Because that dialogue sounds like some kind of game with two equally matched players. But, in fact, the devil is nothing compared to God. God is eternal and the devil, powerful as he is compared to us, is nothing in comparison to God. What little the devil has, he has from God, and that tortures him because he hates God. He only wants to annihilate and negate what God created, including his own self. He doesn’t like to use his power or his intelligence, not even to hurt people. Because everything flows from God, and that means the devil doesn’t like anything.
That’s the torment of hell. It’s not God raking the devil over eternally hot coals because the devil was naughty. It’s the devil raking his own self because he wants to, because it’s the least creative way of destroying himself, because he is an angel that God created and the devil hates angels God created.
You can become like the devil, if you honestly want to. That’s an option you have, as a creature with free will.
Or, you can turn away from his constant crying of “no, no, no,” and you can choose good.
And it’s really that simple. All the paralyzing fear about phony spiritual warfare and demons in clothing and fairy tales is just playing right into the devil’s hands. Fear is one of the ways he cripples people so they can’t do things, because the devil doesn’t like things. The way you beat the devil is not to seek him in everything and freak out about it. It’s to do things. Do things that are good. Whatever is good, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is worthy of praise– do those things. Meditate on them, practice them, keep them around you, love them when you see them in others. Pray without ceasing. Bake cookies for people if baking is your gift. Sing in the choir if you like to sing. Make a card for someone. Pick up litter. Bring someone else on a ride to church with you if you have an extra seat. Make beautiful art that comforts, heals, teaches and convicts. Run marathons or lift weights and offer up the training for souls. Try to understand things that are complicated and different than you’re used to. Spend time with people you love doing things you enjoy, whether that’s a Dungeons and Dragons game or a trip to the roller skating rink. Spend time with suffering people and comfort them however you can. Always share a little more than you think you can afford with people who have less than you. When you suffer, seek God in the suffering. Be attentive to everyone and everything around you, because everyone and everything around you has a Gospel to preach to you about their Creator.
When you focus with all your heart on doing good things, you hardly need to avoid evil, because evil is just the attempt to reverse some good. Evil isn’t the opposite of good. It’s something far smaller and stupider than that. Loving good makes you necessarily avoid doing anything that would hurt a truly good thing. If you love people, you will avoid hurting them. If you love creation, you will avoid the wastefulness and greed that destroys it. If you love God, you will avoid sin– and your love for God will make you love people and creation, and your love for people in creation will strengthen your love of the Creator.
I don’t know if there’s a single human soul in hell. I hope there isn’t. But I can’t imagine that a soul was ever damned because their mother bought them an ugly unisex t-shirt or because they read a fiction book with wizards in it. I think that our souls are in danger of going wrong, when we forget the work of God and do the work of the devil– when we don’t love good things but are constantly seeking out things to say “no” to. When we constantly negate and seek out new things to negate. That’s the work of the devil.
Don’t do that. Do good instead.
I really do say that out of concern for “actual” souls.
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