Evidence for a Real Devil

A popular but erroneous depiction

"He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language because he is a liar and the father of lies."--John 8:44

Back in 2009, a Barna Research poll revealed that only 60 percent of professing Christians actually believed in the devil. What about the other 40 percent? They viewed Satan not as "a living being but (as) a symbol of evil."
http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/260-most-american-christians-do-not-believe-that-satan-or-the-holy-spirit-exis?q=satan#.UUxb9MCupUo.email

Who then did Jesus Christ have a conversation with just prior to launching His ministry in Israel 2,000 years ago? A symbol of evil? Symbols of evil don't talk, but the diabolical being that Christ encountered certainly knew how to talk. And he also knew how to quote and pervert scripture.

For example, here's what this so-called "symbol of evil" said to Christ: "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." (Matthew 4:3) The "symbol of evil" was aware that Christ had fasted for 40 days prior to beginning His ministry. So he knew that Christ was hungry and he tried to tempt the Jewish Messiah to violate His fast by turning some rocks into loaves of bread. Christ replied: "It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)

In rebuking Satan, Christ quoted a scripture from Deuteronomy 8:3. The "symbol of evil" then tried and failed twice more to entice Christ into sinning before he finally gave up and left Him.

In John's Gospel, Christ referred to Satan as a real, diabolical being rather than a symbolic figure of evil that merely represented man's rebellion against God and His transcendent laws. Christ called the devil "the father of lies". (John 8:44) And Christ also referred to Satan as the spiritual father of all unrepentant sinners in the same context that he referred to Moses as the spiritual father of the Jewish people.

The Jews don't consider Moses to be a symbolic figure of their faith who never really existed. They consider him to be a real person who God revealed His laws and 10 Commandments to. Certainly, most Jews believe that Moses existed, but few believe that Satan ever existed.

And now, fewer Christians believe in Satan's existence. Is belief of Satan's existence necessary for salvation? Certainly not. But the fact that more professing Christians no longer believe in the devil's existence underscores a very serious problem within Christendom today.

And that problem is a growing apostasy within much of the church. What is apostasy? It is the rejection of historical, proven biblical truth for heretical myths and religious experiences. The church's rejection of the Bible as the infallible word of God actually began in the 19th Century when many Christian seminaries began embracing secularism while turning away from biblical truths such as the virgin birth of Christ, his crucifixion for the sin of mankind and his resurrection from the dead.

Christendom's growing rejection of Satan, described in the Bible as a fallen angel who rebelled against God provides us with another example that many people today who profess to be Christians no longer respect the Bible as the inerrant word of God.

And that's sad. If many Christians doubt the Bible's account of Satan, then it's likely that they don't take the Bible very seriously. And that shows in the ignorance displayed by many Christians toward the historical truths concerning their own faith and in their willingness to embrace false world religions such as Islam, Roman Catholicism and Rabbinic Judaism as valid paths to God and eternal life.