The Blinding Strategy of Satan
By John Fast
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” – 2 Timothy 3:1
The deceiving of souls may be compared to the modern equivalent of the con-artist, namely, the scammer. Those who are aware of their danger and vulnerability to being scammed will take all the necessary precautions to prevent it; so will the person who is much afraid of being spiritually deceived. But alas, there are precious few who realize their danger of being deceived; rather they live in a dreamy false security totally oblivious of the danger to their souls. Those who are spiritually deceived are the last to know it and the last to admit it because they have been blinded to their true moral and spiritual condition by the god of this world. The reader may remember that in some of our first studies in ‘Living in Dangerous Times’ I identified many of the marks which the Bible highlights as being indicative of a perilous season. One of those marks is to be found in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they (i.e. professing Christians) will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths.” No one thinks that what they believe in is a myth, or they would not truly believe it. Nevertheless, as true evangelical Christianity declines, myths and the teachers who propagate them will be greatly preferred by the mass of professing Christians. When these unfaithful teachers move on to bigger and better things, or are found out, it is highly unlikely that the majority will accept, much less prefer, a faithful teacher who seeks to correct their mistakes and errors and instruct and exhort them in sound doctrine and holy living. Except Satan be dead or asleep, sound doctrine must expect many opponents and counterfeits. Everything that flatters human pride, panders to the desires of the flesh and of the eyes, or fosters spiritual laziness, false security, self-righteousness, and worldliness, will always be better received by natural men and women than the humbling and mortifying truths of sound doctrine and the gospel conforming to godliness. One of the tell-tale marks of a false teacher, false gospel, false church, and false Christianity is, “they entice by fleshly desires” (2 Pt 2:18).
In such a season the minds of professing Christians are particularly vulnerable to the deceits of Satan. As the god of this world one of Satan’s primary instruments of deception are the things of this world, namely, “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life” (1 Jn 2:16). It was with these that he deceived the mind of Eve, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), and that it was a delight to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and that the tree was desirable to make one wise (the boastful pride of life), she took from its fruit and ate;” (Gn 3:6). It is these same fleshly desires, no matter what specific forms they might take, which often consciously or unconsciously dictate the kind of Bible teaching which people will endure and to which they will condescend to listen, and that is teaching that corresponds with their particular desires – especially their desires for self-importance, self-worth, self-fulfillment, self-empowerment, self-respect, self-congratulation, self-determination, self-affirmation, self-gratification, and self-righteousness.
Self-righteousness is a very subtle thing, and very stubborn. It takes many forms and wears many disguises. Sometimes it takes the form of self-exoneration. We are loath to admit the horrible wretchedness and sheer ungodliness of our sin and the immensity of our guilt, so we look for all the extenuating circumstances and respectable names, most of which we borrow from the world and secular psychology, with which we can mitigate and upgrade the vileness of our sin and pacify our conscience. We are by nature hostile to Scripture’s depiction of fallen mankind as wholly corrupt, an apostate, an idolater (seeking their good from the creature, not from the Creator), a rebel, haters of God at heart, a child of wrath; that in whatever particular direction this depravity may run, it is by nature equal in every person; that there is in no person the will or power to return to God any more than there is in fallen angels; that there is nothing in any person to cooperate with the saving influences of the Holy Spirit, but everything in them fights against them; that the mind and conscience may be convinced and convicted, but the conviction is hated and opposed. After all, we do need to try and preserve at least a vestige of our self-respect, if not self-importance. We can no longer endure the archaic and humiliating doctrines of man’s total depravity, of God’s wrath, holiness, justice, and of His sovereignty in salvation, of our utter hopelessness and helplessness to save ourselves, of our need for not just forgiveness but a new nature, and the self-denying and mortifying demands which the gospel places on our lives. It is these truths, or at least their caricature, that the greatest proportion of contemporary evangelicalism will, quite frankly, no longer endure. Suppress these doctrines and there is nothing offensive in any remaining doctrine, nor objectionable to any person. The bulk of mankind are always ready to accept any teaching that does not alarm their fears, wound their pride, call them to forsake and mortify their lusts and to come out from the world, and much more that which soothes their fears, pacifies their conscience, appeases their pride, leaves their sin and idols untouched, and supplies them with an excuse for not subduing them. Not until we come to understand our true and horrible condition can we ever truly understand grace, but, as the great 18th century pastor and author Thomas Scott once wrote,
“Man by nature is exceedingly disposed to self-exaltation and self-admiration; and has very low and disparaging views of God: but the faith which the scripture requires implies the most abasing thoughts of ourselves imaginable, and the most high honourable, and admiring apprehensions of the divine majesty, purity and excellence. This renders it so extremely difficult for proud man to believe the gospel, however reasonable and demonstrably true it may be. Thus Christ says to the Jews, How can ye believe who receive honor one of another? plainly implying that true faith, and seeking our own honor are incompatible. On the other hand every species of false religion is calculated by the grand fabricator of error to soothe this corrupt principle, and to feed self-exaltation and self-complacency. Well-knowing, from his own temper, how pleasing flattery is to pride, his conduct ever since hath been according to his original artifice, Ye shall be as Gods. Schemes of religion being thus contrived, suited to the corrupt heart of man, little pains need be employed either to render them consistent or plausible, or to confirm them by argument or evidence: they are greedily embraced and followed by multitudes, who find no inward difficulty in believing them; and they are rapidly propagated in the world.”[1]
People in general find no difficulty in believing the most absurd, inconsistent, and unbiblical teachings, practices, and myths when those teachings, practices, and myths are in accordance with their own carnal presuppositions and desires; they are “greedily embraced and followed by multitudes”. For instance, where did people get the strange idea that obedience in one thing compensates for disobedience in others? Certainty not from the Bible, because “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at one point, he has become guilty of all” (Jm 2:10). Not from human government, because if we break one law we are not asked if we have obeyed others. Not from our daily business. Do we think that paying for some things would compensate for our not paying for others, or doing part of our job will compensate for being negligent in others? Yet this is the idea that has come to dominant within modern evangelicalism, namely, that believing part of the Bible will compensate for rejecting other parts; that believing some truths will compensate for not believing other truths. One of the more prevalent ways this myth expresses itself is in the belief that we are free to invent and implement new methods for ‘doing’ church, ones that ‘work’, as long as we profess not to change the message. This sounds logical to a worldly mind, but it fails to take into account that God has not only ordained the message, but the means and method for how it is to be proclaimed and for how He is to be worshiped. Do we really think that God, who did not leave even the naming of the incarnate Son of God up to human agency (Mt 1:21), has left His worship to the whims of the fallen and self-exalting mind of man? Yet multitudes believe and propagate this myth. The concept itself subtly shifts the mind astray and places the emphasis not on the divine message, but on humanly devised methods as the power of God unto salvation. Changing the method is simply a surreptitious way of changing the message, and wherever it has been tried and taken root it has never failed to produce a different gospel and a different Jesus. The heart of natural man is not hostile to methods that pander to human pride, carnal lifestyles, and gratify worldly desires for excitement and something ‘new’; rather it is the message to which the mind of natural man is hostile (Rm 8:7; Col 1:21). To shift the blame for this hostility onto ‘old-fashioned’, ‘irrelevant’, and ‘boring’ methods, and for spiritual leaders to capitulate to and propagate this myth, is simply evidence of a mind that is still blinded by the god of this world. Besides, even if we could live the rest of our lives in perfect obedience to the Word of God this would not compensate for even one past sin or negate its wages. Such a notion could only come from the father of lies and only make sense to a natural mind that does not understand spiritual truths (1 Cor 2:14).
