Both Old and New Testaments reveal that, with extremely rare exception, Satan dominates the religious world. Second Kings 1 is a case in point.

The Prophet Elijah had done the following: withheld rain in the land of Israel for three years; brought rain to Israel; brought fire from heaven to consume his water-soaked sacrifice; killed 450 prophets of Baal and correctly prophesied King Ahab’s and Queen Jezebel’s deaths. In spite of these undeniable proofs of God’s power in the prophet’s life, King Ahaziah had the temerity to order him into his presence, sending 51 soldiers to take him captive and bring him before the potentate. When the soldiers arrived at the hill upon which he was sitting, Elijah called down fire from heaven that killed all of them. Ahaziah sent 51 more soldiers to fetch Elijah, all of whom died where they stood as Elijah once again called down fire from on high. Undeterred, the king sent 51 more soldiers after him. Considering what had happened to the first 102 soldiers, who could have convinced the king to send yet another contingent to capture the prophet? And who could have convinced the soldiers to go?  The same one who convinced the religious hierarchy to confront Jesus generations later. As we will see, nothing has changed in the spiritual world.

In John 3:2 we find a pharisee named Nicodemus saying to Him, “We know that you are a man sent from God.” In Matthew 22:16 a group has come to Him, saying, “We know that you are true and teach the way of God in truth.” YET THEY ALL REFUSED TO OBEY HIM. Question: who has such power over people, specifically religious people? Answer: the same one who has convinced the multiplied billions who profess Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, etc. that they can deny the Biblical God’s Word, defy Him, reject His Lordship over their lives, openly flaunt their rebellion against Him, declare to the world that their way is superior to His, create their own religions, train ministers of their own choosing in their ways and dictate to them what they will teach, THEN REJECT THE WORDS OF THOSE WHOM GOD SENDS TO TELL THEM HIS TRUTHS. Because His Truths are addressed only to those who profess to be His people, I will limit my discourse to professing Christendom.

Over the past dozen or so years I have repeatedly proclaimed God’s Truth concerning the “doctrines of devils” Satan has convinced the church to embrace. Having repeatedly brought forth God’s Words which clearly refute such doctrines, I will refrain from doing so again in this posting. However, the question remains: why do those who profess God and His Word so adamantly refuse to obey that which they proclaim to know and believe? The answer is provided in Revelation 12:9: Satan has deceived the whole world. His initial deception in the Garden of Eden formed the foundation for all the other wool he has subsequently pulled over the spiritual eyes of professing Christendom. It all began with him telling Eve that she and Adam could reject God’s Words and “… not surely die.” The lie still lives in the hearts of those who call themselves by God’s name. This was verbalized by a woman who retorted to the sin question, “Don’t worry about sin; after all, God will forgive you.” Which prompted me to come up with a couple of ditties: “Sin and grin, my friend, for in the end, you still win.” “Pie in the sky, sin till you die, for in the sweet by ‘n by, you’ll still get to fly.” And Satan smiles.

So convincing is Satan that, following a supposed instantaneous salvation and rebirth at the completion of a prescribed ritual, religious man continues to believe that the door to paradise is permanently opened to him–the heavenly fix is in. Such belief has opened the door to man’s self-destruction. With eternal life guaranteed, he need not obey God in that he has become his own determiner of right and wrong, which is the lie Satan told Adam and Eve. Not only that, but man has been allowed to embrace another god–Tammuz–one of the many gods worshiped by the masses of heathen that have flooded into the professing church (Catholicism/Protestantism). Today, heathen theology rules that Satan-dominated religious conglomerate. To her Jesus speaks:

“Not every one who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven (His modern day church), but he who does the will of My Father …. Many will say to Me on that (judgment) day, ‘Lord, Lord, we have prophesied (preached) in Your name, and have cast out devils and performed many wonderful works in Your name.’ And then I will say unto them, ‘I never knew you, depart from Me you who work iniquity (practice lawlessness)'” (Mat. 7:21-23). Then later He said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. In vain do they worship Me, teaching for (instead of My) doctrines the commandments (theology) of men” (Mat. 15:8,9). Notice that these people witness, preach, serve in religious capacities, cast out demons and perform wonderful works in Christ’s name. Note also that they do in fact WORSHIP HIM. But note also that it is all IN VAIN because they DO NOT OBEY HIM. Recall that when the woman at the well confessed that she worshiped the same God Jesus worshiped, He told her that she did not know who she was worshiping. The same holds true for the Institutional Church–she thinks she is worshiping Him but is in fact worshiping Satan. L.J.