Follow-up post on yesterday's sermon on spiritual beings. Pastor quoted some statistics around the high percentage of folks who don't believe in Satan -- something like 50% of the American populace, with a similarly high percentage of Christians denying his existence. This doesn't surprise me, of course. I once heard the line that "Satan's greatest trick was to convince people he didn't exist."The thing is, I don't think Satan even needs to get involved. I think people -- without his influence -- want to believe he is a fairy tale. Which is counter-intuitive to me since I would think people would want a convenient excuse not to take responsibility for their own actions; they want to find a being to blame it on. But I think they also want to blame that on God, not Satan.
But people also find it easier to disbelieve all of the other things in the Word if they can rationalize away Satan. There is such extensive mention of angels, demons, and Satan throughout Scripture, the only way to deny their existence is with a very liberal interpretation of the Bible. And if you can reach that point, well out the window goes sanctity of life, prohibition of homosexuality, Biblical marriage, et al.
Which leads me to believe that maybe demons don't have to work so very hard. Why work hard to bring about bad decisions and bad beliefs that people are already hell-bent on making?
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