The gospel of grace only has meaning in relation to sin; therefore, to minimize the wickedness of sin and the enormity of its guilt is to denigrate and corrupt the meaning of grace. When we come to understand the true nature of sin and the true meaning of grace, and come to rejoice in the salvation that grace has effected for us, then we have no plea for our sin but grace. Not until we are brought to see and feel the utter sinfulness of our own sin, and to understand our true moral and spiritual condition before a holy and offended God, will we be willing to be made a debtor to grace, because grace knows no extenuations, excuses, or self-effort. It is this, a right understanding of their true moral and spiritual condition, to which Satan blinds the minds of the unbelieving, thereby effectively blinding them to “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:4).
We often indulge a false charity that denies the true nature of man, the true nature of sin, the necessity and nature of the new birth, and the exclusivity of the gospel. It is a benevolence that assumes and allows for the idea that people who are basically good, nice, amiable, and decent are not by nature children of wrath and under the condemnation of a just, holy, and offended God. People who are ruled by this false benevolence are so because they have no true love for Christ, and those who are disposed to sympathize with this false charity do so because any love they may have had for Christ has grown cold and indifferent. Differences in religious beliefs are to them relatively unimportant to how we live in this world and irrelevant in comparison to more ‘important’ distinctions such as ‘Liberal’ or ‘Conservative’ opinions in politics, narrow or broad-minded views in morality, and tolerance or intolerance of the religious beliefs of others. In their mind, a God who is love is inconsistent with a God who inflicts wrath. In their mind, true Christianity is inconsistent with conflict over truth. Still, wherever our treasure is, there will be our conflict. This aversion to controversy and exposing of error, all conducted under the guise of a false charity, is one of the devil’s most successful schemes, because it leaves the door wide open to false teaching and teachers who corrupt Scripture and lead people’s minds astray. The notion that preaching truth will of itself prevent and expose error might be right if truth were as congenial, or more so, to the human heart and mind as are myths and error, but such is not the case. This is because the essential difference that divides all human beings is, and always will be, spiritual, no matter what external form it may take. That difference, whether we admit it or ignore it, is ultimately dependent on the acceptance or rejection of belief in Jesus Christ and His Word in the full sense and meaning which the Bible and the sound doctrine it teaches demands. As John Murray once stated,
“In a perfect world all we would need is truth and right. For, then, there would be no antithesis. But the Scripture is not for a perfect world, not for a world of ideals, but for the world that is, steeped in the iniquity of error and wrong. Scripture is corrective because it is redemptive. Untruth is to be corrected by truth and wrong by right….The waves of unbelieving and antichristian thought are constantly breaking upon our shores. They are depositing their corrupt wares and the salesmen of ungodliness are ever ready to peddle them. These agents of untruth have often a plausible story and if we sit by complacently we are sure to be their victims. Resistance is the only safeguard against the subtlety of the arch-enemy. There is only one thing for error – reproof, correction, conviction!….When we think of the many voices that clamor for our allegiance and the pious sentiment that is often the substitute for right conduct, how necessary it is to address ourselves to the only infallible rule of practice.”[2]
Christianity or Mythology
In saying that professing Christians will no longer endure sound doctrine Paul did not mean that they will become openly hostile to the truth. The word translated “endure” (anechomai) means “to accept as valid and true”, and it is this which in a dangerous season the bulk of professing Christians will no longer do when it comes to sound doctrine. They do not renounce Christianity altogether; rather “they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths” (2 Tim 4:3, 4). Myths (mythous) in New Testament usage are the antithesis of both historical reality and truth, both of which are essential to genuine divine revelation and the only possible basis for genuine faith, and therefore can have no spiritual value. If faith is not based on a fact then it is a false faith, no matter how sincerely it is held. If it is not a historical fact and true that Jesus Christ died and rose bodily from the dead then our faith is in vain (1 Cor 15:14; 2 Pt 1:16). If the Bible’s account of creation is not both historical reality and literally true, then what basis do we have for accepting the Bible’s account of Jesus’ deity, His virgin birth, His death by crucifixion, and His bodily resurrection? At what point does the Bible stop being myth and become true? By what arbitrary and artificial criteria is one part of Scripture deemed to be myth, and therefore can be disregarded and another part historical fact and true, and therefore to be accepted, trusted, and obeyed? When people will no longer accept sound doctrine and turn away their ears from the truth, they do not turn to a different kind of truth. When people turn from the light, they do not turn to a different kind of light. What else but darkness comes in when the light of day recedes? Even gold may be purchased at too high a cost, and we live in a season when fame, popularity, honors, comfort, ease, security, ‘success’, acceptance, and accommodation have been acquired at too high a price, namely, at the expense of sound doctrine, the inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency of Scripture, and faithfulness to the whole counsel of God.
The unregenerate heart and mind of natural man is just as hostile to the true gospel as it is to the law of God (Rm 8:7). The same enmity against God that disposes all mankind to despise, reject, violate, and argue with His law also disposes all people to despise and argue with His gospel. Their self-admiring, self-loving, self-excusing, and self-righteous hearts become insulted and incensed at being charged with rebellion, disobedience, and hostility against God, being by nature a child of wrath, and under God’s just, holy, and righteous condemnation, and are therefore blind to their true condition. “For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness,” (1 Cor 1:18), and this is true for many reasons, but primarily because they see no need for it. Except a person really sees the holiness and glory of God’s law, both its commands and its penalty, they cannot possibly see their need to be saved from the curse of the law; they cannot possibly see any real need for the incarnation, the sufferings, and the death of the Son of God to fulfill the demands and suffer the penalty of the law so that God might, in all justice, pardon sinners who have violated His law (Rm 3:26). The cross and the gospel must serve some other purpose, such as evidence of our self-worth, self-importance, or some other myth, instead of being the only means of our salvation from the wrath to come (Ac 4:12).
The only alternative to truth is myths – myths such as carnal Christianity, post-millennial meliorism, baptismal regeneration, Mariolatry, the legitimacy of women preachers, the so-called ‘social justice’ gospel, false theologies of regeneration, that evolution can be harmonized with creation and the world and its wisdom can be integrated with Christianity, the belief that man is basically good, that all people worship the same god, that God is giving new revelation today, that people are merely ‘broken’, that accepting, affirming, celebrating, and institutionalizing immorality and perversion is ‘love’, that someone can disbelieve the Bible and still be a Christian, that people leave Christianity and the church because it is ‘boring’ and ‘irrelevant’, that someone can become a Christian without ever having heard, read, or understood the gospel, that becoming a Christian is as simple as praying a prayer and making a ‘decision’ – there is no end to the enumeration of myths to which the mass of professing evangelicalism has turned aside. This has led to their minds being led further and further astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ until the ‘truths’ that they believe and the ‘Christianity’ to which they adhere, and are perhaps even zealous for, bear no relation to the doctrines and Christianity of the Bible. All myths are untruths, and all untruths are unrighteousness, “but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation” (Rm 2:8). All myths are delusions, and delusions are many and fatal. If the Bible itself is not a trustworthy, authoritative, and sufficient source of all sound doctrine and we have to look elsewhere for the source and norm of truth as to creation, sin, the nature of man, God, duty, holiness, worship, morality, faith, Jesus Christ, salvation, and Christianity we should not find it strange if a very different system of doctrine and a very different form of Christianity from that taught by the Bible, one comprised largely of myths, not only ensues, but becomes the prevailing religion which is believed and practiced.
