Satan’s Religious Lie Program

By Arthur J Licursi

Before one can be saved from eternal damnation they need to know and acknowledge their true condition, as to how they are seen in God’s eyes. Who can receive and answer until they first come to the question… which is, “Is man able to save himself?”

God’s word gives us the answer starting with the revelation of our true condition, apart from His Salvation.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)

“…we were enemies…” (Romans 5:10).

“…the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not…” (2 Cor. 4:4)

Man has since the beginning been full of religion, his own religion, but that is not God’s religion. His religion is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Many religious but still unsaved people will not accept the fact that they are seen as “enemies of God.” They fail to understand why the Bible should insist that they are. They don’t recognize that from the moment they gain consciousness after a night’s sleep their lives consist of self as the god of their own lives; full of self-interest, self-seeking, self-love, self-gratification… not a thought of the truth of God. This is in accord with the lie that the Serpent told Eve in the beginning. (Gen. 3:4-5). John wrote that Satan is “the liar from the beginning.” Jesus said Satan is the “father of it (the lie)” (John 8:44).

The unsaved person’s innate conscience pushes them to have some sort of religion, so many do religion, man’s religion, hoping to placate their nagging conscience. Still, man’s viewpoint and man’s religious ways are an abomination in God’s sight because they are still rooted in self; self-doing… as if a man can earn favor with God, as if to thereby put God in debt to reward him… foolishness!

Yet, God’s word says that they are sinners, worthy of everlasting judgment; that their only hope of salvation lies in the One who poured out His life’s blood to pay the penalty for their sins — this God, the God of the Bible, they cannot stand. This talk is an offense to self. Just let one of God’s servants tell the religious man what He says about them and they are insulted. When this God, the true God, refuses to accept their “good” works or their “righteous” conduct they react like Cain, of whom we read: “And Cain was very wroth (angry), and his countenance fell” (Gen. 4:5). They simply will not bow to this God, and their attitude exposes their real enmity (hatred) against God.

But why will they not turn away from their self-righteousness and trust in Christ, who died for their sins?

Simply because they unknowingly worship Satan, “the god of this world (age),” who “hath blinded the minds of those who believe not.” Worship Satan? Yes, as David wrote, every person born is conceived in sin; they are born into Satan’s lie program. This too is hard for the unregenerate man to believe about himself. As he has his own conception of God, he also has his own conception of Satan — and both are wrong.

Unbelievers do not know that the real Satan, the Satan of the Bible, has a vast wardrobe and he often cloaks himself, appearing often as a false “angel of light” speaking lies through the false religious “ministers of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). This often is the Satan that the ‘cultured but inwardly sinful man’ worships. They adore him as they try to live by his lying words, his precepts; convinced of the great evil lie that the way to salvation is for men to do and be good. This is the root of humanism, a vain philosophy that man can save himself.

But, God’s grace program reveals the truth;

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6) “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet ‘sinners,’ Christ died for us.”  (Romans 5:8)

Christ has fully paid our sin-debt that has weighed us down.

We can simply believe the truth of Jesus as our Savior and be accepted by God... without our filthy self-works.

“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he (Jesus Christ) hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6)