“Do you believe in the Devil?” I have heard that question many times in my life. When I was a young child, he was sometimes talked about in the same breath as Santa Claus. One of my friends said something like this, “They ain’t no Santa Claus and they ain’t no Devil neither, because my dad said so!” I was aware of temptings and the need to avoid those devilish promptings when they were urging me to do something wrong, I just wasn’t sure who was responsible for them. After all, his dad said ‘there wasn’t a devil.’ I did, however, question his dad’s knowledge about the devil, because he said there wasn’t a Santa, too. I knew darn good and well there was a Santa, so I thought he was probably wrong about the devil, too.
As years went by, as they always do, I became a teen; thirteen seemed like a magical birthday for me. Growing up in a Lutheran culture, we teens sometimes queried each other about whether there was or wasn’t a devil. If there was, had any of us done business with him? Had anyone actually seen him or heard him whisper in their ears? Had we heard any stories from people, reliable people, who should know as to whether they had any real experience with him? Because we could find no physical evidence, we did question his existence. Delos B. McKown said that, “The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.” Yet, we knew that our Pastor believed in the devil, because his sermons sometimes used him to threaten any of us who had thoughts about doing wrong.
I’m not sure if I ever really ‘lost faith’ in the devil, even though when I was with my friends I may have scoffed at his reality. The reason may have been because there was something inside of me that kept telling me that there was ‘something out there,” something unseen, in relation to temptations. It kept me a little weary of thinking I was safe from whatever it was, safe from falling into his grasp and becoming the kind of person I didn’t want to be.
I imagine that my youthful thoughts and experience are not much different than many other young people growing up in this world where we are all aware that ‘there is something out there.’ That something wants to direct us in negative ways, and we are also aware that in so many cases, he is successful. We have all seen friends and even family members taken in by that ‘something’ which in some cases has ruined and even destroyed lives.
So, here I am, an old man. If someone asked me today, an unlikely scenario, ‘Do you believe in the Devil?’ My answer would be a resounding ‘Yes’! If that query were followed up with a question like ‘How do you know?’ My answer now would be more definitive than it would have been 60–70 years ago.
In the book of Revelation a war in heaven is described, where Michael (Adam) and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels and the dragon prevailed not and they were cast out. They were cast into the earth to deceive mankind and to continue the devil’s desire to fight against God and to obtain His honor or power. (paraphrased from Revelation 12:7– 9) A third part of the hosts of heaven were cast out with the devil. That means that there are a lot of evil spirits roaming the earth. Those spirits will try to persuade those who came to earth with mortal bodies to choose to follow the devil, their master. Referring to those who were faithful to the Father’s plan. For a man persuaded to, “being a servant of the devil cannot follow Christ; and if he follow Christ he cannot be a servant of the devil.” (Moroni 7:11–12)
Do I really believe that there was a war in heaven? “Yes!” Because there is too much evidence of it here on earth. Christ taught in parables; I so love parables. One was the parable of the ‘sower.’ A sower went out to sow his seeds, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it…What might this parable mean? He answered, ‘Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.’ (Luke 8:12) That aspect of the parable we see every day in our communities. where fellow saints leave the church. Satan never sleeps in his quest to persuade neighbors and family members to lose faith in God and, the plan that they, at one time, accepted in the pre-existence. You and I can see the devil every day, not in person but by the devastation he causes in the hearts of men, in families and in communities. Some might say that is not ‘really seeing.’ Can you see cancer, diabetes, heart failure? No, but you can see what they do to a mortal man.
Is there a counter or opposition to the devil, a persuasive force that encourages us to do good, to be faithful? Yes, Every man was born into the world with the light of Christ. Further, we have been given an extra source of strength to combat the devil and his army of evil salesman. That is the Holy Ghost. The problem is the Holy Ghost will only remain a strength to us as long as we are living right. We lose His protection when we make bad choices. He can only dwell in holy tabernacles or bodies. Our Father loves us and will do everything He can to assist us in living justly so that one day we might be worthy to return to His presence—but He can’t force us, that was the devil’s approach. Our agency gives us the right to choose and by choosing right we become stronger spiritually and like a magnet are drawn to the Father and the ‘Tree of Life.’ ‘The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.’ (Psalms 53:1) Likewise, the fool saith in his heart, ‘there is no devil.’ Let’s not be fools!