All people are different; therefore the desires by which people are driven are as varied as the people themselves. Not only are these desires wide-ranging, but they change over time. The desires that drive a child are not the same desires that drive an adult. The desires that drive a young man or woman are not the same desires that drive an older man or woman. Nevertheless, it is these fleshly desires which Satan’s instruments, his human servants who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, graft into their teaching and practices by giving them legitimate, respectable, and spiritual-sounding names and by turning vices into virtues and idols into ‘ministries’. As people’s desires change so must the methods and message that pander to and affirm those desires change. What draws a crowd today will be ‘boring’ tomorrow because what ultimately draws them is not a love for the unchanging truth of God’s Word (2 Thes 2:10). Therefore, whether the teaching is Arminian or Reformed, man-centered or God-centered, superficial or in-depth, biblical or unbiblical is of complete indifference to them just as long as there is something in it that is in accord with their own desires. This is why many churches offer such a wide array of programs, activities, and ‘ministries’, because people, both young and old, are bound to find one that meets with their particular desire, and if not, there is always the leeway to start one up to meet the ‘needs’ of people with similar desires. Are you an outdoorsman? We have a ministry for that. Are you into motorcycles or horses or knitting or politics or exercise or sports or social activism…the list is limitless. So no matter what may or may not be said from the pulpit, we are bound to find a group of ‘likeminded’ people with whom we can agree, commiserate, and form an emotional attachment based not on sound doctrine and love for the truth, but on common carnal and worldly desires and experiences. Sound doctrine is secondary, or tertiary, or not even on the radar, and very often seen as a threat to ‘love’, ‘unity’, and even evangelism. Despite any profession to the contrary, by their actions they show that their primary and overarching desire is not for sound doctrine but for other things, and it is this desire for other things that chokes the Word of God and it becomes unfruitful (Mk 4:19), thereby leaving people vulnerable to the blinding deceits and stratagems of Satan. How can we expect to be saved from sin and its wages if we are indifferent to, ignorant of, and even hostile toward the doctrines and demands of Jesus?
It may have infiltrated into our minds the thought, fanatically peddled today within contemporary evangelicalism, that someone can be a Christian yet evidence none of the qualities that characterize the new birth. Instead myths, namely, humanly devised criteria and forms of godliness have been substituted for the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of regeneration. There is a tendency, indeed a fatal tendency, to infer genuine faith and righteousness from the degree of zeal, sincerity, and activity rather than from any knowledge of and devotion to sound doctrine. The zeal which characterized the scribes and Pharisees motivated them to “travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves” (Mt 23:15). The Apostle Paul is the consummate example of natural religion as well as the consummate example which shows us that the standard and source for all righteousness is not human zeal, sincerity, or conscience, but divine truth. Paul’s former religion, despite its obvious fervency, was based entirely on falsehood and error, and his enthusiasm, devotion, zeal, and conscience shaped and governed entirely by untruth. In fact, the greater was his zeal and sincerity, the more intense was his hostility to the will of God. Paul genuinely thought he “had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Ac 26:9). Not until the light of truth exposed his religion for what it truly was could he see himself as he truly was, “a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor” (1 Tm 1:13).
True salvation is always rare, but among a people who will not accept sound doctrine, prefer myths to truth, cling to a form of godliness, and have lived under its influence for a long period of time, genuine salvation is much rarer. Their assurance is a false assurance; it is a myth, because it is not based on historical fact or biblical truth. Those who possess it cannot give a reason for the hope that is in them (1 Pt 3:15). Their confidence is based on a myth and disproportional to any knowledge of and devotion to the truth, conscientious obedience to the will of God, separation from the world, or holy living, but wholly regardless of them. They do not arrive at their assurance by a thorough and honest self-examination, comparing their inward desires against those which the Bible declares to be characteristic of the new birth, and by prayer to God to search them, but without them. They do not doubt or lose their assurance by laziness, worldliness, and sin; rather their assurance emboldens them in sin and they confidently retain their assurance while living in sin.
It is virtually impossible to reach people with the gospel who think they already know and believe the gospel; people, whose human nature is offended when they understand the true nature and tendency of the gospel, and the humbling and mortifying truths it declares and the self-denying demands that it makes. As long as a person remains unregenerate they will always misrepresent and misunderstand the glory of God and the gospel, or hate them in proportion to which they understand them. It is virtually impossible to convince people of their danger who are oblivious to their danger, and to warn them of the danger they do not feel, and who do not possess the discernment to see it for themselves. This was the experience of all the Old Testament prophets, especially Noah and Jeremiah, “And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear” (Jer 25:4). This has always been the experience of every Christian who has been faithful to proclaim the Word of God in a dangerous season when the mass of professing Christians will not accept sound doctrine, but instead turn aside from the truth to myths. People who prefer myths and the men and women who propagate them to sound doctrine are devoid of the discernment necessary to live in a dangerous season. They will not endure the only thing that can provide them with the discernment they so desperately need yet obviously lack. This utter lack of discernment is self-evident from the kind of books and authors who consistently top today’s ‘Christian’ bestseller list and from the patchwork of mystics and mythology that dominate today’s ‘Christian’ mass media, be it radio, television, or internet.
Not all myths, however, tend toward the fanciful and bizarre. The most plausible, and therefore the most deceptive and dangerous, possess an element of truth and appearance of respectability, thereby making them much more likely to lead the mind astray. It has been said that the devil will put a teaspoon of lie in an ocean of truth. Many people who love to listen to, study, and learn all sorts of sophisticated, complex, philosophical, and intellectually impressive apologetic arguments are nevertheless woefully ignorant of the Bible and its doctrines. That is because apologetic arguments appeal to our intellectual pride, whereas the truths of Scripture humble and mortify us. The natural man can understand the pragmatic wisdom behind the arguments for integrating and harmonizing the wisdom and ways of this world with the doctrines of Scripture. Natural wisdom is attracted to the attempts to defend the Bible or the existence and nature of God by means of human wisdom. Such methods, however, fail to recognize that the essential difference which separates humanity is spiritual, not intellectual, and more often than not have been the means used to subtly divert the attention of many from the plain Word of God so that their faith rests on the wisdom of men, not on the power of God (1 Cor 2:4, 5). The natural man can understand and appreciate natural wisdom, “But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Cor 2:14).
Neither Satan nor the carnal and fleshly mind will allow the kingdom of darkness to be subverted or assailed without the most determined and enormous opposition. It is one thing to proclaim and teach natural knowledge to natural men, and another to explain to them the depravity of their nature, the sinfulness of their sin, expose their myths and their false assurances, attack their consciences, and show them their need for a new nature. Self-wisdom can be just as subtle and just as dangerous as self-righteousness. The ambition of distinction, pride of intellect, and the desire to be regarded as wise, intelligent, and intellectual, instead of foolish and simple-minded, have led many a mind astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Interest in theology, religion, apologetics, polemics, ministry, evangelism, creationism, eschatology, church, humanitarianism, or religious activity is not the same as interest in sound doctrine. A lack of interest in sound biblical doctrine is a lack of interest in God and His will for us, which is nothing less than ungodliness. If we find sound doctrine cold, dry, boring, dead, lifeless, and offensive then either our doctrine is not that of Scripture, or we are spiritually cold, dead, and lifeless. If we are always demanding something ‘new’ to keep church exciting and interesting then we have no love for the plain Word of God. We do nothing properly without thinking, and we can think and do nothing aright unless our thought and actions are in keeping with the truth as revealed by God in His Word.
It is scriptural truth that girds our minds against temptation, false doctrines, and the subtle deceits of Satan and our own hearts that are bent on leading us astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. The only defense against “being carried away by the error of unprincipled men” is to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pt 3:17, 18). The Galatians were “bewitched” (Gal 3:1). The Colossians were in danger of being taken “captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world,” (Col 2:8). Paul warned Timothy of those who would “fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons” (1 Tim 4:1). The only protection against and antidote for error is the unvarnished and accurate truth of God’s Word. It is insincere and useless to pray, “do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Mt 6:13) when all the while we not only do nothing to avoid and guard ourselves against temptation and evil, but run into it, exonerate it, mitigate it, excuse it, fill our minds with it, entertain ourselves by it, and give it respectable names. Like arsenic administered in small doses, all myths eventually kill all interest in spiritual truth by leading the mind astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ and His Word.
A.W. Tozer once stated, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”[3] Even more importantly, however, is our conception of Scripture and sound doctrine, for it is our conception and approach to Scripture that determines our conception of God. The world through its wisdom never has and never will come to a true knowledge of God (1 Cor 1:21). All of the world’s conceptions of God, even the atheist’s conception, are myths; they have no basis in historical fact or biblical truth. Everyone who wishes that any aspect of God’s nature and character were other than He has revealed Himself to be in Scripture, who misrepresents the character of God, and whose conception of God is framed to suit their own tastes, beliefs, preferences, and lifestyle, then assumes that this god loves them, and then in return, feel a love for their own idol, is obviously an enemy to who God is, and hates Him at heart. All those who saw and heard Jesus and hated Him did so because at heart they were haters of God (Jn 15:23).
