Heil Satan, or How Many Chris­tians Sup­port Satan’s Army

Around 2,000 years ago, the Old Ser­pent made an offer to a hun­gry, weak­ened Nazarene — an offer that for many would have been irresistible.

I’m sure you’re famil­iar with the account, but just in case: “Again, the devil took him to a very high moun­tain and showed him all the king­doms of the world and their splen­dor; ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and wor­ship me.” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is writ­ten, ‘Wor­ship the Lord your God, and serve only him’” (Matthew 4:8 – 10, NRSV).

The pri­mary pur­pose of that brief pas­sage is clear, and Jesus states it about as suc­cinctly as any­one could: “Wor­ship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” Keep that in mind.

One of the inci­den­tal details, though, may be easy to miss to some­one read­ing quickly.

Satan offers Jesus all of the world’s kingdoms.

You can­not offer some­one some­thing if you do not have claim to what you’re offer­ing. Well, while I may get away with sell­ing you some ocean­front buf­falo ranch prop­erty, that sort of scam would never work against one who is all-​knowing.

So it’s notable that when Satan lays claim to all the world’s king­doms, Jesus does not rebuke him. There is no cor­rec­tion of that mat­ter. There is no, “And besides, you can’t make that offer anyway.”

Satan lays claim to the world’s king­doms. From Baby­lon to the United States, the king­doms belong to the Old Serpent.

And lest we make the claim that all this changed with the cru­ci­fix­ion, the res­ur­rec­tion, or even Pen­te­cost, Paul makes sure we don’t for­get that Satan is “the god of this world” (2 Corinthi­ans 4:4).

Now, given that, what sense does it make for Chris­tians to sup­port, join, or oth­er­wise endorse the mil­i­taries of these king­doms of flesh & blood? Are we not instead cit­i­zens of a king­dom not of this world (John 18:36)? Do we not boldly bow before another throne (Ricky Skaggs, “The Joshua Gen­er­a­tion”)? Can you “serve only” God while serv­ing a flesh & blood king, pres­i­dent, or parliament?

Why then would we as Chris­tians vol­un­tar­ily sub­mit to the ser­vice of nations whose val­ues & prin­ci­ples are con­trary to our true kingdom’s?

Why serve in an army where weapons are used to kill? Your king­dom car­ries the promise that weapons of war would be recy­cled into instru­ments of agriculture.

Of sus­tain­abil­ity.

Of peace.

Why serve for a king­dom where con­flicts are resolved through war? Your king­dom promises bless­ing upon the peacemaker.

Upon those who would be will­ing to for­give sev­enty times seven times.

Upon those who would not bear grudges.

And who would turn the other cheek.

I con­tend that not only should a Chris­t­ian not join the armed forces of this world’s king­doms, but that to do so is an insult to your Chris­t­ian heritage.

I am not so naïve as to think I won’t catch some flak for this, but I had to put this out there. “Chris­t­ian Amer­ica” is held as sacred by some