Satan exists.

Some people don't believe that satan exists. He does. He is real. Very real. This week I happened to watch Nightline where two "camps" were debating the existence of satan. It was interesting. Of course, there was only a small snippet of the whole debate on Nightline but they told me I could go to the Nightline website and watch the entire debate which I did.

Interesting.

It's about forty-five minutes of your time all total and I'm not sure it was valuable enough for me to encourage you to spend that much time on it, but if you decided to watch it, let's talk.

First of all, did you notice that Deepak Chopra was rather hostile throughout the debate? Doesn't that go against his "enlightened" philosophy? And, he contradicted himself several times.

Can't we get someone better to be on the side of Truth than a former prostitute who seems to be a rather new Christian? I'm not denying that her testimony is real and valuable but when you're going up against two fellows that know the Hebrew translation of the Old Testament by heart, you need a sparring partner on equal footing.

Mark Driscoll. Thoughts? I have had the opportunity to see him speak a few times. As much as I predetermined I wouldn't like him, I like him. There. I said it. I like him. Tattoos and all. He's not exactly my cup of tea with all his "dude" talk, but I have found only a small handful of disputable matters where we disagree. I like the guy. I didn't expect I would but I do. Weird, huh?

The bishop. I'm still on the fence about that guy. He was raised on the gospel but now he's questioning all he's ever known about the Lord. The most telling thing he said was that he believes in the resurrection because he doesn't know how not to believe it and how not to love the Lord. I almost cried. I wanted to reach out and grab him by the shoulders and say, "It's true! Every bit of it is really true!" I liked him too... even though everything he said was completely wrong. I feel sorry for him.

Loved the guy in the audience that asked Deepak the question about belief! Hil. ar. i. ous.

I don't think they changed anyone's mind one way or the other but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Only the Lord can change the heart. I think it's always a profitable exercise to practice giving a reason for your hope. It's important to know what you believe and why you believe it. It's important to be able to give an answer. So, while I don't think it was a waste of time, it was... well, I don't really know what it was.

To answer the question of the night, satan is real. Very real. I attended a funeral this week of a father, husband and minister that took his own life. I know his wife very well. He taught my oldest daughter in Sunday School when she was in the fourth grade. He left a wife, two children, a congregation, and a ministry reeling.

Satan is real. He exists.