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rowing up as a child I feared darkness, whether it was inside a home or outside around the corner. Darkness was associated with danger and evil practices. The nights were dangerous because of bad people and evil spirits. Our parents hated going out at night and told us bad stories about nights and darkness. Most stories told us except for the beauty of the moon and stars were bad, frightening and dreadful. One fearful story was about human beings that posses witchcraft powers, how they turned into animals in
the night and went around harming people. On this particular story, a man and his family went to bed at night. At about 1 am the wife started feeling something messing with her, while she was asleep. She woke up trembling as she heard an unusual voice. She woke up her husband and he turned on the lights. A cat like object fell from the ceiling; they attempted to catch it but the cat turned into a snake. The man went for his gun and the snake again turned into cat. The man knew this was unusual animal- witchcraft, so he shot the cat dead. He then carried the cat outside and laid it in a place; they went back to sleep. In the morning they met a dead man in the spot the cat laid. The man was identified as on of their townsman who practiced witchcraft. He must have gone to carry out his demonic act, but nemesis ran against him. One day is always for the owner of the house.
As contained in the book of Genesis in the Bible, Satan turned into serpent [snake] and deceived Adam and Eve- our first human parents into disobeying God. This explains where witches and demons got their powers from as well as those associated with their groups; could change from one object to another. Despite this glaring evidence, some adults among practicing Christians do not believe in the existence of Satan or demons. They opine it’s all myth. I read a story about two kids who argued about the existence of the devil. One said to the other there isn’t any devil; you know it’s just like Santa clause. The devil turns out to be your dad; some people believe its superstition and nothing else. It’s designed to turn us up and make us fearful and uncertain. When I read this I was not surprised. The devil’s strategy is to make us believe he doesn’t exist. Even if he exists he is not harmful or fighting with us. Professing Christians who claim to believe in the bible and does not believe that Satan exists are folly.
The Bible both in the old and new testaments contains passages that speak clearly of the reality of Satan, devil and demons. Peter Colon, a director for the friends of Israel described Satan. “Like other angels, Satan was a perfect created being. He instituted the first world rebellion against God. He’s sin originated from self pride, grew into self deception and ended in rebellion. [Isaiah 14:13-14; Ezekiel 28:15-17; Rev 12: 4]. He’s pure evil [John 8:44; 2 Corinthians. 11:3; 2 Tim 2:26]; the god of this age-world. [2 Cor 4:4]. The prince of the power of the air whose authority extends over the unsaved. [Eph 2:12; 1 John 5:19] and allows him to accuse the saved people before God, day or night [Rev 12:10]. In a spiritual sense, he is the father of all who accept his philosophy of independence from God [John 5:44]” When God created mankind he made us with a vacuum only he can fill. Any belief that set one up against his/her creator is dragging the person into doom.
Writing in the watchtower Sept 1, 2001, Professor Norman Cohn opined, “The obsession that the devil is real was not limited to simple uneducated peasants. He beliefs the devil materialized in the form of an animal to preside over evil and obscene rituals; for example, belonged not to folklore of the illiterate majority but, in the contrary to the worldview of the intellectual elite”. These intellectual elite included clerics, who were responsible for the witch- hunts that swept through Europe from the 15th to the 17th century, when churches and civil authorities were said to have killed 50,000 alleged witches.” Despite these evidences many people reject the reality of Satan, and consider it as a wild superstition. Daniel Defoe opined that devil was man’s invention to account for his own sinfulness. Despite the presence of odd beliefs amongst some people, “some still believe the devil is real. He’s a kind of superhuman malignant force behind recurrent evils that pervades man’s history”. He is a malignant reality always hostile to God and to God’s people.
In this 21st century where we have advancement in healthcare, technology and electronic as well as transportation system, should we still believe in Satan’s reality or is it a folly? Fortunately as enlightened as we have become our surroundings and associated crime wave and happenings support the fact that something in a supernatural realm should be responsible for the mischief in human history. Jesus Christ spoke about the reality of Satan. He tempted Jesus face to face; He describe Satan as the ruler of this world [John 14:30; Matt 4:4-11]. Jesus said that Satan works with other evil spirits called demons that help to carry out his wicked schemes. The meaning of the name “Satan or Devil” is “slanderer”. He was the first creature to lie about God in the Garden of Eden. This being is known as the “original serpent” and also called “Satan or Devil” [Rev 12:9]. Satan is a formidable foe. He walks about a roaring him seeking to devour someone [1Peter 5:8].
