(Leaders Guide Continued) 6. Evil spirits can snatch children or get them. Job 1:10; Psalm 91:11; Matthew 18:10; Luke 18:15 & 16; I John 4:4 TEACHER: Again, foolish superstition. God protects children, as He protects man. As we learned in the preceding questions/statement numbers three and four, satan is on a leash. He may only go and do what God allows. Children need not fear satan at night, nor fear his demons. God and His holy angles watch over children. Parents are to be vigilant in safeguarding their children. They are to be vigilant against physical predators such as wild animals. They are to be vigilant against human predators – such as kidnappers. They are to be vigilant against spiritual predators – such as demons. But a careful parent need not live in fear and certainly children of Christian parents need not live in fear. There is not a single teaching, nor a single example in the holy, eternal, inerrant, written Word of God concerning the snatching of children by demons or spirits.
7. One of the reasons that satan is more powerful at Halloween is that his servants are all together. When you get satan’s servants together and all those demons together, satan is more powerful. I Kings 18: 20 – 35; I John 4:1 – 4; James 4:7; Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14 TEACHER: This is a common myth that results from learning our doctrines from books, TV and movies rather than God the Holy Spirit through the holy, eternal, inerrant, written Word of God. It is true that in books, TV and movies that the more evil that gathers, the more mystical or spiritual power that evil has. This however is simply not true in the real world. It is not taught in the Word of God and there is no example of this in Holy Scriptures. In fact just the opposite is revealed through the Word of God. I cannot think of a time in history when the world was more ruled by the occult in terms of sheer numbers than during the period of the writing of the Holy Scriptures. Yet in the Old Testament times, such as Elijah and the New Testament times such as Paul, we see a complete indifference to the overwhelming numerical advantage of the worshipers of satan. In fact the saints of old found it ludicrous. Both Paul and Elijah could not refrain from laughing at their opponents though they were both outnumbered thousands to one. (I Kings 18:27 & 27; Acts 17:23) Christians who huddle together during pagan festivals, be it Halloween or any other pagan festival, who huddle together in fear of the “spiritual power” which is out and about are an embarrassment to the faith and a source of ridicule to satan. You play right into his hands. For his only hope is to intimidate you since he has no power over you or against you.
8. Hell is ruled by satan and he can take people there. Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10 - 15; Revelation 14:10 & 11; TEACHER: Hell is not ruled by satan. Hell is ruled by God. satan does not take people to hell, God casts the unregenerate, those who do not know Christ as Savior into Hell. satan does not torture people in Hell, God tortures those who are in Hell. satan and his demons are all in Hell being tortured by God, in the presence of Jesus and the Holy angels along with all those who have not received Christ as their Lord and Savior.
9. The devil is an ugly creature with pointed tail, horns and a wicked evil smile. Ezekiel 28:13-15, 17; Job 1:6; II Corinthians 11:14 TEACHER: All descriptions of satan are that of beauty and awe. We do not know what he looks like in his fallen state but we do know that he disguises himself to be attractive to man. Those who claim to have spoken to angels, to Mary the mother of Jesus or to Jesus Himself are deceived. satan or some demon has appeared to them and deceived them. I have but one question to ask them, “What are the five facial characteristics that distinguish Jesus from satan?”; “What are the five facial characteristics that distinguish a demon from an angel?” “What are the five facial characteristics that distinguish Mary the mother of Jesus from the demon goddess Aphrodite?” The answer is of course, “I don’t know” and the answer to those who claim to have spoken or seen Jesus, or an angel or Mary, do not know who or what they saw.
10. We should be afraid of the devil. He is more spiritually powerful than us and we should gather together for protection and hope for the best. James 2:19; 4:7; Hebrews 2:14 – 16; I John 4:18; TEACHER: satan is afraid of us. One Christian is more spiritually powerful than a thousand satan worshipers. We have nothing to fear of satan. We fear him no more than we fear any other created fallen creature, whether angelic, animal or human. They all can do damage but only in the context of the sovereignty of God. We are not to be foolhardy but neither are we to give them the respect of fear.
11. The Devil and Hell are not real places, but just symbolic representations of evil on earth, therefore spirits and demons are all just in peoples' imaginations Genesis 3:1 – 12; Job 1:1 – 12; Revelation 20:1 – 15; Matthew 8:28 – 34 TEACHER: No, the devil, demons, hell, witches and the rest are all real and not symbolic. The passages of Holy Scripture which speak of them make this clear. If they are symbolic then God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and Heaven must also be symbolic as they occur also in the immediate context of the discussion of satan, demons and hell. This of course is ludicrous. All are revealed as real in Scripture.
12. The Devil is everywhere. When I am in a movie, or alone in the dark, or experiencing something scary and I sense something nearby, then it is the devil. Job 1:7, 10 – 12; I Peter 5:8 TEACHER: The devil is a fallen angel as are demons. They are not the equal and opposite of God. They are not omnipresent. They experience the limitations of time, space and movement. It is clear from the holy Scriptures that satan must move about. He is not all places at once. Thus satan can only be attacking one person at a time. Unlike God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit who can be 100% present and conscious and attentive and at work in an infinite amount of locations in the exact same point of time, satan is limited by time and space. God can be ministering to and protecting all Christians at once, satan can only attack one person at a time.
13. The number 13 is an unlucky number and should be avoided at Halloween. Deuteronomy 29:29; Revelation 22:18 & 19; I Timothy 4:7; II Timothy 2:16, 17 & 23; Ephesians 4:14; 5:6; II Corinthians 10:5; Genesis 3:1 TEACHER: All numerology is superstitious and apocryphal in nature. The holy, eternal, inerrant, written Word of God gives no credence nor sanction to numerology. There is no teaching in Scripture concerning lucky and unlucky numbers nor concerning symbolic numbers. Not only does the Bible not say that 13 is an unlucky number, it does not say that 7 is a perfect number, nor that 3 is the number for God, nor does it teach on the meaning of the number 12, nor any other number. Even the number 666 has no evil spiritual power in and of itself but is rather an identifying number of historical prominence in prophecy. If your phone prefix is 666 you are not under a curse. At one point in my ministry I served in a church where the prefix for all phone numbers in that particular geographic area was 666. It was a regular question at church business meetings on whether we could petition the city to have the prefix changed as it was viewed as unlucky or unspiritual or somehow giving satan a spiritual opportunity to have to dial 666 in order to reach someone at the church office. Similarly hotels never have a 13th floor. All numbering jumps from 12 to 14. It is to their shame that many Christians would hesitate to stay on the 13th floor or sit in the 13th row or submit to any other fear based on numerology These fears simply reveal the suppositious nature of all numerology. There are not unlucky or cursed numbers – if your phone number is 666, if you stay on the 13th floor of a hotel, you are no worse off than if any other number was associative with your phone or room number. If your phone prefix is 7, 3 or 12 you are not under the blessing of God. The Word of God does not teach numerology and as such we reject all forms.
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