Your Adversary, the Devil: Part 1*
1 Peter 5:8
No One Believes in Me Anymore
By Dave Redick

Let’s see… 58% deny the existence of Satan while 81% accept the existence of angels? What is wrong with this picture? Doesn’t the same Bible that tells us of the existence of angels also tell us of a living being called Satan?

A private first class was experiencing his first battle in time of war. As the forces engaged, bullets whizzed by his ears and explosions shook the ground. In wide eyed terror, the young recruit inched his way backward, and backward and finally just turned and ran as hard as he could go, away from the front line. He had gone quite a ways when he was abruptly stopped by an officer. The officer was pointing a revolver at the private’s head. He threatened to execute him if he took another step. The soldier pleaded with the officer, "Oh, please Captain, don’t shoot me; please give me another chance to prove myself." The officer felt compassion for the young man and agreed, "All right, private, but take a closer look; I am not a captain. I’m a colonel." The young soldier looked at the officer and apologized, "I'm sorry, Colonel, I guess I didn't realize how far from the front line I had come."

The humor of that story aside, we live in a time when a lot of those who consider themselves Christians don’t realize how far from the front lines they and their churches have come. They have no fear of the front line because they don’t believe there even is a front line – or for that matter, that there is a battle or a real enemy. To them such terminology seems melodramatic. I’ll explain what I mean more fully as my message progresses.

For now I want you to look quickly with me at four New Testament passages. The first is Ephesians 6:12:

The second passage is 1 Peter 5:8:

The third passage is Revelation 12:9:

And one more from 1 John 5:19:

All of these passages have a common theme. They make reference to the existence and power of a non-physical being called Satan or the devil.

I want to speak to you about this one that Peter called, "your adversary, the devil."

We’ll begin with the very fundamental point that:

I suspect that most of us here this morning consider such a statement redundant. "Of course, Satan is real!" you may be thinking. "The Bible says so. Who among believers would teach or believe otherwise?" But what is obvious to us isn’t always what others believe.

Of course, we should expect that unbelievers – those who reject the existence of God and don’t accept the Bible as the word of God – would deny that there is a real being called Satan. But the denial doesn’t end with unbelievers. A surprising number of those who consider themselves Christians reject the existence of a literal devil.

The well-known Barna Research Group did a survey of people living in the United States in 2001. They concluded in their study(1) that:

Perhaps you can see why we need to start any teaching on the subject of the devil with the assertion that Satan is a real being.

Interestingly, just one year before this survey, in the year 2000, Barna did a study on belief in angels and found that four out of five people (81%) believe that angels exist and influence people's lives.(2)

Let’s see… 58% deny the existence of Satan while 81% accept the existence of angels? What is wrong with this picture? Doesn’t the same Bible that tells us of the existence of angels also tell us of a living being called Satan? Why the inconsistency?

One reason is that more and more people just don’t know what the Bible teaches. They don’t read it. It isn’t taught or preached in their churches. And people who are ignorant of the facts usually fill in the blanks of their understanding with things other than the facts – often heavily influenced by popular culture rather than truth.

Another reason for the inconsistency is the effect of years of liberal theology. By that I mean things taught in churches that deny part or all of the supernatural elements of Scripture. Liberal theologians have systematically dismantled the word of God in the minds of many. For them, very little remains of the biblical Christian faith. It shouldn’t surprise us that those who would reject fundamental Bible doctrines like the virgin birth, the deity of Jesus, and the resurrection would also reject other key teachings that are ridiculed by the world. In such circles, it’s not what is right based on the Bible that is the concern - it’s what is popular and socially acceptable.

Yet another reason for the inconsistency is that there is a tendency among people to believe only what they want to believe. Paul warned Timothy of this very thing in 2 Timothy 4:3-4:

Out of curiosity, I went to a Web search engine last week and typed in the words, "Satan is not real." Sure enough, up popped a website that presented that very proposition with a lot of convoluted reasoning. "Who is writing this?" I wondered. So I checked further. The name of the website was, "The Center for Unhindered Living,"(3) which claimed to be "a community of individuals and families who are dedicated to… maintain their independence from institutions and individuals that control people's lives…." (I suppose there is no way that someone as "controlling" as a Creator is going to penetrate a wall like that!)

