With extremely rare exception, when the Counterfeit Church is confronted with a God’s-Word-versus- Satan’s-word situation, Satan wins–the church overcomes God, the same God she claims has saved her and is awaiting her in heaven. See Life after Death …. Satan has deceived her completely (Rev. 12:9), so completely that when shown God’s Truth she dismisses it without the slightest hesitation. Like “water off a duck’s back,” she sheds God’s Word without a second thought. So completely has the devil fooled her that she sees no need not consider even for a moment that she might be wrong. And being already “saved” and “born again,” sin on her part is irrelevant. She looks at what God designates as sin and, if the act is in accordance with her doctrinal views, declares His statement null and void. And if she should agree with God about a sin issue and find herself guilty, all is well–either Grace or Mary will “take care of it.” Either way, Satan wins and remains as her head.

The devil wins because he has convinced the church to equate “REPENTING” with “OVERCOMING.” According to the religious masses, one sins due to Adam’s failure, repents of that which one has no control over (sin), then calls the process “overcoming” that has led to “victory” which she claims to have because she is “in Jesus.” Her version of “victory” means that she will not be held accountable for her sins. The church’s concept of “overcoming” does not involve beating Satan as Jesus commands that we do (Rev. 3:21) in order to be with Him throughout eternity. It involves admitting Satan’s mastery over her while relaxing in the knowledge that it simply doesn’t matter.

Religious man does not bother himself with overcoming Satan because he has been taught from day one that that has already been done for him. According to church doctrine, Jesus, by His death, has enabled churchman to sin with impunity, content in the knowledge that Jesus has overcome the penalty for sin. Man’s responsibilities are to try to cut back on sinning, remember to repent after each sin, obey church doctrines and savor the “victory” until Jesus returns to snatch him up to heaven. Or should he die before the “rapture” his “victory” guarantees that he will be taken to heaven immediately upon breathing his last breath. Satan smiles as he hides God’s Words from the minds of his followers, words which demand that if your right eye (or hand) offends you (causes you to sin), pluck it (or cut it off) out and cast it from you, for it is better to enter the Kingdom of God with one eye or hand rather than to burn in hell (Mat. 5:29,30). In other words, WE MUST OVERCOME SATAN USING GOD’S HOLY SPIRIT POWER; WE MUST WORK AT RIGHTEOUSNESS AS IF OUR ETERNAL LIVES DEPENDS ON IT–WHICH IT DOES. Victory over Satan can only be affected by using God’s Holy Spirit. Like electrical power that a supplier has provided, WE MUST USE IT. Churchman disagrees, contending that he need only trust Jesus to make his sins disappear as quickly as he can repent of them, that his faith in Him is sufficient.

But there is a problem with this scenario for those who have the will to search God’s Word for Truth. What such a God-seeker finds is that Jesus did not say that we, through faith in Him, have overcome the penalty for sin. Rather, he finds Jesus saying that we must overcome sin itself. See Be Ye Therefore Perfect.  The church, upon hearing such “heresy” shouts “Not so–we are incapable of overcoming Satan and his ways due to Adam’s sin gene that inhabits our spiritual DNA. Therefore, being a slave to sin, we need merely repent following each sin in order to gain ‘the victory.'” According to the church masses, serial sin followed by serial repentance equals “victory.” This is religious man’s version of Revelation 3:21 where Jesus tells us that in order to join Him in the Kingdom of God, we must “… overcome (sin/Satan) as I overcame (it/him).” Notice that He said HE HIMSELF HAD TO OVERCOME SATAN AND SIN in order to join the Father. In 3:21 He tells us that we must do exactly as He did in order to join the Father as He has. Again, the church refutes the Words of the Lord, contending that overcoming Satan is not remotely possible, and that any suggestion that we are to obey Jesus in this regard comes from the mentally deranged who are steeped in heresy. Religiosity/churhivity, church members are assured, is all that is needed to make it to paradise. Truly, Satan has deceived the whole world. L.J.