The authority of the Church presently defeats the cause of the Devil

Here's an excerpt from a document I wrote a while ago...perhaps it will stir your thinking.

• The head of the Church is Christ…who has “all” authority. The Devil and his demons are subject to Him.

• The Church was purchased with Christ’s blood. Man’s faith in this redemptive work destroys the power of death.

• The Church is the Spiritual body of Christ and consists of those who accept Christ’s person in their hearts and lives.

• The Church unites both Jew and Gentile and makes them one… through the ministration of the Holy Spirit.

• The Church universal is one body having many different members. All members are holy.

• The work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth baptizes believers into the Church.

• Sanctification through the Spirit rids members of the Church from an inherited Adamic nature.

• The Church defeats the cause of Satan through the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a believer.

• The Holy Spirit in the Church withholds or hinders God’s Wrath from being ministered now! The Wrath of God will be ministered in the Great Tribulation

• The mercy of God leaves Earth when the Holy Spirit steps aside at the Rapture of the Church

• When the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit steps aside at the Rapture, the Antichrist steps in for seven years according to Daniel.

By the Grace of God Christ stepped down from Heaven and experienced death on the cross. Why? So men could have life and union with Him through the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit. Adam’s sin brought death into the world. Death separated man from Eternal Salvation. Glory be to God...belief in Christ unites sinful man back to an Eternal Salvation. By the Grace of God Christ gives the believer a clean heart and power to have victory over sin. For this reason God’s Holiness in the heart of man defeats the Devil’s cause. Christ resurrected from the tomb because He was God… not man! Christ had power over the Devil because He created the Devil! The serpent who beguiled Eve in the Garden was judged by God after the original sin in Genesis 3:15!

• Gen 3:15… And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head,

This judgment came through God’s promise of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that “bruised” the head of Satan. Simply put, “Satan’s authority was crushed by Christ as the Devil is in present subjection to the power of a resurrected Lord”. (In the future tense the Devil will be cast into the lake of fire.)

• Eph 1:20-22…which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

The effects from Satan’s works in the Garden of Eden yielded death and separated man from God. Death has reigned through humanity since the fall of Adam. God’s promise of the sacrifice of Christ was an atonement made to “Destroy the power of death”. Unsaved men find life and union with God through faith in the sacrifice of Christ. Christ’s death on the cross was the bridge that allows sinful men to pass back from death unto life. The sacrifice of Christ destroyed him who had the power of death which is the Devil. How? ...Through the holy heart given to a believer.

• Heb 2:14… Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil

The fruit of holiness is Eternal life and Salvation to the human soul. The fruit of unholiness is Eternal death and damnation upon the human soul. Note how the Bible teaches that the power that comes from the death of a Savior can “destroy” him that has the power of death that is the Devil! That is the victory all believers have in the Church, the body of Christ! God destroys three things in the Bible that hinders man from receiving or maintaining Eternal Salvation. 1. The body of sin, which is the Adamic nature. (Romans 6:6). 2. The works of the Devil. (1 John 3:8) 3. The Antichrist at the end of the seven year Tribulation. (2 Thessalonians 2:8)