Is It True That Only "breaking the Hedge" Exposes the Believer to Successful Satanic Attacks?
Direct Answer
Not exactly. The Bible shows two ways Satan touches a believer: (1) when the believer “breaks the hedge” by sin and unbelief, giving him a place; and (2) when God Himself permits a test. But only the first gives Satan a real advantage. When God allows a trial, it is limited and turns to the believer’s good—not to Satan’s victory.
Scriptural Explanation
- Job did not sin, yet Satan could afflict him only because God allowed it—and with strict limits (Job 1:10–12; 2:6). That was testing, not defeat. Job’s faith stood.
- “Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him” (Ecclesiastes 10:8). That’s the warning: step out of the Word’s protection and you invite the bite.
- “Neither give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). Place is given by disobedience—anger, lies, lust, unforgiveness (see Ephesians 4:25–32; 2 Corinthians 2:10–11).
- “Be sober… resist… steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9). The hedge is faith and obedience. Submit to God, then resist (James 4:7).
- God’s tests are bounded and faithful: “He will… make a way to escape” (1 Corinthians 10:13). They refine, not ruin (1 Peter 1:6–7). And the sheep cannot be plucked from His hand (John 10:28–29; Romans 8:35–39).
- Dwelling “in the secret place of the most High” is the place of kept protection (Psalm 91).
Simple Clarifying Logic
- If the only way Satan could touch a believer were personal failure, what about Job and Peter? Job was upright, yet tested (Job 1:1; 1:12). Peter was sifted, yet kept by Christ’s intercession (Luke 22:31–32). Those were permissions for proving, not permissions for Satan to conquer.
- When we break the hedge—leave the Word, harbor sin—we open a door. Then the serpent has a bite, and Satan gains an advantage.
- When God permits a trial while we remain under the Blood, Satan is on a leash. He may afflict circumstances, but he cannot overthrow faith. God turns it to our strengthening.
Reinforcing Statement
Stay under the Blood, stay with the Word, and give no place to the devil. If God allows a test, it will purify you. If you break the hedge, repent quickly and close the door.
Final Conclusion
No. Satan can touch a believer either by our breaking the hedge (which gives him an advantage) or by God’s limited permission for testing (which cannot defeat faith). Only breaking the hedge grants Satan a real foothold; God-permitted trials are bounded and work for the believer’s good.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 6:E-56
The church went right from organization to denomination and hence to false teaching. That is right. The Roman Catholics don't believe that God is in His Word. No sir. If they did they would have to repent and back up, but they say God is in His church. That would make the Bible the history of the Catholic Church. That isn't so. Look what they did to water baptism alone. They took it away from being Christian Baptism and made it a pagan one of titles. Let me tell you about an experience I had with a Catholic priest....
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 5:E-84
The polytheistic religion of the enemy began with the trinitarian doctrine. It was way back there in antiquity that the "one God in three persons" idea came into existence. How strange that our modern theologians have not spotted this; but evidently just as duped by Satan as their forebears were, they still believe in three persons in the Godhead. Let us be shown just one place in Scripture where there is any authority for that doctrine. Is it not strange that while the descendants of Ham went on their way in Satan...
There is only One Way provided by God for anything
63-0731 §104
Now Satan, I charge you by the blood of Jesus Christ, that all-sufficient blood, that... Through that life that was in that blood, that's now in our hearts, we've been changed from what we once was to Christians. We once was doubters; now we're believers. Our sins are under the blood. "He that will confess his sins shall have forgiveness." We have confessed our sins, and we have forgiveness. Now we stand no more... Our sins are in the sea of forgetfulness. We can no more be accused of sin. We have confessed it. We...
How can I overcome?
63-0825M §96
Even Job back there, he looked for it. He said, "I know my redeemer liveth, and at the last days He'll stand upon the earth." There was a just man, a perfect man. He offered sacrifice; he done everything that God told him to do. He did it with reverence and respect to the prophets. And then Satan come around to tempt him, just like he comes to tempt you. What did he do? He kept standing there. His wife even come out and said, "Why don't you curse God and die the death. You look so miserable setting there..." He sai...
An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
CAB 8:E-86
"I will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." This verse is not a declaration that the true church will go into and through the tribulation. If it meant that it would have said that. But it said, "I will keep thee from the hour of temptation." This temptation is exactly like the temptation in Eden. It will be a very inviting proposition held up in direct opposition to God's commanded Word, and yet from the standpoint of human reasoning it...