Quoting Scripture is one of Satan’s most effective ploys.  In Eden he quoted the Lord: “Did God say you could not eat of every tree of the garden?” which was exactly what God had said.  He did not tell his marks that he wanted to replace God as their leader; they would have known that something was amiss.  By quoting God he gained their trust.  The rest was easy.   His “better way” was easy and enjoyable in that it did not involve the Lord’s strict edicts.  Adam and Eve believed him; the rest is history.  Today the spiritual descendants of the Church of Eden are following in their progenitors’ footsteps by rejecting the Word of the Lord in favor of Satan’s more man-centered, user-friendly method(s).  His apostles, having been deceived by him, follow in his footsteps.  For this reason God’s ministers have never ceased to warn the religious masses about false prophets who would present themselves as “ministers of righteousness” in order to lead them astray (2 Cor. 11:15).  Our warnings have fallen on deaf ears.

In Jude 4 the apostle referred to those ministers who were following the Serpent of Eden by turning God’s grace into licentiousness–a license to sin.  They were teaching the people that, because of God’s grace, faith was all that was needed for salvation, thereby “… denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Even with grace, faith without works (obedience) is dead faith which saves no one (Jam. 2:26).  James and Jude were not the only ones warning the church about Satan’s ministers in their midst.

In 2 Peter 3:16 we find the apostle warning the Church of God about “… untaught and unstable men who wrest (twist) the Scriptures to their own destruction,” and about being “… led away (from God) by the error of the wicked.”  Paul repeatedly warned the church about false prophets whose goal was to draw people away from God and to themselves in order to form splinter groups which today are called “denominations.”  The hundreds of such groups existing in today’s world are proof positive that the church-dividers were successful.  Each denomination was started by a false prophet in search of a following.  For some 2000 years the bogus church has rejected God’s words of warning.  And as He said through Jude, her end will be destruction.

For many generations God’s Old Testament prophets continually warned His people about those who were deceiving them.  Their response? “Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isa. 30:10).  The modern church exhibits the same reaction to the Truth of God when it is presented to them.  To assure that they hear only what they want to hear, the various sects comprising the Counterfeit Church system indoctrinate their ministers with the “correct” doctrines, license them, then hold a paycheck over their heads to insure compliance with their dictates.  Being hirelings, their ministers know that to preach/teach anything contrary to the company line will bring about their dismissal, the loss of income and shame for having “abandoned God.”  So far I have found not one minister who will abandon his security blanket, trust God and speak His Word.  Tragically, financial reward and social acceptance triumph over Truth and trust in God.  But not to worry, after all, they are all saved.  And Satan smiles.

But faithlessness is not exclusively a ministerial problem.  Parishioners are almost as hard to deal with as their hirelings.  I have found that it is extremely difficult to convince church people to believe the Word of God.  Once Satan’s flesh-pleasing doctrines have been instilled and the Scripturally unlearned have been assured that they are saved, born again, sanctified and rapture-ready, it is nigh unto impossible to convince people that they have been deceived by the great deceiver (Rev. 12:9), that many, if not most of the things they have heard coming from pulpit and podium all their lives are smooth things, lies and deceits.  It has been my experience that, even after being shown that they are wrong and God is right, religious man will stay the course, preferring to trust their leaders who have convinced them that, in that they are “saved,” there is no need to believe and obey God.  The fix is in–no matter how often or how openly they defy God, Jesus’ death insured that they would not have to pay the consequences.  I can almost hear Satan hiss: “You shall not surely die.”