To put the matter in a single phrase, the greatest deception of Satan is to prompt you, me and everyone in the world to believe that he is not Satan. He manipulates us to accept something quite opposite. Satan wants people to believe that he is a righteous spirit being who has nothing but your interest (and the interest of all human beings on earth) as his chief desire and that his ultimate goal is to promote your welfare and prosperity. Truly, he wants you to succeed and be prosperous if you will only do things his way. Using the vernacular of the present day, though Satan is truly a bad guy (the worst of the worst), he projects himself to the world and to you and me as a good guy (the best of the best) and Satan has accomplished his task quite effectively. Truthfully, however, Christ Jesus accurately called Satan a murderer from the beginning. He goes about as a roaring lion to devour whom he might, but the impression that Satan wishes to give of himself is utterly different. He wants to express to the world (and to you and me) the very opposite characteristics. And believe me, Satan has managed to pull off the grandest subterfuge ever conceived in the history of the world.
This Doctrinal Report will give four propositions which will demonstrate how the deceptions of Satan work within the environment of our world societies. This Report will reveal the real attitude of Satan with a proper biblical description of Satan’s methods and desires. It will show his tactics that most people in the world do not recognize as originating from Satan. It is time for people in the world to be introduced to the methods of the real Satan, the Satan that most people do not know. For the first time some people will finally discover just what Satan is concocting to influence human kind and why you and I should recognize that we ourselves have been deceived by Satan and that we need to resist him and his deceptive ways.
WHO IS THE REAL SATAN?
The real Satan is more clever than most people imagine and God has given him extensive powers in order to deceive people, and the deceived includes even the most learned and intellectual people of this world. In truth, God the Father and Christ Jesus have given Satan orders to practice his deception on this gullible and unwary world, and Satan has been highly successful in his task. You see, the Godhead in heaven created Satan and his angelic helpers to perform their work of deception on this world in order to confuse the world into believing that Satan is actually the true God and that he is the spirit power who is to be obeyed. At the same time, the Godhead has also issued orders to all whom they have called to understand the truth (such as you and I) to resist this negative element in human existence manifested by Satan and his angels.
Actually, Satan and his evil angels have been created by God for an ultimate good purpose. And for us there is hope. Believe it or not, the Godhead has created Satan and his evil powers to be a negative force to help us who are God’s own children to learn discipline and to be able to distinguish proper instructions concerning good and evil that the Father and Christ have given us to obey.
"What?" you might say. "Martin, do you actually mean that God the Father and Jesus Christ have created Satan the Devil to do a job on this earth and that they expect him to do it in the way that God intended?" That is precisely what I mean because that is exactly what the Bible says the Godhead has done. The truth is, Satan the Devil is doing precisely what he was created to do. And though God has given Satan vast powers, he is still quite limited in those powers when compared to the powers resident in the Godhead. Satan has to stay within certain limits that God has imposed upon him. Indeed, God is in control of evil as well as good. Let us notice a few scriptures which show that God is as much involved in the creation and management of evil on this earth and in the universe as he is in the creation of good. Look at Isaiah 45:6,7.
"I am the Lord [YHVH], and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the Lord [YHVH] do all these things.""Behold, I [YHVH] have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work: and I have created the waster to destroy"
There is much more. Throughout the prophecies of Jeremiah there are statements that God was going to bring evil (a great calamity) on his own people, the nation of Judah. The evil was to come because of their sins and God was even going to commission evil men to do the job. God called King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon "My servant" (Jeremiah 25:9; 27 6,43.10) And remember, God even used Satan to greatly afflict the patriarch Job with many evil curses, though God put specific boundaries upon Satan which he could not pass concerning his treatment of Job (Job 1:6-12; 2:1-6).
The point is, God the Father and Christ Jesus (who are the top authorities within the Godhead) are fully in charge of all things that occur on earth and in the universe. Nothing (and this means absolutely NOTHING) can take place in the universe without the express permission, allowance and command of the Godhead. It sometimes amazes people to read in the Scripture that God often uses evil men or even Satan himself to accomplish certain tasks of evil that the Godhead may create and promote for the discipline of man, the Sons of God or to chastise the angels.
This leads us to PROPOSITION ONE that all people must understand if they hope to comprehend just what the deceptions of Satan and his evil ways really are.
PROPOSITION ONE:
REGARDING THE DECEPTIONS CREATED BY SATAN THE DEVIL
It must be understood from a biblical point of view that God the Father and Christ Jesus are the ultimate powers in the universe who totally control all things, including the activities of Satan the Devil and his angelic supporters. The Godhead also governs the actions of all nations on earth as well as each individual who inhabits the earth. Note the following scriptures that clearly prove PROPOSITION ONE.
"The heaven, and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is."
Let us understand the teaching that PROPOSITION ONE provides to us. It shows that God is in complete control of all the nations and governments of this world, and he sets over them on some occasions even the worst of men to govern and to chastise them. He even sets up on other occasions those who deceive and those who wish to be deceived. God also created and controls the chief of all rulers of the earth. That happens to be the spirit power called Satan the Devil. I will have more to say on this in a moment.
GOD’S GOVERNMENT AND SATAN’S
In spite of the fact that the Bible shows Satan is very active in influencing the governments of this world, we are required by God to honor and respect the earthly king and his government (or whatever type of government is in charge over us in our human existence) even if the king and the government are base and evil. The Bible teaching is clear on this matter. This is because in an ultimate sense, all these governments are God’s and they belong to Him. Even during the time of the emperor Nero with his evil ways, Peter told Christians to "submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king" (I Peter 2:13-17). Paul said virtually the same thing in Romans 13:1-7. Obeying the government, however, is based on the premise that the rules and laws of that government are within harmony with the teachings of God that pertain to us. Always remember that Peter said: "We ought to obey God, rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
The principle is this: even if you or I may live in non-democratic countries or we live in areas of the world under the control of religious governments which are not in accord with the doctrinal beliefs of the Christian teachings that pertain to us, we are still to submit to their outward laws that are made to keep an orderly society among the populace. Indeed, Paul even called such governmental authorities as "ministers of God" (Romans 13:4), even though those "ministers" represent the governments of evil men. Recall once more, however, that these "ministers" must be obeyed within the provisions of Acts 5:29.
PROPOSITION TWO:
REGARDING THE DECEPTIONS CREATED BY SATAN THE DEVIL
The Bible shows that the Godhead has given Satan the supreme power (underneath the authority of God the Father and Christ Jesus) in controlling the nations and governments of this world, whether those governments are national, provincial, county, city, village, school, church, etc. In truth, many Christians may not realize this point but the Bible plainly shows that God the Father and Christ Jesus have presently given all the kingdoms and governments of this world (no matter what type they are) over to the spiritual power called Satan the Devil in order for him to rule and to promote them within the boundaries that the Godhead imposes upon him.
