The Defeat of the Devil & the Continuing Presence of Evil
Our friends at Core Christianity asked me last Summer to write a booklet on Satan and his tactics, together with an overview of Christ’s triumph over him. They’ve titled that book, “Can the Devil Read My Mind?” You may purchase the book by clicking here or using the button below »
Here's an excerpt from the first chapter:
In Scripture, we read of Christ’s victory over and destruction of the devil, and yet we also read of the ongoing battle believers have with dark forces arrayed against humanity and the church. We read of Satan on the prowl seeking to deceive, devastate, and rob people of life, peace, beauty, and God’s word. In our lives, we can see the terrible consequences of the work of these enemies, not only in the power of the indwelling sin we all feel and seek to resist, but in the high cost of sin in our families, societies, and churches.
The violence of our world; the horror of war; the stories of disaster, murder, sexual abuse, and the despoiling of creation that fill our news cycle; and the all-too-familiar scenes of starvation and slavery add to this picture of apparently unrestrained evil and misery.
How can we confess that Christ has defeated the devil when we can clearly see that he is at work in dreadful ways? How does our view that Christ has conquered stand up in the face of the entire catalog of human woe? The answer to this question lies in grasping the various stages of the devil’s defeat and understanding the language the Bible employs to describe his conquest.
Stages of the Conquest
There are seven stages of Christ’s victory that span the pages of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation:
Stage One: Christ’s Victory Promised
Stage Two: Christ’s Victory Initiated
Stage Three: Christ’s Victory Achieved
Stage Four: Christ’s Victory Announced
Stage Five: Christ’s Victory Unfolded
Stage Six: Christ’s Victory Consummated
Stage Seven: Christ’s Victory Celebrated
These seven stages of Christ’s triumph over Satan help us grasp the scale of the devil’s activity and the scope of Jesus’ mission. These identify how God has already worked in history, where things currently stand in the campaign, and what we can expect in the future.