If I say the name Satan to anyone, they know who I'm talking about ...sort of. They know the cheapened, watered-down version of who he is. They know the commercialized little red character with two stubby horns and a pitchfork. I find it quite remarkable that, while possibly at one point the name Satan made grown men tremble in fear, today, that image of him does little to strike even a sniffle from even the smallest of children. And I can't help but wonder, who do people really think Satan is? Do they even believe in him?
I don't know how theologians would feel about my next statement, or even how sure I am about its accuracy with biblical truth, but I think that belief in Satan may be just as important as belief in God. To know that God is real is one thing, to know that Satan is real is another. Knowing God can and should bring about all sorts of emotions; we should feel awe and reverence towards him, as well as love and peace in Him. But the knowledge and understanding that Satan exists and is very present in the world, should bring about much more than a sniffle or a tremble from us. Not only should we being alert to what he is doing or care to avoid him, but we should also be so utterly transformed by our knowledge that we can no longer take his name lightly. If you are a Christian, like me, you have no reason to fear him, but we should also not look upon the little red face we see in media and such without being jolted into our seat with the reality of what Satan's existence really means...
Then there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon--the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world--was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens,
"It has come at last--
salvation and power
and the Kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth--
the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb
and by their testimony.
And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
Therefore, rejoice, O heavens!
And you who live in the heavens, rejoice!
B u t t e r r o r w i l l c o m e o n e a r t h a n d t h e s e a, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time." Revelation 12:9-12
Satan.
"You were blameless in all you did from the day were created until the day evil was found in you."
Ezekiel 28:15
"A tiger can smile. A snake will say it loves you. Lies make us evil." Chuck Palahniuk
He lied. He lied to himself. He called himself a god, he fooled himself into thinking that he was as powerful as the One who created him. In the first moment when his heart turned over from the angelic high priest that he was, into the dark fortress of deceit and everything evil, a war broke out. A war between God and devil. A spiritual war. And Satan with his followers, and God with his, go against each other without ceasing, even now. Although we followers of God are warned to be prepared and wear the armor of God [Ephesians 6:11-17], it's not a literal, physical battle line sort of war. In the sense of the battle itself, it does not take place with weapons like we generally think of in times of war; Satan is not on the line waiting to destroy or be destroyed. Instead, it would be more like him sneaking into our tents, charming his way into the thoughts of our soldiers. He knows that he will be able to bring down all of our forces, break down every tactic, weaken our defenses, with simple lies and stories. Satan is a schemer; a persistent, patient, plotter of evil. He is in our minds, in our hearts, in the doubts and fears we have; he lives in the cracks of our lives where we have not put God first.
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it,
and eventually they will believe it."
--Adolf Hitler
I recently read a chapter in the book The Fight, by John White called "His Infernal Majesty", it talks about the devil's role in our lives prior to and after salvation. I want to quote some intense points White makes about our "relationship" with Satan.
Regarding us with the devil before salvation:
"...you may not have realized you had a relationship with him at all. Yet aware of it or not, his spirit was at work in your body (Eph. 2:2). Unknown to you, his deceptions obscured your thinking while his music inflamed your senses and influenced your will. ...his greatest skill lay in giving you the feeling that you were your own master."
(I love this next part, because a new favorite author [White] references an all-time fav. [Lewis]!)
"C.S. Lewis's remark that humanity falls into two equal and opposite errors concerning the devil is now more famous than the book (The Screwtape Letters) in which it is found. The errors, according to Lewis, consist either in taking the devil altogether too seriously or in not taking him seriously enough. ...He is equally delighted by an atheist, a liberal theologian or a witch. And he feels as happy with a Christian whose mind is preoccupied with demons all day long as he is with one who never gives them a thought.
But he is living and virulent. His supreme object is to hurt Christ and Christ's cause. You personally are of no interest to him. It is only as you relate to Christ that you assume significance in his eyes. Before you became a Christian he was mainly interested in blinding you to the truth of Christ or perhaps in seducing you further into his terrain. But this was not because of your personal importance. He only used you to get back at God. Similarly, now that you are a Christian his interest in you has nothing to do with you as an individual so much as with your potential for Christ's cause. To God you are very important. But to Satan you are nothing more than a potentially useful microbe. He and his hellions will damage you along one or more of four lines: They will tempt, accuse, deceive and devour."