Christ Jesus when on earth recognized this powerful position of Satan and he called Satan "the prince of this world" (John 14:30; 16:11). As an example of Satan’s control over all nations (and that includes all democratic nations as well as totalitarian powers), Satan informed Christ that if he would but bow down and worship him at the time of Christ’s temptation in the wilderness then Satan would give him all the kingdoms and governments of the world into his immediate possession. Christ did not deny that Satan had the authority to do this. See Matthew 4:8-10 where the sovereignty of Satan is plainly shown. And though, Christ Jesus is finally destined to take over the role of world ruler, he will not exercise that authority until Satan is deposed when the seventh angel of the Book of Revelation sounds his trumpet. The Bible says: "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever [Greek: for the ages of the ages]" (Revelation 11:15).
That event when Christ takes over world rule is yet future to us, though it may not be many years ahead of us. At the present, however, Satan is still in charge of all the governments of this world (under God the Father, of course). And in his job as world ruler, the Bible says that Satan’s chief occupation is to deceive the world. That’s right. We are told that "Satan deceiveth the whole world" (Revelation 12:9). He deceives not just a part of the world, he deceives the "whole world."
Now for a shocker that most Christian people have not often considered. Since Satan is presently allowed by God to have spiritual control over all the governments of the world, it stands to reason that Satan would want his governments to be stable and law-abiding in order for his rulership to continue functioning in a proper fashion. This is true. Satan must be one of the most law-abiding individuals and one who upholds the law more than anyone else. Let’s face it. If those laws cause Satan’s governments and kingdoms to function in a stable manner, then Satan would want to retain those laws.
This ought to make sense to anyone who would think a moment about the matter. Even Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union made numerous laws and regulations ordered by either Hitler or Stalin (or those whom they had appointed), and let me tell you a fact, if anyone in Germany or the Soviet Union at the time of their rulership disobeyed those laws, the rebels were either put in prison, fined or executed for their "crimes" against the laws of the land. The Nazis and the Soviets wanted obedient citizens, not rebels.
As anyone with sense realizes, no government (no matter what kind it is, good or evil, God’s or Satan’s) can long exist unless it has numerous laws of various kinds which will keep the people in the country to continue being " good and upright" citizens as judged by the authorities who govern the country. Satan the Devil is no exception in the promotion of various laws in the numerous countries of this world that he controls. As a matter of fact, Satan is a great advocator of obeying the laws of the land which he rules.
Let us now consider some nitty-gritty questions about Satan’s practices and desires of which many Christians are unaware. Indeed, many Christians have adopted false principles and teachings on this matter that Satan has deceived them to believe. For example, it is common for Christians and their ministers and priests to affirm that Satan’s chief occupation is to bring national, international or even personal harm and evil to people on earth. They often teach or allude to Satan being like a fire breathing monstrous being, red all over, pitchfork in hand, and always up to mischief and continually trying to engender havoc. They think and teach that Satan is constantly devising "devilish tricks" to make us continually to sin against not only God but society. They believe and teach that Satan’s main activity is to get you and me to commit some moral or ethical infraction so that he can gloat before God at our weaknesses. Listen, in the vast majority of cases, this is not Satan’s activity at all. As Christ said, any kingdom or government divided against itself cannot stand, and he included that of Satan the Devil (Matthew 12:25,26). Satan does not want you or me (or anyone) to commit "moral and ethical" sins against his governments that he has established and maintains. In fact, just the opposite is the case. Satan expects all citizens of his kingdoms and governments to be in full and complete obedience to his laws that govern those societies that he rules.
Common sense ought to tell anyone that for Satan to govern his nations and kingdoms in a manner that keeps him in power, Satan has to have law-books in all the countries he rules that give legal dictums against immorality and unethical conduct (just to mention two categories involving social necessities). For Satan’s societies to exist and be in conformity to his wishes, Satan expects and demands that the people of his countries keep his laws that govern the societies he rules. If he didn’t, his governments would be in chaos. Why, Satan even uses what most of us Christians (or any decent society) would call good and proper laws against moral and ethical infringements in which some wayward citizens might indulge. Indeed, even you and I would approve of many of the laws adopted by Satan to maintain what most people call a decent society. On the other hand, while Satan has allowed laws to be enacted which may appear good and right to most humans who live in his societies, they may not be in agreement with the general principles of the Bible that pertain to us Christians. This is where the problem lies, and we must be aware of Satan’s devices. We will look at Satan’s deceptive ways in a moment. But note this next point carefully. Satan has adopted laws (even ones we may think are perfectly proper of themselves) to control his governments so that they will function well for him.
So, let us get one thing straight regarding PROPOSITION TWO. In almost all circumstances, Satan not only preaches loyalty to the rules and regulations that control his governments on earth, he will have the state (Satan’s state) punish such of the populace who go contrary to them. The apostle Paul understood this principle clearly. Note what Paul did when he found a member of the Corinthian congregation having sex with his own father’s wife (which Paul said was even against the normal sensitivities of the Gentiles). Paul said the man should be handed over to the civil authorities which would execute him for such an offense against the society at Corinth. That’s what Paul meant when he told the Corinthians "to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus" (I Corinthians 5:5).
You see, Paul knew that Satan was in charge of the government of Corinth, and with some of those laws of Corinth enacted by the citizens of that city state even Paul did not disagree with. Paul was wise enough to know that Satan was in charge of such governments. He also knew that Satan had established laws of conduct among the Corinthian citizens that prohibited such heinous crimes against his society. And with the Corinthians, they had the death penalty on their law-books for doing such a crime that this Corinthian Christian was doing, and Paul knew it. This is why Paul simply told the brethren at Corinth to hand the man over to the authorities of Satan’s government at Corinth and they would get rid of the evil very quickly. Thankfully, the man took the warning of Paul seriously. He repented of his ways and as a consequence he was not handed over to the Gentile authorities (that is, to Satan who controlled the government at Corinth). He, as a result of his repentance, was not executed (II Corinthians 2:1-8).
But let us not become altruistic in this matter over the so-called "good laws of Satan" and become deceived about Satan’s ways. While Satan demands that everyone be an observer of his laws (no matter what laws they are, including the good ones), he may use those laws deceitfully against any person or any people who wish to change them or to create another type of society that Satan does not approve. If someone like John the Baptist, Christ Jesus himself or the apostle Paul tried to teach a type of government at Jerusalem, Corinth or at Rome that would lessen the effect of Satan and his powers, Satan may well apply his own laws of morality and ethics to accuse such righteous people of misconduct. He may well try to "entice" such a righteous person to go against the moral or ethical standards of Satan’s society to get the ordinary citizens to dislike the person by calling him "immoral" or" unethical" and that he teaches against the established society. This is a trick that Satan often uses against those who teach the truth of the Gospel. Sometimes he succeeds in getting the public outraged, sometimes he doesn’t. But Satan is crafty enough to put temptations in front of people (and this includes God’s people) if they are attempting to thwart his governments and his societies in a way that Satan disapproves. Peter said: "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" (I Peter 5:8,9).
