I am a United Methodist pastor, and I discussed Satan in my sermon yesterday.  Satan wasn’t the focal point, because as the first commenter pointed out, Jesus Christ overcomes all evil.  I think Satan certainly has a role, and I try to underscore the fact that we are all prone to temptations by Satan.  But I also don’t believe in elevating his powers too highly by making the devil the focal point of the sermon.

I am a Lay Speaker in the UMC. Whether talking with others or speaking from the pulpit, I do not hesitate to speak of hell, Satan or the power Satan wields in this world. To deny the existence of Satan or hell denigrates the power and purpose of Jesus Christ. Ignoring the obvious presence of evil in the world is an act of political correctness that has had serious repercussions.

I was a member of the UMC for some time, and I can’t remember any sermons during that time that focused on the devil, but I go recall a few in which he was mentioned.  Then again, our pastors were pretty “with it” when it came to explaining the full gamut of theology.

It’s silly to think that the devil is not a real being whose influence still affects men today.  Every believer should have some knowledge of the tempter, how he works, his motives, techniques, and ultimate demise.  Does it need to be mentioned regularly?  No.  But can we just put our heads in the sand and pretend he doesn’t exist, as many in the UMC do?  No.

--
CS

I agree with Matthew that we ought not overemphasize the devil. However, as a therapist I also see a need to assess the issues facing us.

For example, if one of my parishoners or clients is depressed I have one kind of intervention. If the person is addicted I have another. If we cannot even mention depression or anxiety or alcoholism how can we best intervene?

In my thirty years of counseling I have met many Christians who refuse to believe in depression or addiction.  They say every problem is a demon. They cannot “name the problem of mental illness or addiction” and thus have no good intervention. Those who refuse to mention evil, Satan or sin have no ready intervention because there is no accurate assessment.

When Martin Luther wrote, “One little word shall fell him” about whom was he speaking? Was he speaking about depression, anxiety, mania, addiction or adultery? If we refuse to mention the problem how can we know the solution?

Martin Luther also knew about depression and he did not try to cast out a demon in every depressed person. He knew how to do a differential diagnosis but I am afraid some modern Believers have thrown out some of the most important diagnostic categories with their baptism water.

Very well said, Gary...We have to rely on the Holy Spirit - the most wonderful gift that Jesus has given us (next to salvation itself) - to lead us in discerning what we are dealing with. There are often many layers to an issue. We are, after all, made up of body, soul and spirit. There is a lot of overlap.

Not every case of depression or other illness is demonic at its root. As one who deals with OCD I can attest to this. Medication did wonders. In addition, standing against a generational bent toward depression and anxiety that runs through my family has also helped.  I have now come off one of my 2 medications. I have learned to recognize and stop agreeing with the lies that I was encouraged to believe in my illness.

I agree with Matthew that Praise and speaking the name of Jesus are wonderful ways of sending away evil from our presence.

Shoring up and closing doors so that he doesn’t return are additionally helpful.

I’m not a member of the UM clergy(!), in fact I’m a Baptist from the UK. Among my Christian friends there seems to be a real ‘gap in knowledge’ about Satan/The Devil, angels and ‘spiritual beings in general.

I run the site whyangels.com to hopefully put across some information about these matters in a Biblical and easy to understand way.

I’ve done a page on the evil side as I think it’s important to know what we’re up against (and have victory over!). http://whyangels.com/devil_demons.html

Pat,

Thank you!! To God be the glory as we say! He showed me everything I needed to fight the battle. It’s nice to have peace in my head.

It is also unfortunate that most of the “classic” Christian thinking about Hell and Satan come from Dante rather than Scripture.

I am a currently a music director in a UMC church in the San Diego area.  The biggest problem with the UMC now is not the Satan issue, but that the UMC churches of Southern California recently passed resolutions at their District Conference to support gay marriage, and also support the defeat of the Marriage Protection Amendment on the November ballot.  I was so offended by this, that I am resigning my position as music director.  The Bible speaks very clearly against homosexuality, and the UMC is entering dangerous territory by compromising on this issue.  Please pray that God will provide the income that I need as I take this step of faith to walk away from my job at the UMC church by standing up for what I believe in.  Thanks!

Rev. Rick
Escondido, CA

I dunno, Daniel, is it enough for a troop walking in a jungle on enemy territory to simply say “I know that this enemy is here, but I have no clue how it works or what rules it lives by, I know nothing about it except that it’s bad...But if I just live according to my country’s precepts and think on happy things, then I will be fine, as will everyone else who I have been trained to defend”.

Living rightly and focusing largely on what is good and pure are extremely strong tools in escaping the snares of the enemy...But there are times when we could be faced with evil so raw that we either know what we are dealing with and how to deal with it or the enemy takes a prisoner.

