Perhaps you remember the scene in the first The Godfather film where Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), during the baptism of his child, is asked by the priest “Do you renounce the Devil and all his works?” He answers “I do” while his men are shown assassinating his enemies, one by one. Michael Corleone literally paid lip service to the existence of the Devil. I wonder if most of us do the same. While not formally denying his existence, we do not take the Devil and his works too seriously. I know I have not for most of my Christian life anyway.
That has changed and let me give two reasons why.
First, belief in the Devil and the power of his evil works makes sense of our world. The longer I live the stronger my conviction that taking the Devil and his works seriously is not a retreat from reality – it is indispensable in helping us understand the world as it really is.
We are all familiar of the horrors that haunt our supposedly enlightened era. Two global wars, the Holocaust, and two atomic bombs dropped on civilian populations were catastrophic lowlights of the 20th century but to these infamous events we could add an inexhaustible catalogue of what can only be called evil.
For example, our human capacity for unending merciless violence is being ‘enhanced’ by ‘The Masters of War’ – the global arms trade which profits in death. It facilitates ruthless men (and it nearly always is men) to prosecute wars today in Sudan, Gaza, Yemen, Myanmar, or Ukraine or in innumerable other conflicts over the years. We seem brilliant at inventing more and more ingenious ways to kill each other. Drone warfare and the looming threat of AI killing machines are taking us into Terminator territory.
The theologian Phillip Ziegler describes it well: “Ours is a world in which barbarity keeps ready company with civility, sadism and technological acuity happily clasp hands, and nihilistic stupidity repeatedly masquerades as wisdom” (God’s Adversary and Ours: A Brief Theology of the Devil, p.16).
But the more important reason I believe in the Devil is because Jesus and the writers of the New Testament do. The gospel is the liberating good news of Jesus the Messiah who overthrows the power of Sin, Death, and the Devil in and through his death and resurrection. The Gospels are full of Jesus’ confrontation with the Devil and his servants. He is called various names – the Devil, Satan, Beelzeboul, evil one, prince of demons, tempter, the enemy, the ruler of this world. He tempts Jesus and is opposed to the coming of the kingdom of God – nowhere more clearly seen than in Jesus’ exorcisms of evil spirits. He ‘enters Judas’ (Lk 22:3) and seeks to undermine the disciples, famously in Jesus’ rebuke to Peter ‘Get behind me Satan!” (Mk 8:33).
Paul is no different. He teaches his churches to understand that ‘behind the scenes’ malign spiritual forces perpetrate chaos in the world. These include Satan (also called the tempter, the Devil, god of this world and ruler of the power of the air). Alongside him are an array of heavenly powers hostile to God: ‘rulers and authorities;’ ‘powers;’ ‘death;’ ‘dominions;’ ‘spiritual forces’ and ‘elemental spirits. Believers live in this ‘present evil age’ which is passing away (Gal 1:4). The Spirit is ushering in God’s new creation in the midst of the old. Believers are to walk by the Spirit and not the old age of the flesh.
But here is the crucial point. While the Devil and all his works are real, Christians are to have no fear of evil. While all of us were, as Fleming Rutledge puts it, “active, conscripted agents of Sin” (The Crucifixion, p. 179), we have been set free in Christ (Gal 5:1). Paul encourages the Colossians that the the rulers and authorities have already been disarmed, shamed, and vanquished by the cross (Col 2:14-15). In Romans nothing – including death, angels, demons, rulers or powers – has the capacity to separate believers from the love of God in Christ the Lord (Rom 8:38-39). God will judge and defeat Satan and all forces allied with him (Rom 16:20). In 1 Corinthians, when ‘the end’ comes Christ will destroy every rule and authority and power. Ultimately, God will be ‘all in all’ (1 Cor 15:28). The whole book of Revelation is about God’s ultimate victory over the powers of evil.
In the meantime, believers are to resist the Devil and pray ‘deliver us from evil’. We are not to do this with the weapons of the evil one – power, violence, hatred, division, coercion, lies, manipulation and so on. This is a tragic mistake Christians have made at various points in church history and are currently making in the USA. God’s kingdom cannot be advanced by ungodly means. No, disciples of a crucified Messiah are to fight with the weapons of his kingdom – love, forgiveness, truth, kindness, justice, peace, joy, service and humility.
