Satan Cast Out

I have said it before: If there is any area in the Christian world that is dominated by superstition and speculation, it is spiritual warfare and the existence and activity of Satan and his demons. Far too many books on these topics are subjective and speculative rather than grounded in the firm truths of Scripture.

Frederick Leahy’s Satan Cast Out began as a project, an assignment. Back in the 1970s the Foreign Mission Board of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Ireland asked Leahy to make a special study of demonology. They did this in response to phenomena that missionaries had been observing on the mission field. To that point very little had been written on the subject and it was discussed in only a passing way in seminaries. Leahy realized, “There is a crying need for an examination of this whole subject in the light of the Scripture alone, bearing in mind that the Scriptures are our only rule of faith and practice.” While his study is now nearly 40 years old, it remains in print and remains a powerful read.   Continue at Tim Challies

The Armor of God - The Shield of Fath - Eph 6:16

It's called "the Armor of God" because its components are not of our own credit the "shield of faith" to themselves, but this is a recipe for defeat against the flaming arrows of the evil one. Only a supernatural, God-given faith can withstand those assaults. We rob God and indeed even rob ourselves of great resources in the Christian life when we ascribe any of them to ourselves and not to Christ alone. (Eph 6:10-18)

Scripture frequently refers to the the LORD as our shield (Gen. 15:1; Ps. 5:12; Prov. 30:5), so when we take up the shield of faith it means we rest in the Lord ... in Christ Himself.

 

The Holy Spirit has joined us to Christ and our supernatural faith is like a shield because it continually lays hold of Christ who covers us with His righteousness which makes us immune to the attacks of Satan.    Continue at John Hendryx

When Jesus Haunts Your Halloween

Unclean spirits stir. Demonic thrones and dominions gather. Cosmic powers over this present darkness come to attention. And the devil himself, ready to devour and destroy, ignites his fiery darts and stretches his legs for the lion’s prowl.

As All Hallows’ Eve draws nigh, the spiritual forces of evil align, and Satan prepares his hordes for the party of the year — the grand harvest festival, celebration of darkness and death, when they pretend to be their strongest.

Halloween is almost here. But so is their final defeat. Jesus haunts their Halloween.

One Little Word

As the demonic rulers and authorities make ready, the one who sits in the heavens laughs (Psalm 2:4). To him, the devil is no threat, with all his orcs and goblins and the wickedest of witches. This is no evenly matched bout. If the incarnate Christ, in his humblest state, commands unclean spirits and they obey him (Mark 1:27) — how much more the risen and glorified Lord? Jesus does the real haunting.    Continue at David Mathis

Satan’s Permission to Sift You like Wheat

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:31). Did Jesus ever speak more startling words to Peter? Surely all of the Twelve were within earshot of Jesus’ words and would be attacked by the devil but, as their leader, Peter was addressed by name and, most obviously, singled out by the Evil One. Just as Satan would succeed—temporarily—in scattering the disciples by striking down the Chief Shepherd, so he would succeed, but only temporarily, in striking down Peter.

Satan Did More than Say “Please.” The New American Standard translation says that Satan “demanded” permission from God to target Peter (as does the ESV). Satan said more than “Please” to God, i.e., he asked with a strong degree of insistence. And Satan demanded this permission from the sovereign Lord for himself (middle voice), that is, for his own selfish, destructive agenda.   Continue at Paul Tautges

The Accuser and the Advocate

Satan bears many names. Satan has many schemes. Satan wears many hats. Satan comes in many disguises. And through it all, one of his favorite tactics and one of his most successful tactics is to be an accuser. The book of Revelation assures us that night and day he stands as our accuser.

accuser (noun)
1: one that charges with a fault or offense
2: one that charges with an offense judicially or by a public process

Satan is an Accuser and you know his accusations. You have heard him charge you with a fault, you have heard him proclaim your guilt. You have heard it in the courtroom of your heart and mind and conscience.   Continue at Tim Challies

8 Ways Satan Keeps You From Worship

Satan wants to keep you from worshipping the One he hates. He wants to keep you from doing the right thing, whether that is spending time alone with the Lord in Scripture and prayer, attending and participating in public worship services, or any other thing that will draw you closer to the Lord. Here, courtesy of Thomas Brooks, are eight ways Satan will keep you from worship.

Here’s how I would encourage you to use the list. Think of the times that you decide to stay in bed instead of getting up to read the Bible; think of the times you scrapped family worship for no good reason; think of the times you stayed home from church instead of going to worship. Think of those things, and see which of these temptations is the one Satan brings to you.

