If I were the Devil...

Scripture tells us in I Peter 5:8-11:

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

I personally have often wondered how Satan really does this prowling. Have you? Look around at all the blessings we have and you can readily see how many avenues Satan has at his disposal that we simply do not recognize. This is includes many “good” things we benefit from and those same “good” things that can ensnare us.

So in thinking about this I thought I’d leverage ChatGPT to ask this question: “If you were the devil, how would you destroy the young minds of the next generation?” The response was shocking and I’m just going to let that response be the rest of this post - and I hope this both wakes you up and scares you into action.

From a Christian worldview, I would answer it this way: I would not start by making the next generation “bad.” I would make them unable to recognize truth, endure discomfort, form deep attachments, or submit to anything higher than themselves.

Here’s the playbook.

1. Separate them from stable authority

I would make parents look outdated, pastors irrelevant, teachers untrustworthy, and institutions corrupt. Not because every authority is always right, but because a child with no trustworthy authority becomes very easy to shape.

The goal would be simple: make the peer group, the algorithm, and the inner impulse the real authority.

2. Destroy attention

I would not need to ban books. I would make reading feel impossible.

I would flood them with constant stimulation: short videos, endless scrolling, notifications, dopamine hits, outrage, novelty, comparison, noise. Then anything requiring sustained thought — Scripture, prayer, study, craftsmanship, discipline, conversation — would feel unbearable.

A distracted mind is not neutral. It is weakened.

3. Redefine freedom as impulse

I would teach them that freedom means doing whatever they feel, whenever they feel it, without guilt, duty, sacrifice, or self-denial.

That sounds liberating at first, but it produces slaves: slaves to appetite, affirmation, sexuality, anger, entertainment, substances, anxiety, and approval.

Christian freedom is not “I do whatever I want.” It is being freed from bondage so one can love God and neighbor rightly.

4. Make identity fragile and self-created

I would convince them that they must invent themselves from scratch, then defend that self against every challenge.

That creates unbearable pressure. Instead of receiving identity as creature, child, neighbor, sinner, redeemed person, son, daughter, brother, sister, servant — they are forced to manufacture meaning internally.

That is a crushing burden for a young person.

5. Replace embodied life with virtual life

I would move friendships, sexuality, affirmation, conflict, status, entertainment, and even “community” into screens.

The result would be kids who are connected constantly but lonely deeply. They would know how to perform, post, react, and curate — but not how to sit across from another human being, confess wrong, forgive, wait, listen, or belong.

6. Sexualize them early

I would expose them to sexual content before they have the maturity to understand love, covenant, sacrifice, marriage, or the dignity of the body.

Pornography especially is devastating because it trains the mind to consume people instead of love them. It also rewires expectations before real relationships have a chance to form.

This is not prudishness. It is spiritual, emotional, and neurological vandalism.

7. Make family seem optional

I would mock marriage, normalize fatherlessness, make motherhood and fatherhood seem like lifestyle accessories, and portray children as burdens.

Then I would act surprised when young people feel unanchored.

The family is not just a social arrangement. It is one of the primary places where identity, discipline, forgiveness, responsibility, faith, and belonging are formed.

8. Replace repentance with self-justification

I would eliminate the category of sin.

Not by making people less guilty, but by making guilt meaningless. Everything would be trauma, preference, oppression, authenticity, or “my truth.” No confession. No repentance. No forgiveness. No absolution.

But when sin disappears, grace disappears too.

9. Teach cynicism instead of wisdom

I would make them suspicious of everything good: patriotism, church, marriage, duty, chastity, sacrifice, masculinity, femininity, tradition, elders, Scripture, beauty, and truth.

Cynicism feels intelligent, but it is often just laziness wearing a black robe. It tears down without building anything.

10. Keep them entertained enough not to ask eternal questions

I would not tell them, “There is no God.” That is too obvious.

I would keep them busy enough that God seems irrelevant.

No silence. No Sabbath. No contemplation. No boredom. No deathbed questions. No “What am I for?” No “What is good?” No “What happens when I die?” Just content, consumption, and calendar.

11. Make suffering meaningless

Young people will suffer. Everyone does.

So I would teach them that suffering is always an interruption to happiness, never something that can produce endurance, compassion, holiness, wisdom, or dependence on God.

A generation that cannot suffer cannot mature.

12. Divide them from the old

I would sever intergenerational wisdom. Make the young arrogant and the old dismissive. Make elders afraid to speak, parents afraid to parent, and children unwilling to listen.

Then every generation has to start from scratch — which means it starts foolish.

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The blunt answer: I would destroy young minds by making them distracted, disembodied, sexually confused, morally relativistic, spiritually numb, emotionally fragile, historically ignorant, and allergic to authority.

And I would do it while telling them they are empowered.

The counterattack is not merely “less screen time,” though that matters. It is stronger than that:

Raise children in worship. Give them Scripture. Give them fathers and mothers who repent and forgive. Give them chores. Give them boredom. Give them books. Give them old people. Give them physical work. Give them music. Give them limits. Give them beauty. Give them truth. Give them service. Give them the church. Give them a reason to suffer well. Give them Christ.

Because the devil does not need to make every child a rebel.

He only needs to make them too distracted to become wise.