The resurrection of Christ was not only the defeat of death, but the overthrow of the devils—including the deity called Yahweh—who ruled the world through false religion, blood sacrifice, and law. His rising signaled the fall of every power that enslaved mankind through fear and ritual.
As the Apostle Paul declared:
“And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Colossians 2:15).
The earliest followers of Paul understood what the later Roman Church refused to accept: the gods of the nations were not gods at all, but devils. Their temples were strongholds of darkness, their oracles mouths of deceit. Their sacrifices fed not heaven, but hell. And reigning among them, masked in the Law of Moses, stood the most dangerous of them all—the deity called Yahweh.
The Silence of Delphi
Among the most apparent signs of Christ’s cosmic victory was the sudden silence that fell upon the oracles of the pagan world. Most infamous among them was the Oracle of Delphi, once regarded as the divine voice of Apollo. For centuries, it had guided kings and empires. But after the resurrection of Christ, its voice faltered—and finally ceased altogether.
Even pagan authors recorded this event. Plutarch, in De Defectu Oraculorum, acknowledged the fading of prophetic power across the empire. “The prophetic spirit is withdrawing from the earth,” he wrote—unaware that the cause was Christ’s appearing. Porphyry, another pagan philosopher, admitted that the rise of Christianity had silenced the oracles. Though he opposed the faith, he confessed the truth: the devils had been cast down.
Eusebius, Lactantius, and other early Christian witnesses rightly saw this as proof of Christ’s dominion. The oracles were mute. The shrines stood empty. The spirits behind them had been bound. And by the end of the fourth century, Emperor Theodosius I sealed their fate by banning all pagan rites. The temples were shuttered. The devils had no more sacrifices.
The End of Sacrifice
But Christ did not only overthrow the gods of the Gentiles. He brought judgment upon the deity called Yahweh—the cruel, bloodthirsty spirit who ruled over Israel. This god was no different than Baal or Apollo. He was not the True God, but a devil: wrathful, legalistic, and murderous. His laws were not merciful—they were monstrous. His commands led not to life, but to fear.
Yahweh delighted in burnt offerings, demanded animal blood, ordered genocide, and gloried in vengeance. He was a deceiver, cloaked in holiness, who kept the people in bondage through rituals of death. His temple in Jerusalem was no sanctuary—it was a slaughterhouse.
But Christ came not to fulfill Yahweh’s law, but to end it. As He declares in the Testamentum:
“Think not that I am come to fulfil the law, or the prophets: I am not come to fulfil, but to destroy.” (Evangelicon 14:16)
Jesus did not cleanse the temple to restore it to its original state. He condemned it. He declared:
“Jesus answered and said unto them, I am come to abolish the sacrifices, if ye cease not from sacrificing, the wrath will not cease from you. Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?” (Evangelicon 2:18-20)
And so it was. Within a generation, the temple was destroyed, its priests slain, and its sacrifices ended forever. The god who ruled there was overthrown.
The True God—the Father of Jesus Christ—does not demand sacrifice. He takes no pleasure in blood. He sends His Son, not plagues. He delivers in grace, not wrath. To confuse the Father of Christ with the deity called Yahweh is to mistake light for darkness, mercy for vengeance, and the Gospel for bondage.
Paul Proclaims the Victory
Only one man preached this Gospel of freedom without compromise: the Apostle Paul. Unlike the emissaries of Jerusalem, Paul received his Gospel not from men, but directly from the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone understood that the Law was not divine, but a curse placed upon mankind by a hostile power.
Paul wrote:
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.” (Galatians 3:10)
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” (Galatians 5:1)
The deity called Yahweh was not misunderstood—he was malevolent. The same spirit who demanded flesh in Jerusalem also thirsted for blood in Delphi, Babylon, and Rome. But Christ exposed them all, and Paul declared their defeat.
Tertullian, though no friend of Marcion, admitted in Apologeticum that pagan exorcists feared Christians, for the devils fled at the name of Jesus. The destruction of the temple and the collapse of the pagan sanctuaries were no accident. They were the evidence of divine judgment.
The spirits of the age were overthrown.
Let No Man Preach Another Gospel
The Father of Jesus Christ never gave the Law. He never commanded sacrifice. He never enslaved men under death and ritual. Those who proclaim such a god serve not the Father, but the devil.
As Paul warned:
“If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:9)
Let no man preach a gospel that comes from Yahweh. Let no man turn again to Jerusalem or Delphi. The grace of the True God has appeared, and the devils have fled.
In Him, we are made free.
