The Devil You Don’t Know: A Warning & A Teaching Part I.
Rev. Dr. Melinda Contreras-Byrd, Contributing Writer
Before Trump took office, I was invited to speak at an annual national Black clergy gathering at Princeton University. At that time, I could not have imagined those events coming to pass throughout the world and in the United States of America! I could not have imagined that a man with such a negative history could be elected president of the United States! I could not have imagined the litany of Black unarmed people who would be killed by police fire.
I was shocked and disillusioned to find that “professing Christians of major denominations were backing an avowed racist, sexist, and scoundrel as a leader, as one they declared was “sent by God!”
As I prepared for my presentation, searching scriptures and prayerfully listening, the Holy Spirit
repeatedly led me to examine evil, although I could not see the relevance. Nevertheless, I began a study of the works of evil in juxtaposition to mental health issues, specifically psychopathy and sociopathy. I read books and papers by social scientists, theologians, and Christian counselors.
The words I was to speak at that conference became a warning from God, “This is a Time of great shift, a mighty revision is coming, and we need to get prepared to transform and be transformed.”
Never having imagined myself as a modern-day prophet, I was very reticent to speak these words. Nevertheless, not only did I speak these words at the conference but also, I felt a lead to share this information with other Black, Indigenous, (and) People of Color (BIPOC) Christians. Finally, these musings culminated in my first published book, The Great Shift Psycho-spiritual Manual for Surviving and Transformation in the Trump Era.
As I began writing, a myriad of unusual computer issues began to surface. The editor and I repeatedly found that what he received and what I sent were not the same! For the first time, my computer persisted in switching to a foreign language. Then, upon returning home one evening, we found our mudroom infested with hordes of flies. Next, I had to re-call the exterminator because my daughter’s bedroom was besieged by wasps. The exterminator compared this to the ten biblical plagues because of the oddity and number of insects–especially in the winter. Shortly after, we returned home to find the framed diplomas in my office on the floor. Upon close inspection, the push pins they had hung on were severed in half–one part still in the wall! Only my office had been affected. An investigation disclosed no quake or other incident that would have shaken our house enough to cause this—and only in this room?
I struggled to complete my book. God was speaking that we were entering a “time of great shift”, when the powers of darkness would rise in ways that should be evident to those who were people of God’s kingdom. This was a time for spiritual discernment. This was a time to acquaint ourselves with the many faces of evil so that we could wage a counter attack—for the kingdom—using “weapons of warfare that are not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.” (Please spend some time translating these words into action in your life ministry).
Words of Education for meditation
The works of darkness are often mistaken for human psychological struggles. Some people can even be born without the moral compass that dissuades them from doing mean or even evil things. Their reason is that people are there to be useful to them. They do evil –but it doesn’t make them evil. There are limits to their evil deeds and, at times, a desire to repent and control this behavior. They may see evil as the wisest and best option. They are sociopaths or psychopaths. They are not evil. They do evil.
The frightening truth is that there are people who become taken over by evil.
They are thrilled by the anguish of others. They lack a conscience that would stop them from exercising evil plans. They lack the basic human feelings of connection and empathy most people have. Therefore, they target the church, which represents God, and the people whose goals of love, forgiveness, and unity they see as a weakness, making God’s people easy to take advantage of and manipulate.
So I warn you–evil quotes scripture. Evil comes to church. Evil plots to rise to leadership in Christian organizations to defame, destroy the faith of the faithful, and take all that it can–money, innocence, property, and more.
So study to recognize evil in your midst. This is the time!
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- M. Scott Peck, People Of The Lie. Touchstone Publication, 1985.
- Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door. Harmony Publications, 2006.
- Randal Rauser, “Shred as Snakes: The psychopath and the Christian.” The Christian Post, May 30th, 2018.
- Melinda Contreras-Byrd, The Great Shift Psycho-Spiritual Manual For Survival And Transformation In The Trump Era. Cambridge Scholars Press, 2020.
