God’s Word is Real But Satan Is, Too

One of the best lines I’ve ever heard referring to Satan is “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” When we look around at our society and see many of the things that are taking place, it’s easy to see that too many people believe Satan does not exist. Sadder even is the number of people within the Christian faith who deny the existence of Satan which is completely anti-scripture.

If you are a Christian and deny Satan walks about, you either have not read scripture or you do not take scripture literally. 1 Peter 5:8 reads “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” This scripture is not allegorical or a parable but a real-life description of Satan’s existence and that he is looking to devour one and all.

Christ did not mince words when He told the Jewish people of His time that their father was the devil: ”Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). This does not just apply to the secular world but to the world of faith as too many Christians and churches are compromising with the world in order to gain popularity.

Some time back, I wrote about liberal Christianity and the problems that it poses. One problem is that because liberal Christians do not see God’s word as literal, they pick and choose which parts of scripture to believe in and which ones to bypass. This has caused a serious problem in conviction and has led to many of the chaotic problems that we see within the church and among many believers. When someone does not believe in something or just halfway believes in it, they have no idea what to do or where to go and they base their decisions on how they feel but God’s word instructs us to base our decisions on His word.

Proverbs 3:5-6 reads “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.“ One of the main pillars of the Christian faith is to trust in God and we have God’s word to lean on rather than our own understandings. The ways of this world, the things that we perceive as good, are not always good as the ways of man tend to be wicked and sadly, the ways of many churches fall into this category. Many have adopted traditions that go against the teachings of God particularly the Catholic Church but I recently learned that a Pentecostal group is guilty of this as well.

While I was unfamiliar with this church and its ways, many people enjoy its popularity and the different aspects of the church: Hillsong Church. Typically, I do not follow most of the well-known churches of the world and this is obvious with my unfamiliarity of this church. On their website, Hillsong describes itself as a church that loves Jesus, God, and People and while this is what a church should stand for and believe in, this church has compromised with the world and gone away from the word of God—the very word that is claims to stand for.

Hillsong Church is a Pentecostal church and its acceptance and pro-LGBT stance within the social realm saddens me as I adhere to the beliefs of the Pentecostal congregation. No, Christians are not supposed to harm any group of people including homosexuals but we are also not to compromise the word of God. It’s clear from scripture that homosexuality is a sin but not just a sin but an abomination. Therefore, you wonder how a church that claims to love Christ and adhere to God’s word come to such a crossroads.

Leviticus 18:22 tells us that “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination” and Mark 10:6-9 reads: “But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.“ Scripture does not say that man shall leave his parents and join another man but rather, his wife and the same is true for women.

This is not my writing or anything that I put together but rather, God’s word. It has been this way since the very beginning of time as expressed in Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) and “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). Nothing from the secular world surprises me today as they have nothing to guide them but their emotions but it’s a sign of the times when you see the church—We the People—compromise the word of God which shows that while many believe not in Satan, he is as real as scripture reveals.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.“

–Proverbs 3:5-6