Unlocking the Mysteries of Satan

Copyright © 2009, 2011

Dennis McCallum

Ebook edition created 2011

Cover design by Dan Pitts

The material in this book is taken from Satan and His Kingdom by Dennis McCallum.

Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations identified NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE,® Copyright © The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. (www.lockman.org)

Scripture quotations identified NIV are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION.® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved world wide. www.zondervan.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Published by Bethany House Publishers

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www.bethanyhouse.com

Bethany House Publishers is a division of

Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Ebook edition created 2011

ISBN 978-1-4412-7070-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Special thanks to Nick Hetrick, Melony Harvey, and my wife, Holly, for their edits. Thanks also to my church community for standing with me in spiritual warfare for all these years.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Introduction

1. God’s Plan and Satan

2. Satan’s Odd Behavior

3. Spiritual Warfare Today

4. Our Strategy

5. Your Personal Battle With Satan

6. Countering Satan’s Trump Card

Notes

About the Author

Back Cover

Introduction

After nearly forty years of ministry, I am still surprised that people know so little about Satan. When he brought evil into the world, it changed the course of human history. Arguably, next to God, Satan is the most important being to learn about.

During the past few years, though, when people have asked me questions about Satan and I wanted to recommend a book that dealt with the subject comprehensively, I could think of none that fit the bill.

A number of recent books dealing with Satan reflect an extreme perspective that is not biblically based. Authors who attribute too much to demonic activity do a poor service to believers by assuming matters that are not revealed in the Bible. Hermeneutic restraint—sticking to what is actually written—is in short supply when it comes to books on Satan. Believers need accurate, balanced, biblical information on Satan, not exaggeration. Exaggerated or distorted versions of spiritual warfare have created suspicion on the whole subject in the minds of many Christian leaders.

At the other extreme, there is deafening silence on this subject from many evangelical leaders today. Pursuing my interest in matters of ministry, I have visited many churches in the United States, including most of the well-known mega-churches. Yet for as many services and conferences I have attended, I don’t recall ever hearing a teaching on Satan or spiritual warfare—one of the major themes in the New Testament. Personal discussions with leaders from these churches reveal that they do believe in Satan. But for some reason it doesn’t seem to get much “airtime” in modern mainstream evangelical churches.

Most liberal and emergent village churches reject the reality of a personal Satan. So too do the majority of Americans who say they believe in God. According to a 2008 Barna Group survey, the majority of both Catholics and Protestants in America reject the reality of a personal Satan.[1] Verbal Kint, the narrator in the 1995 film Usual Suspects, says, “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

While most Bible-believing Christians do believe in Satan, confusion often reigns. Our question today should be, “What are the facts?”

A spiritual war is raging. The apostle Paul says, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world” (Ephesians 6:12 nlt).[2] You are in the middle of that war. Whether your heart is peace-loving or warlike makes no difference. You can’t get out of it. You can only choose whether to fight or to be mowed down as a civilian casualty.

If you are a pastor, a Christian who actively shares your faith, or you lead Bible studies or disciple younger believers, you need to learn about Satan for the sake of your ministry. You need to be able to answer important questions that come up and to anticipate his moves in the lives of your people. This book, drawn from my more comprehensive book Satan and His Kingdom, is for both Christians who need to learn about Satan for their own survival and for workers who need the ability to explain his ways and face him in battle.

Chapter 1

God’s Plan and Satan

Our collision with Satan is part of a larger picture—a picture of the cosmic collision between God and Satan. Before we can properly appreciate our involvement in spiritual warfare, we have to understand the flow of God’s plan and Satan’s reactions. So let’s start by tackling some of the baffling questions raised by the interactions between God and Satan, including why God has allowed him to continue his evil work.

Early Hints

Although God apparently has been passive in the face of Satan’s evil actions, he hasn’t really been. We can rest assured that he saw the whole thing coming. Before he ever created Satan or humans, God knew about their future rebellion, and he formed a colossal, startling plan that suddenly and shockingly burst onto the world when Jesus did the unthinkable. Paul makes it clear that God had this plan long ago, “even before he made the world” (Ephesians 1:4).

To the casual reader, it may seem like the biblical story meanders; that God was reacting to events that came up, trying this, trying that, being let down by people, blessing, judging, and eventually, after exhausting other options, sending Jesus. But this is not the case. Right from the beginning, God hinted that his plan was afoot. In Genesis 3, in the shadow of humanity’s fall from grace, he said to the serpent,

I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel. (v. 15)

Adam and Eve almost certainly couldn’t tell exactly what this foretelling meant, but it indicates a definite plan resulting in a negative fate for the serpent. The agent of the serpent’s destruction would be the “seed of woman.”

Israel’s Mission

God proceeded with his plan when he called Abraham and his descendants for a mission, one that included the all-important recording and transmission of the Scriptures. Dozens of authors contributed books or sections to the Old Testament over many centuries. This text records not only the history of Israel and other ancient peoples but also contains crucial information about the one true God. His nature, his will, and his ways are all represented in a variety of modes—direct teaching, legal passages, symbols, types (e.g., the tabernacle, sacrifices, and the festival system), and narrative accounts of the relationship between God and his people. God had them lay down a body of revelation that would eventually become the tool used to foil Satan forever.

For example, how are we to know what is good or evil? People in the world generally agree that good and evil exist, but they cannot agree on what constitutes good or evil; different cultures have differing views on the matter. The Old Testament reveals that we are to base our views of good and evil on the character of the creator God. “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Leviticus 19:2). God gave laws and confronted evil through his prophets.

In the Old Testament he also reveals that he is a God of justice. He is outraged at sin and is compelled by his own nature to judge it rightly. The Bible recounts many situations requiring divine justice. He called on his people to offer guilt offerings—sacrifices to remind them constantly that his justice must and will be served.

At the same time, Scripture reveals God as abundant in love and graciousness:

I am slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. (Exodus 34:6–7)

How can God forgive rebellion but not excuse the guilty?

Non-believing observers frequently insist that the Bible’s portrayal of God’s justice and love is self-contradictory. Most of us have read articles or heard arguments that if God would do something as cruel as casting down judgment, then he can’t be loving. But the Old Testament faithfully holds these attributes of God in tension. God reveals that he doesn’t enjoy judging people:

“As surely as I live,” says the Sovereign Lord, “I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live” (Ezekiel 33:11).

Nevertheless, in concert with his perfect righteousness, he firmly maintains that judgment remains inevitable for those committed to sin: “When righteous people turn to evil, they will die” (v. 18).

God’s Dilemma

God’s love and his justice are not contradictory, but they do create a dilemma. What is God to do? Will he maintain his love for people at the expense of his justice? Liberal theologians long have suggested this solution, called “universalism” (where everyone ultimately goes to heaven). But God never compromises one of his attributes in favor of another.

On the other hand, if God remains just, how can he avoid judging the very ones he loves? This dilemma becomes Satan’s favorite opportunity to incriminate God. He claims God is unloving because he insists others follow him and judges those who refuse to do so; all, allegedly, for self-serving reasons. These pernicious accusations have convinced millions to rebel against God, and they still appeal to many people today.

Each part of Satan’s carefully crafted lie contains self-validating aspects that could prevent God from opposing it effectively. What if God struck Satan down the first time he voiced this view? Wouldn’t that suggest the accusation was true? Imagine God destroying Satan, then turning to the rest of his creatures and saying, “Any other questions?” Clearly, such “solutions” wouldn’t resolve the matter. God needed to resolve the dilemma once and for all.

King Messiah

The Old Testament records God’s promises about the future. One of these is that Messiah, the chosen one, would come and restore the world to its intended state. He would come as ruler of a kingdom founded on the throne of David. King Messiah is foretold in one passage after another. One of the best-known is Isaiah 9:6–7:

For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

From this, you can see that King Messiah is a human being, born like other people but also divine. The titles “Mighty God” and “Everlasting Father” would never be used for any mere human. He will reign over the whole world forever, sitting on the throne of his ancestor David. Micah 5:2–5 adds that he will be born in the little village of Bethlehem:

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, are only a small village among all the people of Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the woman in labor gives birth. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. And he will stand to lead his flock with the Lord’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored around the world. And he will be the source of peace.

Micah also affirms that Messiah existed before his incarnation as a human. His rule will begin after the Jewish people have been exiled from their land and have returned.

Numerous other passages predict that human history is moving toward the reign of this chosen one. Put together, predictions about the Messiah and his kingdom fill hundreds of pages in the Old Testament.

The Suffering Servant

Alongside the prophecies about King Messiah are numerous predictions of a “servant of the Lord” who seemingly is of a different kind. Humble, obscure, despised, and persecuted, the servant offers himself as a sacrifice for human sin. Instead of ruling forever, he dies horrifically.

Today, believers know that the suffering servant and King Messiah are the same person—Jesus Christ. But there are issues. For some reason, the predictions of the suffering servant are ambiguous in one way or another. We can summarize the difficulties as follows:

1. None of the passages about the suffering servant identify him as Messiah.

2. The servant’s career appears to contradict that of Messiah; he is not an eternal king but a rejected and obscure person who dies badly.

3. The context for many passages creates confusion, easily leading the reader to miss the point.

4. No Old Testament passage indicates that Messiah will come twice. This startling omission makes it virtually impossible to interpret the passages correctly unless you already know the story of Jesus.

5. In some cases, predictions about the suffering servant are immediately next to prophecies about King Messiah, without any mention of a more-than-two-thousand-year gap between them (e.g., cross-reference Isaiah 61:1ff and Jesus’ commentary in Luke 4:21).

This pattern is so consistent, so lacking in any exception, that it demands an explanation. Jewish interpreters (as well as others skeptical about Jesus) have a ready answer. They argue that Christians wanted to believe the Old Testament predicts Jesus but that it never does. In their desperation, supposedly, the early Christians “read in” their interpretation, forcing their desired meaning into passages that don’t say what believers claimed. The results, then, are predictable: broken contexts, bizarre leaps in chronology, and assumed material that simply is not in the text.

But the predictions of Messiah’s first coming are not mistaken readings. They are amazing confirmations of Christ’s authenticity. Passages like the servant songs in Isaiah do refer to Jesus and to no one else. And while we might read some of the prophecies in more than one way, we certainly can see them in the Christian light without distortion.

Surprising Confusion

Still, questions remain. Why did God often present predictions in confusing contexts? Why did he omit any mention of Messiah in the servant passages? Why would he not include even one Old Testament reference to two comings of Messiah?

Only one answer satisfies these questions: God must have created this situation deliberately. The pattern in the predictions of Messiah’s first coming crystallize into a single picture: God intentionally had these predictions written in such a way that readers couldn’t understand them until after the life of Jesus. God was purposeful in omitting the key information that would have made them easy to grasp in advance. Everything the passages say is true; it’s what they don’t say that makes them ambiguous.

For some reason, God was keeping Messiah’s mission during his first coming a secret. God didn’t want to reveal what Jesus was going to do. At the same time, he wanted to show that he had predicted it all in advance—but only after Jesus’ life.

Jesus followed the same pattern. He purposely presented himself and his teachings in a way that people would understand them one way before his death and a different way afterward.

If God wanted people to recognize Jesus’ advent and mission, there’s no way he would have left out the part about two comings from the Old Testament. This omission alone makes one passage after another seem incomprehensible. However, if he had mentioned that Messiah would come twice, even in one verse, the same passages would become as clear as day. In fact, the conflation of the two comings into a single passage (the so-called “prophetic gap”) seems calculated to create the impression that Messiah will come only once. Interestingly, it’s always the first coming that is obscure, never the second.

Liberal theologians and Jewish readers say this is because these passages don’t predict the first coming. They claim these “prophecies” are an invention of early Christians’ wishful thinking. In the New Testament, though, we see an explanation that astoundingly and convincingly fits the text. In fact, the answer opens the door not only to understanding Old Testament prophecy but also to a new and marvelous comprehension of New Testament teaching and the nature of God himself. The resolution to this problem takes us directly into the heart of God’s plan, including the defeat of Satan.

Chapter 2

Satan’s Odd Behavior

During Jesus’ ministry, people were confused about what he was here to do. At one point they wanted to force him to become a king (John 6:15). Clearly, nobody, including his followers, had any category for a Messiah who was not a king. All of them, even his closest disciples, had missed the predictions of the suffering servant.