Satan certainly sought out Paul in special ways because Paul was teaching about a new type of government that was coming to rule the earth (II Corinthians 12:7). Satan did not like Paul’s teachings, so Satan used some of his laws on the law-books of the various cities in the Roman Empire to put Paul in prison for "breaking" them. One of the things that Satan did was to get Paul accused of sedition against the government (which was really Satan’s own government) (Acts 24:5). A friend of Paul named Clement said in an early letter that Paul was put in prison seven times during his period of teaching the Gospel (Clement 5:6, this historical book is not in the Bible nor does it belong there). But it was not Paul’s simple beliefs or even his teachings that got him placed in prison. It was what society and the governments considered Paul’s so-called "unethical" and "unlawful" ways against the established societies that did it. They did not like what Paul taught. Paul was even accused by the Roman authorities as being so learned and educated that he had become a mad man (utterly out of his mind) and thus he was a menace to society (Acts 26:24). Let’s face it, society puts one in prison when they consider a person to be "breaking the laws of the land" or when one is a menace to society. People are not sent to prison "for observing the laws" and supporting the societies in which they live.
So what happened to Peter and Paul? They were finally executed by the Roman authorities that Satan controlled. The Roman government executed them according to Roman laws that Satan had allowed to be enacted (meant for the preservation of the state), but in the eyes of God these two apostles of ours were executed wrongly. This is why Christ Jesus called Satan "a murderer." In the way Christ looked at it, Satan had conducted himself in a murderous fashion from the beginning (this was Christ referring to the Book of Genesis when Cain slew Abel). See John 8:44. But to most of the Roman citizens at the time when Peter and Paul were executed, they thought the state had the inalienable right to execute two individuals whom they thought were plotting against the survival of the Roman Empire. To them, Satan (who controlled Rome) was simply maintaining law and order by killing Peter and Paul. This is one of the major ways that Satan deceives people. But even with Satan’s laws which are meant to protect the state, God considers Satan a murderer if the person who is executed is righteous and innocent and does not deserve to die.
So remember PROPOSITION TWO. It is important to realize that Satan is allowed by God the Father and Christ Jesus to control the governments of this world at the present time (and that means even our democratic types of governments that we have in western civilization). As for me, I am happy that God allows us to have our western democratic forms of governments to rule over us during our lives on earth. I spent four years during the Korean War in the United States Air Force defending what I considered to be my homeland and our democratic form of government from dictatorial rulers who wanted to impose their rule on my people and the rest of the world. And I would do the same thing again if called upon.
Indeed, we ought to thank God daily for our western democracies. One thing that Satan knows. He is fully aware that the American and British peoples (and other democratic loving peoples) are not going to put up with totalitarian governments, so he allows us to have the types that suit our temperaments. Satan actually has to allow a lot of excellent biblical principles to exist with us because he couldn’t get away with establishing a communist or dictatorial government in our lands at the present. But to keep his governments functioning properly and not being "divided against themselves," he has established laws and regulations (many of them quite good, as ordinarily understood) for the maintenance of his governments. This is why Satan is basically a "law and order" spirit being, as long as the laws and orders are perpetuating his societies. This gives Satan an advantage in the eyes of most people because they normally want "law and order" to preside over the societies in which they live. Satan knows this. But Satan is deceitful even with "law and order" issues. Since these societies are Satan’s, how does Satan influence society the most with his deceitful ways that look good on the surface?
PROPOSITION THREE:
REGARDING THE DECEPTIONS CREATED BY SATAN THE DEVIL
It is within this Proposition Three that Satan does most of his dirty work and where people become the most deceived. In order to control our societies on a "law and order" platform, Satan cleverly introduces his religions and customs into our environments. This is the biggest danger of all, because any political scientist knows that religious and philosophical beliefs are the basic elements that develop and maintain societies in the first place. Religious beliefs stand on the very foundation of any societal environment. To Satan, it is of utmost importance that he control the religious and philosophical beliefs of people in order for his societies to exist and flourish.
This is why Satan wants his religious teachings to prevail in countries of the world that he controls. It is essentially through religious beliefs that Satan influences the governments of this world. Satan realizes that it is actually religious beliefs that prompt most people to either establish governments in order to perpetuate their principles of conduct or to initiate governments that allow them to perform the religious practices which they imagine to be suitable for worshipping God. And how does Satan appear to the various societies in the world in regard to the religious beliefs that they have?
The apostle Paul summed it up admirably and to the point. Paul spoke of: "false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness" (II Corinthians 11:13-15). How do Satan and his ministers look on the surface to most people in the world? Are they actually monstrous in appearance, red all over with hideous grins and with pitchforks in their hands? Absolutely not! Just the opposite is the case. They look righteous. They look holy. They look like angels of light. And throughout the nations of the world at this time (and Satan controls them all), Satan has established a whole battery of different religious organizations, churches, mosques, synagogues, shrines, temples, grottos, certain holy mountains, etc., etc. where the authorities who administer them appear to be ministers of righteousness. This was Paul’s experience and teaching. And let me tell you a fact, Satan has not changed his tactics one iota in our day. And God, for a good purpose, has allowed Satan to have his full sway.
Look at the churches that call themselves "Christian" today. There are presently well over a billion people on earth who denominate themselves as "Christians." That is a great many people. But what did Christ Jesus say about "the many" who would acknowledge Christ as their Lord and Master? He said: "For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ[saying that Christ was truly the real Christ]; and shall deceive many" Matthew 24:5). Since Satan’s job is to deceive the world (Revelation 12:9), it looks like he has done his job well because Christ Jesus himself said that "the many" would indeed be deceived. So, one can know for a fact, that the many denominations who make up "the many who claim Christ as their Lord and Savior are "deceived" because Christ said they would be. But a deceived person does not know he or she is deceived. Most people who are deceived are deceived because they consider Satan and his ministers to be like angels of light, like the ministers of righteousness (II Corinthians 11:13-15). Satan has got people to think they are not deceived when Christ said that they are (Matthew 24:5).
What Satan does is to get people to believe that Satan’s ministers are righteous (and that his ministers are certainly Christian) when in fact they are not, no matter how good they look on the surface. Satan wants people to think that he himself is an angel of light, when he is not. And while Satan may use and teach righteous principles 99% of the time in any particular circumstance to show people his so-called "goodness," it only takes 1% of strychnine in that beautiful looking apple pie to kill a person. It is the "strychnine" that Satan mixes in with his religions that is the problem. And to get people to eat his apple pie, Satan has to make all his apple pies look good.
