When it’s said that the devil is present or at work, it can refer to the devil himself; a member of his Eph. 6: 12 forces of evil; one of his John 8: 44 sons that knowingly (or unwittingly) do his bidding; or any activity that he endorses with an evil objective in mind.
The Church, here on Earth, that God designed is not a building, but consists of the collective bodies of all born-again believers. As we will see, the devil is not a part of the Church, but does all he can to establish a presence wherever the Church gathers together.
These “endorsed activities” can include traditions of men within the meeting places of the Christian Community that do not have the support of Scripture, or worse, that contradict it.
Most of the satanic “presence” WITHIN the Christian Community would fall under the “unwittingly” or “endorsed activity” categories. What makes this presence so dangerous is that it is not seen for what it is, and those involved actually think that what they are doing pleases God.
When Jesus pointed this “sons of the devil” principle out to the religious people of His day (1), they tried to turn the table around by accusing Him of being demon possessed. When religious people do not have a fitting response to a message, they will often turn on the messenger.
Unlike God, the devil is not omnipresent. He cannot be everywhere at once, or in two different places at the same time. Therefore, he must use others to knowingly, or in most cases to unwittingly, carry out much of his agenda.
The devil is not yet (2) in Hell waiting for all the “bad” people to go there.
He walks among us. His days, and the days of his world (3) are numbered, but to the extent that God allows, he has considerable (4) influence and input into much of what takes place, here on Earth.
Yet, only on rare occasions (5) did he or does he take on a direct role. He prefers to use others, as keeping his identity and presence hidden usually works to his advantage.
He was right there after The Fall, but only to pick up the spoils of war that goes to the victor. The Fall of Man was a great strategic victory over Man in the realm of spiritual warfare. The woman had been deceived, and Adam knowingly disobeyed.
From that point forward, Man would have a fallen nature that is inherently hostile (6) towards God and the things of God.
Note that at the Fall of Man, the finger of blame was pointed at everything and at everyone else, except the devil.
The woman blamed the serpent, and Adam blamed the woman, and even insinuated some divine responsibility, in that it was God who had brought the woman to him. There was no mention of the devil himself.
But what the “victorious” devil would soon learn, is that the Fall of Man did not take God by surprise. God already had His plan of recovery (for Man) that He had in mind before either the Earth or Man was even created.
The same thing (free will) that got Man into the jam, choosing against God, would be the same means to recover. Fallen Man can be reconciled with God, by using his free will to make a one-time decision to believe in God’s plan of salvation.
After being eternally reconciled with God, Fallen Man then has the daily and ongoing opportunity to further glorify God by executing the post salvation spiritual life of Biblical discipleship.
Spiritual warfare within the human environment has always been, is now, and will always be, over identifying and choosing God’s plan, or rejecting God’s plan and choosing an alternate plan.
These alternate plans can be of our own making, other people, the devil, or by those who knowingly or unwittingly do his bidding.
Disobedience to God’s plan results in death, in one form or another (7).
In the case of Adam and Eve, the immediate form was spiritual death (separation from intimate fellowship) with God that took place on the day they sinned (8). They would eventually suffer physical death 900+ years later (9), having been denied further access to the tree of life that would have sustained their physical lives indefinitely (10).
Both the spiritual death status they received and the reality of the forthcoming experience of physical death was (and is) passed down to the next generation(s) of Man at conception (11).
Details concerning God’s plan for reconciliation and restoration was disclosed in stages, over the course of human history. Old Testament believers, had been told of the coming Savior, but had not (yet) heard of the name Jesus, through which all souls must be saved (12).
Each generation of Man is accountable to the extent that the details of God’s plan of reconciliation had been made known, beginning with the concept of eternity that God places in the heart of every soul that He creates (13).
Through the Person and the Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s plan of reconciliation was fully disclosed (14) and set in motion (15).
Here in the Church Age, the primary objective of the Church that God designed is the execution of the Great Commission (16), making God’s plan of redemption, as well as making God’s present and future plans for the human race known.
In order to accomplish this, the unadulterated Gospel Message, encapsulated in John 3: 16, 18, must be preserved and communicated, and accurate Bible doctrine must be taught and practiced for the development of post salvation discipleship.
It stands to reason then, that the focus of satanic attention is on impeding this mission that God gave to the Church.
He does so through the continuation of promoting the concept of there being no god (atheism), or other gods (Psalm 96: 5) OUTSIDE of the Christian Community, and or by promoting different gospels (17) WITHIN the Christian Community, as the supposed means of securing or retaining salvation from the one true God.
In the place of post salvation Biblical discipleship within the Christian Community, he promotes different agendas to distract born-again believers from identifying and executing God’s plan for the Church Age.
The celebration of the Lord’s Supper (Communion), when done so with the “bringing into remembrance” principle of 1Cor. 11: 24, 25 in mind, and the ongoing teaching and reiteration of the entire realm of Bible Doctrine, are the two primary ingredients that produce the type of worship (18) that God desires, here in the Church Age.
Due to the devil’s influential presence, various deviations from Scripture have been established concerning the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (Communion), and the preaching and the teaching of the Word of God.
End of Part 1 of 3
(1) John 8: 44 (2) Rev. 20: 10 (3) Luke 4: 6 (4) Rev. 12: 9 (5) Matt. 4/Luke 23: 3 (6) Rom. 8: 7 (7) Rom. 6: 23 (8) Gen. 2:16 (9) Gen. 5: 5 (10) Gen. 3: 22-24 (11) Psalms 51: 5 (12) Acts 4: 10-12 (13) Eccl 3:11 (14) John 14: 6 (15) 1John 2: 2 (16) Matt. 28: 19, 20 (17) Gal 1: 8, 9 (18) John 4: 23