Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08124. The future of Satan is one of the few subjects on which Scripture is entirely unambiguous. There is no mystery about the outcome, no suspense, and no possibility of a different result, which is more than can be said for many things people are curious about. What the Bible gives is a sequence,…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08123. The present work of Satan is one of those subjects where Christians tend to know either too little or far too much, and I have met both. Some treat him as a figure confined to Eden and Revelation with nothing much happening in between, while others see his fingerprints on every flat tyre….
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08122. The practice of binding Satan has become so familiar in some circles that many believers assume it must be a plain biblical instruction, and are surprised to discover that no apostle ever does it and no letter ever tells us to. I want to look carefully at the passages that are used to…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08171. Every October somebody asks whether Christians celebrate Halloween or whether we should have nothing to do with it, and the question usually arrives with a costume already in the hallway and a knock expected at seven. I am going to give you principles rather than a rule, because Scripture gives principles here and…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 08121. Spiritual warfare is not an optional interest for unusually dramatic Christians. It is the reality every believer already lives inside, whether or not they have a vocabulary for it, and the only question is whether we will fight with the equipment God supplied or with something we invented. A great deal of what…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08141. Claims of angelic visitations arrive in pastoral ministry more often than people outside it would guess, and they rarely arrive at a convenient moment. Somebody stays behind after a service, or rings on a weekday evening, and tells you what they saw. How you answer in the next sixty seconds matters enormously, so…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 08120. Few questions in pastoral ministry generate as much fear and confusion as whether demon possession is possible for a believer, and few have been answered so badly by so many well-meaning people. My answer is no, and I hold it firmly. But the question deserves more than a flat denial, because the people…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08140. Paul tells the Corinthians that we are to judge angels, and from that single clause a whole industry has grown up teaching that believers hold authority over angels here and now, with instructions on how to exercise it. I want to take the verse seriously and the industry rather less so, because Paul’s…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08119. Understanding what demons are is not an exercise in morbid curiosity. It is the difference between a believer who takes the enemy seriously without becoming obsessed and one who either dismisses the whole subject or sees a demon behind every difficulty. Scripture is measured on this, which is itself instructive. It tells us…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 08139. Whether angels experience emotions sounds like a question for a slow afternoon, until you notice how much of the Bible’s angelic material is emotional in tone. They shout, they rejoice, they worship, they cover their faces, and in one case they shudder. I think the answer is plainly yes, and working out what…