Satan's Strategy. What in the World Is Satan Doing? Is Satan a Myth or a Reality? How Do We Know Satan Is Real?
Two Contemporary "Devils"
THE NEW AGE NATURE GOD
THE NEW AGE NATURE GOD
Who is Satan?
HIS ORIGIN
HIS SIN
HIS PUNISHMENT
HIS PERSONHOOD
HIS NAMES
What Is Satan Doing?
Fighting : SATAN IS FIGHTING US
PLANTING COUNTERFEITS
DEVOURING VICTIMS
Ruling : SATAN IS RULING
Deceiving : SATAN IS DECEIVING
Dr. William Hendriksen made this comment
The Elements of Satan's Lie
THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING SATAN'S LIE
SATAN'S DISGUISE
Accusing : SATAN IS ACCUSING US
Possessing : SATAN IS POSSESSING
DEMON POSSESSION IN THE PAST
PRESENT-DAY DEMON POSSESSION
EXORCISM TODAY
The Only Answer to Satan's Lie
How Can We Defeat Satan?
HAVE CONFIDENCE IN GOD
SUBMIT TO GOD AND RESIST SATAN
BE AWARE OF SATAN'S STRATEGIES
PUT ON THE ARMOR OF GOD
What in the World Is Satan Doing?
Are we fooling ourselves if we blame our problems on the devil? Or are we being spiritually naive if we don't? Does our Christian faith require us to believe in a real, unseen enemy whose aggressive strategy is to keep us from loving and trusting Christ?
Dan Vander Lugt, RBC biblical counselor, has written this booklet to correct some current misconceptions about Satan. It is our prayer that it will help you to be both forewarned and forearmed against an evil empire organized not only to rule the world but to take the place of Christ in your heart.
Is Satan a Myth or a Reality?
A recent survey revealed that nearly 70 percent of the American public believes that Satan is real. But this statistic doesn't reflect the lack of understanding people have about his nature or activities. Many in our society have strong, confused, and conflicting ideas about Satan.
A few years ago psychiatrist M. Scott Peck, who authored the remarkable best seller "The People of the Lie", admitted, "In common with 99 percent of the psychiatrists and the majority of the clergy, I did not think the devil existed." But this perception may be changing. Many scientifically minded people are no longer so sure. Some, like Peck, have been led to the Christian faith through their grappling with the reality of evil. Others, though, speaking freely of the devil, do so in a non-Christian context.
Ludwig Staudenmaier was a German scientist who accepted the Freudian idea that the devil was only a "myth, " a "personification of repressed, unconscious drives." After completing his doctoral work in chemistry, zoology, and theology, he became obsessed with a desire to "explore the boundaries between the natural and the supernatural, to allow the natural sciences to determine as accurately as possible the distinction between pathology and actual satanic manifestations."
At the suggestion of a friend, Staudenmaier began experimenting with the psychic technique known as "automatic writing, " a phenomenon in which the subject learns how to place himself into a trance, permitting unseen forces to write messages through his hand. He soon became quite adept at automatic writing even though he considered what he wrote to be the product of his subconscious mind.
Soon, however, he was disturbed by hallucinations, which rapidly increased in both their frequency and severity. One night as he lay in his bed, he had the distinct feeling of a chain being fastened around his neck and tightened. Then came the strong odor of sulfur and a sinister voice saying, "You are now my captive. I will never free you. I am the devil."
Although still clinging to his scientific perspective, Staudenmaier began to have second thoughts about his venture. He wrote:
There remains in my mind no doubt that according to a naive, medical perspective I have become possessed. Therefore, only two alternatives remain: Either I am on the brink of understanding the puzzle of human existence from a new and entirely novel perspective, or I am a fool who has thrown away years of time, health, and perhaps even life itself. He continued to be tormented by hallucinations until he died some years later in Rome.
Staudenmaier's experience is not unique. People of every culture have sensed or encountered the reality of a personal, supernatural, evil, spirit being. Some of the greatest writers of recent centuries are people who took the devil very seriously. Feodor Dostoevski, Charles Baudelaire, Thomas Mann, Flannery O'Connor, and Geourge Bernanos are just a few examples.
Satan also appears in areas untouched by Western civilization with its Judeo-Christian heritage. Possibly the most striking satanic figures ever created are the vicious leering "fire gods" crafted 1, 000 years before Columbus by post-Olmec Indians.
Jeffery Burton Russell states: "Parallel formulations of the devil in diverse and widely separated cultures... are striking" ("The Devil, " Cornell University Press, p.55).
In analyzing such evidence two mistakes are made. Some find ways to explain them as psychological phenomena with their origin in the human psyche. This interpretation usually leaves some aspects of these experiences unexplained. Others err in the opposite direction. They see demons everywhere and give simplistic solutions to complex situations. They offer their exorcism formulas as panaceas for almost all ills.
It is important that we avoid both extremes--rationalization and gullibility.
How Do We Know Satan Is Real?
Science will never find Satan. Its instruments will never be able to measure or prove the reality of spiritual things. The demonic is known by other means.
M. Scott Peck, a recent convert to belief in the devil's reality, tells how he became aware of the spiritual dimension of life, not through scientific inquiry but through grappling with the reality of evil in the lives of his patients. He writes:
I don't really hope to convince the reader of Satan's reality. Conversion to a belief in God generally requires some kind of actual encounter--a personal experience--with the living God. Conversion to a belief in Satan is no different (The People of the Lie, Simon and Schuster, p.184).
Many people who insist that they believe only what can be scientifically verified have never taken the time to consider how inconsistent their viewpoint is. The most important things in our lives, after all, are not things that can be proved or disproved scientifically. Science cannot prove that love for family and friends is real. Neither can science assure us of the validity of our emotions in response to beautiful music or a walk through a place of great natural beauty. Beyond this, science cannot provide us with any ultimate standard for values or morality.
There are obvious many real things that cannot be verified, quantified, evaluated, proved, or disproved by science. Reality has dimensions (or "levels") that transcend science and must be understood in different ways. A simple way to understand these "levels" of reality is to think in terms of the following model:
You can read the rest here:
http://logosresourcepages.org/Occult/satan_strat.htmWelcome to The Christ Messenger part 12 (1/11/10)
Love, peace and FR33DOM. J.S.Christie. God's law will prevail