But nobody behaved more strangely during this time than Satan. At the Last Supper, the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Jesus (John 13:2). Why? If Jesus had come to die for humanity’s sin, why would Satan actively cooperate in his death? Hadn’t Jesus just warned that the cross would be Satan’s undoing? (12:31–32). Wasn’t it because of the cross that Paul could later say, “[God] disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross”? (Colossians 2:15).

On first take, this part of the story seems like a poorly written novel where the characters’ motivations don’t line up with the action. Why would a creature as brilliant as Satan actively assist in doing the very thing that would be most destructive to himself?

Possible Reasons

Some suggest that Satan was compelled—that God sovereignly made him do what he did. Since the cross was God’s plan, he made Satan play his part in that plan. This suggestion is certainly possible, although it is speculative. The Bible never claims Satan was acting under compulsion; only that the cross was part of the “predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23 nasb). Certainly God knew what Satan would do; he also knew the other players, Pilate and Herod, would do what they did. But unlike the human players, Satan had everything to lose and nothing to gain from the cross.

Others have argued that Satan was so arrogant he thought he could hold Jesus in death after the cross. Again, it’s possible, though speculative. We have no direct evidence to back this theory. Certainly Satan is arrogant, and he is said to wield “the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14). But would he be so foolish? He definitely knew who Jesus was. We see him backing down from God’s power in cases like the story of Job. He knew Jesus could command demons to depart. How could he think he would be able to hold the Son of God in death?[3]

Others maintain that Satan knew the cross would destroy him, but he couldn’t resist the pleasure of watching Jesus suffer. Again, we can imagine this—it makes sense to envision Satan as being capable of irrational hatred. Yet it seems like quite a stretch to see the once-anointed cherub behaving so self-destructively for nothing more than a sadistic thrill.

Maybe Paul offers us a better explanation:

We do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (1 Corinthians 2:6–8 nasb)

Could it be that Satan, the great adversary, didn’t know that Jesus actually intended to die? If so this would explain why he helped orchestrate Christ’s death.[4]

Paul seems to be saying that the brilliant, bitter enemy of God acted freely, thinking he was disrupting the divine plan to take over and rule the world through Jesus as King Messiah. Instead, he played directly into Jesus’ hands, demonstrating in the process God’s character as true, self-giving love. Therein he also clearly demonstrated his own self-centered hatred.

Imagine Satan looking on when Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (nasb). Perhaps only at that moment did he realize that this psalm (which he would have known by heart) fully predicted the crucifixion. He may have suddenly realized, too late, that he had done exactly what Jesus wanted him to do. At the cross, Satan disproved his own accusations against God.

Did Satan Know?

Some find it difficult to believe that Satan would have made such a colossal blunder when all the information was right there in front of him for hundreds of years. But let’s think about it. How would he have known what Jesus was doing? He would have had the same information everyone else had—the predictive Scriptures. But we have seen that God crafted those in such a way that a reader before the time of Christ could not have discovered the plan for two comings; the missing information made it impossible to reach this conclusion. In this arena, why would Satan be different from anyone else?

Again, if we accept the premise that God intentionally veiled his intentions in the first coming, the hanging question remains: Why would he do so? Here, we may have an answer. Perhaps in God’s eternal plan of salvation, he was also putting the permanent smack-down on Satan and his accusations.

Suppose for the sake of argument, when Jesus came, Satan, like everyone else, concluded that he had come not as a suffering servant but as reigning king. The Bible says King Messiah will destroy his enemies and rule the world with an “iron rod” (Psalm 2:9). Satan could have interpreted this picture of dominance in line with his concept of God as self-serving. Aside from anything in prophecy, Satan would be inclined to see Messiah this way because of his prejudice against God.

Satan probably made this exact mistake. He thought Jesus had come to rule immediately. Indeed, he tried to kill Jesus when he was a baby. Jesus’ self-effacing behavior must have been confusing, but most people thought he would unveil his power any day (Luke 17:20; 19:11; Acts 1:6), and Satan may have thought this as well. In one instance, when demons cried out to Jesus—“Why are you bothering us, Son of God? You have no right to torture us before God’s appointed time!” (Matthew 8:29)—apparently they were surprised to see him there earlier than expected, but they saw his mission only as one of bringing torment. How typical this is of demonic thinking.

The Cosmic Outcome

If Satan were mistaken about Jesus’ intentions, he naturally would have concluded that arranging to kill him could short-circuit the planned kingdom. Suddenly, his actions with Judas make sense. But what was the outcome? Again, too late, he realized that he had facilitated not the destruction of God’s everlasting reign but the salvation of the human race! He never imagined God would come in person, not to punish, but to take his punishment upon himself ! At the same time, the most reliable war-tools in his arsenal, his accusations, were now useless. The cross undeniably demonstrated God’s loving and sacrificial nature. Satan proved himself, not God, to be utterly vindictive and cruel.

As Paul says in Colossians 2:15, the cross forever disarmed Satan by crushing his main weapon: his accusation that God is self-serving and unjust. What Christ did at the cross was the antithesis of the picture Satan paints. No wonder Jesus said, “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31 nasb).

Opening Eyes

Once Jesus died, and especially after he rose from the dead, the message encoded within the prophecies was suddenly clear. After the resurrection he rejoined his disciples:

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45–47 nasb).

Imagine how excited they must have been to realize God had been in control the whole time!

Just before “opening their minds” Jesus said, “When I was with you before, I told you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and in the Psalms must be fulfilled” (v. 44). We saw earlier how the prophets and the psalmist spoke of the suffering servant, but when did Moses (the Pentateuch—Genesis through Deuteronomy) predict him? The answer is that the whole sacrificial system, the ark of the testimony, and the festival calendar also predicted, in amazing detail, Christ’s work in his first coming. The disciples knew Jesus had been crucified on the day of Passover. But they probably didn’t grasp the whole picture until this meeting. The language here suggests this was the first time they understood both the prophecies of the suffering servant and the significance of their own ceremonial law.

We must see that initially nobody realized these Old Testament sacrifices and festivals were “only shadows of the reality yet to come. And Christ himself is that reality” (Colossians 2:17). Only when he had already atoned for sin was the curtain pulled back. Then God revealed that the elaborate system of ceremonial law was like an immense jigsaw puzzle—now assembled—showing Jesus on the cross! Here again, God had encoded his message in a way that was unmistakable, but only after the work was complete. Hebrews 5–10 explains this message and how it foreshadows Christ’s work.

The “Mystery”

The aggressive anti-Christian rabbi Saul of Tarsus also failed to grasp that the Old Testament completely laid out the work of Jesus, even though he was an expert on Scripture. Only when Jesus opened his eyes did he realize how this picture had been laying right in front of him the whole time.

In several places, Paul tells us that God had recently revealed a secret “mystery” after hiding it for thousands of years.

My gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations. (Romans 16:25–26 nasb)

Notice God was indeed keeping something secret for ages (Greek: aeons, or eons)—something that then had recently been revealed. Paul says this “mystery” or secret is his gospel, “the preaching of Jesus Christ.” Paul is referring to the cross and God’s whole redemptive plan in Messiah’s first coming. It was secret because, although God predicted it, he did so in a way that was undecipherable until after Satan had made his violent move against Christ, and then the whole truth emerged.

In another passage Paul says,

As I briefly wrote earlier, God himself revealed his mysterious plan to me. As you read what I have written, you will understand my insight into this plan regarding Christ. God did not reveal it to previous generations, but now by his Spirit he has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets. (Ephesians 3:3–5)

Paul says God gave him a special revelation about the plan. He clearly states that this mystery was not revealed to people before his time. The particular aspect of the mystery addressed here has to do with how God has united Jews and Greeks (non-Jews) in Christ. But other passages reveal that Paul’s idea of the mystery extends well beyond this aspect, and he goes on to draw out the cosmic significance of God’s secret plan:

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Ephesians 3:8–11 nasb)

Several points are interesting here. For one thing, he says the mystery was for ages “hidden in God.” Apparently, God alone knew what he was intending to do. Here is clear confirmation that God was actively concealing his intentions in Christ from the whole world and even from the angelic hosts.

This passage also mentions one result of the mystery: that the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (angels and probably demons) will learn something about God. Probably they now see his character of love and self-sacrifice for what it is. Certainly, they saw his “manifold wisdom” unfolded in his vast, eternal plan, now exposed in all its brilliance. The cross, a unique event in the history of the universe, has laid to rest—for anyone who understands it—any suspicion about God’s character.

Notice also that the church plays a key role in this revelation to the heavenly hosts: to them these secrets are “made known through the church.” As recipients of grace, we forgiven humans are in a unique position. We know what it’s like to live apart from God, to harbor suspicions of God, even to hate God. But we also know what it’s like to experience his grace and love—an incredible gift that cost him everything and us nothing. Even unfallen angels have never experienced such love, and we alone can explain what it’s like to experience grace, “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7 nasb). Someday you may be invited on a speaking tour to recount what life was like in a fallen world!

The Demonstration

This mystery is central to what Paul calls God’s “eternal purpose.” He planned all this out from eternity and for eternity. Never again will there be a revolution against God, even though free-will creatures populate the universe. That’s because all will recall what happened last time. We will remember how God demonstrated his nature as all-good, all-loving, and all-just, while his accusers revealed their character as evil, bitter, and deceptive.

The idea of God demonstrating his character appears also in Romans 3.

God displayed [Jesus] publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (vv. 25–26 nasb)

The cross was a public demonstration of God’s goodness. What does the phrase “just and the justifier” mean? At the cross, God demonstrated his justice, because he fully punished the sins of humans rather than ignoring them. At the same time, he is the justifier, because he paid that penalty himself at incredible cost. How perfectly this resolves the dilemma regarding God’s justice and love that we discussed earlier.

Paul brings the mystery up again in Colossians 1:

Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the Word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (vv. 25–27 nasb)

In this very similar passage we again see that the mystery “has been hidden from the past ages and generations.” Yes, it was there, right in front of them through the prophets and in ceremonies, but because of the key omissions no one could see it. Paul then says God has recently manifested it, or brought it to light. The content of the mystery, it says here, is “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Only the cross could open the door to the new intimacy between God and us; an intimacy so deep that he actually indwells us through the Holy Spirit.

Again Paul makes it very clear that God was keeping a secret, a mystery he has only recently revealed. Once more we not only see that God was keeping Jesus’ mission secret, but we also see why.[5]

The Big Picture

As we ponder the mystery hidden for eons past, the mass of information begins to congeal into a spectacular panorama.

God wanted to create personal beings, and personal beings, by definition, must be un-programmed, free-choosing moral agents. Anything less is a machine, not a person; love is impossible for creatures lacking free will. Imagine programming a recorder to say “I love you” every time you come home from work. Is this love? No. It’s only saying what you programmed it to say. No wonder the God of love puts high value on free-choosing creatures. Without freedom, outside God the creation would also be without love. Yet the creation of freedom inherently entails the possibility and indeed the likelihood that eventually someone would use his or her freedom the wrong way.

We know this happened when Satan rebelled against God, and that rebellion then spread to our world, nearly ruining it. Of course, God saw all this coming, and he had a plan. He laid down a well-attested scriptural record that promised he would one day intervene to return the world to its proper state with him as its leader. Inserted into this same predictive material, though, was another message—a message that was clear in one way but hidden in another, almost as though written in code.

Then, at the right time, Christ came, and as Satan pitted his limited wisdom against God’s infinite wisdom, he was completely outclassed and ended up only proving how good is God and how bankrupt was his own revolution. We saw earlier that when Satan fell, God said, “So I brought fire out from within you, and it consumed you” (Ezekiel 28:18). The destroying fire came from within Satan himself: At the cross, Satan was ruined by his own bloodthirsty hate.

The outcome is clear. To anyone who understands it, the cross forever refuted the ravings of Satan and his followers. In light of what happened, the citizens of the universe can feel inexpressible confidence in God and his character, a confidence so complete that revolution will never again taint the course of eternity future. Jesus defeated Satan in the first place, not by power and force, but by something Satan cannot comprehend: sacrificial love.

Chapter 3

Spiritual Warfare Today

From God’s eternal viewpoint, Jesus utterly won the war at the cross. Yet like Nazi Germany even after D day, Satan still has plenty of fight left. Since the ascension of Jesus, the church, his body, has taken the front line in this conflict. This is where we get involved. Before studying how to battle Satan, we need to reflect on the overall strategies: What is he planning to do and what should we be trying to accomplish?

