People in Wrexham, North Wales are being invited to ask questions about Christian belief. This week’s question is, “Do you believe in the Devil?”

If we don’t believe in the Devil we don’t believe in the Bible! When the Lord Jesus Christ, the world’s only perfect person was tempted by the Devil He said, “Get thee behind me Satan!” [Matthew 4:10] It’s not sinful to be tempted but it is sinful to yield to temptation. Writing to Christians the disciple John said, “We know that we are the children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” [ 1 John 5:19 ] It has been truly said that if there’s no devil in this wicked world, then who’s doing his work?!

We may well ask, “Where did the Devil come from and why does God allow him to exist?” This is impossible to answer in a few words. However, what we do know is that there are secret things that belong to God [ Deuteronomy 29:29 ]. I remember as a boy being tempted to find out where my birthday presents were hidden in the house. I didn’t search because my conscience told me it was wrong to look for secrets. In the same way it’s wrong to pry into matters that are too high for us to understand [ Psalm 131:1 ] The important thing is to do what God wants us to do and not waste time trying to unscrew the inscrutable!

When we buy a vacuum cleaner the makers supply enough instructions to enable us to use it, but they don’t confuse us with details about its machinery! So let’s obey our Maker’s manual, the Bible, by turning from evil and asking for Christ’s pardon and power to “resist the Devil and then he will flee from us!” [ See James 4:7 ]