Professing Christians today expend enormous amounts of time, money, and effort on things that have no basis in historical fact or biblical truth, and therefore have no real spiritual value. Only a correct knowledge and understanding of Scripture will gird our minds in the midst of all of the temptations and counterfeits which abound in a dangerous season, and keep our minds from being led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ by the god of this world. Ultimately it all comes down to this, if we do not accept the testimony of Scripture concerning the nature of Scripture (2 Tm 3:16, 17) – its inspiration, inerrancy, authority, clarity, and sufficiency – then what basis do we have for accepting the testimony of Scripture as the final and authoritative source for our conception of God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, faith, human nature, the church, or anything else concerning the content of our faith and practice? B.B. Warfield, in exposing the myth behind the error of so-called Higher Criticism, just as accurately described what is behind the myths that dominate the beliefs and practices of the mass of contemporary evangelicalism when he wrote,
“Under whatever safeguards, indeed, it may be attempted, and with whatever caution it may be prosecuted, the effort to modify the teaching of Scripture as to its own inspiration by an appeal to the observed characteristics of Scripture, is an attempt not to obtain a clearer knowledge of what the Scriptures teach, but to correct that teaching. And to correct the teaching of Scripture is to proclaim Scripture untrustworthy as a witness to doctrine. The procedure in question is precisely similar to saying that the Bible’s doctrine of creation is to be derived not alone from the teachings of the Bible as to creation, but from the facts obtained through a scientific study of creation;….Who does not see that underlying this whole method of procedure – in its best and in its worst estate alike – there is apparent an unwillingness to commit ourselves without reserve to the teaching of the Bible, either because that teaching is distrusted or already disbelieved; and that it is a grave logical error to suppose that the teaching of the Bible as to inspiration can be corrected in this way any otherwise than by showing it not to be in accordance with the facts? The proposed method, therefore, does not conduct us to a somewhat modified doctrine of inspiration, but to a disproof of inspiration; by correcting the doctrine delivered by the Biblical writers, it discredits those writers as teachers of doctrine.”[4]
The same may be said of all the attempts to correct the Bible’s teaching concerning women teachers and preachers, worship, justification, sanctification, salvation, faith, gender roles, parenting, modesty, marriage, morality, sin, human nature, church, the gospel, the world, etc. All are nothing more than myths designed to lead the mind astray from a simple, pure, and unreserved devotion and trust in Scripture as the Word of God and the sound doctrine it teaches. All these myths, no matter who promotes them or what specious and plausible form they take, are products of unbelief in the Bible as the Word of God. Our conception of God and Christianity can rise no higher than our conception and knowledge of Scripture, for it is Scripture alone that is the standard by which faith is determined and practice is dictated and regulated. The only record of sound doctrine and divine revelation that we have is the one written by the divinely inspired human authors of Scripture. We have no Christ but the One revealed in Scripture by those men whom Jesus Himself entrusted and commissioned to teach and record His truths. Any other God, any other Christ, any other gospel, and any other revelation are nothing other than myths. They are the product of the mind which invented them, not the mind of God, and they will all, sooner or later, lead the mind astray (Jer 23:26, 27). When every man’s own word becomes the word of God, that is, the ultimate authority, then people will no longer remember the Word of God; rather they pervert the words of the living God (Jer 23:36). Whatever untrustworthiness is attached to the human authors of Scripture and the truths which they wrote also attaches itself to the God who set these men apart and inspired them, which is nothing short of the moral, spiritual, and intellectual equivalent of calling God a liar.
For decades now, multitudes of professing Christians have been told that it is a great sin to doubt their salvation, and to never listen to anyone who might cause them to question the legitimacy of their salvation, so that today, to say that someone is not a true Christian and therefore under the condemnation of God is considered the height of arrogance and judgmentalism. This is a lie of the devil. The doubting which the Bible condemns is not our doubting of our own good condition before God, but doubting the truth of the Word of God. I challenge anyone to point out a single exception to this rule. The opposite of faith is not unbelief, but disobedience (2 Thes 1:8; 1 Pt 4:17), and disobedience is to call God a liar (1 Jn 5:10), but to doubt whether or not I am a Christian does not call God a liar, because nowhere has God declared that I am a Christian. Rather, God in His Word has declared that people of such and such a nature and character are by nature children of wrath, hostile in mind, haters of God, and children of the devil, and that if I am of such a habitual character, to the extent that I credit God’s Word as true, I will not only doubt, but will be convinced that I am not a Christian and therefore still ungodly and under the just condemnation of God. If, however, I do not doubt, if I imagine that there are exceptions, and that I myself am an exception, then I call God a liar. If I affirm someone to be a believer whose beliefs, practices, and habitual lifestyle and character the Word of God identifies as indicative of an unbeliever, I call God a liar. Likewise, when God in His infallible Word declares what are the marks and true character of all who have been born anew, and I ascribe the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit to ‘legalism’, ‘fanaticism’, ‘pietism’, ‘narrow-mindedness’, ‘Calvinism’, etc., then I call God a liar and show myself to still be a child of the devil. To doubt that I am a Christian when I have no evidence, no fruit of regeneration, but much evidence to the contrary, is not only right but it is the only way to be brought to a right understanding of my true and horrible condition, and not to doubt in such a case, is to be blinded by the god of this world, trusting in a myth, living in defiance of God’s Word, and clinging to a diabolical delusion. An unwillingness to accept sound doctrine, a preference for myths, and a worldly and unholy life are much stronger evidence against a person’s conversion than any ‘testimony’, baptism, religious zeal, or story of experience can be for it.
This faulty and untrue representation of the doctrine of perseverance and assurance has done immeasurable harm to the church of God by strengthening the hands of those living in error and sin to not repent of and forsake their evil ways. Multitudes have been and continue to be assured on insufficient and even no evidence that they are true believers, and being taught ‘once saved, always saved’, they soothe themselves in their ignorance and worldliness, sleep secure in sin, are rendered insensitive to the warnings and condemnations of Scripture which are directed to the ungodly and not (they imagine) to them, are a scandal and reproach to true Christianity, and live and die believing in a myth. The doctrine of assurance and perseverance is not designed to comfort even true Christians in lukewarmness, sin, worldliness, error, and disobedience, but to encourage and hearten the diligent, watchful, sober-minded, alert, and self-denying Christian in their conflict with Satan, the world, and the corruptions of their own heart, that while contending faithfully against sin and the world, they may fight courageously and confidently when otherwise they may become discouraged by fears and doubts that all is in vain. If Satan and his human instruments abuse and corrupt this doctrine, as they do every other truth and good gift from God, this should only teach the true people of God to expose and contend earnestly against such abuses and corruptions, not deny the truth of God’s Word.
Satan’s Blinding Policy
Given all of the pain, sorrow, evil, and hurt in the world, all of which is the consequence of sin, one would think that the good news of a Deliverer and Savior from sin, its guilt, its punishment, and its power would make the heart of any sinner leap for joy. We might think that it would take very little reasoning to persuade a lost and guilty sinner to accept the free and gracious offer of salvation and put on the clothes of Christ’s righteousness; an offer that costs them nothing but to see and feel their true moral and spiritual condition. But alas, while we are offering and reasoning, Satan is blinding their minds with myths, morality, self-righteousness, futile reasonings, excuses, and subtle lies, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor 4:3, 4). Satan is a crafty and jealous ruler who knows full well that when any of his subjects are brought to see their true moral and spiritual condition that they will despair of all self-righteousness and look for a Savior. Therefore, it is his policy to blind their eyes to their true condition, and to darken their understanding in order to keep his interests at the forefront of their wills, desires, and affections. The most blinding policy in Satan’s arsenal is to persuade people that they see when they are really blind (Jn 9:40, 41); that they are alive when they are really dead (Rv 3:1); that they are rich when they are really wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (Rv 3:17); that they are Christians when the historical reality and sober truth is they are simply religious unbelievers who are still of this world, and who cloak their worldliness with just enough religion to be respectable. They are content with superficial, vague, undogmatic, and erroneous understandings of Scripture. They gravitate to myths and the people who propagate them because they make them feel good about themselves; therefore they are easily deluded into pernicious errors or unbiblical practices and principles. Shallow and hollow views of holiness according to the holy law of God and an unperceived tendency to worldliness and antinomianism become the new norm.