What Is Satan Thinking?

One might envision Satan as being very depressed these days. He’s up against the infinite God of the universe; he blew it badly at the cross; his own doom is assured; and the hated human race now has open access to eternal life. What keeps him going? We get a clue from Revelation 12:12:

Terror will come on the earth and the sea. For the Devil has come down to you in great anger, and he knows that he has little time.

Knowing he has been defeated doesn’t bring melancholy to Satan; it makes him furious. Seeing his end draw near makes Satan even more frantic to destroy. In the psychology of hatred, rage becomes irrational, and Satan apparently has become angrier than ever. But his strategy is far from irrational. He continues, in calculated and effective ways, to pursue his course of opposition to God’s plans.

Satan’s strategy is essentially defensive. He already has his stake in the world, but as the kingdom of God grows, his stake shrinks. Therefore, he guards his turf by trying to keep people from coming under God’s leadership and forgiveness. To steer people away from God, he can draw on a number of measures aimed at all people, both believers and nonbelievers.

Measures Directed Against Non-Christians

Counterfeit

Satan works to convince people that God is someone he actually isn’t. Religion is one of his most powerful tools for keeping people away from the true God. Far from the postmodern idea that all religions are valid and more or less the same, the Bible says the false gods people worship really are demons (1 Corinthians 10:19–20). Sometimes Satan fosters religion that allows people to view themselves as gods, and by so guiding, he causes them to believe they’re close to God when in fact they are not.

Slander

Satan constantly strives to convince non-Christians (and even Christians) that the God of the Bible is a dangerous jerk. Following God, he claims, is the worst possible experience—it will result in losing everything that makes life enjoyable. The message is clear: God wants something from you—a lot, in fact—and if you listen to him, your life could be impoverished.

According to Satan, God cannot be trusted. At most, it might be smart to do a few things to keep God pacified, but he’s not the kind of being you’d ever want to get close to. Satan wants to convince people that God is menacing and demanding, that he’s essentially a cosmic police officer.

Stereotyping

Most non-Christians have never seen Jesus, and many have never read the Bible. But they have met Christians. To them, Christians are Christianity. That’s why Satan is eager to make Christians seem odious and offensive. When others are disgusted and offended by believers, they avoid the gospel like the plague. They never want to see themselves as “one of those people.”

While Satan is often unable to gain control of true believers, he can still create this portrayal by infiltrating his own operatives into “Christianity.” Once there, they usually become the loudest and most aggressive “Christians” and are used to propagate the negative stereotype Satan seeks.

At the university in my city, a vicious, shouting man stands on the campus green and insults passersby. Often with a cross behind him, the Bible in front of him, and Jesus on his lips, this guy is so notorious that every person on this fifty-thousand-student campus is aware of him. We have never heard him preach the gospel of forgiveness. If he is a Christian, he is a terribly misguided one, and we have good reason to think he’s not a Christian at all. Believers on campus shudder in embarrassment whenever he starts to bellow.

Throughout history Satan has succeeded in getting so-called Christians to outrage the rest of the world. Even real Christians can be deceived and taken over to help in this work. Jesus warned this was coming and put people on their guard to “beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are really wolves that will tear you apart” (Matthew 7:15).

Mark Mittelberg and Bill Hybels record a measure of Satan’s success in our world today:

The Day America Told the Truth, a book by James Patterson and Peter Kim, reports that when a national survey asked respondents to rank various professions for their honesty and integrity, TV evangelists came out almost at the very bottom, below lawyers, politicians, car salesmen, and even prostitutes. Out of the seventy-three occupations compared in this integrity rating, only two ended up lower on the scale: organized crime bosses and drug dealers![6]

Satan doesn’t have to make all Christians behave in offensive ways. Assigning guilt by association is a powerful psychological tendency in most people. Just a few negative examples can be effective in marring all of Christianity in the minds of many.

Slavery

Satan knows that, as Jesus said (John 8:34), sin has the power to enslave humans. He’s an expert in the dynamics of addiction, and he knows that the more heavily people’s minds become enslaved to sin, the less likely they’ll be to turn to God. Because people know God is a moral being and opposed to sin, they fear him, intuitively sensing that coming to him would be a threat to the sin that controls their lives. Highly destructive addictions may backfire, resulting in conversion to Christ. While cultural approval may make more subtle addictions (like materialistic greed) highly effective.

Distraction

People in our church recently interviewed local students on their views of the afterlife. After asking what they believed, we asked a follow-up question: Why do you believe that? One of the most common answers was something like, “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought much about it.”

How could people reach adulthood without thinking much about a matter as crucial as the afterlife? This illustrates the power of distraction. Many people have spent their lives so preoccupied with temporal pursuits that they have never seriously considered life’s larger questions. “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Through his impressive kosmos system (which we’ll study in chapter 6), Satan can so engross people in ultimately meaningless aims that they won’t consider anything else. Even when some desire to know more about God, they often can’t find time to learn much because of the demands of their pursuits in the kosmos (world-system).

Death

Death is the seal of finality on people’s lives when they fail to come to God. Satan is eager to see us die, but the story of Job makes it clear that Satan cannot just kill anyone he wishes. God restricts his ability—based on unrevealed rules, probably involving human free will—but Satan has proven effective at getting people to kill each other or even themselves. Jesus says he was “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44) and that “the thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy” (10:10).

In addition to working for the early death of humans, Satan uses the fear of death to manipulate them.

Only by dying could [Jesus] break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all those who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying. (Hebrews 2:14–15)

Satan uses fear of death to drive people into living frenzied lives, striving to gain as much self-advantage as possible during their short time. Their fear of death makes them so uncomfortable they don’t want to think about it, or anything connected to it, especially the possibility that they may be accountable to God.

Taken together, these measures constitute an enormously effective network of deception and manipulation leading people away from God and his saving gospel.

Measures Directed Against Christians

Satan attacks believers, which can seem to us like an offensive strategy, but these actually are “spoiling attacks.” Sometimes offense is the best defense: Military leaders who realize an enemy is about to launch an offensive often attack first, seeking to upset the attackers’ plans and throw them into confusion. Not all our problems come from Satan—we are more than capable of making trouble for ourselves without any help from him. But when he does strike, he can be very effective.

Destroying Christians’ Spiritual Lives

Every healthy, growing Christian poses a potential threat to Satan’s kingdom. That’s why he seeks opportunities to destroy or retard our spiritual growth. Peter says, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). We will examine how he does this in the coming chapters.

Rendering Christians Ineffective

Satan is unable to destroy Christians, so his ultimate goal is to make us ineffective in our mission. Whether he can destroy faith or stalemate us in other ways, his point is to block Christians’ efforts to rescue those currently under his control. While personal hatred plays a role (so he may feel pleasure just from harming God’s people), we have every reason to believe Satan’s main motivation is pragmatic: he wants to guard his captives from the power of the gospel. Satan can convince most Christians never even to try to advance God’s cause on earth. Others do try, but he can frustrate their plans or redirect them into fruitless projects.

He attacks both individuals and groups, sometimes inciting them to do his work for him. He can divide believers or get them to pursue foolish, doomed-to-failure tactics. And he has been remarkably successful getting believers to preach a message so alien to the gospel that no one could meet Christ through their message.

Chapter 4

Our Strategy

How you understand Satan’s strategy and ours will shape your entire vision for Christian living and church life. One of the main reasons Christian groups are so different from one another is their understanding of grand strategy.

Taking the Offensive

As Christians, our strategy is supposed to be offensive (i.e., attacking), not toward people but toward the kingdom of darkness. Jesus said, “How can anyone enter the strong man’s house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house” (Matthew 12:29 nasb). The strong man in this context is Satan; Jesus, who had just released a man from a demon’s power, illustrates himself and his followers plundering Satan’s house. This fits his revelation that Satan is the “god of this world,” holding people in bondage apart from God, who sends us to liberate captives, if we can get past the strong man.[7]

Rescue

Paul explained that our ministry is the same as Jesus’ own.

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18–19 nasb)

Just as God sent Jesus to reconcile people to himself, so we, Christ’s body, are to continue and expand on this work. The “goods” plundered from Satan’s household are people we release from his prison, build up and make whole, and release to play their part in the battle. Of course the ministry of reconciliation involves evangelism, but also much more than that. Reconciliation begins when people meet Christ, and it continues as they are nourished, discipled, healed, and melded together into a healthy local body (church).

So many different gifts and ministries are involved in this complex task of reconciling the world to God, and Paul clearly teaches that this is our purpose, encouraging the Philippians to be “standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News [gospel]” (Philippians 1:27).

Jesus agrees: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21; cf. 17:18, where he prays to the Father about his followers: “As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world”). Jesus sent his followers into the kosmos, just as he had earlier been sent, and for the same reason. Why was Jesus sent into the world?

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10 nasb)

God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:17 nasb)

Even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45 nasb)

Theologians point out that the purpose of the church is to glorify God, because all that he has done for us is “to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:12 nasb). What glorifies God? Jesus said, “I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4), and the grand purpose for God’s people is no different. In Jesus, God invaded the world-system to liberate the vast slave population held in bondage by Satan. We are on a rescue mission for the human race.

John describes Jesus’ (and our) mission in these words: “The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). God calls believers to infiltrate and subvert Satan’s kingdom. As Jesus put it when he called Paul,

I am sending you to the Gentiles to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me. (Acts 26:17–18)

Infiltration

God’s strategy for taking ground back from Satan’s kingdom is to infiltrate it with his own people. We are to build a new kingdom of God, coexisting within Satan’s domain. This infiltrating version of the kingdom is the church, or the body of Christ. By building up the body, we progressively erode Satan’s kingdom. Any real growth of the true church is an act of aggression—an attack on Satan’s kosmos.[8]

The Price of a Defensive View

Many Christians fail to understand that our strategy is offensive. Consider our common misunderstanding of Matthew 16:18, where Jesus says, “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it” (nasb). The NLT says, “all the powers of hell will not conquer it.” But wait: How do the gates of a city “overpower” or “conquer” an army? Don’t armies attack gates when they are storming a city? Gates are defensive structures! This verse should read, “The gates of Hades will not withstand [the church].”[9] How could gates ever “overcome” the church? Many interpreters and translators have completely missed the point here.

This traditional translation and the outlook that goes with it sees the universal church in danger of being destroyed, but God preserves it faithfully. But Jesus is saying that Satan’s fortress is in danger and that God will back the church’s assault to victory. We are the invaders. We seek to knock down the walls and release the prisoners inside.

Paul confirms this reading when he says, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4 niv). Satan owns the strongholds we must batter down.

This is a crucial point. When the church sees its strategy as defensive, or as one of self-preservation, we depart from the vision God gives us in the New Testament. One could argue that Israel’s Old Testament strategy was more defensive, but at any rate Jesus is clear that we are to attack.[10] Churches on the defensive not only are unable to effectively release Satan’s captives, but they also develop spiritual illnesses because they are not doing what God wants.

Remember, we never attack people; rather, we attack Satan’s fortresses that imprison people. The whole reason the disciples were to wait in Jerusalem is that Jesus promised, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 niv). God didn’t give them power to survive (as a defensive theology would argue); he gave them, and us, power to move out into the world and win people back to God. The Great Commission makes this clear as well:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:18–20 niv)

The commission’s central imperatives are go, and make disciples. That is our mission. But when Christians fail to see the mission’s offensive nature, the result is what some have called fortress theology,[11] which accounts for much of the Western church’s current ineffectiveness in reaching significant numbers of non-Christians.[12] While many believers today maintain that the evangelical church is growing and reaching large numbers, studies show that over 90 percent of so-called church growth in America is nothing but people transferring from other evangelical churches.[13] Meanwhile, the public’s view of Christians has reached new lows.[14]

Subversion

Paul describes spiritual war in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. (nasb, italics added)

Notice the italicized words. Speculations, knowledge, and thoughts apparently make up the fortresses we are to destroy. These words are the language of thought processes and ideas. The spiritual war described here is mainly an ideological struggle. To advance the kingdom of God and rescue captives from the world-system, we are to subvert their current belief systems with the truth. The powerful weapons mentioned here are truth, prayer, and spiritual conviction that enable believers to win over the minds and hearts of people laboring under Satan’s deception.

