"Satan and His Kingdom" by Dennis McCallum

As I do not typically read books on theology I had a very hard time picking this one up. After reading it I think I understand what may have been preventing me.

In his book “Satan and His Kingdom,” Dennis McCallum takes a very in-depth look at what the Bible truly says about Satan and how it relates to our everyday lives. Though Satan is the epitome of evil, our perception of him is very skewed. McCallum goes to great lengths to show how Satan’s primary tactic is that of a deceiver and though this idea isn’t as scary as the exploding heads we’ve seen in movies, we should be just as frightened.

Ever since his fall from glory, Satan’s primary goal has been to destroy humans, and though he is very powerful, there have been some limits placed on his power. Obviously he does not have to power to simply kill any human at any time or else he would have obliterated the entire earth already. On the other hand, he does have the power to whisper lies, which can cause one human to kill another and thus fulfill his goals. Satan does not have the power to read our minds (even through the psychic network), but because we are sinful beings, he is very well aware of what we will likely do and can make it seem as if he can.

Though I took a lot from the book, there were a couple of very insightful nuggets that really stuck out to me. In the chapter on countering Satan’s moves, the author writes,

“Many Christians seriously underestimate the power of God’s Word. If they didn’t, they would learn more about it. They’d spend more time reading and meditating on it. Actions speak louder than words, and the actions of many Christians clearly suggest that they have never understood how powerful the Word of God is.”

He goes on to highlight an illustration from a book by Chuck Smith. In short, if someone were to attack you on a dark street and start wrestling with you and then pull a knife, your entire focus of the fight would shift to that knife and trying to knock it out of the your attacker’s hand.

As Christians we are constantly at battle with Satan and the Bible is our primary weapon. It’s our knife if you will. Satan’s major focus is knocking it out of our hands and thus preventing us from knowing and loving Jesus on an ever-increasing basis. Be it TV, the Internet, money, our job, school activities or even church activities (yes he is that sneaky) Satan has done a good job at keeping us from our Bibles and of growing our faith by growing closer to our Creator.

Could it have been Satan or a demon that personally kept me from reading this book for so long? It’s possible, but I have a feeling it was nothing more than my sinful and lazy nature that is the culprit, and therein lies the problem. Satan has done such a good job throughout the years that he’s got us doing his job for him. I for one would like to change this behavior.