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not the generally accepted organiza–
tions of the masses which merely
appropriated His name, calling
themselves Christian.
Satan's Job
Satan the devil , originally called Lu–
cifer, was given charge of this earth
a long with a number of other angels
(Jude 6)- but he was not satisfied
with th e earth as his domain. He
rebe lled aga inst God's way o f do ing
things a nd tried to take over the
throne of God in heaven by vio–
lence- but did not succeed! " How
art thou fallen from heaven. O Luci–
fer, son of the morning! how art
thou cut down to the ground, which
didst weaken the nations! For thou
hast said in thine heart, 1will ascend
into heaven [notice that it is Sa tan's
idea to get to heaven]. 1 will exalt
my throne a bove the s tars o f
God . ... 1 will ascend above the
heights o f the clouds; I will be like
the most High' ' (Isa. 14: 12-14).
Thi s b c ing. who had b ee n
charged by God with the care of the
earth, sinncd against his Creator.
"Thou wast perfect in thy ways from
the day that thou wast created.
ti//
iniquity was found in thee''
(Ezek.
28 : 15) . By this act of rebelli on
aga inst the Kingdom of God. Satan
the devil became the "father" of a ll
those who a re guilty of sin- he was
th e o ri g inal sinner (John 8:44).
Jesus Christ gives a personal. eye–
witness account of this particular
time of Satan's rebellion when He
tells us : "1 beheld Satan as lightning
fa ll from heaven" (Luke 10: 18).
You will no tice that by biblical defi–
nition it was Satan who "fell."
Despite the fact that Satan had
rebc llcd against God's Kingdom,
His government and authority. he
neverthe less still held the office of
responsibility over this earth given
to him by God in the first place. In
the tcmptation on the mount , Jesus
Christ q ualified to take over this
rule from Satan the devil. By !-l is
victo ry over death He is able to take
over the rule rship of this world at
any time. But there is a plan being .
worked out here below, and as ye t
the G od of heaven has not inte r–
vened to strip Satan's autho rity
from him- Satan is still the god of
The
PLAIN TRUTH January 1979
this world: " In whom the
god of this
world
hath blinded the minds of
them which believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gos pel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should
shi ne unto them" (11 Cor. 4:4).
Satan does not appear to this
world in the clothing that he has
deceived this world into thinking he
would appear in- he does not ap–
pear with a pitchfork and horns and
an evillook on his face.
Appears as Angel of Llght
Just as Jesus Christ prophesied in
Matthew 24. Satan claims his con–
verts are spiritual Jews- Christians.
But Christ in a whole series of per–
sonal letters to His Church in a ll of
its eras warns about these congrega–
tions : " ... and l know the bias-
"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."
phemy of them which say they are
Jews (claim to be spiritual Jews, or
Christians], and are not, but a re the
synagogue of Satan" (Rev. 2:9).
And again, " ... the synagogue of
Satan, which say they are Jews, and
are not , but do líe" (Rev. 3 :9).
Satan looks like a light-bringer to
the deceived eyes of a deceived
world. His ministers look like and
sound like what deceived people
think the ministers of Christ should
look and sound like- that's the very
meaning of the word deception!
"For such are
fa/se
apostles,
deceit–
ful
workers, transforming them–
selves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel ; for
Satan himself is
1ransjormed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if
his
ministers
(Satan the devil does have
ministers] also be transformed (ap-
parently changed from what they
really a re] as the ministers of righ–
teousness; whose end shall be ac–
cording to their works [even though
these ministers preach that there are
no works, they are going to be
judged by the Creator according to
their works]" (11 Cor. 11: 13-15).
Whole World Deceived
Satan has done his job well. "And
the great dragon was cast out. that
old serpent, called the Devil, and
Satan,
which deceiveth the who/e
world"
(Rev. 12:9). This great false
deceiver has sent out his messengers
with soft and oily words to soothe
the troubled people on earth into
thinking that they can do what they
want to and still escape God's pun–
ishment of sin- death. Jesus Christ
warned about this: "Enter ye in at
the strait gate: for wide is the gate.
and broad is the way, that leadeth to
destruction, and many there be
which go in thereat. ... Beware of
false prophets. which come to you in
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ravening wolves " (Matt.
7: 13,
15).
In order to deceive the whole
world, Satan has used every means
available to him. There are many
a reas on this earth where deceived
and ignoran! human beings openly
worship the devil. Other hundreds
of millions ignorantly worship
pieces of rock and wood- big-bellied
Buddhas in the Oriental East and
dead men's bones in deepest Africa!
T hese great numbers of the peo–
ples of the earth are easy for Satan
to keep in subjection because of
such long-standing ignorance and
the fact that Jesus Christ and His
gospel have not been preached to
them. His name has not even so
much as been mentioned to many
millions of these unfortunate
human beings.
But in the areas of the world
where the name of Christ has been
mentioned, where even the Word of
God, the Bible, is circulated, and
where from time to time people
even read that Bible, Satan is very
hard pressed and has to be very
subtle and clever- he has to use the
name of Christ, even use the Bible,
but still deceive people.
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