Lewis Sperry Chafer is the author of February’s Free Book of the Month, Satan. The book is free, but only until tomorrow—get it today!
Here’s a preview:
1. Creation of Satan: “Since he was created, he is not self-existent, and never can be free from his dependence upon the Creator.” (Chap. 1, page 13)
2. Place Satan dwells: “That the earth and the air are his present abode must be accepted on the testimony of Scripture: in spite of the almost universal impression that he is now in hell.” (Eph. 6:11, 12, 1 Peter 5:8, 9) (Chap. 1, page 16)
3. Satan’s sentence executed: “And in Rev. 12:7–12, where Satan is cast out into the earth and the execution of his sentence is begun, the announcement is made by a great voice in heaven, ‘Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ.’ There is no evidence of a gradual process here; all is sudden and decisive.” (Chap. 2, page 34)
4. Satan and unbelievers: “According to Scripture, the relation of the unbelieving to Satan is far more vital than a mere pleasure-seeking allegiance.” (Chap. 3, page 45)
5. Satan’s dominion: “Again, Satan’s dominion is limited in that “there is no power but of God: and the powers that be are ordained of God (Rom. 13:1). In this Scripture it is revealed that Satan, though in authority, is not wholly free from his Creator, and that any direction of the governments of the world which he exercises is by permission from God.” (Chap. 4, page 51)
6. Satan’s authority over demons: “Although their origin cannot be definitely traced, it is probable that they were created as subjects of Satan in the primal glory, as he, also, was created as their prince and king. Satan, being in authority over these beings, doubtless drew them after him in his sinful attempt to thrust himself into the place of God.” (Chap. 5, 63)
7. Sin of Satan: “True, he has lowered his Creator, in his own mind, to a level where he supposes himself to be in legitimate competition with Him, both for authority over other beings and for their worship.” (Chap. 6, page 73)
8. Satan impersonations: “Thus his desire to be like the Most High has led him to a blasphemous attempt to imitate all the separate manifestations of the three Persons of the Godhead.” (Chap. 7, page 89)
9. Satan’s reliance on truth: “It has already been seen that the method of counterfeiting, if successful, will require Satan to appropriate and incorporate in his false systems every available principle of the true; for the deception of the counterfeit depends wholly upon its likeness to the real.” (Chap. 9, page 106)
About Lewis Sperry Chafer
Lewis Sperry Chafer was born on this day in 1871, in Red Hook, Ohio. Chafer’s writings, the topic of much debate, are widely regarded as influential in the Evangelical movement in America. Dr. Scofield, Chafer’s Bible college professor, persuaded him to write Satan, which Scofield wrote the foreword for in 1909. Chafer went on to pastor Scofield’s former church in Dallas, TX, upon Scofield’s passing. He also became the founding president of the Evangelical Theological College in 1924. The college was renamed Dallas Theological Seminary in 1936. Chafer passed away August 22, 1952, in Seattle, WA.
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a committed pacifist, left his native Germany in 1939 to avoid conscription, which would have entailed swearing an oath to Hitler and fighting in his army. He came to think of that decision as a sort of flight; after just four weeks, he returned to Germany on the last steamer to make the crossing. There he contributed bravely to the resistance; eventually captured, he was hanged on April 9, 1945. Bonhoeffer presents this remarkably orthodox theologian’s profound moral courage and extraordinary faith.
