ListenDaily - 27 April 2009; What difference does it make?
Does it matter if I believe that Satan is real?
Certainly.
I have four children, three of whom are drivers. I taught them to drive as best as I could, yet even if I taught them to be perfect drivers, there is still danger when they go out on the road. There are other drivers, some texting on their cell phones, some inattentive in other ways, some under the influence of alcohol. There are deer, mechanical failures, and a host of other things that make driving hazardous for the best of drivers. And to be the best driver you can be, you must be aware of yourself, as well as the external forces that endanger you. How dangerous it would be to think your driving experience would be completely safe, even if you could perfect yourself, as if everything is under your control.
"...each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death." James 1:14-15 (find any passage at www.Biblegateway.org)
As natural beings born into a fallen world, we certainly have fleshly desires, but even if we could cleanse ourselves, perfect ourselves, (which of course we cannot), there are external forces waiting to 'drag us away'. When our frailties are exploited by those external forces, by Satan and his followers, it leads to death.
I think the great danger of ignoring the external forces of evil, is that it causes us to ignore the need for the Holy Spirit. If people ignore the spiritual forces of evil, then we begin to doubt the need for Heavenly spiritual intervention.
Certainly, we need the work of the Cross to save us from our own inward evil intent. Just as certainly, we need to power of the Holy Spirit to defend us from external spiritual evil.
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Questions:
1. do you believe in Satan as a real being? 2. What does your pastor/church believe? 3. is there a difference between the two?
INTERESTING THOUGHT ON TRUTH:
"Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it."
Blaise Pascal
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