Satan:
Still Armed and Dangerous
But He’s Lying About That
Bazooka!
With the
impending release of two major fantasy films at the end of this year, Harry
Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone and The Fellowship of the Ring--the
first installment of the Lord of the Rings series--the topic of a
Christian’s response to the depiction of magic in the media, especially in
books read and films viewed by young people, is certain to become a major
issue. Already Amazon.com has three
separate titles on the question of Harry Potter, and a new title on the Lord
of the Rings and God will be published this November. It is all going to be quite the media
flurry, and yet the question would evaporate like water in a camp fire if one
fact--apparently forgotten by many believers today--were affirmed: Christians of the 21st century,
unlike Christians of the 15th, 16th and 17th
centuries, should not believe in the supernatural manifestation
of evil. In short Christians should
not believe in magic.
My
thoughts about this were sharpened by memories jarred by the recent re-release
in video and DVD format of The Exorcist . Back in 1973 at two in the morning I wandered into “The Fish
Bowl,” the student coffee shop of the Christian college I attended looking for
a “O. Henry” bar. Instead I found a
friend sitting quietly in one of the empty stalls, too terrified to go to
bed. He had seen The Exorcist's
depiction of a dreadful evil, and I spent the next several hours talking and
praying with him trying to convince him that he was in no danger of a direct
satanic attack. Back then I spoke to my
friend about the power of Christ and our assurance in him. While that was certainly a source of
strength and comfort (as it is so now) what I failed to bring up--and what I
think needs examination among Christians today--is the difference between
Satan's depicted powers, what he claims is his to do, against that of which he
is truly capable. Satan is aiming a bazooka at many young Christians, which he
calls his "Dark Magic" or "Black Arts." Modern Christians need to remember, that as
scary as it may look, the thing ain't loaded.
Christians
need to come to some sort of assurance about who and what Satan is. Personally,
I affirm the existence of evil in our world, an evil that stems not only from
ignorance of natural laws, but from an active personal force named Lucifer.
Longing to be like God, this powerful and once beautiful spiritual being has
twisted itself into something utterly hideous as it attempts to uniquely define
itself and does so by being what God is not.
Furthermore, I maintain that this evil being is working against God's
will for humankind. It's hatred for God
has caused it to also hate us and strive for our degradation and destruction.
It must
be emphasized, however, that the true source of evil in this world is not Satan
but ourselves. Satan tempted; Adam
sinned. Satan suggests, but we make evil into a reality. He has no other major force except what
humanity gives him. Thus, we follow him
into Hell because of our own natural depravity and choice. And when evil occurs on Earth, it is done by
human hands.
This
being established, I maintain that there
is no such thing as magic. I'm
drawing from the first definition given by Merriam-Webster Online:
where magic is described as "the use of means (as charms or spells)
believed to have supernatural power over natural forces." This is not a
statement against God’s miraculous acts.
In fact the vast difference between God and Satan is revealed in the
realization of Lucifer’s limitations. I
believe God parted the sea for Moses and led the Israelites by cloud and
fire. I believe that Jesus changed
water into wine, walked on the sea, fed the five thousand and most importantly
rose from the dead. These incredible
acts are possible because they were willed by the one who made the cosmos. God stopping the sun is no more amazing than
a clock maker stopping the wheels of his own creation. Satan, however, is a created being and to
carry the analogy further has no more power to alter creation than a figurine
has the ability to stop the coo coo clock of which he is a part.
Satan
has no power except those of a spirit.
He neither makes brooms fly nor zombies walk. Furthermore, his followers have no extraordinary powers except
those available to any human--all of which are described in scripture. Manifestations on this Earth that seem to
suggest otherwise are but illusions and frauds. Curses work not because Satan wills them to but because people
believe they do. Testimonies of walls
creaking under invisible feet and apparitions of spirits appearing before
startled eyes exist because human beings are fooled into believing illusions
are real. Some illusions are
perpetuated by charlatans and others by the guidance of evil spirits
themselves. But all that suggests a
great physical strength in Satan are but lies--his lies.