He makes the world look beautiful, attractive and desirable. Many people profess Christ and see him as desirable for a time. For a while they enjoy private and public worship and do it all with enthusiasm. But before long Satan presents to them worldly things and makes those look more beautiful and desirable than Christ, and many souls are drawn away. “Where one thousand are destroyed by the world’s frowns, ten thousand are destroyed by the world’s smiles.”

He makes you aware of the fact that those who worship the Lord have often faced danger, loss and suffering. There are many men who would obey the Lord and worship him, except that they fear the consequences. Satan loves to present the high cost of obedience. This was the case for many in Jesus day: “Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue” (John 12:42).   Continue at Grace Community

Satan Wants To Help You

Satan wants to help you—to help you sin. He is hell bent on taking you to hell with him. Thomas Books, in his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, drew up a list of the devices Satan uses to draw you—yes you!—to sin. Here are six of them:

He presents the bait and hides the hook. Satan shows you the pleasure and the profit that may flow out of yielding to sin, but hides the wrath and misery that will inevitably result. This is, of course, exactly what he did with Adam and Eve: he displayed the benefit of eating that fruit, but hid all the cost. "There is an opening of the mind to contemplation and joy, and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promises them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them."

He paints sin with the colors of virtue. Satan knows that if he were to present sin accurately, you would run away from it rather than be attracted to it. Therefore, he conceals sin behind the camouflage of virtue so you can more easily be overcome by it and take more immediate pleasure in committing it. When he does this, pride comes in the form of neatness, covetousness in the form of thrift, and drunkenness in the form of a good time. Whatever temptation you are prone to he will likewise dress up as a virtue.

He convinces you this is only a little sin. Satan tries to convince you the temptation you face, the sin you are drawn to, is just a small and a harmless one. He wants you to believe this is a sin you may commit without any great danger to your soul.    Continue at Tim Challies

Watch Out or the Devil’s Gonna Get You

In rural America, off a country road, on the soft soil of a weathered field, stands a sobering message for every passer-by: Go to church or the devil will get you!

The words are neatly strewn across a homemade billboard adorned with flood lights and a painted silhouette of a red figure, apparently Satan, holding a sling-blade. Go to church, the warning hisses, or be his victim.

As hokey as it sounds, the warning is right, you know, at least in a sense.

Now to be clear, if the sign means (and it likely does) that you’d better attend a weekly meeting or else Lucifer will eat your lunch, then no, that’s not right. That would be Anglo folk religion — more akin to African animism than anything Christian.

But, more positively, if “go to church” means be part of a gospel-shaped community, and “the devil will get you!” means you’re more susceptible to his schemes apart from such community, then the sign is absolutely right. By all means, if this meaning is the case, go to church or the devil will get you. Here’s why: first, Satan is real and he hates you; second, God designs that Christians persevere in faith by means of one another.    Continue at Jonathan Parnell

How Great Evil Confirms the Biblical Teaching about Demons

I can mourn with and pray for the families in Connecticut who lost their children (and in a few cases their spouses) in the school shooting. I certainly cannot offer any definitive explanation. I am dedicating this week’s three blogs to perspectives that may be helpful to some. Keep in mind that we are treating only a few aspects of the problem of evil, and therefore much will remain unaddressed. For a larger perspective, see my books on this issue, in particular If God is Good.

Acts of extreme evil, though routinely used as arguments against God, are actually arguments for supernaturalism.

I spent hours walking through Cambodia’s Killing Fields. Vek and Samoeun Taing, a gentle Cambodian couple who had survived there with a young child for two years, escorted our small group. Feeling numb, I saw the skulls piled up and stood by the mud pits where killers threw hundreds of bodies. A human jawbone lay at my feet. I picked it up, held it in my hand, and wept.

The darkness felt overwhelming. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge murdered nearly one-third of the country’s population. Yet the three million slaughtered in Cambodia amount to less than one-fiftieth of the murders by twentieth century tyrants, who killed mostly their own people. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao accounted for most of the carnage, but the ongoing state-sponsored killing in Sudan, including the Darfur region, follows the same script. (And this figure ignores the staggering number of preborn children aborted throughout the world.)   Continue at Randy Alcorn

10 Ways that Satan Loves to Watch Marriages Fall Apart

According the Bible, Satan prowls around like a lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), but many times, he probably doesn’t have to do that much. I wonder if sometimes Satan sits back and laughs at us.

