CHAPTER OUTLINE:

A.  Who and What is Satan?

B.  Satan’s Objectives.

C.  Satan’s Tactics.

1. Revealed/Physical Attack.

2. Hidden/Physical Attack.

3. Revealed/Spiritual Attack.

4. Hidden/Spiritual Attack.

a. Indirect Channel.

b. Direct Attack.

D.  Satan’s Targets.

1. God’s Character.

2. The Bible.

3. The Church.

a. From the inside.

b. From the outside.

4. Our Families.

E. Satan’s Overall Strategy.

F. God’s Alternative Offer.

A. WHO & WHAT IS SATAN?

Up to this point, the scope of this book has been limited to God, the human race, and the relationship that God is seeking with each one of us.  A thorough discussion on life, however, requires another very important aspect–“our enemy.”  Satan is very real!  When God created life, He did not limit it to the physical world–to the things which we can see and touch.  In addition to plants, animals, and people, He also created an extremely large number of angels (spiritual beings who do not have physical bodies) to offer Him praise and worship and to assist Him in running His kingdom.  Everything was created for the purpose of serving and honoring God. Satan was one of the most beautiful, glorious, and highly exalted of all these angels.  God described him as being “the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty,” and gave him a very exalted position as “guardian Cherub.”  (A Cherub is a class of angel, and it is not a baby.  The only “baby angels” are the porcelain ones which you see at Christmas.) “Guardian,” however, wasn’t good enough for Satan.  He, becoming as prideful as he was beautiful, decided that he should be “number one”; he should be the one to be worshiped.  He actually tried to exalt himself above God (to take over the authority of the universe).  Angels also have free-will and, yes, this was an absolutely foolish and impossible dream.  Satan didn’t try this mutiny on his own, however; he started a rebellion.  He convinced one-third of all the angels to revolt with him.  (Two-thirds are still serving our all-powerful Creator.)  They did, of course, lose the battle and were thrown out of heaven and, I’m sorry to say, down to earth.  As a result of all of this, Satan and the rest of the angels who rebelled with him–who are referred to in the Bible as “demons”–have become the bitter enemies of God, and they fight Him at every possible point.  Satan is also the enemy of man (the human race) and, though wanting our worship, ultimately seeks our destruction.  Satan and his cohorts know they’re going to hell, and they want to take us with them. Because we have this enemy, it is very important that we learn what we can about him (and them).  The less we know about an enemy, the more dangerous it is.  In seeking to accomplish this goal, we need to become aware of three things: his objectives, his tactics, and his targets. 

B. SATAN’S OBJECTIVES

Satan’s objectives come from his desire to be worshiped.  He wants to rule the human race–to be lord of this earthly kingdom.  God, though (being supreme ruler), limits what Satan is allowed to do and will someday (when the time is right) end his reign and banish him to eternal punishment in hell.  Satan doesn’t rule hell; he is going to suffer there like anyone who rejects the authority of God.  Until that time, though, he does have a great amount of freedom, and he does have authority over everyone who chooses to reject God.  Thus, as we would expect, Satan’s major objective is to keep us from accepting Jesus.  Our salvation is a defection from and a defeat to his kingdom.  If we do accept Jesus, Satan tries to keep us from serving Him.  He does everything he can to stop the spread of God’s word (the Bible), and God’s work (leading other people to salvation).  Also, because of his defeat- which was accomplished by Jesus’ death on the cross–and his unavoidable future in hell, he is vengefully and hatefully trying to destroy everything of God’s that he can (that’s us) before his demise.    

Before discussing the tactics that Satan and his accomplices use in trying to achieve these goals, let me first assure you that if you are a knowledgeable and obedient Christian–you have accepted Jesus and you know and obey His Word (the Bible)–you have absolutely nothing to fear.  Satan would love to have you believe otherwise.  Between the presence of the Holy Spirit, the spiritual weapons and armor which we have available, the authority we have “in Jesus’ name,” and the things He is willing to do in response to our prayers, we are not only able to withstand the enemy, we should be the aggressors in this war.  We should be the ones doing most of the attacking–by leading people out of Satan’s kingdom and into God’s. [If all you know about demons is what you have learned from the secular media, then all you know is what the enemy would love for you to believe.]   

