The greatest trick

"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that, poof. He's gone. "  -Kevin Spacey as the narrator in the Usual Suspects.


From People of the Lie by M. Scott Peck.

We must not fall back into Saint Augustine's now discarded doctrine of "privatio boni," whereby evil was defined as the absence of good.  Satan's personality cannot be characterized simply by an absence, a nothingness.  It is true, however, that pervading this personality is an active presence of hate.  Satan wants to destroy us.  It is important that we understand this.  There are quite popular systems of thought these days, such as Christian Science or the Course in Miracles, which define evil as unreality.  It is a half-truth.  The spirit of evil is on of unreality, but it itself is real.  It really exists.  To think otherwise is to be misled.  Indeed, as several have commented, perhaps Satan's best deception is its general success in concealing its own reality from the human mind.

Personally I reject the bubble-gum, feel-good, Pop "Christianity" that seems to permeate Western Culture.  The Truth sets one free, but the Truth often hurts.  The Truth is a double-edged sword.  The Truth cuts both ways, its comforts the afflicted and it also afflicts the comforted.  Any doctrine that does one and not the other is the doctrine of a wolf.  Feel-good, bubble gum, Pop "Christianity" is in my opinion a wolf in sheep's clothing.  Sure it brings comfort, but at what expense?  I have learned my deepest, most profound and important lessons while broken and afflicted.  Though God does not do the afflicting He uses it for my growth.  Only making a deal with the devil ends affliction in this life, but it costs my eternity.  This is a deal Satan always offers.  Salvation is free through God's gift of Jesus Christ, and He guarantees a hard road of affliction in this life, and He guarantees me riches that never rust and last an eternity.  Anyone I see who lives a life free from affliction, and preaches such gives me cause to consider the possibility that he or she sleeps with the Satan clothed as an angel of light.  Test every spirit.

Evil exists, but we have an Advocate with the Father who sent us His one and only Son.