My
position is based on what all Christians should found their opinions,
scripture. In all the cases of the
infernal confronting the divine in the New Testament, I find clear evidence of
the limitations of Satan’s physical strength. Mark 5: 2-13 and Luke 8: 27-35
describe one of Jesus’ most famous confrontations with Hell. After calming the sea, Christ comes to a
shore where he is met by a wretched soul consumed by darkness. Christ learns the intensity of this darkness
when the evil reveals its name to be “Legion,” since a whole host of fallen
angels are consuming this victim.
One
would think that if anyone would manifest physical supernatural powers it would
be this poor soul. However, the text
shows no levitation, no transformations, no flying gravestones, and no such
force of any kind. Instead it shows
what is typical of such tormented individuals, unexplainable knowledge and
unusual physical strength.
Although
there is no evidence that the man had ever met Jesus before,
the thing within calls
Christ the “Son of the most high God” (Mark 5:7 KJV). In several occasions scripture records unclean spirits declaring
Christ’s unique, divine nature: Mark 1:22-24, Mark 3:10-12, and Luke
4:32-34. Also in Acts 16: 15-17, St.
Paul’s mission and message were announced by a possessed slave girl used by her
master for divination.
These
events should not surprise us. Demons
are spiritual beings. Humans, while
existing physically, are also spiritual beings and so communication between a
demon and human mind seems entirely within the realm of possibility.
It
should be recalled, however, that there are also a whole range of ways that
humans can get information about other humans that have nothing to do with the
spiritual and that conjurers have been using such tactics for centuries. One mentioned later is The Art of "Cold
Reading." James Randi, skeptic and magician, describes this on his
information site as a scenario during which supposed psychics “tell the
subjects nothing, but make guesses, put out suggestions, and ask questions.
This is a very deceptive art, and the unwary observer may come away believing
that unknown data was developed by some wondrous means.” Thus even what seems like unexplainable
knowledge today may have a far more earthly source than spiritual. Christians, therefore, should not even
assume that there is a host of demon possessed individuals on the Psychic Channel:
more likely they are classic frauds. Of
course they are still working for the Great Deceiver, but not in the scary
dramatic way so many Christians seem to fear.
The
other supernatural quality mentioned in the scriptural record about Legion’s
host is that he had great strength and had by villagers been “kept bound with
chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands” (Luke 8:29 KJV). This is remarkable but not
unexplainable. The ability of the human
body when under stress to have remarkable strength is well documented. We have all heard of the mother who lifted a
car to save her child or of the martial arts master who can break stone. If so, how much more likely is a human under
infernal stress capable of great strength?
Again note that it is not magical but human parameters that explain this
ability.
If Satan
and his minions had other powers beside those found in human hands, surely they
would use them. However, those who made
up Legion did not. Furthermore it does
not seem to be that they were merely quelled by the fact that they were facing
the Son of God. Acts 19: 11-17
describes how some unbelievers who exorcised for profit saw Paul’s success in
using Jesus’ name and tried to use the same formula. The demon within the human said “Jesus I know, Paul I know, but
who are you?” and then attacked the frauds with such force that he stripped
their clothes so that “they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (Acts
19:17 KJV). Again note that there is no
levitation, no moving tables, no physical manifestation on the individual’s
face or any such physical symptom of the spiritual battle going on.
Most of
the spectacular powers given to Satan’s Earthly physical force comes from
testimonies concerning the Catholic church’s rites of exorcism. These accounts then find their ways to
stories of fiction and then to film. By
the last manifestation, the dramatic quality of special effects has become far
more important than the original theme of the defeat of evil. And yet because
they have an orthodox origin they meld into many an Evangelical Christian’s
mind of what Satan is capable.
As loath
as I am to doubt any believer, I must point out that 21st century
evangelical Christians differ from their Catholic brethren in their acceptance
of physical signs and wonders.
It
should be noted that Catholics do not testify only of hellish manifestations
but also of divine ones fairly regularly.
Witness the many sightings of the Virgin Mary as well as the miracles
needed to clear the way towards sainthood, as just exemplified by the elevation
process of St. Katharine Drexel, America’s second official Catholic saint. Thus, we are describing a group of believers
who are already primed to see physical supernatural manifestations. This propensity will be returned to later.