C. SATAN’S TACTICS

The tactics which our enemies use (the attacks) can be classified in two ways.  They may be hidden or revealed (dependent upon whether or not they want their target to know they are under attack) and may be physical or spiritual (dependent upon whether the attack is against a person’s body or his spirit).  All attacks are ultimately spiritual, as the objective is to either keep us from trusting God or to keep us from serving Him, both of which are more easily accomplished if we are suffering physically.

1. Revealed/Physical Attack

In a revealed/physical attack, the enemy will adversely affect a person’s physical body, not caring that the person whom they are attacking nor anyone else who happens to be watching, knows that they are doing it.  This is by far the rarest form of attack, as demons have much to lose when people know they are around.  It is important to understand that while it is possible for Christians to be severely oppressed by demons, possibly even needing outside help to get rid of them, it is impossible for us to be “possessed.”  Possession implies ownership and Christians are owned by God!  It is, though, only Christians who should have demons “kicked” out of their bodies.  Anyone else who has this type of problem needs to be led to Jesus either before or during the “kicking.”  The Bible says that if a man has demons forced out of his body but does not have God in it, he will ultimately be worse off than he was. The demon is coming back with reinforcements.  

2. Hidden/Physical Attack

In a hidden/physical attack, a demon will adversely affect a person’s body (causing illness or other physical problems) while trying not to be detected.  

3. Revealed/Spiritual Attack

In a revealed/spiritual attack, a demon will openly attack a person’s thoughts and/or emotions, not caring that the person knows he is under attack.  The objective is usually (1) to harass the person–to keep him from having peace in his life, or (2) to cause him to react in some way as guided by fear.  Fear is not only a twisted way for a demon to cause someone to submit to him (like a bully ruling through intimidation), it is also a way to get a person to distrust and, thus, displease God. Demons may also have some form of deception in mind, wherein they try to mislead a person as to the actual objective of the attack.  In my personal experience, there have been two particular attempts at deception which are worthy of mention (which God warned me about).  At one time, they were harassing me and then retreating easily in order to cause me to grow prideful.  On another occasion, they were giving me some extremely weird dreams and visions, anticipating that I would tell other people about them. If I had, the people whom I told would be less likely to listen to or take seriously anything else I had to say.  I would then be less able to tell them about God or Satan.  This form of attack–the revealed/spiritual attack–is also somewhat rare, as demons are not going to use it against anyone who is still ignorant of their presence, nor are they going to use it if they think they can accomplish more of their objective by remaining hidden.

4. Hidden/Spiritual Attack

The fourth type of attack–the hidden/spiritual attack–is by far the enemy’s most often used, effective, and dangerous technique.  It is by using this strategy that Satan controls humanity.  In this attack, the enemy seeks to communicate certain ideas and/or feelings with the primary objective of controlling a person’s thoughts, beliefs, and emotions without their target recognizing it as an attack.  If they are successful, if they can sufficiently control what a person thinks, feels, and believes, they can in turn control their behavior and decisions.  These hidden/spiritual attacks may be indirect–being communicated through some other person, who may or may not know they have been used, or direct–being communicated directly by a demon to their target.  

4-a. Indirect Channel (Hidden/Spiritual Attack) 

An indirect channel (a person whom our enemy would use to try to mislead us) can be anyone.  It may be someone quite conspicuous, such as an atheist teacher, the leader of a cult or false religion, an occultist, fortune teller, etc.  It may be someone quite inconspicuous, such as a liberal preacher, or the author of a book, song, movie script, or even a law.  How many times a day does the media pump out Satan’s lie that sin is acceptable, rewarding, justifiable, and inconsequential (lust, adultery, disobedience, idolatry, theft, greed, adultery, drunkenness, sexual sin, vengeance)? How many laws have been passed which lend legitimacy and often even financial support to sin and/or sinful lifestyles (no fault divorce, condom distribution in schools, abortion, gambling, welfare to sound minded able bodied people); lifestyles that are going to send people to hell?  An indirect channel may also be an unsuspecting friend or loved one, who, thinking he is giving us good advice, is actually being used to try to lead us out of the will of God. 

