“And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”
2 Corinthians 11:12-15 ESV
Wouldn’t it be wonderful (bear with me a moment) if the Devil and his agents didn’t masquerade as servants of righteousness? If life were a movie then the false teachers would be accompanied by dark lighting, sinister background music, and clearly evil voices. Darth Vader just doesn’t work if he talks like Daffy Duck. Thanos looks like Thanos ought to look. He’s imposing and sinister. That’s the thing: the bad guy in real life – that is, Satan – does his dirty work even and especially in the movies by making us think of evil as something so easily identified.
The false angel of light, though, is the lie. Each generation will either fight the battle of sanctification by the renewal of the mind or it will capitulate; we are either for Christ through the devotion to His word/law or for Satan by fixing of our mind upon the humanistic law/word.
We are either motivated by thankfulness to God or our hearts grow harder and harder (Hebrews 3).
Let’s pause a moment and reflect on the fact that the Holy Spirit wrote 2 Corinthians through Paul. This means that God wrote this letter and then, in His divine providence, He made sure to preserve it so that all His church would have it – even today as we study it. So, what does the Scripture say? What is it that the Lord would have us learn?
Are we false believers? How can we tell who they are? Are we mature Christians or are we gullible, easily misled, unfaithful and unprofitable servants that need discipline?
Let’s consider the biblical truth of the matter. We’re called to test everything because we live in a world of lies. The world, the flesh and the Devil conspire against Christ so that we’re either fully deceived into the gruesome clutches of hell itself, or we’re hamstrung by those lies. A great sin damaged David’s life and testimony and it can do the same to ours. His sin coincided with his particulars. Ours (that is, temptation) may be different in particular but united in principle. The false angel of light always offers us a poisoned plate. He doesn’t come with promises of pain, humiliation and judgement, but peace, love and joy. He promises the easy (read that: sinful) way.
The arrow in our quiver is this question: where is Christ and the great doctrines of God in this?
He – the Enemy – is cunning, so we must not underestimate him nor overestimate our functional capacity.
“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.” Romans 12:3 ESV
Arrogance is thinking that we can stand on our own reasoning. We rightly worry when we haven’t seen someone at church lately as that can mean backsliding and open sin. But we should also worry about the purity of one’s heart, set on Christ and Him alone, adoring Him for all that He is and does. Lest we do this we often stumble into the camouflaged pit of self-reliance, even amidst a full church, pews full all around. Self assurance is coldness to God; and it’s a call to open combat with the Enemy of our soul. And that’s a battle every man loses. Badly. He will, as Jesus told Peter, sift us like wheat if we go out on our own.
Pleasure and ease have this effect on all of us. It teaches us the wrong lesson if we’re not overwhelmed constantly by gratitude to Him. It teaches us that we’re not doing too bad and that moves our focus from the supremacy and necessity of His word, and prayer, onto self and worldly things.
So, the Enemy is the master of the stealth attack and the lie. Let’s see how he does it today.
First, he convinces us that Darwinism is true. He owns the schools and the culture this way. Faith were taught, is something you can do if you want…if that makes you feel better, but science is the true truth. That’s the rule and we all know it. Keeping your faith to yourself is the doctrine of the day and Christians should beware. We’re programmed to literally not start any chain of reasoning upon God’s word lest we be “guilty” of bias. Even so-called Christian schools and universities have capitulated to this myth of neutrality. They teach law, economics, and science based upon man’s reasoning, which is to say that the earth isn’t the Lord’s, nor the fullness thereof.
If God isn’t Creator of all things and Genesis is untrue, just a fable, then He’s no God and our salvation is also a fable…a terrible lie. The thing about the Enemy’s lies is that they always, when we think about them, result in us believing a lie about God. Every political shade has their philosophical boogeyman. Some worry everywhere about Nazism or some other ism, yet none appear aware of the fact that all evils flow from the putrid lie of the myth of neutrality.
A Christian parent that would never, never send their child to a school where the teachers preach Islam or Nazism don’t think twice about the Darwinistic myth of neutrality. Why? Because they’ve swallowed that lie too.
The false angel of light would have us sacrifice the truth about God – reason based on the principles of Scripture – for the lie of scientific materialism.
Darwinism and materialism are so destructive that it’s impossible to give them their due. How awful it is to teach our young that what is ultimate in the universe is the cold and empty and uncaring nothing. The lie of modern science is that you aren’t God’s but the possession of literally nothing. You were made by nothing and for nothing and all you have is now and tomorrow is all and always a terror because there is no loving God atop it all.
But the truth of Christ, by faith and grace alone is:
“For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:21–25 ESV
Rather than the dreadful and degrading lie of nothingness, there’s the resplendent truth of God’s love for us in Christ! The liar-in-Chief promises us intellectual credibility and yet steals our minds and souls through the lie of scientific materialism. It’s everywhere in America and the west. It’s the intellectual and social air we breathe, so the Christian must endeavor, in the Spirit, to the disciplined life of the renewal of the mind – resting all things, hopes, dreams, vocation, vacations, family, friends, entertainment…all – upon the loving rock that is Christ.
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