satan: His Origin, Present Work and Destiny
by Wallace Emerson, Ph. D. Professor of Psychology, Biola College
impersonal and chance organization of forces, or are we dealing with a personal leadership—a personal and S a tanic leader—the end, the destruction of the human race? Some will remember that things were going badly with the United States in its contest with Russian Bol shevism. Constantly, America’s plans went awry, the enemy being able to forestall our efforts to halt his aggression. The question arose, “ Are we more stupid than the Russians, or is there some hidden enemy in our government betraying us and giving aid to Rus sia?” The then Senator Nixon, through the testimony of a former communist, brought to light a communist cell close to the White House and to the State Depart ment, which had access to most of the secrets of the government. An enemy who can remain unknown and unacknowledged certainly has advantages over a known enemy who can be forestalled. Many men today hold that good and evil are imper sonal so far as spiritual entities are concerned. They hold that the universe came into being through imper sonal forces; therefore, there is no need of a concept of God— if no God, then no need to postulate an evil per sonality. Such evil as appears in the history of man is, to them, an over-all part of progress whereby man is achieving light out of primal darkness. If such a per sonality exists, would he not share the cleverness of the communists and foster a belief in his own nonexist ence to achieve his purposes? This brings us to consider what we actually know about such a personage. In the Book of Job, which may be the earliest written document of the Old Testa ment, we have a picture of a great adversary who, having access to God, acts as accuser of the righteous, under circumscribed freedom, to oppress and try them! Within limits; he has power to bring disaster and death. This picture is of a person and does not change as we go through the remainder of the Old Testament. It is given very great amplification, without change, in the
LIVE IN A WORLD in which there seems to be an increasing amount of evil—one in which force, violence, fraud, treachery, and betrayal are becoming commonplace. It would be naive to assume that these things have not always existed in the world and that something new has come into man’s relationship with man. These things are not new—but they are so preva lent, even universal. Many years ago Niccolo Machiavelli, a Florentine civil servant, wrote a book entitled “ The Prince” which, without apology, offered the thesis that while rulers must have a reputation for truth, in reality, they must not hesitate to lie; while they must have a reputation for benevolence, self-interest must be their only guide. They must appear to be loyal, but use treachery when ever necessary. In short—force, fraud, treachery, and trickery, well disguised, must be the standard of values by which any ruler must live and rule. Although the book exposed the wickedness of its author, it was a clear-eyed appraisal of the rules of procedure of the governments as Machiavelli observed them around him. But few governments ever succeeded in such utter com mitment. They were not only perfectly embodied in the policies and activities of the Communist world, but appear to have been adopted by the people in general. Men, today, betray men in the business and profes sional world; they betray their oath of office; ministers betray the doctrines that they are committed to teach. Men betray women and women betray men. We are approaching days that are reminiscent of the days of Noah when violence covered the earth, and the days of the judges when every man did what was right in his own eyes. Now, does man have sufficient gifts for evil to be able to accomplish these things on his own initiative? Also, is there a collective conscious ness underlying this co-ordination of evil? Is man as treacherous, deceitful, as prone to evil as he seems or has he help from the outside? Within the human heart, all these things are possible. But are we dealing with an
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