We read in Revelation 12:9 that Satan is “the one deceiving the whole world.” To release people from the spell he has put on them, Christians are to answer with truth each lie hurled at them by the enemy. Somehow, we must show people the deceptions. Every choice to follow God has to be a free-will decision—not made under compulsion. Thus, with God’s power, we need to convince people how the doctrine of the world is wrongheaded and show them how God’s way is the better choice. “It is because we know this solemn fear of the Lord that we work so hard to persuade others” (2 Corinthians 5:11).

We’ve seen the warning that “Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Every Christian who has had a hand in the task of reconciling people to God knows how difficult it can be to break through this inflicted blindness. While we wonder how anyone could turn down an offer as awesome as the free gift of eternal life, it happens all the time. Witnessing believers must be well aware of the cloud of confusion and preconception that seems to block people from seeing what is right in front of their eyes.

To overcome such deception, we need powerful weapons indeed. This means the church also has a large task to accomplish in training and building up its people. Paul calls for leaders to equip members for ministry:

Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. (Ephesians 4:12–14)

So building maturity into our members is biblical, and not only so we can enjoy each other more. A big part of the reason we need mature members is that maturity is crucial to winning our war with Satan. Immature believers lack the understanding and fiber to match up consistently with the Evil One. They don’t know how to wield the weapons of righteousness.

Conviction

The persuasive presentation of truth from God’s Word accounts for much of spiritual warfare, but we can also impact people in other ways. Through prayer and example, we can appeal directly to their hearts and consciences even before speaking to them. Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, “he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment” (John 16:8). When working in cooperation with God, we can anticipate cases in which people may become unexpectedly receptive. They seem to have already sensed their need for God in their hearts. Often this happens after they hear God’s Word declared. It may happen after they visit a loving Christian community and sense its people have something real. The forces of the Bible, the example lived out by believers, and prayer, combine to generate great power. No wonder Paul calls the weapons of our warfare “divinely powerful” (2 Corinthians 10:3 nasb).

Why Strategy Matters

Knowing and agreeing on our grand strategy is crucial to the church’s success in spiritual war. Our vision of the church’s mission shapes our attitudes and actions. If most of God’s people on earth today adopt self-protective or inward-looking goals, we can expect little progress toward our true goal of reconciling the world to God. Do some Christians today see the church as little more than a family entertainment center or country club—a place to be with similar people and enjoy uplifting performances? Think what a view like this does to our battle worthiness and readiness.

How different it is when we realize we’re in the midst of a desperate struggle with eternal life and death at stake! Under this vision, things become reasonable that would never make sense under softer outlooks. When believers realize that discipline, self-denial, and suffering might be more typical of church life than personal gratification or mere self-improvement, they can identify with the militant language found in one New Testament passage after another.[15] Enjoying times of worship or improving oneself become lesser goals, intended to contribute to the larger spectrum.

Understanding grand strategy enables Christians to appreciate the smaller pieces, shift competing values, and put it all together in readiness for battle.

Chapter 5

Your Personal Battle

With Satan

If you are a believer, you have entered into a lifelong battle with the anointed cherub. A popular saying goes, “If you haven’t run head-on into Satan, it’s probably because you’re both going the same direction.” The closer you grow to God and the more effective you become in serving him, the more frequently you will meet Satan. Success in your Christian life depends in large part on your ability to win these battles. To overthrow his schemes, you have to learn to recognize Satan’s works and his voice. You will need to understand his plans for you, and you will need to learn how to draw on God’s power.

Satan’s Limitations

Satan’s power is great, but he also has limitations. Some are inherent in his own nature because he is a created being and therefore finite. He also has powers God doesn’t allow him to use. We get glimpses of the aforementioned rules governing spiritual war but never a full picture. Christians should learn as much as possible about Satan’s limitations; doing so keeps us from overestimating his powers and suffering intimidation as a result.

Power

We aren’t sure how much power Satan actually has, but it must be great:

You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. (Ephesians 2:2)

Even so, we can be sure much of his power never comes into play.

We know, for instance, that Satan can kill people, because he killed Job’s children. But God also forbade him to kill Job, so this power doesn’t go unchecked. If Satan could kill people anytime he wanted, why wouldn’t he immediately kill someone like the apostle Paul? To the contrary, Paul indicated he was invulnerable to death until he finished his course (Philippians 1:23–25; 2 Timothy 4:6–8).

We know Satan can make people sick. He gave Job boils and held a woman in a disabled state for eighteen years (Luke 13:11). Yet the Bible does not attribute most disease to Satan, contrary to the teaching of other ancient religions, most of which explain virtually all disease as caused by demons. The biblical worldview is compatible with modern science, because when living in a fallen world we can expect things like disease and disaster apart from the action of spirits.

Another example of limits placed on Satan is God’s promise that he “will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). God protects believers from the full force of temptation Satan could bring. We can safely conclude that he does not have a free hand to exercise his power on earth but is strictly limited in what he can do, especially to believers.

In all likelihood, people regularly overestimate the danger that comes from Satan’s power. Animistic and tribal peoples are terrified of evil spirits, convinced that demons often kill people or make them sick. Yet when we study the sick and the dead, we find they were not killed by Satan but by malaria, AIDS, encephalitis, or other natural causes. Strangely, at about the same time we introduce Western medicine to a village, Satan stops killing so many people.

This is not to say Satan is never involved. He convinces people that he can and does kill, and then he persuades them to turn to occult religion for protection. While Satan may not have made these people sick or killed them, he has deceived them. We will see later that most powers claimed by occultists are phony or exaggerated. Satan uses these claims to deceive people, not to curse them.

Reading Our Minds

Interestingly, we have no evidence that Satan can directly read our minds. In fact, the Bible implies that he cannot. Jesus said he had to finish speaking about confidential matters soon because Satan was coming (John 14:30). This would have been pointless if Satan could have read his mind or those of his disciples. The secrecy we saw earlier about Jesus’ intentions at the cross would have been impossible if Satan could have read his mind. So one of Satan’s limitations is his apparent inability to know exactly what you are thinking or planning. But this isn’t as limiting as we might think. As one who has studied human nature for millennia and has seen all your history, he can predict with a high level of accuracy what you are thinking and how you feel. Even though he can’t read our minds, it seems wise to assume that Satan probably knows what you’ve been thinking or planning most of the time.

Controlling Our Minds

We have no evidence that Satan can take control of our minds in a direct way. This is particularly true of Christians who have the indwelling Spirit of God. If he does gain control of our thinking, it’s because we have given him control. The control he exerts is not forceful in the sense that he compels us to think in a certain way. Instead, he persuades. When we end up thinking Satan’s thoughts, it’s because we have believed so many of his lies that we lose track of reality. The slippery slope of his persuasion leaves our minds tumbling downward into ever darkening understanding. Even in cases of demon possession, people usually (or maybe always) have given themselves up to it.

Predicting the Future

Unlike God, Satan cannot see the future. He can make predictions based only on two things: (1) high probability short-term predictions based on his knowledge of cause and effect, and (2) short-term predictions that he fulfills himself, possibly by having one or more humans under his control to do the thing he predicts. These are sufficient to explain the occasional, irregular, accurate predictions made by occultists.

Such predictions are different from God’s ability to predict even long-term future events that go beyond the current cause-and-effect sequence. In Isaiah, God makes it clear that he alone can foretell long-term events with specificity and accuracy:

I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to anyone else, nor share my praise with carved idols. Everything I prophesied has come true, and now I will prophesy again. I will tell you the future before it happens. (42:8–9)

He challenges the idols Israel was worshiping:

Let them tell us what the future holds, so we can know what’s going to happen. Yes, tell us what will occur in the days ahead. Then we will know you are gods. (41:22–23)

Only omniscience would allow someone to make the kind of predictions God does. Satan can only guess, and God often makes sure his guesses fail:

I am the Lord, who made all things. I alone stretched out the heavens. . . . I expose the false prophets as liars and make fools of fortune-tellers. I cause the wise to give bad advice, thus proving them to be fools. But I carry out the predictions of my prophets! (44:24–26)

Still, with his limited ability to predict the future, Satan tries to convince people that he does know the future and that they can know it through accessing his power. People become involved with fortune-tellers, psychics, and phony premonitions that lead them to wrong conclusions. They even come to believe that people are prophets of God when they are actually false prophets.

Satan’s Capabilities

While Satan is not free to exercise supernatural power as he wishes, and while he inherently lacks certain capabilities, he still has plenty of tools with which to accomplish his goals.

Intellect

We have less to fear from Satan’s power than from his intellect, for the balance of power ultimately is on our side: “The Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world” (1 John 4:4). We should remember that Satan also knows this verse and believes it, so we can expect him to avoid direct tests of power with growing Christians. That doesn’t mean he won’t attack, but he will choose ground for the fight where he will have an advantage.

In Satan we face an opponent far smarter than we are. Even the most brilliant Christian pales when compared with this being and his many centuries of education. We have seen that countless ages ago, before his fall, God already described him as “perfect in wisdom.” Think of how easily adults can fool a child. Without much effort you could make a child believe things that are obviously false. Their underdeveloped minds make them vulnerable to manipulation, and that’s why we try to protect them from crafty adult liars.

Christians who make the mistake of arguing with Satan on his own ground find their minds tied up like a pretzel. Have you ever debated someone far smarter than you are? You feel you’re in the right but sense yourself losing the argument anyway. Skilled debaters are trained to argue either side of an issue and win regardless. Getting into it with someone like this is usually a bad idea. How much worse it would be if this brilliant debater had intimate knowledge of your own inner prejudices, life experiences, emotional makeup, and thought tendencies!

Satan’s goal is to cause Christians to believe that which is false. Think about these typical examples of things he wants believers to buy in to. What kind of person would he speak these things to, and what would he be trying to accomplish in each case?

1. God is continually looking down at you in disappointment or even disgust. He is incredulous that you could be so unfaithful, selfish, and sinful. It’s a small wonder he hasn’t turned his back on you. He’s probably lining you up for a crushing punishment of some kind.

2. Christians are dangerous and cannot be trusted. Opening up to them would be extremely foolish. They’re just waiting for a chance to judge you ferociously. You have to tell them what they want to hear and never let them know how badly you’re messing up.

3. The Bible may have some good points, but obviously you can’t believe it completely. Internal contradictions, questionable miracle stories, and faulty historical and scientific claims show this book to be fallible like any other book written by humans. In fact, you can’t really know which parts to take literally.

4. Your efforts to serve God by sharing your faith are doomed to failure. First, nobody wants to hear this, and they will feel offended when you bring it up. Besides, your incompetence makes it even less likely that anyone would listen; the person will probably come up with advanced questions you can’t answer, and not only will you look stupid, but you’ll also make Jesus look stupid. You’d be better off waiting until you’re more prepared.

5. When you feel depressed and far from God, the only solution is to get alone by yourself for a good while. You don’t need to go hang out with Christians as much as you need to relax and maybe surf the Net.

6. You don’t have to go crazy with this area of sin. Just a sample, just a reminder, just a taste, could hardly do any harm. You’re not going to give yourself over; you’re just going to get close enough to remember what it’s like.

7. In your fleshly state of mind, it would be pointless to go to a fellowship meeting or other place where you’ll need to give out spiritually. If you go, you’re just going to be bringing others down. You’d better get your head together before going back.

8. It looks like this moral problem you have is never going to change. You might as well decide how you’re going to manage your existence as a lifelong screw-up in this area. God has already shown he isn’t going to help, so give it up.

9. Prayer isn’t working. It’s probably because of your lack of faith, or maybe God refuses to answer because you’re so irregular in prayer. Maybe he just doesn’t care. Whatever the case, it feels more and more ridiculous to go on pretending you believe in this.

10. There was that time when God was blessing your life, but that was a long time ago. Something has gone terribly wrong; you can’t feel his presence like you could then. He doesn’t bless you like he did then. It could well be that you’ve been dealt out of the game. God has moved on to others who are more deserving.

11. If you keep listening to this talk about surrendering all for God, you’re going to miss incredible opportunities that may never come again. Your career is going to suffer irreversibly. You’re going to miss the love of your life. You’re going to become a fanatic and a weirdo. You’re on the verge of robbing yourself of real happiness. You’ve got to take a more moderate position in spiritual matters. We’re not talking about denying God here, just more sense of balance in life.

