Journal: Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
Volume: JBMW 20:2 (Fall 2015)
Article: Satan’s War On Marriage
Author: Jim Brooks

JBMW 20:2 (Fall 2015) p. 36

Satan’s War On Marriage

Jim Brooks

Doctoral Candidate in Biblical Counseling
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Louisville, Kentucky

Supreme Court decisions to legalize same-sex unions are the latest salvo in Satan’s long battle against the institution of marriage. Satan is “the god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4) who blinds and deceives the whole world (2 Cor 4:4; Rev 12:9). He is the head of a vast, powerful, organized, and malicious army arrayed against Christ and the human race. Christ’s redemptive work on the cross and his resurrection decisively defeated Satan and his domain (Eph 1:19-20; Col 2:15) yet those united with Christ are still engaged in spiritual warfare.

Satan hates marriage. He hates Christian marriages in particular for believers dramatizing Christ and the church powerfully display the gospel in their marriage (Eph 5:32-33). Satan thus aims to destroy Christian marriages because such opposition hinders the witness of Christ to the world. To counter Satan’s attack we must understand God’s design for marriage, Satan’s strategy against it, and how to stand firm in our marriages. In this article I will argue these points by showing how Satan fractured the first marriage. Next, I will survey the biblical evidence of Satan’s explicit attacks against marriage. And last, I will lay out the divine resources given to Christian marriages to stand firm against the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:10-20).

As Andreas Köstenberger has observed, most marriage books fail to consider spiritual warfare. He writes, “Regularly, the focus [in marriage books] is on fulfilling one’s partner’s needs in marriage, improving one’s communication skills, or resolving marital conflict. From reading any of these books, one would never know that spiritual warfare is a vital issue in marriage and the family. Yet, in fact, spiritual warfare is an all-encompassing reality.”1 What follows will begin to fill this lacuna and help

JBMW 20:2 (Fall 2015) p. 37

Christians fight for their marriages.

Satan’s War On The First Marriage

The trinitarian design to create humanity “in his own image” (Gen 1:27) as male and female revealed a significant purpose of marriage. The meaning of the “image of...