philosophy; he spoke it well when he said;

“It’s difficult to get a man to understand

something when his salary depends upon his
not understanding.”

Perhaps your salary doesn’t depend on whether or not you

understand the doctrines of your religious belief system or if Satan
exists or not. Perhaps you simply desire to stay the course and not

Introduction 21
 By James R. Brayshaw www.scog.ca

rock your philosophical or theological boat. Change is never easy

but after you have turned that ship around and are floating with
the current again, the turbulence subsides, and life moves along
smoothly once again. The decision, as always, is left up to the
reader. Who better to decide than yourself if you believe in one
God, two Gods, many Gods, or no God? Nonetheless, after reading
Satan Christianity’s Other God and this book, Imagine There’s No
Satan, you may still choose to stand on confused logic and faith
alone if you still persist that Satan is real. Because the evidence is
overwhelmingly in favour of the non-existence of Satan. Faith is
imperative to a belief but truth cannot be ignored and all the facts,
history, and the full counsel of God must be considered. In this
book series, the scales of proof have been loaded and once both
arguments are critically considered, Satan as an evil, supernatural,
cosmic being weighs in to be an ancient and evolved myth little
more than a man made legend, lore, and lie.

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 Imagine There’s No Satan – Volume II of Satan
Christianity’s Other God

CHAPTER 1
Can A Witch Raise A Dead Spirit?

Is it possible to raise a spirit from the dead? Think about that. Can
a person be dead then have their sleeping spirit awakened in order
to be consulted about the future? In the book of 1st Samuel chapter
28, we are confronted with a story that is more than a little creepy.
We find there, a story thought by many to be a certain indication
that Satan must exist. In that story, we seem to see a woman call
upon the spirit of a dead man and the spirit appears. This woman
has been said to be a witch by many interpreters. But is she really
contacting the dead? This story is not so much related to how the
word sawtawn is used because the word sawtawn does not appear
in the story. But any story that talks about what we call a “witch”
does pertain to our overall topic of Satan. To put it simply, the
spirit of Samuel could not have been physically present in front of
the witch of Endor; otherwise, the entire Scriptural understanding
of what happens to a dead person must be ignored.
The connection of this story to our theme today is that a dead
person is supposedly raised from the dead in spirit form. Being
dead means a person cannot appear in spirit form or any other
form. Therefore one can dismiss this obscure yet famous story of
Saul’s encounter with the witch of Endor as a tale of a literal
resurrection of a dead spirit. We no longer have to view it as a tale
that suggests support for some kind of a possible after-death
existence. An existence that is variously affixed to a cosmic,
supernatural, evil spirit-god. In this chapter and the chapters
following, I will address how it is incorrect to simply suggest God
raised the spirit of Samuel from the dead in this instance alone.
Had God done so, He would have applied a practice that is
ostensibly contrary to all He teaches about the state of the dead.

CHAPTER 1 – Can A Witch Raise A Dead Spirit? 23