the basic message # E155
Job 2:2
And the LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.”
Satan and his army are still roaming the earth, still looking for souls to harvest. I talk to quite a variety of people about Christianity and religion in general, and there appears to be an increasing trend that disturbs me. It seems that fewer and fewer people, both Christian and non-Christian, believe in the physical existence of Satan. I’m going to make a statement that will anger some, puzzle some, and cause some to run to the foot of the cross and seek shelter. The statement? “If you don’t believe in a literal, physical existence of Satan, then you don’t need Jesus Christ.”
Think about it: if there is no Satan, there is no keeper of Hell. God can’t operate Hell because Hell is the eternal existence of sin, and God can’t have sin around him, for he is perfect. Yes, he can tolerate us in our earthly sinfulness, but remember that our life is but a speck of dust in God’s timeframe. So- without an owner/operator, Hell can’t be in business, and if there’s no Hell, we don’t need a savior.
Matthew 12:43-45
“When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left,’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”
I’m sure there is more than one interpretation of this passage, which was spoken by Jesus Christ. I tend to believe that its meaning is this: A person has sin in their life, and they try with their own ability to rid themselves of it. In many cases, a disciplined individual might indeed be able to drive the majority of sin out of his life without Jesus. But! The majority isn’t good enough for entry into Heaven. All sin must be gone, and we know that is accomplished only through us having Jesus as our Savior. Back to the story- the man cleans up his life, gets most of the sin out, and thinks he’s got it under control. The demon that he threw out needs a place to stay, returns to the man’s house (his life), and finds the house empty. In other words, the man got most of the sin out, but didn’t refurnish the house with Jesus. No matter how “clean” your life is, Jesus has to occupy it wall-to-wall, or you’re inviting Satan and his punks to walk right in, sit down, kick their feet up and say, “Home sweet home!”
If you’re one of these “modern” Christians that think Satan is like the tooth fairy, you’d better wake up and get with the program. The Jews probably figured Hitler would be a passing fad until they walked into the crematorium. Satan is a very real, physical presence in this world. If you think he’s just a figment of my imagination, then you’re a prime target for the evil one. In fact, if you don’t absolutely, positively believe in him, then you’re probably already in his camp and don’t even realize it.