Satan almost never attacks vague spirituality. He’s comfortable with people who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. What scares him are Bible-believing Christians. He fights them claw and tooth. He centers his attacks on God’s word and the people who live by that word.

His ultimate enemy is God, but he can’t fight God directly. God is Almighty. He spoke the universe into existence, including the angel then known as Lucifer. Sure, the devil is powerful, but his power is infinitely less than God’s power.

He can’t win a fistfight with the Almighty God. So, he attacks in more subtle ways. He attacks God’s word. More specifically, he attacks belief in God’s word.

Imagine two enemy armies on either side of a chasm. The weaker army wants to keep the larger, more powerful one out of its present territory. Across the chasm between the two sides, there stands a bridge. Where does the lesser army focus its fire? On the bridge — on the thing which will allow the vastly superior army to move across the chasm.

Why would the devil attack the Bible? Because the word of God bridges the gap between the mind of God and the mind of man. Through it, God’s thoughts flow to human minds. Satan cannot destroy the bridge, but he wants to convince us that we cannot trust the bridge.

The first words from Satan recorded in the Bible form the question that has been at the heart of his attack on humanity ever since. “Has God said?”

We find it in Genesis 3:1. “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden”?’”

Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:2 identify the “serpent” with Satan. 2 Corinthians 11:3 says, “But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”

To be sure, Satan can use means other than subtlety when attempting to beguile people. 1 Peter 5:8 compares him to a roaring lion. It says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

But whether he’s roaring like a lion or subtle like a snake, Satan lies. In fact, he’s the father of lies. In John 8:44, Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”

The ultimate temptation is to disbelieve what God has said. Yet nothing is more trustworthy than God’s word. Titus 1:2 says that God “cannot lie.” His word, according to 2 Timothy 2:15 is “the word of truth.” Jesus said in Luke 21:33, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away.”

That means His words are more reliable than the ground you walk on or the sun shining in the sky. Trust Him. Don’t just be a believer in a vague spirit in the sky, believe the actual words of the Living God.