The Devil's Lullaby for Careless Christians

Good advice, even when facetiously expressed, should never be ignored. One trenchant example of advice from a popular writer reads like a wake-up call for careless Christians: “Never nap in your battlefield foxhole during spiritual warfare. This is real war! Wake up and smell the gunpowder!”

The devil’s strategic reconnaissance is designed to target those who ignore Jesus’ warning to his sleep-laden apostles at Gethsemane: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Mark14:38). Satan knows that a drowsy guard can be lulled into apathy easier than an alert guard. He doesn’t shout, he only hums a hellishly soothing lullaby that obfuscates almost every temptation that he throws in our path.

Many are unwittingly on Satan’s “easy-to-capture” list, and can become “prisoners of war” in this relentless spiritual battle—even those professing to be Christian. These speak of the devil with a smile, as if he is either remote or non-existent. That heresy is seen even in quirky situations. A tragicomedy in 1971 illustrates this. A Philadelphian tried to sue Satan for harassment. The judge rejected the case because “the defendant, Satan, does not reside in the State of Pennsylvania.”

All absurdity aside, people everywhere are exposed to the subtly pervasive culture of New Age and a wide variety of occultic practices, from astrology-consulting to engaging in satanic covens and rituals. Countless types of evil customs, practices and beliefs are permeating our society today—a clear sign that we are near the “end of the age,” as Jesus called it. Paul writes in 1 Tim. 4:1: “The Spirit clearly says that in later times many will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” He continues with a warning: “Watch your life and doctrine closely.”

That echoes Jesus’ mandate to “watch and pray,’ and Peter’s words:“Be sober and vigilant [awake]; your opponent, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in faith” (I Pet. 5:8).

To be “sober and vigilant” is not easy when we’re lulled into apathy and indifference by the devil’s lullaby—a lullaby so subtle that it could even induce an apostle, Judas, to betray Jesus, and, on the same day, lead Peter, the first pope, to deny his Lord three times. Amazingly, Jesus had prophesied both of those perfidious acts only a few hours before they occurred.

Of course with the Judas-Peter similarity came dissimilarity—between the despair (non-repentance) of Judas that made him a most notorious reprobate (Matt. 26:23), and Peter’s repentance that made him a most revered saint (John 21:15). Satan didn’t stop at leading Judas to betray Jesus; he then led Judas into suicidal despair. But Peter, who followed his own later advice, became “sober and vigilant.” Thus, Satan was partially successful attacking Peter, but totally successful in attacking Judas. Satan greedily snatches whatever he can get.

That very same day, on redemption’s iconic hour on Calvary, the devil attacked another pair of souls—the two crime-infected thieves mentioned in Luke 23. Like Judas and Peter, they closed their lives of sin in opposite directions—one (traditionally known as Gestas)—faithless and stone-hearted, and the other, known as Dismas—faith-filled and repentant. Those two crucified thieves, with demon-guided lives of crime behind them, were now both physically within an arm’s reach of the Savior, as Judas and Peter were at the Last Supper. Again, Satan managed to snatch one, but not the other.

For Satan to be able thus to snatch a soul like Gestas, in the very presence of the crucified Mercy-bleeding Redeemer, his evil influence must be treacherously beguiling. And what kind of malevolence could have enticed a chosen apostle like Judas to suicidal despair—Judas, who had been a witness of Jesus’ many miracles of healing love? The perfidious act of Peter, the first pope, in wantonly betraying the innocent Jesus, was very much like the failure of Judas—except that Peter’s failure was dissolved by his repentance that triggered God’s mercy. Satan led Judas to remorse and shameful regret, but not to repentance—to self-incrimination but not humble contrition. He blinded Judas to God’s loving mercy.

Unless we are clothed with the armor of God (Eph. 6:11), you and I will be tragically unprotected against many sagacious designs of Satan, especially his “lullaby” of disregard of evil.

The fearsome Sundarban tigers of West Bengal, India, attack a prey only from behind. They terrorized and killed many local honey-collectors and mangrove forest workers, until an ordinance of 1987 required them to wear rear-facing rubber face masks on the back of their head, so that they appeared to be facing in the opposite direction. Since then, not one attack has occurred. The devil, like a Bengal tiger, attacks his prey “from behind,” as it were. His is a strategy of stealth.

Many disbelieving people are unfamiliar with Satan’s methods of attack. They remain unprotected, while ignoring or denying the devil’s existence until fearfully attacked, as by poltergeists, for instance. When dramatically exposed to the lurking enemy, they may call “ghost-busters,” or perhaps a priest for a spiritual “house-cleaning.” They may even acknowledge the warning of Peter that Satan “roams around as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Many shallow persons pride themselves in having no fear of the devil or his demons, even though Jesus himself said, “I will show you whom you should fear; fear him who, after killing the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him” (Luke 12:5).

