Our Adversary The Devil
Carlos M. Aguilar

Most of us are in the habit of locking all our doors before we go to bed. Many years ago many of you can probably tell stories of leaving the entire house unlocked, the car and the garage unlocked because everybody trusted their neighbors. But times have been changing for many years. We can't help but read in the paper, or see the news and here about a robbery, or abduction, or something like it. We are sober and watchful because we know what happened to others could very well happen to us if we are not careful.

In times of great urgency we might even be more diligent to secure our home. In 1980 when my family lived in Florida during one of the many riots we were very diligent to secure the house, and our property. When we would go to sleep in the evening we would do so with one eye closed. If a window would have rattled or an unusual noise on or near the property would have been heard, we would all have been unnerved and watchful to determine whether it was simply the wind, an animal, or an intruder. How many Christians can do this in the spiritual realm. How many of us know how to spiritually lock the doors, how many of us know when we are being attacked by forces greater than ourselves? How many can see when it is time to call upon spiritual relief and get help as quickly as possible? Too many Christians are unaware of the real dangers that threaten them. They see those that are near, those that threaten that are obvious, but they often fail to take necessary steps to avert real problems because they do not see the danger. How many people in the last few years have died because they opened a package that came in the mail. We take too many things for granted. It is that way in the physical world and it is that way in the spiritual world.

Peter writes, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8). The Holy Spirit takes this opportunity to warn God's people of the grave danger they are in. Satan is just like a roaring lion about to pounce upon its prey. Christians are the prey and they must be sober and watchful to avert the danger. The first introduction to the great enemy of our race is found in Gen 3:1-6. He is cunning, crafty and deceitful. Eve should have known the very moment God's authority and word were questioned that she was under attack by a vicious enemy. But she could not see past the serpent and the tree to the great danger behind them both. She allows the serpent to call God a liar and does not question his own integrity though in fact it was he who was lying. Many years later Jesus offered these observations of the event: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).

It cannot be overemphasized that the lies of the serpent which questioned God's authority were the means by which the lion pounced on Eve and destroyed her. When we begin to question God's authority or wonder about his word, or place our own thoughts above his, we need to realize how severe the danger is that we are in and begin locking doors and calling for help. In the NT we learn of a group of people called Pharisees. I’m sure it wouldn't surprise you that the references to them were overwhelmingly negative. Why were the Pharisees the repeated object of our Lord's condemnation? Well, they were condemned because of their failure to adhere to the pattern of Scripture, instead substituting “the tradition of the elders” as being on a par with God's word. When God's authority is cast away as the absolute standard, the stage is always set for Satan to do his work. It was the same thing during Hosea's time (Hosea 4:6-10). They did not do as God had commanded in loving his law and letting it be their sole guide. When we leave the boundary of divine teaching and doctrine, we are by definition in sin and separated from God. So, we can see vividly from those examples how Satan works by craftiness.

Our next description of our adversary the devil as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour is found in the book of Job. “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it." Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" So the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD” (1:6-12). In this case Satan is pictured as going to and fro in all the earth and considering all men. He has sized Job up and feels he knows the key to gain the mastery over him through an assault on his faith by means of his possessions. God has before this made it impossible for Satan to do this, but now he allowed. Whether Job knew that the loss of his possessions was an attack on his soul by Satan is doubtful, but it truly was. Satan tried to destroy him by this means. He cruelly devised a means to pound upon Job with blow after blow. But he failed for Job was aware of the danger of falsely accusing God for his troubles. In Job 2:1-7 we find Satan returning with no apology for his loss, he could care less that this attempt failed, he simply wants to try again with another means. This time his assessment of Job has caused him to believe that a loss of health will be all it takes to get this man to renounce God. The loss of Job's health was not a natural occurrence; it was directly brought about by the agency of Satan. If we learn nothing else from the above, let us learn this. Whether it be the loss of your possessions, the loss of your health, or the giving into error and temptation…whenever your faith is assaulted by any of these means you need to see the devil is at the bottom of it and fight with all your might to restore your faith to its previous power. You are under a sever attack by the devil and can avert it easily if you see it as that. Most of the time Satan gains his victory because no one sees him behind it all. If one resists the devil in this way, he cannot win and he will flee away. James writes, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (4:7).