The fact is, in order to control people on earth, Satan wants his ministers with their teachings to appear as ministers of righteousness (not of corruption), so that he can deceive the world into keeping his ways of religion. This is why Satan gives the outward appearance of being a "law and order" man. He wants his religious denominations to look good and righteous. He wants them to be decent, law-abiding individuals and practicing good deeds. He wants them walking circumspectly in society and with honor and dignity attached to their persons. He expects them to tow the line morally and ethically in order to deceive the people into believing that they are teaching the righteous doctrines of God when in actual fact they are not. He even expects his ministers to be upstanding citizens in the land who support the governments and societies which Satan controls.
Look at it this way. Let us pick a fictitious denomination that has in its hierarchy a lowly priest/minister, then further up the ladder a pastor, an evangelist, then bishop, archbishop, apostle and then at the top of the rung is a person the church calls its Chief Shepherd. Now, if a young aspiring priest/minister on the lowest level of authority wants one day to be the Chief Shepherd, you can be assured that he can’t get to that position by being antisocial and being an immoral or unethical person in an outward manner. Why common sense would demand that the person would ordinarily rise through the ranks of that religious body with all types of checks and balances being placed on his education and conduct, If he ever makes the position of Chief Shepherd, the man would have to be considered by the world as a righteous man with the credentials that most decent people would require for such an exalted office. Without doubt, Satan demands the same type of "law and order" man who will abide by the rules of the church governments that Satan has adopted for his various denominations. In fact, Satan would insist that the person keep all the false doctrines and customs that have come to identify that church in the eyes of the world. This is why Satan is a "law and order" advocate himself He is very conservative. He wants no changes in society that would thwart his erroneous religious teachings.
So, what does PROPOSITION THREE tell us? The only way Satan’s governments, societies and churches can continue is for conservatism and traditional values and beliefs (particularly the erroneous ones) to prevail that Satan allows to exist. Indeed, when John the Baptist began to preach the coming Kingdom of God (which was different from the then present government of Satan), Christ said there was war in heaven with a great amount of violence being displayed by the evil powers who wanted to retain their present positions of authority (Matthew 11:12). It is only when some person or group comes along that tries to disturb the existence of the traditional "law and order" society that Satan comes to the fore to challenge the person, usually by trying in some way to discredit him or her in a moral, ethical or doctrinal way. They even called Paul a "mad man because of his extensive education and learning. This accusation was to give official sanction for weaning people from Paul’s teachings (Acts 26:24). Indeed, Satan has been very successful in perpetuating his form of "Christianity" in the western world (and up to now God has allowed it). In fact, the Bible prophesies that Satan will finally be allowed to bring in a world government that the majority of people will accept, but the Bible calls it the rule of the Antichrist. This will develop just before the Second Advent of Christ.
So, if Satan rules the governments and societies of this world (the totality of the world), then the churches, denominations, religions, shrines, temples or grottos that support his world governments must also have individuals in charge of them who are under the control of Satan the Devil. And to get people to work for him, he wants people in the world to think he is an angel of light and that his ministers are ministers of righteousness. This is whatPROPOSITION THREE is all about. It shows biblical information that even the churches and other religions in this world are also a part of Satan’s government and that he demands "law and order" among his societies to keep his religious activities functioning in harmony. He will punish by the laws of society any person or all the people who go contrary to his moral, ethical or doctrinal principles that sustain his societies (even when those moral and ethical standards may appear to be those that are in accord with the principles of good biblical conduct).
But there is even more. We now come to PROPOSITION FOUR regarding the deceptions of Satan the Devil. This proposition will show anyone just how thoroughly Satan controls the governments and societies of this world. Many of you are going to be shocked to discover that Satan is using outright pagan symbols, sign and ceremonies in the religious world today in order to deceive the world into thinking that in using them they are righteous and holy and that they are God-fearing and righteous people. Believe me, most people will be shocked beyond belief when they realize the actual tactics and devices concocted by Satan to confuse this world into believing that they are serving God.
PROPOSITION FOUR:
REGARDING THE DECEPTIONS CREATED BY SATAN THE DEVIL
Though there are many false teachings that Satan has caused people to believe are right and holy, let us look at the most pernicious. It is a teaching that has done the most damage to the truth of the biblical revelation among which is the Gospel of Christ Jesus. The most damaging of all is this: Satan has convinced almost all the religious world (no matter what kind of religion there is on earth) that the soul of man is immortal and that a person’s soul or spirit continues to live in a conscious and living manner even when the person’s body dies and corrupts in the ground. This false doctrine is diametrically contrary to the teachings of the Bible (Ecclesiastes 9:5), but its acceptance has swept through this world since the creation of Adam and Eve. Indeed, the Bible tells us in no uncertain terms that it was this very teaching that Satan taught Eve and Adam at first (the reason I put Eve first is because the Bible says this Satanic teaching was first given to Eve, though Adam was in the immediate background and listening to and agreeing with Eve’s conversation with Satan). Satan told Eve that though God had said in the "day" that they would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that they would die, Satan told Eve and Adam in a deceptive way that God in effect was a liar and that they would not die in the "day" they ate the fruit (Genesis 3:4,5). So, Eve and Adam ate of the fruit and true enough, in their view, God appeared to be a "liar" because our first parents kept right on living. They not only lived through the "day" that they ate of the forbidden fruit, they continued to live until Adam finally died at 930 years of age. So, was God a liar, or was He not?
The early Jews knew that God was not a liar because they were able to surmise from the Scriptures that God meant a "day" of 1000 years (see the Jewish work written about 150 B.C. called the Book of Jubilees 4:30). The apostle Peter understood this principle as well and said; "Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (II Peter 3:8). And though it is not recorded in the early record of Genesis written by Moses, God must have told Adam and Eve of his plan to introduce 6000 years for man’s existence "in man’s own way" with another 1000 years when the Kingdom of God would be on earth. These 7000 years were analogous to the seven days of creation mentioned in Genesis One. So, God told Adam and Eve that in the "day" that they took of the fruit of the forbidden tree, they would die. And lo and behold, Adam did in fact die just 70 years shy of 1000 years. Adam died in the "day" that God said he would. So, God was NOT a liar.
