The Christian’s Invisible Enemy

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” —I Peter 5:8,9

IS THERE a personal Devil, an enemy of God and of man? If so, who created him, and why does an all-powerful God of righteousness and love permit such a being to exist? Throughout the ages these questions have been pondered by sincere and thoughtful persons. Many answers have been given. On the one hand, there is the view that the Devil is a hideous looking creature with cloven hoofs and a spiked tail whose chief business is to preside over the alleged torture of the unsaved dead. On the other hand, the claim is made that the Devil of the Bible is merely an evil principle, widespread and powerful in its opposition to God and to righteousness, but not a personality.

To us it seems obvious from the Scriptures that there is a personal Devil. He is, we believe, of a higher order of creation than man, and invisible to man. This powerful being was created perfect. Under the title, “king of Babylon,” he is referred to as “Lucifer, son of the morning.” (Isa. 14:12) He fell from his perfection and from his loyalty to the Creator when pride and ambition developed in his heart. Isaiah wrote further concerning him: “Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”—Isa. 14:13,14

Various names and titles are given to this fallen Lucifer in the Bible. He is referred to as “that old serpent, the Devil and Satan.” (Rev. 20:2) In John 12:31 he is described as “the prince of this world,” and he is also thus depicted in John 14:30 and 16:11. In Ephesians 2:2 Satan is described as “the prince of the power of the air,” and in II Corinthians 4:4 as “the god of this world.”

Through the various references given to us in the Bible concerning him we are able to gain a fairly comprehensive understanding of his many methods of attack against the Lord’s people. The first activity of Satan described in the Bible is recorded in Genesis 3:1-5. This is the account of the manner in which he deceived mother Eve. He asked Eve if it were true that God had said she would die if she partook of the forbidden fruit. Affirming that this was true, Satan’s reply was. “Thou shalt not surely die.”

God’s Word Attacked

Here was an attack on the integrity of God’s Word, and this has been one of Satan’s methods of attack against God and his people throughout the ages since. In this first instance Eve was deceived, although Adam was not; and so it has been since—many have been deceived by Satan’s lies, while a few in every age have remained steadfastly loyal to the Word of God. The importance of this on the part of God’s people is emphasized in Isaiah 8:20, which reads: “To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word … there is no light in them.”

It was not until the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai that the Word of God began to be made available in written form. Prior to that, God spoke to his people largely through one or another of his holy angels; and this, in fact, continued until the first advent of Jesus when an angel announced the birth of Jesus and declared it to be glad tidings of great joy to all people. Meanwhile, the prophetic writings of the Old Testament were added to the books of the Law, and these Spirit-inspired writings became a part of the written Word of God, that part which we now refer to as the Old Testament.

Throughout these “books” of the Old Testament rings the harmonious theme song of the Bible, the great kingdom plan of God to redeem and restore mankind to life, the life which was lost when our first parents disobeyed divine law in the Garden of Eden. In this melody of divine love there is presented the hope of a coming Messiah, the Christ, and it was this Christ whose birth was announced by the angel. By his birth the plan of God had taken a step forward in development.

The New Testament Born

Without much delay the teachings of Jesus were recorded in the four Gospels, and in due time there came the Book of Acts, and the epistles of Paul, James, Peter, Jude, and John, and the Book of Revelation. Thus the New Testament was added to the Old Testament to give us the complete Word of God. It is this vast storehouse of truth which our Heavenly Father has used throughout the Gospel Age to nourish and strengthen his people as new creatures in Christ Jesus; and how wonderfully the precious truths of the divine plan do refresh us as day by day we feed upon them.

But Satan has always been on the alert to disparage the Word of God and to render it ineffective in the hearts and lives of those who receive it. A reference is made to one aspect of this effort in Luke 8:11,12. This is a part of the Parable of the Sower, in which we are told that the “seed” which is sown is the Word of God—not literally the Bible, of course, but the glorious Gospel message of the kingdom which is the main theme of the Bible. Concerning the seed sown by the wayside, we read, “Then cometh the Devil, and taketh away the Word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”

Here we find the Devil endeavoring to prevent the Word of God from taking root in the lives of people. Perhaps many of us have wondered why it is that so often, when we see someone beginning to take a keen interest in the truth of God’s Word, that interest so quickly wanes. Jesus has given us the answer. In the case of Eve, Satan insisted that God’s Word was not the truth, and now in the parable we see him snatching the Word from the hearts of the newly interested.

The Larger Picture

But Satan was not satisfied with the harm he could do by snatching away the Word of God from the hearts of individuals who might be getting interested in it. As time went on, a much more ambitious scheme unfolded. Paul foretold that there would come a great falling away from the faith, and this occurred. The most holy faith of the Scriptures was maintained through apostolic days by the apostles’ encouragement to adhere strictly to the Word of God. Paul complimented the Bereans because they searched the Scriptures daily to see if what he was telling them was true. The insistence on a “thus saith the Lord” for every item of truth was one of the basic safeguards of the Early Church.

