Now, the Bible does not come right out and say that we have three spiritual enemies, but neither does it do that favor for the Trinity. There is no single verse in the Bible that says there is one God made up of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet this is a truth that Christians have affirmed from the Bible since the very beginning, and rightly so for it is the clear teaching of Scripture, even if there is no single verse that comes right out and says it in that way.
Of the three enemies, I find it interesting that we tend to emphasize one over the others, and the one that gets emphasized has changed depending on the time in history. For example, it seems to me that the believers in the early middle ages emphasized the flesh as their enemy. In that time period, the monastic orders emerged with their emphasis on asceticism, which teaches the denial of physical pleasures. They abstained from sex, fasted, and even tortured their bodies. Why? Because they believed that the flesh, the body, was literally evil. They did not realize that when Paul spoke of the flesh, he meant the sinful nature, which could include the mind as well.
In the later middle ages, we see a shift to the devil. Read a little Martin Luther, and you’ll get a lot of talk about Satan. Sing a “Mighty Fortress is Our God.” It’s all about taking refuge in God from the attacks of the devil. Luther even called his nemesis, the pope, the devil. For Luther, the primary enemy of the soul was that ancient serpent of old.
Today, we emphasize the world, which I define as the mindset and actions that are not of God and His kingdom. Just look at the culture war that has raged for the last century. Our society is changing, and not for the good. We’re going secular. Christians have tried to slow the advance of those who reject faith. We have fought the good fight, but it seems no matter what we do, Christians are becoming increasingly marginalized. In the forties and fifties, we fought over the Bible, which secularists claimed was the work of men and not God. From the sixties on, we’ve fought over the sanctity of life. Now the big fight, which we seem to be losing too, is over homosexuality and gay marriage. All of these issues are related to the world.
Now, we’ve not totally ignored the flesh today. I find a lot of Christians seeking to overcome the temptations of the flesh, of both the body and the mind. These believers truly seek to walk with Christ and to do so in excellence.
Yet there seems to be an almost total eclipse concerning the attention we pay to the devil and his fallen angels. And we tend to ignore the angels of the unfallen stripe as well. This reality is what led me to ask, “Where have all the angels gone?” It sounds almost ludicrous for someone at church to speak of angels as if they’re real. Can you imagine the looks Martin Luther would get if he were alive today and shared about his arguments with the devil during prayer time? I can assure you he’d not be nominated for elder the next time a spot on the board opened up! “What,” people would ask, “a wacko like that leading our church? Not on your life! I bet he hears voices too!” In our churches today, it seems that a belief in spirit beings is seen closer to a mental disease than a right understanding of Scripture.
Even worse, we mock true believers who talk about the spirit world on a regular basis. We make fun of those crazy charismatics who see a demon behind every bush and believe they can give the devil a black eye. Now, I’m not endorsing all of charismatic theology, but I do endorse recognizing the spirit world and the dangers it poses to our spiritual health.
Despite the rejection of the supernatural by people in our churches today, I find an insatiable appetite for it in the world in general. Just a quick glance down the TV guide reveals a plethora of shows delving into the spirit world. I can find ghost hunters, spirit chasers, mediums, and even “scientists” looking for bigfoot, vampires, and just about any other kind of unseen creature. The stars of these shows want to find something, and they use every tool under the sun to prove the existence of something they can’t see. They use heat sensors and special sound recorders. They even measure electromagnetic energy to find some possible evidence that the spirit world exists. It’s almost sad to watch them groping around in the dark for something they believe exists but can’t prove.
What they really need to do is just believe what the Bible says. And we do too! Why? Not just to be biblical, which is a great reason in and of itself, but for another very good reason: I believe that ignoring any of the three enemies of our faith makes us vulnerable to that enemy. With that said, let’s take a quick look at just one episode from Scripture that affirms Satan’s existence.
The book of Job says, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’ Then Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it’ (Job 1:6—7, NASB). The phrase “sons of God” means angels. As a matter of fact, if you use the NIV, it replaces “sons of god” with “angels.” It’s a bit of an interpretation, but a right one. We learn from these verses that Satan is real and that he roams the earth. Peter tells us why he roams the earth, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, NASB, emphasis added).
Satan’s desire to devour and destroy is further confirmed in his conversation with God in Job 1. He asks for permission to hurt Job, and surprisingly, God grants that permission. Satan then proceeds to use people and natural disasters to kill Job’s children and steal and destroy his property. Later, Satan inflicts Job with horrible diseases.
Have you ever had a physical malady that came from Satan? I have, and I believe the Lord sent him to do it. Does that make me crazy? Maybe in some people’s eyes, but it doesn’t deviate from what we know in Scripture. So I won’t deny it. In fact, I’ll stand by my claim and quote Luther to anyone who asks me to take it back, “I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor right. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”
So I believe in Satan, and I believe he goes after people. I’ve also seen a demon. More than once. And no, I’ve never done drugs! Never. But the very accusation in your mind makes my point, doesn’t it? We today have problems with believers who interact with the spiritual world.
I wrote earlier that ignoring one of the enemies of our faith makes us vulnerable to that enemy. If this is true, in what way do we become vulnerable to the devil and his fallen angels? Are we going to all of a sudden find ourselves levitating above our bedsheets with our heads turning all the way around and vomiting green goo out of our mouths? (props to The Exorcist) Obviously not.
Sadly, I think we have little to fear from the devil in our current state of affairs. I think he is unconcerned with most of us right now because we pose no threat to him. We’re too busy wallowing around in our own ignorance and pursuing our own purposes and pleasures. He’s ignoring us because we’re doing little to nothing to build God’s kingdom.
If this is the case, then why not let sleeping dogs lie? Why not just leave him alone, or better said, let him leave us alone? Don’t we see that, if Satan is leaving us alone, it is because we’re most likely not living as God wants us to? Godly people pose a threat to the devil. Look at all the spiritual activity that took place around Jesus and Paul. When these men walked into a town, the spirits went off like fireworks. I’m not suggesting that we should have the same effect on the spirit world as Jesus and Paul, but I am suggesting that something should be happening in our lives to cause the spirits to tremble. The stone-deaf silence of activity around us should be a big, flashing warning sign that something is wrong with the way we’re living.
So, what do we do? Where do we go from here? The good news is that we can change this problem immediately. And the good news gets even better: there’s no mysterious clue or complicated formula we have to follow. All we have to do is decide right here and now that we are going to dedicate our lives to fulfilling the great commission. From now on, we are going to spend ourselves in the quest to make disciples of everyone we meet. Is it simple? Yes. Is it immediate? Yes. Is it easy? No way! Not on your life. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
So fold your hands and close your eyes and pray to the Lord to commit yourself to His purpose and His way. Dedicate yourself to sharing the gospel with everyone you know. And guess what? The devil and his angels will be on you in no time! It will be a whole new set of troubles for you, but at least you won’t have to worry anymore about where all the angels have gone because they’ll all be swirling around, the good ones as well as the bad!