How Satan Attacks the Church

When the church begins to push forward you can bet Satan will push back. The important thing for a church is to be able to discern Satan's activities. Fortunately, while he is certainly cunning and even powerful, Satan is not particularly creative. He has pretty much used the same tactics for 2000 years against the church. Note Acts 5 and 6.

First, Satan uses hypocrisy against the church. Ananias and his wife Sapphira were hypocrites. They pretended to give all the proceeds from a parcel of land while only really giving part. There are 'pretenders' in every church, of course. A true hypocrite is not a Christian, but of course, we all are tempted with hypocritical behavior. The key to combating hypocrisy is humility [Matthew 23:11-12].

Second, Satan uses persecution against the church. That hardly ever works. The Jewish religious leaders bring the apostles before them as Acts 5 unfolds and warn them, even beat them. The apostles stand strong and the word of God goes out even more powerfully. Persecution cannot stop the church because Christians know they are involved in something bigger than themselves--the mission of God. They also know there is something better ahead--heaven. "Kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust...The more you mow down, the more we grow; the seed is the blood of Christians" [Tertullian].

Third, Satan uses inner conflict against the church. This is his most effective way, I think, of attack. Acts 6:1-7 tells us of the inner conflict brewing as Hellenistic Christians murmur against the Hebraic believers. Inner conflict distracts a church from its mission, making it inward focused. It always leaves believers discouraged and drains the church of spiritual vitality. The apostles were wise to Satan's tactics and met the conflict biblically, prayerfully, humbly, and quickly. The result of dealing with inner conflict in a godly manner was the expansion of the church.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 6 that Christians are to stand against the tactics of the devil using the full armor of God [Eph 6:11-18]. When the church recognizes Satan's attacks and uses the resources God has given, the mission will go forward and the church will be victorious!