12. So what if you hate that sister in Christ? She’s got it coming, and no sane person could possibly react any other way. Besides, you’re not saying you would never forgive her. You can think about it when she comes to grovel and finally acknowledge what she’s done.

13. If you keep serving so regularly, you’re going to be all used up! Start looking out for yourself—you don’t want to burn out.

14. It’s one thing to talk about trusting God, but you’re facing real dangers here. Don’t be stupid! Of course God wants you to take measures to secure your future. You’re not in some fantasy world—this is real life! You’ve got to start taking life into your own hands.

15. Your plan to go and admonish your friend about an area of sin is unwise. First, who do you think you are? Is your life so pure that you should go around trying to set others straight? Isn’t that a little arrogant? Who’s casting the first stone here? Besides, if you think about it, you’ll see abundant evidence that he’ll never listen anyway—he’ll probably retaliate, maybe even dangerously. Look, people have to move at their own pace, and if God wanted him to see this he would make it clear himself. If someone should go and say something, aren’t there plenty of others who would be way more capable than you? Maybe you should just mind your own business.

16. If only you had done what you really wanted to do in that situation a year ago, you’d probably be having the time of your life right now. You’re listening to all this legalism and you’re not being true to yourself. If you keep this up, you’re going to ruin your life.

17. God probably has decided already what’s going to happen in this ministry situation, so it doesn’t matter what you do. Who do you think you are, anyway, arrogantly thinking you could make a difference?

18. This kind of person probably won’t respond to words. You should just witness with your life, and meanwhile you can pray. Only God can bring someone to faith. If you go shooting your mouth off, it almost certainly will make matters worse.

19. It sure is annoying to see how these Christians just do what everybody expects. There’s terrific groupthink going on here. I can’t see someone as authentic as you conforming that way to the expectations of others.

20. If you keep pushing your boyfriend away during your make-outs, he’s going to think you don’t really like him. He’d have no problem finding a girl who would never push him away.

When Satan lies, his arguments are very persuasive. He bases each one on your actual life experience and states it in terms you will find most appealing. All of them usually contain some truth or at least possible truth. He can manipulate certain circumstances or people in your life in ways that seem to confirm his arguments. But the net effect of each lie is to move you away from God, away from the people of God, away from total commitment to God, and away from serving God. Each satanic lie argues that it is both reasonable and balanced to live your life for yourself.

Christians who begin believing even one of Satan’s lies find themselves on a slippery slope. For each of the examples above, he has ready follow-up suggestions that will be hard to resist once we concede the original point, even if we only partially agree. The mental battle with him is rarely a single encounter but rather a day-in, day-out, wearying dialogue that tends to break us down. He piles evidence onto evidence as he builds his case. No sooner do you begin to wonder if Christians can be trusted than you find out one of them has been talking behind your back. No sooner do you begin to worry that you’re not putting enough energy and time into your financial standing than your car breaks down and a big unexpected bill hits. You begin wondering if witnessing might be too risky because people could be offended, only to hear a neighbor angrily describing how offended he was by a recent encounter with a Christian.

Many believers don’t see how dangerous these mental arguments are. We tend to think that even if we mess up and draw the wrong conclusion here or there, we’ll get through, and any damage will be minor and temporary. But this radically underestimates Satan, who doesn’t stop after he wins one small argument. He will relentlessly pursue any opening and seek to expand it into a major breech; complete destruction is his goal. If we find it difficult to avoid deception before losing an argument with Satan, it becomes much more difficult once we believe any one of his cases, partially or fully.

Look around and ask yourself, “Why do I see so many Christians with mediocre, unfruitful lives? How could those who looked so awesome walk away from God? Why are so many churches around here dead, barren, and weird? Where is the Christian community that looks like the one presented in the New Testament?” These problems are not accidents. They don’t signal that God is unreal or that his promises are false. Rather, all these and many other factors around us point to the same thing: the deadly effectiveness of Satan’s powers of persuasion.

Instead of arguing with Satan, Christians must learn to declare the Word of God to him, like Jesus did. To match up with someone this smart, we need the help of someone even smarter, and God is infinitely smarter than Satan. We already saw how outclassed Satan was when he matched his intellect up against God’s wisdom. Shallow knowledge of Scripture is one reason young Christians are particularly vulnerable. Without a deep knowledge of God’s Word we are truly “sheep among wolves” (Matthew 10:16). Later we’ll examine how to use his Word in these battles.

Speaking to Our Minds

We know Satan can speak directly to our minds. Jesus talked about his snatching the gospel from people’s hearts before they can understand it, which implies that he can work on the inside of people. In 1 Chronicles 21:1, he put into David’s mind the idea of numbering the people of Israel. He is called the tempter, and few of us have heard audible voices tempting us; if Satan is tempting and accusing Christians, he must be doing it through mental communication. Therefore, thoughts coming into our heads could be from Satan.

This is bad news for subjective Christians who assume that every thought springing into their heads is the voice of God. For a liar and a fake like Satan, who can disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14), we have no reason to doubt that he would present himself to our minds as God’s voice. Discerning one voice from the other is an important ability we must develop if we plan to successfully avoid deception.

Too many Christians are too lazy to learn God’s Word, instead opting for the easier—but treacherous—view that God is talking to them when they hear thoughts in their minds. Yes, God does speak to us this way, but so can Satan. When I once confronted a Christian woman and expressed my dismay that she had abandoned her husband and kids for another man, she reassured me that God had told her he didn’t want her to be unhappy. Most Christians involved in ministry have heard more of these kinds of stories than we care to think about. Ignorant Christians with no external basis for judging inner thoughts are at constant risk for deception.

How do you recognize the voice of Satan? Not by how it makes you feel. You recognize Satan’s voice by the things he says—things God would never say. Only Christians who know God’s Word can accurately judge this.

Casting Moods

We see slender biblical evidence that Satan may be able to cast negative moods onto people temporarily. We read about when King Saul turned away from God: “Now the Spirit of the Lord had left Saul, and the Lord sent a tormenting spirit that filled him with depression and fear” (1 Samuel 16:14). The language is indefinite, since the spirit came from God. We can’t even be sure this was a demon; it may be referring to Saul’s own state of mind in response to conviction from God. Certainly what Saul experienced is not normative for Christians. Most interpreters think this was a demon, and experience suggests as well that demons can make us feel terrible for short periods. They may not directly cast emotional states onto people but rather get people to think in ways that are depressing or cause anxiety.

Agents

One of Satan’s most pernicious powers stems from the fact that he controls some humans, at least part of the time. Such people need not be possessed by a demon; they may just be particularly susceptible to satanic suggestion. Through these agents he can directly impact Christians.

Paul reminds us that “we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against . . . evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). He knew that when human attackers came against him, they were just pawns being used by the real Enemy. Jesus said to the church at Smyrna, “The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you” (Revelation 2:10). No doubt humans would actually do the throwing, but Jesus attributes the action to Satan’s control over them.

How many of us involved in evangelism have seen a new Christian who hasn’t been able to get a date for a year suddenly find that the hottest girl in school wants him soon after—or even just before—he meets Christ? Another convert no sooner meets Christ than her company wants to promote her and move her to another city. Satan often foments persecution because he controls those doing the persecuting.

Watching

Satan is not omnipresent. Even through his many demonic followers he cannot be in every place at once. We may be able to operate at times without his influence, although if we become effective for God, we can anticipate that he will assign more demons to interfere with our ministry. Therefore, even though he is not omnipresent and does not know all things, we should assume Satan usually knows what we have done, what we are doing, and what we plan to do. While this is not always true, it’s a safe assumption.

The Physical World

Satan can sometimes affect physical events. With Job, we see his ability to create a deadly whirlwind and to inflict sickness. In all likelihood he can do things like make machines break down or move objects. He can perform counterfeit miracles (2 Thessalonians 2:9). These capabilities could come into play when you need equipment to work correctly for a meeting; your car might break down on the way to meet a person to whom you’re witnessing; an apparent miracle could lead people to believe God is at work when it’s actually Satan.

The Kosmos

In addition to these tactics and capabilities, Satan has one great pitch to throw. His world-system is so powerful that it deserves its own chapter.

Chapter 6

Countering Satan’s

Trump Card

Satan has a trump card in the world-system that both keeps people away from God and mangles Christians’ spiritual lives. The world-system is Satan’s masterpiece, and although the doctrine of the kosmos is well taught in the New Testament, most Christians seem to have only a modest understanding of what it is or what to do about it.

What Is the Kosmos ?

The word kosmos is usually translated “world” in English Bibles, but it suggests more than our word world implies. The Greeks used kosmos to refer to a “unifying harmony,” connecting all things. The term means a “harmonious order,” or a “system,” and this aspect is absent from world. To retain more of its original meaning, the term should often be translated world-system.

We get the words cosmetics and cosmopolitan from kosmos, and both contain the implications of a beautiful ordered system. Another Greek expression used far less often but usually referring to the same thing is aeon houtos, which means literally “this present age” and is usually translated the world, just like kosmos. Aeon houtos contemplates the world-system from the aspect of time, while kosmos refers to its essence.

The following chart summarizes some of the main New Testament teachings about the kosmos.

What Is the Kosmos (World-System)?

The Bible sometimes uses kosmos to refer to the physical globe of the earth or to the universe in general (Matthew 4:8). These uses are not in view here. Satan does not own the world itself; Psalm 24:1 makes it clear that the earth is the Lord’s.

At other times, kosmos can refer to the whole human race as alienated from God (e.g., John 3:16, “For God so loved the world . . .”).

We begin to sense the idea of a system of values when Scripture refers to the underlying abstract qualities that animate the world:

1 Corinthians 2:12

The spirit of the world.

1 Corinthians 3:19

The wisdom of this world.

1 Corinthians 7:31

The way of the world.

Titus 2:12

The lusts of the world.

2 Peter 1:4

The corruption that is in the world.

2 Peter 2:20

The defilement of the world.

1 John 2:15

The things that are in the world.

The New Testament often refers to the world-system’s hostility toward God and Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:21

The world knew not God.

John 7:7

The world’s works are evil.

John 14:17

The world cannot receive the Spirit.

John 15:18

The world hated Christ.

Jesus made illuminating comments about his own relationship to the world-system.

John 18:36

“My kingdom is not of this world.”

John 16:33

“I have overcome the world.”

John 12:31

“Now judgment is upon this world.”

Christians should recognize what the world-system is and should take a stand against it.

James 4:4

Friendship with the world is enmity with God.

1 John 2:15

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

John 17:14

The world hates followers of Jesus.

1 John 5:4

Our faith overcomes the world.

The hostility between God, Christians, and the kosmos results because this entire system is owned and run by Satan.

John 12:31

“The time for judging this world has come, when Satan, the ruler of this world, will be cast out.”

John 14:30

“The ruler of this world approaches.”

John 16:11

“Judgment will come because the ruler of this world has already been judged.”

1 John 5:19

“We know that we are children of God and that the world [kosmos] around us is under the control of the evil one.”

2 Corinthians 4:4

Satan, who is the god of this world [aeon houtos], has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe.

Ephesians 6:12

In Greek, the “world rulers” are kosmokrators.

Perhaps the definitive passage on the kosmos is 1 John 2:15–17:

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (nasb)

Accordingly, the kosmos is primarily a system of values. The lust of the flesh refers to living for ungodly pleasure. The lust of the eyes refers to owning beautiful things or gaining control over beautiful people. The boastful pride of life refers to the way humans try to establish identity and importance by competing with each other for attention, power, and admiration. Satan has been able to orchestrate a situation in which people are motivated primarily by these goals. This is his substitute for a life lived for God. Satan doesn’t remove God; he simply substitutes a new values-system in place of the one God advances, and he backs up the rewards of temporary pleasure with a system of punishment for anyone who resists. Friends, co-workers, and family members will be quick to point out how foolish anyone is who passes up opportunities to advance in the world-system.

The Church and the Kosmos Today

Many Christians think of “worldly” things as gross sins like wanton sex, for example. They are likely to imagine the world’s pathetic victims lying in a gutter with a paper sack and saliva running down their unshaven chins. And yes, this is worldly.

