God goes to great lengths to warn His people about the reality and power of Satan by using such Scriptures as Galatians 2:4/Jude 1:4 and 2 Corinthians 11:3,4,13,14. In the latter we are given the most telling description of him–he disguises himself as an “angel of light.” Recall that Jesus described Himself and His disciples as “… the light of the world.” He added that their light is not to be placed under a covering, but is to be put on a candlestick so as to give light to everyone who enters the room. That which made Jesus and the disciples “lights” was the Word of God. In 2 Corinthians the Lord, through the Apostle Paul, warned the church that the devil would come preaching great-sounding sermons. Through a winning smile he, through his false prophets, would tell them what they wanted to hear. Go to church next Sunday, turn on your t.v. or radio at most any time and you will hear what God warned us about.

What in the past was done in back rooms with only a few participants has gone mainstream. Demonic spirits, using the bodies and tongues of human hosts, claim to be uber-religious, caring people whose God-ordained job is to bring light and knowledge to those seeking such. These are wizards, witches, psychics and astrologers who operate under the power of Satan’s demons. What makes them so insidious is that they know facts, usually about the dead, that they should not know. They make themselves believable by telling people things about the dead that, as strangers, they have no way of knowing except through the spiritual realm. And in that anything spiritual is automatically assumed to be of God, Satan’s demon-influenced messengers are assumed to be what they claim to be–messengers from the Lord.

Because of the deceptive power of Satan and his spirit helpers, the Catholic/Protestant system of worship appears to be Truth-based and spiritually illuminating. But upon comparison to the Word of God we find that those within the so-called “Christian ministry” simply borrow enough Truth from His Word to appear legitimate, mix it with a large amount of Babylonian theology and call it “the word of the Lord.” Professing Christianity’s two billion plus parishioners, not having bothered to study God’s Word as commanded (2 Tim. 2:15), are low-hanging fruit for the devil. But they were warned.

In John 8:44 Jesus is speaking to the religious leaders of His day, words that are just as applicable to our current crop of leaders whom Satan has “transformed into ministers of righteousness” (2 Cor. 11:15): “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the Truth because there is no Truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it.” In the Garden of Eden Satan led Adam and Eve to believe and obey the exact opposite of what they ADMITTED THAT GOD HAD SAID TO THEM. Parishioners world-wide shake their heads and wonder, often aloud, how Adam and Eve could have been so deceived. Yet they do the exact same thing every Sunday and Wednesday when they agree with their hireling when he/she tells them the exact opposite of what God has told them in His Word. The Church of Eden and the Counterfeit Church reject God’s Word and embrace Satan’s Word because he tells them what they want to hear–smooth words, lies and deceits (Isa. 30:10). Using a multitude of false prophets, the devil has led billions of people to believe the opposite of what God tells them in His Bible–the most purchased and least read book ever printed. Just as the belief that belonging to a church is proof of salvation and rebirth, carrying a Bible is considered proof that one is in right standing with God. A combination of the two provide proof positive that heaven is one’s next stop, especially if one also wears a cross somewhere on one’s person, or has a statue on one’s car dash/or a fish on one’s car trunk, or a religious sticker on one’s car bumper, or wears a What Would Jesus Do bracelet, or ….  To be continued. L.J.