Victory

Humanity had sinned against God and was separated from Him.  Yet, He continued to stretch out His hands toward this fallen world; throughout the ages, He continued to express His love - He sent His Son, Jesus, the Messiah, to reconcile fallen humanity to Himself. Hebrews 2 contains these words:

11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,
12 saying: "I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You."
13 And again: "I will put My trust in Him." And again: "Here am I and the children whom God has given Me."
14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Verse 14: Jesus came from heaven to redeem fallen men and women to earth, coming as a man so that in Him we might come to know Him.  He defeated the power of sin and death because of His crucifixion and resurrection.  He triumphed over the devil and we are instructed in Scripture to resist Him.  When we are tempted, we can rely on God's power to stand against the enemy.  Jesus is victorious, and we can stand strong in Him. 

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Jesus has defeated Satan, and he reigns victorious over sin and death. 1st Peter 5 shares insight into how to live out that victory in our personal lives:
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
11 To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

During this week following Christmas, our celebration of the coming of Christ, it can be helpful to think about the implications of what Jesus has done for us. We recognize that on the cross, He became the substitute for our sins, and while it may have appeared that Satan had the upper hand, in three days, we know that Jesus defeated the power of the enemy, and has passed on authority to us, to the Church, so that we might resist the devil and His schemes.  We have the Word of God, the name of Jesus, and the full armor of God so that we might stand against him.

Yet, in our culture today, there are those who want to prioritize the work of the devil. In the Iowa state capitol - during the Christmas season - a group calling itself The Satanic Temple was allowed to erect a display, which was vandalized by a well-meaning professing Christian; while he received quite a bit of support for his actions, resorting to vandalism and violence are not tools that Christians should use to make a statement to the culture about our faith principles.

We can be reminded that our war, as Ephesians 6 teaches us, is not "...against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

In a recent Faithwire article, attempts by those claiming to follow the teachings of Satan to oppose what the article calls "after-school Bible clubs" were spotlighted recently.  The article notes: "...newfound debates have unfolded in recent years as Satanists have begun to target these gatherings by launching clubs of their own."  Former Meeting House guest Moises Esteves of Child Evangelism Fellowship, which sponsors Good News Clubs, is mentioned in the article, which states:

Esteves recently told CBN Digital his organization, which has been around since 1937, is very much at the heart of the After School Satan Club debate, as he believes Satanists intentionally focus on schools where Christian clubs are present.

This is a strategy seemingly noted on The Satanic Temple’s website, where it’s written that “The After School Satan Club does not believe in introducing religion into public schools and will only open a club if other religious groups are operating on campus.”

Esteves exposes a rather sinister strategy by the TST people: “They want to be pushed out, because, once they’re pushed out, they will actually use our victory...in 2001 to then turn around and file a lawsuit against the school to say, ‘Hey, we have the right to be there.'” The article says:

Esteves continued, “And then … if the school still wants to push them out, they got to shut down all the after-school clubs. That’s their strategy.”

There have been some recent developments in the advance of the Satan clubs' agenda. Faithwire notes:

As CBN News recently reported, Connecticut is one of the latest states where Satanists have made headlines for their efforts to launch an elementary school club, with meetings set to start this month.

Some parents have spoken out against the effort.

“If you look on their website and the different things that they’re handing out, there’s symbolism of the devil, and I think that that’s inappropriate,” parent Kate Prokop told WTNH-TV. Others agree, though it should be noted The Satanic Temple and other groups like it are atheistic in nature.

The story provides some content from the organization's website: 

No, nor do we believe in the existence of Satan or the supernatural. The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, we do not promote a belief in a personal Satan. To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions.

Meanwhile, in the Memphis, Tennessee area, local church leaders have become involved in opposing an effort to establish a Satanic Temple chapter in an elementary school.  ABCNews.com reported:

Around 40 members of the faith community in Memphis stood united with leaders at Memphis-Shelby County Schools on Wednesday to criticize the planned club and to question The Satanic Temple’s intentions in offering it, according to the Commercial Appeal. The faith community and educators also wanted to make it clear that students would need signed permission slips to attend and to express support for religious organizations that have partnered with the district, the newspaper reported.

The local interim superintendent seemed to echo the broad strategy that Moises Esteves from CEF highlighted; ABC said:

Since the announcement, interim Superintendent Toni Williams said some have demanded that the district ban all faith-based organizations from schools, but that won't happen.

“As a superintendent, I am duty bound to uphold our board policy, state laws, and the Constitution,” she said during the event. “But let’s not be fooled. Let’s not be fooled by what we’ve seen in the past 24 hours, which is an agenda, initiated to make sure that we cancel all faith-based organizations that partner with our district.”

This seems consistent with the comments from Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds in response to the Satanic Temple display at the State Capitol:

“Like many Iowans, I find the Satanic Temple’s display in the Capitol absolutely objectionable. In a free society, the best response to objectionable speech is more speech, and I encourage all those of faith to join me today in praying over the Capitol and recognizing the nativity scene that will be on display – the true reason for the season.”

So, it seems that this group, which claims that it does not even believe in Satan or the supernatural, is pursuing not the right to worship Satan, but to destroy the work of legitimate, First Amendment-protected organizations.  Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel wrote this in 2016 at the organization's website: “The so-called Satanic Temple group is a handful of atheists masquerading as so-called Satanists. This group is not legitimate. Its only reason to exist is to oppose the Good News Clubs. The Good News Clubs teach morals, character development, patriotism and respect from a Christian viewpoint. Public schools welcome these clubs because they improve the behavior of the students and the Supreme Court has sided with these clubs..." He added, “The so-called Satanist group has nothing good to offer the students and its entire reason for existence is to be disruptive. Schools do not have to tolerate groups which disrupt the school and target other legitimate clubs. No sane parents would consent to allow their child to attend this group. Full of sound and fury, this group will soon fade away..."

Symbolic or not, this group certainly represents a threat to the free exercise of religion in public spaces. Keep a TST club out of schools?  They'll sue you and attempt to keep all religious practice out.  Let them in? they will continue to indoctrinate young minds and promote a godless ideology.  So, there are several things we can do: one is to recognize that the enemy is at work and that we do have powerful resources available to combat him. 

We can also pray and recognize that there is spiritual warfare is occurring.  The Bible shows us the nature of the spiritual warfare that is occurring and instructs us to resist the devil.  We don't do that in our own strength, but through the Holy Spirit, as we are clothed in the armor of God.  

Satan is a tactician and we're told in Scripture that he disguises himself as an "angel of light." He is so intent on defeating Jesus, who has already defeated him, that he is even willing to deny himself. But, we are called to expose him by the truth of the Scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit.