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Showing posts with the label Satan

Restraining the Demons

People often use the word demon  metaphorically to describe recurring tormets, such as dealing with the demons in their lives. Many also believe that demons are literal beings who were cast out of Heaven during the rebellion of Satan. What do they look like? While people may think those scary nightmare-fuel being depicted in modern art, comic books, movies, and such, the reality can be far different. Satan and his minions can take whatever appearance suits them so they can influence and affect people. Tamara and Demon by Konstantin Makovsky, 1889 Perhaps the extreme portrayals of the devil and demons are one reason people disbelieve in their existence (similar to  toy boat depictions of Noah's Ark contribute to rejections of the real thing). Strangely enough, people try to not only disbelieve but also believe at the same time — including atheists . If demons want to be glowing-eyed scary, they will. Or fleeting shadows. Or space aliens. Or preachers in nice suits (consider 2 Cor.

Training for Spiritual Warfare

No, this is not one of those posts about singing feelgood songs and chanting, or "binding" demons hiding under every bush. Stay away from that stuff. This is about a fact that I bring up here every once in a while since this weblog began in 2011. (Originally, it was "A Soldier for Jesus.") We are in a spiritual war. We do not have to go looking for trouble, it comes for us. Satan wants Christians eliminated or at least neutralized. Those who want no part of the spiritual warfare that we are in every day  are actually doing service for the enemy. Whoever is not for  Jesus is against  him. Soldiers, Pixabay / Defence-Imagery "But Cowboy Bob, if I speak up, atheists and others will say mean things and hurt my feelings!" Cowboy up, little buckaroo, and decide whose side you're on (Luke 9:62). Jesus died on a cross for your sins and rose again on the third day, and a Christian is no longer an enemy of God but adopted as one of his children, indwelt with the

Unexplained Paranormal Activities 2 — The Spirit of It

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  In Part 1 , we looked at how paranormal activities are on the increase, and much of it appears to be documented in videos. While many on YouTube say they are for entertainment, many are treated as if they were factual. There are many reasons to reject them. The reasons include suspicious presentations, video qualities, and circumstances. Also involved are mistakes and faulty reasoning on the part of the presenters as well as those who comment. Today, we will look at reasons to take some of them seriously. More importantly, we'll look at the spirit behind them. Modified from an image by Pete Linforth [ 42 ] on Pixabay Reasons to Consider the Videos It must be terribly frustrating and disheartening to have an experience and catch it on video (decent cameras on smartphones and elsewhere are  so  common), then have people poke holes in it. Although a passel of allegedly supernatural videos are fake, what is a sincere person to do? They  know  what they experienc

Bringing Satan into the Church

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  After dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight, many professing Christians bring him with them to church. No, he is not afraid of it, or you, or me. Many churches are pusillanimous and infested with unseen demonic entities. How did this happen? Image from Unsplash / Tyler Milligan , with modifications including Clker clipart Many Bible-believing Christians are dismayed by the lack of power in what is called the Body of Christ. Individual churches as well as entire denominations have compromised on the importance of Genesis, biblical inerrancy, and other foundational aspects of Christian doctrine. Far too many do not preach the Word of God, and people reject its authority. (Years ago, I endured some sermons were so feckless, I heard better sermons in Christian rock songs!) Satan is not dismayed whate'er betide. It's been said that one of the devil's greatest achievements is to convince people that he doesn't exist. To get people into churches

Satan Testified that Jesus is the Creator

There are times when someone who opposes a person or belief and admits something that is favorable. In American legal parlance, it is a statement against interest , and can be used in court proceedings. Satan knows full well that Jesus is the Creator, and indirectly admitted this fact. There are fools who deny God's existence (Psalm 14:1) or pretend that Jesus is a myth, but even Satan and demons have sense enough to be afraid (James 2:19 NIV). When Jesus was on the earth, he was able to do creation miracles, and Satan (the ultimate sidewinder) tried to use that against him. Matthew’s Gospel (4:1–4) has the following account of the temptation of Christ by Satan: ‘Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘M

Demons and Secular Science

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Materialists contradict themselves by claiming that there is no God, spirits, or anything supernatural, and then they try to explain the soul and their version of free will (which is impossible from an evolutionary worldview ). Ironically, atheists have their own miracles of sorts, but they deny God.  Sure, we see some self-styled ghost hunters on television attempting to obtain electromagnetic, infrared, and other readings of supposedly haunted places. Those do not amount to much. Can secularists ride the trail and scientifically study demons, which they believe do not exist? Kind of difficult with their materialistic presuppositions and bad logic, such as, "Since there are some fakers, there are no spirits at all". I can show you some angry atheopaths that have blasphemed each person of the Trinity, and are demonically possessed. Credit: Pixabay / Pete Linforth The Parkland school shooter, Nikolas Cruz, said he had a demon telling him to k

The Origin of Sin

The expected response to the question, "What was the beginning of sin", is probably when Adam and Eve at that apple. Actually, no. The Bible does not say apple , that's a bit of information for you to carry around and shine up to show people on occasion. In addition, Eve was deceived by the serpent, which was the work of Satan. For some reason, Adam chose to eat the fruit that she gave to him. Interesting to note that if Eve had been presuppositional in her approach, she would have stopped the whole thing right there by declaring that she believed God, not Satan. Credit: cropped from Pixabay / RayHolloway If you study on it, you'll realize that the first sin was not with Adam and Eve. Instead, it was when Lucifer rebelled against God because of pride. Before that, everything was very good (Gen 1:31). This raises questions and can give material for a passel of sermons and articles, so we have to keep the subject narrow. Satan fell because of pride, and has appea

Ten Lies Satan Tells to Biblical Creationists

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Christians who know and believe the Bible are well aware that Satan exists, and is intent on negating or even destroying the work of God. Some professing Christians see the devil behind every bush, and blame him for practically everything that goes wrong. That's not the whole story. Scripture tells us that we have two other sources of conflict: the flesh and the world. Satan will not only use his own deceitful skills, but brings the other two nonentities along to bring down a believer. In addition, we have our own lusts and sin nature, so we may very well be out of line to blame Satan too often.  The opposite extreme is to take a pseudo-intellectual approach and pretend that Satan does not exist. A phrase attributed to French writer Charles Baudelaire has appeared in several forms and in many places, including movies: "The devil's finest trick is to persuade you that he does not exist." I'll let you study on that for a while and you can

The Most Self-Absorbed Generation?

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen It has been said that every generation has a dim view of subsequent generations, but seldom with good reason. Some of this frowning is based on rejection of cultural traditions, changing etiquette, new methods of socialization, and other less consequential areas. More importantly, however, is the way morality has declined, as have critical thinking skills, in younger generations. This is very apparent in the group called the Millennials. I'd better reign in for a spell and make a couple of points. First, sometimes we just have to say that when discussing a people group, generalities are necessary. Second, while stereotypes exist for a reason, I'm not saying everybody in younger generations (or whatever group I'm talking about) behave, think, believe, or whatever according to their age, ethnic group or demographic. People can't be pigeonholed so neatly, you savvy? Credit: Pixabay / Gerd Altmann A recent sermon called "Lovers of Sel