71006 The Satan and Demons

The storyline of the Bible presents a populated spiritual world, full of creatures who are in rebellion against their Creator, just like humans. For lots of fascinating reasons, our modern conceptions of the Satan and demons are based on serious misunderstandings of the Bible. So let’s go back to the book of Genesis and start over as we learn about the powers of spiritual evil in the story of the Bible.

Spiritual Being Study Notes

The Satan and Demons Study Notes

22220.062 Dr. Larry W. Poland

Larry Poland is the author of this devotional series, “Wisdom from the Trenches” which was originally published as a book by the same title (ISBN 978-1-0980-8113-3).

Dr. Poland is a native of Ohio and a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology. He also earned a Master’s degree and Ph.D. from Purdue University in college administration, and a Master of Divinity degree from Grace Theological Seminary.

Having placed his personal faith in Jesus Christ as a young boy, Dr. Poland committed his life to God for vocational Christian service while an exchange student in Germany in 1956. In 1967, he was seeking a greater spiritual challenge and prayed, “God, give me a job so great that if You don’t undertake it, I’ll never be able to do it.” In three days, he was asked to assume the position of president of Miami Christian College in Miami, Florida, making him the youngest college president in the United States at age of twenty-seven.

Dr. Poland is the past director of the Agape Movement, an international volunteer service organization under Campus Crusade for Christ, Intl. This movement trained more than 800 volunteers for service and opened 35 nations for volunteers during his eight years of leadership. He has traveled to 80 countries of the world.

Dr. Poland has been a college professor, founded WMCU-FM, the first Christian radio station in Miami, Florida, and was executive producer of the world’s largest traveling mixed media production, World Thrust. He is an ordained minister, lecturer, conference speaker, consultant, and writer. He has authored numerous articles in national periodicals and seveal books, Spirit Power, Rise to Conquer, The Last Temptation of Hollywood, How to Prepare for The Coming Persecution, 2084: A Novel, Lion’s Den Survival Principles, Miracle Walk, and Chasm: Crossing the Divide Between Hollywood and People of Faith (Morgan James Faith).

Media has been a key part of Dr. Poland’s life since the late 1970’s when he hosted an issues-oriented television talk show which was syndicated in major TV markets across Canada. He hosted a short radio feature, The Mediator, which was aired daily on hundreds of radio stations for 18 years.

Dr. Poland is the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Mastermedia International, a ministry to the top leadership of film and television in Hollywood and New York, and one which seeks to keep Christian believers informed of the spiritual dynamics inside media. He’s the recipient of the coveted Covenant Award for significant, Christian influence on the secular media and the founder of the National Media Prayer Breakfast.

Harvest House publishers included Dr. Poland on their list of “The 365 most influential people in the world” based on his network of relationships with those holding global media power.

Larry and his wife, Donna Lynn, have six children and fourteen precious grandchildren. Larry’s hobbies include collecting toys and toy trains.

52004.1 Quotes


Fred Hoyle, British astrophysicist
“A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”

George Ellis, British astrophysicist
“Amazing fine tuning occurs in the laws that make this [complexity] possible. Realization of the complexity of what is accomplished makes it very difficult not to use the word ‘miraculous’ without taking a stand as to the ontological status of the word.”

Paul Davies, British astrophysicist
“There is for me powerful evidence that there is something going on behind it all. It seems as though somebody has fine-tuned nature’s numbers to make the Universe. The impression of design is overwhelming.”

Alan Sandage, winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy
“I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.”

John O’Keefe, NASA astronomer
“We are, by astronomical standards, a pampered, cosseted, cherished group of creatures. If the universe had not been made with the most exacting precision we could never have come into existence. It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.”

George Greenstein, astronomer
“As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency—or, rather, Agency—must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly, without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof of the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit?”

Arthur Eddington, astrophysicist
“The idea of a universal mind or Logos would be, I think, a fairly plausible inference from the present state of scientific theory.”

Arno Penzias, Nobel prize in physics
“Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the conditions required to permit life, and one which has an underlying (one might say ‘supernatural’) plan.”

Roger Penrose, mathematician and author
“I would say the universe has a purpose. It’s not there just somehow by chance.”

Tony Rothman, physicist
“When confronted with the order and beauty of the universe and the strange coincidences of nature, it’s very tempting to take the leap of faith from science into religion. I am sure many physicists want to. I only wish they would admit it.”

Vera Kistiakowsky, MIT physicist
“The exquisite order displayed by our scientific understanding of the physical world calls for the divine.”

Stephen Hawking, British astrophysicist
“What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? …Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what the universe is to ask the question why?”

Alexander Polyakov, Soviet mathematician
“We know that nature is described by the best of all possible mathematics because God created it.”

Ed Harrison, cosmologist
“Here is the cosmological proof of the existence of God—the design argument of Paley—updated and refurbished. The fine tuning of the universe provides prima facie evidence of deistic design. Take your choice: blind chance that requires multitudes of universes or design that requires only one. Many scientists, when they admit their views, incline toward the teleological or design argument.”

Edward Milne, British cosmologist
“As to the cause of the Universe, in context of expansion, that is left for the reader to insert, but our picture is incomplete without Him [God].”

Barry Parker, cosmologist
“Who created these laws? There is no question but that a God will always be needed.”

Drs. Zehavi, and Dekel
(cosmologists)
“This type of universe, however, seems to require a degree of fine tuning of the initial conditions that is in apparent conflict with ‘common wisdom’.”

Arthur L. Schawlow, Professor of Physics at Stanford University, 1981 Nobel Prize in physics
“It seems to me that when confronted with the marvels of life and the universe, one must ask why and not just how. The only possible answers are religious. . . . I find a need for God in the universe and in my own life.”

Henry “Fritz” Schaefer, computational quantum chemist
“The significance and joy in my science comes in those occasional moments of discovering something new and saying to myself, ‘So that’s how God did it.’ My goal is to understand a little corner of God’s plan.”

Wernher von Braun, Pioneer rocket engineer
“I find it as difficult to understand a scientist who does not acknowledge the presence of a superior rationality behind the existence of the universe as it is to comprehend a theologian who would deny the advances of science.”

98012 JO App Design and Structure

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