From Jim McGuiggan... ONLY GOD IS ENOUGH

ONLY GOD IS ENOUGH

Christos Gage and his wife Ruth have two of their characters in a Television series¹ in a serious dialogue about religion and life under horrific conditions. One is a priest and the other a blind lawyer who wrestles with the issue of justice pursued outside the law. The discussion gets under way when the lawyer asks:

Do you believe in the Devil?

Priest. "You mean as a concept? No."

Do you believe he exists, in this world—among us?

Priest:  "When I was in seminary I was more studious than pious, more skeptical than my peers. I had this notion, a notion I was more than willing to speak about, at length, to whoever I could corner, that the Devil was inconsequential, a minor figure in the grand scheme.

"In my defense, in the scriptures the Hebrew word 'Satan' actually means 'adversary'. It is applied to any antagonist; angels, humans, serpents and kings. ² The medieval theologians reinterpreted those passages to be about a single monstrous enemy and in my youthful zeal I was certain I knew why—propaganda. They were played up to drive people into the church.”

So you don't believe he exists?

Priest. "Have I stopped talking? [The lawyer apologizes.] Years later I was in Rwanda trying to help local churches provide aid and sanctuary to the refugees. I'd become close with the village elder, Gahiji. He and his family had the respect of everybody, Hutu and Tutsi alike. He had helped them all...through famine and disease.
The militia liked to force Hutu villagers to murder their neighbors—with machetes. But nobody would raise a hand against Gahiji. They said, 'How can we kill such a holy man?'

So the militia commander sent soldiers with orders to cut his head off in front of his entire village. Gahiji didn't resist; he just asked for a chance to say goodbye to his family but by the time he was done even the soldiers were unwilling to kill him. Still, they asked permission to shoot him rather than carry out the more grisly execution.

The commander wanted to meet the man who had won the respect of so many people who came from fiercely opposing viewpoints. He went to Gahiji and talked with him in his hut—talked with him for many hours—and then he dragged him out and hacked him to pieces along with his entire family.
In that man who took Gahiji's life I saw the Devil...so yes...I believe he walks among us, taking many forms." ³

When the 90's Rwanda horror ended a preacher who'd been through the entire period returned to Britain. He was asked if the breathtaking evil had not destroyed his faith in God; he said, "No, but it destroyed my faith in man." 

For reasons I won’t develop here, I’m one of those who believe that Satan is an actual being, a being whose name has come to stand for all that is anti-God, anti-human and anti-life. If something is an enemy of God and his overarching purpose, if it serves to oppress and rob humans of fullness of life in this world we rightly call it satanic.

It doesn’t matter to me if Satan is the name given to destructive anti-God forces that corrupt, enslave and torment humans though I’m certain that’s how it functions in some texts [n Revelation, for example]—the reality of these satanic forces is undeniable! ⁴

I’m not making an argument here or trying to “prove” anything. I simply want to be another one of a vast multitude down the ages that denounces the evil force called Sin that we let loose back all those millennia ago; an evil power that is not just the aggregate number of all the unjust, immoral and villainous acts and words we humans have turned loose in our history. Sin is viewed as more than wrongs done! It is a terrifying power, as real as physical disease, a reality that is truly the cosmic Emperor of Plagues. ⁵ Call it satanic, call it demonic, call it by some social or psychological name—call it anything you want but now and then stand stunned by its universal reign and its fathomless, savage, parasitical and destructive might.

We underestimate this…this thing…to our peril. To defeat it we raise up political reform, social change, education, wise words, laws, seminars by the thousands and books by the billions and this…thing…this heartless king, this slaver, this raping, pillaging alien that feeds on humans and breeds in the darkness and stalks in the daylight corrupts our plans and turns our shields into grass in a forest fire. We forget that—as the Bible tells it—the plague burst on the world in Paradise and not in a Hell’s Kitchen ghetto. ⁶

But while that’s essential news—it isn’t the good news.

There is a relative handful of people in this world who have been blessed and privileged with getting to hear and coming to believe the word of someone who said, “In the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer, I have conquered the world.” Then there was the writer of Hebrews who wrote to disheartened believers about humanity’s glorious triumph in Jesus. He knew very well that it wasn’t yet true that the glory of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea and he says of the Lord Jesus, “We do not yet see all things put on under him but we see Jesus…” That was enough for him. He lets the chaotic world shout its message, “Do you see all the evil-doers defeated?” and he answers it with, “Not yet, but we see Jesus!” ⁷

And as laughable as it will seem to an innumerable host who as yet do not “see Jesus” come Sunday from rich homes and little huts, from far away and near, people will leave their homes and go to places where they will proclaim Jesus the coming King. The number will begin as a trickle, then become a stream and then a mighty river of believers who, as one People, in song, in prayer, in proclamation, in giving and in faithful love and mutual support will proclaim the return of the King to right all wrongs and finally and fully obliterate “Satan”. Can he do that? He has already done it! Believe that and act on its truth and wait for him to explain what you can’t altogether presently understand.

This isn’t good news only for believers, this is good news for the world!

1.    Season 1, episode 9 of Daredevil

2.     In 1 Kings 11:14 and 23God is said to raise up two “satans” against Solomon. They are identified as Hadad of Edom and Rezon, the son of Eliadah. In Numbers 22:22 the “angel of the Lord” stands against Balaam as a “satan”.

3.     Note 2 Corinthians 11:14-15 where Paul speaks of satanic transformations and disguises.

4.     Note the work of Walter Wink [3 volumes on The Powers] who leaves the question of Satan’s personal existence as open but drives home the undeniably terrifying reality ofsatanic forces to which the human family is enslaved.

5.    A phrase echoing the title of Siddhartha Mukherjee’s marvelous book on the history of cancer research, The Emperor of Maladies.

6.    Paul in Romans 5-7 personifies Sin as a king, a slaver, a law-giver. “Sin” to Bible writers is never an isolated act of wrong—specifics wrongs are only manifestations of a systemic disease that affects the entire human family in every age.

It’s right to confront the powers to make life better for our fellow-humans. It would be unlike God in Christ to care nothing for the sufferers of the world when he came to redeem and bring fullness of life. But while it is true that ghettos make people it’s a bigger truth that sinful people make ghettos.

7.    John 12:31; 16:33; Hebrews 2:8-9.

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.