The Devil

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. -- John 8:44

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. – John 10:10

I do not know what the devil is.  I am not a dualist, but I suppose material creation needs some sort of antipodes, an un-life against which life pushes, and a darkness in which the light may shine.  I know not what he is, but I know there is a devil.  I know, too, we are at war with him.  Frankly, right now, he seems to be winning, in part, perhaps, because we tend to ignore him. 

Someone was talking about a woman who wanted to be blind so she put bleach in her eyes.  In more enlightened and reasonable times, we would have considered this an indication of mental illness.  In far more enlightened times, we might see it for the demonic destruction that it is.  So, too, would be the case with Bruce Jenner and many others who are systemically and consciously mutilating and destroying their bodies in an attempt to destroy the soul. 

A young man who goes into a school and murders people, for whatever reason, is not just “crazy” or in need of help, he is an agent of evil.  He has sided with Abaddon, the destroyer, against life and against God.  The president who stands up and calls me “complicit” in that act of evil is an agent of Satan, the accuser. 

But maybe I am complicit.  Have I have sat back too long and refused to confront evil, to call it out for what it is when I see it?  Have I been too willing to let the devil slide?  Have I looked away from immoral and unrighteous lifestyles and said that it was, after all, none of my business what other people do?  It is past time for Christians to stand up and tell America the truth. 

The nation is in decline because we have substituted government for God.  We have built our ethics and morality on the shifting sands of scientism, and we are shocked when the winds of reality bring it down.  We have rejected spiritual wealth in favor of material prosperity, and we are rapidly approaching the point where we will have neither.  We have said that God has no place in our public square, and the void has been filled with the idolatry of celebrity, lust, promiscuity, perversion, faithlessness, and deception to the point that our children are held captive to fear of the wickedness that oozes out from it.

Obama is not the problem.  He is a stooge and a dupe, the symptom of a disease that rots the core of our culture.  No presidential candidate is going to save us.  Or doom us.  We have doomed ourselves by serving Mammon and doing the devil’s will.  We have created monsters, and they are coming for us. 

As much as I love my carnal weapons, we will be saved, as we talked about recently, only by spiritual weapons, weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.  The shield of faith will guard our hearts, but we also need the sword of the Spirit -- to live and to speak the truth.  It is time to stop accommodating the walking dead.        

Keeping the Hornets Out Front

And I sent the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the Amorites; it was not by your sword or by your bow.  I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant. -- Joshua 24:12-13

(I'm trying to get back to every-week-day posting.  I'm not sure how it will go because I'm adjusting back to a regular work schedule, trying to figure out where I might be needed and where I can help out.  Anyway...)

This is one of those statements that you read and think is a little odd.  Hornets.  I think Mel Gibson stole this for a scene in Apocalypto.  Checking Strong's and some dictionaries, it's a stinging insect, tsir`ah, like our good old hornet, which, especially in hot weather, may prove dangerous, debilitating, or deadly to a person attacked by a swarm.  If you've ever literally "stirred up a hornets' nest" -- as I have, there is no fight; it's flight.  You can see the poetic side.  No one can stand if pursued by hornets, and no enemy could stand against God's army.

The root word from which this is derived, tsara`, means "to scourge" and spoke figuratively of being stricken with leprosy.  Thus those inhabitants of Canaan who had defiled the land by their abominations and evil were driven out by Israel as with a whip in God's hand.  I think immediately of how Jesus plaited a whip and violently drove the money-changers from the temple.  They, too, fled as though hornets were after them. 

When things are going well for me, I am apt to do what Joshua warned against.  I may start thinking that I have achieved and accomplished quite a bit.  A lot of us have worked hard, made sacrifices, delayed gratification, made good decisions, etc.  We have a measure, perhaps, of economic security because of our own efforts.   The Bible does not denigrate that.  The slothful are condemned.  Paul says that one who doesn't work hadn't ought to eat.  We need to do our part while remaining humble and grateful for God's grace, His guiding hand, His protection, and His gifts to us. 

What's true in the natural is even more vital in the spiritual.  What spiritual territory we hold, what we have gained and whatever progress we have made is that much more a function of God's gracious provision for us.  Here Christ gives us His righteousness and abundant life.  We are not the ones who lived a sinless life and conquered death; nonetheless, we are offered a share in His victory and the benefits of His labor. 

As an aside, something I think I picked up from MOTT has to do with getting the devil on our side.  Israel was supposed to clear Canaan of all its previous inhabitants.  They mistakenly made a covenant of mutual protection with Gibeonites who had deceived Israel into thinking they were not residents of the Promised Land.  When the deception was known, the Gibeonites were made "hewers of wood and drawerers of water" for the benefit of the children of Israel.  Some other tribes were subdued but not entirely eradicated, and these, too, were put into forced labor for their conquerors. 

If we can overcome our adversary and stand strong and unbending against temptation, that tempter must then serve us.  It's not that we want demons following us around or heralding us like the poor girl with a "spirit of divination" in Acts 16:16-18.  We must also be careful that we are not betrayed by it at a later time.  Saul of Tarsus was that early Church's greatest adversary and persecutor.  When he was overcome by Christ, Paul became a critical part of the foundation upon which the Church has been built.  A more secular example, and one I believe UF uses, is how Germany was defeated in WWI but not overcome until the end of WWII.  Germany and Japan were overcome and became active allies of those they had sought to destroy. 

