What appears to me incredible is not the Devil, not the Angels,
but rather the candor and the credulity of the skeptic, and the
unpardonable sophism of which they show themselves to be the
victims: "The Devil is a gent with red horns and a long tail; now I
can’t believe in a gent with red horns and a long tail; therefore I
don’t believe in the Devil." And so the Devil has them precisely
where he wants them. Those who stick to old wives’ tales are those
who refuse to believe in the Devil because of the image they form of
him, which is drawn from old wives’ tales. (Denis de Rougemont,
The Devil’s Share, An Essay on the Diabolic in Modern Society)
The spirits have come out in the open today: Through possessed
"channels" they have spoken in public seminars, via books, cassettes,
and videos, and even on national television. They have initiated an
assault in ways that a generation ago would have seemed unthinkable.
Polls such as those conducted by Gallup, Roper, and the University of
Chicago’s National Opinion Research Council reveal that literally tens
of millions of Americans claim to have had some kind of contact with
spiritism. Thus, the occult can no longer be conveniently put to one
side as belonging exclusively to Eastern/Oriental countries.1 It is
now out in the open, part of the recognized culture of the West. And
it is our contention that all this is the devil’s business.
Unfortunately, many people ridicule even the idea of a literal
devil or demons as primitive superstition. They believe that in our
modern scientific age we can finally do away with such medieval
nonsense and its corresponding "witch-hunts."
But is this attitude realistic? Is it unscientific to believe in a
personal devil, or is there a preponderance of evidence that suggests
his existence? The famed evangelist Billy Graham once remarked, "Why
do I believe in the devil? For three reasons. 1. Because the
Bible plainly says he exists. 2. Because I see his work everywhere. 3.
Because great scholars have recognized his existence."2
It is a more logical assumption that Satan really does exist than
that he does not. As Dr. J. I. Packer, professor of historical and
systematic theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia,
argues:
The natural response to denials of Satan’s existence is to ask,
who then runs his business?—for temptations which look and feel like
expressions of cunning destructive malice remain facts of daily
life. So does hell in the sense defined by the novelist John
Updike—"a profound and desolating absence" (of God, and good, and
community and communication); and "the realisation that life is
flawed" (Updike goes on) "admits the possibility of a Fall, of a
cause behind the Fall, of Satan." Belief in Satan is not illogical,
for it fits the facts. Inept to the point of idiocy, however, is
disbelief in Satan, in a world like ours; which makes Satan’s
success in producing such disbelief all the more impressive, as well
as all the sadder.3
It is also quite logical that evil would seek to camouflage itself
for strategic purposes, just as the Mafia launders its money in
legitimate businesses. Camouflage has been a key ingredient of
military tacticians for millennia—it would hardly be surprising to
find it in the spirit world. Such camouflage could assume any number
of guises from promoting itself as myth to the opposite extreme of
promoting itself as ultimate reality or God. Indeed, the majority of
people in our culture do believe either that Satan does not exist or
that the realm of the psychic world is indeed divine. Of course, the
only way out of this situation is to unmask the real myth: the lies
the devil spreads about himself. As Brooks Alexander well argues:
The nature of illusion is the ruse of misdirection. It is the
misplacement of our attention through the manipulation of false
images, both personal and collective. The devil’s disappearance
provides a clear example of collective misdirection—a form of social
deception. Once that image is accepted, whatever response we make to
it will be as false as the image that provokes it, and therefore
play into the devil’s hands. Its direction will be amiss by
definition....
It is not the existence of Satan that should alarm us, but the
fact that our contemporaries are so ill equipped to deal with
reality on any level, let alone to recognize the fundamental danger.
De Rougemont’s articulation of this point is elegant and concise:
"One of the reasons why confusion is spreading in the world is
that we are afraid to face its real causes. We believe in a
thousand evils, fear a thousand dangers, but have ceased to
believe in Evil and to fear the true Dangers. To show the reality
of the Devil in this world is... to cure ourselves. We are never
in greater danger than in moments when we deceive ourselves as to
the real nature of a threat, and when we summon our energies for
defense against the void while the enemy approaches from behind."
It would be irresponsible for us to exclude [the devil] from
consideration simply because we dislike the connotations we have
given him. Even if we acknowledge the concept without comprehending
it, at least it puts us on notice that "spiritual" things may be
more subtle and complex than they appear. Healthy caution is an
antidote for fear, not its cause.4
Eight Arguments for the Devil
Thus, we can suggest eight lines of reasoning to infer the
possibility of a real devil and/or the reality of spiritual evil.
• the consensus of history and religion
• the testimony of practicing occultists
• the testimony of former spiritists
• the phenomenon of spirit possession
• the authority of the Bible
• the testimony of Jesus Christ
• the hostility to historic biblical Christianity displayed in
virtually all spiritistic literature
• the destructive power of the occult and the testimony of
brilliant thinkers
We examine these in turn.
The Consensus of History and Religion
Belief in Satan and/or a world of evil spirits has been with man
throughout his history. It has been an accepted truth for a majority
of people in most times and cultures, ancient and modern (e.g.,
Assyrian, Babylonian, Celtic, Egyptian, Greek, Hebrew, Indian,
African, Muslim, Roman, Tibetan, Persian, Chinese, Buddhist, Hindu,
Christian, Jain, Japanese, Slavic, etc.).5 In light of this vast
testimony within the canons of history, culture, and religion, the
relatively recent assertion of the devil’s lack of existence is less
tenable. Modern scientific rationalism has actually explained very
little of the height and depth of the universe.
The Testimony of Practicing Occultists
Magicians, psychics, gurus, mediums, and Satanists are well aware
of the reality of spiritual evil, however they choose to define it.
Many of these practitioners do believe in literal evil spirits and
have had personal encounters with them. Such encounters leave little
doubt as to their malevolent nature.6 Occult magician Conway warns,
"Their appetite for destruction and discord appears to be insatiable"
and "We shall call them evil for the good reason that given the chance
they would do us immeasurable harm."7
Spiritist Sri Chinmoy also discusses the deceptive nature of
spirits, that even allegedly "good" spirits will turn on a person and
then "they try to cut your throat" if the individual attempts to
declare independence from them.8 He further observes, "The hostile
forces [can] take the form of a particular spiritual Master and ask
the disciples to commit suicide. ‘If you commit suicide, I will be
able to give you liberation sooner’ it would say.... These hostile
forces are very clever."9
(to be continued)
Notes
1 These polls are widely reported and may be secured from the
respective organization.
2 In This Week magazine, Mar. 2, 1958.
3 J. I. Packer, God’s Words (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity, 1985), pp. 83-84.
4 Brooks Alexander, "The Disappearance of the Devil,"
Spiritual Counterfeits Project Newsletter, Vol. 10, No. 4,
Jul./Aug. 1984, pp. 6-7.
5 See the discussion in James Hastings’ Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics (New York: Schribner’s n.d.), Vol. 4, pp.
565-636.
6 Sri Chinmoy, Astrology, the Supernatural and the Beyond
(Jamaica, NY: Agni Press, 1973), pp. 70-72; David Conway, Magic:
An Occult Primer (New York: Bantam, 1973), pp. 196-199.
7 Conway, Magic: An Occult Primer, pp. 196, 198.
8 Sri Chinmoy, Conversations With the Master (Jamaica, NY:
Agni Press, 1977), p. 19.
9 Chinmoy, Astrology, p. 94.