Marriage can be extremely messy. As sinners we can do dumb things in marriage—we hurt one another; we make false assumptions and then miscommunicate; we manipulate or say mean things to our spouse; we think less about serving and more about being served. We don’t always follow God’s Word or advice from godly leaders. We put our hopes in the world or each other more than we put hope in God.

We don’t need Satan to ruin our marriage. We do plenty of unhelpful things on our own to ruin our marriages. I’m sure Satan enjoys having a front row seat, watching our folly and foolishness.

What does he see?   Continue at BCC

20 Ways Satan May Seek to Destroy You

He is the serpent, the Great Dragon, Beelzebul, the ruler of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the evil one, and the adversary. He is Satan. And—if you are a follower of Jesus Christ—he hates your guts with a passion. Like a roaring lion he is prowling about seeking to destroy you. How can you stand firm and resist the devil so that he will flee from you? First, do not be naive; you must consider his ways.

1. He may slander God to you in order to cast doubt on God’s goodness and shipwreck your faith (Gen 3:4-5).
2. He may tempt you to deceive others in order to create, or maintain, the impression of being more spiritual (Acts 5:3; Jn 8:44).
3. He may corrupt your mind and steer you away from the simplicity of Christ and His gospel (2 Cor 11:3).
4. He may hinder [cut in on, as in a race] your gospel witness and steal it from unsuspecting hearts (1 Thess 2:18; Matt 13:19).
5. He may wrestle against you, fighting against your progress in Christ (Eph 6:12).
6. He may tempt you to commit sexual immorality against your spouse as a result of neglecting the intimacy of the marriage bed (1 Cor 7:5).
7. He may harass you with some form of fleshly affliction (2 Cor 12:7). Continue at Paul Tautges

Spiritual Warfare Movement

INTRODUCTION

A.    We know from Scripture that Satan exists and has set up a counterfeit program. He attacks God’s creation (Gen 3:1), God’s Word (Gen 3:1,4), God’s character (Gen 3:5), God’s truth (1Ti 4:1-5; 2Co 11:14), God’s Christ (2Th 2:9-11), and God’s children (Rev 12:10; 1Pe 5:8).

B.    We also know from Scripture that Satan uses the help of fallen angels who follow him (Rev 12:4; Mt 12:24-26).

C.    We are also taught that there is a spiritual battle waging and the believer is the battlefield and somehow takes part (Eph 6:12).

D.    Many pertinent questions must be answered; but answered biblically.

1.     What can we ascertain about the extent of spiritual warfare?

2.     How then does the believer stand in spiritual warfare?

3.     What aggressive role, if any, does the believer play in spiritual warfare?

4.     Is the contemporary Spiritual Warfare Movement biblically correct?

5.     Are we at the mercy of Satan and his minions unless the leaders of the Spiritual Warfare Movement intervene for us?

E.    Clearly, the believer must face a battle of spiritual warfare.  Continue at Daryl Hilbert

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Are We Too Concerned with Demons?

In recent years, there has been a renewal of interest in the work of Satan. Hollywood has given us a host of films to whet our appetite for the satanic. Within Christian circles, there has arisen a concern for ministries of deliverance. Some of these deliverance ministries have developed a bizarre and radically unbiblical view of demon possession and deliverance.

For example, we hear that particular demons cause particular sins. There is, they say, a demon of alcohol, a demon of depression, a demon of tobacco, and so on. Others say we can recognize the departure of a demon from a human soul by a manifest sign that is linked to the particular point of bondage. I have listened to recorded talks from well-known deliverance ministers (whose names I will not mention, to protect the guilty) in which they teach the signs of departure of the demon. A sigh, for example, indicates the departure of the demon of tobacco. Since the tobacco demon enters with the inhalation of smoke, he leaves with an audible exhale. Likewise, vomiting may be the sign of departure of the demon of alcohol. There are demons for every conceivable sin. Not only must each one of these demons be exorcized, but there are necessary procedures to keep them from returning on a daily basis.  Continue at R. C. Sproul

The Kidnapping of Our Children and How to Get Them Back

Childhood is a divinely protected season of life. That is what Jesus declared when He said,

“…But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Mark 9:42, ESV; see also Matthew 18:6 and Luke 17:2).

The Evil One will be thrown into the lake of fire, drowned in the depth of the sea of eternal flames, because of his direct attack on children. Satan masquerades in our culture as one who would help children, but we must be careful. There is not a devil under every bush, but there is a devil behind every attempt to kidnap childhood.

