72 - Defensive Action Toward Satan

Defensive Action Toward Satan; James 4:7b

Satan's strategy  (Cont.)

5)  Satan distorts the truth. Matthew 4:1-11. Satan knows the Bible as well as any believer, but he uses it, twists it, and misinterprets it for his own ends. This passage has to do with the testing of Christ to validate His claim to be Messiah at the initiation of His ministry.

6)  The concept that we as believers in order to defeat Satan are to bind Satan. Matthew 12:29 ^NASB "Or how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong {man?} And then he will plunder his house." The strong man is analogous to the demon or to Satan who is controlling that house. All He is saying there is that the house here represents Israel. Because there has been negative volition and because the earth has been under Satan's domain that Jesus came by going to the cross Jesus destroyed the power of Satan over the earth, at least potentially. This is not a mandate that believers bind Satan, it is referring to what the Lord is going to do in restricting Satan's power at the cross. There is another passage that people go to for binding, and this is in Matthew 16:19 ^NASB "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." In Rabbinic literature binding and loosing are technical judicial terms. Binding means to give someone permission to do something and loosing is prohibition. So whatever you bind on earth is a description of the fact that if you explain the gospel to somebody and they respond by faith alone in Christ alone, then that is binding. You have given them salvation and that is secured in heaven. Whatever you loose, i.e. by condemning someone for failure to trust Christ for salvation, on earth, they will be loosed in heaven, they will not have salvation. So binding and loosing is related to apostolic authority in giving the gospel to unbelievers. Binding and loosing never refers to Satan, in fact Satan is not bound in the Scripture until the Millennial. All of this false teaching today is based upon the idea that man somehow in offensive action against Satan, but the terminology that we have throughout the Scriptures is the word ANTHISTEMI [a)nqisthmi]. It is a compound of the Greek ANTI [a)nti] + HISTEMI [i(sthmi], which means to stand against and came to mean to stand firm, to stand your ground, to take up a defensive posture. It was a technical military term for a defensive perimeter. Notice that in terms of the soul fortress that God establishes for us that we have been talking about in James, the fortress is a defensive posture. You do not engage in offensive action from a fort, it is purely defensive. You cannot win any kind of engagement though by defensive action alone, but victory in the Christian life is not due to our offensive action because our command is to stay ion the fortress—a)nqisthmi, to take up a defensive posture. Ephesians 6:10ff… "put on the full armour of God," i.e. the soul fortress, "that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil… [13] …that you may be able to resist—a)nqisthmi… and having done everything to stand firm—i(sthmi… [14] therefore stand firm—i(sthmi." This is a defensive term, so the believer's position in relationship to Satan and demons is not to try to figure out what they are doing or to engage them in combat, the offensive engagement is the Lord's, "the battle is the Lord's." It is the Lord who takes care of the believer. That is why the command is Scripture in James 4:7 is "Resist the devil." That is our command. "… he will flee from us." Why? Because then the Lord comes to our aid.

Demon influence and demon possession

1)  Demons can affect humans in three different ways: demon influence, demon oppression, and demon possession.

2)  Definition: Demonic influence is the invasion of a person's soul by cosmic thinking. Believers and unbelievers can be demon influenced. In contrast demon possession is defined as the invasion and control of an unbeliever's body by a demon. Under demon influence whenever a person is operating on human viewpoint thinking, worldly thinking, cosmic thinking, they are operating on doctrines of demons and therefore are to some degree demon influenced. Biblical examples of demon influence are Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5—"…Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit…" They were believers, they were not demon possessed; he is affecting their thinking. Judas Iscariot at the beginning, John 13:3; Satan put it into his heart to betray the Lord. That is demon influence at that stage. Then Demas, one of Paul's associates. 2 Timothy 4:10 ^NASB "for Demas, having loved this present world [kosmoj], has deserted me..."  Only unbelievers can be demon possessed. Examples: the men in the tombs, Mary Magdalene out of whom Jesus cast seven demons, and there are various others mentioned in the Scriptures that were demon possessed. Demon oppression occurs when a person gets involved in extended carnality and is overtly attached, although he may not know it, by demons as part of divine discipline which results in depression, misery and unhappiness. But not all depression, misery and unhappiness involves demons. One of the things to make a point out of is that is doesn't matter where you are being attacked, whether it is from an external base in terms of something demonic, or whether it is from your own sin nature, or whether it is the cosmic system. The source of the attack doesn't matter. The modern deliverance stuff says you have to know where it comes from. No you don't, because the solutions are always the same: apply doctrine. It is doctrine that defeats all the enemies, period. As long as you are in fellowship, waking by means of the Spirit and applying doctrine you are okay. The only example that the Scripture clearly states for demon oppression is King Saul in the Old Testament.

3)  Demon influence can be direct or indirect. Direct demon influence occurs when Satan or a demon directly a person by putting ideas into their thinking. Acts 5, the episode with Ananias and Sapphira. They were controlled by materialism lust and wanted everybody to think they were giving everything to the church when in fact they weren't. Acts 5:3 ^NASB "But Peter said, 'Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back {some} of the price of the land?'" That is a thought. It is not that Satan is indwelling Annaias but that he is filling his mind with ideas. Temptation can come from an external source. John 13:2 ^NASB "During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, {the son} of Simon, to betray Him…" So direct demon influence occurs when Satan or a demon directly a person by putting ideas into their thinking. But we don't know that. Judas didn't know that; Ananias and Sapphira didn't know that. The only way that Ananias knew that Satan was the source of the idea in his mind was that Peter told him—revelation. That is direct influence. Indirect demon influence occurs when doctrines of demons, false ideas, are introduced into the believer's thinking through the culture around him, through cosmic thinking. 1 John 2:15 ^NASB "Do not love the world [cosmic system] nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." James 3:15 ^NASB "This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic." Human viewpoint ideas are not neutral! If it is not biblical, divine viewpoint thinking directly stated in Scripture it is demonic. James 4:4 ^NASB "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world [cosmic system] is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

4)  The Greek KOSMOS [kosmoj] usually translated "world" describes and orderly cohesive system and organization with a purpose, policy and structure of authority designed to subvert the thinking of the human race. Satan wants to control the believer's thinking. He wants us to think that there are all kinds of ways to solve our problems, that there are all kinds of ways to get to God. The Bible says there is only one correct way to solve problems, only one correct way to God, and that is what God has revealed in His Word.

Quote from Louis Sperry Chafer, Systrematic Theology, Vol. II, pp. 77, 78:  The cosmos is a vast order or system that Satan has promoted, which conforms to his ideals, aims, and methods. It is civilization now functioning apart from God—a civilization in which none of its promoters really expect God to share, who assign to God no consideration in respect to their projects; nor do they ascribe any causativity to Him. This system embraces its godless governments, conflicts, armaments, jealousies, its education, culture, religions of morality, and pride. It is that sphere in which man lives. It is what he sees, what he employs. To the uncounted multitude it is all they ever know so long as they live on this earth. It is properly styled the satanic system, which phrase is in many instances a justified interpretation of the so-meaningful word, cosmos. It is literally a cosmos diabolicus.