Originally published in the February 1972 issue of The Testimony magazine
The Devil – the Great Deceiver
SOME BIBLICAL subjects which exercised the minds of religious people fifty years ago are hardly mentioned today. One such is the Devil and Satan as applied to a fallen angel or some grotesque evil monster. However, these are Scriptural terms and must be understood. I suppose all of us have had the subject well explained to us before we embraced the Truth and read the appropriate chapter in Elpis Israel and Christendom Astray. Brother P. Watkins has carefully gone over the same ground and dealt in some depth with those debatable passages that are so frequently brought up on question nights at Bible Classes, particularly the use of Satan in the Book of Job and the prophet Zechariah, and the devil in the epistle of Jude. He traces briefly the origin of the words devil, demon, and satan. One would hesitate to describe the word study as tedious as he suggests.
It is particularly important, as the writer emphasises, that these subjects should be seen against the background of the work of Christ as the Redeemer. There are several useful summaries where the reader can refresh his memory of matters so far discussed.
One may perhaps query the suggestion that when Jesus was hungry and thirsty at the well in Samaria and could have miraculously provided food, that, “In normal circumstances it would have been permissible”. We have no evidence that Jesus or the Apostles ever used these powers on their own behalf. The later sections of the book are of a practical nature, dealing with temptation in its various forms and our triumph over it through Jesus Christ, and there is a short section on the relationship between evil and ,the love of God. To quote the concluding thoughts,
“Divine chastisement is always directed against the flesh. It is designed to help the sufferer appreciate spiritual values. Indeed, the One who provides the chastisement is described as ‘the Father of spirits’.
The subject of suffering is a difficult one, and our survey is far from complete. What we have seen is that God brings a measure of suffering on man because he has chosen the way of sin; and that He uses suffering as a means of promoting the spiritual development of His servants.
One final thought. This period of suffering is but a meantime. The ultimate picture is of a time when ‘there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away’. If by God’s grace we are there, we shall be able to view the problem of suffering in proper perspective, and to understand.”
This review originally appeared in the February 1972 edition of The Testimony Magazine (pages 68-69), and is reproduced by kind permission.
