With minutely few individual exceptions, Satan’s power over the religious world is total (Mat. 7:13,14/ Rev. 12:9). His Bait and Switch program has served him superbly as over two billion self-designated “Christians” routinely pay homage to him while believing they are serving and obeying the Biblical God. Like a child who was kidnapped in infancy, God-seekers who have been lured into the devil’s religious web do not know that they have been sold a bill of religious goods. They grow up, live and die not knowing that what they have believed throughout their lives was a lie because the ones they trusted lied to them.

In the distant past businesses would offer small paper sacks stuffed with an unknown quality–pieces of candy–to children who would pay a nickle for what was called a “grab bag”–we paid our money and took our chances. But no matter what combination of goodies we found in the bag, the product was never equal to the nickle we paid for it–it never lived up to the advertisement. But time and again we shelled out our money for an unknown quality. Today in the secular world one who is suckered into doing such a thing is said to have “bought a hog” or a “pig in a poke.”  In the past our foolish acts were based on ignorance: we were ignorant of what was inside the bags, and we ignorantly assumed that those who offered the bags were not fooling us. Being children, we failed to realize that we were being “taken for a ride.” Fortunately, such opportunities to buy something sight unseen were few and far between. A steady diet of the sweet things inside those bags would have killed all of us.

In the spiritual realm, the “grab bag” scenario perfectly describes the process by which Satan lures people into his religious web. See Bait and Switch. The “bag” represents the church system–the “bait” (salvation). The “candy” represents the “switch” (reality). Like children of long ago who could not tell the difference between good and bad sweets, “hog buyers” never realize that the “candy” they are eating is hazardous to their spiritual health. Unlike the children of yesteryear who only occasionally ate the physical junk food, the church consumes a steady diet of spiritual poison. But like those who lured children into buying various flavored sugar by making it so alluring, false prophets make their promises of salvation equally alluring to those yearning for spiritual sweetness. Only a few bother to check out the ingredients before indulging. And of those who do, most consume it anyway in the belief that it doesn’t matter as long as the word “God” is attached to it. The tiny group that refuses what is offered by the church and the world is called God’s “remnant”–His church.

The visuals, the trappings, the smooth words, the promises, the friendly smiles, the warm feeling of rightness, etc. are all designed by Satan and ignorantly produced by his sweet-craving followers to entice God-seekers into one of his religious organizations (Christianity, Islam, etc.). No matter what system one “buys,” the product is the same–false religion. We are continuously told by those who believe that God will save the United States from herself if her religious people (70%) will only unite. We are assured that it doesn’t matter what church one affiliates with, if believers will all come together and seek Him He will hear their prayers and “save their land.” Without fail the same Scripture is invoked by each person or group beseeching the Lord to help the nation–2 Chronicles 7:14: “If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then Will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land.” The reason God does not hear and answer their prayers is shouted from His written Word hundreds of times: those who call themselves by His name are not His people because they have rebelled against Him. They refuse to humble themselves before Him, confess their sins, turn from their wicked ways (religiosity) and seek His face (believe and obey His Word) in order to have their sins forgiven. This website points out the many ways in which their rebellion is carried out, what God-defined sin is, and the nature of true humility, repentance and conversion. Those with eyes to see and ears to hear search God’s Word to determine real Truth. Those who refuse to do so go back to church.To be continued. L.J.