Questions & Answers
by Editor(s)

Q : Critics say that our belief about Satan is error because Scripture does not teach Satan/I-yet, somehow I know that most of my life I was under the control of something evil. Can I rely on more than my "knowing" to answer our critics?

A: The Bible does not use (contain) the words "Satan/I." However, the concept is there and we get to it by deduction. It is the same with the glorious "Once Saved Always Saved" statement. You won’t find it in the Bible either, but the truth of it is certainly there and we know it by deduction too.

The Bible says in telling us about Satan: John 9:44-"Ye are of your Father the devil and the lusts of your father you do." And in Romans 7:17–"Now it is no more I that do it but sin that dwelleth in me." This statement is repeated again in verse 20 of the same chapter. The truth of these two statements pretty well says it.

If I am Satan’s child I am doing his works (not my works that are a copy of his works but his actual works). How is it possible for me to do the works of another? Paul gives us a very clear answer to this in his famous Romans 7 chapter. It is not Paul himself that is sinning, but indwelling sin, something greater than Paul that was causing him to do the very things he didn’t want to do and preventing him from doing the very things he wanted to do.

Sin in and of itself is not active. For sin to be sin someone must be doing it either in thought, word, or deed. Since, as Paul says, it’s not him doing his sin–who is it?? It is Satan, Mister Sin himself, operating his own self-for-self nature through Paul. "You were by nature (operator) children of wrath" (Eph. 2:3). Now we take the truth of this to it’s final and obvious (to the eyes of faith) conclusion.

Paul, like the entire human race, in his pre-Christ state is a Satan operated (bossed) person. "Satan/I" is an easy and short way to sum it all up.

Let me also say here that any knowing (a spirit thing) we have that is not based on the Bible is not knowing at all. It is simply ideas created by human thought and reason. This is a soul activity.

Q : I have been in a serious sin situation as a result of unbelief (seeing myself as "just me" and not Christ as me). I have repented and I am once again walking in the truth of who I am. In spite of my turnaround, things are happening in my life that I don’t like. Is this God’s punishment coming to me because of my disobedience?

A : The Bible is clear on this. It tells us that we will reap what we sow. If we sow destruction we will reap just that. If we sow light and love that is what we will have returned to us. This is the law of the universe.

Law simply put means how a thing works. It is not as we usually think some strict rule that keeps us from doing something that would be good for us and make us happy. Take the law of gravity for example–what goes up will come down. So if we jump off the roof we will come down with an impact, caused by gravity, that will more than likely injure us. Gravity isn’t mean; it works the way it does for our good. If we go against it we injure ourselves.

It’s the same with all of God’s laws. Rightly used they bless us, but when we go against them–break them–we injure ourselves by going against what is.
All sin and unbelief injures us in this way. It may look like punishment on God’s part but it is self injury because we choose to go in opposition to what, who, and how God is.