Inside Out Living

This Friday there will be an interesting Nightline debate that will take place at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. The debate will pit Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson who will argue that Satan does not in fact exist and Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll and and Annie Lobert, founder of “Hookers for Jesus” will argue he does and that he’s impacted their lives. While the debate takes place this Friday the episode of Nightline will not air until Thursday March 26th at 11:35 pm.

I think that this will be quite a fascinating debate. Here are a few thoughts about the reality of Satan.

1.) If we take God's word, the Bible, as inerrant and divinely insprired then we have to believe in the existence of Satan because the Bible presents Satan as a real being that is quite powerful.

2.) It makes no sense for someone to believe in Jesus and to worship him as God, Savior, Messiah, Lord, etc. and then to deny the existence of Satan. Jesus readily acknowledged the existence of Satan and his demons.

3.) If we believe in an all-knowing and all-loving God and yet try to contend that Satan does not exist then where do we place the source of evil in this world. Satan as a created being chose to disobey his Creator and continually rebels against God seeking to take down as many other creatures with him as possible. If Satan does not exist then either God is to blame for evil or the purpose of mankind becomes reduced to overcoming some impersonal evil presence inside yourself and becoming one with your divine nature or some bizarre teaching like that.

As much as we dislike talking about Satan or thinking about his role in the world, he does exist, he is powerful, but he will not be victorious in derailing God's plan of salvation and restoration. Our hope in Jesus does not disappoint.