We know some militant Christians, who are all out for fighting the Devil. It is a great mistake for the believer to do any such thing. But the Christian has to resist the onslaughts of the Devil. We read: " Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world " (1 Peter 5:8, 98Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1 Peter 5:8‑9)).
The Devil seeks whom he may devour: Our part is to resist him when he attacks. There is no doubt, with the help of God, we shall get the victory, for we read,
" Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you " (James 4:77Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. (James 4:7)). The Apostle Peter wrote about the fiery trial that came upon the early Church. The roaring lion was seen when the Christians were butchered to make a Roman holiday, and the walls of the vast Coliseum at Rome resounded with the cry, " Give the Christians to the lions "; when the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition were filled with instruments of cruelest torture; when the fires of Smithfield raged. To-day in lands where the Gospel has some place, we may not see such extremes, but have not hundreds of Christian pastors languished in German concentration camps and prisons, all because they stood true to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. Christ? God give us to resist the Devil, even when he comes as a roaring lion.
Satan as the Serpent beguiles through Subtlety
Satan tried the serpent character in the Garden of Eden, and he has been using these self-same tactics ever since. We read," But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Even through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Cor. 11:33But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)). " Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil (Eph. 6:1111Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)). " Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices " (2 Cor. 2:1111Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:11)).
Satan's serpent-like tactics seen in the Garden of Eden took the form of insinuating that God was not altogether good, and in putting his (Satan's) word boldly against God's, in dilating on the advantages that would accrue to our first parents, if they would but partake of the fruit of the forbidden tree, and alas! he succeeded all too well, but not finally. But Satan's subtlety is seen at its height when he assumes the religious role. Scripture solemnly warns us as to this
" 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; whose end shall be according to their works " (2 Cor. 11: 14, 15).
It is to be expected that the poison offered by Satan, or his ministers, will have enough truth mixed up with it to render its presence unsuspected and undetected.
So we find much literature, filled with Bible quotations, appearing very pious and attractive, being pressed upon the Christian public. Fanatical adherents of antichristian religions, well primed with religious talk, go from door to door, offering such literature that brings them often very handsome profits. No evil religion flourishes without a money-making side to it. The books are bought. The deadly poison is there. We refer to such crank religions as Christadelphianism, Seventh Day Adventists, Millennial Dawnism, or Russellites, Jehovah's Witnesses, an offshoot from Russelism, Christian Science-all unsound on the fundamentals of the Christian faith, especially on the Person of our adorable Lord, as " God manifest in the flesh," and the atoning character of His work upon the cross of Calvary.
Another way in which Satan is posing as an angel of light is in the Oxford Group Movement. At the bottom this movement is unitarian, making man his own Savior, and limiting Christ to be an Example to be followed. Whilst He surely is this to His people, it must be preceded by and founded on belief in Christ as Savior, whose precious blood cleanses from all sin. There can be no other foundation than this.
To get a man to alter his life apart from belief in Christ as Savior, and the work of the Holy Spirit in the heart, is simply to make it harder to win him for Christ. In plain language the nebulous teaching of the Oxford Group Movement only makes a man satisfied with a swept and empty house, and renders him far from proof against the awful snares of the Devil.
We come now to what is the most terrible attack on Christianity, beside which these crank religions pale into insignificance. If Satan comes as an angel of light, and his ministers camouflage themselves as ministers of righteousness, we must be prepared for the presentation of the evil in very attractive and apparently pious form.
During the last hundred years there has sprung up what is commonly called Higher Criticism, or Modernism. Under the plea of fuller light, of more accurate scholarship, it has succeeded in undermining the fundamentals of the Christian faith. This criticism originated in Germany, passed over to Scotland, and then spread everywhere. From many a pulpit, from many scholarly lips, the evil teaching has been doing its terrible work. The stock-intrade of out-and-out infidels, such as Tom Paine, Charles Bradlaugh, Col. Ingersoll, who were at least honest in not professing to be Christians, is now being set forth from Christian pulpits by men, who have taken the oath of loyalty to the Scriptures. What infidels did outside, they are doing inside. Infidels made frontal attacks. Modernists and Higher Critics are engaged in pulling down the Christian structure before the very eyes of the worshippers, and within the very buildings dedicated to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Higher Critics, or Modernists deny the inspiration of the Scriptures, the virgin birth, weaken the atoning character of the death of our Lord upon the cross of Calvary, and even in some cases deny the bodily resurrection of our adorable Lord.
The Professors of a good many theological colleges are busy poisoning the minds of the ordinands, men, who finishing their course at their theological colleges, pass on the poison in turn to their congregations. It is enough to make angels weep, Satan in his subtlety poisoning the stream of Bible teaching at its source.
The result is that such teaching does not keep the churches full, so congregations dwindle, until at last some are beginning to see that it is only the old-fashioned Gospel of the grace of God, based on the infallible, inspired Word of God, that God can bless.
Remember we are exhorted to try the spirits, and unless there is the confession of Jesus Christ come in flesh, that is, He is " God manifest in the flesh," we may know that the testimony is not of God, however piously and pretentiously it may be offered.