Since it is God’s will that all men see the fellowship of the mystery (Eph 3:9), it is Satan’s goal to make sure nobody sees it. Satan blinds people to the truth by false doctrine and religious traditions (2 Cor 4:4). It’s been there all along – “the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery” (Rom 16:25) – but one can bet that most Christian Pastors are preaching from one of the four Gospels this coming Sunday…
Throughout his ministry, the apostle Paul worked in a climate of opposition. Believers in Christ operate in enemy territory – behind enemy lines, opposed by Satan, the god of this age (2 Cor 4:4) who has created a theater of deceit to blind humanity to reality and to confuse God’s word. Since it is God’s will for all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2:4), Satan works to keep the lost blinded (2 Cor 4:4) to the truth of the Gospel (by counterfeit gospels, 2 Cor 11:4) and believers blinded to the truth of the body of Christ. One’s mind could swirl trying to figure out which of the two Satan has been more effective at – blinding sinners from the Gospel or blinding saints from the Mystery?
Satan knows the difference between the true Gospel and all the confusion in the world. Beyond the correct Gospel (1 Cor 15:1-4; 1 Thes 4:14; Eph 2:8-9) there are hundreds of other things that people believe about how to get saved: water baptism, one must keep the requirements of the OT Law, Calvinism, you must be sinless to get saved, etc.. There is a lot of false doctrine out there and Satan knows what the true Gospel is. Those preaching a false Gospel are doing Satan’s bidding. Since God has limited what Satan can do during the dispensation of the grace of God (he can’t just kill someone who is preaching the correct Gospel, for example) Satan’s response is 1 Timothy 4:1 – “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;“
The warning here is against “doctrines of devils.” The warfare that devils wage today is doctrinal in nature. In the popular book “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu emphasizes that “all warfare is based on deception.” Satan has much of Christendom believing that the nature of his warfare is something other than what it is. The nature of Satan’s warfare is doctrinal:
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2 Cor 4:3-4
Satan is blinding unbelievers. Why? A: lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them. Satan’s desire is for all people of the earth to be damned, to be lost. To accomplish that, he must deceive them about the Gospel that saves today.
But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils.
1 Cor 10:20-21
Engaging in false religion has a devilish personality behind it. How did the false religions of the world get here? A: They were Satanically influenced. Those who participate in them are participating with devils.
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
2 Cor 2:11
Satan has devices, deceptions, fraudulent things that trick people.
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2 Cor 11:14
In order for a con to work, a person must believe that the conman is credible. When doing so, they are deceived. As an example, it can be asked, “how would most people draw a picture of the devil?” The answer is that most would include horns, the color red, a pitchfork, and would attempt to draw an individual that is evil looking. Those images themselves are a devilish deception…
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:11
The “wiles” are deceptions. Those deceptions are going to be effective against those who are not scripturally informed.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
2 Tim 2:24-26
“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves” – these are people who believe false doctrine. When you believe false doctrine, you oppose yourself, you harm yourself. These people need to repent and acknowledge the truth.
“And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil” – those who believe false doctrine reside in the clutches, the snare, the trap of the devil. They are in the snare of the devil because the nature of his warfare is doctrinal. And he has the vast majority of the earth believing false doctrine.
The Satanic wiles (snares, deception) are so great that people are saying “no” to the very thing that grants them eternal blessedness – the Gospel of the Grace of God (Acts 20:24; 1 Cor 15:1-4). Satanic warfare today is doctrinal in nature and sadly, the vast majority of humanity is trapped in that snare, the devil has blinded them to the Gospel that saves, they have not believed it, and they are going to end up in the lake of fire as a result. Satan hides the Gospel from people through doctrinal warfare. Satan also tempts people to do evil:
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
1 Cor 7:5
There is temptation within the world system that Satan has created.
Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
1 Tim 3:7
When a person sins, he has reproach. Satan tempts people. When those people fall, Satan reproaches them:
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
Rev 12:10
Satan accuses us before our God day and night. When a member of the Body of Christ fails (sins), what follows is reproach. We are involved in doctrinal warfare today. The Church’s focus upon topics such as demonic-possession and exorcisms and such is deception and is used to take our attention away from Satan’s chief tactic, his warfare, which is doctrinal. The most important thing we can do today for self-defense (to protect ourselves from falling into that deception) is found Acts 17:11 – “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.“
Deception is Satan’s nature of warfare. Our defense is the word of God. In our warfare against Satan, since it is doctrinal in nature, we need to be doctrinal people, we need to be people who study the word and preach the word rightly divided (2 Tim 2:15).