Furthermore,
a great amount of Catholic thought comes from the middle ages. However, modern Protestants must remember
that there has been a great shift in the human mind to explain phenomena since
the 1300s. C.S. Lewis makes this point
especially in his The Discarded Image.
In the Middle Ages Christians did
believe in magic. In fact they did so
right through the 1700s. They didn’t
call it magic all the time but just methods to explain physical phenomena. Thus, one could be a Christian in Chaucer’s
time and use Astrology. Within the
Ptolemic model (Earth centered universe), astrology makes some sense. And it is notable that in that time the
Catholic Church felt the need to give a decree that individuals could not claim
the influence of heavenly bodies to excuse sin. A propensity toward an evil may exist because of certain Heavenly
bodies’ position, the church said, but the individual is still responsible for
his or her own trespass.
With
such a long history into times which contain other world views the Catholic
Church is encumbered with testimonies it itself now recognizes as
questionable. In fact the church has
modified some of its claims about the nature of possession. David Van Biema, in
his article in Time about modern exorcists, notes that the Catholics
recognize that “Conditions previously thought diabolical, such as Tourette’s
syndrome, proved medically treatable” (74).
He further comments that even with the revival of the “Rite of Exorcism”
among Catholics, the church has pruned some medieval baggage and has
“eliminated physical descriptions of Satan” from the actual ritual (74). Still
the old testimonies exist and continue to influence modern Catholics
expectations about the powers of Satan.
Please
understand I am not suggesting that modern explanations be used to water down
Biblical claims. However, 21st
century Protestant Christians need to recognize that our understanding of how
the world works differs not only from medieval Christians but even Biblical
ones. If we went back in time to the
biblical city of Ephasis where Paul was preaching and showed him a transistor
radio. Unless God revealed it to him
otherwise, Paul would have to call the sounds coming from the most common of
devices in our world (we brought a transmitter through the time warp too) a
miracle. Human understanding of how the
world works and what is possible is vastly different today. And this knowledge sometimes sheds new light
on scripture.
Some may
mention Moses’ confrontation with the Egyptian Sorcerers described in Exodus 7:
10-22 as proof of the reality of dark, miraculous powers. However, the secret
arts described therein are so pitiful in comparison to God’s miracles that
there seems little doubt that they are, in fact, little more than parlor
tricks. I contacted Robert Hill, a
Christian illusionist, who wrote the following about Pharaoh’s magicians:
I think
any explanation that claims that their “tricks” were actual supernatural feats
is probably simplistic, and is conjecture at the most. We know there is a history of magic and
magicians (read that illusion and illusionists!) for many years. There is also
a history of wizards and witches who claim connection with supernatural (dark)
powers. I think that a lot of that is simply phony, as it is today. (Most of
the television mediums do no more than a "cold reading," which
magicians could easily reproduce without supernatural powers...)
It is a
known fact that certain tricks (like the cups and balls) have been around for
millennia. Certainly these people knew
what powders to put into water to make them change color. And I think it is
archaeology that has found small snakes
that remain rigid and look like sticks.
Mr. Hill’s interpretation is
confirmed by The New Bible Commentary (Revised) that states that
"Snakes could be temporarily immobilized to correspond to rods and hence
the imitation of the Egyptian magicians, but Aaron's serpent returning to a rod
demonstrates the omnipotence of God" (375).
Another Old Testament
reference possibly pointed out as a depiction of Satan’s power which needs to
be reexamined is the case of the Witch of Endor who is asked by King Saul to
commit an act of spiritualism and raise the soul of Samuel. There is more than one way to interpret this
scripture, but in 1 Samuel 28: 12 the text reads “And when the woman saw
Samuel, she cried with a loud voice.”
It seems very probable that she was as surprised as any at her success
in raising the prophet’s spirit and immediately realized that her visitor was
the king himself in disguise. What she
usually did I can’t be certain but as Hill points out spiritualism and the
speaking to the dead has been a favorite con for centuries.
I do not wish to try to explain every dark manifestation
suggested in scripture. I am not a
professional illusionist. However, I
want to plant the seed that very human explanations can be found for the
descriptions of dark power that Satan would love to claim as his. Because if Lucifer does have such power over
creation then his claim to be a “god” has more viability.
