If I Were Satan

Jonathan Edwards was probably America's greatest preacher. He entered Yale University at the age of 14 and graduated with honors at the age of 17. He was probably America's greatest intellectual, credited as the backbone of the Great Awakening which started around 1730, his greatest sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was delivered in 1741. Edwards was not an articulate speaker, a pulpiteer, he read the sermon close to his face because all he had was candlelight. The sermon had such a great effect on the audience that they actually felt they were hanging over the fires of hell by a spider's web. He died from a smallpox inoculation just before he was to become president of Princeton University, he was the grandfather of Aaron Burr.

American history has been molded through the influence of great preachers, preachers not influenced and controlled by the waves and wiles of the world. I have been fortunate enough to have heard, in person, some of these great preachers: R.G. Lee, George Truett, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Charles E. Fuller, most of today's preachers are just assassins of the doctrine “once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3) such as Rick Warren, who like Oprah gives the same answers about his ministry, “we go as humanitarians.” We are warned about these churches, Laodicea, lukewarm, Sardis, morgue with a steeple. The old preachers such as Edwards, D.L. Moody, spoke of what would happen with a profane civilization, agnostic churches. America has become a profane nation.

Judgment begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17), most young people, raised in the church leave because the church has lost its gravitas on their life, holiness and obedience in worship. Many young people are attracted to the modernistic assembly because there is little difference in the music of the discotheque to that of the so-called megachurch, drama and drums. Many young people like the casual dress, the fact that in modern church music, you never hear the name of Jesus, Grace or doctrine.

If I were Satan, I would destroy the church because it has been the center of American spiritual devotion, physical and political activity. Most seminaries are tainted with denominationalism, young men and women more interested in the package than the promise. The articulate moderation, politically correct “pal in the sky” (quote from one modernist preacher) polite verbiage, certainly not to wishing to offend, especially those with deep pockets, inclusive, sincerely right, whether Islamist, Buddhist, Unitarian, as one fits all, cloak of kindness. God certainly would not send anyone sincerely wrong, sincerely politically correct, sincerely taking care of the needs of the world, sincerely loving everyone, to hell. If I were Satan, I could convince everyone just to be good, nice, the Beatles philosophy, “all you need is love”.

If I were Satan, I would never mention Jesus, I would never speak as if I were looking directly at Jesus. I would try to convince the world that just the worship of God, whether Jewish, Islamist, any cult is sufficient. I would never speak of salvation in a service, after all there may be someone in the service unsaved, it might be the only time they ever hear the Gospel. I would never speak of repentance, or the plan of salvation, except at a revival service. I would never talk about a backdoor revival, cleansing of church roles, only front door revival, “counting numbers instead of making numbers count”. Surely, Satan knows just as all the world knows, that it is only the full house, the full parking lot, the full offering plate, that impresses God and the onlooking world.

If I were Satan, I would use the same methods of warfare which the enemy has used for centuries, infiltration is easier and more effective if you wear the uniforms of your opposition, if you talk the same language, if you have the same habits (Jimmy Carter kissed Brezhnev just before Brezhnev and Russia invaded Afghanistan). In enemy infiltration, Satan knows that you can teach a parrot to talk, a bird to sing convincingly; pretenders, masqueraders, imposters, infiltrating the camp, the easiest way to take over.

If I were Satan, I would destroy the Christian family, particularly in the media. I would start with a single man, an uncle with a butler, then a single mother, divorced or otherwise, then homosexual embellishment, a house with several gay people, or even one or two with adopted children. If a story involving a mother and father, I would make the father look like a dunce, a father with no backbone, no control of the home.

If I were Satan I would have moles or spies involved in every spiritual activity, particularly at the Christian college, Bible college, seminary level. Satan is adaptable, patient, ambiguous, Satan is capable of instilling and installing notions of quackery and quaking, concerning any doctrine, or philosophy. Satan is capable of internal combustion...causing fights and fermentation, attitudes and belief system, translating and transplanting God's word into choking bones of interpretation. Satan will have you ignore the good, succulent meat of courage and encouragement, enlightenment and enlistment.

In the book The Man Who Never Was, we find such a plan as Satan would use, perfected by the British in WWII. A dead man had washed ashore in Spain with top secret plans, it told how British forces would invade Greece and Sardinia, the Germans fell for the trap as the British, as intended, invaded Italy. The operation was called “Operation Mincemeat”, the fooling, the beguiling, started with Satan in the Garden of Eden. We do what we do because we believe what we believe. Eve believed and fell for the doubts put in her mind by Satan. Most human beings are self-delusional.

If I were Satan, I would use the very human thought-process of doubting everything, particularly the non-believer doubting an eternal life. Progressive preachers and pastors of the progressive left certainly those of liberation theology, are the biggest suckers of them all, Satan's pets. Doubting good and evil, heaven and hell, and then the believer, having made the choice, having chosen Christ. There is still the ever-persistent prodding of Satan: “did I make the right choice, am I missing out on something?”

Karl Marx, in his 1848 Communist Manifesto stated that his most aggressive stalwarts would be preachers. Satan has us where he wants us, ten years between the fall of the USSR and 9/11. The Russians, the Chinese, Satan's communists want to live...the Islamists look forward to death. Communism can be defined in one sentence, “abolition of private property.” Christians who have escaped totalitarianism, Marxist or Islamist, cannot understand America's rush toward suicide. We only study history to learn that Satan is liar, he always pays off in counterfeit.