Prior to the industrial revolution, people knew that there was a difference between good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral. But now, thanks to the success of the secularization of education, the rise of science as a religion, and the demise of Christian churches, we have a large number of people who do not even believe in the existence of evil.
The Bible calls this evil force Satan. Satan is a fallen angel who rebelled against God and wants the world to worship him. He is mentioned in the very first book of the Bible as having used lies to tempt the first woman and man to disobey God. After this, the perfect world that God made was no longer perfect.
Then in the rest of the Bible we learn that Satan continues to lie and tempt people to rebel against God in various ways such as murder, sexual temptations, worshipping false gods, adultery, and every other sin.
Satan is not as powerful as God and he cannot actually MAKE anyone do bad things. He can use your weaknesses and create opportunities in which you will be very tempted. He is not in control, but he is the ruler of this world up to the point that God allows.
What should we do to avoid Satan’s ploys? First we must recognize the difference between right and wrong according to God so that we are able to know when you are being tempted. That means we need to put our faith in Jesus so that we will receive the Holy Spirit. Then we need to study the Bible, spend time in prayer, and trust God to build our faith.
How does God build our faith? By letting us be tempted through the various trials that Satan, and other people, will bring into our lives. Only by submitting to God’s authority, which requires faith and humility, can we successfully navigate these stormy trials. People who are not under God’s authority actually have fewer trials because they are already defeated by Satan.
We are living through a long supernatural battle. But you must know your enemy exists to fight him! Jesus has already defeated Satan, but first you must believe in Jesus and then you must be on guard against Satan’s trucks because he is going to attack you while you still live on this earth.
Satan is obviously winning the earthly war for now as witnessed by the rise of paganism and atheism. Humans were created to worship. If you take away God, they will worship something of their own making.
However, God has a plan. Right now he is still patiently giving people a chance to seek Him, and believe in His Son, Jesus Christ. At some time in the future, when God is ready, Jesus is going to come back to the earth.
The Bible describes many events that will happen when Jesus comes back, including the final judgment of Satan and all those who rejected God’s free offer of salvation and refused to believe in Jesus.
But before all of that, Satan is going to ramp up his trickery and lies and we see this happening now.
He has been very successful at getting people to stop going to church, stop believing in absolute truth, and stop believing in the supernatural. Even though science confirms many of the truths of the Bible, people are unaware of the abundant evidence because they think that the Bible and science cannot both be true.
Even some churches that call themselves Christian are rejecting the idea of sin, Satan, and eternal judgment. They are reinterpreting Christian theology without the main idea, that we need to be forgiven and saved from judgment. Without judgment, we have no need for a god to tell us what is right or wrong.
The longer people reject God, the more hardened their hearts become to the truth. In the final time before Jesus judges the world, people will be unable to tell reality from illusion. This is God’s punishment on them.
As you can see happening already, many young people are very willing to live in a false reality. We already have most of the technology in place for people to live a virtual life. It’s simply a matter of setting up the digital currency and global laws that will be used to control the technology that will be used to create the great delusion.
But people will not recognize it. They will no longer believe that evil exists. And when evil finally shows it face, it will be too late.
Why does it matter that you are aware of the existence of Satan? Because he is trying to destroy you. Jesus came to save you from the power of sin and death that Satan holds over you. Soon the battle will take place on the earth.
It’s not too late for you. Will you seek Jesus today? Your eternal life depends upon it!
Blue Skies and Green Pastures 
Great post, Paula. You couldn’t have made it clearer.
Satan is using the same strategy he used in the Garden of Eden – questioning God’s word (“Did God really say …?”) contradicting God (“You shall not die!”) and promising that if we go out way instead of obeying the Lord, “You will be like God!”
Of course. Take away sin and there’s no reason to try for righteousness. In reality, you can’t take away sin.
Actually, there has always been confusion about good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral. That’s what the first deception introduced: “You can be like god.” So ancients worshiped Molech, Ashera, Baal, etc. Now, Buddhists worship a man who never claimed to be a god, Muslims worship a singular hateful chief of the Baals, Hindus worship thousands of so-called gods, and many Christians have heresy mixed with the Truth about Jesus, such that some will even miss Heaven (Matthew 7:21-23).
Science cannot evaluate events of history, which is the mistake so many make thinking “science and the Bible are in conflict.” Science deals with repeatable experimentation; historical events, by definition, are beyond its scope.
A final thought: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight” (C.S.Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)
Great challenge: “Will you seek Jesus today? Your eternal life depends upon it!”
Keep teaching, sister!
❤️&🙏, c.a.
Thanks for these helpful points! Screwtape is why I wrote this. 🙂 I started out to write about the book and this came out instead. Lol. I probably shouldn’t write at night on the first day of a diet. I’m so hungry. waa!
Btw, an excellent blog on regulating one’s physical well-being (not that you need this; I get the sense that you could be teaching the school) but worth checking out is https://loseweightwithang.com/
❤️&🙏, c.a.
Thanks 😊
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