This applies to the fall of the human race when Satan tempted Eve in the beginning. He came first to stir up her mind by giving her a suggestion. In other words, by his crafty questions he caused the mind of Eve to entertain doubt, which in turn caused her to formulate opinions. Dr. Haldeman has said that in the beginning, when the serpent in the garden inquired, “Hath God said?” its posture was in the form of a question mark, with the head raised and the body bent. This is indeed meaningful. Therefore, if we wish to know the spiritual principle of man’s fall, we must realize that the first step of the fall was that man had an opinion, and that his opinion was from Satan.

This opinion from Satan injected into man was the first opinion of the human race. When man was first created, before he was seduced by Satan, he lived in a very simple way before God, without doubt or opinion. The first opinion man had was derived from the suggestion Satan injected into the human mind. Hence, we see that the first step of Satan in entering into man was not by way of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which man partook of by eating, but by way of an opinion transmitted into the soul of man. When the soul of man was stirred and received the suggestion of Satan, his body followed, and he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Because of this, we have said that opinion and sin are always related. When our opinion is expressed, nine out of ten times it is related to sin, for opinion does not issue from our self, but stems from the originator of sin, who is Satan. Satan hides within the opinion, and we may say that opinion is the embodiment of Satan.

From Matthew 16:21-25 we see clearly the relationship between self-opinion and Satan. When the Lord Jesus showed His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and die, Peter at that time had his own opinion, and taking hold of the Lord he said, “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall never be unto thee.” But the Lord turned and rebuked Peter, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men.” The Lord here directly rebuked Peter as Satan, because the Lord knew that Satan was hiding behind this opinion of Peter. Although Peter’s opinion issued from his love for the Lord, although it was an excellent opinion and was for the interest of the Lord, yet this opinion was the very embodiment of Satan. We usually think of a bad opinion as being from Satan, but in the sight of the Lord, whether it be bad or good, as long as it is an opinion, it is of Satan. The best opinion of man is still in the sight of God the embodiment of Satan. We must be warned concerning this.

There is another place in the Bible which speaks clearly of the relationship between Satan and self-opinion. Ephesians 2:2-3 says, “Wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind...” This passage first shows us that all human beings today walk according to the working of the spirit of Satan within them. It then shows us that the result of Satan’s work is to cause men to live in the lusts of their flesh, doing the desires of their flesh and of their mind. On the one hand they fulfill the desires of the lusts of the flesh, and on the other hand they fulfill the desires of their mind. Therefore, the working of Satan within men is of two aspects: in men’s flesh and in men’s mind. When Satan works in our flesh, it results in the lust of our flesh, which is sin; when he works in our mind, the result is opinion, or self.

A brother once testified that whenever he encountered a situation and within him there was an opinion he desired to express, if he did not express it, he would feel very “itchy” inside. This is really true. This itchy feeling is his desire within him. Whenever an opium-addict is confronted with opium, he feels itchy; whenever a gambler sees the gambling devices, he feels itchy. In the same manner, when Satan works in man’s mind and gives man an opinion, man becomes itchy within and cannot help but express it. Therefore, just as sin is the result of the desires of man’s flesh, so also is our opinion the result of the desires of man’s mind. Both are the result of the working of Satan within man.

We regret to say that in the past we have had too little knowledge with regard to our own opinion. Very few condemn their opinion, and even fewer realize that their own opinion is Satan. Everybody esteems his own opinions highly, treasures his own opinions, and feels very sweet when meditating upon them. We love our own children, but to my realization we love our own opinions far more than we love our children. To our feelings, opinions are always a most lovable thing!

We deeply need to ask the Lord to give us a full turn in our concept in the light of these words. We must see that if sin is horrible, much more so is our opinion. If to resist the enemy we need to resist sin, much more do we need to deny our opinions. We need to put to death all our opinions through the cross. Thus, we deny ourselves in a practical way, we deny thoroughly the place of Satan in us, and we overthrow Satan’s stronghold in us.
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