|
Satan beguiled Eve into doubting God's word that she would
surely die if she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
His clever spin on the truth deceived Eve into believing the penalty God had promised (spiritual and
eventual physical death) would not
come to pass and that something desirable would come out of her disobedience--"ye
shall be as gods."
Satan's goal has not changed; he continues to
cause God's people to
believe that if they live after the flesh they will not die (Romans 8: 13) and
if they sow to the flesh they will not reap corruption. (Galatians
6:8) He continues his attempts to trick Christians into beholding the
goodness of God while ignoring His severity. He tells them they may
discontinue in God's goodness and surely they will not be cut off.
(Rom.
11:22) He promises God's people that they may be servants of sin but it will not
be unto death. (Rom. 6:16)
Satan's words, through the serpent, contained some
truth, didn't they? Through devious cunning, he managed to weave truth and lies
together in a manner that deceived Eve who, up to that point in time, had never
sinned (disobeyed God).
Satan's method of mixing truth and
lies is his primary mode of operation. If he presented lies all by themselves without the
framework of truth, he would be easily spotted as an infiltrator and cast
out. Because of Satan's supernatural cunning, his false prophets are able
to deceive even the elect...if it were possible.
One thing is certain...it will not be possible for the elect to be
deceived by Satan if they obey the Bible and "make their calling and
election sure" by continuing to "acknowledge the truth which is after
godliness" and refuse to entertain doctrines of devils no matter how
pleasingly they are presented.
Peter wrote, "But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in
damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction." (2 Peter 2:1)
Peter made it clear that there will be false teachers among us who will
bring in damnable heresies. Damnable heresies are doctrines that, if believed, will bring damnation. This is
a serious warning.
Peter explained the specific manner the false teachers
would bring in these heresies--privily. Privily means privately, secretly, or in a sneaky
manner. The
damnable heresies would be brought into the church in a sly, wily way so as to
not be detected by the brethren. In order for these heresies to be
successfully brought into the church in a secretive way, they would need to be
presented to the brethren in a crafty manner so they would not know they were
being indoctrinated.
False brethren always come in privily so as not to be detected. They
don't announce they are Satanic infiltrators and start preaching damnable lies
in sharp contrast to the pure truth of the Holy Bible. This would be too
obvious, and would hinder them in their goal of subverting the souls of the
saints.
They come in posing as Christians and begin to lay the foundation for the
heresies they intend to bring into the church. It has taken some many years
to lay the foundation to build the credibility needed to begin to tamper with
major doctrines of the Christian faith, but that doesn't deter them. In
keeping with their master's goals they have paced themselves and patiently
laid the foundation for the time that is now upon us--the falling away.
Jesus spoke of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand:
"And
every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall
be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and when the
rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house and it fell: and great was the fall of it."--(Matthew
7:26-27)
Just as Satan worked through the serpent to convince Eve to disobey God's
command, false teachers, empowered by Satan, do the same thing. They work
at a foundational level to beguile the Christian into abandoning the goal of
building his house upon the
rock, which is the Rock--the Lord Jesus Christ.
They accomplish this by convincing the Christian to doubt God's
commands--"Yea, hath God really said? Well, maybe I won't really
spiritually die if I take the mark of the beast...if I take it under forced
conditions"--and thus the ensnared believer begins to doubt God's clearly
written word. Once
this is achieved the Christian begins to build his house upon the sand of
disobedience, and when the rains of persecutions and tribulations come and beat
upon his house, the fall of that Christian will be great indeed--especially if
he falls for the damnable lie that he could possibly get away with taking the
mark of the beast as long as he did not choose it! He will fall
straight into the Lake of Fire!
Remember that Peter warned about false teachers
among the people would bring in
damnable heresies that even deny the Lord that bought them. He
wrote that these false prophets would "with feigned words" make
merchandise of the brethren.
There are many ways Christians are being
deceived by false teachers into denying the Lord who bought them. One way, of
course, is by being taught that one can remain a Christian after receiving the mark
of the beast under a certain circumstance such as not choosing it, or by
being led to believe the Bible is not abundantly clear as to whether a Christian
may take the mark of the beast or not. These are feigned words, contrary to the Holy
Bible and to sound doctrine and are to be rejected by the godly who "hold
fast the faithful word as he hath been taught." (see Titus
1:9)
By God's grace, we must not be like those who will not endure sound doctrine but turn
their ears away from the truth unto fables, which are feigned stories or tales,
intended to instruct or amuse. We must keep ourselves from being made
merchandise of with feigned words by refusing to partake of the sin of willingly
turning away from the truth unto fables.
return to:
Exposing Satan's Snares in the Church
|