4-b. Direct Attacks (Hidden/Spiritual Attack) 

Direct attacks upon us or upon the indirect channels used to try to mislead us may also come in a number of forms.  A demon may come boldly, but deceitfully, presenting itself as some kind of helpful entity (a good angel, a spirit guide, the ghost of a departed loved one, or of a departed Saint, a psychic pet, an alien from another planet, etc.), or as some kind of evil entity in order to promote fear.  They also quite often deceive people by providing a supposedly impersonal source of information, or a supply of energy, which is just unexplainably available for their use (ki, chi, prana, the force, crystal or pyramid power, telekinesis, telepathy, psychic knowledge, psychic power, ESP, witchcraft, Ouija boards, divining rods/water witching, etc.).  If demons can convince people that they possess or can obtain supernatural knowledge and power, those people will be much less likely ever to humble themselves before God.  Consider all of the movies, books, video games, magazines, etc. which are preparing people to fall for these deceptions, and how many of them are aimed at children.  Demons may also have the ability to manifest themselves in physical form (to further their deception).  God’s holy angels have this ability, and there is nothing in the Bible which indicates that the rebellious ones do not.  

For the people who are unwilling to accept or unlikely to fall for any of this “supernatural” deception (messages from trans world beings or mystical flows of energy and knowledge), these direct hidden/spiritual attacks are disguised in a different way.  They are designed so that the people receiving them will believe that they came from themselves–that the thoughts and/or feelings are simply some of their own.  (When the “voices heard” become too clear, they are sometimes referred to as the “inner-self” or the “higher consciousness.”)  These attacks may come in the form of projected thoughts and visions or as attacks against  the nervous system.  

A projected thought is a thought (a word, phrase, or sentence) which is subliminally projected into a person’s mind.  (This is the strategy behind subliminal advertising.)  It can be a thought about anything, such as: “That is so desirable”; “I deserve better.”; “Nobody will know.”; “Everybody does it.”; “I can’t stop now”;  “Why did I do that?”; “I’m such a sleaze.”; “God could never forgive me.”;  or “I would be better off dead.” 

A projected vision is the same thing as a projected thought, except that it comes in picture form.  Demons also understand that a picture is worth a thousand words.  They may project a single picture, at any time, to cause someone to think about a particular subject, or they may create an entire short story, which they project at specific times.  These stories are normally projected while people are sleeping, as visions can easily be passed off as a person’s dreams.  They are also used quite often while people are in altered states of consciousness (because of mind-altering drugs, transcendental meditation, hypnotization, etc.). 

Input thoughts and visions can be used in several ways.  They may be used to tempt us into sinning or distrusting God; to distract us when we are listening to a sermon, reading the Bible, or trying to pray; to cause us to remember when we need to forgive and forget; or to deceive us in a number of ways.  In regard to this last purpose, “attempted deception,” there are three specific strategies which demons use, worthy of mention.  (1) They give people thoughts and visions of things which are not true to get them to believe some lie (past life experiences, false memories of abuse, UFO encounters, out-of-body, and near-death experiences).  (2) They give people thoughts and visions of things which are true to get them to trust in psychics and psychic power instead of God. (They supply information which enables a psychic to solve a crime or to tell someone about the past, things which the demons observed as they happened.)  (3) They supposedly enable someone to foretell the future, giving someone the idea that something is going to occur (a premonition), then try to make it happen.  (They tell someone, “An old friend is going to call,” then go implant the idea of calling in the minds of all their old friends.)    

In an attack against a person’s nervous system, a demon is somehow able to affect emotions–causing nervousness, fear, depression, or anger–with no identifiable physical or mental basis.  In my own experience (when God has allowed the enemy to test my faith), one of their attacks has been to send a strong physiological “chill/fear” into my body.  Most often, it has felt like a focused, cold wind which entered my body and then spread out from the point of contact.  On two occasions it felt like getting hit with a full bucket of “cold chill.”  On one other occasion, the attack lacked the sensation of cold, but it affected my entire body, as if being exposed to a large amount of static electricity.  It felt similar to the effect produced when pulling certain fabrics out of a clothes dryer, except that it was on the inside of my body.  (I would be quite surprised if this did not accurately describe at least some of the panic attacks which people suffer.)  My wife, at one time, experienced an instant release from feelings of anger the moment I commanded demons out of our house “in Jesus’ name.”  It has also been reported that demons can cause feelings of exhilaration and comfort, using these “feelings” to encourage people to continue on the path to destruction: those caught up in various cults and occultic practices.

It’s important to understand that even though demons are able to initiate thoughts, and are able to affect emotional responses unrelated to any biological or external reality in our lives, one of their most often used strategies is to encourage problems which already exist.

