Satan Still at Work by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 30, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 41.

Satan Still at Work.

By Editor

WHEN Satan commenced his work of deception on the earth, he presented two falsehoods which he persuaded the woman to believe: 1. That if they sinned they should not die. 2. That they should be as gods—they should be greatly exalted by disobedience to their Maker. And this is exactly what Spiritualism is teaching to-day.

Unfortunately the current religion of this age has accepted for truth that first falsehood of Satan; not, however, as coming directly from Satan; they received it from his servants, the pagans, who "did not like to retain God in their knowledge" (Rom. 1:28), but carefully transmitted by tradition the falsehood of Satan, that the sinner had endless life in himself. The religionists profess that, in accepting the belief and the arguments of Plato, they do not offer any hope to the sinner; but in that they are mistaken. It is an old saying, and one to which men tenaciously cling, that "while there is life there is hope." Convince the sinner that he is undying in his nature—that he is independent of Christ as far as eternal life is concerned—and he will seize with avidity the fallacies and vagaries of Spiritualism. This is shown to be true by the wonderful growth of that error within the last thirty years. An infant in years, it is a giant in proportions and power. And all because the world has accepted Satan's first falsehood told in Eden, that sin cannot bring death; that man, whether sinful or obedient, is undying in his nature.

To prove that men are prone to build a hope on the supposed immortality of the soul, we relate the following incident: A few years ago we attended the funeral of a man who was instantly killed, without a moment's warning, while he was cursing his brother in passionate anger. They were working a wood-sawing machine, and while he was thus swearing at his brother, a stick of wood fell into the fly wheel and was hurled away, striking him under the chin, and he fell dead. A Methodist minister preached the sermon, which was a pretended argument in favor of natural immortality. We sympathized with the minister in his position, for we could not imagine what he could say to the mourners, so utterly hopeless did the case look to us. But the preacher had resources of which we were not aware. He calmly, and with an air of confidence, told them that he had one hope, one consolation to offer them in their great bereavement, and that was, that the soul is immortal and cannot die! We need not say that we were greatly surprised; and this was, no doubt, an unusual case in its bold inconsistency, but it does show that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is made a refuge for incorrigible sinners. If ministers only occasionally present it in this light, we cannot wonder if sinners generally accept it as such a refuge. If Satan can establish them in the first falsehood, he will easily find ways to indoctrinate them into another.

An inspired (?) lecture was recently given in the Metropolitan Temple, San Francisco, by a medium, which was reported to the Banner of Light. It began with this declaration: "In the spiritual nature of man is found all conceivable powers and attributes." According to this, we cannot conceive of a power or an attribute which God possesses which man does not possess! Can the arrogance of self-conceit go farther than this? All the world has greedily taken the first falsehood—"Ye shall not surely die;" and the millions are now as greedily accepting the second falsehood—"Ye shall be as gods."

We doubt the correctness of our common translation of this declaration of Satan. We never could see a reason for it. It does not seem to fully express the strength of the deception of the enemy. According to this rendering man has already gone far beyond Satan's promise in his belief of error. "Ye shall be as gods" is not expressive of very great exaltation. Dr. Tregelles, in his "Hebrew Reading Lessons," renders it: "And ye shall be like God." This translation is literal, and it makes Satan express exactly what his victims accept as truth at the present time. They are not at all content with being as the gods of the heathen; they aspire to be like the Most High; existing by their own inherent powers; independent of Christ and the gospel; possessing every attribute of which the mind can conceive! What a harvest is Satan reaping from that first falsehood! What a responsibility rests upon the Christian world for teaching this doctrine of the great enemy, that man is immortal without Christ and his gospel. How true it is that they have "strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life." Eze. 13:22.

They who teach that man is immortal without Christ, without the gospel, rob the Saviour of his glory as "our life"—the Lifegiver; and the Father has expressed his deep abhorrence of such a course by the apostle John, who wrote as follows: "He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." 1 John 5:10, 11. It was not in Adam; it is not in us; it is not found in nature. Plato did not reveal it; he only reiterated the first falsehood of Satan. But Jesus Christ brought it to light in the gospel. To him alone belongs the glory of giving life to all that come unto him, "that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life." John 6:40. "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. 6:23.