In His message to the church at Thyatira (Acts 2:18-24) Jesus speaks to the congregation concerning a problem that is causing discord.  The instigator is a woman named Jezebel who is leading some of the people, evidently many of them, to sin.  He evaluates the problem as among the worst possible.  He labels it “the depths of Satan.”  Are these congregations actually God’s churches?  In the first chapter  Jesus tells John that He would dictate letters which John was to send to “… the seven CHURCHES in Asia” (vs 11).  In verse 20 Jesus again identifies the recipients of His messages as CHURCHES.  The letters would be sent to the “angels” (Gk–aggelos–messengers/pastors) of those churches who would read them to their respective congregations.  Note it: Jesus Himself called these groups CHURCHES.  What were His messages?

In His messages to the CHURCHES Jesus chastises them for allowing sinful people to REMAIN IN THEIR MIDST (vss 2:5,9,14,20/ 3:1,17).  Here is our first example of the “depths (worst acts) of Satan.”  He had in every case deceived the churches into allowing people to not only REMAIN IN THE CHURCHES, but to HAVE INFLUENCE on their fellow parishioners.  This influence is otherwise called “leaven” which, if allowed to remain in a church, will eventually defile the entire congregation.  What begins as “inclusion” and “non-judgmental attitudes” becomes accepted as being “accepted by God.”  Such are the “wiles of the devil” (Eph. 6:11) which a congregation must “STAND AGAINST” and “REMOVE” from their midst.

A perfect example of the actions that must be taken by true saints is found in 1 Corinthians 5:1-7 where we find the Apostle Paul chastising that church for allowing sin (leaven) to infect the entire church (loaf), causing them to be “puffed up” with pride because they were so proudly progressive–going beyond God’s set standards of right and wrong.  Sound familiar?  It should, for that is exactly what is happening within professing Christendom as sexual deviants of all sorts are allowed in, embraced and not required to convert to the Biblical standard in order to remain within the church.  “Come as you are; stay as you are” has become the counterfeit church’s mantra.  Read Homosexuality: Christian Alternative or Biblical Abomination?  Key word–Alternative.  As that series proves Biblically, by allowing such spiritual sickness into invade the congregation causes the people to be “at ease with the disease,” socially known as “sleeping with the enemy.”

The ultimate question is, how did Satan enter the church in the first place?  God tells us in Isaiah 59:3 where we find the prophet telling the Israelites then and the church now: “Sin has separated you from your God.”  Sin results in a lack of oneness with God, resulting in the loss of His power.  This leaves the church member with only his own devices and his own power with which to fight the devil who is intent on controlling him.  With God’s power missing, Satan’s devils invade the individual with any number of effects–spiritual, mental, physical, etc.  All such problems are spiritual in nature as the Holy Scriptures make plain.  Allowing ourselves to sin makes us individual targets and turns the church into what the military calls a “target rich environment.”  In this way Satan and his fallen angels control the entirety of professing Christendom.

If expelling church sinners is not possible due to their superior numbers, God’s saints must leave such a congregation, which God calls an “unclean thing” and never return–never “touch” it.  The Lord speaks directly to this situation in 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1.  Read  Touching: Satan’s Most Destructive Weapon of Mass Destruction.  Key word–Touching.

Satan is allowed into the churches and given power over the congregation because God is not there.  He refuses to abide in a heart or a church where He is not believed, obeyed, honored and worshiped.  Note in His letter to the church at Laodicea Jesus “stands at (outside) the door” (heart) of the sinning church and “knocks” (Rev. 3:20).  Those who hear His “voice” and respond He will come in (into his heart/mind) and sup (commune) with him.  In those days people did not “knock” on the door as we do today.  Visitors called out to those inside.  In Acts 12:12-14 we find Peter “knocking” at the door of a home and a young woman inside recognizing Peter’s “voice.”  In this way those inside know whether to allow the visitor in  (Acts 12:12-14).

Satan is indeed wiley (Gr.–methodeia–scheming, crafty).  I explore this Truth in a series titled Bait and Switch.  Key word–Bait.  When the Serpent of Eden talked with Eve he called the Almighty by the name “God” and quoted Him verbatim.  This caused her to assume that he believed God and was on good terms with Him.  When he later called God a liar she not only believed him, she convinced Adam to believe Him and convinced him to partake of the forbidden fruit.  Such is the deceptive power of the enemy of God.  To see how persuasive he is, look at the number of different types of churches there are and how many different “Bible truths” are found among them.  And Satan laughs.

Amazingly, there are some church people who do not believe that Satan exists.  And what is even more incredible, some church people do not believe in God.  To them, “God” and “Satan” are nothing more than innate forces for good and evil respectively found in all people.”  Both being “natural” in man, one’s character at any given moment depends on which is maintaining the upper hand at that time.  Such forces are not recognized as actual thinking, acting, powerful beings.    Satan is indeed “wiley.”

For a list of the kinds of “truths” Satan has deceived the Institutional Church into embracing, read the Introduction to this website.  Those church “truths” are universally-embraced beliefs and practices that billions of people have lived by and practiced for over 1700 years.  Yet, as I prove time and again Scripturally, they are all lies straight from the heart of Satan.  And woe unto the intrepid soul who points this out to them using their own Bibles.  I have received letters and phone calls from irate churchites telling me how wrong God is and how I, having fallen from grace and in dire need of salvation, which can be obtained only in their church.  Anyone who doubts the power of Satan and his fallen angels (“devils”), is calling God a liar, thereby following in the footsteps of their god–the serpent of Eden.

Perhaps the most striking evidence of the depth of Satan’s power over professing Christendom is the fact that she totally rejects Ephesians 4:4-6 where the Apostle Paul states that there is only ONE body (church), one Lord and one God.  In that the members of each “church” believe that their church, and only their church is THE ONE body of Christ.  In that each church body must have a head, and in that the head is Jesus Christ Who’s Father is God ….   This means that each one of the different churches constitutes the “body of Christ.”  Each body must have a head, which means that Christ, having many bodies, must have many heads.  Which means that Christ is divided.  Paul asks: “Is Christ divided?  God forbid” (1 Cor. 1:13).  Paul told that church that if someone presented another Jesus, some of them would embrace him.  This is exactly what each “church/body” within Catholicism/Protestantism has done.  Each church has created its own Jesus.  Each Jesus has a Father.  Therefore there are hundreds of God and Christ duos, each duo having its own path to salvation.  Only Satan could orchestrate such an ungodly mess.  Only he could convince billions of people that the mess was created by God.  L.J.