Review: A Devil Named Lucifer by Jared Brock
Having been quite impressed with the book, A God Named Josh, by Canadian-born author and filmmaker Jared Brock, I was rather curious when he took on the Devil, quite literally, in his latest release, A Devil Named Lucifer: Uncovering the Diabolical Life of Satan and How to Resist Him ( 2025, Bethany House).
The thing I immediately discovered on my quest to finish the book is that reading about the Devil last thing at night isn’t conducive to falling asleep quickly, and reading the same content first thing in the morning is equally unsettling. So I finally had to take the Devil by the horns, so to speak, and carve out some midday time blocks to really get into this study.
As with his previous book, I was again reminded how thorough Jared Brock is in his research. He has enumerated and studied in detail all of the various references to Satan, or whatever name by which you currently think of that entity.
Lucifer? It may not be referring to who you think it does. There are a couple of places in the book where we are asked to do a reset of previously held opinions. We are also asked to think philosophically about the problem of evil in our world, and where it comes from.
He also gets into issues some might consider peripheral, but are absolutely essential and understanding the broader realm of the topic at hand, for example, understanding evil, the parallel world of angels, the ultimate destiny of both the Devil and mankind.
However, it must be said that the breadth of this exploration may be, to some readers, at the expense of fulfilling the second half of the book’s subtitle, “how to resist him.” I think perhaps some of that resistance is implied. For example, Brock proposes a devil with very limited powers. Consider this short excerpt:
I’m not saying Accuser-Adversary is weak – we’ve just built him up into this virtually omnipotent force of evil when he’s no such thing. As Christians our devil is too dangerous if we believe he can possess us. Our devil is too dangerous if we believe he can curse us. Our devil is too dangerous if we believe he can lock us into a Faustian bargain we cannot break by the power of the Holy Spirit. Proportion and perspective are essential. Even a penny can block out the 860,000 mile wide sun if we put it close to our eye. But Accuser-Adversary is smaller than a penny compared with the son of God. He can’t make a single move against a human without God’s Express consent. (188-189)
I know there were people who found the title of his previous book a tad too informal; even though Josh is derived from Joshua who we know as Jesus, however in the book itself he was very respectful using Yehoshua instead. It’s the same here but for different reasons; after dismissing many of the familiar names of the Devil he settles on Accuser-Adversary as quoted above.
Should you buy this book? My recommendation is that you get your hands on A God Named Josh first, but if you have the means just pick up both of them at once, because once you read the one you are most likely going to want to read the other.
I want to thank the fine people at Bethany House Publishers (Baker Book Group) for the opportunity to review this title, and apologize for the tardiness of this review. I can only blame my lateness on the Devil! (Or can I?)
