But God refuses even to give Satan a hearing. In that instance, Satan had many scandalous and glaring charges to bring against the Church he wouldn’t even have to make anything up. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” (Zechariah 3:2–4) Much later Satan returns to accuse the Church - represented by the High Priest in filthy garments - but God refuses to allow Satan even to make his accusations:Īnd the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 1:9–11) Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. For example Satan insists Job loves His Creator for mercenary reasons: The Scripture gives numerous instances in which Satan (whose name simply means adversary or accuser ) brings charges against the Church of the Living God. Nonetheless, as I see it there are three primary categories of satanic activity in Scripture. I will not be giving a thorough treatise on the origin and activity of Satan and his minions in this world. They lie in wait for the church and every member of it like thieves, with all their power, to destroy and spoil everything by their deceptions. The devils and evil spirits are so corrupt that they are enemies of God and of everything good. The Belgic Confession (Article 12) summarizes ongoing demonic activity in this way: I do not at all mean to suggest the devil is not active in the world now that sin has entered into our race and corrupted our desires. It’s not as though any of us are like Eve or Adam with wholly pure desires. More likely, it wasn’t the devil who made you do anything it was your own wicked desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. demons) don’t often have to work very hard to get us to yield to temptation:īut each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Do you ever find yourself responding to sinful choices by asserting, “I’m under severe demonic attack!” when the reality is you simply haven’t been partaking deeply in the means of grace for some time? Or perhaps I am the only one who has experienced that? When we yield to temptation, it’s far too easy to proffer a slightly more refined version of the child’s excuse (“the devil made me do it!”). In my experience we tend to give the devil either too much credit or too little attention. But do we rightly understand the work of demons in this world? The devil and demonic activity are significant realities of life in this world, so it is not inappropriate that the Lutheran baptismal rite (and others ) include an explicit rejection of the devil.
When I was baptized in the Lutheran church, the minister asked my parents, “Do you renounce all the forces of evil, the devil, and all his empty promises?”
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