To better understand Satan’s blinding policy we need to take a closer look at what the Holy Spirit is saying in this passage. First, we are told that the gospel is “veiled” (kekalummenon), and to whom it is veiled, “those who are perishing”. The word “veiled” means “hidden”, “concealed”, “to cause something not to be known”. Paul had just used the noun form of this word to describe unbelieving Jews, “But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart” (2 Cor 3:15). In this passage, however, he states that it is the gospel that is veiled. This begs the question, by what or whom is the gospel veiled? The verb is in the perfect tense, indicating an action completed in the past with the results of that action continuing up to the present, and it is in the passive voice, indicating an action that has been done to them by another, but by whom? For this we need to turn to the words of Jesus, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You hid these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in Your sight” (Mt 11:25, 26). Here we have the Son praising the Father for His sovereignty as exemplified in the salvation of particular individuals according to the counsel of His own will. It is God alone who sovereignly both hides and reveals spiritual truth and realities, “For God who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).
There are many people whose profession and assent to the sovereignty of God is rather cheap and hollow; cheap and hollow because their conception is theoretical, academic, and abstract, yet they deny the sovereignty of God in the individual and particular. It is nothing short of unbelief and contempt to give lip-service to the sovereignty of God in general yet refuse to allow it in what is personal and particular. Jesus not only acknowledged that the Father is Lord of heaven and earth, but the focus of His praise was the sovereignty of God in the particular, “You hid these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes.” “You hid” is just as concrete, particular, and personal as “You didst reveal”. This is the testimony of Jesus Himself. The focus of this revelation is the Son, and the Father has committed to the Son the prerogative of revealing all the mysteries of the Father’s love, grace, mercy, truth, and all that comes within the scope of the gospel (Mt 11:27). This is because no one knows the Father but the Son, a knowledge not gained by the process of revelation, but an exhaustive knowledge that belongs to Him because He is the Son of God. This guarantees that when the Father reveals the Son and the Son reveals the Father, this revelation corresponds, and it guarantees that the Son reveals the Father as He truly is and to whom the Father has willed Himself to be revealed and as He wills Himself to be revealed. Nothing is more determinative and ultimate in the eternal counsel of God than the will of the Father, “who works all things after the counsel of His will,” (Eph 1:11). Even Jesus did not do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him (Jn 4:34; 5:30). This is not to say that some spiritual truth may not be known intellectually, theoretically, academically, and naturally, but it may not be known truly, spiritually, experientially, and savingly, unless God shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. False and counterfeit gospels may be known and cherished in abundance, but unless God reveals the glory of the true gospel, it remains veiled.
The true gospel is veiled “to those who are perishing”. These are the same people to whom the word of the cross is foolishness (1 Cor 1:18), namely, those who are spiritually dead and under the just wrath and condemnation of God, yet who are blind to their true moral and spiritual condition. Their self-righteousness may not be as overt and ostentatious as that of the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable (Lk 18:8-12), but nevertheless, it is just as blinding. It is these, “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving”. God hides the gospel from the self-righteous, and it is the policy of Satan to blind the minds of the unbelieving to their true moral and spiritual condition, “that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”, thereby causing them to turn away from the truth and to turn aside to myths that allow them to preserve at least a vestige of their self-righteous pride and retain some of their fleshly lusts and desires and maintain a modicum of their love for this world. This is how the god of this world maintains his dominion and keeps his subjects in subjection to his will, namely, by blinding their minds to spiritual realities, especially their own spiritual and moral condition. When they hear, read, and consider spiritual truths, they “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand” (!s 6:9). They are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:7). They may have some vague, superficial, confused, and erroneous notions, but no clear, distinct, concrete, or effectual understanding, because “the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,” (1 Cor 2:14). Multitudes of professing Christians, to say nothing of open unbelievers, see no glory in Christ and the true gospel, which is why they invent and accept false Christs and false gospels (2 Cor 11:4); this is why they blame their lack of interest on ‘boring’ methods, but the fault lies not in Christ or His gospel, but in the minds of those who do not believe. The sun shines in its full glory, but the blind do not see its glory. The fault is not in the sun, but in the eyes that are blind, “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (Jn 1:5: cf. 3:19, 20).
The greater portion of contemporary evangelicalism are convinced that the one thing which people can do by the exercise of their own free will is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. It is believed that this is the initial step required to set the wheels of salvation in motion, and the one contribution which man himself must supply. This seems to be the assumption to which many people default when faced with the claims and demands of the gospel, yet remain unwilling and unable to see their true condition, forsake their various lusts and pleasures and their love for this present world. They imagine that at some point in the future when they are good and ready that in one momentous act of decision they will believe in Jesus, have all their sins forgiven, be ‘saved’, and in good standing with God in this life and the next. Such is one of the most common and effective lies used by the god of this world to blind the minds of the unbelieving to their true moral and spiritual condition. One of its most appealing features is that it never has to deal with the problem of human depravity and inability. No painful conviction, no embarrassing repentance, no humiliation and self-abasement need be felt; no mortification of sin and the world. The natural mind is hostile to God and His glory, and therefore reacts with hostility to the demands which God’s glory requires of us, and this hostility is at its highest when the glory of God in the face of Christ is most revealed. It is here that all the divine perfections are displayed in all their glory. To trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation is the one thing which the natural man will not and cannot do. Jesus Himself testified that, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him;” (Jn 6:44)’ and “no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father” (Jn 6:65). It is a moral, spiritual, volitional, and intellectual impossibility except by the sovereign, effectual, irresistible, and gracious illumination and call of God. The thought that the answer to why some believe in Christ and others do not is to be found in the sovereign exercise of human free will is a monstrous deification of the fallen and depraved human will; rather it is to be attributed solely to the sovereign will of the Father. It is He who gives His people to His Son.
Just as it is a moral and spiritual impossibility for anyone to come to a true saving faith in Jesus Christ apart from the sovereign, irresistible, and gracious will of the Father, it is a moral and spiritual impossibility that all who have been given by the Father to the Son should not come, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me,” (Jn 6:37). Not that they might come, not that they are given the opportunity to come, not simply made able to come but left up to them to come or not, but they “shall come”. This is certainty, it is absolutely determined, it is predestined. Jesus receives all who come to Him because all who come to Him have been given to Him by the Father, and the Son would never reject the Father’s gift. By this we see the difference between true Christianity and all of its various quasi-forms, yes, and even between true faith and atheism. True faith does not exist except by being granted and planted in the heart as a gracious gift from God, but it can wither and shrivel away to nothing if not nurtured, watered, and cultivated. But falsehood, error, unbelief, and self-righteousness are pernicious weeds that will grow anywhere with no care, and they will not die unless they are pulled up by the roots. True salvation is then, in every sense, wholly gratuitous, whereas judgment and damnation are always wholly deserved. The reason why so few come, especially in a dangerous season, is because to the majority the gospel is veiled.
