In one of his letters to Erasmus, Luther said, “Your thoughts of God are too human“. Probably that renowned scholar resented such a rebuke, the more so, since it proceeded from a miner’s son. Nevertheless, it was thoroughly deserved. We, too, prefer the same charge against the vast majority of the preachers of our day, and against those who, instead of searching the Scriptures for themselves, lazily accept their teachings. The most dishonoring conceptions of the rule and reign of the Almighty are now held almost everywhere. To countless thousands, even professing Christians, the God of Scripture is quite unknown.
Of old, God complained to an apostate Israel, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself” (Psalm 50:21). Such must now be His indictment against apostate Christendom. Men imagine the Most High is moved by sentiment, rather than by principle. They suppose His omnipotency is such an idle fiction that Satan can thwart His designs on every side. They think that if He has formed any plan or purpose at all, then it must be like theirs, constantly subject to change. They openly declare that whatever power He possesses must be restricted, lest He invade the citidel of man’s free will and reduce him to a machine. They lower the all-efficacious atonement, which redeems everyone for whom it was made, to a mere remedy, which sin-sick souls may use if they feel so disposed. They lessen the strength of the invincible work of the Holy Spirit to an offer of the Gospel which sinners may accept or reject as they please.
Read the rest of this entry »
Satan is not an initiator—but an imitator.
God has an only begotten Son—the Lord Jesus; so has Satan—the son of Perdition” (2 Thess 2:3). There is a Holy Trinity; and there is likewise a Trinity of Evil (Rev 20:10). Do we read of the “children of God”; so also we read of “the children of the wicked one” (Matt 13:38). Does God work in His children, both to will and to do of His good pleasure; then we are told that Satan is “the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience” (Eph 2:2).
Is there a “mystery of godliness” (1 Tim 3:16); so also is there a “mystery of iniquity” (2 Thess 2:7). Are we told that God by His angels “seals” His servants in their foreheads (Rev 7:3); so also we learn that Satan by his agents sets a mark in the foreheads of his devotees (Rev 13:16). Are we told that “the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Cor 2:10); then Satan also provides his “deep things” (Rev 2:24).
Did Christ perform miracles; so also can Satan (2 Thess 2:9). Is Christ seated upon a throne; so is Satan (Rev 2:13). Has Christ a Church; then Satan has his “synagogue” (Rev 2:9). Is Christ the Light of the world; then so is Satan himself “transformed into an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:14). Did Christ appoint “apostles;” then Satan has his apostles, too (2 Cor 11:13).
And this leads us to consider: “The Gospel of Satan.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Satan is not an initiator—but an imitator.
