Article 12 of the Belgic Confession (AD 1561) highlights from Scripture the Creation of All Things by the Father through Jesus Christ, as does Hebrews 1:2; Colossians 1:15-20; and John 1: verse 3 and 10.
Intriguing to me, in that context that emphasizes the Creator of it all being also the Savior of the world, Article 12 addresses the demonic realm in some detail: “The devils and evil spirits are so corrupt that they are enemies of God and of everything good. They lie in wait for the church and every member of it like thieves with all their power, to destroy and spoil everything by their deceptions.”
So we contrast the expansive, abundance-producing Creator (300 sextillion stars in the universe!) with the corrupting and counterfeiting (but never creating) influence of the devil and his fallen angels. The devil is a diminisher. His evil spirits “lie in wait for the church and every member of it like thieves…”. The enemy of our soul is a taker, deceiving the church into “shrinking thinking”. He steals health. He robs resources. If we let him, by being unaware of his schemes, he reduces our true calling and identity in Christ.
Finish these familiar verses in our Bible: “Be alert and of sober mind. The devil prowls around like a roaring lion…______ (looking for someone to devour.). 1 Peter 5:8
“The thief comes to…____________(steal, kill and destroy; but I have come that you might have life, and life in abundance.”) John 10:10
Jesus brings us abundant life; the adversary “who lies in wait for the church and every member of it”…steals, kills, destroys, devours. Sounds like that is making less of us, diminishing us, minimizing us.
We are exhorted by the Bible to know our enemy and resist his evil schemes/attacks. A great strategy of the kingdom of darkness is REDUCTIONISM.
Let me highlight some ways I have seen the enemy steal and diminish our identity in Christ and our high calling in the world as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. Even in good conservative, evangelistic churches, there are marks of the enemy’s scheme of reductionism. Let’s resist these together.