He also instituted:
· the family (of man, woman, and children) to ensure that children would be raised in the training and admonition of the Lord.
· government to keep peace and restrain evil.
· the church to become a gathering of His people for worship and the sacraments, for fellowship and support, and to send ambassadors of Christ out to reach the lost.
Satan’s primary target is people, and his primary strategy is through lies that draw people from God’s narrow path to heaven, to the broad path to the Lake of Fire. Here are eight of his favorite lies that he uses to deceive people; you may recognize them, as they are often expressed in our modern woke culture, as Satan whispers into our ears:
LIE #1: The traditional view of family – father, mother, and children is merely a social construct, created by the people in charge of a government, nation, or religion.
· Different cultures embrace different practices, such as homosexual marriages and polygamy. Old Testament patriarchs IN THE BIBLE even had multiple wives – Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines. So if you want to be married to someone of your same sex, what is wrong with that? And why limit it to people? Why not to your dog, sheep, or goat? Were we not all created by God to enjoy life and to be happy?
· And why get married at all? If you love each other, why not just live together and enjoy freedom as well as companionship?
RESPONSE: God’s created order makes clear distinctions between
God and man, men and women, adults and children, people and animals, the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Man. Furthermore, He instituted the family (of man, woman, and children) to channel human passions, provide valuable social stability, and to ensure that children would be raised in a safe and nurturing environment.
LIE #2: Not only is the traditional view of family merely a social construct, but so is your gender identity.
· The transsexuality movement frees us to choose our own gender identity, liberating us from the constraints and demands of the body we happen to be born in.
RESPONSE: This aberrant ideology flies in the sense of basic biology
as well as common sense. To claim that men can become women and vice versa leads to troubled lives and perverted bodies.
LIE #3: Women, you, not the government, should have the right to control your own bodies, to have the sexual freedom you deserve.
· Since a fetus is just a blob of tissue until birth, abortion is not a sin; it is merely a form of birth control.
RESPONSE: The act of human procreation and giving birth to a new
human being is a tremendous gift from God. So to destroy this new life in the womb is taking a life of another human being, a right that no other person has, including the mother.
LIE #4: Traditional taboos about shielding children from sexual practices are outmoded.
· Not only should you be free to express your sexuality in whatever ways we choose, you should liberate your children to do the same, rather than keep them in a cage of celibacy until they are grown up.
RESPONSE: The rearing a child is a tremendous responsibility, and
the sexual act a precious gift from God, to take place in consecrated marriage. To exploit children sexually – pedophilia – is a terrible crime foisted on the young and innocent.
LIE #5: Feel free to embrace divorce as liberating you from the constrictions of marriage, so you will be free to move on with your life.
· Just as one career can never encompass all the talents that an individual has, so can your marriage never enable you to fully express your potential as a human being.
RESPONSE: In addition to creating human beings as male and female,
God also instituted marriage to be a lifelong commitment, not merely a temporary arrangement dependent on the whims of either party.
LIE #6: Considering the outmoded beliefs of many parents today, it is the state – the government – that is best able to determine what should be taught to your children, and care for them from cradle to grave.
· After all, does not the government have authority to rule an entire nation (within which there are many religions and ideologies), rather than any one of them dominating our society or family life?
RESPONSE: God instituted marriage between a man and a woman as
the ideal and most effective means to raise children. He instituted government to provide protection and civil order, but when government takes over the functions of parenting, it always fails miserably because it is simply ill-equipped to do so.
LIE #7: All guilt is false, created by religious leaders for power, control, and money.
· You are a free, individual person, with your own mind, feelings, and volition; who are these people, organizations, or religions to tell you what you should do and make you feel guilty for not complying with THEIR wishes?
RESPONSE: As every government has to have a civil and moral order
to restrain chaos and violence, it must also have compliance and a sense of right and wrong (guilt) to ensure its continuance. In similar fashion, the sovereign, living God of the universe established laws (the Ten Commandments), and sent His Son to usher in an even more just and moral order. To maintain this new ethic, the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to teach, love, guide, and convict us (through guilt) when we stray from the narrow path He set before us. Eliminating guilt in a society is a sure guarantee that chaos and anarchy are on their way.
LIE #8: Satan and hell are not real.
· Like guilt, notions of Satan and hell are not real, but were just created to scare you into complying with their agenda and plans for your life.
RESPONSE: The spirit world cannot be experienced through our
senses because it is invisible. Nevertheless, it is still very real, as testified by fulfilled prophecies and many other evidence. So claiming it is not real is one of Satan’s favorite lies, with eternal consequences.
For each of these lies, Satan promises great happiness, wealth and pleasure, but delivers a life of broken hearts, loneliness, and despair.
Satan’s ultimate lie is that if we abandon God, we can live a life unmitigated pleasure and happiness and still go to heaven. But the Lake of Fire is full of poor souls who fell for his lies on earth and are paying for their terribly wrong decision in the Lake of Fire for eternity.
In contrast to the lies of Satan, Jesus stated: “If you abide in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32
So let us go forth to witness to all who come across our path with the love and truth of Christ, for life is short, eternity is a very long time, and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.
To God be the Glory
Board of Evangelism