D. SATAN’S TARGETS

The targets that Satan will attack are probably as unlimited as the strategies that he will use against them.  For the sake of time and space, this discussion is going to be limited to four: God’s character, the Bible, the Church, and our families.  The Bible, the Church, and our families are God’s three major tools for bringing people to salvation.

1. GOD’S CHARACTER

In his attack on God’s character, Satan’s goal is to get us to blame God for all the trouble in the world.  Whether our problems are the result of sin (ours or someone else’s) or are caused directly by one of his demons, Satan tries to get us to blame God “for letting it happen.”  He tells us that, “Since this horrible thing has happened, it can only mean one of three things: either God didn’t know about it, He couldn’t stop it, or worst of all, He doesn’t care.”  These are, of course, lies.  In the next chapter you are going to see why God does allow evil to exist.  It is also important to remember that God’s perspective is omniscient and eternal, and it is very much different from our own.  Some of the things we may perceive as bad are actually good.  For instance, He sometimes allows good people to die to spare them from evil, or from having to see the  judgment which He pours out upon evil. 

2. THE BIBLE

In his attack on the Bible, Satan has two objectives: our ignorance and our disbelief.  Our ignorance is accomplished if he is simply able to keep us from reading it.  He tries to keep us preoccupied, or he tells us that it’s too hard to understand, not relevant, or not important.  Our disbelief is accomplished if he is able to get us to doubt either its origin (telling us that it was not inspired by God) or its authenticity (telling us that even if it was the Word of God, it has been changed over the years and is no longer trustworthy).  Once he gets us to doubt either of these, he can easily lead us to question its authority (since it isn’t God’s Word or isn’t trustworthy, it has no control over my life), and its power (since it isn’t the true Word of God, it can’t get me in touch with Him and can’t help me.).  Another strategy he uses is to attack “truth” itself, telling people that there is no absolute truth.  (If the statement “There is no absolute truth!”is not absolute truth, then it’s an absolute lie!)

3. THE CHURCH

Before discussing Satan’s third target “the church,” it’s important that we understand exactly what the church is.  In the Bible, “church” refers to any and/or all believers in our Lord, Jesus Christ (those who have personally accepted Him as Lord and Savior).  It does not refer to a building, and it does not include those individuals who regularly participate in the activities of a church but have not accepted Jesus.  (As one preacher put it, “Being in a church building doesn’t make someone a Christian any more than being in a garage makes them a car.”)  

In this attack, since we have already accepted salvation and, thus, have been removed from both his kingdom and authority, Satan’s major objective is to keep us from serving God.  God wants to use us to bring the unsaved world to salvation and to assist and encourage other believers in living the Christian life.  Satan’s strategy is to attack the Church from both the inside and the outside at the same time. 

3-a. From the Inside

In his interior assault, some of Satan’s tactics are as follows: 

1.  He tries to get us to doubt the Bible, so (a) because of our own uncertainty, we will be unlikely to offer its message to anyone else, and (b) without the personal comfort and security which comes from believing God’s promises, we will be less able to comfort or encourage other Christians. 

2.  He tries to confuse us with false teaching, so (a) we, in turn, help to confuse other people, and (b) we participate in the spreading of false doctrine which, when proven incorrect, casts a shadow of doubt on our whole message. 

3.  He tries to divide us over unimportant issues, thereby causing us to spend time in inner conflict rather than working together to achieve God’s goals. 

4.  He tries to get us to sin, so (a) we will be seen by ourselves and others as failures and hypocrites and will be as unlikely to tell others about Jesus as they would be to listen, and (b) we will serve as a discouragement to other Christians.

5.  He tries to keep us preoccupied with the temporal things of this life, to keep us from investing our time in the most important, most valuable, and only eternal thing in this world- the people around us.   

6.  He tries to convince us that evangelism (telling people about God and His offer of salvation) is the preacher’s job and that Christianity is not a subject to be discussed at work, school, etc.  (It is incredibly selfish and ungodly to associate with non-Christians on a regular basis, know they’re on the path to hell and not try to stop them.  How in the world can we do this and call ourselves friends?)  

7.  He tries to keep us from intimate fellowship with God, so we end up trying to convince people of His existence with no personal testimony.  (We try exclusively to be His lawyers, when He also commands us to be His witnesses.) 