Conclusion

Eve was being attacked, and she failed. The Israelites were attacked and they failed. The Pharisees were attacked and they failed. They chose to deny God's authority and His commandments. On the other hand…

We see Job being attacked and he succeeded. We see Jesus being attacked and he succeeded (Mt 4:4-11). They adhered to God's word and did not question His authority. We must be ever vigilant and watchful so we can be prepared to fight off the attacks of our adversary.

CHURCH HISTORY: A BIBLICAL VIEW
Part III - No. 14 Compiled and written by Gary Eubanks

Different concepts of the nature of Christ continued to generate the controversies which dominated the theological landscape of the Church during the Ante-Nicene and Nicene Ages. Though other disputes have come to the forefront since those times, the nature of Christ and His relation to the Father has always remained a matter of much interest and concern. After all, it is the Christian's view of Christ which is the core and most distinctive feature of his faith. It has been so from the very beginning. It was the deity of Christ that the Jews found most objectionable about the gospel. The truth about the deity of Christ also had to fight its way through the Gnostic and Monarchian heresies. The West had early settled on the "Logos Christology," which asserted that the one God was a trinity consisting of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as the correct expression of Christ's nature and relationship to the Father. The East, however, had reached no such unanimity. There a variety of Christological views was taught, and there the battle over these matters was primarily waged.

Arius (c. 250-336) was a presbyter of one of the churches of Alexandria in Egypt. His doctrinal disputes with Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria, beginning about 320, grew into a much wider controversy which remained a problem in the Church for the next two or three hundred years. Arius taught that Christ was the first and highest of God's creatures. As such He did not share in the divine essence but, like all of God's creatures, was made out of nothing. However, because of His moral integrity He was adopted by God as His Son, and it was through Him that God made the world. Arius was willing to concede that Christ was God in some sense, but He was only an inferior, secondary God. Christ was neither wholly God nor wholly man, but a third party between God and man. In the incarnation Christ had entered a human body, taking the place of the human spirit and reasoning. Alexander strenuously disagreed with these views, teaching that Christ was co-eternal with the Father, one in essence with the Father, and wholly uncreated. The controversy waxed so hot that an Alexandrian synod condemned Arius, and he sought refuge among those sympathetic to his views.

Constantine, the Roman emperor in Constantinople, felt the unity of his empire was greatly threatened by this controversy. Failing to achieve peace by mere counseling, he convened the first general council at Nicea in 325. There a creed was adopted which asserted that Christ was one in essence with the Father. The Arian idea that Christ was a created being and that there was a time when He did not exist was rejected. Constantine banished those who opposed this creed, including Arius.

However, the Council of Nicea did not spell the end of Arianism. Constantine fell under the sway of those sympathetic to Arius' views and was led to support a compromise creed, restore Arius, and banish Athanasius the leading opponent of Arianism.

Constantine's sons, among whom the empire was divided after his death, became even more embroiled in the theological disputes. The emperor in the West sided with the "Catholics" while the emperor in the East sided with the Arians. Thus, a pattern was being set for political interference with theological issues on the part of civil rulers. Whether Arianism or the "Nicene faith" had the upper hand at any particular time depended upon which one had the favor of the emperor. The "Nicene faith" finally gained the upper hand for good when Theodosius, a strong devotee of it, became emperor. In 381 Theodosius convened an Eastern synod in Constantinople. This became known as the Second General Council, and it reasserted that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all of one divine essence.

Arianism, no doubt, would have faded from the scene much sooner had it not been for the fact that the Germanic tribes, then pressing in upon the Roman Empire, were almost entirely converted to Arianism. Toward the end of the Fifth Century the Catholic bishops groomed Clovis, king of the Franks, to be the champion of their cause. By the use of very brutal tactics Clovis eventually subjugated the Germanic tribes. Between the conquests of Clovis and those of Justianian, the Byzantine emperor in Constantinople, the Germans were brought to surrender their Arian faith. Thus, Arianism was extinguished, not by the force of Scriptural truth, but by the force of arms. 

VAIN THINGS
From Thursday's Thought edited by Ron Adams

Definition: Not yielding the desired outcome; fruitless; lacking substance or worth. Not obtaining the desired result is most disappointing. This is especially true when it involves one's worship. That is why it is so important to make sure one's worship is not in vain.

“Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand,by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

“Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” Matthew 7:21

"This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men." Matthew 15:8-9

“If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless.” James 1:26

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:1-3