|
 The
purpose of the devil is to attack the Word of God and destroy our faith.
We should not be surprised by the rise of false teachers and heretics.
When God's Holy Word
arises, it is always its lot that Satan opposes it with all his might. At
first, he rages against it with force and wicked power. If that promises
no success, he attacks it with false tongues and erring spirits and
teachers. What he is unable to crush by force he seeks to suppress by
cunning and lies. This was his strategy at the beginning. When the Gospel
first came into the world, he launched a mighty attack against it through
Jews and Gentiles, shed much blood, and filled Christendom with martyrs.
When this did not succeed, he raised false prophets and erring spirits and
filled the world with heretics... And we must be prepared for this, and by
no means allow it to disturb us, for so it must be, as Paul tells the
Corinthians: "There
must also be heresies among you that they which are approved may be made
manifest (1
Corinthians 11:19)."
We must stand firmly upon the Word of God.
All the
cunning of the devil is exercised in trying to tear us away from the Word.
If in the external preaching he does not succeed in making people
unwilling to hear the Word, yet he succeeds in the heart by persuading
them not to cling to it.
* All the
quotations are taken from the Ewald Plass, What Luther Says, (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1959), pp. 391-404.
"Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world" (1 Peter 5:8-9).
If you are a member of
the body of Christ, get ready to face a mad devil. You may not want to
think about it or even accept it - but if you have determined to follow
Jesus with all your heart, Satan has marked you for destruction. And he's
going to flood your life with troubles of all kinds.
The apostle Peter warns,
"The end of all things is at hand: be ye
therefore sober, and watch unto prayer" (4:7). He is saying, in
other words, "This is no time for lightness. You have to get sober-minded
about spiritual matters. It is an issue of life and death."
Why the need to be so
serious? The end of time is near - and our enemy has turned up the heat.
He is stalking us like a lion, hiding in the grass, waiting for an
opportunity to pounce. He wants to devour us - to utterly destroy our
faith in Christ.
Some Christians say we
shouldn't even talk about the devil, that we're better off just ignoring
him. Others try to reason him out of existence. Liberal theologians, for
example, argue that there is no devil, no hell, no heaven.
But the enemy of our
souls is not simply going to go away. Few biblical figures have been
identified so clearly and extensively. He is described as Lucifer, Satan,
devil, deceiver, hinderer, wicked one, usurper, imposter, accuser,
devourer, god of this world, ruler of darkness, old serpent.
These emphatic
descriptions tell me the devil is real. And we know from scripture that he
wields a very real power. Even now he is at work on the earth - in our
nations, cities, churches, homes and individual lives. And we dare not be
ignorant of his methods and strategies of warfare against us.
Mr.
Wilkerson goes on to explain that Satan has declared war three (3) times
which are as follows and are from the Book of Revelation, Chapter 12.
1. He first
declared war against almighty God himself. Revelation 12:7-9
2. A defeated Satan then declared his second war - this one
against God's son, Jesus Christ. Revelation 12:1-4
3. The devil declared his third and final war on the seed of
Christ. This means he is at war with every true believer on earth.
Revelation 12:12,13,17. (excerpts
from: David Wilkerson, December 27, 1999, Satan Seeks to Devour You
Message. Copyright © 1999 by World Challenge, Lindale, Texas, USA)
Above, we
have shown some of what Satan is about, we showed you how he has attacked
us to try to destroy our faith. We have shown you that Satan has declared
war on us. This should make you shiver. It is no cause to be afraid,
but just realizing that this is a war, not just a little pushing match we
are engaged in, is quite a lot to handle. Especially if you have any
doubts whatsoever with your faith.
I happen
to be one, who believes that Satan has gotten involved in the churches far
more than most expect or believe. I have seen some real sad examples
of how believers and unbelievers alike have fallen for the trappings that
Satan has laid out for them. Now don't misread what I am saying.
I am no different than anyone else in that I also have fallen for some
mighty stupid tricks that Satan pulled on me. I praise Almighty God
in Heaven for blessing me with the gift of Discernment. Discernment
is a wonderful and powerful gift of God through the Holy Spirit. It can be
such a blessing, but can also be a real burden to carry. One who
discerns in the Spiritual, Christian world can experience some mighty
difficult times indeed. But let us REJOICE for He who is in us is
greater than who is against us.