3-b. From the Outside

In his exterior assault on the church, Satan’s goal is to keep the unsaved world away from serious Christians–those who know, love, and obey the Lord.  He doesn’t want them associating  with people who have a wonderful relationship with God and who understand salvation.  His strategy is to publicly disgrace the church–destroying its credibility and appeal–while at the same time telling the world that Christianity is simply a religion, and one of many to choose from.  He attempts to disgrace the church by calling attention to his internal victories (just mentioned), to the sinfulness of non-Christian “church” attendees (who the world perceives as Christians but who do not have the guidance or protection of the Holy Spirit), and to the absurdity and wickedness of his false prophets and teachers (once they have been exposed).  He also tells the world that Christians are narrow-minded (because the Bible teaches that the Creator of heaven and earth is the only way to get to heaven from earth) and intolerant (because we tell people of “other faiths” and “other lifestyles” this truth).  He also tells them that we are against knowledge and education (even though literacy levels always increase when the Bible is introduced into a society), quite strange (as increasingly portrayed by the secular media), weak (confusing weakness with meekness), and opposed to having fun. 

Don’t believe it!  Christianity is not some price we pay to get to heaven.  It is an extremely wonderful walk with God on our way to eternal bliss.  It is the comfort of having the unconditional love and acceptance of Almighty God and of knowing that we are His children and He is our Father.  It is knowing that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and that He is making everything in our lives work together for our benefit.  It is having free and instantaneous access to Him–at any time–to ask for the things we need, and the desires of our hearts.  It is the ability to receive guidance for every decision in life from the all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-powerful Creator of the universe.  It is peace through the storms of life, and the security of knowing that death will be the most wonderful thing that ever happens to us. 

4. Our Families  

The battle Satan is waging against his fourth target–our families–often seems the most vicious, as his victims don’t have to wait until they’re burning in hell to suffer.  In this attack, he uses an exterior assault- inspiring economic, governmental, and societal pressures–which result in an ever increasing strain on the family.  (In the U.S.A. today, a traditional family with a stay-at-home mom is often financially burdened, receives almost no break from the taxing authority, and is looked down upon by many in society.)  Satan’s most intensive and damaging attacks, however, always come from the inside, as he inspires the family to turn against itself.  He uses supposed “loved ones”–family member against family member–to destroy each other in a way that no outsider ever could.  Through this attack, we can more clearly see how totally evil Satan is. 

In order to understand this attack, we first need to understand God’s purpose for the family.  Why did He create it?  Why didn’t He just have us mate like a bunch of animals and not have so many physical and emotional needs?  Why did He bring man and woman together in marriage and command that it be for life?  Why do we come into this world needing our parents’ guidance, protection, and provision for so many years?  Why do we need their love and acceptance?  Why do we need to feel that we are important to them?

  To answer these questions, we must first remember that God is family.  Even though He is one God, He exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We must also remember that being saved means being brought into this family–being accepted as an eternal child of God.  Thus, since it is God’s desire to make us His eternal family, He has given us our temporary families to teach us about as well as help lead us into this everlasting one.  As children, we learn to love, trust, respect, and obey an earthly father and mother; and we will simply be repeating the process as we learn to love, trust, respect, and obey Him–our Heavenly Father.  As parents–experiencing love for our own children–we are more able to understand the incredible love He has for us- unprompted, unearned, and undeserved.  Our families are a model and a bridge.  What we receive initially from our parents and our relationship with them are ultimately to be transferred to God.  We find our identity and our significance in being their children, we freely put our faith in them to care for and protect us, and we receive their unconditional love, acceptance, and provision.  (The Bible also compares the love between Jesus and His Church to the love between a husband and wife–Jesus being the Bridegroom and the church being His bride.) 

This is at least the way it’s supposed to work.  Unfortunately, we don’t have to look very far to see that people are not living according to God’s plan.  Satan is amassing terrible victories, and for many, the God-ordained “husband and wife, until-death-do-we-part” family doesn’t even exist.  Sadly, the children–the most innocent of the victims–are the ones who are suffering the most. 

This brings up something incredibly important, something which we desperately need to be aware of: The devastation of our children is not an unintentional by product of this attack.  It may even be the number-one reason for this whole assault.  It’s important to understand that the greatest majority of people who come to the Lord, do so as children.  (Children trust much more readily than adults.)  It is only natural, therefore, to expect a major offensive from Satan in this area.   