Patrick Mitchel is Senior Lecturer in Theology at the Irish Bible Institute in Dublin, an elder in Maynooth Community Church and author of The Message of Love (IVP, 2019).
Please note that the statements and views expressed in this article of those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Contemporary Christianity.
I can affirm the reality of the Devil and sadly, that he is very active within the Body of Christ. As Jesus stated he is a liar, deceiver and murderer who seeks to kill, steal and destroy. Over the past 300 years he has infiltrated most Christian denominations as an ‘Angel of Light’ under the guise of a Charitable Institution (Freemmasonry) which, on one hand claims not to be a religion and on the other claims to be wholly compatible with Christianity in both the Scottish and York rites. His diabolical success mainly arises through a curse of spiritual blindness subtly embedded within the first (Entered Apprentice) degree. I was a Mason (not Free but in unwitting bondage to Idolatry) for almost 20 years but was challenged that I had unwittingly ‘taken oaths at a false Altar to a false god’ and that the spiritual curses I had spoken were upon myself and my family. Repentance led to true freedom in Christ, my eyes were opened and the Lord has used me to lead many into freedom over the past 30 years. I recommend the book ‘Masonry-beyond the Light’ by William Schnoebelen
May I add to Dr McCracken’s deep concern about Freemasonry, this insight about the importance of prayer – this time not in public worship but in a confidential small group setting? A colleague told me how on coming to a church with many Freemasons in influential positions, he and a few others deeply concerned met regularly and privately to pray about this. He said it took time and was costly, as spiritual warfare usually is, but the influence of Freemasonry was broken. I followed a similar course with a church member who had joined a lodge. Learning from my colleague, we didn’t argue with him, for he knew our views, but met regularly to pray about it and other aspects of church life. When he told me that he didn’t want his name to be considered for a forthcoming elders’ election, I was thankful for answered prayers. Without taking away from the need for public intercessory prayer there are some things needing much prayer, but not in public.
Thanks Patrick for this timely reminder, especially your final paragraph. I read this morning a quote from Aristedes, a second century Greek orator describing Christians to the emperor Hadrian; “they placate those who oppress them and make them their friends; they do good to their enemies… they scrupulously obey the commands of their Messiah…. truly this is a new people and there is something divine in them.”
Thanks for a tremendously helpful piece, Patrick. It does strike me that many very Reformed believers have such a seemingly inflexible and un-nuanced view of God’s sovereignty that they – to all intents and purposes – deny the power and reality of the devil. But as Jesus taught us in Matthew 13, we live in this world as wheat among weeds, and it’s the enemy that plants the weeds.
Thanks Colin. Ziegler’s book is a great read. As a Reformed theologian he comments on that point – how much Reformed theology struggles to find a place for the Devil
“Calvinists themselves just do not do the devil, really. We might readily imagine why. Think first of the range of historic Reformed doctrinal distinctives which conspire against giving much scope to the idea of the devil: unimpeded divine sovereignty, exhaustive providence, rigorously forensic accounts of salvation within a strong bilateral covenant, the embrace of believers’ spiritual struggles within the firm assurance of preservation of the elected saints, not to mention a deep Protestant wariness of superstition. To this we might add the strong sense of human responsibility and demystifying impulse that marks much modern Reformed theology and ethics.” p.13
Thank you Patrick for another helpful and thoughtful challenge. Let me jump from it to bang again the drum of my concern that intercessory prayer has become an optional extra in public worship in a variety of churches, and therefore I suspect optional also in private prayers.
In January 2022 I posted about this in PS
https://contemporarychristianity.net/praying-beyond-ourselves-and-our-shores/
I expressed dissatisfaction with the prayers for others, which tended to be brief and focused on the needs of the congregation – the sick and the sorrowing. The nearest we got to looking further outwards was to pray for mission teams. At that time there was an Assembly election campaign but you would not have known that from the Sunday prayers.
