Can Satan Plant Thoughts into a Christian’s Mind?

NATHAN W. BINGHAM: This week calling in from Westminster Seminary California is a Ligonier Teaching Fellow and also the Chairman of Ligonier Ministries, Dr. W. Robert Godfrey. Dr. Godfrey, can Satan or demons plant evil thoughts or even temptations in the minds of Christians?

W. ROBERT GODFREY: Well, it's interesting to reflect on exactly how Satan and the demons operate in our world and in our experience. Certainly, when we look at the New Testament, we see that Satan and/or the demons are involved in tempting people. Our Lord was tempted in the wilderness by Satan. So I would think, in general, in a very broad sense, we could say Satan can lead Christians to temptation. I think that's part of why Jesus, in the Lord's Prayer, calls upon us to pray that we not be led into temptation. And one way of translating the Lord's Prayer is, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." And so, there is this sense that the evil one can tempt us.

How he does that is perhaps a somewhat more complicated question. I think sometimes Christians who get overly concerned about Satan almost turn him into a minor deity. Satan is a fallen angel and a finite being. He can't be everywhere at once; he can't tempt everyone at once. But we have to be aware that he has demons, and the demons are operative in the world and can work in a variety of ways to bring Christians into a situation where they are tempted to evil thoughts or actions.

And so, the best antidote to this is to seek to build up our Christian life in sanctification, to pursue pure thoughts through the reading of Scripture and through prayer. And to be confident that, however much we may be subjected to temptation, God will give us a way out. God will deliver us. And certainly God will preserve us so that the evil one will never be able to take us out of Christ's hand. So that's the great confidence and assurance we should have in this situation.