So, his objectives in this attack are (a) to destroy family love and unity and any representation of a perfect relationship with God and (b) to destroy our ability, as well as our desire, to love, trust, respect, and obey the people in authority over us.  The first and foremost target is the husband and father because of the mental association linking him (the male in authority) with God–our Heavenly Father.  Once again, Satan’s ultimate goal is to keep people from entering into this father-and-child relationship with God. 

In pursuit of this objective, here are a few of the intermediate goals Satan seeks to accomplish.  He attempts to reverse the role of family as a place of refuge by bringing evil into its midst–through mental, physical and sexual abuse, perpetrated by those who are supposed to be the lovers, the protectors, and the leaders. He seeks to remove any basis of security (for protection or provision) by inspiring the family to break apart–through divorce, abandonment, or inspiring children to run away from home.  He seeks to destroy any sense of identity by destroying family lines- through divorce and often re marriage.  (If you have been divorced and then married to another person, you are not to go back to your original spouse.)  Finally, Satan seeks to destroy any feelings of significance or self worth by leading the family into abuse, division, or neglect (leading people to make careers, outside activities, or the pursuit of material possessions a higher priority than spending time with their “loved ones”), then telling the victims that any problems they have are their own fault.    

If Satan is successful, if he is able to achieve these goals, he is then able to send his victims out damaged and hurting into the world, less able to function and with no foundation upon which to stand.  His victims aren’t sure who they are, why they are here, or where they are going, and they don’t know where to find the physical and emotional security they so desperately need.  (They could always turn to God, but with the experience they have had with their earthly father, it is unlikely that they will want to jump into a relationship with a Heavenly Father.)  So, they go out into the world looking for answers and trying to get their needs met.  Unfortunately, when they arrive, they find Satan is there too — waiting. 

E. SATAN’S OVERALL STRATEGY

Satan is always around, lurking in the shadows, ever seeking to entice us away from God and toward destruction.  As the Bible puts it, “He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”  He is always seeking victims–feeding us lies, trying to keep us from Biblical truth, attacking our ability and desire to call upon God, and often seeking to provide for us himself. 

Yes, Satan wants to provide for us.  This is not only another strategy for keeping people away from God, this is how he gets us to serve him.  If what we are doing and how we are living furthers his cause, then he is going to do everything he can to keep us on our present path.  In keeping with his consistent strategy of lying, however, we always discover one of two things.  (1) Any needs he helps us meet are outside the will of God, being accomplished at the wrong time or in the wrong way, and not in our eternal best interest.  (2) Most often, all he does, is help us satisfy our desires, after convincing us that these desires are needs.  He is incredibly skilled at blurring the difference. 

Here also, he is not only very skilled, he is very generous and very dangerous.  It’s anything we want, any time we want, any way we want.  It’s kind of like giving a child free reign of the house–the china cabinet, the medicine cabinet, the gun cabinet.  Satan offers us “freedom of choice.”  God offers us freedom after choice.  Satan has no rules, no laws to obey.  He requires no restraint, no patience, no self-control, and most importantly, he requires no humility.  Serving him, the only things we bow down to are our desires.  What we fail to realize is how many of our desires and/or the intensity of them are because of him.  

Fortunately, if it results in people turning to God (unfortunately, if it doesn’t), we don’t have to wait for eternity for the lies to show.  Satan’s offers never work!  They never produce the results we desire!  He offers us power, but it’s always destructive; success and possessions, but never contentment; significance, which must be maintained; and security, until he’s through with us, or God decides differently.  Satan offers us knowledge, without wisdom; pleasure, but not joy; peace, dependent upon circumstances; and the freedom to decide for ourselves what is right or wrong, but with no control over the consequences. 

Do you see what he’s doing–do you see his strategy?  He’s feeding and taking advantage of our sinful nature (of our desire to reject God in favor of being our own authority) while telling us that we can still get everything we need or want, and that everything will turn out fine.  He is telling us “we don’t need God” by offering us substitutes.  He is trying to fill all the voids in our lives which God has put there so we do need Him.  This is also where religions come in.  They are a supposed substitute for a loving,  personal, and worshipful relationship with God.  God has put in each one of us the inclination to worship, and even when people reject Him, most of them still formally worship something.  Unfortunately, with the foolishness that comes with rejecting God, Satan can make it something as ridiculous and degrading as a another human being, nature (which God told us to rule over), a statue, or even a cow.  Satan finds great delight in degrading humanity. 

