Satan – Devil – Enemy – Tempter

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They believe in a three-fold Enemy: World, Flesh and Devil/Satan.

They see Satan as a fallen angel engaged in an age-long struggle to deceive and seduce men to follow him rather than obey God. He is evil, a deceiver, a murderer, a liar, and has power only insofar as God allows.

They fear him and attribute actions to him: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He is the tempter and the source of temptations to Christians.

His emissaries on earth are called demons.

Worker Quote: There is a difference between temptation and testing. God proves us. God tests us. The Devil, our fellow man, and often, our own nature tempt us. Temptation is the encouragement to do evil. Testing is the opportunity to do well, to do what’s right. (Ed Alexander, 2005)

Worker Quote: We’ve got an enemy. Jesus said he was a liar and a murderer. He can’t touch the Lord anymore because he’s been cast out of Heaven, but he still gets at God’s people. He gets back at God by getting at His people. He just delights in tormenting God’s people and he will till the very end. We have an unseen battle against an evil spirit, “against principalities.” The devil will use people in authority to hinder God’s people and God’s work. He will work through the government. (Carson Cowan)

Worker Quote: It’s just good to remember that the devil is just a very small speck in God’s eyes….We have something that is so much more powerful than we are….Sometimes we say that we have a three-fold enemy against us, with our flesh, that is very close to us, the devil, like that verse says, he is very subtle, we have the world, and that is very appealing. (Merlin Affleck, Merced, CA, 2004)

Worker Quote: Christian life has been compared to a pilgrimage, a stewardship, a race, a war. We have three enemies to face: world, flesh, and devil. The world has been called an external enemy, the flesh an internal enemy, and the devil one that rhymes with the other two—infernal. Which of these enemies are you most afraid of? Is it not a terrible admission that we are more afraid of our own flesh than we are of the devil? The devil is called a deceiver, an old serpent, a roaring lion, and yet we have to admit our own flesh is worse. It is good to have an idea of what the flesh is. The more you know about the enemy, the better you can grapple with him. A good many saints and servants have been defeated because of ignorance of his strength and wiles, and the fact that this enemy is ever on the alert to get power over them and bring them into bondage and cause them to tumble in the mud. (Jack Carroll, Sidney, Manitoba Convention, 1914)