Fall Of Satan

by Bodie Hodge

The Ruler of Darkness? The Tempter? The Great Red Dragon? Apollyon; The Destroyer? One being is revealed to have all these titles and more - names that reveal his horrific nature? All names given to Satan, your adversary who comes like a lion "seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Today, many question and even mock the very existence of Satan, as well as the reality of evil. Even in the Church, by and large, there are few biblical resources on the subject to counter the destructive claims raised in today's humanistic culture. In The Fall of Rebels in the Garden you will discover the answers to 35 captivating questions, such Where can the answers be found to such provocative, spiritual questions that have been asked so many times over? Carefully consider the biblical response, since it is the only completely reliable foundation for information about Satan. As our absolute authority, we must reject unqualified conclusions drawn from sources outside the Bible, such as the current ideas and traditions of the culture. No believer should be unaware of these sound answers found in the Bible.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Christian Non Fiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published December 8, 2010

About the author

Bodie Hodge is the author of Fall of Satan and co-author of Dragons: Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs. He is on the staff of Answers in Genesis, and is a speaker, writer, contributor, and researcher on a host of topics related to apologetics, biblical history, and the book of Genesis.

Reviews

[Amber J (Thereadingwitch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book had some great points even though I don't agree with everything in this book. When I picked it up in the gift shop at the creation museum in Kentucky, I was expecting something else, and I won't lie and say I wasn't disappointed. Even so it was an interesting read. I like that the author explained many different theories and not just the one he believed in. It did put somethings into a perspective I never thought of before and answered some questions I didn't even know I had.

[Rod Horncastle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book wasn't as much about Satan as I thought. But it sure was specific about the Rebels In The Garden.

I wasn't aware that this was gonna be an Answers In Genesis offering. They did a great job! Basically devouring every aspect of the Garden incident from a scholarly, theological, Logical, scientific angle. (Yes, science. Not the kind atheists put all their blind faith and trust in based on atheistic money-publishing, but the REAL thing: Observable, Testable, Predictable, Repeatable)
------------------

Genesis 3: (Garden scenario)
God: Don't be bad.
Snake: Be bad.
Girl: perfectly naked wanting forbidden fruit and enlightenment.
Boy: Bad.

Some great Biblical theology in this book. Actually I agreed with everything - that seldom happens. But this book was fairly short and didn't touch on most historical aspects of Satan or Sin. Just the specifics of a Garden snake and the makings of Original sin. Yep, how we got from the glory of creation to a debaucherous toxic wasteland in about 2 short weeks. Glad I wasn't there to be blamed! Although I've done my part at a later date...Forget Original sin - we sin by the minute.

I often come across atheists who mock God for his punishment of original sin: "How dare God punish US for something Adam did?" Then I mention Adam's sin is not as big a deal as THEIR constant sin. If they can go a day without sinning - then I'll have a chat with God about the future potential goodness of atheism. No takers so far.

Thankfully, this book declares the BIBLE to be an authorized source of Truth by God. Sorry atheists - If you can't get past that bit: then ignore this book. It'll just make you pout like a 6 year old girl in the cereal Isle at the grocery store.
The word usage of the Genesis account is explored very carefully, the way the entire Bible should be.

I thoroughly loved the part where Bodie explores the exact words Eve and Satan used while conversing in the Garden. Many people don't realize what all was put on the table, and it's all based on the simple/clear instructions God gave in Genesis 2:

16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

The snake (like most liberal Bible scholars) gets right to the rebellious point:
"Did God actually say...?"

The woman (like most humans) confuses EVERYTHING and EXAGGERATES:
:2And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

Mr. Snake of course did his job perfectly. The problem is the Woman and Man failed to do theirs. Simply, Adam was the wise (older) caretaker that failed to stand for anything of learned value, he quickly placed the blame elsewhere.
But the crazy fun was the woman: She didn't say "LORD God", just reduced the creator to "God". She's off to a bad start with that oversight. Then babbles about a tree in the MIDST of the garden! Hmmmm? Interesting. Then assumes you can't "TOUCH IT". She also creeps into bad doctrine by stating "lest you DIE!", a little different than God saying "you will SURELY die." She definitely can't claim to have a photographic memory or be great with song lyrics. But Hey! She's only a week old - all is going according to God's Redemptive plan.

Just for those who wonder how Answers In Genesis fits into all this: There's a chapter called "Did the Serpent Originally Have legs?". And other fun stuff about whether animals can talk.
I used to question whether a woman could chat with a snake. But then I remembered the squawking melodies and human like cries of birds and other forest creatures. Size matter's little for sound.
_________________

And gloriously YES! This book discusses how Jesus connects with Sin in the Garden. A chapter called "Connections Between Genesis and the Gospel". So like anything Christian: If it ain't about Jesus...then it's probably not theologically correct (like Charismatics, liberals, humanists, and really annoying church-goers who despise God's Love/Justice/Word/Redemption plan.)

