Know who your enemy is

[puddleglum]

There is a war going on between God and Satan. When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a soldier in God’s army and a participant in that war. In order to wage war effectively we must know who our enemy is.

When we look at what is going on in the world we see many who are doing and advocating things that violate God’s commands. Some believe that women should have the absolute right to kill their unborn children. Others believe there is nothing wrong with homosexual activity and that the government should allow marriages between two people of the same sex. Militant Muslims use force to impose their beliefs on others.

These people are not the ones we are fighting.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:12 ESV

Unbelievers are under Satan’s control and are tools that he uses to carry out his program.

If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 ESV

One of the things Jesus did while on earth was to give sight to the blind. When we encounter people who are spiritually blind our response should be not to condemn them but to try to open their spiritual eyes with the message of salvation. Here is how to do it.

The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
2 Timothy 2:24-26 ESV

Every time an unbeliever turns from his sins and puts his faith in Christ we win a victory over Satan.

[ttruscott]

There is a war going on between God and Satan. When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a soldier in God’s army and a participant in that war. In order to wage war effectively we must know who our enemy is.

...

To reframe a little...

the war between GOD and Satan is not oppositional in that Satan cannot win. We know that, he knows that. YHWH divinity and power were proven to every person under heaven by the creation of the world, Rom 1:20 and while people will forget knowing this proof of HIS divinity in pursuit of their sins, Satan does not - he operates within that truth to achieve his ends.

WE also know his children are here to do his bidding so what is the point of his bidding when he knows the truth?

I get a lot out of the parable of the wheat and the tares. It is very clear about this earthly reality but it is turned into metaphor because it does not fit into orthodox interpretations of reality, that is, when interpreting this parable we must unlearn what we think it obviously and openly means when our church starts to tell us what they think it really means, sigh.

The part ignored or made into poetic allusion is this:
Matt 13:36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.�

37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

Here we have five things brought together. The world, some people called the good seed, the person of the Son of Man and his action of sowing seed, and the people of the evil one, the enemy called the devil and his action of sowing.

One world, two sowers and two kinds of people. Sowing means to scatter seed onto the ground in a field. This field is the world so the sowing is scattering people into the world which implies they are being born here since that is how we get here. Some folk teach that the world is the hearts of men and the two kinds of seeds are good ideas from GOD and bad ideas from the devil but that is not what it clearly says.

So starting with GOD giving satan the power to send his angels into human bodies to do his bidding what does that have to do with the war of the op?

I find the answer in a previous verse: Matt 13:27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28 “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29 “ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest.

When asked if the tares should be judged and damned the Son of Man says no, because the good seed is liable to be pulled up too. The only thing that can pull up, damn anyone is sin so by this we understand that not only are real people are being talked about here (and not bad ideas) that, though they are "good" they are also sinful and under the judgment. So good cannot refer to their being non-sinners so as good sinners the only goodness we can find is that they must be the elect of GOD.

'Let both grow together' tells us that the pulling up of the tares is postponed, put off because of the sinfulness of the good seed who must become ready for the harvest.

Since harvest is the time of the maturity of the wheat, in these spiritual terms what maturity of the good seed can save them from the judgment on all sin except their holiness?

So if GOD is ready to judge HIS eternal enemies and cast them out into hell and the reprobate are sinful enough to be judged then the only reason the judgement has not happened upon them is that it would also damn some of HIS elect who are also sinners.

The sin of HIS elect, HIS church members, is the only thing stopping the judgment and allowing satan more time on earth. Each by each HIS sinful elect are sown into the world to live with the tares. Do the tares get something out of this living together? Not at all but the good but sinful seed does - they get the experience of suffering under evil and learning that the reprobate nature of the tares cannot be changed, they cannot be reborn, their addiction to evil cannot be broken and they must be cast out into the outer darkness.

The world and the churches are full of those with the spirit of Cain doing the work of the devil to keep HIS elect in their sins and believing that the reprobate can be saved, idolizing them over the command of GOD to come out from among them.

Once the last of HIS sinful elect is mature in their holiness (which is a choice by the way) that instance the judgment day will come and we will stand before HIM.

It is obvious then that the war you speak of is not against satan per se but against HIS sinful elect, trying to bring them to holiness against their desire to stay in their sins since holiness speeds the day of the Lord: 2 Peter 3:11 - Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, 12 Looking for and speeding the coming of the day of GOD. to fulfill HIS promise of election to them.

While I think that this sanctification of HIS sinful elect church is going on perfectly in proper time and order, it is geared to not overwhelm HIS people with grief or torment but just enough to bring them out of their sins which we can help by practicing holy choices the most we can.

It is not a war against HIS sinful elect as much as it is a rehabilitation action to break our addiction to sin and to bring us to holiness so the reprobate non-elect tares can be put out of our misery.

imho,

peace, Ted