If I was Satan I would want my constituents to embrace as many heathen doctrines, beliefs and customs as possible.  Two of these “church truths” would be the “Biblical facts” that when a “good” person dies, he/she goes directly to heaven where he/she will live with the Lord forever.  Conversely, when an evil person dies he/she goes directly to hell where he/she burns forever.  I would make these unquestionable “truths” so important that even little children would “know” that God had written them in the Bible.  By having my prophets focusing their followers’ attention on my church’s doctrinal “headlines” I would prevent them from learning that these “truths” were adopted from heathen religions.

If I was Satan I would allow my people to know where man came from because that truth is so plainly stated in Genesis 2:7  that it cannot be denied except by evolutionists: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”  When first formed out of dirt, man was a dead soul.  God’s breath entering him made man a living soul.  That which was formed of dirt was soul.

If I was Satan I would confuse my followers relative to the identification of the soul and the spirit of man, as well as what happens to each upon death.  I would not allow them to know that the soul is man’s physical body.  I would keep from them the fact in Hebrew the English word “soul” is “nephesh,” and that the bodies of all created entities are called “nephesh,” and that all “nephesh,” whether it is human, animal, rodent, fowl, reptile, etc., returns to dust upon death.  I would not tell my people that man’s spirit is actually God’s “breath” that keeps man alive, that “the body without the spirit is dead” (Jam. 2:26), that Job said that “The spirit of God is in my nostrils” (27:3).  I would keep from my parishioners the Biblical Truth that, following death, “The body (soul–nephesh) returns to dust from which it came and the spirit returns to God Who gave it” (Eccl. 12:7).  The spirit of every human who ever lived returns to God upon death.  Man’s personal spirit is the “breath” of God–the breath of life–within him.  Man’s spirit has no life of its own and returns to God upon death.  The spirits of Hitler and Paul are both with the Lord in heaven.

If I was Satan I would not let my parishioners know that the soul is the living being that is given life when breath is forced into it, that man does not have a soul, but that man is a soul.  I would have my people believe that man has a soul, that his soul never dies but goes to either heaven or hell upon death.  I would steer my people away from Ezekiel 18:4,20 which reads: “The soul that sins, it will die.”  Every soul has sinned.  Every soul will die.  I would not let them read Revelation 16:3 where we are told that, “Every living soul died in the sea.”  Every man (soul) dies at some point because man is mortal (subject to death)–Job 4:17.  Man is appointed to die.  Only God is immortal (1 Tim. 6:15,16).  Jesus of Nazareth was mortal.  He was a soul.  He died, as do all other human beings.  The idea of an undying, immortal soul is anti-scriptural.

If I was Satan I would not allow my congregants to believe John 5:28,29 where the Lord states: “All that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth.  Having convinced my worshipers that good people go to heaven upon death, I would also prevent them from learning that King David, the man after God’s own heart, “… IS (now) both dead and buried, and his speulchre (casket) IS with us until this day, for David HAS NOT ASCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS” (Acts 2:29,34).  Only Jesus, having been born again, has ascended into heaven where He sits as a MAN beside His Father (1 Tim. 2:5).  When born again, all who have answered God’s call to holiness will rise to meet Him in the air, descend with Him to the Mount of Olives, go with Him into Jerusalem where He will establish the Kingdom of God.  If I was Satan I would not allow my victims to know that this is Scriptural.  And if they did learn this Truth I would cause them to reject it.  I would keep their minds focused on heaven where their loved ones are supposedly awaiting their arrival.

If I was Satan I would hide Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10, Psalm 115:17, Job 14:12,21, Ecclesiastes 9:6 and Psalm 146:4 from my unsuspecting followers.  I would not want them to know that “… the dead know nothing, neither have they any more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.  Their love, their hatred and their envy have all perished.  Neither have they any more part to play for ever in anything that is done under the sun.”  “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the place where you (man) will go.”  “The dead do not praise the Lord.” “So man lies down and does not rise up.  Until the heavens are no more man will not awake, nor be raised out of sleep.”  “His (the dead man’s) sons come to honor him and he does not know know it.  They are saddened, but he does not know it.  The dead cannot contact the living, nor do they know what the living are doing.”  The dead are dead and will remain dead until the appointed time of their resurrection.  I would keep this a secret.

If I was Satan I would not allow my people to know how long the dead will “sleep” (be dead).  I would hide 2 Peter 3:10 from them: “The day of the Lord will come … in the which the heavens will pass away.”  The dead will sleep until the great day of the Lord at the end of the world.  Until then the dead, whether holy or unholy, will remain “asleep.”

If I was Satan I would have my parishioners believing that their dead relatives and friends had been in heaven since the moment of their respective deaths.  I would hide from them the following words: “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, … and the dead in Christ WILL (then) rise … and so shall we (the risen) ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16,17).  “For we (the saints) will be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,  … and the dead WILL BE (then) raised incorruptible ….  For this corruptible (flesh) must become incorruptible, and this mortal (capable of death) must become immortal (1 Cor. 15:51-53).

If I was Satan I would not have my people wondering how, if true Christians are automatically taken to heaven upon death, they will rise from the grave upon His return to earth?  I would not have them discussing the point that, if the dead know nothing, do nothing, think nothing, say nothing, etc. in heaven, what was the point in going there?  Why would they be dead in heaven? and in preparation for Christ’s return, would they be transported back to their graves so that they could rise to meet Him in the air?  I would make sure that these questions never came up.

If I was Satan, my obedient Catholic/Protestant followers would be totally ignorant of the Biblical information concerning what is written in this message.   I would convince them that they are saved, born again and rapture ready, that all they need to know is John 3:16, and that everything else in the Bible is filler. L.J.