THE DEMON’S PLAN
By Carl O. Cooper

Scratch raised up from his crouch on the boulder where he was setting and his fiery red eyes glared over the cavern which he overlooked. Demons perched on the rocks around the cavern walls, cringed at his face and folded their leathery wings close in to their ugly bodies and tried to be as inconspicuous as they could make themselves be. For Scratch’s power was well understood by them all. One look from those evil red eyes could send a demon into oblivion, never to exist again. There was nothing they could do against such power. They submit, they cringe, they agree.
Scratch surveyed the cavern walls. “Maggots”, he thought to himself. “Imbeciles”, he said out loud. “I want a plan. I demand a plan!!” Fire shot from his knuckles to the rock as he pounded his fist on the boulder where he set. Smoke came up from the intense heat and molten sulfur poured from the cavern walls beside the rock. Demons fluttered from one rock to another and trembled at Scratch’s rage and then cringed quietly in their fear. “Speak up!!”, he said. “Give me the plan!!” “You there, demon…speak for the others, what is the plan??”
“Plan, sir??…well, I……..”
“ I’ll destroy you all”, Scratch raged. “Unless you give me the plan”.
“Well, well, …well, it’s like this”, he stuttered. “I,….we thought about it…..for a long time.”
“Yes…”, Scratch said menacingly.
“Well, sir….what you want is…I mean, well…you want these Christians in the Church of Christ….that is…I mean, the Kingdom of Christ…to…to…fall away from their religion, and to disobey God.” But, Mr. Scratch…they won’t do it!!! We can’t think of a way!!”
BOOM!!!! CRASH!!!! Lightning poured down from the cavern walls. The demon was caught in mid-sentence and flashed to oblivion. And particles exploded and smoke belched and filled the air. Demons flashed from one side to the other and thunder and lightning and smoke and fire filled the entire room.
“Wait!!! Wait!!!, Mr. Scratch wait, I have a plan!!!”, a demon shouted from the rocks. “I have a plan.”
Like red lasers, Scratch’s eyes penetrated the sulfur and smoke and two red dots fell on the demon that spoke. There was silence for a moment as the smoke cleared and Scratch’s eyes moved up and down the demon’s chest.
“I have a plan”, he said. Softer now, with the noise gone and a deathly silence filling the cavern room. “I have a plan. But it will take some time for it to work.”
Scratch’s eyes were hot on the demon’s chest and whips of smoke were trailing up from the two red dots. He could feel the pain of the burns and Scratch’s power was beginning to surge through his body. It was now or never. A plan. A plan or oblivion.
“Listen to my plan, Scratch. Let me tell you about my plan.”
“We know we can’t tempt these Christians to turn against God very easy. But I know a way!!! We will go to the babies!!!!!”
“The babies..???……” Suddenly Scratch changed his expression. The eyes changed from red laser dots to a yellow, orange color and the demon felt the power begin to subside.
“The babies…?.” Scratch said… Slowly, suspiciously….”What about the babies?”
“The babies”, the demon exclaimed, growing bolder by the second. “We will contaminate the babies. We will contaminate the music by contaminating the babies.”
“And how will we do that?”, Scratch said cautiously.

“Remember what we did with Nadab and Abihu?”, the demon exclaimed, “how we contaminated them with their fire? We convinced them to disobey God’s commands about the fire by changing the way they did it to suit themselves. Well…..we do the same thing with the ones who teach the babies. We just get them to alter the music they use to teach the babies. Let them introduce all these hand motions and foot stomping and clapping of these little hands…and before we know it, new generations will raise up that have no trouble altering the music to suit themselves…..Just like it was with Nadab and Abihu. Don’t you see, before long we will have entire generations of adults and teenagers and babies …all…who have no problem changing God’s commands telling them how to sing.”
At this point Scratch managed a half hearted, wicked smile to cross his lips. Sort of a smile and a smirk mixed together. And at this the demon gained courage to continue.
“So you see, by starting with the babies and teaching them to add hand motions and clapping sounds to God’s commands to sing, we desensitize them to their fear of disobeying God. Oh sure, it will take a couple of generations, but in the end the whole Church of Christ will accept this additional stuff.”
The demon chuckled, “They’ll fight each other over this. Some of the older ones will warn them at first and resist. And for a time their generation will win. Ha, but eventually, Scratch….you win. We all win!!!! We will feast on their miserable souls for all eternity!!!!”
“Not bad, demon,” said Scratch, “Not bad at all.”
“It’s like building a school house on the edge of a cliff. Not much happens unless someone falls off the cliff…but ….sooner or later..they will fall off the cliff. …I like it.”
“In fact, I like it a lot.This music thing is the very foundation of the basic doctrine the Church of Christ sets on. To destroy that, will be to finally…at last…defeat the whole stupid lot of them!!! This plan has good merit. In fact, this is a really good plan. Put it in place. Get some additional demons out of our denominational churches to help get it working. Get them to infiltrate the Church of Christ and teach them these children’s songs. The ones with all the clapping and motions in them. This will work.”
“And by the way, while you are at it, get some of the members of the Church of Christ who love music to help. Pick the ones who seem to have a great fixation on music and who are so moved emotionally with music that reason and logic are not important with them. Some of these people want this so bad that they will be the first ones to follow our demon’s suggestions. I don’t think you’ll have any problem finding some like that.”
At this point demons began to gain confidence with Scratch and to gather around. One by one they volunteered their ideas to the plan.
Scratch was well pleased.
Note: This story is not meant to accuse our children of being guilty of sin because of these children’s songs, but a serious caution about the mindset directing this practice. There is a liberal mindset that always says, “no big deal”, when the integrity of the music of the church is questioned. Mechanical instruments of music, clapping, dramatic gestures, praise teams, women song leaders, and all such like are to the liberal mindset, “no big deal”.

Carl O. Cooper