Case in point:

My friend Kim was leaving her church and saw a woman lying in the parking lot moaning and howling like a wounded animal. This is a woman who attends church regularly but becomes agitated at any message that speaks about the atoning blood of Jesus. Her face is contorting and her body is moving in an unnatural fashion.

My friend, familiar with deliverance, got help in the church and an endless night with this woman ensued.  The team took hours trying to untangle this woman from the damage done by a systematic, hierarchical structure that thrives on destroying people. This woman was a victim of satanic ritual abuse. She herself desperately wanted to be free but was struggled to hold onto healings. She had been traumatized in her mother’s womb which caused her to fracture into multiple personalities. Each personality was later assigned a demon.

The fact that my friend and the team that worked with the lady were all upstanding Christians who likely thought on pure things and did not conform to this world were of little direct use to this woman.

My point is not that everyone should have to go through years of theory and training in deliverance...Not everyone is called to deliverance ministry. But we are all called to be able to face evil directly and at least understand enough to know the ways in which the enemy works. I believe that there should be basic training in spiritual warfare for believers.

Not so we can walk around afraid, but so we can walk around in victory.

I read the full article, then the MMI article, and a good chunk of the comments as well. What amazed me about the article and some of the comments is the “desire” to read for the sake of commenting, not for the sake of understanding. Whether in our biblical exposition or web site comments, doesn’t it all seem to come down to personal opinions?

There were comments about being uncomfortable talking about sin and the devil and how our understanding of certain biblical ideas changes as the culture changes; there was one response, to a man who said he would preach on Satan but focused more on Christ because Christ redeems, that said we should focus on Christ but that focus doesn’t mean we should ignore the topic of Satan. Isn’t that what the guy had said?? I confess, I don’t really understand this failure to comprehend the written word, divine or otherwise.

Hasatan, or Satan, is called the devil, the tempter, the accuser, and even a masquerader of light. Yes, the power of evil is often attributed to Satan and the Bible has shown this in a number of ways, namely in Revelation as a physical entity. Could be metaphor...but would Jesus continue to let people think something untrue by using the language himself? Perhaps he only wanted people to understand his message of God’s will (more than he wanted to be accurate by saying, “Get behind me, my tendency to practice evil when left to my selfish decisions!” <--see the amplified Bible, maybe?). We have taken Dante’s idea of Satan as ‘gospel’ and think of him as the puppet-master, a minor God who will duke it out with JC in the last days.

Maybe we should stop with the social constructs, forming a concept of evil and Satan that seems more palatable to us, and wrestle with what the Bible says about Satan. By wrestle with, I don’t mean form a doctrine so that everyone has this difficult to understand entity and idea in a nicely wrapped box, forever and ever amen. I mean wrestle with it. And sometimes, like Jacob, what we find might stink or leave us hobbling for the rest of our lives, but at least then it would be honest - whether in confusion or certainty. Satan can influence people. One day Jesus is going to end that for good. Yes, we can kick Satan and his influence out of our minds and hearts on a moment-by-moment basis by invoking the name of Jesus, but the only one nuking hell, ol’ Horny Head, or his minions is the literal person of Jesus when He’s good and ready. Do we need something more definitive, really? We may find comfort in it for awhile, but it will go away and then we’ll find something else to be freaked out about and question.

Maybe we don’t need doctrines about Satan as much as we need to stand up for what the Bible says - and I don’t mean that like some fundamentalist. Sometimes we see truly metaphorical passages and sometimes we see terms (like Satan, and hell, and sin) that we would love to ascribe metaphorical labels to so we’ll feel better and people won’t feel offended or blame their own decisions on some ethereal object. Maybe we’ve developed such a habit of blaming others for our problems, and wiping the slate clean of personal responsibility, that truth also gets exchanged for a lie and Satan gets absolved into nothingness in our minds. After all, “the best trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

But don’t take such things as gospel or anything. After all, they’re just my personal opinions…

David said:

“Maybe we’ve developed such a habit of blaming others for our problems, and wiping the slate clean of personal responsibility, that truth also gets exchanged for a lie and Satan gets absolved into nothingness in our minds. After all, “the best trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

Very true...One thing that becomes obvious in deliverance ministry is that the free will of a human is often more difficult to deal with than anything demonic. Demons MUST sumit to the name of Jesus...Humans do not. Sometimes the lies and influence that we allow satan to have in our lives is more comfortable than the thought of letting it go. ‘The devil made me do it” only goes so far. In the end there is a lot of personal choice involved. That line can be blurred but on average, we would all do well to learn where the enemy is getting a foothold and then stop agreeing with him.