"If I Were the Devil" - A Speech by Paul Harvey
Knowing your enemy is the first step to defeating him
Take a moment out of your day to read this short speech by Paul Harvey. It chilled me to the core. This list of what the devil would do to us is happening now.
Harvey broadcast this speech in 1965 and accurately explains how to take apart the world, one individual at a time. Destroy an individual and that individual will convince others until a small group of bad apples deceive more people into believing they are the right apples, infecting everyone and everything else.
It all starts by convincing people they do not need God and that they can be gods--lies as old as time, yet we keep falling for it.
Harvey's speech ties into The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis by using contemporary scenarios with the same themes. The devil doesn't have new strategies--it's the same old manipulations and deceptions that started in the garden with a wicked question that Eve couldn't answer: "Did God really say...?" When we cannot answer that question assertively, when we do not know God for who he is or what he says in the Bible, we are easly led wherever something (or someone) shiny takes us. They tell us we don't need God, we don't need marriage, we don't need family, we don't need morals. Come join the fun, follow your feelings with zero accountability, and blame oppression for all your problems. As a population, we've been duped into narcissism and self-worship. But we don't have to stay duped.
We know the enemy's game plan. We know the devil's tactics. Why do we let ourselves be deceived?
Read Harvey's speech. Read The Screwtape Letters.
Most importantly, read the Bible - the New Testament is enough - and see the methods the devil used to tempt Jesus and you'll see there is nothing new under the sun, only more people further away from God who cannot see the deception for what it is. Once you know you’re being decevied and manipulated, you can make a conscious choice to pursue truth.
And that Truth will set you free.
No stranger to spiritual warfare, Trudi Griffin writes stories of the eternal war between good and evil. Read her short story “Bondage” on Short Fiction Break. She was also a 2024 ACFW Genesis Semifinalist in speculative fiction. A native cheesehead from Wisconsin, Trudi is now an adopted Texan where she lives with her warrior husband. When she’s not sewing or reading, she’s probably gaming or enjoying a beautiful West Texas sunset.