The Word on Satan

Last Thursday night, ABC's Nightline featured a face-off on the topic of whether Satan exists or if the whole concept of Satan is fabricated.

While there appeared to be some confusion between the four debaters about what exactly was being debated -- the devil and his appearance, more mythical demon creatures, or a larger idea of evil and its source in the physically-undefined character of Satan (this last idea as well as Satan's ability to manifest in the form of demons being Christian ideas) -- and while complex, unrelated questions associated with today's hot topics (Feminism: Is God male or female?) were brought up by the opposition, it seemed to me, as defense mechanisms when the debate got heated, to my eyes it was Mark Driscoll and Annie Lobert who successfully won the debate in favor of Satan's existence.

While their arguments are obviously affirmed by my faith, their arguments also seemed to answer the secular question that asks why evil and violence and hunger and everything bad in the world continues to permeate the farthest corners of the earth. Deepak Chopra insisted throughout the debate that everyone has a bad side/evil side within themselves, but he failed to provide a greater answer regarding the origin of that inner evil. Bishop Carlton Pearson, while obviously concerned about the power of words and experience to influence our perceptions of reality and truth, did not appear to have a full grasp on his own beliefs and also could not separate Satan from ignorant, racially-incorrect physical descriptions of the devil or of God, nor could he provide a better answer than the protagonist side for the origin of the world's problems.

But thank goodness Satan IS the answer to our question of the origin of evil! When we know the source of our problems, we also can be sure we know the solution to the problems. Thank goodness we can rejoice in the answer found in our Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus Christ!

Go to the ABC News Nightline site for the video of "Does Satan Exist?" (The full video may only be available for a limited time.)