If I Were the Devil

If I Were the Devil - J.L. Robb - http://www.omegaletter.com/articles/articles.asp?ArticleID=8262

 

Does the devil exist? Is his name Satan or Lucifer? He is known by many names in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments.

 

You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Ezekiel 28:15 NIV

 

An April 14 issue of a TIME article asks: What if Hell Doesn't Exist?

 

It goes on to state how furious evangelicals are at Pastor Rob Bell for stating his "rogue" beliefs that maybe there is no Hell.

 

On April 25, 2011, TIME magazine's cover asked: WHAT IF THERE'S NO HELL?

 

There has been much debate during the last two millennia over whether Hell does or does not exist as a specific place of unending torture and misery.

 

Jehovah's Witnesses ask, "Would God really do that to one of his children?" Others, sometimes biblical scholars, say just existing is our hell on Earth, and there is no other. Some believe that instead of fire-and-brimstone, Hell is a place of never-ending darkness and despair.

 

All sound pretty awful to me, and I try to avoid unwinnable debates.

 

According to biblical research, in the King James Version, Satan is mentioned 49 times. The devil is mentioned 57 times and Lucifer, 1 time. That's a lot of mentions for an entity that does not exist. And if he exists, he must have a home.

 

The world is in a fine mess, and last week a young lady asked me why I thought we were in such a fix. When I mentioned the devil was to blame, she rolled her twenty-something year old eyes and that was that. It is not an easy story to believe but was much more believable 60 years ago when most everyone held the belief. That belief, in itself, led to the low crime and divorce rate at that time when most would be at Church every weekend.

 

Then the sixties happened, the decade that led to the sexual revolution of the seventies; and nothing has been the same since. Remember, make love-not war and if it feels good; do it evolved in the late sixties when an unpopular war was going on in Southeast Asia.

 

Unless one is a historian, you have to be fairly old to remember way back to the 1950s when car windows were left down and strangers would roll them up if it started raining without stealing anything? A time when homes were left unlocked and little kids walked to school without threat of a pedophile pouncing on him because the man has identity problems.

 

You may have heard the song, Who Let the Dogs Out? You could use the same tune and substitute the devil for dogs; because the devil was unleashed on the world to create unprecedented havoc in the late fifties, I am convinced.

 

1962- Prayer and God kicked out of school, and things got worse from there.  1963- John F Kennedy assassinated; Vietnam Conflict; draft dodgers move to Canada or Europe; military fires on rampaging college kids; frivolous sex skyrocketed; adultery skyrocketed; divorce skyrocketed; the TIME cover asked Is God Dead? And a lot of children began dying from legal, planned eradication.

 

But we thought it was good, things were always getting better it seemed and most of the Vietnam era guys enjoyed the sexual revolution.

 

Who let the devil out?

 

The following is an edited excerpt from one of the great radio voices of the past, broadcast in 1965:

 

If I Were The Devil

 

"If I were the devil, I wouldn't be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree-Thee.

 

"So I'd set about however necessary to take over the United States. I'd subvert the churches first-I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: 'Do as you please. Do as you please.'

 

"To the young, I would whisper, 'The Bible is a myth.' I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what is bad is good, and what is good is 'square'. And the old, I would teach to pray. I would teach them to pray after me, 'Our Father, which art in Washington...'

 

"And then I'd get organized.  I'd educate authors on how to make lurid literature exciting, so that anything else would appear dull and uninteresting. I'd threaten TV with dirtier movies and vice versa. I'd pedal narcotics to whom I could. I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction. I'd tranquilize the rest with pills."

 

Has this happened? Paul Harvey made this speech, and I think few recognized his prophecy would come true so fast.

 

One of the remarkable sales pitches of all time is Satan's pitch that he is only a myth, make-believe. He begins his savory seduction in the first book of the Bible and continues into the last. He gamed with the Almighty that he could steal Job from the bosom of God, just by making life miserable. It did not work.

 

"If I were the devil I'd soon have families that war with themselves, churches that war with themselves, and nations that war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed.  And with promises of higher ratings I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flame.

 

If I were the devil I would encourage schools to refine young intellects, and neglect to discipline emotions-just let those run wild, until before you knew it, you'd have to have drug sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every schoolhouse door.

 

"Within a decade I'd have prisons overflowing, I'd have judges promoting pornography-soon I could evict God from the courthouse, and then the schoolhouse, and then from the houses of Congress. 

 

"And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion, and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys and girls, and church money. If I were the devil I'd make the symbols of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

 

"If I were the devil I'd take from those, and who have, and give to those who wanted until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious. What do you bet I could get whole states to promote gambling as the way to get rich? I would question against extremes and hard work, and Patriotism, and moral conduct.  I would convince the young that marriage is old-fashioned, that swinging is more fun, that what you see on the TV is the way to be.  And thus I could undress you in public, and I could lure you into bed with diseases for which there is no cure.

 

"In other words, if I were the devil I'd keep on doing on what he's doing. 

 

"Paul Harvey, good day."

 

There is a reason the devil is called the great deceiver and a few other choice names. He has managed to influence some of our biblical scholars and leaders that he does not exist. Nothing to worry about.

 

The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Revelation 12:19 NIV

 

The great dragon is here, and I think he is surprised how easy it has been. He failed with Job but is making up for it now- while the world sleeps.