Years ago, a novelist named Frank Peretti envisioned the spiritual conflict in our world through a story he called, This Present Darkness. Unseen by human eyes, spiritual forces of good and evil pitched battles in the rafters of church meetings as worship took place in the room below. I don’t know if Peretti’s story perfectly pictures spiritual warfare. But I believe it is real.
When Philip brought the good news of Jesus to Samaria, he discovered that the bad news had preceded him. A sorcerer named Simon the Great used the forces of spiritual evil to counterfeit the authority of God. Simon came to be known as the “Great Power of God.” Then Philip arrived with the truth. Simon’s sorcery paled in comparison to Philip’s Savior. The same people who had seen the sorcery came to serve the Savior. Philip told them the good news that King Jesus had arrived. They believed and were baptized. Knowing a good thing when he saw it, Simon himself believed and was baptized.
Reading the news today, you may wonder with the wars, conflicts, illnesses, and pain, whether evil has already prevailed. Bad news abounds in our world. Someone said a lie will run all the way around the world before the truth even gets it shoes on. Some days, it looks like the lies have won. But the scriptures tell us how our story ends. Good news prevails in the end. As Longfellow described it in a favorite Christmas hymn, “The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, with peace on earth, goodwill to men.”
Years ago a group of battling Baptists tried to enlist my friend Frank Pollard to join the fight against other Baptist brothers and sisters. Perceiving his penchant for neutrality, they told Frank, “You have to get in the game, man.” Frank, with sage wisdom, responded, “The game, as I perceive it, is the Great Commission. What you guys have going on is a fight underneath the stands.” We must not be deceived by the perceived power of the Enemy. Accept no impostors. Even the forces of darkness know that God will win in the end. We need to decide whether we are on his team. The battle is real. Our God can do anything but fail.
