Theology of the Church, Mentor's Guide, MG03

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T H E O L O G Y O F T H E C H U R C H

Scripture to pursue this method, not only to understand the Church, but all of the great doctrines of Scripture.

Believers do battle against the devil, the first of God’s angelic creatures who in pride and lust for God’s glory, rebelled against the Lord Almighty and became the enemy of God and humankind. Many connect the person of Satan with Isaiah 14.12-14 and Ezekiel 28.12-15, which describe this great angelic being as “Lucifer” and as “the Anointed Cherub” before his rebellion and fall. In John’s Revelation, Satan is seen to have led vast numbers of other spirits after him in rebellion against God (Rev. 12.4), one of many instances which show him to live up to the name of “the Evil One” and “the Tempter.” According to Scripture, the devil initiated, through his lying deception, the fall of humankind as “the Serpent” (Gen. 3). In what theologians call the protoevangelium , the devil’s ultimate destruction through God’s anointed seed is prophesied (Gen. 3.15), which was accomplished through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, as Christus Victor (i.e., Christ the Victor) where he defeated the devil and his minions, and inaugurated the “beginning of the end” of the rule of the devil and the establishment of the Kingdom of God (John 12.13-33 cf. Col. 2.15). Believers have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of light through Jesus Christ (Col. 1.13), and have been “drafted” into the army of God as soldiers in the cosmic battle of God to reclaim the universe for him and his people. Even though the devil has been judged and defeated soundly through the blood of the cross (Col. 2.15), the devil continues to operate in this age and in this realm as a deceiver of those who do not believe (2 Cor. 4.4), accusing the saints before the Lord (Rev. 12.10), and tempting humankind through his complete and entire control of the world (1 John 2.15-17; 5.19). Believers are to be vigilant and sober for the devil seeks those who are not aware to destroy them, and to undermine God’s work at every turn (1 Pet. 5.8). This work of tempting, accusation, deception, and destruction is worldwide and systemic, coordinated both in the world system and through his network of demons who function under his authority along with those who do not believe (Isa. 14.12-17; 2 Cor. 4.3-4; Eph. 2.2; Col. 1.13).

11 Page 135 Outline Point III