Writing about Satan is a bit risky. Most people figure he is out there somewhere but really don’t think of him as an up close and personal presence in their lives. They prefer to keep him under the bed.
First of all, do you even believe in a person called Satan? If you do, then you have to wonder where he is, what he looks like, and what he is up to. If you don’t, his work is done and he is happy. One thing about Satan, he is ingenious at cloaking his existence. He is not called the Deceiver for nothing. And he has several effective tricks.
First he promotes himself as a red cartoon character with horns, tail, and pitchfork. Pretty clever, huh? That works for the simple minded; it’s good for a laugh. But he is much deadlier and clever than that. He can handle the intellectual of intellectuals with ease. Let’s see how he did it in the beginning, in the Garden; his first contact with humans.
In Genesis 3, Eve tells Satan:
3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Satan counters:
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Satan tricks Eve by obfuscating the truth. He mixes some truth in with the lie. You might call him the Great Obfuscator. No, she didn’t die. Not physically . . . not yet anyway. But she died to God instantaneously. Did they become like God knowing good and evil? In a sense. Now they shared the delusion of independence promulgated by Satan and now falsely believed they were lords of their own destiny. How wrong!
At that point, Satan became the ruler of this world (John 14:30). Right there, most people are going to pause. Sure, we have evil in this world, he certainly has influence, but ruler? Really? He doesn’t rule me.
Really? Let’s see. What did Jesus say
John 8: 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
Mighty strong language, huh? What is more interesting is he was speaking to the religious leaders.
Even Christians have a hard time swallowing this one. Surely he wasn’t speaking of me? I was bad, sure, but not that bad. Well, before you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the answer is yes. He was speaking of all of us. We were all born the same way. Maybe we had no strong consciousness of it, but it was so. I didn’t say it. Jesus said it and Paul confirms it:
Eph 2: 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind
This again dispels the two nature myth as well as the myth that we were ever independent or had a nature of our own. We take on the nature of our Father. Before it was the devil, now it is Christ, if so be you are in Christ.
Now you are looking at me like I have two heads. Sorry, it’s the truth. Truth that Satan, the great Deceiver, doesn’t want you to know:
2 Cor 4: 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
He convinces you that you are in control when, in fact, you are not. Never were. He is, or was. He works you from the inside and keeps you believing that somehow, someway, you can improve yourself and be good without Christ. Fat chance. Actually no chance.
So, how does he get away with it? Well you can sum it up pretty simply as follows:
2 Cor 11: 14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
And he does a mighty good job of it. You see, he doesn’t look anything like your personal image of the Devil, whatever that is. He is just about as ordinary as apple pie. He walks by you every day in business suits and rags without being recognized. He is in the churches, synagogues, mosques, government, schools, and right down the block. He is buried deep, joined to and enslaving the spirits of non-believers without their knowledge until Christ exposes him in His light.
The only sign you will have is that everything Satan does is for himself. If charitable giving and good works promote himself, he will be the best giver. If death and destruction promote himself, he isn’t called the Destroyer for nothing. Whatever works.
Here is the acid test. Satan is the opposite of God. He is self for self. If it’s for self-promotion, it is Satan. That might not be obvious given all the so-called good works and smiley faces out there. Do not judge by appearances.
God is Self for others. Everything he does is out of Love, even if it doesn’t appear to be so. Satan may may mean it for evil, but God means it for good. Again, do not judge by appearances. You must discern spiritually. How do you know? By their fruits:
Matt 7: 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
The Lost Coin by Samuel Hayes Sherwood is now available on Amazon. See how the mystery of Christ is unraveled.
