And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
—Rev. 12:3
5433 Devil’s Viewpoint
A modernistic preacher … announced in defending his liberal theological position, “I’m not afraid of the Devil.”
“That is not what matters so much,” one of his acquaintances replied. “Let me ask you a more important question: Is the Devil afraid of you?”
—The Pilgrim
5434 Satan As Amusing One
One of Satan’s characteristic stratagems is to give those who believe that he does exist an entirely wrong concept of what his true nature and character really are.
In the Middle Ages, when there were no radios, no magazines, no newspapers, no movies, no telephones, and none of our modern means of passing the time, the people were frequently amused by the miracle plays. These were a sort of religious pageant in which religious stories were acted out on the stage.
The audience learned to look for one character on the stage who was always dressed in red, wore horns on his head, and a tail dangling out behind him. His hoofs were cloven, and he had a pitchfork in his hand. The onlookers were quite thrilled when they saw this figure sneaking up on the hero or the heroine. The idea arose that Satan could be called the “old Nick,” or “his satanic majesty,” and that he was a slightly comic character.
—Donald Grey Barnhouse
5435 Kill The Spider
An old deacon who used to pray every Wednesday night at prayer meeting always concluded his prayer the same way: “And, Lord, clean all the cobwebs out of my life.” The cobwebs were those things that ought not to have been there, but had gathered during the week. It got too much for one fellow in the prayer meeting, and he heard the old deacon one time too often. So when the man made that prayer, the fellow jumped to his feet and shouted: “Lord, Lord, don’t do it! Kill the spider!” That’s what needs to happen.
—Gospel Herald
5436 Satan As Snake
Some characteristics of the snake make it an appropriate prototype of Satan. A rattlesnake only two-minutes-old can strike effectively. Snakes can engulf prey on the ground, through water, or hidden afford perfect camouflage so that their presence is not detected. Night-foraging snakes have eye pupils that are vertical like a cat’s, enabling them to see in the dark.
—Selected
5437 Chess Game With Satan
From a great chess player of Cincinnati, we learn that in the early part of the last century an artist who was also a great chess player painted a picture of a chess game. The players were a young man and Satan. The young man manipulated the white pieces; Satan the black pieces. The issue of the game was this: should the young man win, he was to be forever free from the power of evil; should the devil win, the young man was to be his slave forever. The artist evidently believed in the supreme power of evil, for his picture presented the devil as victor.
In the conception of the artist, the devil had just moved his queen and had announced a checkmate in four moves. The young man’s hand hovered over his rook; his face paled with amazement—there was no hope. The devil wins! He was to be a slave forever.
For years, this picture hung in a great art gallery. Chess players from all over the world viewed the picture. They acquiesced in the thought of the artist. The devil wins! After several years a chess doubter arose; he studied the picture and became convinced that there was but one chess player upon the earth who could give him assurance that the artist of this picture was right in his conception of the winner. The chess player was the aged Paul Morphy, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana. Morphy was a supreme master of chess in his day, an undefeated champion. A scheme was arranged through which Morphy was brought to Cincinnati to view the chess picture.
Morphy stood before the picture, five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes. He was all concentration; he lifted and lowered his hands as, in imagination, he made and eliminated moves. Suddenly, his hand paused, his eyes burned with the vision of an unthought-of combination. Suddenly, he shouted, “Young man, make that move. That’s the move!”
To the amazement of all, the old master, the supreme chess personality, has discovered a combination that the creating artist had not considered. The young man defeated the Devil.
5438 Do Not Be Overawed By Satan
During the Second World War C. J. Auchinleck, Commander-in- Chief of the Middle East Force, wrote the following order, to all commanders and chiefs-of-staff under his authority:
“There exists a real danger that our friend Rommel is becoming a king or magician or bogey-man to our troops, who are talking far too much about him. He is by no means a superman, although he is undoubtedly very energetic and able. Even if he were a superman, it would still be highly undesirable that our men should credit him with supernatural powers.
“I wish you to dispel by all possible means the idea that Rommel represents something more than the ordinary. The more important thing now is to see that we do not always talk of Rommel when we mean the enemy in Libya. We must refer to “the Germans” or “the Axis powers” or “the enemy” and not always be harping.
“Please ensure that this order is put into immediate effect, and impress upon all commanders that, from a psychological point of view, it is a matter of the highest importance.”
5439 To Praise Satan’s Persistence
There is the story of a lady who never spoke ill of anybody. “I believe you would say something good even about the devil,” a friend told her.
“Well,” she said, “you certainly do have to admire his persistence.”
5440 How To Avoid Book Errors
The most brilliant minds have attempted to explain the phenomenon—but a sixteenth-century monk offers the most likely reason. His book Anatomy of the Mass, was one hundred seventy-two pages in length and had an accompanying fifteen-page list of errata. The pious author explained that the purpose of the book was to forestall the artifices of Satan. He supposed that the devil to ruin the fruits of his work, employed malicious frauds in obliging printers to commit blunders never before equalled in number for so small a book. To combat the machinations of Satan he was obliged to re-edit the work in condensed form, thus cutting the size of Satan’s field of operations.
5441 Hard-To-Take Irish Boy
The American novelist, William Dean Howells, once went on a trip to Ireland and, in a Dublin hotel, he met the ex-mayor of Boston, Patrick Collins. They got into a discussion of Irish humor, and Howells said that the old Irish wit was a thing of the past. Collins took exception to this and claimed that out in the country, the national sense of humor was as unrepressible as ever. They wagered that Howells was to ask the first person they met in some country place some foolish question and the person’s answer would decide the issue.
The following day, the two hired a carriage and drove out into the country. About ten or twelve miles from the city, they turned down a country road toward a little hamlet, and confronted a very dirty, barefooted boy of about twelve who was driving several pigs. They stopped the carriage and Howells beckoned to the lad. He came over and Howells asked him this outlandish question:
“Tell me, if the devil were to appear this very instant, which would he take, you or me?”
“Me, sir,” was the reply.
“How do you figure that out?” asked Howells.
“Ach—sure,” exclaimed the boy, “an’ he could get you any time!”
—Selected
See also: Occultism-Satan Worship ; Temptation.