Satan Goes to Church

And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake…… Matthew 10:22. In my 30-plus years as a Christian, that Scripture has not been among the favorites of preachers, teachers or evangelists I’ve sat under, unless they relegated it back to the apostles of Christ’s day, the martyrs of Foxe’s book or other persecuted Christians of yesteryear in foreign lands. I suspect that’s the experience of many Christians in the Western world going back the same time. No wonder so many dear brothers and sisters in Christ are perplexed with what’s happening today as they experience this hatred coming upon them in their own “Christian country” so-called.

‘Hated’ means: ‘to detest’ ‘to persecute’ ‘hateful’ – (full of hate!) the Waymouth New Testament translation says, You will be the objects of universal hatred because you are called by My name. (Underline mine). That fits with the translation above. ‘all’ means: ‘any’ ‘every’ ‘whole’ ‘always’ ‘everyone’ ‘whatsoever’ and ‘whosoever.’ If online media is any guide, the question too many Christians are asking is, “Why?” Jesus tells us why. In speaking with His (as yet) unconverted brothers He told them, The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil John 7:7. Old-time Bible Commentator Adam Clarke gives a meaningful explanation too: “The laws of Christ condemn a vicious world, and gall it to revenge.” Wow!

One of the great tragedies of holding back on or relegating Scriptures such as this to another time other than our time, it ill-prepares God’s people when being faced with hatred such as we are facing now. The first answers to, “Why the hatred?” should always come from the Scriptures. Just like Jesus, Jeremiah the prophet gives a perfect answer. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? Jeremiah 17:9. If preachers and evangelists proclaimed that reality along with the good news, telling their hearers that that’s the condition of all hearts including theirs, it would go a long way in getting them to cease from looking upon all people as, “basically good at heart.”

Jesus had nothing good to say about the condition of the human heart. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man…… Matthew 15:19-20. No shallow, infantile PC from Jesus there! In spite of what Marxist/Leftist manipulators and their deluded foot-soldiers would have us believe, “We are defiled from the inside out rather than from the outside in.” – David Guzik. A heart as such not willing to change won’t hesitate to “gall it to revenge.” So whilst we are not to judge the heart of another person, as Christians we must understand the heart condition of the person if Jesus Christ is not Lord of him or her.

However, for the purposes of this post, it is not the heart condition of people outside the church that concerns me, but rather, those inside the church. Hatred for Christians from outside is never as troublesome or deadly as hatred from inside because those outside can’t use the Bible in any meaningful way to accomplish their goal. But those inside the church certainly can and they certainly do! And so cleverly covert and disguised is the hatred of those who do it, they make it look as though it’s love! How can such a charge be proved? one might ask. People willing to twist and falsify the Scriptures don’t belong to God, they belong to Satan and since Satan has nothing but hatred for God, that’s what Jesus will one day charge these people with too.

Since God knows them well, so too should we. For such are false apostles (pretend preachers, false teachers), deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light 2 Corinthians 11:13-14. Few Christians like to think Scriptures such as that could be speaking of their pastor or elder and fewer still are willing to deal with it when they discover he, she or they is/are who it speaks of. That’s why they have a ready range of excuses at hand not to have to deal with it. But mostly, all the angel of light has to do is present the right image, turn on the smile, soften the voice, speak lots of “love” talk and he or she has won them over!

Jesus said, If you love Me, keep My commandments….. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word John 14:15, 23. One commandment we see in Scripture: we’re not to add to or take away from His word. Now, I’m not suggesting all who do that don’t love the Lord, for human emotions and zeal, spiritual immaturity and a lack of Scripture knowledge can cause anyone to do it. As they mature in the Lord however, and see the necessity of making adjustments in their proclamations they do so gladly; God bless everyone of them. No, I am referring to men and women who deliberately will not keep the Lord’s commands and His word, but will turn them and twist them to suit their own agendas and doctrinal hobby horses..

One shocking example: Because he didn’t like them in their original form, a popular church leader in here Melbourne, changed the Ten Commandments! Imagine the arrogance of that! But did his people charge him with arrogance? Not a bit of it; they love the idea. There’s hatred for Jesus all around there! Yet if you told them that they would throw you to the lion’s den. So when it comes to all the godless, evil and immoral practices now almost fully embraced as normal in society, guess where the most effective attacks upon Bible Christians come from? These are the kind you can expect to find standing alongside Marxist/Leftist manipulators and their deluded foot-soldiers protesting on the streets against all who don’t stand for what they do.

Christians preaching there are ways to heaven other than Jesus have no love for Him. Worse: they make Jesus look as dishonest and as much a liar as they are. Sitting under such devils as these is never going to have a person valuing the gift of salvation, the value of Jesus’ Person, the value of His word, the value of His suffering, the value of His shed blood, the value of His resurrection or the value of His ministry to them in the present. The one who preaches Jews, Muslims, Cultists, atheists and unbelievers will make it to heaven if they lived moral lives is about as immoral as it gets. A solemn curse comes upon such preachers but they’ll hate you double if you tell them that! It makes good sense to take your stand on Galatians 1:8-9 over this matter.

So, we can see from the above two paragraphs, Satan goes to church; but perhaps the examples given on what he does when he gets there are extreme, so what else might he do that’s less extreme? None of his preaching will be watertight, it will be watered down! He’ll be one of those who “wrestles with Scripture” until he makes it say what he wants it to say and he won’t let you rest either until you say what he wants it to say. That’s why sin is almost as rampant in churches as it is in the world. He doesn’t call sin, “sin” because in his mind it’s judgmental of anyone to do so. When common Christian-speak parrots, “Oh, I’m not one to be judgmental,” the chances are high the master parrot stands in a pulpit!      

The late AW Tozer said of this: “Modern Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were poison it would not hurt anyone, and if it were medicine it would not cure anyone.” That’s how Satan likes it, that’s how his servants like it. If you don’t like it, he and they will hound you out from their midst, quoting Bible Scriptures in the process! Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. Isaiah 66:5. Let the LORD be glorified they said. How’s that for hatred masked as love! They did the same to Jesus and the apostles, they did it to the early church and they’ve been doing it ever since.

What to do then? I recommend giving all praise, glory and thanksgiving to God for being blessed to be on the receiving end of their hatred and not one of those being cursed for dishing it out. If not for the mercy and grace of God, that could have been the case. After all, when Jeremiah and Jesus spoke of deceitful and desperately wicked hearts, yours and mine were not excluded. I recommend praying for those sitting under angels of light too, for two reasons. One: they need our prayers. Two: continued prayer stops us from holding ungodly attitudes towards them. Satan goes to church; he will continue doing so till the Lord returns. Many to pray for; much to pray about. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of the Lord rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified 1 Peter 4:14.