You believe in the Devil? Give me a break!'

Well Jesus believed in him. Perhaps if the one who is widely regarded as the best teacher the World has ever known believed in him, then just perhaps it may be worth checking out.

As I have argued in my early blogs, in the end all World views are unprovable positions of faith. I also contend that the Jewish-Christian Scriptures give the best explanation of reality, of what is. In the area under consideration, I am claiming that the Bible has the best explanation for the nature of man who can rise to the highest and noblest of heights,  but also sink to the depths of the depths in depravity. The Biblical explanation for the first characteristic is that we are made in the image of God, for the second that we are (by default) fallen under the influence of the personification of all that is evil, of Satan, the Devil, the enemy of our souls.

According to the Bible, the devil has two strategies, deception and/or fascination. He is the Father of lies, so he seeks, for example to persuade us he does not exist, or he seeks to fascinate us with his power (and even to follow him!). My brothers and sisters from Africa know well about this power. They have no doubt that he exists. They know about daemon possession too, and they know the supernatural strength that often accompanies this phenomenon, so that it cannot be dismissed as psychosis.  The pigs,  in the story of the demon possessed man in the gospels, did not rush down the cliff into the sea because they had been told all their lives about daemons, and were thus brainwashed into thinking they were real  (Mark 5:11-13).

Yes in places like Africa, they know that the Devil and his daemons exist. We in the West are more naïve, but I do not mean this in the way that most people mean it, they think we Christians are naïve to believe in him.  But if you deny his existence, how do you explain the proliferation and power of evil in the World, the bottomless pit of  the destructive side of human nature?  How could anyone be so evil that he could order the murder of six million men women and children? And how could so many be willing to carry out his orders? Closer to home, have you ever wondered where some of your more obnoxious thoughts come from, you know those thoughts  you would never tell another human being?  What would people think? 

Let's look a little closer at the Biblical view of what goes on inside our heads.  All would agree that there are our own thoughts, and thoughts planted there by others. Sometimes we know when they are our thoughts, but sometimes we do not.  Lets just stop here for a moment. I remember  a conversation that went like this. “They call a collection of geese a gaggle. What do they call a collection of little girls?”.  She answered “A giggle - a giggle of girls!”  Who thought of that one?  Well I did, and it was the teacher in me who “told her” asking the question in such a way as to suggest some connection (however vague)  with the answer I was seeking. But I could not convince her it was my idea. Well I didn't try too hard, it was not that important.  Perhaps you  would see clearly that it was my idea, but what I want you to see is how easy it might be to fool people into thinking something you gave them is their own thoughts. And how much easier would it be if I had a machine that could plant thoughts  into your mind and speak them in the first person? “Its all my fault”, “I wish he were dead”, “I would just like to ….etc., etc.” And how powerful would it be if the timing was right on, just after that “#@%^#” did it again!

The Scriptures tell us about two “voices” that we hear, the voice of the good Shepherd, and the voice of the thief, that is God's thoughts, and the thoughts planted there by the one the Scripture describes as the very enemy of our souls (John 10, Ephesians 6:12,13).  Jesus calls him the thief because of his agenda, which is  to kill and to steal and destroy. What if it is true? Would you not want to know so you can learn to discern to his thoughts from your own?  And who is naïve, the Christian who is not ignorant of his devices (II Corinthians 2:11) or those who are? (More to come).