Deepertruth: Would you be Wise? Part 2

Would you be Wise? Part 2

The Evil Spirit in the World – Diabolical Activity and Power

Our second course is on the evil spirit and you will find, I think you have the same chart that I have on the second page of your notes: The Evil Spirit in the World: Diabolical activity and power.

The Devil Exists and can be Known

First, by way of introduction: the devil exists and can be known. I cannot tell you how widespread is disbelief in the evil spirit especially among those who are supposed to be teachers of the Faith in the Catholic Church. In other words, without dwelling on this because the subject is an ocean, our task in this course is not to prove the existence of the evil spirit. It is, rather, to describe both how the evil spirit operates and how we are to cope with his demonic activity. It is part of the Church’s infallible teaching that the devil exists.

The Devil Came Into Existence as the Result of Self-will

The teaching of Sacred Scripture: the devil appears at the dawn of created history. In fact that’s how the devil first came into existence. The devil came into existence when the angels created by God and put on probation. We don’t know how many but very many refused to submit to the God who created them. In other words, the devils came into existence as the result of self-will. Self-will created the devils and, unlike us, unlike us the devils who fell were not given the chance to repent which St. Ignatius makes a great deal of to remind us how grateful we should be for two things: That we are created as rational human beings; and that, unlike the fallen angels, we have been redeemed and can repent. We’re all sinners – thanks to God’s mercy. The Church’s teaching, Her Magisterium and Catholic spirituality 

We better know how to cope with this evil spirit