How is this veil removed? “but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Cor 3:16), but no one will ever turn to the Lord until they are brought to see and feel their true moral and spiritual condition, and cast themselves on the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ alone for salvation. There is a salvation offered to us in the gospel, or rather to those who see and feel and acknowledge their need of it, and, submitting to God’s righteousness, and renouncing all self-dependence, seek the mercy and grace offered in the gospel as their only hope, remedy, and refuge from the wrath to come. All true salvation begins with a profound conviction of the sinfulness of sin, the holy righteousness of God, and of His holy and just condemnation and wrath against sin (Jn 16:8), in other words, with a true understanding of our horrible and desperate spiritual and moral condition. From attitudes of indifference, security, self-sufficiency, formality, and false spirituality, a sinner is brought to see themselves under the just condemnation of a holy and offended God, and to a distress and concern for their soul that is so strong that it has sometimes led to physical and emotional exhaustion. It is this which Satan and his instruments who disguise themselves as servants of righteousness strive to blind the minds of the unbelieving, namely, to the horrendous and abominable nature of sin and to any sense of their true condition before a holy, just, and offended God, and in the dangerous season in which we live the god of this world is enjoying extraordinary and unprecedented success.
A Case Study
The church of Thessalonica is a perfect example of how easily the minds of even genuine Christians can be led astray when they do not cling tightly to the Word of God. Having been driven out of Thessalonica by people hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ (Ac 17:1-10), Paul was unable to impart to these new believers all the truth they needed in order to be well-grounded in the faith. After numerous attempts to return, all of which were thwarted by Satan (1 Thes 2:17, 18), Paul could no longer endure the uncertainty regarding the faith of these fledgling Christians. Had the same people who had driven Paul and Silvanus out also been successful in undermining the faith of these new believers? Had the tempter successfully tempted them, thereby rendering all of Paul’s labor among them in vain (3:5)? Therefore he sent Timothy “to find out about your faith” (3:5), and “to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith” (3:2). Upon his return Timothy reported, to Paul’s great joy, that he had found these new believers standing firm in the Lord (3:6-8). However, there were still some things which were lacking in their faith (3:10). One of these concerned the fate of believers in their midst who had died before the return of the Lord for His bride (4:13). Their lack of knowledge in this area presented the real danger that they may “grieve, as do the rest who have no hope” (4:13). They may revert to their old pagan superstitions, or, as most do today who have no hope, they may invent false hopes, because for most it is better to cling to a false hope than to have no hope at all. They hope in their good works, in their baptism, in the belief that their loved one is in a ‘better place’, in some sort of universal salvation, in the nonexistence of hell, in purgatory, in annihilationism, in any and every remotely plausible myth rather than have no hope at all. Those who have no true hope must invent a mythological hope because the Bible provides not one ray of hope to brighten the despair and hopelessness that shrouds the death of the unregenerate. Eternity stares them in the face without one glimmer of hope, so they are driven by necessity to hope in a myth not just for their deceased loved one, but primarily for themselves. Here was an ignorance of truth which the enemy could exploit to lead the minds of these new Christians astray. To prevent this eventuality Paul grounded them in the comforting truth that those who had died in Christ before His return had not missed out on anything (4:14-17).
One doctrine in which the Thessalonians were well-grounded was that concerning the day of the Lord; that period of time when God will personally intervene in human history to judge all those who “did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved”, and “who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness” (2 Thes 2:10, 12); the period of God’s wrath known as The Great Tribulation described in Revelation 6-18. Concerning this doctrine they had “no need of anything to be written to you” (1 Thes 5:1), in contrast to their lack of knowledge concerning those who had died in the Lord. Here their need was not for instruction, but encouragement to live in a way consistent with what they had already been taught. Paul and Silvanus had obviously been able to thoroughly ground these new believers in this subject prior to their being driven out by enemies of the gospel (2 Thes 2:5). They knew “full well” about the subject (1 Thes 5:2). The adverb (akribos – “full well”) implies an exact knowledge that is the result of careful teaching. There was nothing fuzzy about their knowledge. They knew that this would be a time of intense persecution for true believers, and they knew perfectly well that they could know nothing concerning the timing of the day of the Lord; rather it would come upon the unbelieving world “just like a thief in the night” (1 Thes 5:2). It was not something that could be discerned or calculated, but was of divine determination (Ac 1:7). It was not a date that could be marked on the calendar, nor was it a proper subject for morbid curiosity or wild speculation; therefore they needed to be constantly alert, watchful, and sober-minded, unlike the unbelieving world that is fast asleep in a dreamy false security, preoccupied with the things of this world, and which sees no reason and shows no interest in being prepared, alert, and sober-minded. Instead they feel safe and secure and discern no outward reason why they should be concerned, nor any evidence to contradict their feeling of security (1 Thes 5:3). Having turned away from truth to myths, dulled their conscience against the warnings of divine judgment, deliberately refused to receive the love of the truth, and willfully taken pleasure in wickedness, they will be easy prey and will eagerly accept the devil’s lies and feel safe and secure from divine wrath (2 Thes 2:10-12). Yet, like Noah’s generation (Mt 24:38, 39), and like those to whom Jeremiah was sent (Jer 23:17), and like the bulk of modern evangelicalism, their feeling of security is a fatal self-deception and delusion.
Nevertheless, despite being well-grounded in the facts pertaining to the day of the Lord, these believers found themselves being “quickly shaken from your composure” and “disturbed” by seemingly creditable reports which asserted “that the day of the Lord is present” (2 Thes 2:2). Enesteken, “is present”, in all its other New Testament uses denotes something that is actually present, not imminent. Had not Paul told them that “God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thes 5:9)? But here was a report, ostensibly from Paul himself, stating that this period of God’s wrath was present; a report made all the more plausible by the intense persecutions and afflictions which they were enduring (2 Thes 1:4). Their sufferings provided Satan with the opportunity to lead their minds astray by tempting them with a seemingly plausible reason to doubt the truth of God’s Word and to turn aside to a myth, the belief of which led some of the Thessalonians into “leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies” (2 Thes 3:11). As a good shepherd Paul guided these believers through their crisis of faith by reminding them of two conspicuous events, events that had not yet happened, that would mark the opening phase of the day of the Lord (2 Thes 2:3), and of the truths they had been taught, “Let no one in any way deceive you, for it (i.e. the day of the Lord) is not present unless the apostasy has come first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed,….Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?….So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by a letter from us” (2 Thes 2:3, 5, 15), and by instructing the church how they were to deal with and admonish those within the church who had degenerated into leading an “unruly life” (2 Thes 3:6-15). We find here a historically accurate and true account of the real danger posed by allowing our circumstances, experiences, emotions, ambitions, desires, myths, and our own understandings to influence and drive our understanding of Scripture, thereby leading our minds astray. We find here confirmation of the fact that times of suffering and affliction are usually accompanied by the subtle and seemingly plausible temptations of the tempter. The devil, as the god of this world, tempts by exaggerating and overrating the things of this world and by trivializing and underrating the things pertaining to the world to come; by magnifying the evil and suffering in this world and by denying and minimizing the wrath, suffering, and torment to come; by provoking and enticing the soul to pursue the present good and pleasure and to avoid and escape present suffering.
No Time to Be Ignorant
The perils and pitfalls of Christians in a dangerous season, just as in times of persecution, are not so much from their trials, hardships, and sufferings as from the temptations that always accompany them and that are placed there by Satan. Temptations and sufferings, for the most part, usually go hand in hand (1 Thes 3:3-5; Hb 11:37). It is the seed that grows in the rocky soil, that has no depth of root, which “when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away” (Mt 13:21), or as Luke states it, “in time of temptation fall away” (Lk 8:13). In a season when the root system of professing evangelicalism has never been more shallow, and when multitudes are falling away and compromising to avoid being persecuted because of the Word (Gal 6:12), it befits those who are, or expect to be called to sufferings for the cause of Christ and His Word, to acquaint ourselves with the strategies and schemes of the enemy of our souls. Such was Paul’s thinking, and such was his advice to all who expected to be engaged in the same cause, “in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Cor 2:11). There is nothing which Satan hates more than God’s divine written revelation, especially that which exposes his schemes. It is the craft of Satan to conceal his own schemes and strategies, this is why he disguises himself as an angel of light and his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness (2 Cor 11:14, 15), but it is the grace of God to expose them. This is one of the significant reasons for which God revealed the process by which Satan deceived the mind of Eve (Gn 3:1-5).