I used to require all of my assistant pastors to read Neil Postman‘s The Disappearance of Childhood.[1][2] The late professor of communications at the University of New York used common grace, for he was not a believer,[3] to see that childhood was, in essence, created by Jesus Christ with these very words, reclaimed, I would say, from the Fall, and subjected to re-entry into darkness when a man or woman or a community rejects the light they were given in God’s Word. Thus, Postman felt that while the Reformation, with its emphasis upon the Word, reclaimed childhood, postmodernity and the new “image based” society seeks to steal it. The picture of the little cover photograph of a little girl, she looks to be eleven or so, with twenty-year-old make up, is a shocking image in itself pointing to the professor’s thesis. These words do not do the book justice. Read it for yourself. Yet it is enough to say that our society, by rejecting God and His Word, by rejecting the commandment of God to have no other images, for images provoke the idol factory of the mind and the idols must be then be fed. The image gods are fed with immodesty at the first and then, finally, by utter moral failure and corruption until finally the child is consumed.   Continue at Reformed Theological Seminary

When Satan Comes to Church

The famous Welsh preacher, Christmas Evans, once vividly described what he imagined Satan would look like if he came to church:

The way in which a man hears the Gospel is an index to the state of his heart and the nature of his affections and desires. If we were to suppose that Satan came into the congregation, what kind of hearer would he be? He is the inveterate enemy of all truth, righteousness and godliness; and the sanctification of the soul, devotion, and spiritual affections in the worshippers of the house of God vex [annoy] him sorely [greatly]. If one day, then, in human form he took his place amongst the hearers of the everlasting Gospel, we may fancy that, in order to hinder and annoy as much as possible, he would take his seat in a conspicuous place, either under the pulpit or in front of the gallery, before the eyes of all. Then he would pull ugly faces and close his eyes, and appear as if asleep. He would most anxiously guard against giving the slightest indication of being touched by what was said. Not a trace of conviction, submission, peace and joy should on any account ever appear. He would scowl and knit his brows and shake his head, and show every disapproval of the Gospel he hears, as if he would change every man in the place into the same devilish disposition.   Continue at Jeremy Walker

Another Gospel

Introduction

 

SATAN IS NOT AN INITIATOR but an imitator. God has an only begotten Son – the Lord Jesus, and so has Satan - “the son of Perdition” (2 Thess. 2:3). There is a Holy Trinity, and there is likewise a Trinity of Evil (Rev. 20: 10). Do we read of the “children of God,”so also we read of “the children of the wicked one”(Matt. 13:38).

Does God work in the former both to will and to do of His good pleasure, then we are told that Satan is “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Is there a “mystery of godliness” (1 Tim. 3:16), so also is there a “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess. 2:7). Are we told that God by His angels “seals” His servants in their foreheads (Rev. 7:3), so also, we learn that Satan by his agents sets a mark in the foreheads of his devotees (Rev. 13:16). Are we told that “the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Cor.2:10), then Satan also provides his “deep things.” (See Greek of Rev. 2:24.) Did Christ perform miracles, so also can Satan (2 Thess. 2:9). Is Christ seated upon a throne, so is Satan (Rev.2:13 - Gr.). Has Christ a Church, then Satan has his“synagogue”(Rev. 2:9). Is Christ the Light of the world, then so is Satan himself “transformed into an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). Did Christ appoint “apostles,”then Satan has his apostles, too (2 Cor. 11:13). And this leads us to consider “The Gospel of Satan.”   Continue at A. W. Pink

When People Look Like Satan

God made humans to reflect his image and advance the display of his glory over the created world (Genesis 1:26–28). But Adam failed in this commission. 

Rather than have dominion over the serpent he succumbed to its craftiness. As Greg Beale explains, "Instead of wanting to be near God to reflect him, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden (Genesis 3:8 [so also 3:10])" (NTBT, 359).

Sin brought chaos and disorder. Things got all messed up. In fact, things became so backwards that Adam could be seen as actually suppressing the image of God to reflect the image of the serpent, like a back-story to Romans 1:18–25.

Adam was the first human idolator who became something he was not supposed to become, looking more like the snake than he did his Creator. Beale explains how:

"Idol worship" should be defined as revering anything other than God. At the least, Adam's allegiance had shifted from God to himself and probably to Satan, since he came to resemble the serpent's character in some ways.

