Bible is security against Satan

While Dec. 7, 1941, was called “a date which would live in infamy,” the attack on Pearl Harbor isn’t as widely remembered as it once was, possibly because of the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and possibly because the generation who experienced the attack first-hand is mostly gone. Another event took place on Dec. 7, 1868, when Jesse James robbed a bank in Gallatin, Missouri, and killed a man. How many of us knew about that or even who Jesse James was?

The problem with forgetting history is that studying it prepares us for internal and external threats, so we can avoid repeating bad events. Even with the increased protection though, there’re still people both in the USA and abroad who continually try to develop schemes to bypass security systems.

Satan uses deceitful, and sometimes murderous, terrorist tactics, even the fear of death, to keep people from coming to Christ or causing them to fall away from Christ, losing their salvation and those who do his bidding in that regard, whether intentionally or not, are his children (John 8:44; 10:1-2, 10; 2 Corinthians 4:2-4; 11:13-15; 2 Peter 3:17-18). One of Satan’s schemes is to steal the truth and replace it with lies (Matthew 13:18-21; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).

One example of a stolen truth could be the use of Xmas instead of Christmas, which many view as an attempt to take Christ out of Christmas. The truth is because the Greek word “Christ” begins with Chi (symbolized by an “X”), early Christians abbreviated his name with an “X.” This might’ve been done initially to avoid persecution, but usage continued and forms of the abbreviation have been found in Anglo-Saxon writings for close to 1000 years now.

The problem is that very few people know the origin of the X. So, Satan has blinded the eyes of Christmas as well the few Christians who don’t understand the origin of the X — to be honest, I don’t care for the use of Xmas either — as well as those really wanting to take Christ out of Christmas. But Satan cannot take Christ out of Christmas, because without Christ, there would be no Christmas or Xmas.

A greater problem is that many people aren’t familiarizing themselves with first century Christianity (the New Testament, our security system and weapon against Satan) well enough to not be outwitted by Satan (Ephesians 6:11-18; 2 Corinthians 2:11). We’ve had that security system against Satan since just after Jesus ascended back into heaven having disarmed and defeated Satan (Hebrews 2:14-15; Colossians 2:6-15). Nothing has changed in God’s plan for man since then (1 Peter 1:22-25; Galatians 1:6-9)

The New Year starts in less than a month and that’s a good time to start reading the Bible every day to protect ourselves from Satan’s attacks (anytime actually is a good time to start). Why don’t you read the history and learn how to protect yourself from repeating a sinful past and prevent a future filled with repeated suffering (2 Thessalonians 1:7-12)?

Leonard Lauriault writes about faith for the Quay County Sun. Contact him at [email protected]