Offense wins games, but defense wins championships

There is a football saying that “offense wins games, but defense wins championship”.  It is actually a miss-quote of something that Bear Bryant once said: "Offense sells tickets; Defense wins championships".  I want to ontinue on from the verse that I used to end my last blog:

Ephesians 6: 11-12  “So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. ¹²This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.”,

 I want to look at these weapons that we have been given, both on defense and offense.   In fact I want to look at the whole concept of “spiritual warfare”.  I hesitated to use the word “concept”; because it is not really a concept, it is a FACT!  However to the average Christian, it is foreign.  In 1991, only 35% of American adults believed that Satan is a living being; while 60% saw him as a symbol of evil. Among Evangelical Christians, 47% saw him as a symbol of evil and 49% as a living being.  69% of Roman Catholics saw him as a symbol and 26%, as a living being.  Mainline Protestants were not much different with 65% as a symbol and 27% as a living being.

This poll was repeated in 1997, and it suggested that the belief in Satan as a living being was possible slipping.

Another poll done in 2007, found only 24% of people polled, believed that Satan is a living being.

From this, I would conclude that most people, including most Christians, don’t believe in the reality of “spiritual warfare”.

With the majority of Christians viewing Satan as a symbol, is it any wonder why America is in the state it is.  Satan is viewed as a sort of “mascot” for evil.  Football teams have mascots, evil has a mascot, a little guy in a red suit with horns, pointy tail and a pitch fork. 

NOT!

The first thing we need to do is get our theology straight.  Peter tells us, “Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”.

Mark tells us”

“For forty wilderness days and nights he (Jesus) was tested by Satan. Wild animals were his companions, and angels took care of him.”

Jesus was not tempted by a symbol!  Jesus was not tempted by some mascot for evil!

Symbols don’t devour people!  Satan does!

How can we expect to fight Satan unless we believe that he is real?

He is as real as the chair you are sitting in and the monitor you are looking at.  The Internet is a symbol.  You can’t touch it.  You can’t feel it! 

Satan is 100 times more real than that thing we call the Internet!

IT IS TIME TO WAKE UP AND FACE REALITY!  IT IS TIME FOR THE CHURCH TO WAKE UP.  IF YOU CALL YOURSELF A CHRISTIAN, WAKE UP!!!