The best advice i've ever come across: Find Jesus in every book of the Bible - and you'll have an eternal truth that nobody can take away from you. And i've had people desperately try EVERYTHING and the kitchen sink to destroy my Biblical/historical Jesus.
----------------

The end of the book has an enlightening chat about the infamous NEPHILIM of Genesis 6 and Numbers 13. Again it comes down to reading the Bible very carefully and not making quick MONSTROUS assumptions about Demons breeding with sexy Beautician humans and making Supersize EVIL babies. It makes sense that this may be an AGE issue. Here, read it again: Genesis 6

3Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” 4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.

So what happens to those people who got to be OLDER than 120 years? God didn't just kill them - He may have allowed them to slowly die out. Breeding as time allowed. But then were no more --- and all children would then be limited to 120 years. YES, that is the context of that paragraph - and yet i've heard it pulled into about 10 superstitious directions - Just like the Israelites did in Moses day. To sum it up: What happens when you mix an 900 year old guy with a 120 year old woman? The kids come out limited. The Nephilim die out in legends of Renown with mythic status.


I am disappointed that they failed to mention the flaming sword at the end of Genesis 3. Did the flood snuff it out? I'll find out someday. But since the talking donkey was brought up once (or was it just the snake?) all is well eternally. Thanks Bodie Hodges for a fun/quick scriptural study.

[Adam Lewis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is Satan real? As real as you need him to be.





One of the most vivid memories of Satan from my teen years as a fundamentalist Christian came during a Hell House type of play. Half of the congregation around me were bawling as a corny, red-spandex-suited Satan belted into a microphone. The prostrate victim clutching at him who wasn't "right with God" was taken kicking and screaming into the off-stage hell. I remember the boy beside me surreally crying so hard there were tears splashing on his forearms from his down-turned head. Soon after the Satan scene, droves of "sinners" strode to the altar as the plump preacher wielding a black leather-bound Bible like a scepter gave the call to come bathe in the blood of Jesus.



The fact of the matter is Satan is real--in people's minds. That ole hoary hound of hell serves as a central explanatory device in the minds of those who adopt fundamentalist religious beliefs. Religion--especially in its popular, conservative, and unsophisticated forms--is a very pragmatic enterprise. [See Minds and Gods: The Cognitive Foundations of Religion for an excellent discussion.] It serves to explain things and events and circumstances in line with the way that the human mind works. Specifically, it allows events to be interpreted within a social framework. Satan is simply the antagonist stand-in agent when people want to explain things with an agent.



By way of demonstration, say that there was a tornado that ripped through a town. Almost everything is destroyed except for the church. Undoubtedly this would be proclaimed a miracle. The facts are that such events are unintentional--nothing except the mindless vagaries of the chaotic meteorological variables produced this outcome. But religious beliefs about a god that is causally efficacious in the world allow the believer to interpret this event as the intentional actions of a deity and hence be a "miracle."



Satan usually isn't directly invoked for disasters, but he has the same functional role as god as a supernatural agent explanatory device. I'd wager that nearly everyone who has lived in the Bible belt of the U.S. has heard the phrase "Satan sure has got `ahold of him/her" (this is usually spoken about a person who is in a compromised moral position such as marital infidelity or substance abuse).



Satan is simply the social framing device that completes the mental template that humans are intuitively constrained to utilize. Lodes of recent research have shown that people--due to our Machiavellian evolutionary history--preferentially attend to, remember, and process social data over other types. Satan is simply the tool used to transform and interpret certain negative instances of non-social data into instances that have an agent--The Big Bad Beast. Remember Pat Robertson's commentary about Haiti's "pact with the devil" in the aftermath of their horrific 2010 earthquake? He turned the completely asocial release of energy from tectonic plates into social data by positing supernatural agents in the equation.



One might object that this is certainly not the only function of Satan and one would be correct. Lucifer is also the arbiter of the goad of hell in the narrative of conservative Christian theology and it is this that Hodge fears to lose and why he wrote this book.



Much of what is believed about Satan in popular Christian culture comes from John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost (Modern Library Classics). Unfortunately for fundamentalist biblical literalists/ inerrantists like Hodge, this presents a problem. Satan is a central figure in their theology and provides the necessary ingredient of fear. Could you have gotten that teen to cry at the play without the fear of Hell? Possibly--but certainly not as easily. But where does one get the Satan one needs for one's theology if your stated source (the Bible) is light on the details? If the Beelzebub you want and need for your theology comes largely from a fictional poem written in the 17th century you have a problem.



Hodge to the rescue! This book "answers" many of the problems and tensions that arise when the theology doesn't quite match up with the text. Evangelicals and fundamentalists will love this book because it will give props to their beliefs. It's just too bad those props are made of matchsticks.



