Believing More Than Demons

“Order! Order! Come to order I say!!”, screams Insidio, the chief demon of the 2nd Demonic Brigade of the 6th level of Hell. The chattering of the other demons begins to die down as they slowly come forward across the floor, flames licking their hooves as they form a circle around their leader. 

“Ok. Listen up, you idiots. I’ve been reviewing our numbers and they have been pretty good but they can certainly be better”, he says. “The boss is pushing hard to get our soul count up this month and we are going to give him what he wants, understand?” 

Red, beady eyes glare at them as his nubbed horns flex slightly back and forth as he speaks. “Today, we are going to have a brainstorming session to figure out some new ideas. Not that you guys have any brains, but we’ll do the best we can with what little you have. We need to work smarter, not harder you maniacs. We need a new strategy for a new day”. He slowly walks around the smoke-filled chamber, staring at each demon as he walks by.

“Ok let’s get started. Who wants to go first?” The demons look at each other, eyes darting back and forth then down to the ground, wondering who will be stupid enough to be the first one to speak. 

“I’ll go first my lord”, says a small demon with two tails and a single horn sticking out the top of his head.

“Good, Dementas. Let’s hear it”, he says.

“Ok boss”, he says, shifting nervously. He takes a deep breath of the sulfur-filled air and begins to speak. “I think we need to double down on our social media campaign to cause more division and hatred. I hear that Tic Toc has what they call a heat button which can instantly make a video go viral. Race seems to be the biggest dividing topic of the day so let’s do one of those and let her rip”.

“We’ve already been doing that you idiot!”, he screams, spit flying all over Dementas. “Who do you think invented the heat button anyway? Hello! “Heat Button”. Get it? We did that over a year ago and it’s been working great but we need something new.”

Insidio scratches his head, scaled skin peeling off with every stroke. He looks around and stares at a large demon with a pot belly toward the back of the group. “You. Torturean. You look like you’ve got something on your pea-sized mind. Whatcha got?”

Torturean begins to sway slightly back and forth, his belly sliding along the floor. “The way I see it, we need to get humans to stop believing in us. All this occult stuff we’ve been promoting is great, but it does put a spotlight on our operation. The famous human gangster John Gotti and I were talking about this the other day. He’s convinced that if he would have stayed old school instead of being flashy and bringing attention to himself he would still be down there doing more of the master’s work”.

Insidio rolls his eyes and slaps Torturean on the back of the head. “Where have you been for the last 10,000 years? This has been tried before. The problem is that the more twisted and perverted the world gets the more they believe that there must be something evil behind it. The boss says it’s our very own Catch-22 situation. Looks like we’ve been a little too good at our job over the centuries after all”. 

He shakes his head back and forth and thinks to himself how stupid it was of him to accept command of the brigade. Life was much simpler when he was a lowly torturer on level 4. 

“I’ve just about had enough of this. I told the boss that it would be a waste of time trying to squeeze anything useful out of you idiots”. The demons all look down at their hooves as he circles them. One demon slowly looks up as Insidio stops in front of him. “You got something to say, Deviato? If you do, it better be good or I’m sending the whole lot of you back to the soul pit!”. 

Deviato stares intently at Insidio as he begins to speak. “My lord. We are going all about this the wrong way. I’ve been studying the so-called Christians and I think I’ve found a weak link”.

“This better be good, Deviato. You’ve got my interest. Go on”, says Insidio.

“Well, I’ve been studying the enemy’s so-called Bible and I’ve discovered a flaw in how they look at grace relative to belief and faith. Of course, all of us have memorized scripture and we’ve used it many times against them but this one takes the cake”. He walks out into the middle of the circle and begins to pace as he speaks.

“We know that Paul, our greatest enemy, told the believers in Ephesus in Ephesians 2: 8-10 the following: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

“Ok. What is your point?”, Insidio asks impatiently. 

“I’ve discovered that many Christians are confused by what Paul means by faith and how it differs from simple belief. For instance, in James 2:14 he asks “what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?” He follows this in verse seventeen where he says that “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead”. 

“Yes, Yes, we know all this. Get to your point. This scripture is killing me!”, laments Insidio. 

 “Almost there chief. As I was saying, he further makes the point more clearly and shockingly when he says in verse nineteen, “you believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that-and shudder”.

“So what are you getting at?”, asks Insidio. “Of course, we know all about this. We believe that Jesus is the son of God which is why we fight to keep his foul creation on earth from realizing this.”

“Absolutely sir, but what if we can get them to believe as we do? You see, we believe because we know it is true although we reject it. What the enemy wants his followers to do is to have faith which is more than just belief.”

 “What do you mean by more than just belief? Belief is the same as faith, right?”, asks Insidio. 

“Not quite sir. The belief he calls them to is one that moves the believer to change their lives which is what the enemy calls repentance. Therefore, belief without repentance is no different than a demon’s belief which was James’ point. James is saying that if someone truly has a saving faith, not just belief, then his works will show it. His life will be different than it was before. It’s a very simple formula. No change in one’s life after admitting the truth of who Jesus is indicates no saving faith, only belief. No faith, no salvation. Simple as that”.

“I get it”, says Insidio.”We want to lull them into thinking that their tepid belief is the same thing as the saving faith that James talks about and the enemy requires”.

“Absolutely!, screams Deviato excitedly. “The perfect Christian is one who goes to church each week, studies the words in the Bible, and knows all the doctrines by heart but never puts them into practice. You see, a false sense of security is our greatest ally because they don’t even know they have a problem!”

A light bulb goes off in Insidio’s mind as he finally understands. “I seem to remember this guy Dietrich Bonhoeffer who opposed our good friend Adolph Hitler. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, he writes about what he called “cheap grace” which he labeled the deadliest enemy of the church on earth”.

“That’s right boss. I remember studying about him in my opposition research class in demon school. As I recall, the master was very upset and worried about him. Bonhoeffer said that cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. It is grace without discipleship. However, he said that costly grace is costly because it calls them to follow, and it is grace because it calls them to follow Jesus Christ. He further said that it is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner”.

Insidio’s face lights up with glee as thoughts of a big promotion run across his mind. “So, what you’re saying is that we need to promote this idea of cheap grace as much as possible because, unlike costly grace, it will condone the sin and damn the sinner.”

Insidio claps his hands together, then raises his right hand to give Deviato a high five. “Great work, Deviato. I knew you had it in you all the time. The rest of you numbskulls get back to work. We’ll meet again next week to discuss our results and I better see results!”.