In regard to eternity, Satan’s “you can be your own god” lie is usually manifested in one of three forms.  To some people, Satan says, “You can be your own god now, and this life is all there is.  There is no life after death; when you die, you simply cease to exist.”  To others he says, “Don’t worry about it, everything will turn out fine.  All roads ultimately lead to heaven.  Just live a good life!  Besides, nobody will really burn forever in hell; it just can’t be!”  Finally, to others he says, “You can not only be god now, you can be god in some future life too.”  Various religions actually teach that people can become the gods of their own planets or are going to just miraculously evolve into god in some abstract metaphysical form, even though no one is exactly sure why or how.  (New Age religions teach that “god” is an impersonal force which is in and is a part of all things–including us.  They teach that when people die, they continue to be god; they simply change form and are absorbed into the rest of the universe–into the rest of “god.”)  Most of the religions that teach reincarnation also fit into these categories, as Satan tells these people that everyone ultimately makes it to the top (heaven).  He either tells them that they reincarnate “up” with every new life or have an unlimited number of chances to “get it right.”  (I wonder what reincarnationists would say if you asked them–“Who determines when they get it right?”.) 

F. GOD’S ALTERNATIVE OFFER

  Jesus tells us that He is “God Almighty–creator of time, space, matter, heaven, and earth,” and that in order for us to spend eternity in heaven with Him, rather than burning in hell, we must accept Him as Lord and Savior.  We must admit that we have sinned, ask Him for forgiveness, and humbly and repentantly step down from the throne of our lives, giving that position to Him.  

No, this is not easy.  How could it be?  He is asking for our lives!  He wants us to give up control, to resign from being our own god- to become His servants.  We do not, however, give up our freedom.  We gain it!  When we accept Jesus, we are given access to everything that we will ever need for making correct, temporally freeing, and eternally beneficial decisions.  We are given access to power from God to break both sin and Satan’s strongholds in our lives, access to wisdom from God which He offers to all His children who ask, and access to knowledge from God which will guide us successfully through this life.  (Much of the information in the Bible is unavailable without insight and interpretation by the Holy Spirit.) We go from being controlled by our own sinful desires–which are greatly influenced and controlled by Satan–to gaining the love, guidance, warnings, and power of the Holy Spirit to live righteously.  (If Satan and his cohorts have a specific stronghold in your life, you will learn how to break it in the chapter entitled, “So What Should You Do?”.) 

So, God wants us to accept Him as Lord and Savior and to let Him begin changing us to be like Him–holy and righteous, opposed to sin, loving, patient, kind, gentle, and self controlled.  He wants to guide us, to fix us, and to use us in the lives of other people, and He promises that we will be temporally and eternally blessed for allowing Him to do so.  It is, however, only if we let Him.  God will never force us to obey. 

Unfortunately, in spite of the incredible love that God has shown (through Creation, His sacrifice, and all the blessings which He offers) and in spite of the destruction that Satan is causing (the shattered lives, the lack of security, fulfillment, or purpose), most people refuse to give God their lives.  They choose to live a totally useless earthly life (having no eternal value), will suffer many things with nothing good ever resulting, and will spend eternity burning in hell rather than humbling themselves before our all powerful and loving God. 

Don’t make this mistake yourself.  Don’t listen to Satan, and don’t agree with him that you can be your own god.  It won’t work!  It’s fantasy!  It was fantasy for him, and it’s fantasy for us!  Besides, God’s plan is better anyway.  Even if there were some way for us to exist in His universe without Him (other than in hell), it would be terrible.  If there were some way to separate ourselves from the One who gave us the beauty of creation and our eyes to see, the emotion of love and our hearts to enjoy, the purpose of heaven and our souls to yearn–from the One who offers us life, love, forgiveness, and purpose–it would be terrible.   

So do it!  Step out of Satan’s kingdom and into God’s.  Step out of the darkness, the deception, the meaningless, sinful, and destructive paths that lead to hell, and step into a wonderful and everlasting relationship with God.  Join the kingdom of righteousness, the kingdom of life, light, love, and truth.  I assure you, it’s the most wonderful thing that you will ever do!