Featured The Devil in Church People

I used to help with youth camp years ago. I have been long aware of mischief coming through church people. I told a brother one day that I was worried about the operations of the devil through church people. Ohh!... He says... The devil cannot go against the blood... And his contention was so great that he reported me over it.

Years later, at camp meeting, that brother came to me and personally apologized. I graciously accepted, but deep down, wondered what trials the poor man went through to come to the same conclusion, that yes, the devil can operate through church people and that it is a sad truth.

When we had a plating department in our facility I worked under a chemist. This chemist was very smart and very good at math. When he laid out equations he did so in very neat handwriting and there would be much activity as he turned the results of an analysis into an addition. I would take his calculations and put them in the form of visual basic functions and sub procedures.

Of all the years I worked with this man I had one opportunity to witness to him. I made my presentation while he was analyzing adhesion under a microscope in which you could hear the sounds... Scratch, scratch, scratch! Scratch scratch, scratch! After my presentation he just continued to look under the microscope as if ignored everything I said so I just continued in my work. Then... The scratch scratch, scratching stopped! And he speaks!

"You know what I think it is?" He says while continuing to look under the microscope... "I think it is arrogance!"

And then, without taking his eyes off the microscope, he continues his work... Scratch, scratch, scratch! Scratch scratch, scratch! I did not reply but went about my work. Inside I feared he was right. In many cases religion can inhabit too much personal ego. And the father of such ego is the devil himself.

 

I believe the ego is the evidence of evil and a true man of God is meek....

Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. - Numbers 12:3

Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
- 1 Corinthians 5:6

 

And to Ananias, a supposed brother in the Lord, Peter claims that satan filled his heart to do a mischievous thing....

1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession,
2 And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet.
3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.
5 And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.
6 And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him.
7 And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in.
8 And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much.
9 Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out.
10 Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
11 And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.- Acts 5

 

I believe the protestant reformation a good thing... However.... Reading into men like John Calvin and Martin Luther, and some of their hate filled commentaries, makes me wonder if they were not as bad as the people they were reforming from. And some quotes...

"Whoever shall maintain that wrong is done to heretics and blasphemers in punishing them makes himself an accomplice in their crime and guilty as they are. There is no question here of man's authority; it is God who speaks, and clear it is what law he will have kept in the church, even to the end of the world. Wherefore does he demand of us a so extreme severity, if not to show us that due honor is not paid him, so long as we set not his service above every human consideration, so that we spare not kin, nor blood of any, and forget all humanity when the matter is to combat for His glory." - John Calvin

"My advice, as I said earlier, is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire...Second, that all their books-- their prayer books, their Talmudic writings, also the entire Bible-- be taken from them, not leaving them one leaf, and that these be preserved for those who may be converted...Third, that they be forbidden on pain of death to praise God, to give thanks, to pray, and to teach publicly among us and in our country...Fourth, that they be forbidden to utter the name of God within our hearing. For we cannot with a good conscience listen to this or tolerate l. The rulers must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in proceeds without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal harshly with them. If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs." - Martin Luther

 

The Apostle Paul told a Christian congregation....

My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you... - Galatians 4:17

If Christ is formed in the character there will be no demonic spirits on the inside. Turn from the Spirit into the flesh then there is much room for evil. I have heard that the devil and the flesh are so akin that it is hard to discern between the two of them.

 

Yes, I am not calling the whole fold bad.

 

I gave him a wonderful little testimony on, “Christ in us, the hope of glory” ...

26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:- Colossians 1

I was well pleased with the presentation.... Confounded by the response.... What would you have told him after being told it was all arrogance?