But note this. Satan presented his teaching to our first parents in the most logical manner that Adam and Eve could imagine. Satan changed the 1000 year "day" into a 24 hour "day" that most men would have thought God meant if they did not regard the spiritual teaching of God concerning this matter. Indeed, this is precisely how Satan deceives man the most. He asks man to look at things in a "logical and realistic" fashion and not in some "spiritual" or esoteric way that God often uses. Why, anyone hearing God saying that Adam and Eve would die in the "day" they took of the fruit would logically assume God meant a 24 hour period (or perhaps the 12 hour daylight period of the day which can also be called "day"). This is how Satan initiates his ways of deception. He appeals to man’s reason, his intellect and his common sense. By doing so, Satan makes God appear to mean diametrically opposite of what God intended in many circumstances. Satan appeals to man’s intellectual reasoning powers and what man’s empirical surroundings suggest to be true, not to God’s teachings which often must be "spiritually" understood. And we humans delight in such "common sense" reasoning. This approach appeals to us as being honest and fair and it normally looks like the preferred thing to do or to believe. And since this first deception of Satan used man’s intellectual powers to reason empirically, Satan has been appealing to man’s common sense and his human evaluations ever since. As a matter of fact, Satan has been highly successful in getting the world to believe his teachings which appeal to mankind’s empirical reasoning and mankind’s practical way of looking at things. Two biblical verses were given later, however, to show what this type of human reasoning will produce: "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man., but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).
The fact that Satan made our first parents believe that God was not telling the truth (that is, they did not in fact die on the "day" that they took of the forbidden fruit, viewed of course as a 24 hour day), this made our first parents begin to believe that there was something immortal about them. After all, they did not die. And yet, in their respect for God, they somehow wanted to reckon God not a liar. So, since they knew that they were made in the image and likeness of God (whom they talked to in the garden), and since it was reasonable that God was immortal, they then reasoned that mankind himself must have an immortality within him of some kind. This doctrinal hint to our first parents was the first teaching about an immortality in man, that is, that mankind had something of an immortal essence in him that would not die. This experience of Adam and Eve was the initial phase of the later doctrine of the immortality of the soul or spirit in mankind, This false teaching, prompted by the first deception of Satan, has given rise to the most blatant of erroneous beliefs imaginable. A full 95% of all false doctrinal teachings of all the religions of the world are based on this fallacious concept.
In the Christian world, the belief of the immortality of the soul or the spirit has led to the doctrine (among other things) that Mary, the mother of Christ, is still alive and that she can intercede with her son in heaven for humans on earth who need his help or forgiveness. The denomination that teaches this false doctrine also believes in a plethora of "saints" who have died and are now in a similar august position of spiritual power and authority in heaven who can also intercede with Christ on behalf of mankind. It has even led Protestants to believe that as soon as Aunt Mary or Uncle John died, their souls or spirits went to Jesus in heaven and that they are now alive in joy and happiness looking down on this world and all their relatives still in the flesh.
What this erroneous belief in the immortality of the soul has done is to give Satan and his evil angels the channel for coming to humans as "familiar spirits" (that is, spirits who are familiar with a person’s relatives and their innermost secrets) and to make unsuspecting and duped mankind to believe that Aunt Mary and Uncle John are now returning to them from the grave to tell them about the joys of" heaven" if they will but do what the spirits tell them. These are false and lying spirits telling human beings such things. This false doctrine of man’s supposed inherent immortality is the cardinal teaching of Satan the Devil to get mankind to follow his ways and tactics. And true enough, Satan’s teachings and methods appear righteous and philosophically correct in the opinion of most humans.
Listen, Aunt Mary and Uncle John, even if they were Christians (along with Mary the mother of Jesus, the apostles Paul and Peter), are all dead and still in their graves awaiting the resurrection from the dead which will occur at Christ’s second advent (I Corinthians 15:42-54; I Thessalonians 4:16,17). The Bible teaches in no uncertain terms that the dead from the time of Adam and Eve until now are still dead and in their graves and awaiting the resurrection from the dead (Ecclesiastes 9:5; Psalm 6:5; 146:4). Of all people who have ever lived on earth in the past, only Christ has been resurrected to inherit immortality (I Timothy 6:16). All the rest (including the apostles of Christ) are dead and in their graves without the slightest consciousness (Hebrews 11:13).
Another false doctrine that Satan the Devil has engendered to fool the Christian world into denying their inheritance and to get them to jettison from their beliefs their divine destiny that God has promised them is to get Christians to believe that the Godhead is a closed society. Since the New Testament gives the Christian believer clear teaching that there is God the Father and that Christ is His firstborn Son who is also considered as God, then Satan comes along and takes the Holy Spirit (which to humans is a nebulous type of unidentifiable essence) and places the Holy Spirit as the third member of the Godhead. thus making the Godhead to be a closed three-some and only three, The Christian world calls this doctrine "the Trinity." What this nonsensical and inexplicable doctrine does (which a full 95% of Christian believers accept as a cardinal teaching of the Christian faith) is to close up the Godhead to all humans. However, as I have shown in Lesson Thirteen of the ASK. Home Study Course, the very role of Jesus Christ in coming to earth was to exalt mankind into becoming members of the very Family of God (into becoming Elohim themselves, Elohim is the Hebrew word for "God"). But note this. If mankind assumes their rightful position of being members of the Family of God, then Satan has to submit himself to them (even to the lowliest of them — since they are "Gods") and Satan is not about to relinquish his power and sovereignty to such individuals as long as he has sway on earth to do as he pleases (of course, within the guidelines that God has set for him), For proof of our destiny, see my Lesson Thirteen: "Understanding the Family of God."
What Satan has done is to establish his official Christian churches who will accept the Immortality of the Soul and the anti-biblical doctrine of the Trinity. (See my Lesson Fourteen for proof of the nonsense of the absurd doctrine called the Trinity.) These false doctrines make it possible for Satan to introduce a countless number of heathen teachings among Christians that they themselves have come to believe are righteous and proper. Remember, Satan imposes himself on this world as an angel of righteousness and his ministers whom he has chosen also look ever so righteous and good on the surface. And, where is almost all of Satan’s "righteous teaching" conducted so that he can control the people and sustain his governments, especially those within western civilization? These teachings are given in "churches." Satan loves the word "church" because western people in particular think that "church" is where they find God and His true teachings.
What about "church"? What does the word really mean? Satan has actually caused many of the intellectuals who devise our dictionaries to state that the word "church" comes from the Greek word "kyrios" which means "Lord" and that "church" means "Lord’s House." They state it means either a building or the name of the denomination where people will find the "Lord," But this is in no way true from a biblical point of view, Only the Temple at Jerusalem or its equivalent could ever be called, in a legitimate and biblical sense, "the House of God" or the "Lord’s House." The naming of buildings where Christians assembled for worship as "Lord’s Houses" did not become popular until the fourth century. I have literature that explains this. It is actually illegal from the point of view of the Bible to have any Lord’s House (or House of God) other than the Temple at Jerusalem and God sent the ancient Israelites into captivity and ruin for constructing their numerous "Lord’s Houses" (their "Bethels") over the land (II Chronicles 33:1-3 Hosea 8:11).
