Things Christians Say – “It’s Satan, Demons, or Evil””

Last updated on: March 5, 2022 at 7:36 am by Karl J. Forehand

Things Christians Say – “It’s Satan, Demons, or Evil”” 2022-03-05T07:36:11-06:00 Karl J. Forehand

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Photo by Nathan Cowley from Pexels

Most of my life inside organized religion was lived with a certain amount of low grade fear. Many of the authors of the Bible also lived with this assumption that someone was out to get them. Even though there are contrary messages in religion such as : “Do not fear ,” and “fear not,” and “do not be afraid ,” the conflicting message is the one that survives.

So which message is true? We can probably condone either message with our holy books including the Bible. Which one will be the most productive as we try to find the way forward?

In the past 100 years we have come to understand the psyche better. We now understand that things like shadow that are a pretty good explanation of why we sometimes do the things we do. Past trauma can cause us to act in irrational and troubling ways and it may be an explanation of what we once thought of as demons, Satan and evil.

We know from closely examining the Salem witch trials that most of what was considered evil at that time was simply hysteria and fear about the evil, not the actual people that were burned at the stake. The ones that did the biggest wrong were the ones that murdered the supposed witches?

We now can see a little more clearly that systemic racism was fueled by a fear. Someone that is different. When that fear turns into a need to control, I think it does all sorts of things like hanging and persecution. We like to imagine that whoever we consider to be other is somehow being influenced by Satan or is evil, but usually it is just our fear that creates this illusion.

Even in organized religion, where we start with good intentions , as we imagine the other side as something that needs to be conquered, our mind creates the illusion of evil in the person we disagree with.

I’m not saying that no one in the world does bad things. But I am saying that most times it is because they come from a wounded origination, and many times this woundedness starts from a place of fear and the systems they are in probably had good intentions from the beginning.

Often, the very evil that we imagine is out there causes us to do extraordinary things that often surpass whatever we are trying to control or conquer. If we can have a big enough goal in our mind, like” taking back our country” or” saving the world from sin ” then we can justify just about anything.

We see this clearly in our brief history as a nation in the United States. We have burned witches at stake, exterminated native Americans, and enslaved African people. Most of this was done in the name of a benevolent Messiah.

Christianity was created with an assumption that love conquers all. But as it has evolved throughout the world, fear and control have become superior to the simple premise of love your neighbor.

So may I simply suggest that we stop talking about demons and Satan and evil and get back to the simple premise of loving ourselves and loving our neighbors.

Be where you are, be who you are,

Karl Forehand

Devil

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 2, 2022

Things Christians Say - "It's a Test"

Next Post

March 12, 2022 Things Christians Say - God is in Control

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abuse Addiction Advent adventure Alpha Male Animals Answers Attachment Attitude authenticity Authenticty Authentiicity Awareness being Bible Black Community BLM body awarenss book Books Bravery Bullying Bypassing Certainty Certianty Chamge change children Christianity Christmas Church Comfort community Compaasion Compassion Complementarian Complementarianism Conditioning Consciousness Contemplation Control Conversation Converstations Covid-19 Creation Darkness Death Debate deconstruction demons depression desert Devil Disciples discussion Divine dreams Easter Eclipse Empathy Essence evolution evolve faith fatherhood Fear fiction Flood Focus Focusing Focussing Future Genesis Goals God Gratitude grief growth Guns Hate healing Health Heart Hell Holiday Hypnosis ignorance Improvement infallible Inner Child Integrity Intuition Jesus Jezebel Journey King LGBTQ+ Love MAGA Marriage meditation Men Mercy Message metaphysical Mindfulness Misogyny Mourning Music Mystic mystical Narcissism Nationalism Nature New Year Novel Nutrition Organization other Pain Pandemic parenting Pastors Patriarchy Patriotism Personal Growth Plan Poet poets Police politics Power practice praise Prayer presence pro-life Problem Solving Progress prolife Prophet prophets Purity Culture Purpose Queer Questions Racism Rape Rapture reconstruction Recovery Religion Resolutions Restoration Resurrection Retribution Reviews Root Cause Sanctuary Satan SBC Scripture Seeking Self-Care Self-esteem Seminary Sex Shadow shame social justice social media solitude Spirits Spirituality stillness Story Survivor Thanksgiving Theologians Theology Tradition Trauma travel Trump Uncategorized Unchurching Universe Violence Vision Voice Volunteer Vulnerability War Women Word worship Writing

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many disciples did Jesus have?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Seven Twelve Twenty Ten

Books by This Author Books by The Desert Sanctuary

See All Titles »