Make No Mistake, The Devil Is Real

The final petition in our LORD's prayer asks not merely for deliverance from some vague general evil in this world, but specifically for deliverance from the evil one. So we read in the NKJV, NLT, NIV, ASV and HNV.

And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.

Of course there are those who reject the very thought of the evil one or the Devil. For instance, Dherbs.com confidently announces,

The Devil really only exists in the mind, the mind of man. The Devil is the concept and construct of man. That's who made the Devil. The mind of man made the Devil (idea and image) just as the mind of man made God (idea and image of).

And again Kevin Williams  webmaster of Near-Death.com, writes,

Evil and the devil do not exist. What people consider evil is really ignorance. Hitler was not an evil man. He was just so incredibly ignorant that he was practically retarded at a spiritual level. Such people are to be pitied and our unconditional love should extended even to him, because it is hard to hate a retarded person. 

Of course, to maintain that position you will have to argue with most of the authors of the Bible as well as the LORD Jesus Himself. Repeatedly Jesus referred to the devil as a real being. Matthew records what Jesus surely shared about what happened at the beginning of his ministry when he "was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil "(Matt. 4:1-11).

At the end of Jesus' ministry, the devil tempted Judas to betray Jesus. Jesus knew it was Judas and said as much to John, who had been urged by Peter to ask Jesus to whom he had referred.

Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." - Jhn 13:26-27 ESV

Judas then went off to tell the plotting priests and Jewish Sanhedrin where Jesus would be found.

This powerful being is the leader of the rebel spirits that seek to control this world. You may find more about Satan and his demonic host in earlier posts and links under The God Of This World. In my post about Lucifer I wrote,

One thing is certain. The devil is real. He is truly the "ruler of this world" and the source of evil, death and rebellion against God. Jesus met him head on when the henchmen of the Sanhedrin captured Jesus and dragged him to their mock trial. He said, "But this is your hour, and the power of darkness"(Luke 22:53). The ruler of this world had no claim on Jesus, of course (John 14:30). In that hour that same ruler was defeated on the cross. And now we who have been called to faith in Jesus are delivered "from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of the Father's beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). 

As we await our final deliverance, freedom and resurrection, we continue to pray, "Our Father, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen."

The Poor Will Always Be With Us

Two days before the Passover Jesus told his disciples that He was about to be condemned by the Jewish High Council, the Sanhedrin. This would lead in turn to his crucifixion. I wonder how he sounded as he spoke. Was he calm, nervous, excited, grave, sober—what?

Anyway, while he was at the house of Simon the leper in Bethany, a little village near Jerusalem, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment. Based on John 12, the woman was likely Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus. I posted a blog about this incident a year ago. Based on certain calculations, this jar of perfume was worth at least $18,000. No wonder that the disciples, especially Judas, said this was a waste of good money. The ointment could well have been sold, put into the disciples' treasury (which Judas controlled) and used to help the poor. To this Jesus replied,

"Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done it to prepare me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her." - Mat 26:10-13 ESV

Alabaster Jar

From Pastor Mike Freeman's - wordhavering blog

My question for this year's Holy Week is this. Why does Jesus—and Moses (Deut. 15:11)—teach us that we will always have the poor with us? Will we never discover a social program by which to eliminate poverty? Certainly many political and social systems have promised to do so. But Jesus says it won't happen. Why not?

It has to do with the human heart, not with the created world in which we live. Consider the disciples and their supposed concern about the poor. Take Judas, the treasurer, for example. Shortly after his hypocritical remarks about having money for the poor he turned around and betrayed Jesus for a paltry 30 pieces of silver, roughly $330 in today's terms. So much for his concern for the poor.

Already from the Torah both Jesus and the disciples had heard about caring for the poor. Moses told them,

"If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. . . For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, 'You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.'Deut 15:7-8, 11 ESV

Poverty in the promised land was not a result of poor land or poor crops. This was a land of milk and honey. It provided for the people in abundance (Exodus 13:5; Deut. 26:15; Jer. 32:22). However, again and again they used the land for their own greed and pride.

