The Devil Made Me Post This

Growing up, I remember my grandparents telling me that music involving an electric guitar or drums was “the Devil’s music”. I also recall having a deck of cards that I had eagerly pulled out of a cereal box (back when we’d actually get prizes from our boxed breakfast) only to have it thrown away after being told that the Devil was in them.

Such was the life as a youth growing up in my church. I gained a healthy respect both for the good that God represented and conversely the evil that Satan represented. Heck, even one of the great prophets of the 80′s and 90′s recognized who was behind the evil in our world:

Now I’m somewhat confident that the apostle Paul wasn’t referring to music with a beat or a straight flush when he said that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6.12), but through the years, I have noticed that I’ve given Satan less and less thought in my own personal Christian journey. Even demons don’t garner much attention from me except when I see the occasional trailer for a new exorcist type movie. All this makes me wonder, have we completely removed Satan and his little helpers from the modern day church equation? Do we equate blaming something on the Devil as just flat out loony sounding? Or maybe Satan and his demons are only attacking little tribes in far away 3rd world countries while America is lucky enough to become immune to the powers of the Prince of the Air.

Or maybe, just maybe, Kevin Spacey was right (beginning at :23 mark): watch?v=kl0H1EUQ_38

So what do you think. Would you and/or the church you attend today look or act any different if Satan in fact didn’t exist?