Triumphing Over Satan and His Works
“Subject yourselves, therefore, to God; but oppose the Devil, and he will flee from you.”—JAMES 4:7.
1. How has “the hand of the wicked one” affected mankind today?
JOB correctly stated: “Earth itself has been given into the hand of the wicked one.” (Job 9:24) And now we face the most critical times in all human history. Why? Because these are “the last days” of Satan’s demonistic domination of the earth. It is no wonder that, under Satan’s prompting, ‘wicked men and impostors are advancing from bad to worse, misleading and being misled.’ (2 Timothy 3:1, 13) Moreover, persecutions, injustices, cruelties, crimes, economic hardships, chronic illnesses, pangs of old age, emotional depressions—these and more may weigh heavily upon us.
2. How may we cope with Satan’s attacks today?
2 The great adversary, Satan the Devil, is making a concentrated attack on mankind and on true worshipers of God in particular. His goal is to turn all potential integrity keepers against God and bring them down to ruin along with him and his demon angels. We are assured, though, that if we endure in integrity, the Devil will flee from us. Like Jesus, we can ‘learn obedience’ to God through the things we suffer, and by His undeserved kindness, we can attain to everlasting life.—Hebrews 5:7, 8; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:8-10.
3, 4. (a) What external trials did Paul have to contend with? (b) What was Paul’s concern as a Christian elder?
3 The apostle Paul also was tested in many ways. Stating his credentials as a minister of Christ, he wrote: “I am more outstandingly one: in labors more plentifully, in prisons more plentifully, in blows to an excess, in near-deaths often. By Jews I five times received forty strokes less one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I experienced shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the deep; in journeys often, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from highwaymen, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers, in labor and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in abstinence from food many times, in cold and nakedness.
4 “Besides those things of an external kind, there is what rushes in on me from day to day, the anxiety for all the congregations. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I am not incensed?” (2 Corinthians 11:23-29) Thus, Paul kept integrity when facing persecutions and trials from the outside, and as a Christian elder, he was deeply concerned with strengthening weaker brothers and sisters in the congregation, helping them to keep integrity. What a fine example for Christian elders today!
Integrity Under Persecution
5. What is the answer to direct persecution?
5 What devices does Satan use to break down integrity? As indicated above, one of Satan’s most vicious strategies is direct persecution, but there is an answer. Ephesians 6:10, 11 counsels us: “Go on acquiring power in the Lord and in the mightiness of his strength. Put on the complete suit of armor from God that you may be able to stand firm against the machinations [or, “crafty acts,” footnote] of the Devil.”
6. How can it be shown that Jehovah’s Witnesses have come off “completely victorious”?
6 Often during these last days, Jehovah’s Witnesses have had to contend with trials. Thus, we can say with Paul: “In all these things we are coming off completely victorious through him that loved us.” (Romans 8:37) This is proved by the record of integrity of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the concentration camps of Germany, Austria, Poland, and Yugoslavia during the Nazi era between 1933 and 1945, under Communistic oppression in Eastern Europe between 1945 and 1989, and during the persecutions that have racked parts of Africa and Latin America in more recent times.
7. What stirring examples of integrity are reported from Ethiopia?
7 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Ethiopia provided a stirring example of integrity between 1974 and 1991. One of the politically minded captors told an imprisoned brother: “Better to release the lions from the zoo than to let you people go free again!” These cruel persecutors tortured Jehovah’s servants, and after some years an appeal court ordered executions. The body of one brother was put on public display as a warning example. Other brothers who appealed the death sentence were released by a more liberal court, and some of these faithful ‘conquerors’ had parts on the program at the “Divine Teaching” District Convention in Addis Ababa early in 1994.a—John 16:33; compare 1 Corinthians 4:9.
8. How has Satan tried to capitalize on “ethnic cleansing”?
8 Satan has failed to crack the integrity of such loyal brothers and sisters by direct frontal attack. So, what other crafty devices does he employ? Revelation 12:12 says of these last days: “Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” Having failed to annihilate God’s loyal people by persecutions, in his anger he attempts to massacre entire populations, no doubt with a view to destroying Jehovah’s people along with the rest. Thus so-called ethnic cleansing has been carried out in parts of the former Yugoslavia, and genocides have been attempted in Liberia, Burundi, and Rwanda.
9. Why do Satan’s tactics often fail? Give examples.
9 Often, though, Satan’s tactics boomerang on him, for satanic affliction awakens honesthearted people to the realization that their only hope rests in God’s Kingdom, zealously proclaimed by Jehovah’s Witnesses. (Matthew 12:21) Indeed, interested ones flock to the Kingdom! For example, in strife-torn Bosnia and Herzegovina, at the March 26, 1994, celebration of the Memorial of Jesus’ death, 1,307 attended, 291 more than in the previous year. Peak attendances were recorded in Sarajevo (414), Zenica (223), Tuzla (339), Banja Luka (255), and other towns. In neighboring Croatia there was a new peak attendance of 8,326. The violence taking place around them did not prevent Jehovah’s Witnesses in those lands from obeying the command to “keep proclaiming the death of the Lord, until he arrives.”—1 Corinthians 11:26.
