What If Thoughts Can Be Evil?
The word of God isn’t just a conceptual comfort; it’s a cutting blade. It cuts through evil. When we’re struggling to fight a particular thought, we need to confront that thought with the power of the truth. If thoughts can be evil, then they can also be wise and righteous; they can be Christ-exalting.
One of the many telling lines in C. S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters is this one, from one devil to another, “It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping them out” (Letter 4). Keeping what out of our minds, exactly? Here’s one example: the idea that thoughts can be evil or demonic.
I realize in our contemporary secularized culture, where everything has been de-supernaturalized, that’s a lot to take in. “Aren’t thoughts just…thoughts? Synapses firing in the brain? You don’t have to go all medieval on something that has a perfectly grounded medical and scientific explanation.” I hear you. Really, I do.
What If
But what if that is exactly what demons want? Screwtape told his nephew that they do their “best work” by keeping things out of our heads, not putting things into them. What if they’ve been celebrating since the Enlightenment because people mostly assume that thought is a neutral, physiological phenomenon? What if Satan celebrates the fact that many Christians view their thought lives as neutral?
I’m reminded of a similar what-if that John Mark Comer draws out, as he builds on the work of Evagrius (a monk of the early church) in Live No Lies:
For Evagrius, logosmoi, or our thought patterns, are the primary vehicle of demonic attack upon our souls. That might sound far-fetched to our skeptical Western ears, but think about it: Have you ever had a thought (or feeling or desire) that seemed to have a will to it? An agenda that was hard to resist? And not thinking it felt like fighting gravity? It seemed to have a weight or power over you that was beyond your ability to resist?
Could it be that the thoughts that assault your mind’s peace aren’t just thoughts? Could it be that a dark, animating energy is behind them? A spiritual force?
Could it be that this is about more than mental hygiene or positive thinking; it’s about resistance?
John Mark Comer, Live No Lies, p. 86
“A dark, animating energy…” Yea. What if thoughts aren’t just synapses firing within the soft walls of our brain tissue? What if a thought could be weaponized? Would that change the way we walk through life each day?
I think it would. And doesn’t this make a bit more sense out of Paul’s call to spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6:12? We’re fighting against things that sound pretty abstract to 21st century Western ears: cosmic powers and spiritual forces of evil. And that’s not just a fraction of the enemy; that’s the enemy. Our war isn’t against “flesh and blood”; it’s against this.
What Makes a Thought Evil?
“Hold up,” says the well-rounded Christian skeptic (is that an oxymoron?). “How can you possibly link thoughts with these things?” Well, think about what our spiritual enemies do. Then think about what a thought can do. Satan and his servants want to do essentially three things. They want to take us…
- Further from God. We only move in two different directions: either towards God or towards Satan. That’s it. There’s no neutral zone. Moving in God’s direction means moving deeper into relationship with him so that we start to resemble our creative, loving, generous, patient, self-giving Lord. Moving in Satan’s direction means becoming a black hole for all goodness. We become destructive, malevolent, hoarding, quick-tempered, self-seeking centers of chaos.
- Deeper into doubt. If Satan can get you to doubt God and his promises, he’s already won the hardest part of the battle. Genesis 3 is a case in point. Doubting God’s goodness led immediately to breaking his law, which led to death and a kingdom of curses.
- Lower into self-absorption. The devil’s aim is to bend our backs so much that we stare at ourselves for eternity. He wants each one of us to be as self-absorbed as possible, the practical center of our fantasy universe.
-
The Glory of Church Graveyards
A church graveyard often means that the church has lasted for decades and decades as saints have labored there to preach the Gospel and build up the body…how much we lose when our church doesn’t have a graveyard.
Every couple of months, I go for a walk around our church graveyard. I have called it a cemetery for the longest time, but it’s actually a graveyard. Graveyards are connected to a church. Cemeteries are not.
As I walk through the graveyard, I visit the graves of saints that have passed on since I have been pastor and I remember them. I’m encouraged by their graves to keep pressing forward in pastoral ministry.
I once spoke with a pastor who told me, “I don’t like church graveyards. That’s just a picture that you are a dying church.” I thought that was quite silly. A church graveyard often means that the church has lasted for decades and decades as saints have labored there to preach the Gospel and build up the body.
It’s sad that many new churches that are started do not get to have a graveyard. Most of the time, I get it. If you plant a church in downtown Boston, you can’t really have a graveyard attached to it. But, how much we lose when our church doesn’t have a graveyard.
