What is Satan Like?

For a while now I’ve been intrigued by the practices of young people with their cell phones – especially when using them for texting or reading messages rather than speaking.  Almost daily I observe this practice with secondary college students walking to school, but the other morning I was able to get up close (not too personal!) and observe about ten people in their late teens, early twenties.  It was the morning after a birthday celebration and as they sat eating breakfast with one hand, for the most part a cell phone was either in the other hand or on the table.  In any case, eyes were on phones more so it seemed, than on each other or the food.

Conversation between them was mostly on how they felt, how much sleep they did or didn’t get last night, what they would do later etc, but again it was eyes fixed on phones more than on one another that grabbed my attention.  Although they had been friends since primary school days, it appeared to me that in most cases, the “friends” on Facebook got far more attention than any friend around that table. During the next few hours little had changed and I began to get some insight into why a reported study found young people to be so addicted to their phones that it feels as though without them they’ve lost a limb.  I asked two of them if they could go a day or so without a phone. Quick answer, “No way!”

That reaction lines up with some research that says young people without their phones become: anxious, nervous, restless, fretful, insecure, confused, irritable, jealous, angry, lonely, dependent, addicted, panicked, depressed, jittery and paranoid.  Perhaps we should add ‘nomophobic’ to the list. I learned a new word the other day – nomophobia – defined as, ‘the fear of being out of mobile phone contact’.  To me, the research is interesting, but only from a behavioral aspect not a causal aspect.  In other words, being without a cell phone for any length of time is not the cause of why any young (or old) person expresses such emotions and behaviors; it simply sets off things already deeply set within a person … a trigger, so to speak.

The word lost came to mind when observing these young people.  Biblically the word means: ‘destroy’ ‘die’ ‘lose’ ‘mar’ ‘perish’.  I couldn’t help but think how Satan the devil once again has taken another wonderful invention of modern communication and perverted it, making its users slaves to his bidding just he has done using radio, TV, computers, the Internet and now, “social” media.  One of Satan’s names is Apollyon Revelation 9:11 it means ‘destroyer’ ‘the one who lays waste’. I noticed those young people the night before not getting to a state of drunkenness such as my lost generation did.  Perhaps there’s no need to if he sees he’s already trapped them laying them to waste using this device!

It’s not the only device he’s using to trap young people however … tattoos being another.  One young man had “Only One Life” tattooed in beautiful copperplate style on his arm, as did a young lady with “Long Live Love” tattooed along her left foot. Someone else had a small flower tattooed on the back of her neck.  They were proud of their tattoos.  I didn’t ask why, but I’ve read of others who said, “I get them because I like myself more with them than without.” Again, “love the feeling of it, it’s art on your body, makes you stand out, can show what type of person you are.”  Again, “I want a tattoo because it’s something I can design on my own body and be in control of.” Again, “all my tattoos represent different aspects of who I am.” And, “The real question is, why DONT people want tattoos?

I noticed a couple of parents sporting tattoos also; one with them on his neck and all down both arms and a woman of the same age with something similar.  I couldn’t help but imagine of what they would look like if they lived on into old age.  The same word came to mind for them too – lost – in search of identity every bit as much as the young people.  I don’t understand cell phone/ “social” media obsession, nor do I have a tattoo but well do I understand the lost experience plus mechanisms used to blot it out.  One of the old-time saints and Bible commentators has said, “…..it appears that Satan and men have the nearest affinity to each other – as the destroyer and the destroyed – the desolator and the desolated – the loser and the lost…..”

Perhaps that is so; I know Satan loves the idea of himself being ‘the destroyer’ and ‘the desolator’ but he loathes the idea of himself being ‘destroyed’ ‘desolated’ ‘a loser’ and ‘lost’!  That is why he goes to any extreme to drag people down to his state.  I have been asked by those ignorant or dismissive of the Bible, ‘What is Satan like?’ Answer: he is like collective, unredeemed humanity … mostly he shows up as a good person (nice, kind etc) until he doesn’t get his own way.  Too, he is a bully, no different than bullies in the schoolyard, the workplace, in unions, in politics and in government.  He is a criminal … just like criminals in society, in jail, in the church and in government.

