The Warfare of the Soul: Practical Studies in the Life of Temptation. Shirley Carter Hughson
Outlines of Dogmatic Theology, 448.
[4] Rom. v, 20.
[5] "According to the divine economy, the Evil One is not consigned at once to the place of punishment allotted to him, but is permitted to be at large for the trial and probation of men; that he may, though contrary to his own design, render the Saints more righteous through patience, and become the cause of greater glory to them."—St. Macarius the Egyptian, Institutes of Christian Perfection, Bk. IV, ch. ii (London, 1816).
[6] Ps. cvii, 16.
[7] Ps. xcviii, 2.
[8] Rom. v, 12.
[9] 1 Cor. xv, 55. Compare Hosea xiii, 14.
[10] Heb. xii, 23.
[11] Moberly, The Administration of the Holy Spirit, p. 25.
[12] "For Thou, even Thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men."—1 Kings viii, 39.
"After all, with all his vast knowledge and experience, he is but a creature. He cannot know you from within; he is not omniscient, not omnipresent. He can only guess at your motives,—the secret spring of your actions."—Webb, The Presence and Office of the Holy Spirit, pp. 78-79.
[13] Job i and ii.
CHAPTER III
THE TEMPTER: HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND METHODS
I. Satan, the Deceiver
The foremost characteristic of Satan is that which marks him as a Deceiver. It was by deceit that he brought death into the world and all our woe. Our first mother was "beguiled through his subtilty,"[1] and "being deceived, was in the transgression."[2] Our Lord declares him to be the father of lies,[3] and the constant apostolic warning is against his falsehood and deceit. He secures the active allegiance of men by "blinding the minds of them which believe not";[4] he is able to lead astray God's people by being "transformed into an angel of light,"[5] and through his wiles and lying wonders he seeks "to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect."[6] So we are taught to watch and pray "lest the devil find room to deceive, who never sleeps, but goes about seeking whom he may devour."[7]
Nevertheless there is great consolation in the fact that his chief weapon is deceit. By using it he bears his testimony that, though we be far gone from righteousness, yet, should we be permitted to see clearly, truth rather than error would appeal to us.
No man chooses evil for evil's sake.[8] Before he makes such a choice he is deceived into thinking either that the thing is good, or that under the particular circumstances it is right for him to make what, under other conditions, would be a sinful choice. Thus, much of the sin we commit comes from making ourselves an exception to rules which we ourselves acknowledge, and it has been said that such action is of the very essence of immorality.
One of Satan's favourite deceptions is practised upon us in regard to himself. It has been well said that Satan's master-stroke in these latter times is his policy of persuading men that he himself has no existence. If an army disbelieves in the existence of an enemy, no guard will be kept, and it will be easily surprised and overcome.[9] So we may be sure that those who deny the personality of Satan will sooner or later be his captives. Knowing this he operates as hiddenly as possible.
How different is his plan of warfare from what it was two thousand years ago. Men believed in him then, and he fought them in the open. Now they question his existence, and he goes softly lest they should discover their error through his too manifest activity. In our Lord's time, for example, demoniacal manifestation was common; it is rarely heard of now. Satan does not care to be too much in evidence. He encourages us to think lightly of him that we may all the more surely fall into his snares.
Here we see the evidence of his absolute devotion to his cause. Wiser in his generation than the children of light,[10] he is willing to be effaced if thereby the glory of the kingdom of hell can be enhanced. We often mar what we do for God by conspicuously claiming the credit; he asks for no credit if only the result redounds to his power.
II. The Fact of his Personality
The question of the personality of Satan is one that we must briefly consider here. Do we believe in a personal devil? The answer to this question will show what is our attitude towards the spiritual conflict. We may go further, and say that it will show whether, in the last analysis, we believe there is any spiritual conflict.[11]
In these days when man is made the measure of all things, both divine and devilish, we often hear it said that every soul is its own tempter, that what revelation calls temptation is but the working out of a so-called "evil principle" that resides by nature in every human spirit.[12]
Of course, there is a partial truth in this, for when we yield ourselves to Satan's power by consenting to sin, we then become his servants, and just as one man often acts as Satan's agent in tempting another, so, too, we can act as his agent in tempting ourselves. But it is none the less his personal work though carried out through another.
To deny the personality of Satan involves one in all manner of denials of Scripture and Church teaching. Revelation declares that God made our first parents and pronounced them "very good."[13] Whence then arose the inherent "principle of evil" that wrought their temptation? Did God create in them and pronounce "very good" that which asserted itself so desperately against His will, or did it come from a personally directed intelligence outside of them?
Again, in the second Adam, if He is indeed the God-man, the Incarnate Jehovah, whence came His temptation? If it came from some principle within Him, then just in so far as His temptation was greater than ours must the evil principle dwelling in Him have been greater; and when we consider the extent of His temptation we must then conclude that His human nature had more inherent evil in it than that of any other who has ever braved the perils of the spiritual conflict.
Again, the