Tommy Mann

I read about a commuter named Dean Niferatos who was riding the transit bus in Chicago. It was the middle of the afternoon and most of the passengers seemed out of it, tired from a day of work, shopping, or running errands. Some of the people had their eyes closed and were trying to get a few minutes of rest.   At one particular stop three people boarded the bus. They must have been frequent patrons of this bus because the driver recognized them immediately and made an announcement to the other riders: “Everybody watch your valuables. Some pickpockets just got on board.” The trio didn’t hesitate, but jumped right back off the bus. The driver’s warning got everyone’s attention, as they began to clutch their briefcases and shopping bags, pulling them closer to their person.  If we aren’t careful we can become like those travelers, lulled to sleep by the sounds of the city, feeling safe and secure. We nod off, leaving our valuables exposed to any would-be bandits who can execute ...

  The devil is no fan of God’s Word, and he doesn’t want you to be one either. I believe he knows Scripture. He has been around for a long time, and he has probably read it from cover to cover. There is no way he is ignorant of the Bible. I believe he knows what it says, and he hates it.     He also knows that the more you read it and understand it, the better off you will be. Since the devil hates God yet can’t beat Him, he wants to hurt God by leading people to reject God. He does that by attacking the Bible.    Think about it: he was the first to question the Bible when he said to Eve, “Did God  really  say…?” (Genesis 3:1) He was the first to deny the Bible when he told her, “You will not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4)  And he was the first to take the Bible out of context when he told Jesus, “Throw yourself down, for He will command His angels concerning you, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”...

Let’s be honest: the idea of a devil can seem childish, like believing in the tooth fairy. Is there actually a devil, or is that just an invention of religious people to explain away things they don’t like? In Rob Bell’s book   What is the Bible?  He makes the case that the Jews developed the concept of a devil while they were exiled in Babylon—quite late in their history—as a way of coping with a God that would allow bad things to happen.     They blamed the devil to let God off the hook.    Pointing out that the first mention of Satan is in 1 Chronicles 21, written after the exile, Bell states: “The idea of Satan didn't emerge until the exile, until the Hebrews had experienced extraordinary evil and oppression and had found themselves in a foreign land miles from home in the midst of great alienation and suffering…You can see how the idea of an opposing, evil, destructive, force/spirit/god/goddess emerged as people became more sophisticated in their think...

Are we really supposed to believe that there is some evil spirit that goes around the world tempting people to sin? That might work in children’s church lessons, but are grownups still expected to believe in an actual devil?   Professor Jeffrey Burton Russell wrote extensively about the devil, including his book  The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity.  He posed the question, “What, really, is the Devil? This is comparable to the question: What, really, is art? Absolute answers to such questions are not attainable.” He went on to write, “evil has no ontological being and can therefore strictly speaking have no essence.”    Russell’s point is that the devil is a myth, simply “the personification of evil [1] .” Throughout time people have sought to explain the existence of evil in the world, and rather than blaming whatever god they worship, they assign blame to a malevolent devil.    But if we believe the Bible is God’s ...

Is Satan powerful? We place a lot of blame on him for the problems in this life, and deservedly so. He is responsible for the entrance of sin into the world, and since sin is the reason for all our problems, Satan bears much of the responsibility for the fallen condition of humanity.  But just how powerful is the devil? The Bible identifies him as the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), and the god or ruler of this world (John 12:31). He certainly is strong, and to underestimate his power is a grave mistake. Some people choose to play around with occultic activities, and I believe this only gives Satan an even greater opening to temp us.  Paul gives us a glimpse into the devil’s power in II Corinthians 4:4 when he wrote, “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” According to that verse, our adversary has the ability to blind people to the tru...

Q. Where is Christ now? A. Christ sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father, making intercession for the saints. Forty days after Jesus rose from the dead He ascended back into heaven. His absence from earth made way for the Holy Spirit to indwell believers, so Jesus told His disciples it was good that He left (John 16:7). When Jesus left He didn’t retire to South Florida, nor did He go to heaven to twiddle His thumbs and wait for the rapture. He is busy today sitting at the right hand of the Father, serving as our advocate. Romans 8:34 says Jesus, “indeed is interceding for us (also see Hebrews 7:25).” This work of intercession means Jesus speaks to God on our behalf. This is comparable to the role of a defense attorney. Why do we need an attorney? Because there is a prosecutor bringing horrible charges against us, and unfortunately, the charges are all true. Revelation 12:10 says Satan is “the accuser of the brethren” who has been accusing us “day and night....