Anyone familiar with canned fundamentalist apologetics surrounding Satan will not find much new here and Hodge also liberally mixes in creationist nonsense to boot. The questions asked are ripe for ridicule: "Was Satan the actual serpent in the Garden?" is about an interesting thing to ask as: "Do Santa's elves have to brush their teeth after eating candy canes?" Forget the actually worthwhile and interesting enterprise of interpreting myth to decipher truths about the human condition like one would find with The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Literalism wants to know if the elves have to brush their teeth before Mrs. Claus kisses them goodnight. But I will refrain from poking fun any further. This could have been a very interesting book but is pretty standard fare.



I would have liked to see some interesting questions posed that bare some fundamentals about these religious beliefs such as: "How does a person's soul or spirit feel pain in hell? Pain requires a working central nervous system. Does the body get reconstituted?" But such things are never covered. I suppose because to do so reveals the intuitive assumptions that make up such beliefs. Critical analysis tends to make the naked emperor run shrieking from the room.

[Nathan DiBagno · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book that answers questions about the Bible, such as who the Nephilim were in Genesis 6. Some is just interesting speculation that we don’t know much about. Other questions are more about important doctrine, such as the origin of sin.
The author, Bodie Hodge, works hard to stick with what the Bible says and promotes the authority of God. He also presents the Gospel, how to be saved, and the need for Jesus.
The author works for Answers in Genesis and the Creation Museum. Even if you are not a Young Earth Creationist, you should still really enjoy it. I highly recommend it.

[Alyssa Larsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know before I started reading, but this book is written in Question/Answer style which, for me, is difficult to sit down and read straight through. I think it's better read as a reference when you're looking for more clarity on a specific question.

Most of the questions are about the fall of man in general than solely satan.

Some of the questions are very closely related causing a LOT of the same information to be repeated. Which also makes it a good reference book. You don't have to read the whole book to understand the answer to one question.

[Some Christian Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a quick and interesting read. It is written in Question/Answer format, and some of the questions it deals with are these…

- Who is Satan and was he always called “Satan”?
- Was Satan originally a fallen angel from Heaven?
- When were the angels and Satan created?
- When did Satan fall?
- Biblically, could death have existed before sin?

… and many more.

I would definitely recommend this book.

[Margaret Rigby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

For a Christian reader this book is interesting in that it answers many questions posed by Christians. All the answers can be checked by the reader because Bible passages are given.

[Nick Cobb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book attempts to explain the demise of satan as much as possible by referencing Scripture (although little Scripture on this topic exists). Multiple theories are discussed for various topics and the read is constantly reminded not to be dogmatic.

[Rachel Grepke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent little book to get your mind thinking on some hard hitting questions. The only drawback was that it did seem to repeat itself quite a bit. Still worth reading.

[sara brubaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fall of Satan

This was a very good read. Lots of great information and the author is very interesting, however, there were statements that I continue to challenge.

[Gabriel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great information and Biblically accurate!

[William · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was terribly writing. Was like a new Christian wrote it. Was not impressed. Which I had high hopes for this book.

[Jodi Uplinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book with lots of good information. Would be a good reference book

[Craig Kast · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!

Much of the material in the book would be very appropriate for a Sunday School setting making for interesting study and lively discussion. I really enjoyed the book.

[Heavensent1 · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Fall of Satan: Rebels in the Garden is a spiritual reference book involving Satan.

Bodie Hodge writes with clarity and backs his ideas and questions with many biblical and/or historical records. Does Satan really exist?? Why does God allow evil to exist?? When and why did Satan rebel against God and his authority?? These questions and more are described with detail, as a taboo subject is brought under the microscope.

With charts, pictures, allegories and biblical quotes, Bodie brings forth a work that is informative and scholarly. Using literary works of other notable theologians, Bodie Hodge makes note of all aspects being discussed while keeping the bible as his absolute authority.

I didn't mind this book, it was filled with many interesting things, however, there were a few that didn't quite sit right with me. I thought the written style was simplistic, easy to read and understand with a fairly decent flow. The many biblical references of the different names of Satan mentioned through out the bible was engrossing. However, I found some of the answers to the ideas being brought forth fell short of their representation. I didn't agree with a few of the author's thoughts and found one or two of them almost to the point of absurdity.

I would recommend this book to any of those who are seeking answers, this book will give you much to pray on, as well, those who home school and wish to add an extra biblical lesson to their studies, or any of those who enjoy reading spiritual material.

[Cori · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a seasoned Christian well-read on apologetics and the Word of God, this book didn't offer me much other than the last section on the Nephilim, which was quite interesting and thought-provoking. I also didn't think the title quite matched the content, as I was expecting something different.

Nonetheless, I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to grow and learn more about the Word of God and His plan for salvation. The chapter explaining the thread of Christ through the Bible was excellent, with a crystal-clear gospel message written in an easy-flowing simplistic writing style.

If you know little to nothing of apologetics or the Bible, this book is a great starting place!

[Linda Hoover · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book that answers a lot of questions about Satan. Set up in a sort of question and answer format, so it's fairly easy to pick up and put down.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would recommend this book to a new Christian, or a curious unbeliever, who has introductory questions about the nature of evil and the effect of the Fall on human nature and nature itself.