Nowhere in the New Testament does the Greek word ekklesia (which our modem translations usually render as "church") ever refer to a building or a denomination of people that we presently call a "church." It simply means a group of people, and in the Bible it can actually refer to a mob of rioters assembling to do the apostle Paul harm (Acts 19:32). The wordekklesia simply means an "assembly" or "congregation" or "group" and this is the way it should always be rendered and understood in English.
Now for an important point. If the word "church" actually means "Lord’s House" as most of the dictionaries state, then when God looks down from heaven to see his people at worship, He has to look at the multiple "Bethels" (Lord’s Houses) strewn over the land and these are the very establishments that God utterly condemns in the Scripture (Amos 3:14) And indeed, every stone altar raised up by heathen priests of the Gentiles over the early European, West Asian and North African worlds became known as a "Bethel" (normally spelled through the Greek "Baetyl") and there were literally thousands of such pagan "Bethels" scattered over the land. See any exhaustive classical and religious encyclopaedia about ancient religious beliefs and they will adequately confirm this fact about the "Baetyls." Indeed, even the stone underneath Queen Elizabeth’s throne in Westminster Abbey is a classical example of one of the thousands of such pagan "baetyls" (or Bethels) that God condemned when the Israelites (following Gentile practices) began to establish them in profusion.
But there is more to it than that. There is actually a benefit to us who know the truth when the word "church" is used to identify places of Christian worship (even though the word "church" is a wrong translation). I believe God has allowed the translators of our Bibles to render the word ekklesia as "church" to give God’s people a significant clue as to what these "bethels" (or, "baetyls") actually are in His view. The truth is, the word "church" does not mean "the Lord’s House." In Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible (one volume edition) under the article "Church," Professor Smith states that the English word "church" actually comes from an early word meaning "circle" which is akin to the ward circus." He stated a major study made by Professor Lipsius of Germany (the great Protestant theologian and historian of Christianity who lived from 1830 to 1892) showing that our word "church" does indeed come from "circle." We also find that Professor A.F.Fausett in his "Home Bible Study Dictionary" under the word "Church," mentions favorably this same research by Lipsius. That doesn’t end the matter, For English readers, one of the greatest historians on the origin of words was Brewer. In his "Dictionary of Phrase and Fable," under the entry "Church," Brewer states: "The etymology of this word is generally assumed to be from the Greek, kuriou oikos (house of God); but this is most improbable, as the word existed in all the Celtic dialects long before the introduction of Greek. No doubt the word means ‘a circle.’ The places of worship among the German and Celtic nations were always circular. Compare Anglo-Saxon ‘circe,’ a small church, with ‘circol,’ a circle." In fact, the Scottish "Kirk" or the German "Kirche," are clearly from "circe" (with the letter "c" having a "k" sound in the original vocalization).
And what was "circe" or "kirke"? This is where God gives His people a real clue regarding His opinion of "churches." The word circe is well known by classical historians. The word denotes a woman of ancient times. Her exact name was Circe (or, Kirke). She was the great heathen goddess, daughter of the Sun God who tamed wild animals in her circus, who met Ulysses returning from the Trojan War and had an adulterous relationship with him that produced, as one of the children, Latinus the supposed founder of the Latin race. And how is Circe pictured in the classical accounts? She is shown holding a golden cup in her hand mixed with wine and drugs through which she controlled the kings of the world (among whom was supposed to be Ulysses). Now for a fact! This Goddess is found in the symbolic teaching of the Bible. She is called the Great Whore who sits on many waters and seven hills who masterminds Mystery Babylon. Listen to what God says: "I will show thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.., having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (Revelation 17:2-5).
This is a clear biblical description of the Goddess of the classical world known as Circe, the great sorceress. As a matter of fact, when Circe died she was buried on one of the islands of the Pharrnacusii group in the Aegean Sea in eyesight of the Isle of Patmos where the apostle John saw most of the Book of Revelation. God has allowed the name of this very Whore to adorn all Christian churches in existence, if the churches use the name "church" to describe themselves. But what an excellent device God and Christ are using to indicate to their people what to avoid on this earth. This is a wonderful clue to God’s people who want to live by the truth. God has given to His people this great sign of identification in these historical and biblical references. Even though Satan is allowed to control the nations of this world that the Great Whore has caused to err with her wine mixed with drugs, God has also allowed the name of the Great Goddess and Whore to be placed on all the religious places of meeting where the teachings of the Great Whore are disseminated. He allows each of them to be called a "church" so that God’s people will know that this is where "Circe" the Great Whore has her ministers teaching Satan’s doctrines of the Immortality of the Soul and the nonsensical Trinity doctrine. Listen, the word ekklesia in the New Testament means simply a group, assembly or congregation. It does not mean the House of God (a Bethel, which itself is condemned by God in the Bible), nor does ekklesia mean a "Church" which name derives directly from "Circe" the Great Whore of Revelation. In biblical teaching a "church" is nothing but a Whorehouse!
Continuing: When people enter most of these "churches" named after the Great Whore of Revelation, what do they see prominently displayed in most of them? Why, either in an idolatrous fashion with images, icons or statues or in picture form, you will see a bearded long-haired personage whom they benignly tell you is a representation of Jesus, the Son of God. Besides the fact that God even in the days of Moses condemned the making of any images whatever of any God (even the true God), we find Christian churches (and even the most prominent of the Protestants) now displaying an illegal form of a person they will inform you to be Jesus. But Jesus did not have long hair when he was on earth (nor does he have long hair now), and I have an abundance of biblical and historical material to prove this without doubt. Indeed, the personage they are displaying as Jesus in their churches is no more than an image of Zeus (usually in the form of the Egyptian God Serapis) that Satan has cleverly deceived people into believing is the Jesus of the New Testament. Listen, if the apostles could enter these so-called Christian churches today and see the image of such a long-haired personage in the chief area for worship, they would instantly ask why is such an idolatrous and illegal image of Zeus put in that place of Christian worship? The truth is, Satan has got people to believe that the grooming that denotes Zeus (the chief heathen God) is now that which identifies Jesus. But Jesus does not have long hair (I Corinthians 11:3-16). This nonsense we see in the churches is just like placing a picture of Tiny Tim with his long hair in a photo an gallery and then placing a sign under his picture stating that he is John Wayne. This practice of showing Zeus with his long tresses as now being the Jesus of the Bible is a travesty of the truth. It is an outright lie! But not only are such pictures false depictions of Jesus, even displaying a true picture of deity is in itself blatant idolatry and is an expression of rebellion to God on the highest level according to the Bible. But go into these "churches" named after the Great Whore and you see a long haired Zeus prominently displayed and falsely called "Jesus."