The downgrading (and sometimes removal) of prayers for others was something I had noticed when worshipping on holiday especially with new fellowships but it was sobering to realise when attending in retirement various Presbyterian churches how far this trend was embedded in my own denomination. John Witvliet’s article in Christianity Today December 2021 “If a Social Issue Matters to God, the Church Should Be Praying About It” [ https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2021/december/john-witvliet-intercessory-prayer-reformed-public-theology.html%5D makes it clear that this also affects reformed as well as other churches in America. He writes
“Painfully, in the worship of far too many churches, there is barely even a mention of the
world’s horrors. Instead of lamenting, confessing, and interceding with specificity and
honesty, these churches tend to avoid, deny, or minimize the public trauma that is all
around them. The understandable desire for a respite from trauma ends up perpetuating a
pattern of disengagement from society.
There are many interrelated reasons for this liturgical silence. First, some churches operate
with a thin, individualistic view of the gospel, focusing nearly all their liturgical attention on
individual conversion and comfort. Second, some churches are conflict avoidant and eager
to stay away from public controversy during worship. A third, perhaps underappreciated,
reason is a pronounced decline in public intercessory prayer.
In many worship contexts today, intercessory prayer has fallen on hard times. It is stunning
how often my students report that while their churches have robust practices of
congregational singing and preaching, they include almost no prayer at all in public
worship. They say their churches will pray about the physical health needs of members but
never mention any larger societal concerns.”
Let me again challenge and encourage those of us who lead worship to give attention to praying for others, especially where there is no liturgical format such as in Church of Ireland practice. It is good to have a checklist: personal needs, church life, the local community, politics and government, international mission and world concerns. A newspaper can be a good guide to “what’s hot”, although we should return to places of agony (eg Yemen, Sudan) which have fallen off the front page. Witvliet’s article gives some creative suggestions. If the reformed practice is followed of having intercessions after the sermon as part of the response to what has been shared, then issues raised in the sermon can be followed through.
Because some of the world situations are unspeakably horrendous there is no shame in using the prayer from 2 Chronicles 20.12
“O our God, will you not judge them?
For we have no power to face this vast army
that is attacking us.
We do not know what to do,
but our eyes are upon you.”
and as Witvliet writes “It is a gift to the church when poised pastoral leaders say,
“God of grace, we are at a loss for words.
… We do not know how to pray as we ought.
How we need the Spirit, who ‘intercedes with sighs too deep for words’”
(Romans 8.26–27)”
Public prayer has two functions: (1) to lead people to the throne of grace (a rich phrase worth meditating on) and (2) to teach people how they may pray privately around the same issues. As Ephesians 6.18 reminds, prayer is indispensable in spiritual warfare: “… in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. ”
I find it troubling that someone across the Atlantic makes a sweeping statement about Christians in the United States of America, especially connecting them with “weapons of the evil one – power, violence, hatred, division, coersion, lies, manipulation and so on.” The author has a history of targeting President Trump and speaking negatively of Christians who voted for him. Many American Christians exercised their right to vote for a political platform that promised acton on border security, immigration, the economy, law and order and a return to patriotism. These are bread and butter issues of everyday life in many countries including Ireland. Voting for a President or Party that best reflects one’s political outlook is a separate issue from the advancement of God’s Kingdom. Otherwise Christians might as well stay home on election day.
Allow me please this comment from John Stott – is my church a “a village church with a village God”?
“I remember some years ago visiting a church incognito. I sat in the back row. … I’m not going to tell you the church. You won’t be able to identify it; it’s thousands of miles away from here.
When we came to the pastoral prayer, it was led by a lay brother, because the pastor was on holiday. So he prayed that the pastor might have a good holiday. Well, that’s fine. Pastors should have good holidays.
Second, he prayed for a lady member of the church who was about to give birth to a child that she might have a safe delivery, which is fine.
Third, he prayed for another lady who was sick, and then it was over. That’s all there was. It took twenty seconds.
I said to myself, it’s a village church with a village God. They have no interest in the world outside. There was no thinking about the poor, the oppressed, the refugees, the places of violence, and world evangelization.”
–John Stott, (Ten Great Preachers: Messages and Interviews)
Thanks Patrick I feel spurred on in the importance of prayer and staying vigilant. I’ve found the very old book ‘ precious remedies against Satan’s devices’ Thomas Brooks 17th century incredibly helpful in these matters. Glad to read your piece and the other Comments