Do you believe the devil is controlling people today to mobilize his plans to multiple his kingdom on the earth by destroying God’s people?<\/p>\n\t
If Satan controlled people, then he alone would be responsible for the actions that they commit. This is not what the Bible teaches. Satan encourages people to sin and he is a master at manipulating people into making bad choices, but he has never had the ability to force someone to sin against their will. “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you<\/em>” (James 4:7). That he can be resisted means he doesn’t have control and that you are responsible for your choices.<\/p>\n Yes, Satan fights against all that is godly, but we know that Satan has already lost (Matthew 16:18). Worrying about his seemingly short-term successes doesn’t change what we must do, which is to battle him while we can. There are people to teach and souls to be rescued.<\/p>\n\t Yes, it’s a spiritual battle, but was the feeding 5000. We have a country where mental health is increasing, so if there was a way that would stop even a small about of the increase of mental health issues. And would be like going to a river and pulling out a fish, opening his mouth, and getting money out of it’s mouth to pay taxes to fix a possible hugh tax problem. Would you say the same, that we should not focus on the issue as it relates to abuse but focus on fighting satan through the word only. I love the word, but I am hoping Pastor will actually be go to a river, to the people and actually help with down to earth life problems, instead of sending them away with a scripture. But thanks Pastor, you enjoy your congregation. Amen<\/p>\n\t The above response was left unedited. She is upset that I answered her question and others with Scripture, though that is the way Jesus defeated Satan in Matthew 4. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek<\/em>” (Romans 1:16). It is sad when God’s power is not good enough for some people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Do you believe the devil is controlling people today to mobilize his plans to multiple his kingdom on the earth by destroying God’s people? Answer: If Satan controlled people, then he alone would be responsible for the actions that they commit. This is not what the Bible teaches. Satan encourages people to sin and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[235,185],"class_list":["post-19199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-satan","tag-temptation"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5438,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-satan-the-source-of-all-evil\/","url_meta":{"origin":19199,"position":0},"title":"Is Satan the source of all evil?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hey Mr. Jeffrey, Is every single evil ideology, false teaching and deceptive doctrine that is against God derived in some form or fashion from Satan? I noticed the Spirit says many will follow after the doctrine of demons in I Timothy 4. It got me thinking Answer: Since Satan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9104,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-evil-comes-from-within-what-difference-does-it-make-if-there-is-a-devil\/","url_meta":{"origin":19199,"position":1},"title":"If evil comes from within, what difference does it make if there is a devil?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If you would help me with a question on the subject of the Devil, I would be grateful to you. If evil comes from within, as stated in Mark 7:18-23 and James 1:14-15, what difference does it make if there is a real devil or not? Answer: If you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86754,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-origin-of-the-devil\/","url_meta":{"origin":19199,"position":2},"title":"The Origin of the Devil","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Cleve Stafford A few days ago, someone asked me if I knew where the devil came from. I told her the easy answer is \"From heaven,\" but he is no longer there because of his disobedience. Of course, it is that simple, yet at the same time, it is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27462,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-we-respect-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":19199,"position":3},"title":"Should we respect Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Below I copy and pasted from a web site with their beliefs on Satan and I emphasized the part that disturbs me. I was wondering what your thoughts on it are. To respect Satan is to exalt him and evil and is woefully contrary to God's word, in my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15765,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-christians-to-rebuke-satan-or-resist-satan\/","url_meta":{"origin":19199,"position":4},"title":"Are Christians to rebuke Satan or resist Satan?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi.\u00a0I love your\u00a0exhaustive presentation of the literal days in Genesis!\u00a0 I am praying about how best to present this to our youth pastor, who is an old ager and teaches it privately to the youth.\u00a0 Thank you. My question involves prayer and whether we as God's children ought to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18525,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-true-that-if-there-were-no-literal-devil-there-would-have-been-no-need-for-christ-to-appear\/","url_meta":{"origin":19199,"position":5},"title":"Is it true that if there were no literal devil, there would have been no need for Christ to appear?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: If there was no literal devil, then there was no need for Christ to appear? True or false? I'm referring to I John 3:8. Answer: \"Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. He who sins is of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Question:<\/h2>\n
Answer:<\/h2>\n