The devil made me do it!

The devil made me do it!

With the recent terrorist acts and the evil we see happening, the question is often asked, "What part is Satan playing in all this?" Is the devil busily at work?

We laughed with TV character Flip Wilson and his act Geraldine as he helped make the statement "The devil made me do it" more popular. When I do things my wife does not approve of, it is fun to say, "The devil made me do it." It is convenient to have someone to blame for our misdeeds. But does the devil really cause our actions, or do we do what we do, because it is what we want to do?

Adam, when asked by God about his actions, said, "the woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." When God asked Eve about her actions, she said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Since the garden, people have continued to blame others for their actions.

Several questions are:

· Did Christ defeat Satan according to Bible prophecy?

· If Christ defeated Satan, how do we explain all the evil in the world today?

Did Christ defeat Satan?

In about A.D. 58, Paul told the Roman Christians, "The God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly." (Rom. 16:20) Twelve years later, in A.D. 70, Satan was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. (Rev. 20:10) His power was broken, he was rendered useless according to Bible prophecy. Satan can no longer take over a person's body and make men do anything against his will.

If Christ defeated Satan, how do we explain all the evil in the world today?

The prophecy Jeremiah speaking of mankind said, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."(Jer. 17:9) Mankind does not need help from any other source to be evil. Most people keep their evil actions well in check, but some have no conscience and thrive on evil. Such are the terrorists who can take thousands of innocent lives without remorse. These evil men were not forced by any supernatural power to do what they did. They did what they did because they wanted to do it. Satan played no part in those events. There are evil men in the world and there will always be evil men in the world. This is well demonstrated in the revelation of Rev. 22:15, when the new covenant kingdom is pictured, outside of it there are yet the evil men.

When I say to my wife, "The devil made me do it", I know and she knows that the devil had no part in the action. I did what I did because I wanted to do it. It is so convenient to have someone else to blame for our misdeeds. However, Satan power ended nearly 2000 years ago. We need to accept responsibility for our actions.

"The devil made me do it" OR DID HE???

Gene Fadeley

Bible prophecy Christian books make it easy to understand the end times!

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