When something goes wrong in a man’s life—catastrophically, irrevocably wrong—his first impulse is to look outward. He scans the horizon for culprits: the corrupt judge, the lying prosecutor, the treacherous wife, the scheming business partner, the overreaching government bureaucrat. And he may well be right about any or all of them. But the serious, committed Christian must begin his inquiry elsewhere. He must begin with himself.

I have been a follower of Jesus Christ for over forty-seven years. I hold a Ph.D. in Public Policy, I have pastored a Baptist church, I have written extensively on public policy, economics, and aspects of theology and political philosophy, and I practice no known unrepented sins. Yet I would be a fool and a liar to suggest that my own sinful heart has never contributed to my suffering. So would you. And until we reckon honestly with this fact—until we submit ourselves to the searching light of Scripture rather than the flattering light of self-justification—we shall never understand the full scope of the adversity that confronts us.

In Suffering Unjustly, I identified four mortal enemies that beset the serious, committed Christian in this world. These are not abstractions. They are concrete, active, and relentless forces that have been at war with the people of God since the fall of Adam and Eve, and they will continue their assault until Christ returns. Every Christian behind bars, every believer who has lost his children to a corrupt family court, every saint whose property has been confiscated by a predatory state, every man or woman who has been slandered by false religion—all of them will recognize these enemies. Indeed, they are the explanation for the suffering recounted in this book.

The four mortal enemies of the Christian are: (1) our own sinful hearts, (2) Satan and his demons, (3) the state, and (4) false religion. Let us examine each in turn, with the precision that Scripture demands and the gravity that our circumstances require.

Enemy Number One: Our Own Sinful Hearts

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). This is not a minor observation tucked away in an obscure prophetic text. It is one of the most penetrating diagnoses in all of Scripture, and it applies to every human being who has ever drawn breath—including those who have been washed in the blood of Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

We are, quite often, our own worst enemies. The doctrine of total depravity, as articulated in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith Chapter 6 (paragraphs 2–4), does not teach that every man is as wicked as he could possibly be. It teaches that sin has infected every faculty of man’s nature—his intellect, his will, his emotions, his body—such that no part of him is untouched by corruption. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:11-12).

The regenerate man is not exempt from the ongoing reality of indwelling sin. Paul’s anguished cry in Romans 7:24—“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”—was not the cry of an unregenerate sinner. It was the cry of an apostle who understood, with painful clarity, that the war between flesh and spirit does not end at conversion. It continues until glorification.

Therefore, after tragedy strikes, and we want to know who did it to us and why, the first thing to do is search the Scriptures and prayerfully “see if there be any wicked way” in us (Psalm 139:24; Lamentations 3:40). Our sin might not be wholly responsible for our suffering, but it might be responsible in part. Perhaps we were imprudent. Perhaps we were proud. Perhaps we neglected prayer or failed to exercise the diligence that our situation demanded. Perhaps we trusted in a man when we should have trusted in God: “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered” (Proverbs 28:26).

I do not say this to heap condemnation upon men who are already broken. I say it because honesty before God is the indispensable prerequisite for spiritual growth under affliction. The man who refuses to examine his own heart will never profit fully from his suffering. He will remain bitter, resentful, and self-pitying—none of which are Christian virtues, however natural they may feel in the darkness of a prison cell.

Enemy Number Two: Satan and His Demons

The second enemy is not of this world, though his effects are felt everywhere in it. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). The Apostle Paul is not speaking metaphorically. He is describing an actual conflict, waged in the spiritual realm, that has tangible consequences in the material world.

Satan is real. His demons are real. Their hatred of Christ and His people is implacable and relentless. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). The dragon of Revelation 12 has been cast down from heaven, stripped of his role as accuser of the brethren (Romans 8:33; Revelation 12:10), and now dedicates himself to “making war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17).

The Christian’s spiritual warfare is conducted with spiritual weapons: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). We defend God and His glory with our powerful words, preaching, writing, and leadership. The full armor of God—truth, righteousness, the Gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:11-18)—is our defensive and offensive equipment in this invisible war.

Yet we must not imagine that this warfare remains confined to the spiritual realm. Sometimes Satan or a demon enters time and space to afflict people (2 Timothy 2:26). Part of the glory of the kingdom of God was displayed as Christ and the Apostles cast out demons from people they had possessed. As Christ’s kingdom expands across the earth, demon possession becomes less prevalent—a fact that cessationists like me affirm as evidence of Christ’s growing dominion even before His Second Coming.

Sometimes believers are singled out for satanic attack, as Job was singled out. The Lord Himself permitted Satan to strip Job of his wealth, his children, and his health—not because Job had sinned, but because God intended to demonstrate the perseverance of genuine faith under the most extreme trial imaginable. Christ told Peter plainly: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:31-32). Note the terrifying implication: Satan specifically requested permission to assault Peter, and the only reason Peter survived the ordeal was the intercessory prayer of Christ Himself.

We should implore God that demonic incursions in our lives be thwarted. Satan’s “wiles” or “devices” are known to us (2 Corinthians 2:11; Ephesians 6:11), and we are commanded to resist him: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). We can do so because we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) and “greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4)—the same world over which Satan presides as “the god of this world [age]” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).

Moreover, Satan does not work alone. The New Testament indicates that he has two henchmen: the state and false religion, which together with him form an “unholy trinity” signified allegorically in Revelation 12:9 through 13:18. The dragon (Satan), the beast from the sea (the state), and the beast from the land (false religion) constitute a counterfeit trinity that opposes the true God at every turn. This is the framework within which the Christian’s suffering must be understood.

Enemy Number Three: The State