Does Satan Exist? Nightline Face Off
Posted by LayGuy on Mar 31, 2009 in Christianity | 9 comments
On Saturday, March 26th 2009, a very interesting debate took place in Seattle and will be shown on ABC Niteline.
Part of the ABC “Face Off” series of debates, this particular event included new age guru Deepak Chopra, Pentecostal preacher turned “heretic” Carlton Pearson, former hooker turned Christ follower Annie Lobert and mega church Pastor Mark Driscoll.
As you can imagine, the reality of Satan’s existence was debated with Chopra and Pearson claiming that he doesn’t and Lobert and Driscoll claiming that he does.
After watching it, here are my initial thoughts:
- Chopra ends up looking like a complete idiot who thinks he is WAY more evolved in his conscious awareness then the average, but very simple, you and me. He is smug, he is attacking and is downright rude and ignorant simply minimising the reality of Satan as a reality only for the “insecure.”
- Pearson’s “heresy” has to do with his turnaround in his thinking about the literal reality of the bible. Although he seems like a nice guy, I felt for him in how this once powerful preacher now seems so confused in his theology – Satan has truly stolen this guys faith – and yet Pearson openly rejects the reality of Satan. So ironic.
- Lobert is a surprise packet and speaks so openly about her former life and the reality of evil in it and how Jesus saved her from all her past. Raw and emotional, I was amazed at how much Jesus can save.
- And Driscoll, well what else can I say about my favourite preacher? I’m super stoked that he gave it to Chopra the way he did. Driscoll knows his stuff and is quick in his thinking and he clearly won this debate.
But that’s just my own opinion. Watch the debate for yourself and come up with your own conclusions. And once you do, please share…
Fascinating! I just finished watching the whole thing. I laughed so hard when Driscoll talked about “salvation by eating chicken wings and napping!” The point he was making there was solid.
I wonder about Bishop Pearson – hearing him talk, I have to think that this man never truly understood faith in Christ. When he describes the things he “used” to believe, they don’t even sound like true Christianity. He is so confused.
As I said, the whole thing was fascinating and I just have too many thoughts to even begin writing them all down. Thank you so much for sharing.
Wow. Just the beginning statement of Mark Driscoll was a blast – worth taking in every bit of that. How awesome a statement. I need to write that one down. Thanks for another great sharing, Layguy.
Well, I finally finished watching the whole show. It was full on and they are real people that we live among. It is not easy. It just keeps reminding me that we truly can’t bring people any closer to God through pure debate. Having said that, it was commendable how Annie gave her testimony so fully and how Mark has contributed so people can know what God says about Himself and the world in His words. Just want to quote – Colossians 2:8
“Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.” – The Message version.
JC – thanks for stopping by. Glad you enjoyed the show.
Amazing. Absolutely Amazing. I cannot believe that there are people in the world that are like this. Mark Driscoll. I do not agree with him one bit, but he defends his view point both somewhat ethically and respectfully. He did a good job. His counter part however sounded absolutely ridiculous. I could not take that woman seriously, I mean, an army of demons? That is ludicrous. I commend her for her improvement in life quality, but I don’t think her argument deserves any merit. There is no satan. People behave badly because of human autonomy. They make a conscious choice to act in bad taste. To quote Rorschach from Watchmen by Alan Moore – “This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us.” It’s ridiculous and childish to exempt ourselves from responsibility by saying that our bad actions are caused by the “devil.”
What’s sad is that Driscoll’s intellect and reasoning demands some sort of credit in our modern world, while people who suicide bomb in the middle east for 72 virgins in heaven are deemded “crazy.” Both claims are ridiculous. Its just as insane to think its morally virtuous to suicide bomb as it is to think that there is a ‘fallen angel’ in our world who at most totally responsible and at least indirectly responsible for all the wrong doings of mankind. GET REAL.
now if you have a debate, you need this man Ravi Zacharias.
And true to form, Ravi comes through in
http://www.rzim.org/USA/Resources/Listen/LetMyPeopleThink.aspx?archive=1&pid=1511
where he answers Chopra’s latest book – “The Third Jesus”.
If you have friends that have questions, then listen to Ravi’s answers.
Hey Alan – because of your comment, I’ve subscribed to Ravi’s podcast. Now I know why you like this guy so much. Talk about systematically dismantling Chopra’s pathetic arguments!
JK – your comment “It’s ridiculous and childish to exempt ourselves from responsibility by saying that our bad actions are caused by the “devil.”” are completely true. but not complete.
The bible says the devil roams around like a toothless lion looking for whom he can devour and he was liar from the beginning. So the act of agreeing with him is our responsibility. We are given brains to think but our hearts are what betray us. Many times in the bible we see this. In the garden, the first sin was not because the devil made them do it, but that eve agreed to do it. It was Adam that when asked “whats’ up”, didn’t say – “I did this thing” but “she made me do it”.
Also, we often make the mistake of simplifying God to the reasoning of a man (often by Christians that don’t know his word personally, by only by what they have been told by others to believe). He himself said his ways are NOT our ways. His I am what i am. That says a lot. It asks more questions than answers. For example read revelations, he says to john (just before all the bad stuff is described) .. that this is what must come to pass. Or job, where before the devil does anything he has to get permission (and his is given constraints), even Jesus says to Peter – the devil has asked to test you. Okay.. off topic – not our job to define God, only to serve.
The question was “does the devil exist”, not “why does he exist”. Even in the debate they lost track of that. In some way that does lead to “does evil exist”, but in the christian world view we are not told why, only it does, we have sin, and because of our sinful nature, we do evil.
Again, does not God himself say (in more than one book) – that all he wants is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, Love Truth and Justice, and walk humbly with your Lord” (even Jesus said something very similar).
And to enable us to do that , we need him – our nature by itself cannot do it.
and hence the gospel (the good news) – that now we (via the sacrifice of jesus) may repent for our sins to God (and be heard, and please – repentance is not remorse) and our sins may be forgiven (when we repent). So even that statement , and even The Lords Prayer says – “forgive me my sins”, and “i forgive others theirs”. So we are called to take responsibility with our sins, and square off our account with God. So yes you are correct, the end act is the responsibility of men, but the picture is incomplete if Jesus is not added. That by US taking responsibility for our SIN, asking forgiveness we lay down our pride and then the act of walking humbly can begin.
Chopra comes across as very wise and humble. “I’m not denying you your experience”, very gentle and wise.
“Jesus is real, and if you don’t believe in him, you don’t get to be with him !” said one erratic woman from the audience. truly pushy, aggressive, and judging others by her own standards in very selfish egotistical ways. Christians like that are terrible people.
Some Christians are wise, the man Driscoll was fairly intelligent, but he knew that Chopra’s arguments were far far more wise and consistent than his own. But apart from that, a fairly interesting debate.