In Strife-Torn Rwanda
10, 11. (a) What has transpired in supposedly Christian Rwanda? (b) How have faithful missionaries expressed themselves?
10 In 1993, Rwanda, with 2,080 Kingdom publishers, had 4,075 attend the “Divine Teaching” District Convention, and 230 were baptized. Of these, 142 immediately applied for auxiliary pioneer service. Home Bible studies being conducted climbed to 7,655 in 1994—evidently too many for Satan’s liking! Though the great majority of the populace profess to be Christian, intertribal massacres were launched. The Vatican’s L’Osservatore Romano admitted: “This is an out-and-out genocide, for which unfortunately even Catholics are responsible.” An estimated half million men, women, and children died, and some two million were made homeless or forced to flee. Maintaining their nonviolent Christian neutrality, Jehovah’s Witnesses tried to stay together. Hundreds of our brothers and sisters were killed. But in one congregation of 65 Kingdom publishers, where 13 were killed, meeting attendance increased to 170 by August 1994. Relief supplies from Witnesses in other lands were among the first to arrive. Our prayers ascend in behalf of the survivors.—Romans 12:12; 2 Thessalonians 3:1, 2; Hebrews 10:23-25.
11 Amid all the horror, the three missionaries who were in Rwanda escaped. They write: “We realize that our brothers throughout the world have had to face up to similar situations or worse, and we know that it is all part of the sign of the last days of this wicked system. Still, when one is personally involved, it brings home the reality of things and makes one appreciate how precious life is. Certain scriptures have taken on new meaning for us, and we look forward to the time when the former things will no longer come to mind. In the meantime we want to keep busy in Jehovah’s service.”
Youthful Integrity Keepers
12, 13. (a) What integrity-keeping course did a youngster take? (b) Where may our youths find encouragement today?
12 Jesus indicated that those who are cut off by family members for the sake of the truth will be rewarded “a hundredfold.” (Mark 10:29, 30) This was true of Entellia, a ten-year-old girl in northern Africa, who loved God’s name—Jehovah—as soon as she heard it. She studied with Jehovah’s Witnesses and walked 90 minutes each way to meetings, even though her opposed family often shut her out of the home on her return. At 13 years of age, she started to preach from house to house, and the family’s opposition intensified. One day relatives bound her hands and feet and had her lie in the broiling sun for seven hours, occasionally throwing dirty water over her. They beat her viciously, destroying one of her eyes, and finally drove her from her home. However, she found work in a hospital and eventually qualified as a nurse. At age 20 she was baptized and enrolled immediately as an auxiliary pioneer. Impressed by her integrity, her family has welcomed her back into their home, and nine of them have accepted home Bible studies.
13 Entellia gained much encouragement from Psalm 116, especially Ps 116 verses 1-4, which she has read over and over again: “I do love, because Jehovah hears my voice, my entreaties. For he has inclined his ear to me, and throughout my days I shall call. The ropes of death encircled me and the distressing circumstances of Sheol themselves found me. Distress and grief I kept finding. But upon the name of Jehovah I proceeded to call: ‘Ah, Jehovah, do provide my soul with escape!’” Jehovah answers such prayers!
14. How have Polish Witnesses shown outstanding integrity?
14 As in Jesus’ day, Satan has often used religious fanaticism to fan the flames of persecution—but without success. Outstanding is the example of our brothers in Poland, as described in the 1994 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Even youngsters were called upon to prove themselves integrity keepers. In 1946 one such was a 15-year-old girl who was told: “Just make the Catholic sign of the cross. Otherwise a bullet awaits you!” Keeping integrity, she was dragged into a forest, horribly tortured, and shot.—Compare Matthew 4:9, 10.
Other Crafty Devices of Satan
15, 16. (a) What is Satan’s demonic policy, and how may we resist him? (b) Why is there no need for our young people to stumble?
15 Satan’s demonic policy is indeed “rule or ruin”! He has many cruel weapons in his arsenal. It is no wonder, then, that the apostle Paul warns: “We have a wrestling, not against blood and flesh, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places. On this account take up the complete suit of armor from God, that you may be able to resist in the wicked day and, after you have done all things thoroughly, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:12, 13) Materialistic desires, degraded entertainment and propaganda, satanic music, peer pressure at school, drug abuse, and drunkenness—any of these can wreck our lives. Hence, the apostle goes on to counsel: “Above all things, take up the large shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the wicked one’s burning missiles.”—Ephesians 6:16.