Continuing: Do you know what these "Churches" (that is, these "Circes" named after the Great Whore) have as identifying signs to show they are a "church"? For almost a millennium they have had a steeple or spire placed on top of their buildings of worship. In Europe near the start of the Crusades, the people learned to make such spires and put them on their places of worship to mimic the minarets of the Muslims from which the Musseins (the men in the tower) would call the faithful of Islam to prayer. However, not preferring the human voice to call the faithful as in Islam, the Europeans put bells (that is, Baals) in their newly created spires and called them "belltowers." And why did they come to a point on top? This was to indicate that this was a tower that had the appearance of reaching up to heaven. Such a pointed shape at the top gave the illusion of a tower vanishing into the heavens. It was to give the impression to the people that this is the place that reaches up to heaven and that the people themselves can attain heaven by coming into the place of the tower. In the Bible, however, the first time people on the earth wanted to make such a tower that looked like it reached to heaven, God got angry with them. He came down and confused their language and sent people into all areas of the world for their rebellion to Him in raising up such a tower (Genesis 11:1-9). But about a thousand years ago, forgetting all about the warnings in Genesis of God’s condemnation, Christians began to raise up such towers all over the Christian world.
Christianity actually learned this practice of raising towers over their churches from the Muslims who then represented the apex of a modem and sophisticated society. In the Muslim world at the time it was fashionable to erect such towers with each Mosque and the Christians in Europe wanted to be modem like the advanced Arab society. They began to do the same thing as the Muslims, although Christians usually put their towers on top of their churches or cathedrals. And where did the Muslims get the practice? It is known that most Muslim architecture was copied from the Great Mosque of Damascus which can be proved once to have been a Roman temple to the pagan gods.
And remember, though the Muslims themselves preached the shunning of making idols or pictures of God, Mohammed still could not shake the Arab tribes (especially the Koreish who controlled Mecca) from worshipping toward the black meteorite stone called the Ka‘abawhich had been an idolatrous idol of the Arab folk for centuries. Unable to shake them from worshipping that stone or praying toward it, Mohammed came up with an ingenious idea. Because he fell out of sympathy with the Jews and to win over the Koreish tribe, Mohammed ordered all Muslims to quit praying toward Jerusalem and to bow down and pray toward that idol five times a day as a cardinal teaching of their faith. And now, Satan laughs at the Muslims (who think they are against idolatry) by cleverly having them pray five times daily to that ancient idol of the early Arabs. All Muslims are in utter idolatry and they show it five times a day. Muslims mean well but they are so uneducated and ignorant in this matter as are Christians in their profuse practices involving idolatry today. This shows that Satan is very sly in getting people to think that their righteousness and their religious ways are right, when they are as wrong as they can be.
Yes, even the Muslims are greatly deceived, and this even applies to their adoption of the towers near their mosques. But where did the Muslims get their basic design for their mosques and minarets (towers)? As mentioned before, it was basically from the great Roman (pagan) temple at Damascus. But why should anyone want to raise up towers in the first place in association with places of religious worship which the Christians finally adopted from Muslim example? The use of towers stemmed from the practice in early Egypt of erecting obelisks as sacred shrines or monuments near or at their places of worship. But why have such towers with various shapes (but almost all of them displayed as long, erect and normally with a type of point or pyramid on top like our steeples and spires)? Classical history is clear on this matter. When the Egyptian God Osiris was killed and dismembered (with his body parts scattered around the country), the Goddess Isis (his sister and wife) sent her messengers to gather the body parts together for a proper burial of Osiris. They were successful in discovering all the parts of the body except the penis. They looked all over for it, but it was never found. So what did Isis do? She erected various kinds of obelisks always erect and upright in a type of penis-form to remind the people to look for Osiris’ lost penis. To not let them forget it, she erected numerous obelisks (penis-like monuments) at the main places of Egyptian worship (Diodorus Siculus, Book I, Chap. Two). As a matter of fact, the Egyptians gave the practice to the Greeks and then it came to the Romans. The Romans even transported to Rome some of these Egyptian obelisks for their own worship purposes, and one of them is now in the center of Vatican City prominently erected there as pretty as you please.
Following the example of the Egyptian Goddess Isis, the practice of raising up obelisks in the form of spires and towers continued throughout the pagan world with various types being used and often their designs were subtlety changed to hide the meaning of what the obelisk actually was. As a matter of fact, would you not think that a steeple with its spire looks more like a large upright writing instrument that we call a pencil (with a sharp point at the top) than an obvious erect male penis? Yes, most people would think so. But I ask you to go to any good size dictionary and look up the word "pencil" (you know what I mean, that pencil we all use to write letters). Get ready for a shock if you have not looked up the origin of this word because the word "pencil" means "a small penis"! Most of you probably never knew what you were actually holding in your hand when you wrote your last letter to Aunt Mable. And the word "pinnacle"? It doesn’t come from the word "wing," though it did become associated with a "feather" because feathers provided "pens" (that is, a type of" pencil") for people to write with. The word "pinnacle" has a similar origin. Pinnacles are simply another indication of upright penises. And, believe it or not, if you look up the early use of the word "prick" in the exhaustive Oxford Dictionary, you will find that five hundred years ago people customarily referred to pinnacles as pricks even in a normal non-gutter type of language. That Dictionary showed one translation of even the New Testament that Satan took Christ to the "prick of the Temple" in order to throw him down (see the article "Prick," vol.VII,p.1345, col. A). By the way, there were no standing towers or spires in the Temple at Jerusalem. And since it was quite common a few centuries ago to refer to the steeples and spires on churches and cathedrals as "pricks," I frankly think they ought to be called by this name today. At least people would then begin to understand what these steeples represent. As a matter of fact, with some of the eastern European churches, the architects got more bold. They left the top of the steeple looking globular, which is even more penis-like in shape than the pointed pencil-like spire of our western churches and cathedrals.
With this brief overview I hope that you will begin to understand how Satan the Devil uses his subtle ways to deceive the world. He laughs at God every day a church is erected with an erect penis on the top to identify it. God calls such a sign the sign of the Great Whore called ‘‘ Circe’’ from whence we get our name ‘‘Church.’’ Why, we see such signs adorning so many churches in our western lands that if a small church is raised up somewhere, one of the first things the Board of Deacons will do is to buy an obelisk sign to place on the church roof. Why do they want such a sign to be there? It doesn’t keep off the rain. It is there because it identifies that this is a "church." God, however, identifies it with something else. He sees it as the original penis-sign erected by the Goddess Isis as a place of worship for the pagans who were to look for the lost penis of the Egyptian God Osiris. And our intellectuals know this to be the case.
Now some may say that such signs today have lost all their original meaning and no one any more thinks of a steeple or spire as an erect penis. That’s true, and that is how Satan deceives "the many" of which Christ spoke. People today are so ignorant and uneducated that they do not know that their erection of a steeple and spire over a church is their erection of the Isis penis-sign. But, do not churches do a lot of good for society and should we not be too hard on them for their ignorance of the origin of their signs? Indeed, I wholeheartedly agree that much good is done by churches today, but Satan the Devil also practices "good" a full 99% of the time for the benefit of his societies. It is his mixing in 1% of his religious strychnine that poisons the whole thing. This is the problem.