But following the death of the apostles this situation began to change. True, the Bible was available then only in manuscript form, and copies were scarce. Many of the believers would have to depend on the knowledge that a few favored ones who possessed the Bible could impart to them. So to some extent the idea developed that loyalty to the Word of God really meant loyalty to someone else’s understanding of the Word of God. This natural consequence of circumstances was taken advantage of, and as time went on the tradition developed that while the Bible was the supreme authority, it could be interpreted properly only by the church, which in reality meant the pope. And this viewpoint is widely held to this day.

Satan undoubtedly had much to do with this subtle setting aside of the real authority of the Bible over the beliefs and lives of God’s professed people. The result was that human traditions and superstitions began slowly to replace the beautiful and inspiring doctrines of the Bible. The Bible declared that “the wages of sin is death,” but the “heaven appointed” interpreters of the Bible said, “No; the wages of sin is eternal torment.” The Bible said that there is one God, but Bible interpreters declared that there are three gods, and that these three are one.

The Bible taught that the future judgment day of the world would be a thousand years of blessed opportunity to accept Christ, obey the laws of the millennial kingdom and live forever; but the interpreters of the Bible said that the judgment day would be one of doom; that it would be twenty-four hours in length, and that then all who died in unbelief would be consigned to a place of eternal torture in a fiery hell.

So we might go on and discover that essentially every precious doctrine of the divine plan became distorted by interpreters of the Bible, and yet it was so subtly accomplished that the majority supposed they were in harmony with the Word of God. But this did not matter to Satan, since his ruse had plucked from the hearts of professed Christians the glorious kingdom hope set forth in the inspired Word of God.

The Messianic Kingdom

The clear and unmistakable teachings of the Bible are that the promised kingdom of the Messiah would not be established until after his return. But Satan went to work on this beautiful truth also. Playing upon the ambitions of the human heart, he succeeded in getting nominal believers to accept the notion that the kingdom of Christ did not have to wait for Christ’s return, but was set up and functioning through the great church-state system centered in Rome.

Satan had tried something akin to this in one of his temptations of Jesus. He told the Master that if he would fall down and worship him, he would give him all the kingdoms of this world. (Matt. 4:8-10) Jesus met this temptation in the proper manner, quoting a Scripture: “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”

While Satan failed with Jesus, he succeeded later with some of Jesus’ professed followers. They saw the glamour of power and authority among men, and sensed the lure of high-sounding titles, so gave up waiting for Christ to return to establish his kingdom, and undertook to do it themselves. The thing they reared up in their grasp for power they called “Christendom”—Christ’s kingdom.

The fact that in their “Christendom” there was almost continuous war, persecution, the inquisition, and thousands of burnings at the stake—all so contrary to the joyful flourishings of Christ’s true kingdom as presented to us in the Word of God—seemed to count for little or nothing in their claims to kingdom authority. They chose to ignore the facts, and while there were no real evidences of Christ’s true kingdom having been established, they continued to be guided by the false interpretations of the Bible by which they were being deceived.

But there were some points with which at least certain individuals seemed to have trouble. In Revelation 20:4,6 the length of Christ’s kingdom is given. It was to be a thousand years long. They claimed that the Christendom of their making was enjoying this millennial kingdom. But they were puzzled—at least some of them. These individuals realized that according to promises of the Bible, the Millennium was a time during which the dead were to be restored to life, and no dead were being restored. So here Satan prompted a tampering with the Word of God by inducing a copyist to insert the interpolation, “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” That fixed the matter up so that no one would need to look for the resurrection amidst wars and the (un)Holy Inquisition.

Satan has never been limited to one method of deception. The Greek Orthodox Church believed that the messianic kingdom was set up at Pentecost, so this gave them trouble also with the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20:4,6. What they did was to leave the entire Book of Revelation out of their canon of the Bible, and thus they got rid of the troublesome Millennium.

Kingdom Hope Lost

The substitution of Christendom for the real messianic kingdom, in addition to reflecting a disregard for the teachings of the Word of God, also took away the hope of God’s professed people for the real kingdom of promise. Once the church-state systems of Europe were established, the preaching of the second coming of Christ and the establishment at that time of the kingdom of promise almost entirely ceased. Thus with this one master stroke Satan snatched from the hearts of most believers the great kingdom theme of the Bible, and he did it by substituting misinterpretations of the Bible for the Bible itself.