Among the articles and links offered on the web site were two that claimed to use the Bible to "prove" that Satan is a myth and one that claimed to "prove" by the Bible that there is no hell. I guess that would qualify for Paul’s warning to Timothy about those who would "turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside to myths."

The words of a song a few years back by the late Keith Green put it very well. Green's song is called, "No One Believes in Me Anymore."(4)

I’m here to tell you that in spite of what unbelievers, liberals, and people who want their ears tickled might say, the Bible tells us that Satan is very real. The Bible, which is the standard for living and belief for true Christians, says so - which brings me to a second point:

The Old Testament mentions the name "Satan" 18 times in the New American Standard Version of the Bible. The Hebrew word that our English bibles translate "Satan" comes from a root word that means "to be or act as an adversary, to resist, to oppose."(5) From Genesis 3 onward in the Old Testament, when we find Satan mentioned, that is exactly what he is doing. Note that I said, "that is exactly what he is doing." That’s because never in Scripture is Satan presented as an inanimate object or a myth or a metaphor. Never is he presented as an "it" or as merely a concept or a symbol. The language of the Old Testament presents him as a real being.

The same is true of the New Testament. The word "Satan" appears 35 times between Matthew and Revelation and never once is he described or presented as anything other than a literal being.

A full examination of this issue would take us longer than we have this morning, so rather than do that, I’ve selected of a few key passages for us to consider. Let’s begin in the book of Genesis.

One way that those who reject the reality of Satan interpret these verses is to say that this isn’t a real story. It never really happened, you see. It is only a figure of speech - perhaps an allegory. Satan is merely a symbol of evil and this story is only intended to present the generic concept of the struggle between good and evil. Of course such a view also holds that Adam and Eve were not real people, either. They were symbols of mankind in the struggle.

But for those who would make this story an allegory, I have a question. There are not only three characters in this story - there are four. There is the serpent. There is Adam. There is Eve. And there is God. If the serpent, Adam, and Eve are merely metaphors in a mythical story, then what is God? Is He an allegory or a myth, too? If not, why not? Why pick Him out as literal and assign mythical status to the others? That’s inconsistent.

An answer that might be given goes like this: "We know God exists because He is confirmed as literal in other places of the Bible."

OK. For the sake of discussion, I’ll accept that. But the same can be said for the other three characters.

For instance, Luke mentions Adam in the genealogy of Jesus. Beginning with Jesus, Luke works backward through each literal generation, using the terms, "somebody, the son of somebody, the son of somebody else," all the way back to Adam. So that you can see my point, let’s pick it up in Luke 3:38 where we read, "[Jesus]…the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God."

If Adam is a mythical character, then what about the rest of these men? Are they mythical, too? And what about God? He’s in the lineage of Jesus. Is He a myth?

Furthermore, would the assertion that Adam wasn’t a literal being mean that Jesus was born of a myth or an allegory? Do myths produce human beings? What law of reproduction would allow that?

Paul tells us in Romans 5:14 that "death reigned from Adam until Moses." The apostle here is speaking of a span of time – from the time of Adam until the time of Moses. Certainly there is no indication that Paul assigned literal status to Moses but mythical status to Adam. If that were so his statement would make no sense at all.

That Paul viewed the events described in Genesis 3 as literal is also seen in what he said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 2:13-14: "For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression."

There is not even a hint in Paul’s words that he considered either the creation story or the story of the fall as anything other than real.

But it wasn’t only the prophets and apostles of the New Testament who viewed the characters described in Genesis 3 as literal beings. Jesus Himself presented them that way. Here is what He said of Adam and Eve in Matthew 19:4-5:

"Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh’?"

Jesus spoke of Adam and Eve as two literal people, male and female, not myths or allegories. Those who say that the Genesis account is a myth find themselves at odds with New Testament apostles and prophets and even the Son of God.

Let’s look at another Old Testament passage that mentions Satan:

Those who deny the existence of Satan say that this account is also a mythical story - probably an allegory. But again I say, look at the characters. There is God. There is Job. There is Satan. If Satan and Job are mythical characters, then God must be, too. Consistency demands it.

But is this story verified elsewhere as literal or does the Bible tell us somewhere either by word or implication that it was intended as an allegory? James, the half-brother of Jesus, makes the issue crystal clear in his New Testament letter. We read in James 5:10-11, "As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful."