Many of the same Christians, however, would never recognize the world-system when looking at the Harvard University green or the Sears Tower. A glossy magazine advertisement showing a family luxuriating in a hot tub in Tahiti or a shiny new SUV would not ring the kosmos bell in their minds. Nor would they think of the world-system while watching a sports team celebrating a world championship. The problem is, these Christians have taken a slice out of the pie and identified that as the world while accepting the rest of the pie as legitimate. Imagine cutting a slice of pie and as you lift it out of the pan noticing it’s full of worms. Would you cast that piece aside but unhesitatingly gobble down the rest of the pie?

In particular, the Western church has consistently failed to see greed and the quest for personal prestige as worldly—at least as long as they aren’t taken “too far.” Notice how many Christian parents are worried and angry about how the violence and sex in today’s TV shows might affect their children. Isn’t it interesting, though, that many of those same parents have never spent a moment worrying about the influence that advertising and programs exhibiting flagrant greed and glorifying wealth and fame might have on their kids?

The result of exempting some aspects of the kosmos from our definition is an uneasy accommodation or compromise with the world-system. Some values are embraced while others are rejected, but the result is not 50 percent or even 30 percent spirituality—it is a completely broken spirituality. Jesus warned, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24). Those who fall into this trap lose the love of the Father (1 John 2:15), for friendship with the world is enmity with God (James 4:4). How could it be otherwise when we are compromising with the kingdom of Satan? He knows that to the same extent he can get Christians to compromise with the world, they will become ineffective for God.

Many observers, me included, think the number-one illness afflicting the church in the West is its unspoken peace treaty with the kosmos. Of course, the church continues to deplore “worldliness” and “worldly people.” But here we see the problem. Is it even correct to speak of such a thing as “worldly people”? That designation suggests that some people, even non-Christians, are not worldly. The Bible presents the whole human race, apart from Christ, as captive to this system. Only by surgically removing key aspects of the world from our definition do we conclude that some people are more “worldly” than others. Why can’t we see that clean-living, success-oriented people are just as caught in the world’s vise as the helpless addict?

The Accommodated Christian

When Christians compromise with the kosmos, they may continue to attend church and even pray and read their Bibles. The problem is that the things of God occupy a section of their lives, while the main thrust of their affections is devoted to the world-system. Jesus’ warning that “no one can serve two masters” is illustrated on every side by Christians in the West today.[16] Ironically, however, those caught up in this mentality usually have no idea that their minds have been captured by Satan’s system.

Jesus said this would happen:

Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is! (Matthew 6:22–23)

Given in the context of living for money, these words say that love of the world-system actually affects our perception of reality until we can no longer tell we’re in the wrong. Our eyes, the lamp of our bodies, no longer work. Christians compromised in this way cannot understand the problem. They go to church; they follow God and stay out of trouble; they even give their tithe. So what’s the issue?

As stated earlier, it’s that their primary affection and energy are devoted to the kosmos. The amount of time, thought, effort, and emotion devoted to the goals of the world can outdistance what’s devoted to God many times over. But accommodated Christians may never stop to consider how pitiful is their spiritual intensity compared with what they show toward their careers or their homes. Their words broadcast the importance of God, but their lives say that other things are actually more important.

Sometimes the truth about our values comes out in strange ways. How often those of us doing campus ministry have seen Christian parents more worried about Junior’s GPA than whether he has a heart for God! They drive their kids toward worldly accomplishments and accolades—athletics, academics, etc.[17]—and anything suggesting the kids are falling behind in the race throws them into a frenzy of anxiety. Yet as their kids’ hearts grow cold toward God and they lose all interest in serving him, there is no corresponding concern. When their kids get excited about following the Lord and living all-out for him, some Christian parents even worry that they’re getting carried away or becoming fanatical. At times like these, value systems become painfully evident.

Christians compromised with the world-system can’t find time for God. They’re too busy to get equipped for ministry, too stressed to devote themselves to leading others, too self-interested to invest in younger Christians through personal discipleship. They feel that showing up at a weekly service should be enough—anything more is extraordinary devotion. If time demands from their careers conflict with times needed for God or his people, they announce that they “can’t be there” because of a work engagement. But the truth is that servants of the world-system have just as many hours in their week as anyone else. It’s not that they don’t have the time; they’ve just decided to allocate their time to the world-system, and little is left over.

Christians at peace with the world have agreed with the world-system on key values. They may see nothing wrong with laying up treasure on earth, and they become angry or cold when someone suggests otherwise. But Jesus said, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth.” What does this mean? We all have to make a living, and such is the will of God (2 Thessalonians 3:12). However, people can interpret “making a living” in a wide variety of ways, and Satan is smart enough to win Christians over to a definition that perfectly matches their secular neighbors’ definition. We often find little or no difference between Christians and non-Christians on this point. They have the same expensive possessions, enjoy the same affluent lifestyle, love receiving worldly prestige and honor, and seem to see nothing wrong with this picture.

What Is Wrong With the Kosmos?

Jesus isn’t trying to cramp our style when he calls on Christians to turn away from materialism and worldly prestige. He gives a key reason for his admonition against laying up treasure: “Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be” (Matthew 6:21). This is why we dare not dabble with investment in the world-system any more than we would risk taking “just a little puff” from a crack pipe: Satan has set up this system to lure people in. Our own affluence, success, and glorification will affect our hearts, and we will want more. Those who think this isn’t dangerous are probably already so compromised that spiritually they no longer know up from down.

Christians who have inwardly made peace with the values of the world-system often show amazing competence at work, but as Christians they remain relatively incompetent. People cannot lead others into completely following Christ when they aren’t radical followers themselves. God will not honor ministries secretly in love with Satan’s world-system. Their fruitfulness in accomplishing the mission becomes weak or nonexistent. Most have given up trying; Satan has won.

Even in poor countries people feverishly serve the world-system. In this global marketplace, religion and tribalism are steadily losing place to greed as life’s prime motivation. Those planting churches around the world face the challenge of members working sixty to eighty hours a week in an effort to get their children into private colleges or to keep upgrading their cell phones. Serving the world-system is a state of mind that can afflict the poor as well as the rich.

How the World-System Works

Because of the human consensus that materialism, sensuality, and egotism are legitimate and worth living for, people find it very difficult to avoid buying into these values for themselves. Advertising and media constantly reinforce the message. Anyone who refuses to conform to the kosmos will be treated with contempt; only a fool would fail to see the worth of these values. Those who obediently devote themselves to their pursuit, on the other hand, have the opportunity to be welcomed and admired.

People get so wrapped up in this kosmos pursuit that they become obsessed. This happens because the pleasure they receive from attaining the world’s goals doesn’t really satisfy; in fact, it only produces more desire. No matter how much money people make, no matter how famous they become, a gnawing emptiness remains, causing them to strive and grasp even harder. Envy and bitterness become common.

The Bible’s Critique of the Kosmos

People overlook one important negative in all the world’s goals, and John explains it simply: “The world is passing away, and also its lusts” (1 John 2:17 nasb). This is a fatal critique of the kosmos. What if your job paid you with checks that melt into goop after you leave the office? Nobody would work for that company. What good is money if we can’t keep it and use it in an ongoing way?

All the rewards of the kosmos are exactly like that melting money. We only get to have them for a while, and then we’re left with nothing. On the other hand, “the one who does the will of God lives forever” (2:17b). Here is real treasure! We may not get the world’s immediate gratification, and we may have to pass up some opportunities for pleasure or pride, but the things God gives us never go away.

When you think about it, comparing the rewards of the kosmos and those of following God is not a value of, let’s say, 1 compared to 10. The actual difference is 0 compared to infinity. At least, that’s what these rewards will be worth just a short time from now if we believe the Word of God. This should make the choice easy.

No wonder Satan tries to keep us from anticipating the ultimate value of following the way of the kosmos versus the way of God! He exerts phenomenal effort to keep people looking only at the near future, not at the more distant future.

The Price of Compromise

Christians can only peacefully coexist with the kosmos if they agree to live for the values of the world. That’s why John says, “If anyone loves the kosmos, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15 nasb). Does he mean that only those who don’t love God would fall in love with the kosmos in the first place? Or does he mean that falling in love with the kosmos kills your love of the Father? Is being without the Father’s love the cause or the result of loving the world? It’s hard to say, and probably both are true. But losing our love for God is definitely one of the results of loving the world.

Remember, Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21 nasb), and he also says those who try to serve God and the kosmos will hate the one and love the other (v. 24). If we begin to pursue the goals of the world-system, it will put a real chill on our love for God. We will resent the constraints and “nuisances” he places on us. What used to seem fun will seem burdensome.

God calls loving the kosmos adultery (James 4:4) because it neutralizes our spirituality just as unfaithfulness would spoil your marriage. Christians who fall in love with the world can remember a time when the love of God filled their hearts with joy. But now it seems ho-hum. Though they may feel confused and guilty, they fail to connect the dots between their love of the kosmos and their loss of love for God.

Likewise, those who fully follow the Lord come to hate the world-system and what it does to its victims. The idea of playing to the world becomes repulsive on one level, at the same time it continues to beckon on a different level. Christians never fully escape the temptation of the kosmos, but their attitude toward the world’s values changes dramatically as they give their lives and their priorities over to God.

Keeping People Away From God

For many non-Christians, the feverish pursuit of lust and pride is so intense that they resist anything that might interfere with it. Most people sense that getting involved with God could interfere massively with their affinity for the world. Satan is able to frighten them by threatening that coming to God is all about giving up the awesome things they have or could have in the kosmos. Of course, he never mentions that eventually they’re going to lose everything they get from the kosmos anyway.

So the struggle between the kosmos and God’s kingdom really is a struggle between the temporal (time-bound, temporary) and the eternal. It’s also a struggle between the notion that happiness comes from what I can get for me and the fact that it comes from what I can give for God and others. For both these reasons, there is no middle ground between the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God. Any effort to pursue both will result in bondage to the world-system. We must renounce the kosmos and all its values if we want to pursue God.

God’s Version

As we studied earlier when considering fortress theology, God doesn’t want us to leave the kosmos or try to avoid it. We are to live in its midst, partaking in its activities. We work for money. We enjoy sensual experiences ranging from good food to great sex to enjoyable music. We derive pleasure from a solid sense of identity and from knowing why we matter. In fact, we believe we enjoy all these things more than those who serve the world. So what’s the difference?

Design

For one thing, Christians enjoy the things in the world because we partake of them according to God’s design, which gratifies without destroying us. Satan didn’t create things like enjoying our senses or enjoying accomplishment; God did, and he gave them to us for our delight. But he also gave us the design for each, and ignoring this design turns beautiful things into things that enslave.

God, for instance, created sex before the fall of humans, and we are to use it in the context of a relationship where “the man and wife become one” (Genesis 2:24). Sex is a way to give and receive love in such a relationship. But if we put self at the center, sex becomes a hunting ground where we hope to take as many pleasurable experiences as possible, usually at the expense of others. This doesn’t result in more sexual gratification but in more sexual hunger. As we rip others off, consuming sex but refusing to be committed, we fail to experience the true joy of sex and instead feel emptiness that drives us to seek more sex and more far-out sex. Sex becomes a classic case study in diminishing returns.

For another example, consider accomplishment. Before the fall, God put Adam in the garden to cultivate it and keep it (v. 15). Adam was to enjoy his work and the things he accomplished. But when self is at the center, work becomes a competition for ego-enhancement and acquisitive greed. We can’t stop thinking about what we might buy or comparing our success with others. But because this was not the design for creative accomplishment, it never satisfies. Again, the deficiency we feel makes us strive ever harder to derive pleasure from something never intended to bear that load.

God tells us how to have a sense of identity and importance: Our identity is that we are in Christ, and our importance derives from God’s valuation of us. When we try to establish identity apart from him, the only basis for our value and importance is how we compare to others. The resulting competition turns into an ego trip, where insecure beings try to reassure themselves that they matter. This is what John calls the “boastful pride of life.”

Eternal Perspective

We have already discussed how foolish it is to strive for rewards that quickly pass away, especially when we have the option right in front of us to “lay up treasure in heaven.” Once we see and believe this, the temporary rewards of the kosmos lose much of their allure. Christians with a clear vision of their future with God simply cannot get very excited about minor temporalities. The psalmist says,

Those who are wise must finally die,

just like the foolish and senseless,

leaving all their wealth behind. (49:10)

But vision for our future has to be continually nourished and rekindled. Our personal times with God and his Word can nurture vision and remind us how foolish it would be to turn aside to the things of the world. Unless we draw close to God regularly, our vision will dim, and the luster of the world will rise.

