Satan and His Gospel

Book excerpt: Is the Devil a living reality, or is he nothing more than a figment of the imagination? Is the word "Satan" merely a synonym for wickedness, or does it stand for a concrete entity? In cultured circles it has become the custom to return a negative answer to these questions, and to flatly deny the existence of the Tempter. Among such people it is regarded as a mark of intellectual superiority to repudiate the personality of the Devil. By many, Satan is now looked upon as a product of priestcraft, a relic of superstition, the myth of a bygone age. With others, Satan is simply an abstraction, a mere negation, the opposite of good. "All the Devil there is, is the devil within you," is the last word of "modern thought." The words which Goethe puts into the mouth of Mephistopholes"I am the Spirit of Negation"is accepted as a good workable definition of the Devil. He is regarded as a mere abstract principle of evil. As someone has quaintly put it, "They spell Devil without a 'd', as they spell God with two 'o's'. Good and evil is their scheme." Totally based on the scriptures. This book presents biblical answers to that subject.