One of professing Christianity’s most profound ironies is the fact that there are some church people who do not believe that the being known as Satan actually exists. Though the Book they own and claim to believe is filled with references to him, many believe that he is nothing more than a figment of man’s imagination. Evil, they explain, does not exist in the form of an actual being, but is, like good, an aspect of one’s natural life which one obeys at times and rejects at times. According to this theology, we human beings have both good and evil tendencies operating within us at all times. Depending on the situation, man obeys the one that best meets the need of the moment. Even more irony is exhibited by those who also do not believe in an actual being known as God. Such people contend that the God depicted in the Bible is in reality that good aspect which each person possesses, and that the devil written about is the name given to man’s concept of evil. If the Bible is to be believed, both God and Satan, good and evil do in fact exist. We will proceed under that assumption.

For an example of the power that Satan wields over mankind, an episode that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night preceding Christ’s death would be hard to beat. Knowing that the time of His death had arrived, the Lord, along with eleven of His disciples, had gone to the garden to pray in the early morning hours (Jn. 18:1). According to the account recorded in Matthew 26:47, Judas arrived later with “a great multitude of people bearing swords and spears.” This heavily armed mob came expecting the Lord’s disciples put up a fight. to keep Jesus from being arrested. Judas, knowing that Jesus often resorted to the garden with His disciples, had led the multitude to the area. Jesus, knowing what was about to take place, left the disciples and went out to meet the mob alone and asked them for whom they were seeking.

I will use this scene to emphasize the power that Satan has over people who are not true saints of God. To His true believers Jesus had said: “Behold … I give you power over all the power of the enemy” …. (Lk. 10:19). As we will see, His disciples were not yet true believers. Let us return to the garden and picture the scenario that has developed. Here we have dozens of heavily armed men facing one unarmed man who had just asked whom they were seeking. Upon hearing them answer, “Jesus of Nazareth,” Jesus replied, “I am He.” Hearing this, everyone in the “great multitude” fell backwards and onto the ground. Think about this. This man had knocked this “great multitude” of heavily armed men to the ground WITH HIS WORDS. I believe that most people, having average intelligence, would quickly realize that the man they had come to arrest had supernatural power, and that the best mode of action would be to get away from Him as quickly as possible.

But they did not run away. Instead they captured Him and carried Him away. Normally, not one of them would have dared touch a man with such spiritual power. But these men showed no such fear. Why? Only one being could erase their fear and convince them to lay hands on the man Who, with three WORDS, had knocked them off their feet. That being was Satan. But that was not the first time he had removed fear of God from a human mind.

In the Garden of Eden, Satan, using only ONE WORD, convinced Eve that she could reject the Words of the God Who had not only Created her, but also the garden in which she stood, the earth on which it stood and the universe within which it existed. God had told her that if she and Adam ate the fruit of a particular tree, or even touched it, they would die. With ONE WORD Satan convinced her that they would not only get away with defying the Creator of all that existed, but that they would live forever in the paradise that God had created for them. With ONE WORD the serpent convinced Eve that she and Adam, having defied God, would inherit eternal life. He said to her, “You shall NOT surely die.” The word that would change man’s relationship with his Creator was “NOT.” With that ONE WORD Satan had convinced Eve that man, not his Creator, should have the right to determine good and evil. Partaking of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” would give them that power. With ONE WORD (“NOT”) the devil convinced her to reject what her God had told her. Her Creator, Who would later come to earth as Jesus of Nazareth, used three words to put a group of people on the ground. Satan changed the course of history using only ONE WORD. Never underestimate his power.

On this website’s homepage I have listed a number of supposed “Bible truths” which have become the foundation stones upon which the modern church is built. Most of these beliefs and practices came directly from Babylonian heathen religious beliefs and practices embraced by the Catholic Church during the height of the Roman Empire. As previously stated, when the Romans defeated and enslaved a nation–which was often–they would force their captives into the Catholic Church whose leaders had a great deal of influence over Constantine, the Roman Emperor. In order to keep their new “converts” happy, the church would incorporate their heathen religions into her catechisms. When the so-called “Protestants” left the mother church they took most of her heathen beliefs with them. Some of them are listed on the homepage. Read Simon of Samaria: The Legacy. Key word–Simon.

Satan’s power over the Institutional Church is on full display when people such as myself point out the Satanic source of many of their beliefs and practices, then show them how God’s Word contradicts them. Satan has religious man so thoroughly deceived that when confronted with what God says they automatically reject His Words and repeat the words of their particular denomination, faith, church, sect, cult, etc. If that does not reveal the devil’s control over the religious masses, I do not know what does. When confronted with God’s Truth that directly contradicted the church’s theology, one pastor explained that his denomination went “… outside the Bible” to find spiritual truth. Another pastor admitted that God’s Word was right, but that he and his church served the Biblical God in another way. Those words were spoken by leaders in the denomination of which I was involved in before God put me on the right path.

Satan and his fallen angels–called “devils” and “demons” in the Scriptures–have tremendous power. Never underestimate them. L.J.