Jonathan Pokluda believes there’s a danger to Satan’s attempts to “make himself an allegory or a parody,” expressing his belief that the devil seeks to minimize his existence in order to trick people into apathy.
“I think if we can believe that [Satan is a cherub, the chubby angel with a pitchfork in the taco stand] then … we can kind of sit in this, ‘No one can really know’ [mentality],” he said, calling the confusion that results “some of the enemy’s greatest work.”
As CBN News has reported, Pokluda is on a mission to help people “identify spiritual warfare” and “defeat the enemy.”
He’s the pastor of Harris Creek Baptist Church in Waco, Texas, and is tackling the topic of spiritual warfare head-on, recently releasing, “Your Story Has a Villain: Identify Spiritual Warfare and Learn How to Defeat the Enemy,” a new book aimed at helping people see through chaos to discern truth.
As for why so many Christians avoid such issues, Pokluda said it’s clear there is a “Pentecostal thread” that is very comfortable with the unseen realm. These people are open to discussing demonic possession, oppression, and other related issues.
Still, Pokluda said many churches simply don’t address these important spiritual issues, noting that these houses of worship choose to simply “live in the mystery.”
“And they would say, ‘Hey, that’s gray. There’s a lot we don’t know there,'” he said.
These folks might wonder if cases presented as possession are simply mental illnesses, and because of the rampant uncertainty around such matters, they refuse to speak with clarity on the issues.
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Pokluda said famed Christian author C.S. Lewis reminded believers of the two errors often made regarding “devils.”
“One is to make too much of them, believing that they are involved in everything,” Pokluda said. “And the second, and which is equally as dangerous, is to not even acknowledge their existence.”
But Pokluda said there’s also a third error he sees today — one that has been very popular in the modern era.
“The more popular error of this century would be believing that there is a demonic realm and that belief having zero implications of anything that we do,” he said. “And if there is a demonic spiritual realm — if there is indeed a battle around us, which I have a deep conviction that there is — then it has implications for everything we do.”
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