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F. Satan’s Damaging Work
on the Believers and the Church

1. Causing the Believers to Deceive the Holy Spirit

Satan causes the believers, like Ananias and Sapphira in the early days of the church (Acts 5:3), to deceive the Holy Spirit.

2. Sowing False Believers (Tares)
into the Midst of True Believers

Satan sows unsaved, false believers into the midst of true believers (Matt. 13:38-39).

3. Putting Heresies into the Truth of Life

The woman spoken of in Matthew 13:33 refers to the Catholic Church. She takes leaven, which is all kinds of heresies, and puts it into the Lord Jesus’ truth of life, leavening the whole lump.

4. Tempting the Believers

See 1 Thessalonians 3:5.

5. Sending False Apostles to Trouble the Believers

Second Corinthians 11:13-15 and Galatians 1:7 speak of false apostles as ministers of Satan.

6. Causing People to Preach Another Jesus,
Receive a Different Spirit,
and Accept a Different Gospel

Second Corinthians 11:3-4 speak of “another Jesus,” a “different spirit,” and a “different gospel,” and Galatians 1:6 speaks of a “different gospel.” This refers to the Judaizers mixing things of Judaism with the gospel of the Lord Jesus, causing people to be partly in Christianity and partly in Judaism, partly in grace and partly in the law, and partly relying on the Lord Jesus and partly relying on themselves. This is Satan’s work of using Judaism to corrupt the gospel.

7. Causing People to Speak His Deep Things
and His Teachings in the Church

Based on Revelation 2:24 and 1 Timothy 4:1, we should never assume that only teachings of God are spoken in Christianity. Even in Christianity Satan works to cause people to speak his teachings, and not just ordinary teachings, but also his deep things.

8. Causing People to Not Hold the Head, Christ,
but to Follow the Wisdom of the World
in Self-imposed Worship,
Even the Worship of the Angels

The main thought in Colossians 2:2-4, 8-9, and 16-23 relates to Satan using people to bring Greek wisdom into the church. The preaching of another Jesus spoken of earlier refers to Satan’s corrupting work of using people to bring Judaism into the church and mixing it with the gospel. Here we are referring to Satan’s causing people to not hold the Head, Christ, but to follow the wisdom of the world, bringing Greek wisdom, Greek philosophy, into the church. This philosophy includes matters of worshipping other deities and angels, and causing people to practice self-imposed worship, thus corrupting the church.

9. Causing People to Have an Outward Form
of Godliness, though Denying Its Power

Second Timothy 3:5 refers to people who feign godliness.

10. Causing People to Kill the Believers
and Think That They Are Offering Service to God

Satan stirred up the Judaizers to kill the believers and caused them to think that they were faithfully offering service to God. Then he instigated people in the Roman Catholic Church to do the same thing. History tells us that the Roman Catholic Church was more vicious in killing Christians than even the nation of Rome. Rome openly persecuted Christians but did not kill nearly as many Christians as the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church killed Christians and thought that she was serving God. This was Satan’s work. The Lord Jesus clearly speaks of this matter in John 16:2.


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Ten Lines in the Bible   pg 51