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By Minister Keith Cormier

Many Christians no longer believe Satan is real.

In a Barna Group poll several years ago, 40 percent of Christians surveyed said they did not believe in a being called Satan. In the same poll, 38 percent said they didn’t believe the Holy Spirit was a real being.

Here’s an eye-opener for those folks. You can’t be a Christian and not believe in Satan. That is because Jesus Christ believed in and did hand-to-hand battle with Satan.

As Christians, we have inherited that battle. We must fight the good fight against Satan and his demons. The Bible represents both Satan and the demons as real, tangible, personal, eternal beings who wage war against the church. There is not one single Christian impervious to Satan’s attacks. King David was a man after God’s own heart, yet 1 Chronicles 21:1, states, “Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.” David was moved by the devil to disobey God.

Peter, apostle of our Lord, was chastised by Jesus in Mark 8:33: “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Satan had influenced Peter to challenge Jesus’ eternal destiny.

In Luke 22:3, “... Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot.” Judas was influenced by Satan through greed to betray Jesus.

In the early church, a man named Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, lost their lives as Peter asked, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land?” Satan had influenced them to let greed affect their otherwise beautiful sacrificial gift to the church.

Satan is real, and we must fight a daily spiritual battle against him. That is difficult, because Satan is a master of disguises.

In 2 Corinthians 11:14, the Bible states, “... even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.” He is slippery and a serpent, but we can successfully fight him if we have the proper tools.

The first tool, obviously, is the word of God. Jesus defeated Satan simply by properly applying Scripture to Satan’s twisted version of God’s word.

In Ephesians 6, every single piece of armor in our arsenal — truth, righteousness, preparation of the gospel, shield of faith, helmet of salvation and sword of the Spirit — are all concerned with knowing and understanding the word of God.

In addition to these, we have the weapons of rejoicing and prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:16); our capable minds focused on the things of the Spirit (Romans 8:5-8); and our intention to suffer with and for Jesus (1 Peter 4:1).

The Bible assures us in James 4:7, “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” If we faithfully engage the devil mano a mano, then Romans 16:20 promises: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

We are at war, Christians. Fight the good fight or you will be destroyed as enemies, cowards, deserters or traitors. In spiritual warfare, there is no neutral ground.

Keith Cormier is minister of Southside Church of Christ in Killeen.