But let us forget for a moment how we humans view these symbolic matters, While Christians today show an indifference to these corruptions, God the Father and Christ Jesus are not ignorant of the meaning of these penis-signs and other such abominations in our churches. They are well aware of what these profligate signs mean, and Satan laughs at so-called righteous Christians over their stupidity in erecting such penis-signs over their churches. But really, should God and Christ be subjected to view such pagan idolatry when they look down from heaven on the worship services of their people? Why should they have to view these heathen corruptions adorning our Christian church buildings? It is outrageous that when God and Christ want to observe their people assembling for worship, they find them each Sunday or Sabbath under the upright penis (or penises) that Satan had them erect over their churches. And Christians today show not the slightest shame in their actions. This indicates just how deceived Christians have become.
This corruption, however, not only involves God and Christ looking at these obscene signs from the ancient world, what about all of us who know these historical and biblical truths? Why, every time my wife goes to buy groceries, she passes three churches which have those erect penises identifying them. Believe me, she knows what they signify. The least the ministers of those churches could do is to put some kind of covering over their penis-signs to hide them from the sight of my wife and the general public. Should our wives and children be subjected to such indecency? In truth, the intellectuals know what they mean.
As an example of this, Newsweek magazine for December 13, 1993 had an article (with a photograph) of the citizens of Paris, France placing a gigantic condom over the obelisk from Egypt located in the Place de la Concorde (which is like the obelisk in Vatican City) to commemorate the promotion of World AIDS Day and to remind homosexuals to use safe sex between themselves. The intellectuals in France are well aware of what that obelisk sign from Egypt means. It is time that the Christian ministers and priests be honest enough with the general public to put the same kind of sheath over the penis-signs on the top of their churches. At least, all people would then know what those steeples represent.
Really though, can you see why God calls our religious societies today "Mystery, Babylon the Great"? He calls them "Mystery" (or "Secret") because people today are so ignorant and uninformed that Satan has got even the most religious Christians thinking that all these disgusting and obscene signs on the tops of their churches and the equally offensive signs within them are actually holy, righteous and proper. Indeed, in this Report I have not discussed the pagan "female signs" in our churches out of respect for the women who read this Report, but I plan to write a book exposing the whole thing, and it will be a shocker! Indeed, if I am to be a truthful historian, I will have to tell the facts very plainly. The present working title I have for this book is "Churches Are Pagan Temples." To explain these disgusting male and female sex signs adorning our churches today and used in Christian religious worship, I plan to put a notice on the outside of the book saying:
"Warning. Do not open and read this book if you are sensitive to the history of the many religious signs now adorning our churches and the paganism in church liturgy which some people might consider pornographic." Yet in spite of this idolatry, these churches still have the nerve to call themselves "New Covenant Churches." That’s fine, let them call themselves "covenant churches." But God says that the New Covenant is made only with the nations of Israel and Judah (Jeremiah 31:31-34). So, here are these "covenant churches" with their rampant idolatry overflowing to the brim acting like the Israel and Judah of old whom God said were two classic examples of first-class whores (Ezekiel 23).
In closing, let me give you a present day scenario by using an example of an event of the past mentioned in the Old Testament. When God today calls a council in heaven of His Sons with all the angels and including Satan the Devil, they all have a dialogue with one another. This is just like when Satan came to God’s heavenly council in the time of Job (like in Job 1:6-12 and 2:1-6). God no doubt still asks Satan where has he been. Satan would tell God he had been going throughout the earth. God would then ask Satan if he noticed the humans on earth who were His sons and daughters? Satan would then answer God. "Yes, I have been witnessing the people you call your so-called sons and daughters and they are so ignorant and stupid that I have got them into worshipping you in the most disgusting ways imaginable. I have them all meeting in "churches" which are named after the Great Whore of Revelation. I have them assembling where they can find upright and erect penises over their churches. And when they go in their churches, I have them placing Zeus with his long-hair in a prominent position and I get them to call this image of Zeus by the name of " Jesus." I have them teaching the doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul which you have stated in the Bible is wrong. I have them worshipping you with the false doctrine of the Trinity. I have them congregating on the pagan days of the ancient world which they now call Easter and Christmas (with other heathen days and customs they now call "Christian festivals") when you have said not to learn the way of the heathen. I have given them religious ceremonies that they call Christian worship which originated with the pagans that you have always condemned and told them not to use. I have them also reading from their Bibles with an order of the biblical books completely opposite to your original manuscript design which came from the apostles and this false design brings them into utter confusion in understanding true biblical doctrines. That is what I have got your so-called sons and daughters to do who are supposed to be members of your divine Family. I have done this deceit While your so-called sons and daughters believe that my deceptions are righteous, holy and good. God, you have let me do it, and I believe I have done a jolly good job."
After hearing Satan’s report from earth, God would answer Satan and admit that he has indeed deceived the world. But God would then remind Satan that there is a remnant of God’s people who know better and eschews such evil, and that He is soon to give them the power to reveal the truth of these religious corruptions to the whole world. The reason God would tell Satan of this coming change in society is because it is prophesied in the Bible. For us there is hope. Indeed, God and Christ have called you and me to know this truth beforehand. He has selected us to help pave the way for this new reformation.
Though Satan has been highly successful in the world, there is another side of the coin. We are just now coming into that time prophesied in the Bible when the whole truth of God is going to be given to this world. There is hope (real hope) for God’s people because God is about to lift the veil of deception that He has placed on the world (Isaiah 29:13-24). God is now telling us that His true knowledge will soon sweep this world (Daniel 12:4,9, Acts 3:19-21). And in fact, God is calling you and me to give us this advance understanding in order that we can teach God’s truth to the world. He is opening the doors for us, and I hope that all of us will walk through those open doors.
And what is God’s promise to you and me now that this knowledge is being made known to us? The Bible says this: "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly" (Romans 16:20). Satan has but a short time left to do his work of deception, but you and I (even now) can live triumphantly above all his wiles and ways (Ephesians 6:10-19), and soon the whole world will know the truth about these matters (and the truth will be shown before the Second Advent of Christ). You and I have nothing to fear from Satan, but he fears God and he fears the people (such as you and I) whom God has now called.
So, where do we stand? Here we are in early 1995, at the very threshold of God’s prophesied time when God is to take the veil off of people’s eyes. What should be done? In my view, it is time to get rid of all this pagan idolatry and false doctrines that permeate the very fabric of what is called modem Christianity and for us to get back to the faith once delivered to the New Testament saints. Not only will this world be a much better place in which to live, but the environment will then be conducive to present the fullness of the Gospel of Christ Jesus to this world. May God speed that day.
Ernest L. Martin
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