When evil is impersonal, we can’t win. We can only cope with it.

We tend to instinctively distrust personal explanations for evil. But our modern secular worldview is an anomaly both historically and geographically. Before the Enlightenment in the 1700s, no one had ever imagined evil as just a system or a force. In every culture, since the beginning of time, the gods were the center of society. They had names and back-stories and motives and feelings. It’s the same today in places on the planet that have not yet been westernized.

Viewing evil as impersonal is not an upgrade.

Blame

It’s my fault, your fault, God’s fault or no one’s fault. You’ve probably found all of these emotionally unsatisfying. What if it’s the devil’s fault?

“No, no. That would remove personal responsibility.” OK, but seriously, if there is a devil and he’s active, nothing is his fault? Or almost nothing? Or he’s just active in other places on the planet?

Winning

You can’t decisively “win” against a system, a condition, a constraint or an environment. You can have small victories, but they are more like managing the evil through containment, adaptation, leaving or outlasting it. Not conquering. But if a personal enemy exists, then there is the possibility that he can be defeated.

Dependence

If our problems are our own making, or some other human’s doing, then they could logically have human solutions. If our issue is that demons are messing with us, then we need to pray. There’s nothing we can do; only Jesus can help us. We do have a part to play, and it includes getting rid of demons.

Purpose

If there’s no opponent, then all our team does is practice. You can’t win at practice. You can only work on continuous improvement. This is the Christian life without an enemy: the only goal is to do better. If there’s an enemy, the goal is to defeat him.

Salvation

If there’s no enemy, then we were running our own lives until we decided to let Jesus forgive us and be Lord. If we were owned by Satan, then Jesus rescued us from his control. There is no neutral ground in the Bible. Only two options.

Evangelism

If evil isn’t personal, it becomes marketing: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life”. If Satan has been defeated at the cross then we are proclaiming freedom for people who are enslaved to the devil, and entry into God’s kingdom, which includes “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”

Suffering

It’s so confusing. Why me? Why now? It’s too much! What are you doing Lord? But people in a war aren’t surprised when the enemy attacks. The Bible is literally full of stories of personal enemies, so we can be aware of the real fight.

Clarity

It’s so hard to know what to do when the evil we experience isn’t identifiable. We don’t know what went wrong, or why it’s so hard to forgive, or how come we can’t just get over it. When we name the demon who is personally motivated to destroy us, we restore our agency.

Significance

Without an enemy, how we live is a little optional. We get good before heaven or we go to heaven still in rough shape. But Jesus actually dethroned the enemy and then gave us the kingdom.