If I was Satan I would do everything in my power to convince my two billion plus parishioners that the last thing the Biblical God wants is for every one of them to believe, speak, think and act alike relative to their Christian walk.  I would appeal to their intellects.  I would reason that the all-knowing God had made each human being different from all other human beings in all aspects of life, that He had also given them different thought processes, attitudes and viewpoints concerning various Biblical teachings based on their unique life experiences.  I would make use of their interpersonal lives by using social reality to prove my case.  For example, I would point out that those in the legal profession agree that if five people witness the same incident, there will be five different descriptions of what had happened.  I would convince them that the same rule applies to the reading of the Bible.  I would assure them that they have not only the right, but the obligation to unite with those they agree with them on religious grounds.  A world famous evangelist told those who were “saved” during his crusades to shop around, to “… join the church of your choice.”  By nature man prefers familiarity and desires to be among his own kind.  One woman explained why she joined a certain denomination by saying: “They do what I like to do.”  A church body believes and does what it wants to believe and do.  Man seeks the comfort that comes from being with one’s own kind.  I would tell my people to seek out the denomination that makes them feel comfortable.

If I was Satan I would continually assure my people that they are exactly where they are supposed to be, that they are “THE” only true church, and that all others, though loved by God, simply do not measure up to His standards.  Each member of each denomination would agree with me because they would believe that I am the Biblical God, that my ministers are His ministers and that their words are His Words.  By keeping them ignorant of His “fine print” they would never know that I am the father of lies and that their ministers are my messengers.

If I was Satan I would not allow my parishioners to study the Bible in depth for fear that they would learn what God says about denominations.  I would convince them to study only the doctrinal “headlines” that their leaders proclaim.  I would keep them from in-depth Bible study by explaining that only their leaders have been called of God, and  that only they have been gifted with Scriptural understanding.  I would make my people so Biblicly lazy that to read it 10 minutes a day would be considered an admirable sacrifice on their part.  I would not allow them to consider the fact that they spend on average four hours of each day staring into a screen where my words, thoughts and actions are glamorized by the dregs of society.  If I was Satan I would most certainly steer them away from the following Biblical information.

I would have them avoid 2 Timothy 3:14-17 where they would be told that “all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness ….”  I would not want them to know that the Apostle Paul was writing to the Evangelist Timothy, telling him what he (Timothy) had to do in order to be saved.  I would hide from them the fact that Paul received his gospel directly from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:12), who received it from His heavenly Father through His Holy Spirit.  I would not want them to know that they will one day be judged by every Word in the gospel that the prophets and apostles received from the Lord and recorded for their  benefit (Jn. 12:44-50).

Paul addressed the subject of denominations (divisions) within the true church in 1 Corinthians 1:10: “I beseech you, brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you ALL SPEAK THE SAME THING (THE SCRIPTURES), and that there be NO DIVISIONS (DENOMINATIONS) AMONG YOU, and that you be PERFECTLY JOINED TOGETHER in the SAME MIND and in the SAME JUDGMENT (DOCTRINE).”  If I was Satan I would not want my captives to know that, though the early church was led by such people as Paul, Timothy, Peter, John and other such spiritual giants, they were not to be viewed as Truth creators and were not to be exalted.  I would not want my people to feel the same way about the founder of their denomination/cult.

Paul asked the church: “Is Christ divided?  Christ–the SINGULAR HEAD of the Lord’s SINGULAR CHURCH–is not divided.  The Body of Christ (the true church) has only ONE HEAD.  A body must have a head.  If there is more than one Body of Christ, then there must be multiple heads.  If I was Satan I would convince them that though there is only one Head, that Head has hundreds of bodies.  Being unable to explain the many-bodies-one-Head church configuration, I would convince them that they are not mentally equipped to understand Biblical truths of such depth, and that God supplies them with leaders who do understand such “Bible truths.”

If I was Satan I would cause my congregants to accept without question the fact that every denomination was founded by a man who had been gifted by God with a better, more spiritually insightful concept of “Bible truth” than anyone else.  I would tell them that this man, having received from the Writer of Truth (Jn. 17:17) the gift of interpretation of that Truth, had taken it upon himself to “fine tune” what God had spoken to His prophets and apostles, who in turn had spoken then recorded God’s Words for those who would come later.

If I was Satan I would keep from my people such passages as 2 Peter 3:16 where the apostle warns about those who would “wrest” (twist) God’s Words to make them mean what they wanted them to mean.  Nor would I allow my servants to read what the Apostle Jude wrote about the wresting/twisting/interpreting problem in the early church, noting that by manipulating God’s Word men had granted themselves a license to sin (vs 4).

If I was Satan I would hide from those in “THE” church what Paul wrote in Romans 3:3,4 where he told the people that God was true even though every (contradicting) man was a liar.  He went on to say that God would prove Himself to be right and all those who judged His Word to be wrong.  I would not allow my people know that to judge God’s Word was to judge Him.  I would hide from them what  Jesus said in Luke 10:16, that to reject any part of God’s Word revealed that one despised both the Father and the Son.

If I was Satan I would not want my people to study what Jesus said in John 17:11,22,23 where He prayed to the Father that He would “… MAKE THEM (DISCIPLES) ONE (SPIRITUALLY) AS WE (GOD AND CHRIST) ARE ONE.”  I would hide from them the fact that, if all of the disciples are ONE spiritually, then all those who believe and obey their gospel must also be ONE spiritually.  Jesus said in John 12:44-50 that to be God’s children one had to believe what He said.  He made no allowance for interpreting what He said.  In 2 Peter 1:20 the apostle stated that it is a sin to interpret God’s word.

If I was Satan I would not allow my church to bother with such passages as Galatians 1:6-9 where Paul warned the people early on about the different gospels being taught in the church.  Nor would I want them to read what he wrote to the church at Corinth.  He noted that some of the parishioners had drifted so far from the Lord that, if one came preaching another Jesus, they would follow him (2 Cor. 11:4).  Paul, along with all of the other apostles, made it clear in their writings that there was to be NO DIVISIONS RELATIVE TO ANY ASPECT OF CHURCH LIFE.  There was only ONE WAY and that way was THE ONE AND ONLY GOSPEL OF GOD that His apostles would preach throughout the world (Mat. 24:14).  He called it “THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM.”  “THIS” means that GOD HAS NO OTHER GOSPEL.  Each denomination has its own gospel, which means that each has its own god and savior.

The defining Scripture relative to this Truth is Ephesians 4:4-6: “There is ONE BODY AND ONE SPIRIT … ONE HOPE OF YOUR CALLING, ONE LORD, ONE FAITH (GOSPEL/TRUTH/WORD), ONE BAPTISM, ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL WHO IS ABOVE ALL AND THROUGH ALL AND IN YOU ALL.” If I was Satan I would steer my victims away from that passage.  I would also tell them not to consider the fact that Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, that He is the Lord Who does not change, and that in Him there is not so much as a shadow of turning.  THIS IS ALSO TRUE OF HIS WORD WHICH IS GOD HIMSELF IN WRITTEN FORM.  JESUS–THE “WORD”–Jn. 1:1-4) WAS GOD IN HUMAN FORM.  If I was Satan I would prevent my Catholic/Protestant Church System from knowing any of the information brought forth in this message.  And if they happen to read it or hear it from one of God’s messengers, I would cause them to adamantly reject both the message and the messenger.  L.J.