The Statement of Belial

Hail, man, who shall bring to the end of the Universe the glory of thy Satanic Will! I am Belial, who bring to thee the third great key of Hell, by whose power ye shall confound all the laws of Heaven and Earth. Before thee shall chaos fall, and thou shalt wield for thyself the great mysteries of the macrocosmos. I speak to thee of that which is called Flame which first brought thy Will to life long ages ago.

To council with Satan I also was called, and the Lord of Light said to me, Into thy charge, Daemon of essence, I give the essence of my own being, the Black Fire whose power alone
can effect creation by force of Will. Against thee who wield the Black magic no law shall stand, and thus I call thee Belial, who art One Without Master. And as I have bequeathed this
essence to thee, so let it come finally to man, who shall overcome the great balance and bring to the Flame a change, for in supremacy it shall become Red with the perfection of the Will of man.

And to Earth came Belial, to view the teachings of Asmodeus and Astaroth. And I saw that Satan, who himself oft chanced company of men, spoke of the Black Flame to the first magi
of men, testing their Wills in the control of the raw forces of the Cosmos unbound from the law of God.

And in his innocence man knew not the majesty of the Flame, using its lesser powers for finite and minor alteration of the divine law on Earth. And as man might unleash the Flame beyond his skill to master it, Satan said, Belial, the Black Flame cannot incline merely to the base
ends of ordered existence. Man must recognize the ultimate potential of my Gift ere he destroy his very race through its abuse. Convoke therefore a Church of Satan to
tend the Black Flame with care and wield it with wisdom, preserving for man this key to infinite Will.

And I answered, So it shall be, and this Church of Satan shall herald the glories of the Satanic Age of man. The days of the god-churches shall pale with decay and dissolution, and the
realm of Messiah upon Earth shall crumble to ruin with the coming of the Satanic man.

To those who would dare the Black magic - Know that what ye accept is the very mastery of all that ye have supposed impossible, by force of Will alone. The Black magus need fear no power save his own, but he must conquer his own Will that he cause not his destruction through ill chance or purpose. Satan himself is not God, and Hell can offer no salvation to those who abuse the Gift of Satan. For the Gift itself is beyond the control of Hell once given, being subject
to the Will of the Black magus alone.

For Hell doth bequeath to man his perfect freedom, and such a gift can never be recalled.
Farewell, 0 man, who art at once child and father of the Universe! Remember the future which is thine, and know, now and forever, that Hell entrusts to thy care the
guardianship of the eternal Will.

-Michael Aquino, The Diabolicon