Why are modern Evangelical Christians falling into the
trap of believing in dark magic? I
think this problem stems from two sources: the need to dramatically affirm a
world-view and the underestimation of frauds and conjurers.
Humans
will believe quickly whatever supports their world-view. James Randi, an escape
artist and magician, in a Nova episode entitled “Secrets of the
Psychics” (Broadcasted 10/19/93) describes how scientists studying extra
sensory perception had been fooled by magicians mainly because they were
already primed to believe in the existence of ESP. These magicians sent by Randi’s Educational Foundation were told
that if any scientist asked “is this a magic trick?” they were to fold
immediately and admit they were illusionists.
However, no one asked because they believed in the very manifestation
they were supposed to be scientifically testing.
For
Christians, the manifestation of supernatural evil in a weird way confirms for
believers the reality of God’s ability to also act in dramatic miraculous
ways. Furthermore such dramatic
confrontations affirm the basic biblical truth that God can and does overcome
evil.
However,
Christians must be wary of automatically accepting what fits nicely into their
preconceived ideas. There is a
temptation to not be critical. For
example, anyone who has a great story to tell which dramatizes the power of God
should not be automatically believed.
Not long ago there was a popular Christian comedian who claimed, besides
being a Viet Nam vet, that before being saved he was an occult high
priest. In his testimonies he made all
sorts of affirmations about the supernatural powers available to him in that
previous role. All of this made his
salvation all the more wonderful or at least more dramatic. Sadly it was revealed that he had never been
the things he claimed. But while
popular he perpetuated an idea, which many Christians were ready to believe,
that Satan has real physical supernatural power.
Furthermore,
Christians need to be critical of fiction that seems to affirm their world-view
but also contains questionable elements in what we know to be true in the
physical world. From Chic comics to Touched
by an Angel, there are various fictions which include supernatural events
which seem to support a cosmic world-view of a triumphant God. However, in fact these works are fiction and
should be remembered as being as much in the realm of fantasy as those by
J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis.
In a
similar vein Christians have heard for years about actual dark powers being
manifested in foreign mission works. In
these cases I am not suggesting actual fraud on the missionaries’ part. However, I suspect that good people may have
been willing to believe the reality of Satan’s physical power because his
defeat in such situations all the more dramatized the power of God and because
such supernatural manifestations are often accepted as real to the people whom
they serve. It may have not occurred to
some missionaries to actually examine the practices of the “witch doctor” to
truly understand his trickery, or to deeply question the witnesses of their
honest converts about what they claimed they had seen.
A
colleague of mine, Howard Conrad, teaching out on in California once told me a
story of his experience when serving as a missionary in Costa Rica. One day he came down to his village only to
find all the people terrified about an evil apparition they had seen in the
local cemetery. He questioned several,
including some of his own church members.
“Oh yes, absolutely; I saw it myself.
There’s a ghost on in the graveyard dancing on the stones.” Howard then made his way up the road to the
cemetery where sure enough just beyond the stone fence there danced a
disembodied skull. He watched it for
several minutes bouncing from one headstone to another until he stepped over
the wall and caught the thing with his foot.
Turning
it over with his foot, Howard found inside was a rat busily chewing on some of
the remaining flesh. As it had jerked
the skull back and forth the skull had seemed to dance. If Howard had gone along with the world-view
of his fellow towns people we would have another fantastic story from the
mission field. Furthermore, in some missionary cases, western arrogance may
have blinded them to the possibility that they were being duped.
Recently
Andre Kole, a master illusionist who in fact created and sold the illusion of
the vanishing Statue of Liberty to David Copperfield, visited the Christian
campus where I teach. Kole uses his
skills as tool for evangelism and has a number of books on the subject of
illusion and fraud. I asked him then if
in all of his years of experience in travel and in company with other magicians
had he ever seen a single unexplainable, supernatural manifestation. “Never,” he said.
James
Randi, mentioned earlier, who has made it his task to debunk various
supernatural claimants notes in a Nova episode entitled “Secrets of the
Psychics” that many educated professional men believed in the spiritualists
common in the first part of the twentieth century, not so much because they
wanted to, but because they underestimated the cleverness of their objects of
study. Typical comments of the time
were that this or that uneducated woman could not have possibly been able to
contrive an illusion which would have fooled the educated male observer. The fact was that these tricksters were very
clever.
