Christ has defeated Satan. Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection has dealt a fatal blow to that Serpent of Old. As long as people hold fast and keeping trusting in Christ (John 6:40) then the devil remains pressed under the feet of Christ. All that our enemy can do is cause doubt. That crafty serpent knows his hour is short and soon his judgement will be administered. The Red Dragon of Revelation now seeks to either seduce souls into apostasy or to give Christ a bad name. Hence why so many movements have fallen into error and made the evil one revel at the loss of confidence in Christianity. I was reading a review and found this insightful statement, “Satan hates the name of Christ and will do anything to discredit Christianity and the Bible. It’s like identity theft. If I steal your identity and run up a bunch of bills, you are not responsible for those bills. In the same way evil people hijack the name of Christ to give themselves legitimacy. Their actions are not Christian. That is why it is so important for Christians to read and study the Bible for themselves.” (Ian Mann, 33). Indeed, the enemy uses identity theft and maligns the name of Christ and Christianity by raising up zealots who either had the “best intentions” say like the Spanish Inquisiton, or simply a invidious infiltrator and imitator, a false christ and prophet (Matthew 24:24) who tries to seduce people away from a “pure and simple devotion to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:2).
Christ has conquered, but our enemy is fast at work to descrddit and caste doubt on the Supremcy of Christ. We must fight back alongside our Savior and King, fighting with virtue and by example. We must employ all the weapons of warefare (Ephesians 6:1-12). More than this we must conform and be transformed (Romans 12:2). The evil one’s major tactic is to exploit a weakness, a sin, and so take down a saint by either a public fall of Swagger proportions or a slow slide of compromises until our Christian life is full of holes and compromises that destroy are example to the public eye around us. Make no mistake, the serpent wants to shipwreck you and shipwreck others in the process. He is banking on it and so we must be vigilant and follow the lead of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Only God The Trinity can outmatch and outsmart this crafty serpent! We cannot conquer on our own, Christ in us (Colossians 1:27) is our only victory.
To avoid letting Satan shipwreck or identify theft Christianity, we must become responsible and to do this we must become mature Christians. How does one become mature? The apostle Paul paints it clearly, “yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ. Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.” (Philippians 3:8, 15). To become mature we must make Christ our everything. We must care about His Name, reputation, and Church more than we care for ourselves. How often are we willing to defend and protect the reputation of fictional characters like Luke Skywalker, Superman, and more; writing Disney and other mutilators of our favorite fictional worlds and yet we won’t protect Christ’s name and Christianity from another blight and theft of His identity? Why are we eager to rally for made up heroes but not for our true and loving Messiah?!
The time has come to live as ambassadors of Christ, knowing that through Him we can exemplify His true identity and share the Gospel with those who are perishing. Do not let Lucifer have one more example to blacken the name of Christ with. You are the defenders, not a giant church or Christian magazine, no, each of us individual Christians are the mirror, the tablet or TV screen that people will see Christ in. Don’t let the devil use you as another reprobate to ruin the witness, instead seek Jesus and with Him conquer this false identity on Christianity! Let us take back the Christian name and glorify Christ again! Amen.
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