The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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In the previous post, we were introduced to Satan as the destroyer. Here, we examine the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John.

John 10:7-10

Jesus said again, “Truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the gate. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance (emphasis added).

Jesus weaves the language of ancient Near Eastern shepherds into this teaching. In particular, he plies the imagery of the gate, the shepherd, and the sheep to emphasize the security found only in him, and the dangers posed by those who seek to savage the flock. 

Verse 10 is key because Satan often is understood as the thief to whom Jesus refers. While the evil one certainly steals, kills, and destroys, Jesus has set his sights on Israel’s false prophets and religious elites. In John 10:1, for example, he declares, “Truly I tell you, anyone who doesn’t enter the sheep pen by the gate but climbs in some other way is a thief and a robber.” This likely is a reference to the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, for whom the Savior reserves his strongest rebukes in Matthew 23, issuing a string of woes for scribes and Pharisees he calls “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “blind fools,” “blind people,” “snakes,” and “brood of vipers.” He tells them, “How can you escape being condemned to hell?” (Matt. 23:33). 

In John 10:8, Jesus says, “All who came before are thieves and robbers.” He is not referring to faithful Old Testament leaders like Moses, Isaiah, and Daniel. Rather, he hints at despotic leaders throughout Israel’s history, as well as messianic pretenders who promise the people freedom but lead them into war, suffering, and slavery.

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The following excerpt is taken from What Every Christian Should Know About Satan. Order your copy in print, Kindle, or Audible versions here.

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Who was the most destructive human monster in the last hundred years? Adolf Hitler may be the first that comes to mind. He plunged dozens of nations into a global war that decimated cities, enslaved nations, targeted Jews and other minorities, and resulted in fifteen million combat fatalities and forty-five million civilian deaths.

Josef Stalin matched Hitler stride for stride in brutality and nearly kept pace in the body count, racking up an estimated twenty million civilian deaths in labor camps, forced collectivization, famine, and executions between 1927 and 1953.

Not to be outdone, China’s Mao Zedong – an admirer of Stalin – preyed voraciously on his own countrymen. At the end of his Cultural Revolution, Great Leap Forward (also known as the Great Leap Famine), and a variety of purges, Chairman Mao authorized an estimated forty-five million Chinese deaths.

Hitler, Stalin, and Mao are etched in history, not for their lofty visions of a new world order, or their intoxicating rhetoric, or their sheer force of will, but for the magnitude of destruction they imposed – in large measure on their own people and property. 

As horrifying as these tyrants are, they are little more than pale projections of the ultimate destroyer: the evil one, who prowls the earth like a roaring lion (1 Pet. 5:8). From the beginning, Satan has distinguished himself as a destroyer. He invades the serenity of the garden, where God and humans meet for intimate fellowship. He wrecks man’s relationship with God, with one another, and with the created order. The whole world lies barren and wanting today because of him. 

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