Others-Centeredness

Paul says one of the main reasons for having a paying career is “so that [we] will have something to share with one who has need” (Ephesians 4:28 nasb). Christians become excited about the good they can do for others with their money instead of using it to keep score or to fill their lives with unnecessary luxuries. A simple life without extravagance becomes more attractive. Artistic creativity, sex, food, and all other things also can become opportunities to give instead of opportunities to take. Someone like me who enjoys the culinary arts can create good dishes to show hospitality or draw others to join in dinner parties where we discuss the things of God. An investor earning big bucks could become a power-giver, relieving suffering and advancing God’s work worldwide. Those possessing physical beauty could use their attractiveness to convey the gospel to those who enjoy talking to attractive people (as opposed to using physical beauty as an exercise in self-glorification).

Insight

God wants to renovate our thinking completely:

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world [aeon houtos], but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Growing Christians experience a mental transformation that utterly contradicts the world’s outlook.

In thousands of ways, Christians can partake of the same activities as others but with completely different motives and outcomes. This doesn’t always happen, however; we have to be aware that whenever we touch the world-system we are touching Satan’s kingdom, and this places us in possible danger with each activity or enjoyment. Since Satan uses such things to capture people, only a foolish Christian would fail to realize the perils. Careful reflection before God and his Word will show us if we are sliding into the love of the world.

This is not an easy matter but a daily struggle that lasts a lifetime. Holding on to God’s perspective on the kosmos requires constant reminding and honest inward examination. We have to refute lying thoughts, planted by Satan, with God’s Word, point for point. We may have to struggle in prayer to believe what God says in contrast to the attractive but deceptive picture painted by Satan.

Rarely do we meet a Christian who remembers consciously deciding to live for the world’s values; in fact, most worldly Christians don’t even know how worldly they are. This transition from a God-centered to a self-centered life is gradual and deceptive. Most world-defeated Christians continue to maintain that they think eternal values are the most important, even though their lives cry out that the kosmos is what matters most to them. Jesus described the process of spiritual decay: “The worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22 nasb). Insight and revelation granted by God can show us when worldliness is growing in our hearts.

Peter says, “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). We need to realize that the kosmos is Satan’s premier tool for devouring believers. Being alert means watching for deception in this area; being of sober spirit means being wise and understanding about how Satan pitches the kosmos to us. When believers keep a guard up, they become conscious of Satan’s efforts to lure and deceive and can bring the power of God to bear upon a situation.

Many Christians are doomed to be captured by the world-system, in part because their churches encourage them to serve it rather than be critical of it. Churches all across the West are preaching versions of Christianity that amount to an endorsement and even sanctification of the world’s way. Such groups don’t view the things of the world as Satan’s snare for people but as God’s reward. Rather than selecting a church and teachers who will pat you on the back for loving money, glory, and sensuality, find other believers who will join you in being faithful to God’s Word.

Replacement

Instead of helping to build the kingdom of Satan, Christians are called to take delight in building the kingdom of God. We mentioned eternal rewards as part of this; what are these? Paul mentions one of the best:

After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what will be our proud reward and crown as we stand before our Lord Jesus when he returns? It is you! Yes, you are our pride and joy. (1 Thessalonians 2:19–20)

Paul is pondering how wonderful it will be to spend eternity in heaven with people he led to Christ. Those who occupy themselves with the gospel have current joy as well as eternal joy awaiting them.

Believers who discover the thrill of being used by God in others’ lives are often able to resist the allure of the kosmos, while those who never develop a personal ministry cannot resist it.[18] Since humanity’s creation, God intended that we accomplish something for him with our lives. If we don’t, we will be lured to seek accomplishment in the world-system. This is why a version of Christianity that merely focuses on praising God and enjoying church meetings is inadequate. People need a sense of purpose, and goals toward which they can strive. Failure to develop and pursue spiritual goals produces apathy and spiritual depression that makes the world’s playthings irresistible. On the other hand, when our eyes are fully opened to the reality and power of the world-system, we’re in a good position to evade Satan’s ultimate trap for our lives.

Notes

Introduction

[1]. www.barna.org/barna-update/article/21-transformation/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-a

[2]. The New Living Translation (nlt) of the Bible takes an interesting approach. Instead of word-for-word translation, its committee translated “thought for thought.” This often is an excellent way to translate with accuracy, for the simple reason that we express thoughts today differently than biblical authors did then. The NLT is not a paraphrase, such as The Message, where the author gives his interpretation of what was written and said. On the other hand, all translation includes some interpretation, because words and expressions have a certain semantic range of meaning. We refer to certain translations as “literal,” but translators always have to choose which of several words or expressions to use in translation. The NLT approach allows for more interpretation than most, and I have used it as the default version throughout this book. However, wherever I feel it takes too much liberty, or where the actual wording is important, I have preferred The New American Standard Bible (1995 edition) (nasb), one of the most literal word-for-word translations we have.

Chapter 2

[3]. Origen, and Gregory of Nyssa, thought Satan made this mistake because he failed to realize that Jesus was deity in human form. Gregory argued that the humanity of Jesus cloaked his deity: “The Deity was hidden under the veil of our nature, so that, as with ravenous fish, the hook of the Deity might be gulped down along with the bait of flesh” (Great Catechism, 24). Thus God made Satan think he could trade the enslaved human race for something more valuable—the death of Jesus (this is the so-called “ransom theory”), and, instead, Jesus used his divine power to rise from the dead. However, this is implausible. Satan would have known Messiah was divine because he would have known Isaiah 9:6. Again, one demon complained that Jesus had come before the appointed time; why would demons submit to his name if they didn’t know he was divine? How would his followers, and even his enemies—but not Satan—know he claimed deity? Also, the idea that God would offer to pay Satan for humanity elevates Satan unreasonably. Jesus’ references to offering himself as a ransom refer to his paying the sentence owed to God’s justice.

[4]. Some feel this passage is not referring to Satan but to the human rulers who put Jesus to death. That’s possible, although unlikely in my opinion. Paul uses the term god of this world (or this age) to refer to Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4). Also, the “mighty powers in this dark world” refers to demons (Ephesians 6:12). The term here in 1 Corinthians 2:6 is aeon houtos, rather than kosmos, though the sense is similar. In addition, if Paul was referring to Pilate, Herod, and Caiaphas, why would he use the present tense, “who are passing away,” when all of them were already dead or at least no longer in power? This phraseology suggests the passing of the present age, or the kosmos (1 John 2:17).

David Prior leans toward human rulers, but says, “What does Paul mean by the rulers of this age . . . ? It could be earthly rulers, such as Pilate and Caiaphas, representing Roman and Jewish wisdom, or it could refer to demonic powers” (The Message of 1 Corinthians: Life in the Local Church, The Bible Speaks Today, Vol. 50 [Downers Grove, Ill., InterVarsity Press, 1985]). Warren Wiersbe says, “Paul may have been referring to the spiritual and demonic rulers of this present age (Romans 8:38; Colossians 2:15; Ephesians 6:12ff). This would make more sense in 1 Corinthians 2:6, for certainly Pilate, Herod, and the other rulers were not recognized for any special wisdom. The wisdom of this age has its origin in the rulers of this age, of which Satan is the prince (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Of course, the spiritual rulers would have to work in and through the human rulers. So perhaps we must not press the distinction (John 13:2, 27)” (The Bible Exposition Commentary [Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996, c1989]).

Whether or not Paul has the demons in view here, we can still conclude that Satan didn’t know God’s plan, because Paul says the mystery was hidden in God alone (Ephesians 3:9).

[5]. God confirms that he purposely veiled the Old Testament prophecies of the first coming in 1 Peter 1:10–12: “As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look” (nasb). According to this passage, even the prophets who foretold the suffering servant didn’t know to whom the passages referred. Notice it’s the first coming of Christ (“the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow”) that confused them. Even after careful search and inquiry, God never told them who the suffering servant was. Peter says God only revealed to them that a later generation would be served by these predictions, so they didn’t need to know who it was. This must be the case, again, since Paul says the mystery was a secret “hidden in God.”

Interesting as well is the last phrase: “things into which angels long to look.” Apparently the angels are astonished by what they see in this revealed mystery. Like the passage in Ephesians 3:10, Peter seems to imply that the entire universe is learning a lesson they will never forget from the work of the cross and its result in the church.

Chapter 3

[6]. Bill Hybels and Mark Mittelberg, Becoming a Contagious Christian (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 120.

Chapter 4

[7]. Theologians debate whether this binding of Satan is a one-time event that happened during Christ’s ministry or something we should do in prayer anytime we plan to plunder Satan’s house. Most who believe this refers to a unique event that happened at the cross or during Jesus’ ministry, also cite Revelation 20:2, about Satan being bound for a thousand years. Some believe this prophecy is referring to the church age (so Jesus bound Satan during his ministry, and he remains bound today). I don’t agree. The whole reason God binds the Evil One, in this passage, is “so Satan could not deceive the nations anymore” (v. 3). This description doesn’t fit the binding in Matthew 13—Satan is still deceiving the nations today. As Jesus’ followers, we have power over Satan unlike any before us, and in this sense, the coming of God’s kingdom in Jesus could be a binding of Satan. But I also think this could refer to something we should do in prayer whenever we go out to plunder his household. Paul stresses intercessory prayer in the context of spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:17–18).

[8]. When we look at how the early church behaved, we see that “infiltration” captures the imagery of our strategy better than “invasion.” Invasion suggests arrival in force and gradual domination of the enemy’s land; a conventional invasion usually tries to roll the Enemy back like rolling up a carpet. But the early church didn’t see itself this way—they acted like an underground partisan force. Partisans have to conceal their presence most of the time, mixing with ordinary citizens in occupied territory, waiting for the chance to strike a blow against the occupier. Consider how the wheat and the tares grow side by side and the farmer forbids any effort to separate them (Matthew 13:24–29).

Think of the French underground during World War II. The Nazis, who had no right to occupy France, were cruel overlords. Patriotic French people formed underground nuclei of partisans to resist occupation. They met together, trained, were armed (usually by the British), and carried out orders sent in by their British controllers. Partisans must conduct themselves so as to avoid bringing down the heat of majority culture. Yet to be successful, they have to recruit others to join the movement and go out on frequent raids or intelligence-gathering forays. By day, they don’t attract attention to themselves but live as normal people of the land.

You see this kind of thinking frequently in the New Testament; God calls Christians to live as “aliens and strangers.” We are aliens in the world because “We are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives” (Philippians 3:20). Paul says God has “rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son” (Colossians 1:13; cf. John 17:14). Of course, we realize this transfer is spiritual, and that for the time being, we still live in the world system as aliens. Paul pictures himself as a partisan when he says, “I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22 nasb). As he moved from one culture to another he tried to blend in as much as possible without violating God’s moral imperatives. Just as a Frenchman couldn’t tell whether the man next to him on the bus was a shopkeeper or an underground fighter, people who met Paul had no way of knowing he was one of the most powerful apostles alive. He seemed like others in the society.

Peter appealed to the church, as aliens and strangers, to live excellent lives among the Gentiles in order to refute slander and avoid persecution (1 Peter 2:11–25). They should honor the king and other officials and, if they were slaves, even their masters. As a persecuted community, he wanted them to avoid any behavior that would bring unnecessary trouble. They would have enough trouble merely pursuing their mission without adding unnecessary offense.

The church has often failed to see infiltration this way and has opted for a coup de main, where they try to take over entire cultures by force. This was the case in medieval times, when the church enforced Christian moral views with imprisonment, torture, and even death. In place of infiltration, the church saw its role as domination, considering force to be a legitimate tool for advancing God’s purposes on earth. Instead of equipping and empowering believers to spread God’s Word, the church focused on protecting and controlling believers by forcing others to comply with its doctrine and morality.

Even today, some Christians look more to political solutions to evil than to winning the hearts and souls of people to God. The result is increased hostility from our culture and a distortion of the message we are called to preach. We should turn away from forceful or showy tactics and instead focus on spreading God’s love, as the Bible teaches, through quiet, personal involvement with non-Christians.

