“And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness: whose end shall be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11: 14, 15 KJV).
Most people picture Satan as an evil-looking creature in a red suit with horns, a pointed tail, and a pitchfork, but Satan looks nothing like that. He looks, speaks, and acts like a seminary-educated preacher. Most people think that Satan is operating in bars, brothels, and drug and gambling dens, but he does not. Satan’s base of operation is the church. He spends his time behind the pulpit, at regular church services, at Bible conferences, at mission conferences, at church revival meetings, and as a professor in Bible colleges.
Satan wears a disguise. He and his ministers masquerade as servants of God, truth, and righteousness. They stand behind pulpits and may preach from the King James Bible.
But Satan and his ministers are liars and cannot tell the truth. Though they hold the position of one who has been entrusted with the truth and is expected to tell the truth, they cannot. Satan and his false preachers can hold a copy of the Truth, read from the Truth, and speak on the Truth and still twist a lie from the Truth in such a clever way that people believe it is the Truth. So skilled is Satan at imitating Truth that many are constantly mistaking error for Truth.
But a half-truth is still a whole lie. We know Satan or one of his ministers is behind the pulpit when they shave off a sliver of the truth and graft in a sliver of a lie. They have then given enough truth to win our trust but enough of a lie to mislead us. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about (in the church), seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5: 8). The Christian should be more on guard in the church than in any other place.
The apostles dealt with false apostles and teachers. There were at least fifty heretical sects in the first six centuries of the church. Peter warns that there will be false teachers in our day (2 Peter 2: 1–2).
Christians would not knowingly go to church if they believed their pastor was Satan or one of his ministers. But if they studied their Bible (KJV) as they should, they might be surprised to find that he is, because of the many lies he is telling them in the name of Truth. J.N. Darby said, “Satan is never more satanic than when he carries a Bible.”
Satan and his ministers will wear fine religious clothes and talk about God, Jesus, and the Bible as though they are very familiar with them; because they are, they will be well received in a place where they can ply their carefully fabricated lies to unwary victims.
