[11] so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

 

I just finished a podcast series on the Satanic Panic of the 80’s and 90’s. I enjoyed listening in, because it was a trip down memory lane. The decades of the 80’s and 90’s were formative for me and I was raised in a conservative church.

I read the Frank Peretti book, “This Present Darkness”. I was shown a video in my high school youth group about the influence of Satanism on rock music called ‘Hell’s Bells.’ I knew all about back-masking, Satanic imagery on album covers, and I expected that every small town in America had a hidden, but quite active Satanic gathering.

So listening to this podcast took me back. The nature of the podcast was a bit snarky and full of warnings about the type of panic that would expect the evil out there without acknowledging the evil within. While churches were showing videos about overt Satanic influences, many within churches were being molested or abused. This disparity is devastating, and yet I am not sure the podcast’s attempted resolution is satisfactory.

I am reminded of the quote from C.S. Lewis in his introduction to the “Screwtape Letters” regarding interest in the demonic. He wrote, “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.”

If the 80’s and 90’s erred on the side of over-interest in the demonic influences in our culture, the 10’s and 20’s seem to have gone the other direction. While I don’t love keeping the word “panic” in my recommendation, I think that keeping it aligns the solution to the issue of our spiritual warfare with the previous heightened attention to the spiritual realm.

I have been guilty of saying something to the effect that, “I don’t need to blame a demon for tempting me. I am fully capable of tempting myself just fine . . .” I would suggest that standing by that statement is to NOT stand with Scripture or the apostle Paul who says,

Ephesians 6:12

[12] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

or even with the apostle Peter who says,

1 Peter 5:8

[8] Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Why even tell us such things if we are NOT meant to believe them!? I believe that the call on the church is to keep in tension all the truth that is revealed. We are fallen, corrupt, easily tempted, and fully at fault for our own sins AND there is an enemy of our souls who commands a host of principalities and powers (not of flesh and blood) who are seeking to destroy the work of God and especially His image bearers.

Understanding this is the start. But PANIC cannot be the response of the child of God. Knowing there is a battle is a good start. Knowing that we are not equal to the task is also key. Outgunned! Outmatched! The victory will not come through our strength. The victory comes through the glorious VICTORY of our king. We are like the Israelites cowering as the forces of darkness are arrayed against them. And every day the biggest, meanest, strongest giant of the Philistines came out to shout and defy the army of the Lord. But God raised up His victor to send the forces of darkness running! In the case of Goliath it was King David. But in the case of Satan it was King Jesus.

We are not called to ignore this battle, because the New Testament highlights that we still live in this ongoing place of skirmish and battle. And yet we battle in such a way that we know that the enemy capital has fallen. The writing is on the wall. The eradication of evil is secured by our champion.

The podcast I listened to could easily cause people to snicker and give an eye-roll to those who are ‘naive’ enough to believe that there is a real spiritual battle going on around us. But Scripture won’t let me drop that notion. The curtain is pulled back on evil. It is organized. It is everywhere.

To be fair, I think the podcast wants to highlight another important reality about evil that IS potentially corrective. Wickedness is not merely manifest out there in some super-dark, red cowl wearing Satanic mass of sacrificed goats, pentagrams, and black candles. Evil cuts across every single human heart! And this is a fundamental message of the Bible as well.

But I hate false-dichotomies. Evil is found in both places. We don’t do well to ignore the sinfulness of our own heart. We don’t do well to ignore the real, sinister movements of the evil one and his demons. We are told about both, so that we glory all the more in the amazing work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He can heal a broken human heart, WHILE defeating the plots and plans of the evil one.

My encouragement to anyone who has read this far is a simple statement . . . Come to Jesus and accept Him as your Lord and Savior . . . He has defeated the evil one at His cross . . . And He has dealt with the wickedness of our own hearts at His cross. We are meant to remember that we have TWO enemies . . . Our own hearts, and a real and personal Devil.

Praise God that in Jesus Christ our Lord . . . Both of our enemies have been subdued!