We believe that Satan has no authority in the heavenly
places to which the church of the
mystery has been translated. Demon possession is
attached to other spheres and callings. We believe
that Satan's one means of access to the believer is
through ignorance of the truth, and that recovery from
his captivity is by repentance and the acknowledging
of the truth, which makes us free.
Conquerors do not go out to wage war against a
conquered foe, neither are they haunted by
the fear of his activity. We are more than conquerors
in Christ. We are delivered and translated out of
Satan's authority. We have a command to withstand the
spiritual forces of this world's darkness and are
provided with complete armour and with one weapon, the
Word of God. We are assured that apart from lowering
the shield of faith not one fiery dart of the wicked
can reach us.
To sum up we would say that our attitude to the
Satanic system is expressed first of all by our
position in Christ as 'far above all'; and that
everything else is relative to the fact that we are
'seated together' there.
2. Scriptural grounds.
'Can ye be angry and sin not? (Author's
translation). Let not the sun go down upon your
wrath: neither give place to the devil' (Eph.
4:26,27).
'Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil'
(Eph. 6:11).
' ... that ye may know ... what is the exceeding
greatness of His power to us-ward who believe,
according to the working of His mighty power, which He
wrought in Christ, when He raised Him
from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in
the heavenly places, far above all principality,
and power, and might, and dominion, and every name
that is named, not only in this world (age), but also
in that which is to come: and hath put all things
under His feet, and gave Him to be the Head over all
things to the church, which is His body, the fulness
of Him that filleth all in all' (Eph. 1:18-23).
'Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
hath translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son' (Col. 1:13).
'To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan
unto God' (Acts. 26:18).
'Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause
divisions and offences contrary to the
doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them ... I
would have you wise unto that which is good, and
simple concerning evil. And the God of peace shall
bruise Satan under your feet shortly' (Rom.
16:17,19.20).
'In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves;
if God peradventure will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the
devil, who are taken captive by him at his will' (2
Tim. 2:25,26).
'Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall
into the condemnation of the devil.
Moreover he must have a good report of them which are
without; lest he fall into reproach and the
snare of the devil' (1 Tim. 3:6,7).
3. Some explanation and application of these
scriptures.
Some Christians seem to be so indifferent to the power
of Satan and to minimise it to such an
extent that they are easily blinded to his activities,
and are a source of danger to the church through
negligence. There are some, on the other hand, who
appear to magnify Satan's activity and authority out
of all due proportion. Attending their prayer meetings
or conferences one seems to hear the name of Satan
almost as frequently as the name of God. Christians of
this second class are usually the more earnest and
zealous believers, and such are even a greater menace
to the church in this regard than their indifferent
brethren.
Our theme here is not Satan and the Satanic system,
the casting out of demons, and similar
subjects, but rather the more limited one -- 'Satan
and the church of the mystery'.
We believe that the church of the One Body is a unique
company, having a complete guide
for its doctrine and practice, and all necessary
knowledge in those writings, called for convenience,
'The prison epistles'. While we cannot rule that a
believer should not resort to the Gospels or the
Epistles of Peter for instruction concerning Satan and
other subjects, we do maintain that it is an
evidence that something is wrong when a professed
member of the One Body, who has apparently
endorsed the distinctive dispensational position of
the mystery, leaves the epistles of this calling and
reverts for instruction on this great theme to the
scriptures written to the Circumcision or to the
Gospel records of a time before the Lord had overcome
death, the Devil, and the grave.
Either the epistles of the mystery are complete, or
they are deficient. So far as we are
concerned we make the declaration unfeignedly, that we
believe that God has included all necessary
instruction for the church of the mystery within the
pages of the 'prison epistles', and any doctrine or
practice that takes its origin in Scriptures
confessedly addressed to believers on other
dispensational planes, stands thereby excluded and
judged as error.
Paul makes ten references to Satan throughout the
whole of his written ministry of fourteen
epistles. Eight of these references belong to the
epistles written before Acts 28. Two are found in the
first Epistle to Timothy; and not one reference in
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians or 2 Timothy.
Paul mentions Diabolos, 'The Devil', nine times in his
epistles. Two of these references are
in Titus and Timothy. 'The aged women, likewise, that
they be ... not false accusers (devils)' (Tit. 2:3);
'For men shall be ... false accusers (devils)' (2 Tim.
3:2,3). The remaining seven references are found in
Ephesians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Hebrews.
The other title of Satan, The Wicked, is used by Paul
twice, both references being in
Ephesians 6.
We believe that the whole matter of Satanic authority
and demon possession, so far as the
church of the One Body is concerned, is settled
positionally. The very position of the church in
Christ, far above all, raises that church above
Satan's province. This we now proceed to show from
Scripture, and for convenience of approach to the
subject we adopt the following headings :
Promise
Position
The
Power
The
point of contact
Paul's
personal experience
Let none misunderstand us. Satan is the enemy of God
and man. We hold no truce with him
or his agents, but we refuse to engage in a warfare
that denies that we are already more than
conquerors. We refuse to give the slightest colour to
the thought that Satan has any jurisdiction over those
who are raised far above all in Christ. We refuse to
lay down the sword of the Spirit, definitely given us
of God as the one weapon, to engage in methods that
approach perilously near the psychic travesty of
Pentecostalism. We do not believe that we should see
in sickness and disease among the members of Christ's
church a denial of His Lordship. We prefer still to
believe that it is as true of us as of those to whom
John wrote, 'The wicked one toucheth us not'.
We do believe, however, that the believer may
voluntarily lay aside the armour provided by
God, and if he does so the fiery darts of the wicked
will find him out. We do believe that ground is
certainly given to Satan by not putting off the
conversation of the old man, and by not putting on the
new. These sad possibilities do not call for warfare;
they call for 'repentance to the acknowledgement of
the truth'. and when recovery is made, and the
believer again reaches his true position where he
stands as 'delivered', 'translated', and 'seated' 'far
above all', the promise of Romans 16:20 is fulfilled
-- Satan is beneath his feet. Time and opportunity can
then be consecrated to positive testimony and strife
need never be known. Troubles, afflictions,
persecutions may come thick and fast -- they are
promised to all who will live godly. Such
accompaniments do not call for 'resistance', but
rather for the spirit of Matthew 11:26, or of 2
Corinthians 12:10.
Such is our 'persuasion'. So far as we are concerned,
Satan is a beaten foe already cast out
from the sphere of our calling. We seek to set our
mind on things above where Christ sitteth at the
right hand of God, and not to be occupied either with
earthly things, or with the foredoomed activities of
Satan.
When we find chapter and verse in the Prison Epistles
for changing this attitude it will be
time to modify it. Till then we make our declaration.
Every child of God has his own responsibility to the
Lord, but we refuse to allow any to rob us of our
blessed security and heritage which is found in Christ
in the heavenly places, far above all.
