Questions & Answers
Question:
Some of Norman Grubb’s earlier books do not seem to suggest, like his later books, that before we are born again Satan indwells us. Why is this? Did his message change?
Answer:
Norman Grubb was on a journey discovering the true meaning of the true Christian life in its full reality. He was a pioneer. In other words he tread Biblical truth that as far as I can tell no one had ever delved into before. Many discussed and believed in a Christ in you life (I believed that way). But, and it is a big but, Norman was the first (and the only one I know of) to take the leap of faith and declare that Christ not only indwelt believers but lived his life through them, His created vessels. He put it this way–“Not only Christ in you but Christ AS you.” He was maligned and persecuted, as are we his prodigy, for believing and teaching this.
All this is to say he altered his message slightly from time to time to include new discoveries he was making and discarding others that his new ideas surpassed.
Because of this, Norman became clearer with his insight into his Christ in you as you message as he matured past the 1970’s. I came to know him after that. In my time he was very clear that we were Satan indwelt before we were born again. We were not in a union with him like we are with Christ, but indwelt. He had a saying–“Always a Satan-I or a Christ-I, never an I-I.” Of course we have always belonged to God but due to the Fall we became lost to him and became enslaved and indwelt by Satan. God does all He can to draw all men unto Himself but will not override the free will he created us with. It takes our capitulation through confession of sin and faith to become His.
You might gain insight to what Norman said in his more mature days if you moved on to his more recent writings–Who Am I?, Yes, I Am, and the booklet “No Independent Self.” If we have never been independent with our own human nature, we have had to be indwelt by one of the two deity natures–Christ or Satan. I can’t remember anything of Norman’s that denies our being Satan indwelt before we were born again. “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Ephesians 2:3).
Norman lived with me for a time and before that we had many, many in-person visits together. We discussed these blessed truths hour upon hour so I am sure that what I tell you is what he was saying and writing in the 1980’s and till his death in 1993. I visited him in January of that year and as he reclined in his sick bed, at age 97, he was still proclaiming his “Christ-I, Satan-I” truth to the five of us who were privileged to visit him. I regretted I didn’t have a tape recorder.
He was glorified that December and I never saw him again!
Fondly,
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