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Satan
Satan
Some people think that there is no
Satan. Perhaps the following story will be instructive to them.
Once there was a boxer who was being
badly beaten. Battered and bruised
he leaned over the ropes and said to his
trainer
“Throw in the towel! This guy is killing me!”
The trainer said
“Oh
no
he’s not.
He’s not even hitting you. He hasn’t laid a glove on you!”
At that point the boxer wiped the
blood away from his eye and said
“Well
then
I wish you’d watch that referee.
Somebody is sure hitting me!” ── Michael P. Green《Illustrations for Biblical
Preaching》
God indeed has the Devil
in a chain
but has horribly lengthened out the chain.
Cotton Mather.
That there is a devil is a
thing doubted by none but such as are under the influence of the Devil.
Cotton Mather.
On a recent trip to Haiti
I heard a Haitian pastor illustrate to his congregation the need for total
commitment to Christ. His parable: A certain man wanted to sell his house for
$2
000. Another man wanted very badly to buy it
but because he was poor
he
couldn't afford the full price. After much bargaining
the owner agreed to sell
the house for half the original price with just one stipulation: He would
retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.
After several years
the
original owner wanted the house back
but the new owner was unwilling to sell.
So the first owner went out
found the carcass of a dead dog
and hung it from
the single nail he still owned. Soon the house became unlivable
and the family
was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.
The Haitian pastor's
conclusion: "If we leave the Devil with even one small peg in our life
he
will return to hang his rotting garbage on it
making it unfit for Christ's
habitation."
Dale A. Hays
Leadership
Vol X
#3 (Summer
1989)
p. 35.
Christians must not fear
or ignore the devil. Both positions are dangerous. The hog nosed snake is an
evil looking reptile which responds to the threat of danger with two ruses.
First
it impersonates a pit viper
coiling and striking and hissing viciously.
If this fails to intimidate the attacker the snake turns belly up
opens its
mouth and lolls its tongue out
playing dead. If it is picked up and placed
right side up it simply turns over and resumes the death ruse again. It seems
to realize that if it cannot bluff
it has to mimic death.
Richard Lovelace
Demon
Possession
ed. J. Montgomery.
Writing in Moody
Monthly
Carl Armerding recounted his experience of watching a wildcat in a
zoo. "As I stood there
" he said
"an attendant entered the cage
through a door on the opposite side. He had nothing in his hands but a broom.
Carefully closing the door
he proceeded to sweep the floor of the cage."
He observed that the worker had no weapon to ward off an attack by the beast.
In fact
when he got to the corner of the cage where the wildcat was lying
he
poked the animal with the broom. The wildcat hissed at him and then lay down in
another corner of the enclosure. Armerding remarked to the attendant
"You
certainly are a brave man." "No
I ain't brave
" he replied as
he continued to sweep. "Well
then that cat must be tame."
"No
" came the reply
"he ain't tame." "If you aren't
brave and the wildcat isn't tame
then I can't understand why he doesn't attack
you." Armerding said the man chuckled
then replied with an air of
confidence
"Mister
he's old--and he ain't got no teeth."
Carl Armerding
Moody
Monthly.
Theologians tell a story
to illustrate how Christ's triumph presently benefits our lives: Imagine a city
under siege. The enemy that surrounds they city will not let anyone or anything
leave. Supplies are running low
and the citizens are fearful. But in the dark
of the night
a spy sneaks through the enemy lines. He has rushed to the city
to tell the people that in another place the main enemy force has been
defeated; the leaders have already surrendered. The people do not need to be
afraid. It is only a matter of time until the besieging troops receive the news
and lay down their weapons. Similarly
we may seem now to be surrounded by the
forces of evil -- disease
injustice
oppression
death. But the enemy has
actually been defeated at Calvary. Things are not the way they seem to be. It
is only a matter of time until it becomes clear to all that the battle is
really over.
Richard J. Mouw
Uncommon
Decency
pp. 149-150.
Two 6 year olds struggled
with the problem of the existence of the devil. One boy said
"Oh
there
isn't any devil." The other
rather upset
said
"What do you mean
there isn't any devil? It talks about him all the way through the Bible!"
the first replied
"Oh that's not true
you know. It's just like Santa
Clause
the devil turns out to be your dad."
G. Lewis
Demon
Possession
ed. J. Montgomery.
