The Church Series (Stop the Division) Pt. 32 (WARNING) Rated FG-7

Jesus said, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A town or family splintered by feuding will fall apart.” (Matthew 12:25) Contextually, he was pointing out that Satan is too smart to allow his household to be divided. Unfortunately, the church can’t make that claim.

After warring for millennia, Satan knows military doctrine like nobody else, and one of war’s basics is “divide and conquer.” Anytime a general can divide enemy forces, he’s in a position to defeat them in detail; the smaller segments are no match for the power he can concentrate against them.

To divide Christian groups, Satan uses his preferred weapon, the one for which he’s named: accusation (diabolos, the devil, means accuser). We often think of his accusation as being against God, or accusing a believer in the sense of making him feel too guilty to draw close to God. But he also launches accusation against fellow Christians. Satan plants hostile interpretations of others’ actions and words in the minds of his victims.

This is the very thing that happened to me and others after they left the church before me. I never had the intension of commenting on my decision to leave the church. What’s so funny there was never an argument, confrontation or conversation between me, the pastor or anyone. There were things I didn’t agree with and opted to leave and not to talk to people about it. However, Satan was not content with that, so the accuser begins to plant accusations in the minds of people and those who knew better including the pastor went mute.

I begin to be attacked with lies from people I would have never believed would do such a thing. Christian Crisis Team was formed to mount accusations and even went on one of my friend’s job to try to get him fired. I even remember going back to the church a few weeks after I had left for a funeral and felt very uncomfortable. Later, I was told by one of the security guys they were told to watch me if I came in because they didn’t know what state of mind I was in. I said, WOW! Just because I decide to leave a church now I am not in my right mind. So, accusations flew and once they involved my children I countered, with facts and documentation to back it up.

See, this is how Satan works; by planting accusations in the minds on both sides of the divide, he makes communication and reconciliation difficult. (“These people can’t be trusted, they can’t be dealt with, they are our enemy, and they must be fought or avoided.”) Sowing suspicion in the name of Satan’s game. He can usually ground suspicions in facts, at least partially, subtly adding assumptions about people’s motives. But even when people are in the wrong, we are called to help fellow believers overcome their problems, not fight with them or hold them in contempt. I thank God that I learned and grew and continue to grow as I write this piece.

Some people are remarkably susceptible to suspicious thoughts about follow Christians. They never consider that the accusing voice in their heads might be Satan. The Evil One knows which individuals in any fellowship have immature conflict-management skills. These self-centered believers rarely go to people they harbor suspicions against with a humble spirit and open mind. Instead they become bitter and spread their suspicions to others, often exaggerating for effect. Believers tell tales heedless of the effect they may have on local church unity, and they do so without fairness, context, or key information that would ruin their intended spin-job.

Satan watches churches, indentifies negative players with unresolved bitterness, and moves in to fan the flames. Paul says that in the context of bitterness and enmity, “anger gives foothold to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). Again, discussing lack of forgiveness, he says we should forgive “so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan” (2Corinthians 2:11). I even took the time to go to one of my friends in the ministry, knowing he would be overtaken by the accuser and told not to let this come between our relationships. I knew firsthand how he was going to be used and low and behold Satan began his wedge.

Some biblical evidence suggests that Satan can virtually take over the minds of certain people in the church. In 2 Timothy 2, Paul tells Timothy to gently reprove those in opposition in the hope they “will come to their senses and escape from the devil’s trap. For they have been held captive by him to do whatever he wants” (v.26). In the context of this pastoral advice, these prisoners of Satan could well be believers. They aren’t demon possessed; they’re just so deceived and guilty that they can no longer tell the difference between right and wrong or between the voice of God and the voice of Satan.

This process of taking people under bondage for use in the church is usually associated with unresolved sin. In another passage Paul tells Titus, “Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned” (Titus 3:30-11). Satan knows how to use sin in a believer’s life to alienate him from God, confuse him, and create a host of destructive measures for self- justification. High in the list of these strategies are blame-shifting and bitterness (especially for those untaught in God’s grace). If he wants to, Satan can progressively take control of the thinking of those who fail to repent.

Lying dormant until the right moment, these people are secret weapons that Satan can unleash when he’s ready. Experience suggests he may have several people substantially under his control in the same church. The sudden nexus of several bitter people with the same agenda is a sure mark of Satan’s handiwork. Bitterness and suspicion then spread with incredible speed from person to person. The danger such coordinated attacks pose is so severe that it justifies the most serious form of church discipline: remove from fellowship.

In division, Satan is able to orchestrate the best of all worlds for his side. Christians not only stop pursuing their mission of growing disciples for the kingdom of God, they actually begin destroying each other. The lingering effects of division can go on for years, those left in the church usually feel a spiritual depression that inhibits ministry efforts. Distrust and cynicism afflict leaders and workers, making it more difficult to love from the heart.

Not all division involves active conflict; passive division is also dangerous. God calls us to unity that is tangible and characterized by love (Ephesians 4:3; 1 Corinthians 12:25). A disengaged group where people don’t bother to relate deeply to one another is also divided, for Satan knows that fostering apathy and distraction can produce a disunited church just as easily as hostility.

Many Christians worry about mega-divisions like those that have created the many denominations today. As problematic as such large-scale conflicts may be, though I believe Satan is most interested in division within particular local churches. After all, when the church was all one denomination he was effective at working his ways. Global unity is entirely impossible until we can get it right as members of the local body. Personal love relationships are the basic of true unity in the church. We will never find true unity within the institutionalized church; healthy churches need to focus on relationship and not membership. Whenever imperatives come up in the New Testament about preserving unity, these have to do with relational unity in a locality (Ephesians 4:3; 1 Corinthians).

The satanic flavor of church division is unmistakable, so is the outcomes —most in this group lose their walk with God altogether. It is time to come together to bind the accuser for good within the local assemblies of members of the body. It is time to stand together as a UNITED FORCE within the body of Christ. Satan has us against the ropes what are we going to do? No matter what side of the divide you are on; not until we bring it together WE LOSE!