Major Renovation

The central idea is that of the renovation of man, now under the power of Satan and Death, which are undone in Christ, the risen Savior, who is "our true Life," and endows us with immortality. This is by virtue of His Divinity in union with His perfect Manhood. He is the only utterance of God the "unlying mouth by which the Father spake."

St. Athanasius
Doctor of the Church

Athanaisus, widely held as the father of orthodoxy, wrote the above in his discussion on the Council of Nicea and the common beliefs of the Apostolic church fathers. In three sentences he captures the answer to a most basic question that plagues the human heart on many occassion as one looks at the travails of one's life:

What's going on?

This early father of the Church, who lived in the mid 300s, basically describes the epic battle that ranges on Earth and has raged since the fall of man. For any battle to happen there has to be at least two opposing forces. It may seem obvious that the battle waged resides in the struggle between God and Satan, good versus evil, right? In point of fact, the real fray is between man and Satan.

The Devil could never defeat God. Satan and God are not of equal strength. God simply has infinitely more power than this fallen angel. And while the evil one may have created his own diametrically opposed position to his creator, the matter of ultimate good was never up for debate for The Almighty.

Man on the other hand is a different matter. The devil does have the power to tempt, lure, and suggest to man to use the gift of free will for an infinite number of permutations on what is "good" that pervert the true good of God's creation. He can't make one turn from God against one's own will, but he can propose a path, or perhaps better stated a wide avenue, that leads away from God.

Here's a little exercise to demonstrate the power of temptation. Don't click here unless you want to see an image of hell. Do click here if you want to see an image of good. By now you're at least a little bit curious as to what image of hell might be only a mouse click away. Why do you want to see hell? With that one has entered into the Devil's playground.

Satan's aim is not to win one's heart but rather to encourage one to lose one's way. He has no practical use for souls. Most likely his perverted joy is in the hunt versus the capture. No self-promotion gets used. Satan prefers that one not even believe he exists. In that respect, he has been very successful. For most, he is a mythological creation or simply a convenient literary device used in scripture. The idea that a being exists who simply wants one's destruction proves too improbable a concept for modern man's temporal reason.

Given that, it should come as no surprise the arrogance imbued in a report released by the London School of Economics (LSE) which boldly proclaims that contraception proves way cheaper than conventional green technologies in combating global warming. Were satirist Jonathan Swift alive, today, one might conclude that he had written a sequel to his famous A Modest Proposal where he suggested the Irish eat their babies to combat famine. The LSE proposes that the way to reduce carbon footprint is to, well, reduce the number of footprints that are allowed to exist, especially in that pesky third world where all those burdensome poor people live.

Stop creating souls.
Stop creating souls.
Stop creating souls.

The devil gently whispers that message continously into the psyche of the culture. Contraception, abortion, and even gay marriage to a large degree are centered around an anti-procreation mentality. Because this line of thought is so contrary to God's natural law, one has to seriously consider the diabolic origen of such thinking.

Praise be to God that He loves His children so much that He sent Christ to undo the damage and perform a rennovation of the soul of mankind. One simply has to open one's heart to the grace available from Jesus.

Consider that Satan rules the temporal world. All of this is his until the last day. His powers are limited. He cannot create, only distort that which God has already created. After one finishes this life, any distortion is gone and the fullness of truth is revealed. Yet one does not have to die to embrace that truth which one will enjoy for eternity. Christ came to show mankind that even in this mucked up world truth can overcome the evil one's deceptive ways. Christ is the light in the darkness.

The devil is a deconstructionist. Christ is the carpenter's son. He is the master renovator. Whose suggestions and propositions should one follow?