We can either be "subject to" our temptations and weaknesses if we give in to them, or we may put them in subjection to us if we resist them fully.  All the things that trouble us now, if we will stand, will serve us.

Much better to have the hornets after the other guy.

Weakened Warriors

Be sober! Be on the alert! Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him … -- 1 Peter 5:8-9

It irritates me to give the devil his due, to recognize that evil is capable of overcoming good if good does nothing – and especially if good underestimates evil. It also irritates me a little to have to deviate from my planned series of posts, but a blogger’s got to do what a blogger’s got to do, and there’s nothing like reading the wrong books to throw a wrench in the works.

I think the resistance to acknowledging evil’s power arises from a sense that evil is stupid. When I do something bad, I usually think of myself as having “done something dumb”. I think that helps me minimize my culpability, if you know what I mean. It’s my cloak of stupidity. I suppose, then, I have a tendency to project this idea of stupid evil onto others. We want to think the best of people so we assume they are just doing evil things out of a lack of knowledge. This is reinforced by stupid criminals – like the people who robbed a convenience store, fled on foot then came back for their car while the police were interviewing witnesses at the scene.

But not all criminals are caught, and some are caught only because of a minor blunder or perhaps being double-crossed by a confederate. Many criminals are quite intelligent, and many are very clever. It's the same with evil politicians. We should never have underestimated Bill Clinton’s intelligence just because he was a low-life, redneck scumsucker. We have put the Republic in danger by underestimating the intellectual power and cleverness of Barack Obama, his advisors, and fellow-travelers.

The devil, in whatever guise one chooses to think of him, is a real entity with incredible intelligence along with knowledgeable, malicious intent, and a degree of authority over the worldlings who either ignore him (the vast majority) or willingly collaborate with him (a small but potent minority). Those who follow the occult are not, as I am often inclined to characterize them, a group of deceived, goofy misfits with no power. There are some goofy followers to be sure, but there are among the occultists a few who are genuinely in touch with the rulers of the darkness of this world. There are “spiritual forces of evil in the heavens”.

In spite of all that, Peter does not tell us we should be afraid. He warns us to be sober – to take the threat seriously, to keep our guard up. James says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” But first you have to know there is a devil and that you are facing him.

I usually don’t refer to Lonesome Dove, because, as near to the heart of Texans, adopted and native, as that mini-series is, I just dislike Larry McMurtry. I do respect, and appreciate his tremendous talent as a writer. Like him or not, though, he is such an artist that he cannot help but convey truth. The mythos of Lonesome Dove is undeniable.

Gus and July ride into the bad guys’ camp to rescue Lorie leaving the three members of July’s party behind. The incompetent adult male, a girl, and a young boy are brutally murdered by Blue Duck. They lack the awareness and the vigilance to avoid or thwart the attack. Actually, it’s a funny thing about Blue Duck, though he purports to be such a deadly and vicious adversary, he seems to be very good at avoiding direct conflict with Gus -- the one person who appears to be both capable and alert enough to give him any trouble. At the river, when he rides up on Gus and Lorie before the kidnapping, he is reluctant to start a fight. When Gus pursues him, Blue Duck tries to use his minions to kill Gus rather than confront him himself. When Gus rides into the camp, Blue Duck is gone, sneaking around to prey on the weaker and more vulnerable. You might think that, for all his big talk, Blue Duck fears the aging Ranger.

For his part, Gus clearly is not afraid of Blue Duck, but he also understands the renegade is a formidable opponent. He does not look for a fight until he is forced into one. He goes against Blue Duck, not on his own behalf but for the sake of the innocent and the weak. Blue Duck’s intention at any point is simply to do as much damage as he can without facing anyone who might be his equal in a fight. As such, Blue Duck is very much a type of the devil.

The Adversary is capable of doing great damage. He prefers to work in darkness and shadows, by stealth, subterfuge, and back-stabbing. He will never expose himself in open combat with a child of God if he can avoid it. He likes to attack us via proxies. If we fail to stand up to him, he will run over us. He will steal, kill, and destroy as long as we deny, avoid, and retreat.

We need to acknowledge that we are in a fight whether we want to be in one or not. There may have been times when this was not true, but those times are past – if, indeed, they ever existed. I tend to think we got to where we are by living in denial. Taking the adversary seriously means we are sober and vigilant toward him. Since he prefers shadows, we can shine the light on him and expose him. That alone will weaken him and cause him to back off.

As He pronounces the Great Commission, Jesus says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” He then gives us the authority to carry out His will as His chosen and commissioned ambassadors. We have ALL THE AUTHORITY WE NEED to thwart the devil and his plans.

We need to stand firm in faith. Here’s how Peter finishes the 9th verse – “Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your brothers in the world.” Don’t freak out and think God has abandoned you because you are having trouble. Stand up to whatever comes. Plant your feet on the truth: This I know: God is for me (Psalm 56:9).

Recognize that the enemy is real, that he is effective, and that he knows what he is doing. He is smart, powerful, and utterly without mercy, decency, humility, shame or conscience, but he cannot defeat us if we stand up to him and face him down.