Measuring Satan's Popularity

At one time the devil was quite unpopular in America. We had two national revivals where people turned from their evil ways and came back to God. The "evil things" we do are what the people's master wants them to do! Satan doesn't even have to tell us to do wrong. It's inherent in our sinful nature. He just sits back and smiles while people do what he wants! The reason he is so successful is because of what he offers!

Satan offers many things:

• pride
• pleasure
• the knowledge of the things the world teaches
• wealth
• what appears to be independence
• prestige
• acceptance
• popularity
• and many others which are sub-categories of these major "gifts"

1 Corinthians 6:9 (ESV) "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

Let's see, pleasure: sex, adultery, homosexuality, theft, drunkenness, partiers and swindlers; and for pride: idolators; and for wealth: thieves, greed, and swindlers!  I've written many times: what the serpent offered Adam and Eve to live for Satan, which was pleasure, wealth and false knowledge in the form of pride and reason.

What does Jesus offer:

• love
• joy
• peace
• patience
• kindness
• goodness
• faithfulness
• gentleness
• self-control
• generosity
• modesty
• chastity

Count them: there are twelve!

Revelation 22:2 "In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Nine of these are mentioned below. The other three have always been traditional:

Galatians 5:22 (ESV) "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Guess what? The twelve fruits can offer pleasure, knowledge and wealth!!! It just depends on the attitude of who you are! Let's examine those. Pleasure: love, joy, peace and gentleness! Knowledge or wisdom: patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, modesty and chastity. And for wealth: generosity.

It appears that pleasure, knowledge and wealth, as is beauty, is in the "eye of the beholder". There is one big difference: Satan promises more now and nothing later. God promises some things now all these things eternally as can be seen from this passage:

2 Corinthians 4:18 "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

"Evil things" are "of the flesh". They are material and temporary. Those are the things offered by Satan as he smiles when your idol, YOU, takes them as he offers them. Note that Satan is not your God; YOU are! He actually sacrifices things to you, then harvests his bounty. His bounty is YOU. You belong to him because he paid tribute to you. Hence, while once you were free, once you take his offerings, you become a servant to the one who serves you! (This is much like the drug-pusher and user relationship).

This may seem an odd proposition, but the devil mimics God. He does what God does only distorts it! God desires that we serve him, but in turn to set the example, and show his love, he first serves us. Satan does a cheap imitation!

 Colossians 3:23 "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; 24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ."

Mark 10:45 (ESV) "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

We see here that we are to serve Jesus, but he doesn't even count on it, but serves us anyway! That's the same with Satan, except for one thing: Although he serves us whatever we want whenever we want it, he EXPECTS that we serve him because he is a selfish being. His service to us is for nefarious reasons: It's to destroy us and undermine Christ!

What is the metric for measuring Satan's popularity? It's the number of people who accept his gifts! Most people accept them readily because the devil's wares are attractive to the flesh and they are immediate! God's gifts are attractive to the Spirit and are long-range for most in a physical sense. However, we're not guaranteed life even tomorrow, and our life-span is short when compared to eternity!

Is Satan more popular now than when you were born? I know; you don't believe in Satan! Let me rephrase that:  Is the first list more popular right now than the second list? Any sane person would say that the first list is! What's more, anyone can see that the first list is becoming more in vogue and at an exponential rate. God allows that, and even foretells, that near the end the "evil things" of Satan will be more popular than the sacred things of God. As this world degenerates, Christians are getting nearer the promise of a "kingdom of God" where Satan is thrown in a pit! With that, the first list will be non-existent.

In heaven the second list will not only prevail, but will be THE LIST and ONLY LIST! If you're a Christian, why not start practicing what is soon to come so you won't feel out of place? Satan and his gifts, in heaven, will no longer be in vogue, and if you're there, what once you loved, you'll come to loathe!