Devil Quotes Scripture
Satan the Devil is not opposed to quoting Scripture — he even had the gall to quote Scripture to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Author of Scripture! "Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone" (Mat. 4:5-6; Luke 4:9-11).
Satan is eager to quote Scripture — but he twists and turns it so that it is applied in the wrong way. Let's notice the first example in the Bible of how Satan twists the Word of God — this will be a good example to show how Satan's ministers, those who copy him, also twist the Scriptures today!
"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman [Eve], Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" (Gen. 3:1) Notice how he begins by asking a clever and subtle question, stressing the negative side, trying to put God in a bad light or make it appear that God is evil if He has done what Satan suggests that He probably did.
"And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, GOD HATH SAID [this is God's Word quoted from Genesis 2:17], Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, LEST YE DIE" (Gen. 3:2-3). Eve knew what God had said. God had very plainly said that if she ate of the fruit of this tree she would die — a very simple statement that God makes all the way through His Bible, explaining that if a man commits sin, death is the automatic penalty (Rom. 6:23). Also — when God says death, He means D-E-A-T-H, NOT eternal life in hellfire!
"And the serpent said unto the woman, YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE!" (Gen. 3:4)
In effect Satan was saying: "I know that God said 'thou shalt surely die' — but He didn't really mean that you would die. What God meant when He said 'thou shalt surely die' was 'thou shalt NOT surely die!"
To this day Satan's ministers preach this same doctrine of error!
The only way that Satan is able to deceive people is to make them believe that God does not mean what He says. Satan substitutes for the doctrine of God, the lust and desire of mankind. He offers to mankind what the carnal mind wants instead of what God knows mankind needs. Then in order to give it a "Godly and Christian" flavor he quotes a few scriptures out of context — explains that God doesn't mean what He says after all!
The pitiful thing about it is that so far mankind has gullibly swallowed the doctrines of Satan the Devil. Mankind, since Eve, has been hoodwinked into believing the Devil despite the fact that the Devil says exactly the opposite of what God says! It has been this way from the beginning — God said, "THOU SHALT SURELY DIE!" (Gen. 2:17) Satan said, "YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE!" (Gen. 3:4)
Which do YOU choose to believe?
Satan Performs MIRACLES
Since the Devil has counterfeited as many of the things of God as he can in order to deceive mankind into thinking his way is God's way, he has also used MIRACLES! Satan appropriated the name of Christ! He appropriated the titles of the servants of God and called his chief leader an apostle — but God labels this individual as a false apostle! Since Jesus Christ performed miracles and since He prophesied that certain signs (miracles) would follow His believers (Mark 16: 15-18), Satan the Devil has also counter-feited MIRACLES!
This need be no surprise to the true Christian. Jesus Christ forewarned through His Bible in many places that this would take place. Satan has worked this way before, and Jesus forewarned, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall SHEW GREAT SIGNS AND WONDERS; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Mat. 24:24). The only ones who will not be deceived by the great miracles that Satan the Devil will do through the agency of his church will be those whom God is calling out of this world now — the "very elect"!
Satan's Power
The apostle Paul talks about the individual whom Satan the Devil is going to use in this end time to deceive the whole world — "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and LYING WONDERS, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that are perishing [correct Greek rendering]!" (II Thes. 2:9-10)
Satan knows that he now has just a short time (Rev. 12:12). Therefore he is hard at work even at this moment as you read this article, laying the groundwork for the greatest deceptions that mankind has ever seen! Laying the groundwork for the greatest miracles he has ever performed in order to deceive mankind! Let's read that verse again in the Moffat Translation, ". . . One whose arrival is due to Satan's activity, with the full power, the miracles and portents of falsehood, and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them" (II Thes. 2:9-10).
There are going to come, through Satan's agency and his churches, miracles and wonders that would cause anyone to believe (except the very elect, Mat. 24:24). Such outstanding miracles will be performed through his agents that the whole world will reel and gasp in open-mouthed wonder — and they will be real miracles!
The term "lying wonder" does not refer to the fact that the wonder itself is a lie. The miracle is real enough, but the miracle causes those who see it TO BELIEVE A LIE — that is, the miracle causes those who see it to believe that the agent Satan the Devil uses is the agent of God!
ARE Miracles Proof of God?
Almighty God specifically warns us about one particularly outstanding miracle that this false prophet urged forward by Satan will perform. "And he doeth GREAT WONDERS, So that he MAKETH FIRE COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN on the earth in the sight of men, and DECEIVETH them that dwell on the earth BY THE MEANS OF those miracles" (Rev. 13:13-14). This is THE FALSE PROPHET — the ultimate leader of Satan's religious movement who will even defy the Living God at His return — and all of this will occur in YOUR LIFETIME!
What would you do if you were standing in a crowd of men and women and you saw a fellow human being dressed in ecclesiastical vestments — looking as if he were a servant of God — calling down FIRE FROM HEAVEN consuming somebody standing next to you who DENIED the fact he WAS a servant of God?
What would you Do?
What would you BELIEVE?
How are YOU going to KNOW what is the counterfeit and what is the Truth?
Would you be deceived? We just read in the verse above that all them that dwell on the earth are going to be deceived by these miracles. Or will you remember this article that you have read in The PLAIN TRUTH, and other articles that you have read in The PLAIN TRUTH, warning you of these very things to come?
Jesus Christ not only prophesied through John in the book of Revelation that this will come to pass in your lifetime and mine, but He also left a record of just such a thing having happened in the past.
"Fire From God"
In the opening chapter in the book of Job, Satan was talking to God. God brought up the subject of Job. He asked Satan if he didn't think that Job was quite a righteous man, and Satan answered God by saying that he was not righteous for nothing, that God had blessed him with everything. So God allowed Satan to take everything away from Job — but let's notice exactly WHAT happened.
As Satan began to destroy all of the things that Job possessed he allowed one servant to escape from each devastation that he wrought. That servant would come and report to Job the horrible things that had happened.
Now when one of these servants saw a great ball of fire coming down out of heaven and consuming the sheep, he automatically assumed that only God could cause such a great miracle, and so his report to Job was, "The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee" (Job 1:16).
Satan is the prince of the power of the AIR (Eph. 2:2). He is still in the office of control over this world and its affairs insofar as God allows him to exercise that control. You will remember when Moses was calling the children of Israel out of Egypt under the direct supervision of God that the Egyptian sorcerers, the servants of the Devil of that day, were able to perform great miracles by the power that Satan gave them.
Miracles ALONE are not a proof of the presence and authority of God!
Deuteronomy 13 very plainly explains this to any who would have a question — "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder [prophesies something to come to pass, or performs some great miracle], and the sign or the wonder COME TO PASS, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him" (Deut. 13:1-4). Isaiah backs this up by saying, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isa. 8:20).
God warns all through His Bible from Genesis to Revelation that there have been, that there are and that there are going to be, lying, false, miracle-performing prophets deceiving mankind. But God gives you and me the KEY of how to know who serves God and who does not!
Whom to Believe?
"Beloved, BELIEVE NOT EVERY SPIRIT, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because MANY false prophets are gone out into the world" (I John 4:1). God's plain warning to you is not to be gullible. Don't assume somebody is right because he has a pious face — because he has a soft and smooth voice, or because he dresses differently from you!
Don't assume somebody is God's messenger even if he brings fire out of heaven! Don't assume somebody is God's messenger — and not Satan the Devil's tool — because he says, "The Bible says."
Satan the Devil and all his henchmen have been quoting the Bible since time immemorial. They have been and still are quoting it out of context and adding on Satan's favorite expression that God does not really mean what He says — and then adding THEIR OWN interpretation, THEIR OWN TRADITION, the commandments of men that they have received from Satan.
"Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is COMING [correct Greek rendering] in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth NOT that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh is NOT OF GOD!" (I John 4:2-3) This is the one doctrine that Satan will not proclaim!
This is the one doctrine that Satan the Devil will not allow any of His ministers to preach! This is the one doctrine that The WORLD TOMORROW program and The PLAIN TRUTH magazine dogmatically and absolutely preach!
THIS IS THE DOCTRINE: that Jesus Christ — the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8) — is presently living His life, by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, in the flesh, bodies and minds of the called-out individuals that He has added to the collective Body of Christ — the Church of God! This doctrine proves that Jesus Christ, living in those who are TRUE Christians. will live exactly as He lived when He u as in the flesh 1900 years ago — keeping the SAME LAWS, observing the SAME DAYS, living the SAME LIFE apart from the world around Him — THIS DOCTRINE is denied by those false prophets, the instruments of Satan the Devil, those who belong to the Devil's religion!
To understand this doctrine, write immediately for the booklet Why Were You Born? — this explains thoroughly the PURPOSE being worked out here below, the REASON for human existence, the TRUE DOCTRINE OF JESUS CHRIST!
Find Out — Check Up!
Don't just read this article and forget about it. Apply and obey the injunction that Jesus Christ gives to you through His servant John to "try the spirits" (I John 4:1). Find out, check up!
Do as the Bereans did in Paul's day when he was explaining to them the truths of the Gospel of God (Acts17:11) — receive this understanding with all readiness of mind but CHECK EVERY LAST SCRIPTURE and find out if it's according to God's Word — and do the same thing with any OTHER religious instruction you receive!
If you have been deceived, don't continue to be deceived! Those who continue to be deceived and remain deceived until the return of Jesus Christ are going to suffer the plagues He pours out on the servants of Satan — both religious and political!
You KNOW that this confused world standing on the brink of nuclear cosmocide cannot be God's world — it is a world turned over to Satan the Devil — but Almighty God is RETURNING SOON to restore order, to set up HIS KINDGOM, to bring PEACE and happiness and safety and TRUTH to this poor Satan-deceived world!
Elijah, the servant of God, faced a similar situation in the world of his day — "And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word" (I Kings 18:21).
What answer will YOU give?