The third Nightline Face-Off was held on March 20, 2009, in Seattle at the Mars Hill Church.  It was moderated by ABC News’ Dan Harris.  Validating the existence of the devil were the church’s Pastor, Mark Driscoll and Annie Lobert, founder of Hookers for Jesus.  Opposing views were presented by a physician and writer, Dr. Deepak Chopra and Bishop Carlton Pearson, a former fundamentalist preacher.  More than 1,000 people attended the debate.  “One audience member suggested that one cannot believe in God without believing in Satan.”  

 

For centuries, agnostic or atheistic demand for proof of God’s existence has been very similar to the deceptive practices of the devil.  “The Bible tells us: ‘God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.’  Because God has no body, you cannot see God.”  

 

Likewise, “an angel is all intellect and all will … When God created the angels, He gave them great wisdom and power … Angels have no bodies—they are spirits … Don’t worry about how an angel gets clothes on over huge wings—an angel has no wings, no clothes, no body!”

 

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: ‘The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.’  Scripture speaks of a sin of these angels.  This ‘fall’ consists in the free choice of these created spirits, who radically and irrevocably rejected God and his reign.  We find a reflection of that rebellion in the tempter’s words to our first parents: ‘You will be like God.’  The devil ‘has sinned from the beginning’; he is ‘a liar and the father of lies’ … ‘The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.’  In its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God.”

 

“The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not infinite.”  Although countless people continue to disobey God, because of free will they cannot blame the devil nor God.  While God could have created puppets to love & adore him, our father created sons & daughters in his image.  He graced us with the power to create life and to be Christ-like. 

 

Within His infinite love, God protects us against lies & scheming of the devil with weapons more powerful than any weapons the devil has.  As such, it’s natural to fear and love God but not the devil.  Needless to say, just as the devil is real, so are angels.  “To deny that angels exist because you cannot see them is the same as denying that you have thoughts because you cannot see your thoughts … The Bible speaks of angels more than three hundred times.”

 

You have a Guardian Angel … “God loves every person whom He has created … God loves you even if you are in serious sin.  Because He loves you, He has sent to you and to every other human being a guardian angel.  As soon as a baby is born God sends an angel to guard that baby.”

 

“Christ tells us: ‘See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.’” Mt 18:10

 

The Most important Purpose in Life—To save Your Immortal Soul … “Your guardian angel stays with you to keep you from harm and to warn you of dangers to your soul … We know that every person has a spiritual side because he (she) can perform spiritual actions.  One’s spiritual actions are thinking and willing.  You cannot take a thought out of a person and place it on the table to be examined; you cannot put a thought in a test tube.  No one has ever seen or touched a person’s will.  Yet one certainly has a will–one uses it every time he (she) makes a decision.  This spiritual part of a person by which he (she) thinks and wills is his (her) soul … When a human body is formed in the mother’s womb, God creates the person’s soul and joins it to the tiny body in the womb.  It remains joined to the body until God decides to separate it from the body.  This separation is called death … The body of a person was created by God as the seat of the soul … The soul will live on forever … The really big purpose for which God has made you is to bring you to heaven … But if you lose your soul you are a magnificent failure—a fool!  ‘Fools say in their hearts, There is no God.’ (Ps 14:1) … A person usually becomes an atheist either because he (she) loves oneself too much or because he (she) gives in to passions.” 

 

Tragically, instead of diminishing, the “mendacious seduction that led man to disobey God” is not only increasing but worst of all, it is becoming very popular & enjoyable.  In the Garden of Eden, choices seemed so limited that one of the few tools available to the devil was the snake.  Today, with “centuries of experience in evil,” the devil seems to have more outlets than mankind can handle.  Due to deceptive television, movies, print media, music, laws and luminaries, growing hostility towards religion or true spirituality has been a daily reality in our society for years.  By now, “intelligent fools” have grown so powerful that religious philosophies are not the only casualties in their path of destruction.  Despite being the most “enlightened, informed, free & protected” society in the world, we are also the most helpless, manipulated and intimidated society in modern history.  It’s only natural that after years of mass confusion and enslavement, as blind are leading the blind most of us have to mind.  Despite endless objections to religious restrictions & damages, corruption of the human mind and social engineering continue to be obscene, legal & lethal.  With unrelenting preying on the natural love & tolerance created in our souls after centuries of powerful inspiration from God & his shepherds, destruction of our minds is almost complete.  Majority of religious and nonreligious no longer discern between right & wrong, truth & lie, good or evil.  When free will & intellect are overruled by confused laws, trends or leaders, all individuals & societies are destined to fail.  

 

Considering our current environment, because the spiritual reality is invisible, it would seem normal to doubt or debate the existence of God, angels and the devil or demons.  Due to their ”invisible” nature, it has been very helpful to portray angels as winged messengers or the devil as a snake in the same way a light bulb is associated with an idea or a heart is associated with love.  Oddly, while many of us continue to doubt the existence of God, very few of us doubt the existence of love.  If truth be told, because God and Love are one and the same, their existence has already been proven by generations before us, our own experiences and they will continue to be a reality for all eternity.  

 

If one wishes to remain a doubting Thomas, one has the free will to do so. Nonetheless, until popular intellectuals or atheists prove that God does not exist, most of us should regain the freedom, protection & support to enjoy God or Love even though they cannot be seen nor placed in a test tube.  

 

Taking into account our history and the foundation of our country, to exhibit hostility towards “genuine traditional religions” or to doubt God’s word is more than foolish.  It’s dangerous and very harmful because true religions not only fulfill our own needs but also create the most natural, effective, powerful, honorable and responsible means of self and social control that the best of governments or leaders could not duplicate nor enforce.  If the world was ruled by God’s laws and Christ-like characters became popular, our lives and love would become the ultimate proof of God’s existence & other nations would seek to do the same.  With proper isolation & protection, the need for private, public & global diplomacy, coercion or bullets would give way to peaceful harmony—there would be no desire to doubt or reject God, abuse self or others, lie, cheat, engage in fornication, adultery or homosexuality, divorce, kill, fight in a global war on terror or the politically correct overseas contingency operation.  After all, only a fool would reject truth, responsibility, honor, love and bliss.

 

Years ago America came very close to becoming ”One Nation Under God.”  “For every action, there is an equal & opposite reaction.”  Perhaps the next Nightline Face-Off should debate America’s fate as “One Nation Under God or One Nation Under the Devil.”  

 

Main Source:  Instructions in the Catholic Faith, Fare, Inc.

 

  … Mary Rose … “To cheat one’s self out of love is the greatest deception of which there is no reparation in either time or eternity.”