STRIVING AGAINST SATAN
By Joel Beeke
Bryntirion Press. 128 pages. £6.95
ISBN 1-85049-219-0
This short book enlarges on five addresses given at a summer school of theology. It deals with our battle against Satan, the spiritual adversary.
The first section covers the personality and history of Satan. The next section analyses Satan’s strategies, followed by practical application to the reader in the spheres of individual discipleship, the community of the church, and civic life.
The book is written on a popular level in a vivid, clear, and stimulating style. The overall theology is within the conservative evangelical Reformed framework. It avoids the dangers of either minimising the reality of this fierce supernatural conflict, or sensationalism (‘Frank Peretti’s books have only added to the confusion’, p.9).
The advice given is always helpful and often rousing. The author quotes frequently from Reformers and worthy Puritans — especially Thomas Brooks’s Precious Remedies against Satan’s devices.
The ‘average church member who reads’ might find the use of the Authorised Version references somewhat idiosyncratic, and might have valued an explanation of words such as ‘Paraclete’ (p.39 — some sort of parrot?). More analytical readers might look for a more nuanced argument to convince them that the referenced text completely confirms the assertion it is linked with (e.g. Ezekiel 28, p.17).
Overall: wholesome and valuable.
Philip Wells,
full-time elder of a small church in Bohemian Brighton