[He Lied]
The serpent was a liar (Genesis 3:4) and a deceiver (Genesis 3:1, 13). Likewise Adam, when asked by God, "Have you eaten from the tree of the which I commanded you not to eat?" (Genesis 3:11), does not answer forthrightly. Adam replies, "The woman whom you gave me to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate" (Genesis 3:12). Adam was deceptively blaming Eve for his sin, which shifted accountability from him to his wife, in contrast to the biblical testimony that Adam, not Eve, was accountable for the fall (e.g., see Romans 5:12–19).

[He Didn't Trust God's Word]

In addition, Adam, like the serpent, did not trust the word of God (with respect to Adam, see Genesis 2:16–17; 3:6; with respect to the serpent, Genesis 3:1, 4–5). Adam's shift from trusting God to trusting the serpent meant that he no longer reflected God's image but rather the serpent's image. . . .  Continue at  Jonathan Parnell

Left Behind for Now: Tribulation and the Need to Know God’s Word

Tribulation is here, and we need to know God's word.

This is the gist of chapter 7 in Greg Beale's A New Testament Biblical Theology. In 37 pages, he lays out how the eschatological tribulation has been inaugurated with Jesus and the church. It's here, now. 

Tribulation Already

Telltale marks of the tribulation, according to Daniel 7–12, include persecution and deception through false teaching. The apostles were mindful of how present these things were in their own day, especially the rise of false teaching. John even drops the A-word (antichrist) in 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 1:7. 

Though it seems to have not yet reached its climax, the tribulation clearly has begun (the whole period between Christ’s two comings), and Christians are called to persevere.

On the corporate level, a major part of this perseverance is church elders (gently) correcting insidious doctrines that raise their head within the covenant community (see 2 Timothy). As individuals, the best antidote is to understand temptation — and know the Bible.

Deception All Over Again

Beale observes that the same ways Satan deceived Adam and Eve at the beginning of history are reproduced by the biblical authors to characterize his deception at history's end. On this note, Beale shows how we can learn from the initial failure to trust God's word:  Continue at Jonathan Parnell

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Satan’s Schemes by George Whitefield

He is full of hatred, envy, and revenge: For what other motives could induce him to molest innocent man and woman in paradise? And why is he still so restless in his attempts to destroy us, who have done him no wrong?

He is a being of great power, as is evident in his being able to act on the imagination of our blessed Lord, so as to depict some sort of vision to Him of all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor, and all this in a moment of time. His power is also displayed in the transporting of the sacred body of our dear Savior, through the air up to the highest point of the temple; and also of his driving a herd of pigs so furiously that the whole herd rushed down a steep bank into a lake and died in the water. Yes, so great is Satan’s power, that, I do not doubt, that if God was to permit him to use his full strength, he could turn the earth upside down, or pull the sun out of its orbit.

But Satan is most known for his remarkable ability to use his cleverness against mankind. Since he is not given power from God to take us by force, he is therefore required to wait for opportunities to betray us, and to catch us by the use of deception. He, therefore, made use of the serpent, which was the most crafty of all the beasts of the field, in order to tempt our first parents; and accordingly he and his accomplices are described in the New Testament as being cunning and crafty in their deceitful scheming. In the words of our text, this morning, the Apostle says, “We are not unaware of his schemes:” thereby implying, that we are more in danger of being seduced by his system of deception, than overpowered by his strength.  Read it all HERE

Who Are the 144,000 in Revelation?

And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. (Rev. 7:4)

Many sincere Bible-believing Christians would understand the 144,000 like this: The church is raptured prior to the great tribulation. During the time when the church is gone, a remnant of 144,000 ethnic Jews is converted (12,000 from each tribe). These Jewish converts, in turn, evangelize the Gentiles who make up the great multitude in white robes in v. 9. That’s one understanding of Revelation 7.  A lot of godly people hold that understanding. Let me explain why I understand the 144,000 differently.

The 144,000 are not an ethnic Jewish remnant, and certainly not an Anointed Class of saints who became Jehovah’s Witnesses before 1935. The 144,000 represent the entire community of the redeemed. Let me give you several reasons for making this claim.

First, in chapter 13 we read that Satan seals all of his followers, so it makes sense that God would seal all of his people, not just the Jewish ones.

Second, the image of sealing comes from Ezekiel 9 where the seal on the forehead marks out two groups of people: idolaters and non-idolaters. It would seem that the sealing of the 144,000 makes a similar distinction based on who worships God not who among the Jewish remnant worships God.  Continue at Kevin DeYoung