Not only is Satan alive and well on Planet Earth, but the Devil goes to Church. My apologies to Hal Lindsey for stealing his line, it was too good to pass up.
The concept of Satan and his minions running around causing havoc is generally treated with ridicule in our post-modern society. This is definitely true in the secular realm, but I bet it’s the case in many churches as well. Incidentally, Satan isn’t omnipresent or omniscient, so he needs minions, commonly referred to as demons.
Frank Peretti’s spiritual warfare novels drew theological criticism, rightly so in a few cases. Yet if my stint in the New Age taught me anything, Peretti got it right in places.
His depiction of one apostate pastor (Oliver Young) in the book This Present Darkness was quite familiar to me. In the novel, Young was in bed with the thugs promoting eastern pagan mysticism. Many years ago real-life examples of Young were a factor in facilitating my trip into the New Age.
Randy Alcorn’s two books, Lord Foulgrin’s Letters and The Ishbane Conspiracy, also lent some credibility to the concept of demonic interference in the Christian’s life. Alcorn took his cue from C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters. These letters are a correspondence from a senior demon to a junior, advising him how to hijack a Christian’s life.
One of Alcorn’s central characters is Reverend Braun, who is just like Pastor Oliver Young. Braun considers the message of the cross to be “simplistic”. During one service he tells the congregation to: “Pray with me now to the heavenly parent, whoever you may conceive him or her to be.” He’s just the type of preacher Lord Foulgrin likes:
Don’t attempt to refute Christianity when you can dilute it with anything and everything else. This is how we emasculate the message. Convince him the Carpenter is an enlightened master, in a line of spiritual teachers who went to the East and studied with gurus before working with His disciples. Commend Him as a great mentor. Damn Him with faint praise. ~ Lord Foulgrin
These characters are from fictional novels. But it’s all too true.
I was acutely reminded of this recently when Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age posted some material on Richard Rohr (on her Facebook page). His name was immediately familiar to me as one of the go-to people for progressive-freethinking Christians. Even Biola University has seen fit to give Rohr space on their website.
Fred Sanders reviewed one of Rohr’s books in Why I Don’t Flow With Richard Rohr. He notes that it’s endorsed by the likes of Shane Claiborne, Jim Wallis, Nadia Bolz-Weber, and Rob Bell. I could add more names to that list. The book was the best selling new release on the Trinity on Amazon, weeks before publication. Considering all the above, the following comments from Sanders should concern us:
…Rohr’s teaching deviates sharply from the tradition, and precisely in the direction of lightweight New Age stuff from California. A kind of devotional blasphemy is his trademark. Flirtation with heresy is his frisson. He goes out of his way to sound edgy, Buddhist, sciencey, unorthodox.
I may have left the New Age, but paganism has become more main-stream in the church. It’s a sad irony that, while professing many evangelicals are embracing Rohr’s ideas, at least one Catholic source brands him a heretic!
Rohr is just one example – the tip of the proverbial ice-berg. Professing Christians like Harvey Cox (When Jesus Came to Harvard) and Paul Knitter (Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian) have been promoting religious plurality and universalism for years. The title of Knitter’s book spells it out clearly. Yes, I’ve read it.
Years ago I participated in an Amazon forum discussing one of Paramahansa Yogananda’s books which was, supposedly, about Jesus Christ. I was bothered by the fact that professing Christians – including two ministers – were praising it. One of them even planned on using its ideas in his sermons. Yogananda’s “Jesus” was a phony. And, yes, I read the book.
When I began warning others an Eastern Orthodox Christian berated me. He took issue with me quoting Yogananda and citing Scripture in defense of the Christian teaching. He thought it was arrogant. Moreover, I discovered he was a fan of Raimon Panikkar who promoted religious plurality and universalism. Panikkar states that:
I left Europe as a Christian, I discovered I was a Hindu and returned as a Buddhist without ever having ceased to be Christian.
No more will one religion, culture or tradition impose itself on peoples of diverse if less powerful traditions.
When the Serpent spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden, he lied and sowed discontent for God in her heart. The One Tree (aside from all the other Good Trees) which she was forbidden to eat from became the focus of her attention. Suddenly God was a law-giving meanie who was depriving her of something she wanted, perhaps even entitled to.
The Devil is still doing that. Christians are encouraged to determine truth based on what they prefer. The Bible is only useful when it supports their philosophies. Doctrine is formulated on the basis of social concerns: homosexuality, abortion, universalism, diversity, religious plurality etc, rather than God’s Word.
Satan is alive and well. He goes to church regularly and he’s happy to play the role of Christian. The Devil uses whatever works to sabotage God’s Word, the gospel and the Christian’s joy in Christ. He wants us to focus on ourselves, our worldly desires and worries, instead of the Lord (this is too often my problem).
Let us keep all this in mind.
Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1Peter 5:8
Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Eph 6:11-12
Maranatha!
Further reading:
The Invisible War
Christ’s Call to Reform the Church
Rusty cars and Christian institutions
Brian McLaren: Virgin Birth not Necessarily Literal
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