A friend and associate of
boxers
American writer Wilson Mizner was himself a talented fighter. One night
Mizner and boxer "Mysterious" Billy Smith visited a San Francisco
bar
where Mizner started a fight with some longshoremen. At the end only one
longshoreman was left standing. Although Mizner rained punches at him
he
stayed obstinately upright. Suddenly
Smith noticed what was happening.
"Leave him alone
Wilson!" he shouted. "I knocked him out five minutes
ago." On investigation it turned out that a punch from Smith had indeed
knocked the longshoreman out cold
but had also wedged him vertically between
two pieces of furniture.
Here's an accurate picture
of our already-defeated but still standing enemy Satan!
Today in the Word
April 3
1993.
Writing in Moody Monthly
Carl Armerding recounted his experience of watching a wildcat in a zoo.
"As I stood there
" he said
"an attendant entered the cage
through a door on the opposite side. He had nothing in his hands but a broom.
Carefully closing the door
he proceeded to sweep the floor of the cage."
He observed that the worker had no weapon to ward off an attack by the beast.
In fact
when he got to the corner of the cage where the wildcat was lying
he
poked the animal with the broom. The wildcat hissed at him and then lay down in
another corner of the enclosure. Armerding remarked to the attendant
"You
certainly are a brave man." "No
I ain't brave
" he replied as
he continued to sweep. "Well
then
that cat must be tame."
"No
" came the reply
"he ain't tame." "If you aren't
brave and the wildcat isn't tame
then I can't understand why he doesn't attack
you." Armerding said the man chuckled
then replied with an air of
confidence
"Mister
he's old -- and he ain't got no teeth."
Our Daily Bread.
The thoroughly evil nature
of the devil consists in the fact that here we have spontaneous
self-generating sin expressed in pure defiance and pure arrogance.
Nigel Wright
The Satan
Syndrome
Zondervan
1990
p. 58.
The devil is not
impersonal like stones or bureaucracies; he is a non-person. The Devil has
become all that God is not; he is not beyond personality--he is without it. His
purpose in creation is not to destroy God; he knows that he cannot do that. He
wants to draw us into the vortex of non-personhood that he has become
and the
nothingness of non-being that he is becoming. Satan
in short
aims to take as
many of us with him as he can.
Nigel Wright
The Satan
Syndrome
Zondervan
1990
p. 163.
Satan promises the best
but pays with the worst;
he promises honor and pays with disgrace;
he promises pleasure and pays with pain;
he promises profit and pays with loss;
he promises life and pays with death.
Thomas Brooks.
Possible Biblical
references to Satan:
Genesis 3:1-14 He was
disguised under the Edenic serpent
Genesis 3:15 He is the serpent's seed
Isaiah 14:12 He was Lucifer
son of the morning before the fall
Ezekiel 28:14 He was the anointed cherub that covers
1 Chronicles 21:1 He energized David to evil
Job 1:7-2:10 He accused and afflicted Job
Zecheriah 3:1-9 He opposes unbelieving Israel prefigured by Joshuathe priest
Matthew 4:3 He is the tempter
Matthew 12:24; Acts 10:38 He is the prince of the demons
1 Timothy 4:1-6 He instigates false doctrine
Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:10-11 He perverts the Word of God
Matthew 12:22-29 He works in demon possession
Zechariah 3:1 He is Satan
the Adversary
Luke 4:13 He is the devil
the slanderer
John 13:2
27 He caused Judas to betray Christ
Acts 5:3 and Ananias to lie
2 Corinthians 4:4 He blinds people spiritually
1 Peter 5:8 He seeks to harm believers
Ephesians 6:11-12 He heads a celestial hierarchy of evil
Ephesians 2:2 He indwells the unsaved
John 8:44 He was branded "a liar" and "the father of
lies"by Jesus
2 Thessalonians 2:9 He works diabolic miracles
John 8:44 He is a murderer
John 12:31; 14:30 He is the prince of this world
Luke 13:16 He blinds people physically and spiritually
Matthew 25:41 He is a fallen angel
Matthew 13:38-39 He sows tares
Matthew 13:19 and snatches away the Word
Revelation 20:1-3 He will be bound during the millennium
Matthew 13:39 He is "the enemy"
Matthew 13:38 "the evil one"
Ephesians 6:10-20 He is routed by Spirit-directed prayer
1 Peter 5:8-9 He is overcome by faith
1 Thessalonians 2:18 He hinders God's will in believers
Revelation 12:9 He is the deceiver
Revelation 12:9; 20:2 He is the dragon
that old serpent
Luke 10:18 He fell from a sinless high estate
Luke 22:31 He viewed Simon Peter as a target
Revelation 2:9 He has a synagogue of legalists who deny God's grace in Christ
John 3:8
10 His children are unsaved people
Matthew 25:41; Rev 20:10 His ultimate fate is Gehenna
Merrill F. Unger
The
New Unger's Bible Handbook
Revised Gary N. Larson
Moody Press
Chicago
1984
p. 407.
