The Christian religious tradition teaches that there is an angelic being that is constantly accusing sinners before God. His name is the Devil, or Satan. The basis for this doctrine is in the book of Revelation, “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night’” (Rev. 12:9,10).

Verse number nine speaks of the deceiver, and verse number ten speaks of the accuser. They are different people with different actuations. The Devil deceived Eve, but he did not accuse her. There is not any accusation of the Devil before God, either in the Old or in the New Testaments. Let us analyze the case of Job. Satan did not accuse him, but only doubted his faithfulness. It was a case of suspicion, not accusation. Since Job had not fallen into transgression, this was an unconfirmed suspicion, and Jehovah unnecessarily fell in the temptation of the devil. When he fell in the temptation of the Devil, Jehovah broke his promise to protect the righteous: “Hate evil, you who love Jehovah, who preserves the soul of His godly ones; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked” (Ps. 97:10; 37:28; 91:1-10, etc.). Job’s accusers were his three friends, saying that evil had touched him because he was a sinner. The same Jehovah testified of Job that he was righteous (Job 1:8; 2:3). In this last verse, Jehovah confesses that, even without cause, the Devil had been inciting him, something which does not fit in with Jehovah’s deity.

The Bible makes the actuations of the Devil very clear:

TEMPTER – “And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command, that these stones become bread’” (Matt. 4:3; 1 Thess. 3:5; 1 Cor. 7:5).

DEVOURER – “casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Pe 5:7-8).

BEGET CHILDREN – “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father…” (John 8:44).

SCHEMER – “Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11).

LIAR – “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH IN HIM; WHENEVER HE SPEAKS A LIE, HE SPEAKS FROM HIS OWN NATURE; FOR HE IS A LIAR, AND THE FATHER OF LIES” (John 8:44). It is obvious that liars cannot accuse anyone before the Judge. God, the Almighty God, would not allow any accusations from a lying demon. That would be a pantomime. It would be the demoralization of the heavenly tribunal—a biblical comedy.

Thanks to God, Jesus gives us a convincing explanation: “Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope” (John 5:45). Why is Moses the accuser? This is because Moses gave the law of Jehovah to the people. “Take this book of the law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you” (Deut. 31:26). “For our kings, our leaders, our priests, and our fathers have not kept Thy law or paid attention to Thy commandments and Thine admonitions with which Thou hast admonished them” (Neh. 9:34).

If the law accuses, then, it is from Jehovah, since the accuser is Jehovah, and not the Devil. It is easy to prove that Jehovah accuses men of sins: “Then to Adam He said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat from it”; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life’” (Gen. 3:17). He accused and condemned Adam, and also accused and condemned the people that lived before the flood: “Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth’” (Gen. 6:13). He accused Er, son of Judah: “But Er, Judah’s first-born, was evil in the sight of Jehovah, so Jehovah took his life” (Gen. 38:7). He accused Saul: “Now Jehovah said to Samuel, ‘How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? (1 Sam. 16:1). He accused Eli, the priest: “And Jehovah said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it ill tingle. In that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end’” (1 Sam. 3:11,12). Jehovah accused David: “Why have you despised the word of Jehovah by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the son of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me…” (2 Sam. 12:9,10). Jehovah accused everybody: Solomon, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, Gideon, Ahab, etc. etc.

Jesus does not accuse anybody (John 5:45). On the contrary, Jesus is the advocate of sinners. He did not accuse the sinner of Luke 7:36-47, neither the adulterer woman that was going to be stoned (John 8:1-11). Neither the dishonest tax-gatherer named Zacheus (Luke 19:1-10), neither the two thieves on the cross with him (Luke 23:39-43). JESUS IS THE ADVOCATE OF THE SINNERS “My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

Jehovah is the accuser, so Jesus and he are not the same person; and he is not the Father either, for the Father only saves, and does not accuse or condemn “For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers” (1 Tim. 4:10).

Jesus Christ, as Savior and advocate, had to make the accusing law of Jehovah void, because if he had adopted it, he would also be an accuser, such as was the case with Moses.

Jesus Christ is the only Savior and the only way.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira