Satan’s Delusions by S. N. Haskell

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 4, 1904

Satan’s Delusions

By S. N. Haskell

S. N. HASKELL

As the people of God near the eternal shore, the dangers increase. Satan, who once was an angel of light, the covering cherub at the right hand of God in the heavenly courts, has come down, “having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” He will work with “all power and signs and lying wonders.” That master mind, once the highest among the angels of God, has for six thousand years bent its energies for the destruction of souls, and he will bring all the depths of his satanic skill, all the subtility he has ever acquired, all the cruelty developed against the people of God, into the final conflict. That which hath been will be, except that the coming struggle will be marked with an intensity such as the world has never before witnessed. Satan will use the same policy, manifest the same spirit, and work for the same end, as in all preceding ages. No person will be safe from his workings unless he is a child of prophecy; unless his position and work bear all the marks of God’s prophetic Word.

Concerning Christ, John bore record, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining upon him, the same is he that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.” John 1:32-34.

The chief evidence to John that Christ was the true Messiah was the fulfilment of prophecy. He had seen in vision that Christ would come to be baptized of him; he had felt the holy atmosphere of his presence. He had realized a purity of character he never before had seen in any man. He had heard confessions of dark crimes as people had come to be baptized of him, but he had never come in contact with a human being from whom emanated an influence so divine. All this was in harmony with what had been revealed to John concerning Christ’s baptism. He knew he was Christ, and he shrank from baptizing him on that occasion. “John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” No one could better judge, for John was filled with the Holy Ghost from his birth. Luke 1:15. And yet he did not know the Messiah until he saw what God had told him would be,—the Holy Spirit descending upon him and abiding.

God’s special work in the last days is a work of prophecy. The Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be seen in the light of prophecy, as well as in the general teaching of the Scripture. But among the many voices that will arise, the many “isms” that will confront the people of God, he that looks for signs and wonders only will be led astray, and will one day plead, “Have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” Satan’s counterfeit will so nearly represent God’s peculiar work that nothing but a fulfilment of the Word in all particulars will be the lamp to guide the soul through the dark mazes of Satan. To trust in a human understanding of the Word will be an equal failure. But with proper appreciation of the Word, the prophecy which points out the people of God and their work, with the illumination of the Holy Spirit, will be a safe guide. God has marked the history of his people from paradise lost to paradise restored. In the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night he has gone before them. If they forget their history in prophecy, its connection with the past, the present, and the future, they will be deceived and overtaken by some snare of Satan. The characteristics of God’s people will not be now and then a glimmering light, but a line of prophecy will be fulfilled, connecting the past, present, and future. These are God’s strong reasons. “Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods.” Isa. 41:21-23.

So the work of God in the last days will be a work outlined by the prophetic penman. It comes in as a golden link in the chain of prophecy. It fills a vacant place. It will bear every evidence of the divine Word of God—not simply a feature or two, which Satan will counterfeit. Let these principles be studied, and a people will be found who will keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They will have a history in the past, and their present experience will stand connected with it. As the golden rays of the sun can be traced back to the sun itself, so the light which shone on their pathway in the beginning of the message will shine unto the end, increasing its sacred rays more and more until it ends in glory.