Demons are evil angels whose masters Satan convinced into rebellion against God. God did not spare them but cast them down into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness [2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6]. Satan is the head of the demons and also named the devil [Matthew 4:1], the Serpent [Gen 3:1], Beelzebub [Matthew 10:25], the ruler of this world [John 12:31], prince of the power of the air [Eph. 2:2] and the evil one Matthew 13:19] as well as the dragon, the old snake [Rev.20:2]. Satan is the originator of sin even before he deceived Eve by his cunning [2 Corinth. 11:3]. The satanic world uses destructive tactics to blind people from seeing the light of the gospel [2 Corth.4:4].These destructive tactics include: temptation, doubts, lies, murder, guilt, fears, confusion, sickness, envy, pride and slander, used to hinder Christian witness and works. Satan and his demons are very active in evil manipulations in our world today. The attacks of Satan and his demons come in various forms and ways. Born again Christians should not fear Satan; they can resist satanic powers by the authority of Christ and they flee away [James 4; 7; 1 Peter 5:9]. Through the death of Jesus, He nullified the powers of one who had power of death, that is the devil [Heb 2:14].At the cross, God disarmed the ruler and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Christ [Col 2:15].
As we look around our environment, listen to news on the radio, watch television, we come across issue that are not ordinary. We may not have forgotten the 9/11 saga, we look at the problem not the causes. We attribute the cause to “hate” which manifest out of jealousy against inequalities in life. But what causes hatred and jealousy? It’s not simple to accept that some people will mortgage their lives by running a plane into the World Trade Center. Have you heard of a forty year old man sexually assaulting a three year old girl and sometimes killing her after the mischief? How do you react when someone breaks into another person’s home, rob her, assault her and still shot her and children dead. Have you ever thought about young ones initiated into gangs and witchcrafts? They threaten and kill others just to satisfy the wishes of their master-Satan. Again no right thinking man would have sex with another man for nothing. It’s all about what Satan does. He clouds’ people’s mind with evil and manipulate them to do it. We need to thank God for psychiatric hospitals and penitentiaries where most of these behaviors’ misplaced people are housed. Some of them confess they did not know what pushed them into doing what they did. Some hear voices to kill, destroy either themselves or others [dear ones]. Unfortunately they do not hear voices to repent, to work and pay bills, to be responsible citizens but the voice they hear are qualities of Satan, to steal, harm, destroy and kill.
However the scripture offers us good news, with the confidence we have in the finished work of Christ we can use the weapon of our warfare that possessed divine power to destroy strongholds of the enemies [2 Corinthians 10:4]. We can command the demons to leave in the name of Jesus [Luke 9:1, 10:17; Acts 8:7, 16:18; James 4:7]; plead the blood of Jesus which cast the demons away. We conquer Satan by the testimony of our mouth and pleading the blood of Jesus. We should not fear the devil because he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world [John 4:4]. In no long a time the God of peace shall crush Satan under our feet [Romans 16:20] and some day Christ will come and completely removed the influence of Satan and demons from this world [2Thess 2:8; Rev 20:1-3]. The devil that fooled the righteous shall be thrown into the lake of fire and burning sulphur [Rev 20; 10]. Satan will not be able to deceive people during the coming reign of Christ. He will be bound in abyss or bottomless pit for a thousand years [Rev 20:9]. It is regrettable that many people who confess and display conformity with Christ in outward hypocrisy but inwardly accept Satan’s lying promises will be doomed with him. The scriptures reveal that Satan is a living being, who will instigate the final rebellion. But the Good news is that his final doom is irrecovable and his final destination is the lake of fire [Rev 2:8-10].
As we walk a walk with Christ this formidable foe called Satan walks around the world like a roaring lion looking for people to devour (1Pt 5:8). Even though we struggle with the flesh and our mind set, yet the real struggle is against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in heavenly places (Eph 8:12). The whole wide world lies in the power of the Evil one [1 John5:19]. We cannot stand the devil with the ordinary power; we should wear the whole armor of God and pray in Spirit. When we are pressured by Satan’s inclinations and lies, we pray for God’s Spirit to strengthen us and protect us. The battle is not ours but the Lord’s; all we need to do is stand, watch; keep our sense right and confession strong. We must avoid dabbling in anything that connects us with Satan’s manifestations [2 Corinthians 2:11; 1Peter 5:8-9; Deuteronomy 18: 10-12]. We must decease from falling prey to Satan’s terror or allow superstitious fears to paralyze or cramp us down. We must seek knowledge and wisdom from the word and accept its authority and power as well as divine promises. God will provide a way of escape for us and protect us from Satan’s ways and intrigues [Psalm 91:1-4; James 4: 7-8; Proverbs18:10). We then shall stand sentinel at our duty post and stand firm against the manipulations, deceit and roaring of the devil [Eph 6: 10-11].
Evangelist Ogbonnaya, G. can be reached by email: gkapin53@yahoo.com