p. 7 | DOCTRINES OF DEVILS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 16, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 16.

"DOCTRINES OF DEVILS."

SATAN is prolific of doctrines. Of course they are false doctrines, perversions of truth, yet of such a nature that men are easily led to accept them as truth. The adversary of God has had intimate dealings with mankind from the very beginning, was able to overcome the very first man in his Eden home. This was because the man chose to be overcome, and let go his hold on the One who was able to keep him from falling. Jude 24.

The adversary's connection with man from that day to this, and his experience in overcoming individuals, has given him a still wider insight as to how the various classes of mind may be influenced, and how he may forestall or annul the instruction of the Holy Spirit, and keep men of different dispositions from receiving it; or, failing in this, to instil a false conception of the Spirit's teaching. His first success with the doctrine, "Thou shalt not surely die," in direct conflict with God's decree that for disobedience man should "surely die," encouraged the perpetuation of that false doctrine. It would be impossible to measure the awful results of the many and varied deceptions growing out of the immortal-soul theory, through which our first parents were overthrown, and through which their posterity in all ages have been decoyed from the truth.

From this long experience in deceiving men, it is no wonder that there should be special warnings against his devices in the last days, and that he should be able to make them appear plausible even to earnest, well-meaning men. The Lord knew what He was talking about when He gave the warning, "There shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before." Matt. 24:24, 25. In furtherance of this warning, we have its complement through the apostle Paul: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils." 1 Tim. 4:1.

These persons who depart from the faith do not do so intentionally. They are deceived by perverted truth. They may think that they are proof against deception. They may assume that they are of the "very elect," whom it is impossible to deceive. But the assumption does not make it so. Every false doctrine is a deception of the enemy; every doctrinal tradition of man, if it have no other basis than tradition, is a doctrine of devils. To the Jews, who, altho custodians of the truth, were teaching the traditions of men, Jesus said, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do." John 8:44.

One of the "doctrines of devils" that has been very pleasing to a class of human beings is, that there is no personal devil; that the influence which we call Satanic is only an evil principle that exists in the world, and that God is responsible for it. But this doesn't catch everybody. There are some who believe the Word of God on that point; that the devil is an actual being who once held high position in heaven; that through selfish ambition he fell, and was cast out of heaven, and will eventually be destroyed, with all his followers.

For those who persist in believing that Satan is a real being, and a very active one at that, and that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour from "the wiles of the devil," other deceptions must be devised. So they are told that Christ was only a man; of course He was a good man, but He had no pre-existence and no resurrection. We are told that the idea of His coming down from heaven was a hallucination of His own, and that the theory of His resurrection is a delusion of His disciples. But neither does this doctrine deceive everybody. Some people will believe that Christ was the Son of God, the Word that was "in the beginning with God," and that "became flesh and dwelt among us." They will believe that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once." Some people, when confronted with such a volume of evidence, are constrained to believe; and, further, to believe the word of those who saw Him go up into heaven, and also His own promise that He would come again in like manner to take His people to Himself.

Necessarily, then, there must be further deception, if the adversary would succeed (as he seems determined to do) in deceiving all. What next? These people will believe that their adversary is a real creature, and that their Saviour is a real person; what next can be done to deceive at least some of them? Is the artful enemy at a loss for further deceptive doctrine?—Not at all; he stands ready with the suggestion that God Himself is not a being. If he can make this go, it will be more sweeping than all the rest combined. For if God be not a tangible being, what of His "begotten Son"? We are told that Christ is all there is of God; then who managed the universe when Christ was dead? Who spoke from heaven at His baptism, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased?" Who, again, spoke from the cloud, on the mount of transfiguration, and said, "This is My beloved Son, hear Him?" To whom was Jesus praying, when He said, "O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was"? Was He praying to Himself in heaven, when He Himself was yet on earth? We note that He "lifted up His eyes to heaven," when He uttered that prayer. If Christ is the only personality of God, at whose right hand did He sit down when He ascended to heaven? Mark 16:19. If Christ is the only personality of God, who gives Him His "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom," and before whom does He come to receive these things? Dan. 7:13, 14. Again, what does He mean when He makes the promise, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne?" Rev. 3:21. If the throne and its occupant be real and personal in the one case, they surely must be in the other.

None but a personal being can exercise any mental or emotional faculty; yet "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

It is true that Christ is the only personality of God that sinful man has seen, or can see and live. But Jesus said to the people, "Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God." He did not say, "They shall see Me." Sinful man could not have looked upon Christ, had He not veiled Himself in human flesh. But "he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of all them that diligently seek Him." True we must seek Him through Christ, who is the "Mediator between God and men." The denial of the personality of God is virtually the denial of His existence in any but a mythical sense. But in very truth He is the reality of all realities, for He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. G.