FIVE MILLION CHURCHES, THREE BILLION CHRISTIANS, ONE SATAN—AND A DEFEATED GOD?
At first glance, the argument appears devastating. But a clever insult may expose a real problem, but it cannot establish a sound conclusion unless its premises are true… PROLOGUE: THE MOCKERY AND THE MISTAKE “ Five million churches in the world and about three billion members fighting one Satan and still can’t defeat him for about 2,000 years. What a mighty man in battle! ” So runs a mocking post published on a page with the provocative title The Lies in the Bible. At first glance, the argument appears devastating. How can millions of churches, billions of Christians, and two millennia of religious activity fail to overcome a single Devil? Is Satan stronger than God? Has Christianity promised a victory it cannot deliver? Or is the whole story of spiritual warfare an elaborate religious deception? The sarcasm is easy. The philosophy is not. The argument rests upon several assumptions: that God and Satan are opposing powers engaged in a contest of comparable str...