During
that same period, Harry Houdini, the son of a rabbi and one of America’s most
famous magicians, looked continuously for some real supernatural manifestation
of contacting the dead. He never found
one. Instead, in the later part of his
career, Houdini exposed one fraud after another. A write up connected with the “Houdini Museum” notes that “Early
on he attempted to do a spiritualist act when he was down and out, but found it
so distasteful that he stopped and would forever expose those who made such
claims.” Some of Houdini’s own works
show this passion and include "The Right Way To Do Wrong," an expose
of swindlers and "A Magician Among The Spirits," an expose of psychic
frauds. All of these individuals would
be judged “Satanic” in their apparent powers by some contemporary Christians,
but Houdini found earthly explanations.
This
refusal to accept the ability of the human mind to be fooled (and to find new
ways to fool others) has led many Christians to even question the spiritual
nature of professional magicians.
Witness the tendency of many Christian magicians, like Robert Hill or
Andre Kole, to now call themselves “illusionists.” The need to do so exists because many Christians think that such
abilities must be true and Satanic.
The mention of Houdini and
Randi brings up the valuable place for skeptics. Christians who are convinced of the reality of Satan’s supernatural
abilities in this world should consider the experiences of these two men. Neither Houdini nor Randi expressed or
express any Christian faith. Yet they
have walked into circles where many a Christian would be terrified because of
the “Satanic practices going on” and have not found any evidence of
supernatural phenomena. Instead they
have exposed one fraud after another.
If Satan truly had supernatural power on this world why not expose it to
either of these men? As non-believers
they are certainly not under God’s protection, yet Houdini died of very natural
causes.
Meanwhile, as noted on his web site “Randi's long-standing challenge to psychics now stands as a $1,000,000 prize administered by the Foundation. It remains unclaimed.” Why did Houdini not find any real manifestations? Why has none of Satan’s priests claimed the Randi prize? Rather than try to develop some sort of diabolical code which the enemy has all his minions following in order to not expose themselves for public scrutiny, Christians should accept that they have left room for magic in their world view and have underestimated the conjurers craft while these skeptics have done neither. Who has in fact done the Great Liar that greater service, the believer who has given Satan’s power on this earth credence or the non-believer who has exposed Satan’s frauds for what they are?
Some might think from my
arguments thus far that I do not take Satan seriously as a threat to humankind
or myself. Nothing could be further
from the truth. The devastating reality
of evil is shown in the ways Satan’s self-centeredness and anti-Godliness has
polluted human hearts, relationships and even landscapes. The tragic events of Sept. 11th
have caused many commentators to affirm that here indeed was a true
manifestation of evil. But it was an
evil created and perpetuated by human hands.
The face of Satan was indeed seen but not in a supernatural
manifestation. It is interesting to
note that one New York tabloid did claim that the face of Satan was physically
visible in the smoke of the burning Twin Towers, but such claims mask
humanity’s responsibility for being the hands of evil. Still the murder of so many and the ongoing
tactic of biological terrorism show that Satan’s evil is undeniably real.
Witness the accounts of war
and its cruelty to the innocent, famine and the starvation of children, the
desecration of whole oceans, and the potential threat of death on a planetary
scale: anything that would encourage our hearts in such directions must be
recognized as a fearsome threat.
Following his example, we have laid waste to countries, neighborhoods,
homes and individuals, young and old. Personally I shudder at the Hellish (and
I am not using this term lightly) choices I could have made thus far in my life
if not for God’s grace. I take Satan
and his mission very seriously.
So why go to such lengths to
dampen his image if indeed Lucifer truly is a terrible threat, a “roaring
lion”? First because once the Christian
understand the true impossibility of magic then the entire realm of illusion
and fantasy are freed from suspicion.
If we know that flying brooms and transmutations into wolves are
impossible then descriptions of such things can go back to the world of
make-believe where they belong. On the
second page of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Mr. Dursley notices
a cat on the corner of his home. . . reading a map. To the Christian who believes in the magical power of Satan this
has echoes of familiars and demons. However,
to the Christian who knows magic is impossible this is a clear textual sign:
“You have left the Real World and have Entered into the Land of Oz. Enjoy the
Ride.” When the distinctions are clear,
magicians can again amaze us without fearing that they will be accused of truly
being allied with the devil. And once
again children can enjoy dressing up on Halloween and even enjoying a spooky
story at night. With the understanding
that his evil is framed only within humans Satan loses one of his strongest
tools: fear. Also his claims about
being a deity utterly deflate for all stories which suggest otherwise are
recognized for what they are--fiction.