James was trying to encourage suffering Christians when he wrote this. He was citing examples of real people who triumphed over real suffering in the past. What sort of encouragement would these words hold for James’ suffering brethren if the story of Job were a mere myth? No one would be encouraged by an imaginary fight between a non-existent devil and a mythical patriarch!

Furthermore, there is not a single hint in James’ words that Job’s story was viewed as a myth or an allegory. And again, I appeal to consistency. If the story of Job was a myth, were the stories of the Old Testament prophets that James appeals to also myths?

Some people who say that there isn’t a literal devil are clearly unbelievers. They don’t believe in God. They ridicule the Bible as the word of God. Though we disagree sharply with their beliefs and conclusions, we now what motivates them and we know their end.

I’m more concerned about those who appeal to the Scripture to make their deceptive claim that Satan is a myth. They’re the ones behind that horrible statistic I read you in the beginning of this sermon that stated that 45% of those who claim to be born again Christians don’t believe in Satan’s existence. My intent here is to push such people to the logical conclusions of their assertion. Those who mislead such deceived people are really unbelievers who masquerade as believers. They are "wolves in sheep’s clothing."(6)

We have time this morning for one more passage, this one from the New Testament.

Again, those who deny the existence of a literal Satan deny that this is a real story. Jesus did battle with a myth, according to them, or even worse, He never did battle with anyone at all. Matthew was telling a made-up story, a legend, a myth, in order to make a generic point about good and evil.

Perhaps by now you can spot the weak points in the argument. If Satan isn’t a literal being, what about Jesus? If, instead of "the devil" in this passage, we read "symbol of evil," then when we read "Jesus," are we merely reading about a "symbol of good?" Was Jesus myth also?

And did you notice there in the verse 11 that the devil left him and the angels came and began to minister to him? Surely if this is a mythical story, then angels are mythical, too. Yet many of those who reject the existence of Satan readily accept the existence of angels (remember Barna's survey?) Why? Because it is popular to believe in angels. Society doesn't laugh at that or ridicule those who believe in angels.

If Matthew’s account of the struggle between Jesus and Satan isn’t literal, then what about the other times that Jesus spoke of or to the devil? Are they mythical, too?

What about that time in Matthew 16:23 when, while speaking to Peter, Jesus said, "Get behind me, Satan?" Was Jesus speaking to someone who really wasn’t there? We have a name for people who go around mumbling and talking to people who aren’t there. It isn't too polite, but we usually call them crazy. Was Jesus crazy?

How about that time when Jesus said in Luke 22:31-32, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail…."

Was Jesus lying to Peter? Or was He possibly deceived Himself into believing something that really wasn’t true?

If a person is going to believe that Satan is a myth, he or she must also believe that Christ, God, and the Bible are also mythical. Such a belief turns God’s word into Swiss Cheese. To the one who holds this position, I say simply, "Fine. You are an unbeliever. Admit it. Just don’t put out this nonsense that you are a "born again believer" who believes in the Bible but doesn’t believe in Satan. That position is not consistent now nor will it ever be.

The Bible is so full of references to Satan that it is impossible to deny the existence of the devil without also denying the validity of Christianity.

Earlier I quoted from the findings of the Barna Research Group. On their website, George Barna himself expressed his view of the effects this issue and others like it have on the Christian faith. I’ll close with his words:

Whether you are a Christian or not, whether you believe it or not, you will have to deal with this being called Satan. You'll face him in either knowledge or ignorance. He wants nothing less than your total condemnation and destruction, so that you will suffer with him forever in the Lake of Fire. I encourage you to learn what you can about him so you’ll know what you can do to avoid that end.

Footnotes: Use your "back" button to return to your place.

1. http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PageCategory.asp#Satan
2. http://www.barna.org/cgi-bin/PageCategory.asp#Angels
3. http://www.unhinderedliving.com
4. Keith Green, No One Believes in Me Anymore: http://www.lyrics.net.ua/song/58953
5. From The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright (c)1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.
6. Matthew 7:15
7. Barna Research Group: Religious Beliefs Vary Widely By Denomination, June 25, 2001
http://www.barna.org

*Links to all sermons in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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