In this study, we read through Richard Beck’s book Reviving Old Scratch: Demons and the Devil for Doubters and the Disenchanted. The book explores the necessity of recognizing the very real presence of evil in the world and our obligation to resist it. Through his stories and analyses of our disenchanted world, Beck urges us to see, as Paul writes, that our spiritual battle is not against flesh and blood but against the powers, principalities, and spiritual hosts of wickedness. It is only through our recovery of this enchanted viewpoint that we have the ability to faithfully and effectively interrupt Satan’s rule through the self-emptying love of Christ. This Easter Lesson covers eight weeks.
(Easter 2025)
Reviving Old Scratch – Still Prowling the World
We must recognize the spiritual force antagonistic to the Kingdom of God is real and active in the world, and must be fought and resisted. This resistance is known as “spiritual warfare.”
Reviving Old Scratch – Scooby-Dooification
Modernity is like an episode of Scooby-Doo. We begin with a supernatural evil. However, Suspicious doubt leads to investigation and reason. This reveals that the evil is not supernatural but simply a person doing bad things. Disenchantment sets in.
Reviving Old Scratch – Jesus the Exorcist
Beck’s point is that we cannot understand the Jesus of the Bible without also understanding the Satan of the Bible. From the Temptation Narratives in the Gospel to the Last Battle at the end of Revelation, Jesus’ identity and the church’s understanding of who Jesus is cannot be separated from Old Scratch.
Reviving Old Scratch – The White Witch & Christ’s Victory
Penal Substitution works very well in a disenchanted world because it only requires a belief in God. We sin, sin needs to be punished, and Jesus takes that punishment. The Christus Victor model, however, requires a robust belief in the reality of Satan. We are imprisoned and overcome by Satan, and he must be paid off and destroyed. Christus Victor requires an enchanted understanding of the world.
Reviving Old Scratch – Holy Ghost Conga Lines
In telling his story, Beck invites you to tell your story. I think the Spirit meets each of us where we are so that the Spirit can take us into a deeper spiritual reality. The question I want us to explore on Tuesday night is where did/does the Spirit find you? Where is God very real and present in your life?
Reviving Old Scratch – The Wizard of Oz
Our goal is not to score political points or even win the political arguments. Rather, our goal is “liberating human beings from their slavery to this spiritual power.”
Reviving Old Scratch – I Love Humanity, It’s People I Can’t Stand
It is within the Church that we practice sharing and forgiving, and extending mercy and grace. The Church is also where our own brokenness and sinfulness are revealed and healed. The Church is where we learn to accept and celebrate our differences, discard our old selves, and grow into our new selves.
Reviving Old Scratch – God at War
Our response to suffering and evil must be behavioral, not philosophical. God is at war. The question is not the “why” of the enemy, but its ultimate defeat. A defeat in which we are called to participate.
Reviving Old Scratch – Get Behind Me, Satan
Spiritual warfare is the battle between the self-emptying, self-sacrificial love the Cross signifies and anything that tempts us away from taking up our Cross. It is the battle to maintain a cruciform shape in a world that presses a very different pattern upon us.
Reviving Old Scratch – The War of the Lamb
Beck asks, in what way have we imitated the slaughtered Lamb in living our lives and engaging in our spiritual battles? How does our following Jesus put us at a “disadvantage” in the world?
Reviving Old Scratch – Angels and Demons
Beck concludes this chapter with the observation that each of us is blinded by the Zeitgeist of our own time and place. He asks, how can we “test and discern the spirits in our own contexts and in our own hearts and minds?”
Reviving Old Scratch – Resist the Devil
Holiness is the discipline needed to protect our love in a world that is satanically antagonistic to love. Holiness is not about removing ourselves from the world but rather about allowing us to become more radically available to it.
Reviving Old Scratch – The Lucifer Effect
In our spiritual warfare, we are called to live a life of Kenosis and not Harpagon. We are called to emulate Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet. We resist the satanic pattern of the world, but having a towel around our waist.
Reviving Old Scratch – The One Who Holds the Power of Death
The antidote to the fear of death and the fear of scarcity is prayer and worship. For there we find gratitude, joy, and grace, which leads to an experience of abundance.
Reviving Old Scratch – Turning the World Upside Down
n proclaiming and believing that Jesus is Lord of all, all of the idols in our lives become uprooted. And only when these idols are overturned, can we then love everyone as ourselves. By doing away with the idols of this world, Jesus turns the world upside down.
Reviving Old Scratch – Satan Interrupted
Ultimately, resistance and spiritual warfare aren’t about winning debates or policies, but about persistently practicing the self-emptying love of Christ, which will conquer even death and hell itself.