At iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship, we usually do our Bible study in form of questions and answers (Q & A). The floor is open for people to ask all types of questions about the Bible, Love, Salvation, Faith, Prophecy, and about life generally (No politics allowed). We have also extended this to social media and recently, someone by the name Andrew Njuki asked:
Question: Why is it that Satan is not campaigning for people but God sends people to campaign for him every now and then? For example he sent his disciples, and we see churches organizing evangelistic campaigns every time. If he is our creator, why does he have to campaign yet he claims that he is our creator?
Response: Andrew Njuki, you asked a very good question and I have to commend you for this. Let me start by defining what CAMPAIGNING is: According to the Business Dictionary, Campaigning is “a complete, planned course of action formulated to achieve defined objectives in marketing, public relations, quality enhancement, revenue generation, safety standards, etc.” In politics, where the word is often used, a campaign could mean: “An organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group”.
In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns by which representatives are chosen or referendums are decided. In modern politics, the most high-profile political campaigns are focused on general elections and candidates for head of state or head of government, often a president or prime minister. (Wikipedia).
So in essence, campaigning is about using all means at your disposal to persuading and influencing a change from the status quo. And by using all means I intend to say that in campaigning, you instill fear, use deception, tell the truth where necessarily, coerce and manipulate as much as you can. Campaigning is about changing the state of matters to the desired status. You find a certain STANDARD that you are not interested in, and because you are not interested in it and you have an ALTERNATIVE, you use all methods (good and bad) to influence CHANGE. This change does not necessarily have to be positive or negative.
Now to answer your question why God campaigns and Satan does not, and yet God is our creator or claims (as you put it) to be our creator, I would say that God did not invent campaigning and neither does he practice it in its core sense. CAMPAIGNING was an invention of SATAN himself and God has never picked a leaf from him. According to Genesis chapters 1-2, God created humans beings as perfect volitional creatures. He then supplied information on the dangers of misusing their volitional abilities. He said to them:
“You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 RSV).
To maintain the status quo, which was a problem free environment, man had to use his volitional attributes right and not make some choices, like God had warned. Man had no problem believing God, and things were alright until the chief campaigner showed up, disguised as a snake, and started to campaign for change.
Our world looks at change as a good thing and the reason for this is because things are identically wrong and that is why we often work towards change. One wonders what necessitated change in a world where things were naturally right and good!!
In Genesis 3:1-6, the chief campaigner, the DEVIL, came and, in a very organized and systematic way, effectively did two things: He begun from the note of De-Campaigning God who actually was the founder of the status quo (Perfectionism). Look at how the scripture put it:
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, `You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1 RSV).
Note that before Satan said a thing about man, he (Satan) began instilling doubt in man. The Devil asked: “Did God say?” By this question alone, the devil triggered curiosity and skepticism in the mind of man. Satan was basically asking: Are you sure? Did you hear him right? Shouldn’t you revisit what God said and check to be sure he didn’t leave something behind? Campaigning is about instilling doubt in what is actually true.
After this, the devil went to step two in the process of campaigning which is: Twisting the facts. Look at what he said:
“Did God say, `You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?”
If you read Genesis 2:16-17, there is nowhere the lord forbids man to eat from any tree apart from the forbidden tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. But the chief campaigner and De-campaigner used the propaganda tool of repackaging and added a small single word that never changed the sentence but changes the meaning.
The devil de-campaigns the principle will of God and the proper standard by making us compromise in small details and before we know it, we are already voting for the wrong side. Have you seen how politicians employ a propaganda tool known as name-calling and the populace is swayed from what the candidate is saying (issues at hand) to voting for or against the tag or stereotype?
Look at what the woman in defense says:
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.” (Genesis 3:2-3).
Because the chief campaigner had already impressed the woman (the campaigned) with all the false propaganda, when she responded, she added something God had not said, she said: neither shall you touch it. We don’t see God forbidding them from touching it, but rather to eat from it. Anyhow, the woman reminds the campaigner of the consequence of eating from the tree which is DEATH.
Because LIFE and LIFE ETERNAL was the status that Satan wanted to change, he De-campaigned God through these words:
But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen 3:4-5 RSV).
Note: God says you shall surely Die but the campaigner who wants this to change says: you will not die. The devil goes ahead to do what all campaigns are about: AROUSING APETTITE BY FALSE HOPE. Satan said:
“your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Man was not blind but the devil emphasized that his eyes were about to be open, Satan quickly attached promises to this and said: you will be like God and you will know what is good and evil. Little did the woman (the campaigned), know the cost of this experience that Satan was promising just like many of us who vote in these politicians based on how good they analyze our problems and the false hope that they give. This is what campaigning is about.