Believers gain a great advantage from being acquainted with Satan’s schemes, especially in a dangerous season when suffering and temptation typically go together. First, those who are cognizant of and familiar with the devil’s methods of temptation will be better equipped to recognize and expose it at its first sign and approach, and a temptation recognized early is a temptation more than half conquered. It is a special ruse of Satan to mix and shuffle his temptations and deceits in such a way so as to be as undiscernible as possible, to mix his poison with our food; not hard in a season when the mass of evangelicalism has already turned away from the truth and turned aside to myths. He knows that, “Indeed, it is useless to spread the net in the eyes of any bird;” (Prov 1:17); therefore, for him a suffering season is a more opportune season to ply his temptations, because suffering, like heat to wax, make a person more pliable by putting the mind into confusion, anxiety, distraction, and desperation, and so gives him an advantage to tempt the soul without arousing much suspicion and with greater success. But a watchful, sober-minded Christian that knows their Bible and is familiar with the devil’s schemes will discern, to use Jesus’ expression, when they “enter into temptation” (Lk 22:46), and so resists the devil and his temptation at its inception when it is at its weakest and before it finds anything in them to which it can adhere. The reason so many have fallen away by temptation and deceit is because the temptation was not recognized as such, was entertained by them, and overcame them before they knew it was a temptation and deceit.
Second, those who have familiarized themselves with the devil’s schemes will not only discern them sooner than others, but they know how to resist the devil so that he flees from them. They have put on the full armor of God, are well equipped in the proper use of each piece of armor, so that they are able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil (Eph 6:11), and to resist in the evil day and stand firm (Eph 6:13). They know that their “struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12); therefore they struggle not in their own power, but in the strength of His might (Eph 6:10). Their battle is a spiritual one and therefore they must use the means which God has ordained and supplied, in the way which God has intended that they be used, for the ends which God has provided them. The armor which they put on is the armor of God, not human wisdom, carnal means and methods, or political power. They know the difference between the spiritual armor of God and the devil’s carnal and worldly counterfeits. They understand that “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation,” (2 Pt 2:9), but this knowledge does not make them careless, presumptuously exposing themselves to temptation. As William Gurnall, the great 17th century Puritan and the author of the classic ‘The Christian in Complete Armor’ wrote,
“There is abundance of false ware put off now-a-days; little good armor worn by the multitude of professors. It is Satan’s after-game he plays, if he cannot please the sinner with his naked state of profaneness, to put him off with something like grace, some flighty stuff, that shall neither do him good, nor Satan hurt….So they have some armor, it matters not what….Thus thousands perish with a vain conceit that they are armored against Satan, death, and judgment.” [5]
There is many a poor soul that struggles under many temptations, but not in the strength of God’s might or in His armor. They go about complaining from church to church and from Christian to Christian. They flit from one counselor to another looking for some relief, or they pacify and sear their conscience by giving their sin respectable names, but the fully armed Christian goes to the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace to help in time of need (Hb 4:16). They are of the day, not of the night so they do not sleep as others do, but remain alert, watchful, and sober-minded (1 Thes 5:5, 6). They assault the temptation by cleansing themselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord (2 Cor 7:1), by mortifying the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal 5:24), and by disciplining themselves for godliness (1 Tm 4:7), all of which Satan opposes with his temptations (1 Cor 9:27).
Third, those who understand Satan’s schemes and methods of temptation, and who, in the strength of God’s might, are able to stand firm against them (Eph 6:11), these will be the Christians who persevere in a time of temptations, suffering, trials, persecutions, and hardships. Herein lies the ultimate goal of Satan. It is not so much the Christian’s suffering or persecution that he aims at, but to affect their fall by his temptations and deceits which he attaches to their suffering. Our sufferings, either actual, threatened, or potential, work upon our fear, and our fear drives us into the devil’s traps and snares, “The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted” (Pv 29:25); “like fish caught in a treacherous net, and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them” (Eccl 9:12); “but they mingled with the nations and learned their practices, and served their idols, which became a snare to them” (Ps 106:35, 36). The idols which Israel served, and which became a snare to them, were the idols of the peoples among whom they lived, the idols of the culture. It is these, the idols of our contemporary culture, which have become a snare to the mass of present day evangelicalism. They have been driven into this snare by their fear of becoming ‘irrelevant’, ‘boring’, ‘unpopular’, ‘intolerant’, and most of all, unprofitable; in other words, by the fear of man and love of honor and money. The Christian who understands this is not easily moved or shaken from their faith, duty, principles, and position by even the strongest oppositions and hostility. They do not compromise with, accommodate, or seek to gain the favor of men; they preach not as pleasing men but God; they do not resort to fleshly enticements; they do not flatter the pride of man; they do not seek to avoid suffering because of the Word and for the cause of Christ; they understand, believe, and take seriously the awful warning of Jesus, “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory,” (Lk 9:26), they would rather suffer than sin to avoid suffering, and so are likely to be the most consistent, immovable, and invincible Christians in a season of persecution and suffering. Their simple philosophy is that of the great pioneer missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, “There is a living God. He has spoken in His Word. He means what He says, and will do all that He has promised.”
The Source of Temptation’s Strength
Since all the marks of a dangerous season are upon us, and since we have been warned by Jesus that in this life we will have tribulation, and by the Apostle Paul that all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tm 3:12), and by the Apostle Peter that it is better to suffer for doing the will of God than for doing what is wrong (1 Pt 3:17), and by the Apostle John not to marvel if the world hates us (1 Jn 3:13), no matter how hard it tries to conceal its hatred, paint it with respectable names, insinuate itself into our hearts and minds, and whose friendship is really enmity, and since all sufferings and persecutions are intended as a vehicle to promote temptation, and that insight and knowledge into the devil’s schemes is a great advantage in frustrating his designs, it should appear obvious that we must know wherein the power and effectiveness of temptation lies, and what we are to do when we are assaulted by temptation in a time of suffering. This is what I shall attempt to do in the remainder of this study.
The power and efficacy of temptation lies primarily in three things; first, in the kind and nature of the temptation; second, in the guile and skill of the devil in managing the temptation; third, in the knowledge and experience that Satan has of human nature and our own particular lusts and desires.
First, not all temptations are alike. There is nothing more liable to promote self-righteousness, thereby blinding people to their true moral and spiritual condition, than for a preacher to preach against sins which few if any of his people are tempted to engage in. All temptations are not equally appealing, strong, and dangerous. Some temptations are typically more successful than others, some of which are:
Abnormal and unfamiliar temptations are some of the most dangerous. By unfamiliar, I mean unfamiliar to us, for, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man;” (1 Cor 10:13). There is no temptation or deceit that the devil has not plied on other Christians before he shot his fiery darts at us. By abnormal and unfamiliar I mean those temptations by which we have never been troubled, or seldom, if ever, faced before. This might be overt, systematic, and targeted persecution of Christians, something which Christianity in this nation has never before experienced. It could be total economic collapse, widespread unemployment, wholesale poverty, pestilence, or widespread famine, things which this nation has rarely experienced. Whatever form the temptation takes, whether it is national or personal, it is one which the people of God have seldom if ever had to combat. These are all the more dangerous because they overwhelm and shock the soul and senses, produce despair, despondency, and discouragement, and are an entirely new test of our trust, hope, devotion, and perseverance. Peter found it necessary to warn his readers to “not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you;” (1 Pt 4:12). To them their trial was a “strange thing” (xenos – something previously unknown, unheard of, unfamiliar), and was for the testing of their faith, “that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pt 1:7).