This parallels the kind of cautionary (not morbid) fear that Paul says we should have regarding our own fallibility, by which we can lose our salvation through non-perseverance: “Do not be haughty, but fear” (Rom. 11:20). In effect, Paul infers that a healthy fear of our own spiritual weakness is the counterpart of the fear we should have of the enemy who wants to exploit that weakness. Proverbs 3:7 says it simply: “Fear the Lord and avoid evil.” It’s like the common-sense fear of endangerment of self or others that may deter a drunk from driving. Fear of the Lord, the most misunderstood gift of the Spirit, is not fear of punishment, but a holy fear or “dread” of offending God. Thus, basically, it is simply reverence for God.

A “prudent” fear of demons does not lend itself to apathy or naïve disregard. You would not be apathetic or cavalier in seeing a venomous snake slithering at your feet. Whether depicted as a roaring lion or as a deadly serpent, the devil is treacherous. Yet a common sense healthy fear is lacking altogether in so many spiritually shallow persons who deny the very existence of this perfidious enemy that harbors a moral virulence beyond description. (See Rev. 12:9).

Numerous Christians with anesthetized faith have succumbed to Satan’s lullaby by admitting his existence, but not his presence or his power. However, as the French essayist, Beaudelaire wrote, the Devil’s most subtle trick is to convince us that he doesn’t exist or is just “evil in the abstract.”

Religious statistics would seem to indicate that the evil one has succeeded in this nefarious legerdemain. The Barna Research Group reports that only 27% of all Americans firmly believe that Satan is a real non-abstract conscious entity. Among U.S. Catholics it is only 20%; that is, only one Catholic out of every five believes that the devil really exists!

Counterpointing this deplorable lack of Catholic understanding of the powers of darkness stands the proclamation of Pope Paul VI in 1972: “One of the greatest needs of the Church is to be defended against the evil we call the devil. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge the existence of this terrible reality departs from the truth of biblical and ecclesiastical teaching.” A shocking 80% of American Catholics have “departed from this truth” of the Church and the Bible. The devil’s lullaby is amazingly soporific!!

Can we be prudently fearful but also confidently fearless? Yes, but that paradox needs to be explained. Let me explain by commenting on a whimsical joke. A church congregation waiting for the service to start suddenly became horrified to see the Devil himself impiously strutting down the aisle. Rapidly the Church was emptied of the terrified congregation—except for one man sitting calmly in the back pew. The Devil boasted, “I’ve succeeded in frightening all the people except you, Sir. Why is it that you don’t seem to be afraid of me?”

“Why should I be afraid of you?” the man snarled. “I’ve been married to your sister for 45 years!”

Even a quirky joke like that can have theological overtones. At least four Scripture citations show that the congregation reacted incorrectly in fearfully fleeing from the Devil, while the roguish man in the pew acted more correctly by resisting the Devil. Jesus, in his triple confrontation with Satan in the desert, did not flee from Satan, but made him flee (Matt. 4:11). James advises the same for us: “Resist the devil and he will flee” (James 4:7). “Do not give him a foothold” (by sin) (Eph. 4:27), but “stand your ground…stand firm” (6:13).

We should always be cautiously aware of the devil’s power to seduce us (Luke 12:5), and never attempt to “wrestle with the Devil” in spiritual combat, but we should always be ready to “resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Pet. 5:9).

Coping successfully with demonic forces requires the Holy Spirit’s gift of Counsel (sublimated prudence), but even more, it requires “true wisdom from above,” not “false and devilish wisdom that is earthly and unspiritual” (James 3:15-17). That pseudo-wisdom is often operative in witchcraft.

A farmer picking apples heard giggling and splashing in a nearby pond. Investigating, he found some women skin-dipping, who screamed and refused to get out of the water until he left. Holding up his apple bucket, he said, “I’m not here to watch you naked ladies. I came to feed the alligator.”

Satan is not a fictional “alligator” like the one in the farmer’s prank with the “skinny-dippers.” He is a very real “reptilian from hell.” His strategy is not to cause us to fear him, but to “anaesthetize” us by his lullaby into having no fear of him or any of the many evils that infect our crumbling society.

The antidote to the spiritual lethargy affecting our sin-rotted and apathetic world is the gentle but urgent prompting of Jesus to his sleepy apostles in Gethsemane, as he launched the great drama of Redemption: “Stay awake and pray.”

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