Satan’s Strategy
to Choke the Church’s Relationship with God
Satan’s strategy in the Garden of Eden was simple: divide Adam and Eve from each other’s help and then offer something attractive that God did not want for them. Genesis 2:18 makes it crystal clear that humans need one another’s help to do most of the things that God would ask. And, if Adam and Eve couldn’t pull off individual obedience when they were perfect, everyone else from the first sin forward would be a piece of cake for the devil.
Satan’s Favorite Strategy
divide Christians from one another so that they cannot help one another and offer them what God does not want |
That strategy worked so well with Adam and Eve that it became the devil’s preferred game plan.
King David was alone and that led to adultery and murder. Achan (Joshua 7) was alone and stole things that belonged to God – and it was counted that all of Israel’s sinned. And, today we listen to sermons and read Christian books that tell us to make spiritual progress by just knowing the truth, not even hinting that we need help from our friends, spouse, or family.
Eve was unable to resist Satan just armed with truth. Therefore, surely we need each other’s hands-on help for obedience and to grow spiritually. The promise that truth will set us free needs to be understood with clarification. The Greek word for “know” in John 8:32 is the most stringent of many words translated “know”. It means knowledge tried out and thus proven. Most of us need each others’ help, especially encouragement, to go out on a limb and trust biblical truth that has so far been out of our reach.
But Christian culture has made knowing the Bible as individuals the most important thing. Not to consider that we cannot see all that is in a verse or passage without one another’s involvement. Why don’t we see that we need each other’s help for any assignment God gives us, whether that be being a husband or wife, father or mother, or friend.
The answer is that Satan has used his main strategy to create individualized Christianity. As long as the devil can keep us thinking that our growth in Christ is something we can accomplish without one another’s help, we will make really slow progress in prayer, trusting God, and a hundred other things of faith we would give our right arm to have.
How tragic it is that few are mentioning the dangers of individualized faith and Christianity. How subtle that the spiritual things we do alone seem so right even with evidence that spiritual growth and change into the likeness of Jesus Christ barely creeps along.
So, Satan divides us by sermons that talk to individuals, books that tell us what to change but not how to do it with the relationships the Bible says are necessary, church structures that prevent getting to really know people in the very pew in which we sit, programs that give us a taste of fellowship but only superficial relationship, etc.
However, Satan’s strategy can be busted by Christian friendships, marriages and families that go further biblically. In these relationships there is enough time together and commitment to one another to get down in the trenches and help. We can put Satan on the run in smaller groups of lasting relationships that recognize the Jesus is with them.
King David was alone and that led to adultery and murder. Achan (Joshua 7) was alone and stole things that belonged to God – and it was counted that all of Israel’s sinned. And, today we listen to sermons and read Christian books that tell us to make spiritual progress by just knowing the truth, not even hinting that we need help from our friends, spouse, or family.
Eve was unable to resist Satan just armed with truth. Therefore, surely we need each other’s hands-on help for obedience and to grow spiritually. The promise that truth will set us free needs to be understood with clarification. The Greek word for “know” in John 8:32 is the most stringent of many words translated “know”. It means knowledge tried out and thus proven. Most of us need each others’ help, especially encouragement, to go out on a limb and trust biblical truth that has so far been out of our reach.
But Christian culture has made knowing the Bible as individuals the most important thing. Not to consider that we cannot see all that is in a verse or passage without one another’s involvement. Why don’t we see that we need each other’s help for any assignment God gives us, whether that be being a husband or wife, father or mother, or friend.
The answer is that Satan has used his main strategy to create individualized Christianity. As long as the devil can keep us thinking that our growth in Christ is something we can accomplish without one another’s help, we will make really slow progress in prayer, trusting God, and a hundred other things of faith we would give our right arm to have.
How tragic it is that few are mentioning the dangers of individualized faith and Christianity. How subtle that the spiritual things we do alone seem so right even with evidence that spiritual growth and change into the likeness of Jesus Christ barely creeps along.
So, Satan divides us by sermons that talk to individuals, books that tell us what to change but not how to do it with the relationships the Bible says are necessary, church structures that prevent getting to really know people in the very pew in which we sit, programs that give us a taste of fellowship but only superficial relationship, etc.
However, Satan’s strategy can be busted by Christian friendships, marriages and families that go further biblically. In these relationships there is enough time together and commitment to one another to get down in the trenches and help. We can put Satan on the run in smaller groups of lasting relationships that recognize the Jesus is with them.
“For where two or three come together in my name,
there am I with them.” Matthew 18:20 |
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If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
__________________________________________________________________________________
If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
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Copyright 2013 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA