Who or what is the adversary of all mankind? In Scripture satan is called the adversary. Webster defines satan as the grand adversary of man; the devil or prince of darkness; the chief of the fallen angels.
Devil is also defined as the implacable enemy and tempter of the human race. The Scripture declares that "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3: 8, 9). From this exposure it would seem that mortals, —the Adamic race, —are not born of God, though in their ignorance of God and themselves they may claim to be. God is Spirit, and "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit," or spiritual, and "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," or fleshly material belief. But "Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world," —the flesh and the devil, even as the idea of Good, the Christ idea, overcomes all evil and error in human consciousness. Therefore, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with Good "(Rom. 12: 21). Only the true idea of Good, or that which is born of God can overcome evil and expose its falsity and unreality. In Gen. 3 and Rev. 12 the adversary is called a serpent deceiving its own, for both the serpent and the man of this creation were made out of the ground, and whose first born was a murderer. In Gen. 3 this example of Cain and Abel shows how the more innocent human conception falls a dupe to its cruel brother relative, until the Christ idea is revealed as the protector and saviour of humanity from sin and its false conceptions of life in ground or matter. In Christian Science we learn there is no life or truth in a serpent-lie of materialism, however objectively familiar it may appear to itself.
In Deut. 17: 10, 11, and the fatal example of king Saul with the witch of Endor, 1 Chron. 10: 13, 14, this adversary is called familiar spirit, divination, witchcraft, necromancy, etc., which in modern language would seem to correspond to clairvoyance, mortal mind-reading, fortune telling, esoteric magic, mediumship, or spiritualism; all of which is condemned of God as an abomination, and like the suppositional original deceiver, they who eat of it and believe it to be good and real shall surely die; thus showing that the deceived and the deceiver are one in the error of ignorant material belief of life in matter. But the true idea of God cannot be deceived because it is born of God, reflecting light and understanding. Job's adversary was the thing he greatly feared would come upon him; and in his material loss and personal distress he was made to curse the birth of his false material conception, believing God had permitted evil to come upon him. But when the light of Truth dawned upon his vision he was changed, and abhorred self and repented of his false counsel without understanding. Jacob wrestled with the adversary of material sense and self and prevailed over the deceptive claims of error with the dawning of the true idea of Life and Love. Then he was able to meet his brother whom he had feared as an enemy, for Love casts out all fear, and destroys the adversary of sin and selfishness.