The Bible teaches, however, that the followers of the Master should look to each other for mutual help in their study of the Word. It would be a mistake to suppose that anyone, by deliberately isolating himself from others of like precious faith, could expect the Lord to specially guide him in the understanding of his Word. The Lord has placed various servants in his church such as pastors, teachers, and evangelists, and he expects all of us to help one another as much as we can. But in following this arrangement we should keep in mind that the Bible itself is the final word of authority, and that even reasonable conclusions should be rejected unless they are in harmony with the plain statements of the inspired Word of God.

Discouragement

Another method used by Satan to oppose God’s people is discouragement. In II Corinthians 12:7-10 Paul speaks of one of his infirmities, and says that it was a “messenger of Satan to buffet” him. There is a difference of opinion as to just what this infirmity might have been, but the important thing is Paul’s recognition of the manner in which Satan was making use of it to discourage him. Paul asked the Lord three times to remove this “thorn in the flesh,” but the Lord replied, “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Satan did not succeed in discouraging Paul, who testified, “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasures in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”

Our text is related to this method of attack by Satan, who, Peter says, goes about as a “roaring lion” seeking whom he may devour. Peter says that we should resist this “roaring lion” “steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” The lesson here seems obvious. All of the Lord’s people have afflictions of one sort or another—illnesses, deaths in the family, economic reverses, misunderstandings, etc. Satan often endeavors to have us believe that if we were truly the Lord’s people he would take care of us. Thus he would instill fear that perhaps we have been unfaithful to the Lord and because of this he has withdrawn his favor from us.

Our defense against this sort of attack is the many scriptures which reveal that the followers of the Master are a sacrificing and suffering people, and that there is no assurance that the Lord will protect us from the trials and difficulties which are experienced by mankind in general. Our attitude in these situations should be to cast all our care upon the Lord, knowing that he cares for us, not according to the flesh, but as new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Pride

James wrote, “Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:5-7) Here James indicates that one of Satan’s methods of attack is to engender pride and ambition in the hearts of the Lord’s people. We are to resist this urge by humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, knowing that our promised exaltation will come in due time. Genuine promotion that is in harmony with the divine will comes from God, and is not self-planned.

We could properly say that Satan is directly or indirectly associated with all influences which tend to divert the Lord’s people from their course of true faithfulness in serving him. We often speak of our enemies as being the world, the flesh, and the Devil, but it seems evident that Satan is at the head of this list, for he works to our disadvantage as new creatures through the world and through our fallen flesh. How important it is therefore that we keep alert in order to detect his every approach, and be prepared to resist him through a sincere use of the Word of God, and through prayer.

Enmity

Shortly after the fall, God said to Satan: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:15) Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees of his day, “Ye are of your father the Devil.” (John 8:44) Here, at least, was a part of the “serpent’s” seed. The Seed of the woman is Christ and his footstep followers. The foretold “enmity” of the seed of the “serpent” against the Seed of the woman was manifested in the bitter persecution inflicted upon Jesus by the religious rulers of his day, and this enmity has continued against his followers with varying degrees of intensity ever since.

However, we know that through it all the “Seed” of promise will be victorious. First, we are not ignorant of his devices. (II Cor. 2:11) We know that if we follow the Lord’s instructions in our good fight of faith, and rely always on him to guide and strengthen us, we will neither be overcome nor foiled by the wiles of the Devil. And then we have the promise of ultimate victory, for Paul wrote, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.”—Rom. 16:20

This will be the promised bruising of the head of the serpent. The word “shortly” here used by Paul is an interesting one. He used it nearly two thousand years ago, and the serpent’s head has not yet been bruised. He is not yet even bound. He is still going about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He still appears as an angel of light to deceive and mislead. To resist him we still need to have on the “whole armor of God,” which consists of all the great fundamental doctrines of the divine plan of the ages.

We have the plain and understandable teachings of the Gospel of Christ—the power of God unto salvation. Let us study these, and bind them upon our hearts. And let us make sure that our understanding of these truths is in harmony with the facts with which we are surrounded. Those in the Dark Ages who accepted the delusion that the union of church and state represented the established kingdom of Christ did not consider the facts. They did not consider that in the real kingdom of Christ wars and sickness of all kinds, and death, will be destroyed. They did not consider the fact that the Holy Inquisition, and bitter persecution of fellow Christians in other ways were incompatible with God’s portrait of the messianic kingdom.

Brother Russell admonished that we should not allow our expectations to weigh anything against the facts. This is indeed wholesome advice. We all want to see the kingdom in full operation, but our desires won’t make it so. The Scriptures are clear that if we want to be in that kingdom, living and reigning with Christ, we must continue to suffer with him, suffering faithfully even unto death. This is one of the great fundamentals of the plan of God. Let us be encouraged by it to remain in the narrow way of sacrifice until the end is reached in death. Thus will we be worthy by-and-by—and “shortly”—of bruising Satan under our feet.

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