[9]. Gerhard Kittel says, “[This] word group [katischuo] has the meaning ‘to be able,’ ‘to be capable,’ ‘capacity,’ ‘power,’ ‘strength.’ The word here means to ‘be strong enough’ or ‘to be able’ either ‘to overcome’ or ‘to prevail’ (if the reader thinks that context fits), or ‘to withstand’ (if we think the context fits that).” G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, and G. Friedrich, eds., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 3, electronic edition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–c1976), 397. The word literally means, “to be strong against.” The question is, “strong enough to do what?” It should be obvious that city gates need to be strong enough to withstand attack. They never attack others, so it would be absurd to think of a set of gates “overcoming” an army. Thus the New Revised Standard Version correctly translates, “the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

[10]. The vision God gives his people in the Old Testament nonetheless does give the mandate to reach out with his love to other people (see Jonah). God tells the Israelites in Deuteronomy 7:6, “You are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.” He proceeds to order them to dispossess the nations in Canaan rather than try to win them. “When the Lord your God hands these nations over to you and you conquer them, you must completely destroy them. Make no treaties with them and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not let your daughters and sons marry their sons and daughters, for they will lead your children away from me to worship other gods” (vv. 2–4). This concern about contamination, intermixing, and imitating the nations dwindles nearly to the vanishing point in the New Testament. Carving out an area and living there apart from other peoples would be unthinkable. Our commission is to go.

[11]. In fortress theology, Christians have concluded that we, the church, are in a fortress under attack by Satan. Their view of the church’s strategy is primarily defensive—that is, we have to guard our people from the dangers of the world-system. This usually involves some form of separation from the world; a misunderstanding of the concept of holiness. To be holy means to be distinct or different, not necessarily to be separated in the sense of avoiding or leaving the world. Christians should be different because we are more loving and selfless than others, not because we are culturally detached.

Fortress theologians focus on the Old Testament instructions to avoid contamination from the surrounding countries. They think we too need to form safe havens for believers and should not go to “worldly” places like bars or rock concerts. We should break off friendships with ungodly people and should never watch ungodly shows. The whole emphasis is on defense and avoidance. Of course, most fortress theologians also say Christians should witness, but success is unlikely when Christians live in a separated, isolated mentality.

Jesus and the rest of the New Testament directly reject fortress theology. Jesus went to raw parties in the homes of tax gatherers and even had prostitutes among his followers. The Pharisees and other leaders (fortress theologians of their day) criticized him for being the friend of tax-gatherers and sinners. But he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” (Mark 2:17). Paul argued that we also should “try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything [you] can to save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). The argument that Paul was stronger than others and therefore was only describing his own ministry rather than ours, breaks down when we read on to 11:1: “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (nasb).

Paul didn’t avoid idol temples. He told the Athenians: “I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship” (Acts 17:23 nasb). He went right in and studied polytheistic religion. He quoted heathen poets and philosophers by heart (Titus 1:12; Acts 17:28) and actually forbade withdrawal from the world-system when he cried out with horror, “[I never told you to avoid] unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that” (1 Corinthians 5:10).

Jesus made his position on this clear during his prayer for his followers before the crucifixion: “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world [kosmos], but to keep them safe from the evil one” (John 17:15). We are not to seek refuge from worldly people and situations, because then we would lose our effectiveness in the offensive war God sent us to wage. The only exception would be Christians who feel too weak to be around sinful situations; these may have to withdraw from the world until they gain enough spiritual strength to withstand potentially tempting situations.

Believers who fear the kosmos usually create their own subculture—including language, music, art, and even dress—that becomes a barrier for non-Christians. Fortress Christians lose their vital engagement with those who need them most: the lost mass of prisoners we are to rescue. Some fortress theologians have even persecuted non-Christians on the theory that they pose a threat to the faithful.

Perhaps the most extreme example of fortress theology was the medie-val church, which literally sought to protect the faithful by exterminating unbelievers throughout Christendom, a term roughly synonymous with Europe. But some churches today that argue against Christian involvement in “worldly” events become quite extreme in their own right. Abundant evidence suggests that fortress theology is still popular, as it has been throughout Christian history.

[12]. Peter Wagner says, “Our initial research indicates that there has been no appreciable growth in the American evangelical population as a whole over the last ten years” (cited in William Chadwick’s Stealing Sheep: The Church’s Hidden Problems with Transfer Growth [Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press 2001], 64). According to a recent study by the Barna Group, “Simply put, each new generation has a larger share of people who are not Christians (that is, atheists, agnostics, people associated with another faith, or those who have essentially no faith orientation)” (George Barna, “A New Generation Expresses Its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity,” September 24, 2007; www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=280, accessed 3/12/08). Christine Wicker marshals studies from multiple evangelical sources and concludes, “The truth behind all these numbers is that evangelicals are not converting and cannot convert non-Christian adult Americans, especially native-born white people, in significant numbers. . . . A small and declining group of people has been portrayed as tremendously powerful and growing so rapidly that they might take over the country—when in fact that number of converts among this group is down and dropping. They are rarely able to convert an adult middle-class American” (The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church [New York: Harper One, 2008], 64, 67). Other researchers agree.

[13]. Over the past decade, Xenos leaders have led research teams to dozens of the most famous and rapidly growing churches around the country to study their methods and outcomes. These include churches from a wide array of approaches—charismatic, seeker-sensitive, cell-based, emergent, house church, health and wealth, satellite churches, churches that plant churches elsewhere in the country, etc. During our early trips, team members often commented that virtually no members or staff they interviewed had met Christ as adults, or at that church.

Curious at this anecdotal finding, we began to record interviews with those who said they met Christ at a particular church, and those who said they transferred from other evangelical churches. We have determined that large, growing churches in America are gaining nearly all their growth through transfer of believers from other evangelical churches. To make sure of these results, we randomly interview as many members as possible (at least scores, and sometimes hundreds) at services or home groups. We ask them whether they consider themselves Christians, and where and how they became believers. To our own amazement, we have found that the number claiming to have become believers at that church is invariably less than 10 percent of the sample—often less than 5 percent! In some cases, our teams include dozens of researchers, and we interview hundreds of members to reduce the sampling error. I’m not going to name the churches involved, because I don’t want to cause problems for them, but readers would be shocked, like we were, if this research were ever published. So far, using this technique, we have only identified three churches where more than 10 percent of their own people report that they were converted in that church.

We continue this research today, still looking for other large groups where the majority of growth comes from conversions. If you think you know of one, let us know at Xenos.org! In discussions with church research experts, I’ve been told that nobody has done this kind of research before. Instead, composition calculations normally are made by comparing the number of baptisms or professions of faith with the amount of growth in the church. This is how one leader concluded that his church of seventeen thousand people is 80 percent converts; they have baptized fourteen thousand people there. But this method is flawed; apparently, some churches reach significant numbers of converts but must lose them soon afterward, and meanwhile the ones who stay must be the transfers. (We also interviewed some transfers who said they were re-baptized for various reasons.) Otherwise, why would 90 percent of the people at church claim they met Christ at a different church? D. A. Carson refers to research showing that only 2 to 4 percent of converts reached at evangelistic events in the U.S. are still involved in Christianity five years later (A Call to Spiritual Reformation [Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1992], 14). According to one denominational expert in church planting, nationwide church growth averages 3 percent growth by conversion. The rest is all transfer or biological growth (members having children).

[14]. George Barna says, “As the nation’s culture changes in diverse ways, one of the most significant shifts is the declining reputation of Christianity, especially among young Americans. . . . In fact, in just a decade, many of the Barna measures of the Christian image have shifted substantially downward. . . . For instance, a decade ago the vast majority of Americans outside the Christian faith, including young people, felt favorably toward Christianity’s role in society. Currently, however, just 16 percent of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a ‘good impression’ of Christianity.” He also points out that Christians know this shift is happening: “Ninety-one percent of the nation’s evangelicals believe that ‘Americans are becoming more hostile and negative toward Christianity’ ” (Barna Group, The Barna Update, “A New Generation Expresses Its Skepticism and Frustration with Christianity,” September 24, 2007, www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=280. Accessed 3/12/08).

[15]. The following table is from Clinton E. Arnold, Three Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1997), chapter 1.

Imagery of Warfare and Struggle in the New Testament

Image

Reference

The “strong man” (Satan) is fully armed.

Luke 11:21

Someone stronger (Jesus) conquers the “strong man” and takes his armor.

Luke 11:22

Jesus came to bring the sword.

Matt. 10:34

Jesus came to proclaim liberty to captives.

Luke 4:18

The demonized man had a legion of spirits.

Mark 5:9, 15

Jesus led the evil powers in a triumphal procession.

Col. 2:13

Jesus stripped the evil powers of their weapons.

Col. 2:15

Jesus took captives.

Eph. 4:8

The Christian life is a struggle.

Col. 1:29; 2:1; 1 Tim. 4:10

The Christian life is a struggle against evil forces.

Eph. 6:12

The Christian life is a struggle against sin.

Heb. 12:4

The desires of the flesh wage war against the soul.

1 Peter 2:11

Christians are called to struggle for the faith.

Jude 3

Paul struggled for the gospel.

Phil. 1:30

Paul “fought the good fight.”

2 Tim. 4:7

Christians are soldiers.

Phil. 2:25; Philem. 2; 2 Tim. 2:3–4

Christians need to wear armor.

Eph. 6:12–17

Christians engage in warfare.

1 Tim. 1:18; 6:12; 2 Cor. 10:4

Christians wield weapons of warfare.

1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Cor. 10:4; Rom. 6:13; 13:12; 2 Cor. 6:7

Angelic war in heaven

Rev. 12:7

The beast and kings of the earth will make war.

Rev. 9:19

Satan gathers the nations for a final battle.

Rev. 20:7–8

Chapter 6

[16]. George Barna shows that the most committed Christians he studies (“evangelicals”), a group smaller than atheists, agnostics, or adult adherents to non-Christian faiths in America (less than 7 percent of the sample), are “least likely to say they are ‘totally committed to getting ahead in life’ (52 percent).” It’s good to see that conservative, Bible-believing Christians are less likely than atheists to be totally committed to materialistic advancement, but sad to see it’s still the majority! Of the group he calls “born again” (who claim they are going to heaven because they have received forgiveness through Christ, but who may not hold all the other key biblical beliefs), he says, “This segment is the most likely of all to admit to being ‘totally committed to getting ahead in life’ (74 percent).” That is, they are more likely than adherents to other religions or atheists or agnostics to agree to this statement (The Barna Update, “People’s Faith Flavor Influences How They See Themselves” [August 26, 2002]). I also believe materialism is one factor behind the consistent spiritual disinterest found in American men. Barna says, “Men remain a puzzle in America. . . . They are still less committed, less active, and less orthodox than women in almost every factor we measure” (State of the Church 2006, 51–52).

[17]. Parents in America are pushing their kids toward worldly accomplishments with rapidly increasing zeal. ABC News quoted The American Academy of Pediatrics, saying that children today spend 30 percent more hours at organized activities than children fifteen years ago (Dec. 4, 2006). One author refers to the mistaken child-pushing fad gripping our country today as “hyper-parenting” (see Alvin Rosenfeld and Nicole Wise, The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Trap of Hyper-Parenting [London: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2001]). The growing belief that kids will be happier if they get top grades, enter top universities, get top careers, and are best in multiple sports is not surprising when it comes from non-Christian materialists. The problem is that Christians apparently agree. We hear no dissenting voice and see no real difference between Christian and non-Christian practice in this telling area.

[18]. For ideas on how to develop a personal ministry, see our earlier book: Dennis McCallum and Jessica Lowery, Organic Disciplemaking: Mentoring Others into Spiritual Maturity and Leadership (Houston: Touch Publications, 2006).

Dennis McCallum is founder and lead pastor of Xenos Christian Fellowship in Columbus, Ohio, a nontraditional church composed of several hundred house churches. He also leads Xenos’s college ministry at The Ohio State University. Dennis holds a BA in history from The Ohio State University and an MA from Ashland Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books, including Satan and His Kingdom, Organic Disciplemaking, and The Death of Truth.

Dennis married his wife, Holly, in 1973. Their children, Jessica, Joe, and Bret, all lead house churches at Xenos.

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Introduction

1. God’s Plan and Satan

2. Satan’s Odd Behavior

3. Spiritual Warfare Today

4. Our Strategy

5. Your Personal Battle With Satan

6. Countering Satan’s Trump Card

Notes

About the Author

Back Cover