God as owner of the earth has certain legal rights.
the devil as a leaseholder has certain legal rights.
the devil's right are as the ruler over the earth's kingdoms and over people that are not born again.
With all due respect to you Optimax -- truly, my respects to you --
-- but where in God's green earth and His Holy Word do you find that God has "rights?" This is speculative tradition of the charismatic and faith movements and simply is not in scripture. Covenant is not a legal entity; it is a relationship based upon promise.
In a legal setting, any party bound by legal right can lose their rights if a judge so deems. What judge could possibly take away God's "rights" if what He has can be called "rights?"
God owns the earth. He is sovereign. He can do anything He desires. He lives up to promises that He has made but is not bound by "rights" to perform. He does what He does out of love and justice.
The devil owns nothing. He comes to steal, kill and destroy by lying and deceiving. His ONLY "power" is what he gets when man subjects himself to the devil.
The devil's position over the unsaved is not because of a right, but because of their choice to submit to him and not submit to God. It is not his "right" to own them.
You simply cannot find the concept of God's "rights" and the devil's "rights" in scripture without much twisting of meaning.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not throwing out the concept of "legal" from any interpretation -- just the concept of "rights" as applied commonly (to we faith people at least) to God and the devil. I don't have an issue using the concept of a "legal relationship" to teach responsibility. But when the talk of "legal" turns into
giving the devil "rights" or
inhibiting God's abilities because of some "rights" then my skin crawls. God Himself instituted law (long before the Law of Moses, although the PRINCIPLES of God's law is what the Law was built). But law from God is not a binding
agreement -- it is a commandment, a statute.
Genesis 26:4-5
4 And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; 5 because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.
Abraham was blessed because he obeyed God. The blessing lay upon his generations to come -- multiplied to the numbers as the stars in heaven -- because of his faithfulness. He obeyed...
charge (
mishmereth) - watch; as a sentry guards his post; safeguard.
commandements (
mitsvâh) - a command; an ordinance or precept.
statutes (
chûqqâh) - appointed, custom, ordinance.
laws (
tôrâh) - a statute; law. Comes from the root
yârâh which means to teach, to direct, to inform, to instruct.
Remember: the law was a tutor.
Abraham obeyed. He did not enter into binding arbitration or any other such agreement. Abraham was found to be faithful and God chose him, that through him and his seed the Seed shall come.
Galatians 3
13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree), 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
15 Brethren, I speak in the manner of men: Though it is only a mans covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it. 16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And to your Seed, who is Christ. 17 And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect. 18 For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made;
We receive the promise (not a legal right) by what Jesus did. Not because of what we did -- we did not fulfill "our part of a legal arrangement."
Note v15 -- Paul is identifying this as if it were "in the manner of men." It was a way to get them to understand. But to Abraham promises were made: legal arrangements were not. In fact it was one way, for Abraham was put to sleep during the "ratification" of it.
We see in verse 17 that the law, (remember) in the manner of men, the legal-ness of it all could in no way annul the covenant and dismiss the promises: because the promises are not legal. This is not a right. If our inheritence was legal (v18) then it is not a promise.
The law exists ONLY as a teacher. It teaches what Abraham had faith enough to follow: the charge, the commandments, the statutes, (and the law to add although redundant here). The law is a teacher to show us how we are to watch over the Word, the commandments of God, the custom: the way that we are to live and act. The law brings us to Christ so that we could be justified by faith. It points us toward grace. For after faith comes, we have no need for the tutor any longer. We are not under law any longer.
And all of this comes to us by Covenant -- a covenant that God made with Abraham, not by mutual agreement, but while Abraham was asleep God cut the covenant alone: He decreed the Covenant. It is not a legal agreement that deals out "rights" to the participants.
God is not bound by His "rights." He is "bound" by His promises. And that "binding" is only because He does not lie: not because of some legality that some supernatural judge will enforce and keep God within. God is not "bound" by legality.
He simply does His promise: He does His Word.
should have read your reply, lol
