There Is a battle raging for the soul of every human being. It is a battle between life and death, and we are the territory that is being fought over. Understanding this conflict will mean nothing less than our own life and death-for eternity. Every day we are either taking ground or losing it in this fight. There is no demilitarized zone that we can flee to on this earth. Therefore, the only reasonable course that we have is to understand the battle, fight it, and win.
This battle is not being fought because there is a question of who is the most powerful in the universe, God or satan. Without question God could end the battle at any time and dispense with satan. The reason that He has not done this yet is because of His fundamental commitment to freedom for His creation. Without understanding His commitment to freedom, we cannot fully understand the conflict in the world, the conflict in our own soul, or even in a real sense the nature of God.
WE MUST BE FREE
God created man to be free. We cannot be who we were created to be without freedom. If all that the Lord wanted was perfect, harmonious worship, He would have done better to create computers instead of man so He could just program them to worship Him in perfect harmony. Certainly our God is worthy of more than that, but in order to have more than that there must be freedom.
The Scriptures state in Second Corinthians 3:17, 'Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' This could have been translated as, 'Where the Spirit is Lord, there is liberty.' This reflects one of the most basic differences between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of God. In the domain of darkness there is fear, oppression, and bondage. In the Kingdom of God there is faith and freedom.
It is for this reason that the Lord put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden. This was not done to cause our first parents to sin; rather, there could be no true obedience without the freedom to disobey. This tree was placed in the Garden to give Adam and Eve a way to prove their obedience and love for God. Every temptation allowed in our life has the same purpose.
Fundamental to understanding the truth is understanding that man was created to be a free moral agent. This does not in any way infringe on the sovereignty of God; rather, it illuminates His sovereignty. The greatest, most noble authority is always demonstrated by the freedom it allows its subjects. The Lord wants us to worship Him and reject evil because we love Him and love His truth, not just because we are afraid of punishment. There are consequences for disobedience that we cannot overlook, yes, but our main goal must be to obey because we love God and because He is worthy of our devotion.
FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY
Freedom involves choices that we must make. With our choices there are consequences. This means that with freedom comes responsibility. Why? Man is called to rule with God, and there can be no true authority without a corresponding responsibility. So the greater the authority is, the greater is the potential for good with making the right choice-but also the greater potential for bad when we make the wrong one. Because Adam was given authority over the whole world, when he fell the whole world suffered. To the degree that we are given authority, we also can release good or evil into that domain.
This is the world system that man was put in, and that we today live in. Granted, it is much more difficult because of the poor choices of many who have gone before us, but it is still a system that promotes the pursuit of wisdom and truth. To navigate through life on this planet now, we must be able to discern between good and evil. Even so, there remains a wisdom that is higher than just knowing good and evil. It is the knowledge of life, and this knowledge is simply knowing God. There remains a Tree of Life whose fruit alone will release man into his ultimate potential and purpose. The Lord will feed us with the true life of the knowledge of Him if we will simply pursue it.
TRUTH SETS US FREE
The purpose for this study is to illuminate some of the strongest chains of bondage that now yoke the human soul in order to keep mankind in darkness. The illumination of these strongholds is half the battle to defeating them. As the apostle Paul wrote in Second Corinthians 2:11, he was forgiving those whom they had forgiven 'so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.' When we become knowledgeable of the devil's schemes, he can no longer take advantage of us with them.
We have many clear biblical examples of the schemes of satan, but he continues to take advantage of the Church because of our neglect to understand them. It is true that our main purpose must always be to seek life, to partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life, but we too will fall if we do not discern the devil's constant attempts to lure us to the evil tree. We must discern these schemes and place true watchmen on the walls who have this knowledge and discernment. As we are told in Second Corinthians 10:3-6:
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
The Church is not here just to defend against the attacks of the devil and establish our own safe havens; we are here on Earth to attack and tear down his strongholds, releasing as many souls from his grip as possible. We are not supposed to just be on the defensive; we are here to take back ground that was surrendered to the devil by our ancestors who succumbed to his schemes and to follow up on the victories of our ancestors who took ground before us. We have been given divinely powerful weapons for this purpose. Next to knowing and worshiping God, we should be occupied with assaulting the devil, setting his captives free, and tearing down his evil religions and philosophies through which he keeps mankind in darkness.
WHY HE CAME
Of course, the Lord came to save us from our sin. The Scriptures also say in First John 3:8b that, 'The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.' When Jesus prayed for His people on the night before His crucifixion, He said concerning us, 'As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world' (Jn. 17:18). So we are sent for the same basic purpose that He was-to destroy the works of the devil. That is why we are on the earth-to be His Body through which He can continue His work.
Therefore every Christian is called to be a freedom fighter-to set the captives free, to see every human soul set free of bondage to the devil and released into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Because of this, the love of freedom must be basic to our spiritual genetic code.
The whole earth may presently lie within the power of the evil one, and we may now therefore be living behind enemy lines, but we will prevail. We will be victorious in the end. Every soul that is set free is a victory that conquers more territory for the Kingdom of God. Even so, we must look beyond setting just individuals free toward setting whole nations free from the bondage they are in, in this present evil age.
