Dr. Robert Kellemen, RPM Ministries, has produced a terrific resource in Soul Physicians: A Theology of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. As the Lord allows, I have been blogging through this counseling textbook chapter by chapter; arriving now at chapter 14. It is in this chapter that we begin to understand the “hows” of Satan’s seduction of our souls, to turn from God and follow after that which will not satisfy.
We must come to an understanding of how Satan seduces us to sin, so that we might be vigilant and aware personally, but also so that we might teach others of his devious methods! Sin begins it’s enticement in our desires. “Desire, remember, was God’s idea. Temptation and the distortion of desire is False Seducer’s [Satan's] province. Evil allures us to pursue God-designed desire in God-prohibited ways. Each of us is seduced through our appetites, affections, delights and desires.” (p.225) “Sin seduces us to love false lovers…Sin is spiritual prostitution.” “Where does sin seek it’s entry point? In our cravings – in our legitimate relational longings for intimacy”. (p.226) “So we hunger and thirst for relationship. We satisfy our hungry souls either coram Deo – face to face with God or coram Diabolos – face to face with the False Seducer.” “We either love the Lord our God with all our heart, or we love non-god with all our being”.
“Sin seduces us through our affections while it deceives us through our imagination.” “We’re allured by bait…Deceptive bait that blinds us to Worthy Groom’s [Christ] goodness.” “We move far from God when we think little of God.” (p.227) “We forsake God when we lose our awe of Him – when we lose all respect for God.”
“Satan entices us through our desires, deceives us in our imagination, and blinds us in our cognition.” Just like Adam and Eve, we worship substitute lovers, passing by our Creator altogether because we are blinded to the truth that He is altogether lovely! (p.228) “This is the truth to which False Seducer wants to blind us. Satan’s seduction always comes in the form of a story offering us a godness, by lessening God’s goodness.” (p.229)
“Remember the basic process of seduction. I always pursue (volitional) what I perceive (rational) to be most pleasing (relational). I always seek what I sense is most satisfying.” “We are tempted in or through our idiosyncratic appetites.” Here is “Satan’s seduction: crave the world and the food of the world and lose your appetite for God and God’s food.” (p.230) “In seduction, Satan tempts us to depreciate God and to choose lesser gods of our own making – gods that better suit our unique personality and life situation.” “As we turn, we enslave ourselves. The pathways we pursue to find life apart from God become our gods. The bondage of our will leaves us obsessively attempting to make life work without God.” (p.231)
“Satan seduces us to pursue what we perceive will be pleasing and pleasurable.” “Pleasure is part of sin’s seductiveness and addiction. Seductive because it does offer temporal pleasure over which I have some control.” “Pleasure’s temporal, finite nature leads to it’s addictiveness.” “If you wish to separate yourself from your spiritual umbilical cord to God, you will enslave yourself to endless addictive cycles of needing evermore non-god to fill your God-vacuum.” “We seek to be like God; we demand to be like God. When we do, we pursue non-god means of self-sufficiently satisfying our own longings. These non-gods become our master. Seeking to break loose from God’s mastery, we enslave ourselves to Satan’s sovereignty.”
IS THERE ANY HOPE?!?!?!
“Yes! Jesus was victorious over seduction. How?” (p.232) As Satan came to tempt Jesus Christ in the wilderness, he began with a temptation centered around the desire to feed the appetite (bread). “The issue here, as in all temptation, revolves around who will satisfy my appetite – God or me?” “Victory number one: entrust your self humbly to God’s goodness.” (p.233)
Satan then led Christ to the highest point of the temple and challenged Him to throw Himself down, to see if the Father would intervene. Jesus responds with Scripture again, stating that Satan should not put God to the test. “Victory number two: trust God; don’t test God. When tempted by Satan, we don’t tempt God. Instead, we trust Him for our satisfaction, for our victory, for our very life.”
Satan then, lastly, led Christ to view all the kingdoms of the world which would be His if He simply bowed and worshiped Satan. “Temptation always allures us in the realm of our affections and perceptions…We always worship what we value as most magnificent. “Victory number three: worship God, not False Seducer.” (p.234) “We experience victory over seduction to the degree that we worship Trinity as most glorious.”
Wow. This post is long – with a lot to take in. I attempted to keep commentary to minimum so that we could concentrate on Satan’s seductive plan for our lives, the destruction it brings and the victory, modeled by Christ and guaranteed to us in His word. There is a lot to think about here!
