According to Webster’s Concise Dictionary of the English Language, to “consort” means to keep company, to form a union, to harmonize, to agree, to fellowship, to form a covenant. A “consortium” is an association formed to accomplish a goal. Let us examine God’s Word in order to see if such a union exists today within the world of professing Christendom today. And if so, who are the personalities involved in the consortium and what goal they are working toward.

As I have mentioned before, the Lord often arranges for me to hear or read the words of religious leaders that I would not ordinarily hear or read. The purpose or these often strange arrangements is always the same–ministry. The following is one of those instances. Many years ago I “stumbled upon” a newspaper article in which featured the leader of a religious cult that had been interviewed about his particular organization. Dressed in an other-worldly garb, complete with beard, shoulder length hair, sandals, etc.,  the “priest” being questioned was proclaiming that Jesus Christ and Satan (the “god of this world”–2 Cor. 4:4) had formed a union in which they worked together to save the souls of mankind. According to the priest, the two gods had agreed to perform their contrasting tasks according to their respective specialties–one negative and one positive. By pooling their efforts they were saving mankind. Due to their diametrically opposed personalities and strengths, the two gods had agreed upon a strict division of labor in which each one played off the other, the end result of which was salvation for all of  mankind.

According to the priest being interviewed, the fool-proof salvation system plays out as follows: At conception Satan miraculously injects Adam’s sin gene into the “spiritual dna” (my term) of his descendants, thereby making sin part of each human being’s “nature.” Because sin is part of man’s natural inheritance, he has no choice but to receive it and  to answer its “call.” Like an animal, man must act according to his sin “instinct” that is  instilled in him at conception. Satan having done his part, Jesus then comes to the rescue of helpless, sinning man. Having died for man’s sins, Jesus becomes man’s Savior. Through His death He provides grace by which man’s sins are forgiven. Because sin is an innate part of man’s spiritual dna, man sins naturally and repeatedly. Though he might struggle against nature’s pull, his efforts are to no avail. But because of Jesus’ continuous flow of grace toward sinning man, man’s sins are continuously forgiven following his continuous repentance. According to the priest, the system was then working flawlessly and, due to people dying every day, heaven was experiencing new arrivals continuously.

According to the article, the obscure “faith” only numbered a few thousand at that time (the early 1970’s as I recall). I remember wondering how such a cult could attract any parishioners at all. Following that one article I heard no more about the cult. Though I looked for other reports about it, the group seemed to have folded its religious tent and disappeared. Or so I thought. What I would later learn would reveal to me just how pervasive the cult’s theology was and how Satan exercises total control over its adherents. As I would later learn, the group is alive and well today, numbers in the billions and goes by the name “Christianity.” L.J.