J. O. Sanders offers this
interesting description of the counterfiet nature of Satan:
Satan has his own
trinity--the devil
the beast
and the false prophet (Revelation 16:13).
He has his own church
"a synagogue of Satan" (Revelation 2:9).
He has his own ministers
"ministers of Satan" (2 Corinthians
11:4-5).
He has formulated his own system of theology "doctrines of demons" (1
Timothy 4:1).
He has established his own sacrificial system; "The Gentiles...sacrifice
to demons" (1 Corinthians 10:20).
He has his own communion service
"the cup of demons...and the table of
demons" (1 Corinthians 10:21).
His ministers proclaim his own gospel
"a gospel contrary to that which we
have preached to you" (Galatians 1:7-8).
He has his own throne (Revelation 13:2) and his own worshipers (Revelation
13:4).
So he has developed a
thorough imitation of Christianity
viewed as a system of religion.
In his role as the
imitator of God
he inspires false christs
self-constituted messiahs (Matthew
24:4-5).
He employs false teachers who are specialists in his "theology
" to
bring in "destructive heresies
even denying the Master who bought
them" (2 Peter 2:1). They are adept at mixing truth and error in such
proportions as to make error palatable. They carry on their teaching
surreptitiously and often anonymously.
He sends out false prophets. "And many false prophets will arise
and will
mislead many" (Matthew 24:11).
He introduces false brethren into the church
who "had sneaked in to spy
out our liberty...in order to bring us into bondage" (Galatians 2:4).
He sponsors false apostles who imitate the true (2 Corinthians 11:13).
J.O. Sanders
Satan is
No Myth
Moody
1975
pp. 35-36.
J. O. Sanders offers this
summary of the strategies of Satan:
Strategies of Satan with
unbelievers:
1) blinding the minds of
the unregenerate (2 Cor. 4:4).
2) snatching away the good seed of the word (Matthew 13:19).
3) lulling the unbeliever into a false sense of security (Luke 11:21).
4) laying snares for the unwary (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
5) masquerading as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:13-14).
6) deceiving those whose minds are not subject to the Word of truth (Rev 12:9).
7) mixing truth with error (Matthew 13:25-8).
Strategies of Satan with
believers:
1) annihilate the church
or neutralize its witness from within (Acts 5:1-6).
2) virulent persecution from without.
3) smother its witness by according it great popularity.
4) disturb the unity of the church by creating discord and division
5) subversion of the church through apostasy and heresy (2 Peter 2:1-2).
J.O. Sanders
Satan is
No Myth
Moody
1975
p. 72ff.
Even those who claim to be
Born Again are not necessarily firmly grounded in the truths of the Bible. In
his book which provides a statistical analysis of religious beliefs in America
George Barna cites several fascinating statistics which are based on a national
survey.
In chapter four he states
"The Devil
or Satan
is not a living being but is a symbol of evil."
Then asking that segment of his survey respondents who have identified
themselves at being Born Again
he states
"Do you agree strongly
agree
somewhat
disagree somewhat
or disagree strongly with that statement?"
The Born Again population
reply with 32 percent agreeing strongly
11 percent agreeing somewhat and 5
percent did not know. Thus
of the total number responding
48 percent either
agreed that Satan is only symbolic or did not know!
Should it then be
surprising that a few pages later Barna would receive some very startling responses?
His next question
"Christians
Jews
Muslims
Buddhists
and others all
pray to the same God
even though they use different names for that God."
Again
the respondents were asked to agree strongly
agree somewhat
disagree
somewhat or disagree strongly.
Of that population
surveyed who identified themselves as Born Again
30 percent agreed strongly
18 percent agreed somewhat and 12 percent did not know. That is a total of 60
percent! (What Americans Believe
pp. 206-212).
Watchman Expositor
Vol. 10
No.
4
1993
p. 31.