Here are five reasons I think there is glory in a church having a graveyard attached to it.
#1 It reminds us of our own death as we enter worship.
The fact is, we in America rarely think of our own mortality, especially if we are young. We kind of know in the back of our minds that we will die someday, but it’s still a long way off, right? Wrong. In our church graveyard, there are people of all ages. We have several babies buried in our graveyard that were only a few days old. We have kids buried there. We have people in our graveyard that were in their 40s and 50s when they died. Every person in the graveyard that died at old age were at one time my age. And now they are gone. And so will my life be. So every day when I see that graveyard, I am reminded I will die and that causes me to consider my life and value what is important. It causes me to make my life about the right things and not waste it. -
Letter to Editor: From a Memorial PCA Member
Those who criticize Memorial often do so from beyond our walls. I write as one who worships weekly in her pews, who has walked with Greg Johnson through the last five years of controversy, who has seen the toll it has taken upon my leaders and the resources of our church– resources which should have been devoted to the care of the flock and the service of our community.
Dear brothers and sisters of the PCA,
I am a wife, mother, and member of Memorial Presbyterian Church. In 2017, I accepted a part-time staff position at Memorial, completely unaware of the controversy that would consume our church in the years to follow. That role gave me a unique vantage point from which to witness our pastors living out their faith and ministry with integrity and humility. They have made every effort to speak well of the brothers in the PCA who disagree with us, who have pursued judiciary measures to ensure that the gospel is not compromised within our denomination. Please know that we do not disagree; we also desire the peace and purity of the church.
Those who criticize Memorial often do so from beyond our walls. I write as one who worships weekly in her pews, who has walked with Greg Johnson through the last five years of controversy, who has seen the toll it has taken upon my leaders and the resources of our church– resources which should have been devoted to the care of the flock and the service of our community. The atmosphere in my church today is one of profound grief and fragility. The charges against us feel unrelenting and disheartening. If we are in error, please come sit with us and help us understand our sin. Please stop talking about us and come talk to us.
That is why I was dismayed to discover that our session’s letter, which had only been shared with our congregation and the Missouri presbytery, had been reported and reposted online. That letter was never intended for the public— not because we have anything to hide, but because it allows the world to scrutinize our pain and anguish. In this age of technology, I am not surprised that our letter was discovered; but brothers and sisters, I am concerned that we have allowed technology to distance ourselves from each other. People can keep an eye on us from afar. People can read about our process. But who will join us in our pain? Who will weep with us as we make this decision?
So today I appeal to you to remember that whether Memorial stays or leaves the PCA, we are still one body with one Lord. You will still be our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will still share the same table each Sunday. I long to see the unity of the church, a body that is not characterized by strife and division but by peace and charity, where our Savior is glorified and where the world might know us by our love.
Karen Kallberg is currently a student at Covenant Theological Seminary. She served on staff at Memorial Presbyterian Church from 2017-2022.
Related Posts: -
Everyday Blessings
The thing that makes revival so special is that it is rare. Yet, what is not rare is the everyday work of the Lord in our lives and churches. It is this slow growth that we see over time. We pray for great revival, but we trust in our God who is everyday working for his people.Last week there was breaking news about revival at Asbury College and Seminary in Kentucky. There are many on the internet giving balanced thoughts on this event and reminding us what true revival is. We should pray that the Lord would bring revival. A revival not just of feelings and emotions, but the true outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I do hope that what is happening at Asbury will prove to be a true revival. An outpouring that changes lives, churches, and nations.
In the account of the Welsh Revival in the early Twentieth century there were clear transformations that took place. Individuals’ lives were transformed so that they gave up their sins and followed the Lord. Society was changed to the point that in some places they closed the Police stations because there was no more crime. We should pray that a true revival might sweep across our land and that we might see ourselves, our churches, and our nation changed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
As we long for revival, do not forget that the Lord is working everyday. Revivals are special times. However, we should not despise the day of small things. This is the ordinary work of God. To bless daily by the means of grace and to grow the church through small steps. Yes, we long for revival, but we must also acknowledge and trust the ordinary work of the Lord.
Sometimes this work of the Lord is hard to see. It is like watching your child grow. You can’t see the growth every day or week, maybe not even every month. But over time, as you mark their height on the door frame, you see the growth.
Read More