Temptations that target and are adapted to our own individual and particular lusts and desires are some of the most dangerous, for “each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust” (Jm 1:14); “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way” (Is 53:6). If a person is not a true Christian, but merely a stony ground or thorny ground professor, then those who succumb to such temptations usually do so irrecoverably, “For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again, but the wicked stumble in time of calamity” (Pv 24:16). Judas’ weakness was the love of money, so when tempted with money he betrayed Jesus. Demas’ weakness was his love of this present world, so when tempted with the world he abandoned Paul and the true gospel. Phygelus’ and Hermogenes’ weakness was their fear of being associated with the Apostle Paul and his doctrines, thereby exposing themselves to the same persecution he was suffering, so when tempted they turned away from him (2 Tim 1:15). For others it is their lust for fame, popularity, pleasure, ‘success’, security, acceptance, the praise and admiration of man, or self-gratification that the devil targets and adapts his temptations so as to be imperceptible and undiscernible to them. If a true believer, except they be vigilant, sober-minded, wide awake, alert, and prayerful, such temptations often cause them to fall scandalously, as did David (2 Sam 11:1-5).
Temptations that arise imperceptibly out of our Christian service and duties are particularly dangerous because they are the least suspected. Other temptations appeal to our fleshly nature and corruptions, but these are the result of our mortifying the flesh with its lusts and desires. What kills fleshly temptations is often fuel for temptations to spiritual pride and self-righteousness, as it was with the Corinthians, “For who regards you as superior? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor 4:7). The more covert a temptation is, the more dangerous it is.
Second, the strength and efficacy of temptation depends much on the skill of Satan to manage it; therefore they are called ‘schemes’, ‘deceits’, ‘methods’, ‘devises’ (2 Cor 2:11; Eph 6:11). Among his many strategies, the following are some of his most cunning and effective:
Employing instruments who have the greatest influence and who are the least suspected to be the means of soliciting to temptation, such as a teacher or pastor (2 Cor 11:15; Gal 2:13, 14), a family member (Jn 7:3-4), a friend (Mt 16:22, 23). The devil knows that for a temptation to be successful, it must come from an unexpected and unlooked for source, and the more highly regarded the source, the more effective is the temptation.
In the sequential and timely ordering of his temptations, beginning with seemingly small and inconsequential compromises and peripheral truths, and then by degrees working over to those truths that are central. Satan’s first suggestions are usually very modest because he knows that no one will go from professing Christian to full-blown apostate in one leap, so, as he did with Eve, he incrementally and imperceptibly leads the mind astray.
In not enticing with the temptation until the heart and mind have been prepared to receive it. Satan loves to strike when the iron is hot. He waits to entice until the heart, mind, and affections have been prepared. He waits to tempt until a person’s mind has been carried away and their affections have been enticed by their own lusts (Jm 1:14). He first lets their trials, troubles, and fears come to a head and then he offers them relief and deliverance through some sort of compromise (Hb 11:25, 35-37), or he offers all kinds of plausible excuses and legitimizations to overcome any objections of conscience. Satan waited until Peter was in the court of the high priest surrounded by people unsympathetic to Jesus and isolated from his fellow disciples before he plied his temptations to deny Jesus.
In wearing us down with an unrelenting stream of temptations. What he cannot win by one decisive battle he tries to win by a continuous siege. The devil continuously tempted Jesus for forty days in the wilderness (Mk 1:13 – the verb “being tempted” is present tense, indicating a repeated and habitual action). Only a soul that is strengthened, supported, and preserved by grace can withstand a prolonged siege and not yield to temptation, “If the Lord had not been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in the abode of silence” (Ps 94:17; cf.Ps 124:1-3; Mk 13:20; Rm 9:29). This is why we are commanded to “flee immorality” (1 Cor 6:18), “flee from idolatry” (1 Cor 10:14), “flee from these things, you man of God” (1 Tim 6:11), “flee from youthful lusts” (2 Tim 2:22), to “not be bound together with unbelievers” (2 Cor 6:14), and to avoid “worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” (1 Tim 6:20). It is one thing to be exposed to temptations in the course of our everyday life; such things are unavoidable in a wicked world, and another to willingly and intentionally place ourselves in the path of temptation. The first has the promise of the protection of God; the latter is presumption and disobedience that cannot help but end in tragedy, “Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good morals” (1 Cor 15:33); “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption,” (Gal 6:8).
Lastly, the strength and efficacy of temptation rests in the knowledge and experience that Satan has of human nature and our own particular lusts and desires. All unbelievers are “enslaved to various lusts and pleasures” (Tit 3:3). The lusts and pleasures to which they are enslaved are “various” (poikilos – diversified; of various kinds). Not all are enslaved to the same kinds of lusts and pleasures. Some are more respectable and socially acceptable than others. Some sins, indeed, a growing number, are regarded by the mass of professing Christians not to be sin at all. Nevertheless they are the sins that characterized our old nature which every true Christian still has within them. Were it not for this enemy within the devil’s temptations would have nothing to successfully tempt, and we would not be surprised by them so easily. Jesus was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin” (Hb 4:15), because there was nothing in Jesus to which the ruler of this world could fasten his temptations (Jn 14:30). It is the presence of indwelling sin within us that is the primary instrument by which Satan does all his work of temptation. Our various passions and desires are the conduits for the devils temptations, and it is these which the Christian must work to mortify in order to cut off any advantage before temptations come. It is our inordinate love of self and this world, its toys, money, pride, pleasure, ease, comfort, security, ‘success’, and liberty that gives temptations so much power over us. In the same proportion to which these are mortified, temptations will lose their power.
Having dealt with this subject extensively in a previous study, ‘The Power and Presence of Indwelling Sin’, I will refer the reader to these rather than make this paper too long. Allow me to briefly exhort and encourage you to ingrain this principle in your heart and mind, that “it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong” (1 Pt 3:17). It is better for us to be subjected to any suffering than to fall into the least sin. The least sin has more evil in it than the greatest suffering. Most will acknowledge this in principle, but very few will actually practice it, especially in a dangerous season. Most will sin to avoid suffering, and then look for any and every extenuation, justification, and respectable name for their sin, but those who run from suffering to sin, who turn from truth to myths, no matter what names they give it, only run from the apparent to the real danger. All suffering is evil, but not as evil as the least sin, and it is the design of Satan to make the suffering appear more evil than the sin. Only those who have come to see the abominable nature of sin will be willing and able to suffer rather than sin to avoid and escape suffering. Those who have suffered for the sake of righteousness, that is, they would rather suffer than sin to avoid suffering, “have ceased from sin” (1 Pt 4:1). Not that they never sin, but sin has ceased to be master over them (Rm 6:14); they are slaves to righteousness, not slaves to sin (Rm 6:18), and they bear witness to this fact by their willingness to suffer rather than sin “so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1 Pt 4:2). There is nothing like the simple and pure devotion to Christ and His Word. This will preserve us when myths, human wisdom, carnal reasoning, sight, sense, and idols fail and betray those who have trusted in them. “The true Christian, then, is a conqueror, more heroic, more noble, more exalted than the greatest of all earthly conquerors, for he has conquered that which has conquered them – the world.”[6]
In the next study I will, by God’s grace and in hopes of provoking self-examination and conviction, examine the unpreparedness of the mass of contemporary evangelicalism for a suffering season.
[1] John Scott, The Life, Letters, and Papers of the Late Rev. Thomas Scott, Author of the Commentary on the Bible (New Haven: Nathan Whiting, 1827), 486.
[2] John Murray, Collected Writings of John Murray, Vol. 3 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1982), 260, 261.
[3] A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy (HarperCollins: New York, 1961), 1.
[4] B.B. Warfield, ‘The Real Problem of Inspiration’ in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield: Revelation and Inspiration (Baker Books: Grand Rapids, Reprint 2003), 204, 205.
[5] William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armor (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Reprint 2015), 54, 55.
[6] Richard Alleine, The World Conquered by the Faithful Christian, First published 1668, Reprint (Grand Rapids: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1995), 1.