Please understand that this
is not an argument for reckless involvement with things that even pretend to be
evil. Last Halloween I discouraged my
son's desire to be a skeleton with dripping gore. Instead he was a knight, Sir Galahad. My desire was to encourage Andy to concentrate on the positive. Furthermore, I do not think young people
should get involved with "cultish" paraphernalia that foolish
individuals use to attempt to contact the dead and spirits. As I mentioned before, being spirits
ourselves we are vulnerable to dark ideas and dark presences, but I maintain
that there will be no skeletons raised nor real power exhibited on this plane.
Still whatsoever a man thinketh in his heart, he is." So Christians should make every attempt to
concentrate even in their reading of fiction of fantasy on the positive. The Lord of the Rings may describe
the Dark Lord of Mordor, but the true power of the story is found in the
goodness and self sacrifice of those small and outwardly powerless individuals
called Hobbits.
The second, and far more
important, reason Satan's power needs to be recognized as greatly limited, is
because Christians need to separate their faith from supernatural special
effects. I see many young Christians
desiring the miraculous in their life to match the miraculous of the darkness. This makes them susceptible to frauds who
come disguised as angels (a classic Satanic trick). I can remember there was one young lady in my class who told a
wonderful story about a mystery man who turned up just at the right moment on a
deserted road to help her and her traveling mission group. He told them his name was Philip which they
later realized means “God Sent” and when no record could be found of him, the
suggestion was clear in their mind that he was, perhaps, an angel. When I suggested to her that he also could
have perhaps been a kind man who was passing through I could see the
disappointment in her face.
But why should there be
disappointment? Does the fact that God
might choose a wondering kind man instead of a supernatural being mean that he
loves her and her group less? Certainly
not. Was he less sent by God because he
did not glow with an unearthly light?
God provided for her and her group; that remains the same. And that is what really matters.
Not long ago I was dismayed
when in another Nova episode they examined afterlife experiences. Many people have claimed to have experienced
the now classic series of events of going down a dark tunnel towards light
where a beautiful world is filled with loved ones. I personally had hoped that these events were scientifically
observable crossovers into the supernatural.
But in that episode it was also demonstrated that such events can be
artificially created by stress. In fact
jet pilots have described experiences very much like those at near death. I recall calling Rev. Ann Rearick, my
mother, and complaining that here was something I had had hung my hat of belief
on and now I was back to just faith.
“Well Dear,” she replied, “that’s all you are supposed to have anyway;
it’s all we have ever had.” She was and
is right. My faith had no business sitting on the back of what I thought was a
miracle.
Christians want a
supernatural, dramatic Satan to help affirm an even more supernatural, dramatic
God. However the cost is too great. It
leads to paranoiac fear, weak faith, and a world view which is just waiting to be
undermined by the revelations of science because it is, in fact, false.
Works Cited
Hill, Robert.
"The Egyptian Parlor Trick" E-mail to Anderson M.
Rearick
III. Fri, 6 Oct 2000 14:19:13 -0400.
Houdini
Museum in Scranton (1993-2000) Oct. 6 . 2000
<http://www.microserve.com/~magicusa/houdini.html>
Randi, James. James
Randi Educational Foundation. (1998) Oct. 6 . 2000
<www.randi.org
>
Lewis, C.S. The
Discarded Image : An Introduction to Medieval and
Renaissance Literature (Canto Series) Reprint edition Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ.
Press 1994.
Rowling.J. K. Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
New York: 1998
The New
Bible Commentary, revised / Eds: D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer ;
consulting
editors: A.M. Stibbs, D.J. Wiseman Imprint Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1970.
(1991 printing)
Van Biema,
David. "If you Liked the Movie. . .A Horror Clasic is Back--
and so is
Exorcism, an Old Rite Getting new Respect." Time 2 Oct.
200: 74.