If our war is on going, and it is, we should be constantly filling every part of our lives with our loyalty to the One, or the other. Now, I don't think that anyone who isn't incessantly seeking God is a follower of Satan, otherwise I myself would be considered a follower of Satan. I seek God daily, moment to moment some days. My thoughts flow towards God and his word frequently. I have memorized His word, I pray to my Savior daily, I desire and seek Him. I love God. But I still would be considered a Satan follower if the rule was that anyone who didn't perfectly obey God was to be regarded as "one of them" rather than "one of us." I haven't yet conquered myself so wholly, and let go of myself so completely to not feel the flesh part of me being tugged in all directions so as to distract me from my God. I am aware of this, and still I cannot, or have not yet, beat that part of myself. It's different as a Christian, because ultimately I am taken care of, yes. But Satan knows that even if our heart is in love with God one day, we can just as easily fall in love with all of the distractions around us the next day. "Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide upon."
"I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time…If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his from engaging God." --Donald Miller
Miller mentions "habit" fairly generically, not specifying what the habit is, which I think points out an important message to the reader: It doesn't matter what is distracting us, it only matters that we allowed ourselves--by choice, not accident--to be distracted.
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
In my last blog I mentioned how incapable I was/am on my own, and how God instills within me the empowerment required to not only make it through the day, or this life; but how it altered my eternity. I also mentioned how some people believe Christians to be weaker rather than stronger because of their faith in God.
But going into a little more depth with the details of our existence on earth gives us an entirely different outlook, I think. God is not just around for the benefits we get from it, he is the Almighty, here with a purpose in which our well being is his utmost. Because when we are fully well in Him, more glory is found under his name. The fight we have to fight is not easy, it is not for the weak. God does not take risks, we are not just merely pawns in his game. We are His beloved children, his lost sheep, his followers, his servants. Because of our willingness to take our weaknesses into consideration and admit our need for Him, he forgets our sin and every reason he could have for just wiping us off the face of the earth, and instead, he loves and protects us from our greatest enemy. What's more, He uses us as vessels of HIS OWN POWER in the midst of spiritual warfare. He is not just protecting us as helpless victims, but he enables us through his Spirit to fight along side. He gives us supernatural ability in a supernatural war.
He knew before anything else existed, what kind of battle would need to be fought, because of us, and for our sake. He knew that some of us would reject Him wholeheartedly, which breaks his heart. But still He prepared a plan to save us, a place for us to spend eternity with him, worshiping him. God knew that He would be victorious in defeating Satan and his army. He defeated Satan on the day that he cast Satan out of his sight in heaven before we even existed. (As mentioned at the beginning of this blog.) He defeated Satan on the day that Jesus' own life was sacrificed for our sake. And He continues to defeat Satan every time someone chooses to believe in God and not allow themselves to be distracted by other things.
I think one of the biggest reasons we as Christians can have hope on a day to day basis is not because everything is easy going and trial free, but because we can know that the suffering is not without good purpose, and not permanent. An eternal promise has been made by the One who has kept every other promise to date, and we need to be ready for the day when He completes the story. Because on the day when Satan is completely bound in eternal death, so will everyone else who never believed. While as Christians we don't have to worry about our own fate, we need to be desperately concerned about the fate of those who haven't yet confessed belief. We should be moved by what we know. The power our witness may have in the life of a non-believer could be what "makes it or breaks it" for them eternally, and we should be riveted by our part in their fate, to the point of being on our knees in prayer daily for their sake, doing all that we can to bring them to complete understanding of the chance they have at eternal life, or eternal death.
Satan.
He is real. He lies incessantly.
And if you don't believe in him, it's because he's already got you fooled. (1 Corinthians 4:4)
But he will be destroyed.
[You have come to a terrible end, and you will exist no more. Ezekiel 28:19b]
In his deceit lies the reason our Truth is so important, and so phenomenal.
Oh yeah, in case you were wondering,
Here is the warning and the promise we have been given:
The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent. But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment. 2 Peter 3:9-10
Then the devil who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God's throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up it's dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20:10-15
But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly awaiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies and using the same power with which we will bring everything under his control.
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