16 This appears to be especially necessary today in view of the bizarre music with which Satan is drenching this world. In some cases there is a direct connection to Satanism. A report from the San Diego County (U.S.A.) sheriff’s office stated: “We had a concert down here where the band had 15,000 kids chanting ‘Natas’—that is, Satan spelled backwards.” Satanism has been described as a hole into which adolescents stumble “because they have been wandering desperate, angry and alone.” You youngsters in the Christian congregation, there is no need for you to stumble! Jehovah provides you with spiritual armor that Satan’s darts will never pierce.—Psalm 16:8, 9.
17. How may emotional depression be overcome?
17 Satanic burning missiles are designed to play on the emotions. Through pressures of life, such as physical sickness or a state of deep depression, our adversary may cause some to have a feeling of worthlessness. One may become discouraged because of not being able to spend many hours in God’s service or because of missing out on some of the congregation’s meetings. Loving care by elders and other kindhearted brothers and sisters may help in overcoming difficult traumas. Always remember that Jehovah loves his faithful servants. (1 John 4:16, 19) Psalm 55:22 states: “Throw your burden upon Jehovah himself, and he himself will sustain you. Never will he allow the righteous one to totter.”
18. With what satanic machinations do some have to struggle?
18 Satan’s crafty “machinations” have recently appeared in yet another form. In some lands many adults have experienced invasive thoughts conveying the overwhelming impression that as children they were sadistically abused by satanic cults. Where do such ideas come from? Despite extensive research, secular opinions vary greatly. Some view such thoughts as actual memories, others as fantasies—perhaps induced by questionable therapy—and still others as a kind of hallucination caused by some childhood trauma.
19. (a) What thoughts did Job have to contend with? (b) How may elders follow Elihu’s example?
19 It is of interest that God’s servant Job had to contend with “disquieting thoughts” that Satan conveyed through Eliphaz and Zophar. (Job 4:13-18; 20:2, 3) Job thus suffered “vexation,” resulting in his indulging in “wild talk” about the “terrors” afflicting his mind. (Job 6:2-4; 30:15, 16) Elihu listened quietly to Job and sincerely helped him see Jehovah’s all-wise view of matters. Likewise today, understanding elders show that they care for afflicted ones by not adding more “pressure” to such ones. Rather, like Elihu, they patiently listen to them and then apply the soothing oil of God’s Word. (Job 33:1-3, 7; James 5:13-15) Thus anyone whose emotions are disturbed by traumas, real or fancied, or who is “terrified . . . with dreams, and by visions” as Job was, may find soothing Scriptural comfort within the congregation.—Job 7:14; James 4:7.
20. How may distressed Christians be helped to maintain their spiritual equilibrium?
20 At present a Christian can be certain that, in one way or another, Satan is behind these horrible thoughts. If some in the congregation suffer in this way, they are wise to see such frightening mental impressions as a direct attempt by Satan to upset their spiritual equilibrium. They need patient and understanding Scriptural support. By prayerfully turning to Jehovah and by benefiting from spiritual shepherding, those experiencing distress will avail themselves of power beyond what is normal. (Isaiah 32:2; 2 Corinthians 4:7, 8) Thus they will be able to endure faithfully and refuse to allow evil intrusive thoughts to affect the peace of the congregation. (James 3:17, 18) Yes, they will be able to oppose the Devil, showing the same spirit that Jesus did when he said: “Go away, Satan!”—Matthew 4:10; James 4:7.
21. How do the Scriptures warn of Satan’s cunning ways?
21 We know that Satan’s aim is somehow to corrupt our minds, as the apostle Paul warned at 2 Corinthians 11:3: “I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its cunning, your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ.” The present ruination of all flesh, or human society alienated from God, reminds us of the degradation wrought by the corrupted and violent hybrid “Fellers” of Noah’s day. (Genesis 6:4, 12, 13, footnote; Luke 17:26) It is not surprising, therefore, that Satan resorts to crafty acts and cunning means to vent his anger, especially against God’s people.—1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:17.
22. With Satan out of the way, what blessings may be expected?
22 Satan is not even mentioned in the concluding chapters of the Bible book of Job. His wicked challenge that humans cannot keep integrity to God had been proved false by Job’s integrity. Likewise, in the near future when “a great crowd” of integrity keepers “come out of the great tribulation,” there will be the abyssing of Satan. Men and women of faith, including faithful Job, will join that “great crowd,” to enjoy paradisaic blessings, even grander than those that rewarded Job!—Revelation 7:9-17; 20:1-3, 11-13; Job 14:13.
[Footnotes]
Questions in Review
◻ What fine examples of integrity did Job, Jesus, and Paul set?
◻ How have integrity keepers faced up to Satan?
◻ How may youths resist Satan’s crafty devices?
◻ What can be done to cope with satanic machinations?
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In Ethiopia, Meswat and Yoalan now serve Jehovah full-time after the example of their father, who was executed
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Entellia, a youthful integrity keeper in northern Africa