Ways Satan has
invaded the Church.
God's authority taken
from Him
What has happened is that Satan has slowly but
surely convinced certain men and women that they are duplicates of God.
That they are working under the same anointing as Jesus was. That
they have all the powers that Jesus had. That they are on the same
level as Jesus was. That they are special in the fact that they are
to be followed as if they were Jesus Himself. You see this type of
practice in many different churches and ministries around the world.
I must admit though, that most of the deceivers are from the United
States. Even so far that ones who deceive that are from another
country, somehow hear from God Himself telling them that they are to move
to the United States. We have quoted in many different articles
remarks such as "We are Gods".
(see
Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Paul Crouch).
We are not a church of
division
What we are talking about here is the idea that
churches must make it a part of the Doctrine, basically saying that we
will not cause strife. We will not say anything that may cause
someone's feelings to get hurt. We cannot talk about sin and the
punishment to the unbelievers because there might be someone in the pew
who is a sinner and they will feel so uncomfortable that they may not come
back again. I have had preachers tell me that they cannot say
certain things because if a person get offended and leaves, then they
never get a change to reach them. I guess my question to that is
this. Reach them with what?
If you are not going to talk about sin or damnation to the ones who reject
Christ, then how are you going to actually convince a person that they are
living in sin and that God/Jesus loves them so much that He is willing to
forgive them of their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness.
There is no way to do this without the person first knowing and realizing
that they are sinners and must be saved by grace. Without the
complete message, especially the Cross message, how can anyone know what
they are supposed to be turning from in the first place. Satan has
convinced so many preachers of this false message of the watered down
gospel.
All you need is love
John Lennon wrote a song with this title trying to
convince the listener of his music that all the world really needed was
love and everything would be alright. John Lennon wrote another song
that is used as his anthem song called "Imagine". You can hear
people all the time saying things like: "This song is so real", or "Isn't
this just the greatest song". They have been coerced into believing
anything they hear al long as it sounds good. But, they don't care
enough to listen to what the words are actually saying. In the song
Imagine, John Lennon says things like: "Imagine there's no Heaven", "No
Hell below us", "It's easy if you try", and so many believe it just
because it sounds right in the song. Unfortunately, too many pew sitters
(a term I use for those who sit in
the pews just because it's Church, but have no idea what they are being
taught and fall for anything just because it sounds right or they love the
preacher and he is a man of God so he can't be telling them anything bad,
could he)
that have fallen for the same message. Not to be alone in this
category, there are also too many preachers who have also fallen for the
same message. It sounds right, "Dad" Hagin said it, so it must be
right. Where is the discernment that the Bible speaks of? Sadly, it
is left at home. This message of "all you need is love" is partially
right. You do need love and lots of it. But, you also must be able
to speak and hear the whole Word of God which is not just love but
Love,
Compassion, Wisdom,
Holiness, Forgiveness,
Truth, Glory,
Joy, Sovereignty,
Grace, Wrath,
Power, Righteousness,
and Goodness.
There is a myth going around that convinces so many to believe that you
can just "Love" someone to Jesus. I do not adhere to that Doctrine.
You may show the love of Jesus and that is good, but even if a person says
I want to be like you because you are so loving and compassionate, that is
not enough. You will still have to tell them the story of how they
are born a sinner and cannot and are not qualified enough to enter Heaven
until they repent of their sins, believe on Jesus that He died for them,
rose again and is coming again. Once you do that, you are preaching
more than the love message and that is where so many fall short.
They just refuse to preach anything but love, thinking they are doing
anyone a service. In reality they are doing their parishioners a
disservice and also are doing a disservice to God. Satan works in so
many deceiving ways doesn't he.
Conclusion
Satan is the master of deception. He works in any
little way he can to get into your mind and convince you that there are
many ways to get to Heaven when in actuality there is only one.
Jesus said it Himself,
"Jesus saith unto him, I am
the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by
me." John 14:6 KJV
We do
pray this article has been of help to you in your search for the Truth.
Blessings,
Robert Wise |