So man chose otherwise from the SET STANDARD, which was ETERNAL LIFE. And by this choice, influenced and persuaded by Satan the Chief Campaigner, to ETERNAL DEATH. Here we are, ever since then. We are dying creatures, sinners who know nothing of the original state of affairs. And God, in response, did not campaign, as in he did not use everything at his disposal but rather, he installed something we know as: THE CROSS. The cross is an event in the history of this universe that tells us two things:
- It tells a story of a God whose burden is to prove to fallen humanity that he is not who Satan says he is.
- That while God has all the universe to buy us to his side, he has to ensure we choose his side willingly, not coerced due to fear or gifts. This, in fact, is why the Pentecostal miracles and prosperity based gospel misrepresents God. We don’t believe God for what he has, what he can give etc. but we believe God for WHO HE IS. Because if we believe God for what he has and can do then, that makes him another campaigning candidate competing with the devil for our vote.
God has to prove to us sinners that he is not the person the devil says he is and he does not do that with gifts in form of healing, money, prosperity and other good gifts. This is why, while God is love, there is still pain here, orphans etc. The gospel is not about what God can do for you or actually what he has done but who he is for that is why he does whatever he does. The Bible says in 1John 4:8-10 that:
He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins.
God is love and if he is to act, he cannot do otherwise. On the other hand, the devil is how Jesus describes him in this verse:
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 RSV).
Now this explains why he has to campaign and God doesn’t have to campaign. He has to bribe the less suspecting to his wrong side.
However, whoever understands who God really is, does not become his (God’s) campaigning agent who moves around buying out people, promising them heaven upon belief in God and threatening them with Hell upon refusal. Rather, the believer is a WITNESS of him. We are not campaigners of God, but witnesses of who God is. The Bible says:
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8 RSV).
God sends us to witness to the world, not about what he has done, for even the devil does wonders too, but WHY HE HAS DONE WHAT HE HAS DONE, and the answer is that he has done whatever he has done because of WHO HE IS as opposed to the way the devil has presented him.
Before the cross, death and resurrection, God had no authority/audacity to claim anyone since his status quo of ETERNAL LIFE had long been changed to ETERNAL DEATH. But after the cross, death and resurrection of Jesus, he had all the Authority. But since we are freedom of choice beings, and him not being a Machiavellian God, we still have to make a choice and choose him, not for what he has done but for who he is. The manner in which these witnesses, witness about this God is by turning rebels into disciples, and teaching the indoctrinated individuals the truth.
All campaigners use your need, to serve their interests but the God, who can live without you, became flesh, died bleeding at the cross and resurrected, and in the entire process you were the 100% beneficiary. I personally do not look at this as campaigning by definition but AMAZING GRACE AND WONDERFUL LOVE.
As I wind up let me tell you a story that I shared from my friend Joviah, This story will make you understand this entire presentation.
Two fish were swimming when they saw a piece of meat dangling before them. The younger fish darted toward it with an open mouth. The older fish cried out, “Stop! You can’t see it, but there is a hook inside that meat. It is connected by an invisible line to a pole outside the water. There is a man holding the pole. If you eat the meat, the hook will catch in your jaw and the man will pull you out of the water. He will cut you open with a knife, roast you on a fire and eat you. Then he will throw your remains to his cat.” The young fish stopped. The two of them swam away.
But when the young fish was alone, he thought to himself, “ Let me investigate for myself how accurate these claims are. ” He went back to the meat, swam around it, above and below it. He swam as far as he could in widening circles around the meat. After a long search, he said to himself, “I’ve looked far and wide, and I haven’t found any sign of a man, a pole, a knife, a fire or a cat. In fact, I’ve found no trace of anything outside this water we live in. These must just be stories.” He went back to the meat and ate it. The hook caught in his jaw, he felt himself being yanked out of the water. He saw a pole, a man and a knife, but at that point his knowledge was useless.
Friends, God, our creator, is the older fish, we are the young the fish, the devil is the hook. The hook (Satan) has the campaigning meat on him. And this meat could be everything appealing to your appetite. It is upon us to trust the older fish and avoid the meat or doubt the older fish and get hooked.
Listen to me, if you really have no other reason to trust the older fish, if you can’t trust his experience, if you find his argument illogical, at least trust him because he is your fellow fish. He is a fish like you, he is your kind, do not doubt your kind and trust an appealing hook. The Bible says that:
Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13 RSV)
God bless you, I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH
Am Pr. I.T.WHITE
The Gospel Hawker.
iTiS Well of Worship Fellowship (John 4:24) 