Satan Holds the Lost Captive

Another method Satan uses to advance his kingdom is to hold the lost captive. He uses a two-part approach. First, he keeps the lost from coming to faith, and second, he moves them to do his bidding. From a practical standpoint, a Christian’s need to be aware that Satan holds the lost captive is perhaps second only to his need to understand that Satan is the god of this world and the father of lies.

Unless we understand that Satan holds the lost captive, we’ll be confounded and overly frustrated by the spiritual darkness around us. We’ll wonder why the lost seem oblivious to the error of their ways. And, we’ll be tempted to despise them for their wickedness, instead of pitying them, praying for them, and responding firmly but without malice to their evil.

Let’s turn again to John 8:44, Jesus’ words to some Jews who were trying to kill him. Jesus said Satan “…was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” Jesus linked the two facts, that Satan was a murderer and liar. I believe He linked the two because Satan murders people with lies. When Jesus said that Satan was “a murderer from the beginning,” he was surely referring to Adam and Eve. Satan murdered them in two ways. First, and most importantly, he murdered them spiritually. They died spiritually the moment they ate the forbidden fruit. Second, he murdered them physically. As a result of their sin, physical death entered the world. Had they not sinned, Adam and Eve would be physically alive today.

By calling Satan a murderer, Jesus wasn’t implying that Adam and Eve were without guilt; all who sin or reject God are guilty, regardless of whether they do it on their own or are deceived by Satan. Rather, Jesus was saying that Satan is a murderer in the sense that he actively works to foster the rejection of God in the world. God gives physical life to all, but true life, spiritual life, is reserved for those who come to Him by faith. Satan desires that none come to God; he desires the spiritual death of all mankind.

Adam and Eve were unique among mankind, with the exception of Jesus, in that they came into this world without sin, spiritually alive, and in perfect fellowship with God. Satan “murdered” Adam and Eve by lying to them, enticing them to sin, resulting in their fall from grace.

All of us since Adam and Eve, but for Jesus, have come into the world as sinful creatures, spiritually dead, out of fellowship with God. Satan doesn’t need to murder us because we are born spiritually dead. Satan’s goal for us is to keep us spiritually dead by preventing us from coming to faith in Christ. That is, his goal is to keep us from being born-again into eternal life. Scripture records two fearfully chilling ways Satan keeps the lost from coming to faith.

First, when the lost hear the gospel, many of them don’t accept it because Satan takes it away, or “snatches,” (Matt. 13:19) it from them. In the parable of the sower Jesus describes a sower sowing seeds. Seed fell in various places, beside the road, on rocky soil, among the thorns, and on good soil. Jesus said the seed was the word of God. Regarding the seed that fell beside the road he said:

“The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.” (Luke 8:12)

Jesus didn’t say “how” Satan takes the word from the heart of the lost. Perhaps it’s by lying to them, so that they don’t believe the word; perhaps it’s by other means. Regardless, by taking the word from their heart he prevents them from coming to faith.

Satan has at least one other way to keep the lost from coming to faith; he blinds their minds to the truth. Paul teaches this in his second letter to the Corinthian church:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3–4)

The Bible has many plain teachings that for one reason or another few truly take to heart. The blinded minds of the lost is one such teaching. It is very simply and plainly stated: Satan has blinded the lost to the truth. That isn’t hyperbole; it is fact.

The blind don’t just have have poor vision; they can’t be helped with corrective lenses in the form of teaching, argument, or other means. Rather, regarding the gospel of the glory of Christ they are totally blind, totally without spiritual sight. They will remain blind unless God Himself gives them sight.

Satan, always purposeful, isn’t content with preventing natural man from coming to faith. He wants the lost to remain spiritually blind, but he also wants to put them into his service, to advance his kingdom. That’s the second part of his approach to the lost, he moves them to do his will.

Furthermore, Satan’s hold on the lost is such that they follow him willingly, all the while either thinking they are their own masters or that they are followers of God (John 16:2). This is why Jesus could say to the Jews who were trying to kill Him, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father” (John 8:44).

Paul spoke of Satan’s evil controlling influence on the lost in his second letter to Timothy:

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (2 Timothy 2:24–26)

Note that Paul does more than just point out that Satan holds the lost captive to do his will. He also tells us how to respond to the lost. He says to correct them with “gentleness,” for perhaps God may “grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth.” Treating the lost with gentleness is the logical response to the truth that Satan, not the lost, is our true enemy.

In Ephesians 6:12 Paul explicitly makes the point that our true enemies are supernatural forces, not mortal man:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

Paul is saying that Satan and his demons, the spiritual forces of wickedness, are the true rulers, powers, and forces of this dark world. Mortal men are but minor spiritually dead foot soldiers, not the true enemy.

The brief passage from 2 Timothy gives us cause for hope for those who Satan has blinded or snatched the word from their heart. When Paul says “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25), he reminds us that if God desires to draw a lost person to Himself, Satan is powerless to resist. Though we need to accept that the lost are totally blind to truth, not just uninterested, poorly informed, or confused, we may always have hope that God will cure their blindness.

I’ve said knowing Satan holds the lost captive is of practical significance to us as Christians living in and responding to this evil world under Satan’s control. With that knowledge we’ll be less likely to be frustrated by the wickedness and spiritual blindness of lost. And, we’ll be more likely to reserve our disdain for their captor, Satan. Finally, we’ll not be surprised when the “blind” respond to our witness with blank stares, dismissiveness, or anger. We’ll know that regardless of whether we are good or bad evangelists, they will never see the truth unless God gives them sight.

We place our faith in Christ we move from Satan’s kingdom to God’s kingdom. We are no longer Satan’s captives, driven to do his will. That doesn’t mean we are free from his malevolent nature. He can’t hold us captive, as he holds the lost, but he has other methods to use against us.

In particular, he can hinder our Christian walk and service. Satan’s general hindering of God’s people is the third of his methods we’ll look at. Like Satan’s methods of lying and of holding the lost captive, awareness of it is of practical importance in our daily lives as we try to represent Christ in the world.