Category: Satan
Armor for Spiritual Battle (Part 2)
The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.
In the previous post, we began exploring the full armor of God — the offensive and defensive means of engaging in battle with the evil one. Now, we complete our review with the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
The helmet of salvation
The helmet, of course, protects the head. This is perhaps the most vital part of our bodies since it is the seat of thought and the core of action. In the first century, Roman soldiers wore helmets called galeae. These were fashioned out of bronze or iron, with leather or linen padding, hinged flaps to protect the jaws, a flange in back to shield the neck, and a crest of colored horsehair on top. Each helmet typically weighed 1.3 pounds. Some were fitted with visors to protect the face.
Like a helmet, salvation – deliverance from Satan, sin, and death through a covenant relationship with Christ – is our most vital possession. The gift of everlasting life encompasses all that God has done, is doing, and will do for us. It stretches from eternity past in foreknowledge, election, and predestination into the present in regeneration, justification, and sanctification, and out into eternity future in glorification. Salvation is a finished work with ongoing benefits. Paul makes this clear in Romans 8:29-30 as he lays out the golden chain of redemption:
For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
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Armor for Spiritual Battle (Part 1)
The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.
In the previous post, we introduced God’s plan for engaging the evil one: the full armor of God. Now, let’s turn our attention to the individual pieces of armor. The order in which they are described generally is the order in which soldiers put them on.
Truth like a belt
While many modern translations refer to “truth like a belt” (CSB) or “the belt of truth” (ESV, NIV), the KJV renders it, “having your loins girt about with truth.” Similarly, the NASB 1995 says, “having girded your loins with truth.” The latter understanding may be more to the point.
Ancient warriors and athletes, like other people of the time, wore loose-fitting clothing, which needed to be gathered and secured before any physical activity could ensue. This was done in different ways and for different purposes (see 2 Kings 4:29; Luke 12:35-36; John 13:4-5). The metaphor of girding is used in Scripture because it describes the need to prepare oneself for the spiritual work ahead.
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Engaging the Evil One
The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.
Throughout this study, we have explored various names and titles for the archenemy of mankind. Satan stands defiantly against God and God’s creatures. He appears as a beautiful and seductive “burning one” in Genesis 3. Then, across the pages of Scripture, we see his story unfold in nightmarish fashion as he slanders God, engages in hand-to-hand combat in the heavenly realms, and seeks to ruin the very beings God created as his imagers – namely, you and me.
Often, the evil one is successful. But he wages war in a shrinking theater. First thrown out of heaven, then cast to earth, then confined to the abyss, he finally is banished to the lake of fire, a place God specifically prepares for him and his spirit saboteurs.
At every diabolical turn, the evil one finds himself set back on his heels. First, in the wake of Adam and Eve’s fall, Yahweh promises his human creatures a redeemer – the seed of woman – who is to crush the evil one’s head, although at great personal cost (Gen. 3:15). Next, God bars humans from the tree of life so they won’t be bound eternally in a fallen state (Gen. 3:22-24).
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Does God Plan to Save Satan?
The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.
Scripture is clear that Satan’s eternal destiny is the unrelenting lake of fire. It is the place into which the antichrist, the false prophet, and all unbelievers are cast as well. It does not appear there is any reversal of fortune for those in hell. Nevertheless, some in the early church took a different view.
Clement of Alexandria, for example, thought there was hope for the devil based on God’s limitless mercy. Clement’s pupil, Origen, took it a step further. He argued for apocatastasis, or the idea that all things made by God return to him. He once wrote, “We believe that the goodness of God through Christ will restore his entire creation to one end, even his enemies being conquered and subdued.”
In Origen’s view, everyone – including Satan, evil spirits, and the most wicked humans – ultimately submit to God’s sovereignty and are saved. Thus, Satan ceases to be evil and has his angelic nature restored.
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The Goodness of Hell
The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.
Hell is an awful prospect for anyone. C. S. Lewis once shuddered at the concept of hell: “There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power.”
But let’s consider for a moment that the notion of a loving God and the doctrine of hell are perfectly compatible. There is nothing of one that cancels out the other. Jesus speaks frequently on hell and alludes to it in parables. He tells some religious leaders they are headed for hell. He warns his listeners against this place where the worm does not die and the fires are not quenched. He refers to hell as “outer darkness.” And he says hell was prepared for Satan and evil spirits, yet he makes it clear that many people are going to spend eternity there.
So, in what possible way is hell good?
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