Satan is a liar and a deceiver who specializes in cover-up … just like Marxist liars and deceivers covering up truth in politics, Christianity and the mainstream media.  He is a sex pervert … specialising in prostitution, pornographic sexual degradation, same-sex relations, child sex and bestiality.  Satan is a murderer – his specialty being the murder of unborn babies in the womb and anyone unable to defend themselves. He is a coward, he is shallow, full of fear and anxiety, he suffers from depression, jealousy, insecurity, paranoia and much more.  But most of all Satan is religious!  He is the god of this world 2 Corinthians 4:4 and whilst he uses religion to draw multitudes of people to himself, his primary use of it is to draw multitudes away from the Lord Jesus Christ.

The old-time saint and Bible commentator went on to say, “But the Son of man came to save the lost. Glorious news!” Indeed, glorious news Matthew 18:11. The opportunity didn’t arise for me to share the glorious news with those young people that morning, but if it had, here’s what I would have told them.  Jesus Christ did not come into the world to save groups of people, nations, organizations or systems. His whole missionary thrust was focused upon a person as an individual.  In the Lord’s thinking back then, every individual counted and it is no different today.  In the Lord’s eyes every individual was/is a unique person unlike every other person.  To me, this is a most amazing truth and I cannot stop dwelling on it.

Should an individual take time out from reading cell phone text messages and put that same time into sincerely reading gospel messages from the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament, it will not be too long before he/she will discover the truth of this for themselves.   Satan’s philosophy is one that says we’re all equal.  That’s the philosophy of Marxism, Collectivism, and every other ism you can think of … but not so, Jesus. He says, “you’re all different – that’s the way I made you and if you turn around and place your total trust in and upon Me, that’s the way I will remake you!”  It has been said that Christ’s message was to the differences, that we are unique and everyone could come to know God the Father through Christ, the Son – everyone!

The dictionary tells us ‘Unique’ means: ‘existing as the only one’ ‘the sole example’ ‘single’ solitary in type or characteristics’ ‘having no like or equal’ ‘unparalleled’ ‘incomparable’ ‘not typical’ ‘unusual’. There is not a single human being on earth who doesn’t like to think of themselves as unique; but the problem is they don’t believe it when told that’s precisely how God sees them. “All you religious people are all the same,” so say too many of both the young and the old … as they hang about with their phones, admiring their tattoos, clothing and hair styles, using their politically correct jargon – not stopping to give a moment’s thought that they too “are all the same”.

It is true that too many Christians “are all the same”. Go into most churches today and you’ll observe them looking the same, speaking the same, doing the same; but none of that comes from God, it comes from Satan.  Whenever the biblical Lord Jesus Christ gets discarded, the Holy Spirit removes Himself from the group and “sameness” now becomes part of the deal; that’s all Satan’s religious spirit is capable of delivering. They still quote from the Bible to support their beliefs and arguments but their spiritual power and authority is gone, along with their confidence. Now they lack certainty about who they are and what they’re about. The devil comes at them with all sorts of lies and behaviors from hell and they’re powerless to deal with it.    

Speaking of lack of certainty and not knowing who they are or what they’re about, so were many in this young group.  To general questions about career future and where they saw themselves in a world which would one day be in their hands came a shrug of shoulders and, “I don’t know.” One or two were unenthusiastically attending University, two others had graduated with a degree but were working jobs more suited for high-school dropouts.  I was about to say to one, the kingdom of God is within you Luke 17:21, but we got disrupted.   Truth is, if an individual places himself under the authority of God and chooses to learn and live according to His revealed ways as energized by the Holy Spirit, God’s power and authority is given in return.

In other words, no longer are you lost, but found.  If you take a stand for Jesus Christ, He’ll take a stand for you … on Christ’s solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, says the song and it’s true too! How’s that for power and  authority – and uniqueness! In Christ, you are no longer Satan’s pushover.  Same goes for freedom.  The person whom Jesus remakes, He also sets free.  Free from satanic bondages – especially nomophobia and tattoos – but also free from Internet “social” media obsession, free from peer group pressure, free from uncertainty, free from the evils, bondages and lies of political correctness and phony politically correct people.  In fact, free to become the unique person God originally intended you to become. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29:11.