Reason number two why Satan hates God’s true saints is because they refuse to become a part of his church system (Catholicism/Protestantism). In a series titled Bait and Switch I explain how the devil lures people to “come to the Lord,” “take Jesus as your personal Savior,” etc., then entices them to leave the spiritual track that would lead them to the Biblical God, take a side track that Satan causes to look like God’s track, then follow it to “the church of your choice.” Some, the “few” God writes about in Matthew 7:13,14, refuse to be sidetracked and to become part of the devil’s Counterfeit Church system. The vast majority, the Lord tells us, answer the devil’s siren call to death and destruction.

Those who refuse to answer God’s call to enter His strait gate and walk His narrow path have been warned for thousands of years of the consequences of rejecting Him. His messengers continue to warn God seekers today but with little effect. By keeping church people ignorant of his wiles and ways, Satan has successfully blinded them from God’s Truth–His Word (Jn. 17:17). Those whom Satan has deceived into following him refuse to listen to God’s call to avoid “the church” at all costs. The devil’s false prophets warn his followers to reject those whom God uses to proclaim this Truth.  Since the Garden of Eden all of the Lord’s ministerial servants have proclaimed His warning, which cost some of them their lives. One such servant was the Apostle Paul.

Paul’s most graphic commanded for God’s people to have nothing to do with Satan’s church system is found in his second letter to the church located in the city of Corinth. In chapter six verses six through chapter seven verse one the apostle reminds God seekers to resist Satan’s call to join unbelievers in their churches. Over the following verses he warns them and us that strict separation is necessary because there can be no fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, between light and darkness, between followers of Christ and infidels, between the temple of God (the true saint) and idols (crosses, fish, pictures, statues, etc.). Therefore, the Lord’s people must come out of Catholicism/Protestantism and remain separated from it because, he warns, they are spiritually “unclean.” God’s people must separate themselves from Satan’s people whenever spiritual things are involved. Then, and only then, He tells us, He will be our God and we will be His people.

Paul tells us in this passage that in order to receive these promises we must cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and achieve perfect holiness in the fear of God. By keeping oneself pure from the false gospels of professing Christendom one will not fall prey to Satan’s powers of persuasion. Separation from all things unscriptural (unclean) enables the saint to “Resist the devil” so that he (Satan) will “flee” from him/her (Jam. 4:7). Maintaining an acceptable (spiritual) distance from those who serve Satan enables one to overcome him as did Jesus, thereby making oneself eligible for salvation (Rev. 3:21). L.J.