The same remains so in our modern world. Potentially our planet is capable of providing food for everyone, regardless of the billions living on it. Beyond that, we who bear God's image, have the gifts and intelligence to make the earth productive. Human pride, selfishness, greed and carelessness both waste and destroy this abundance.

How shall we Christians respond? Shall we simply shrug our shoulders because we know that we'll always have poor people? The Spirit of the Risen Christ whose victory we celebrate this coming Sunday moves us in a quite different direction. By our care for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the wounded, imprisoned and broken we worship Jesus who came to make all things new (Matthew 25:34-46). In Christ we anticipate a coming world in which poverty will be completely eliminated.

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. - Rom 8:19-23 ESV

Biblical Meanings of Tradition

In my earlier discussions of traditions I pursued the origin of the word sacrament. I  used it to emphasize how important it is to use words correctly. We move back now to our original discussion of tradition and the Great Tradition.


The New Testament Greek word we've often translated into our Bibles with the English word tradition originally meant to betray or deliver up someone. For instance, Judas betrayed Jesus to the High Priests. Pilate delivered Jesus up to the will of the mob. Paul was delivered into the hands of Romans. And Jesus gave himself for you and for me.


The verb was also used as a technical term among the Jews, referring to customs handed down. However, their customs often went beyond the direct teachings of the Torah. For instance, when Jesus and his disciples were accused of not washing their hands according to the Jewish tradition of the elders, Jesus replied, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions" (Mark 7:1-9). After Jesus' resurrection and return to heaven, the deacon Stephen was accused of changing the customs (traditions) Moses had supposedly handed down to them (Acts 6:9-15). That finally led to his being stoned to death for heresy and false teaching.


Speaking of traditions, did you know that the Hebrew text of the Old Testament has certain fixed traditional divisions, pronunciations and modes of public recitation that have been handed down to us. Hebrew was actually the first classical language to have that done to it. These punctuations and divisions are called the Masorah or traditions; from the Hebrew word Masar, 'to hand down.' Some Jewish scholars propose that the nounMasorah is really from the Hebrew verb Asar, 'to bind or fetter,' suggesting that these same detailed instructions about the text are bound to it. They are traditions that must be handed down.


Christians inherited the work done by these Masoretes, who were Aramaic speaking Jews of Babylon and Palestine, living between 700 and 900 A.D.  The work they produced is called the Masoretic text. We have retained these traditional chapters and verses also in our English translations, but they are traditions, not revelation.


Some have considered that some of those traditions may be mistaken and thus lead to a change in the way one might understand a given Bible passage. To get into that, however, will take us far afield in our discussion. Let us rather talk about the Greek New Testament and where the Greek noun for our English word tradition refers to the content of what is transmitted, not merely to the letters, punctuation and acts of transmitting the content.
For instance, Paul starts his letter to the Galatians by saying that he was once extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers, but that all changed when God called him by his grace and revealed Jesus to him so that he might preach the gospel among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:14). In this context the Apostle is speaking about the things he used to do, like tithing, washing his hands, observing Sabbath, certain festivals and so forth. However, after his conversion, when he got into the mission field, he was concerned not about the outward acts and words themselves, but rather what they conveyed, namely the teachings.


In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul commends them for holding to the teachings, just as he had passed them on (1 Corinthians 11:2). His word for teachings is the same Greek word translated in his other letters as traditions. In this same verse the verb for pass on is the verbal form of the noun translated as either teaching or tradition. In the same chapter Paul says he is handing down or passing on to them what he received from the Lord about the Lord's Supper. A little later Paul uses the same verb when he speaks about how he handed down to them what he received about Christ's death and resurrection. Again, Paul warns the Colossians to beware lest they be cheated through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, rather than the gospel (Colossians 2:8).


The gospel is the good news about Jesus, and that is what is to be handed down. It is the Great Tradition. As we hand down the teachings (traditions) about Jesus, his life, death and resurrection and all that he taught us, the Holy Spirit teaches us to believe in Jesus. Jesus himself promised to send the Spirit of truth, who goes out from the Father. This Spirit, Jesus said, would bring glory to him by taking what is his and making it known to his disciples (John 14-16). Next time I'll tie together all these teachings about tradition and traditions in the Church.