Issued: 12/18/21  Revised: 1/27/24

“In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.”

Ephesians 6:16

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

 Satan’s “Queen” Card:  Religion

 Following Adam’s eviction from Eden until Seth had his son, men apparently did not invoke Yahweh’s name (Genesis 4:26).  Once they started, it did not imply they were behaving as Father dictated, the pattern that resurfaces time and again from Genesis to Revelation (Genesis 6:5; Deuteronomy 31:16-18,20,29; Hosea 13:6; Matthew 24:22; John 8:39-47; 2Timothy 3:1-5; Revelation 9:20-21).  Enoch may have “walked with God,” but Scripture does not tell us whether any of his contemporaries did despite his preaching the second coming of Christ (Genesis 5:24↔Jude 1:14-15).  In time, only Noah found grace in Yahweh’s eyes; he too preached about world’s end to no avail (Genesis 6:8-9; Luke 17:26-27; 2Peter 2:5).  And from Noah’s sons came the nations of the world (Genesis 10:5), each carrying some version of the Flood that in the retelling became mythologies embellished, exaggerated, or downright ludicrous.

 With its exclusive focus on Judeo-Christianity, Satan, supreme spinmeister that he is, tweaked Biblical teachings to foment religious practices gratifying every human fancy in order to deprive Father of His worship by keeping men estranged from Him.  Since the list is endless, only a few examples will be briefly examined here.

Satan’s ‘Kitty’

Islam

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.”

Galatians 1:8

 While it is true that most religions worship some supreme being, the God of the Bible is very specific about what He is (Isaiah 45:5), who He is (Exodus 3:15) and how He demands to be worshipped (Exodus 20:1-2, 23:13).  To narrow the field even further, He chose Israel, though not on merits of morality and obedience (Deuteronomy 7:6-8, 9:5-6↔1Corinthians 1:27-28), to channel the salvation that would come to mankind (John 4:22)—not through Moses but through the incarnate Yahweh Son/Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 4:12).  And not through the Mosaic Covenant, Judaism’s foundation stone, but through Jesus’ Covenant of Faith, he being the cornerstone of Father’s True Temple, the ‘human-bricked’ Church (Acts 4:11; Ephesians 2:19-22; Hebrews 3:6; 1Peter 2:5).

   Islam, however, has a fleeting role in Scripture (Genesis 16:10-12, 17:20, 21:18).   Though called an ‘Abrahamic’ religion, this is not contextually true in the scheme of redemption.   Ishmael, Abraham’s firstborn and the reputed father of non-Judeo/Christian Arabs, is not Isaac’s co-heir in terms of the promise made to Abraham; and unlike those of Jesus’ faith, Ishmael’s seed will not partake of Jesus’ inheritance (Genesis 15:4, 17:21, 21:12, 22:17-18; Galatians 3:16, 4:21-30).  In the Bible Abraham was spiritually cognizant of Jesus’ exclusive role as Judge of all Flesh (Genesis 18:25; Matthew 25:31-46; John 5:22; Acts 10:42, 17:31); yet in the Koran, Muhammad was told by some angel calling himself Gabriel that Jesus’ mission heralded Muhammad as Allah’s true prophet—and certainly not as Allah’s son.

   In this counter-narrative, Jesus was a zealous Muslim at heart, just another grain of sand in a shoreline of Islamic prophets: He was neither divine nor died on the cross.  This in turn renders Christian belief entirely meaningless (1Corinthians 15:17), given that his blood was shed for the remittance of sins (Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 9:22; Revelation 7:14); and his crucifixion liberated men from Mosaic shackles which perfected nothing and could never be faithfully observed (Ezekiel 20:25; Acts 15;10; Galatians 3:13-14; Hebrews 7:18-19; James 2:10).  We know better:  With Jesus come and gone, there was no need for latter, ‘divinely-appointed’ religious leaders—Muhammad being one more case in point. 

   For these reasons Christians are instructed to reject the Koran (Galatians 1:8-9).  As 2Corinthians 6:14 warns:  “Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity?  Or what fellowship has light with darkness”?  Forgetting xenophobic, right-wing rhetoric, it is perfectly legitimate for Muslims to honor their chosen sacred texts:  It is their freely-made, existential choice.  But wherever they are headed for, Christians should catapult in the opposite direction.  Do not fret.  Muslims feel exactly the same towards Jews and Christians: We are here to trip them (Surah 5:51,55).

   So much for the trustworthiness of Islam vis-à-vis Judeo-Christianity, and the danger posed by the seductive trap of the religious ‘eclecticism’ that has saddled Christianity with the double-whammy of social correctness/interfaith fellowship.  Yet the appeal of worldwide, religious fraternity is so contagious that neo-Christians have become myopic to Satan’s wiles while Jews and Muslims retain 20-20 vision regarding their respective theologies.  One wagers Father would love to bask in that kind of loyalty and reverence; but between the notions that He is either an amoral loving machine or a genie like Aladdin’s, neo-Christians wallow in the treacle Satan has confectioned Him into.

   Nothing new on that score:  “For my people are foolish, they don’t know Me. They’re stupid children, they have no understanding. They’re skilled at doing evil, but how to do good, they don’t know… but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows Me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight” (Jeremiah 4:22, 9:24).  This may sound depressing, but in Father’s opinion animals score higher than men on recognizing who butters their bread in the scheme of things (Isaiah 1:3).

Human Sacrifices

   Now if Father called His people foolish, Satan was going to milk that assessment for all its worth.  There would always be people to implement what he insinuated—be it gospels revealed by ‘covert’ angels (2Corinthians 11:14) or cults encouraging proscribed practices.  There would always be shamans, seers, gurus, and religious leaders made to have dreams/visions ostensibly channeling ‘divine’ revelations which, with the exceptions of Moses (Numbers 12:7-8) and Jesus (John 12:49-50), are the means Father chose to communicate with men (Numbers 12:6-8; Ezekiel 8:3; Joel 2:28-29; Matthew 1:20; Acts 9:10, 10:10-20, 16:9-10, 18:9; Galatians 1:12). Satan piggy-backed onto those.

 Let us take Yahweh’s request to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on land of Moriah, where He would millennia later permit the sacrifice of His own Son (Genesis 22:2; 2Chronicles 3:1).  As the narrative shows, it was a symbolic test of Abraham’s faith and full trust in Father (Genesis 22:8↔Hebrews 11:19); for Isaac was never in real danger of being slaughtered.  Besides, the very act of human sacrifice is repugnant to Father:  “They built places of worship for the god Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they could sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech. Such a disgusting practice was not something I commanded them to do!  It never even entered My mind to command them to do such a thing, so as to cause Judah to sin” (Jeremiah 32:35).

   It did enter Satan’s mind but he pushed the envelope further:  Why not foster cults making filicide the essential component of worship, where devotion of giver was commensurate with the importance of the subject of sacrifice?  In a figurative sense Isaac was ‘royalty,’ and in a literal one Jesus definitely is (Revelation 19:16); so that even before some Judeans started barbecuing their children, plenty of warnings had decried the practice (Leviticus 18:21, 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 12:31, 18:10).  Nevertheless, Satan’s ploy scored a hit with cults practicing filicide, some of them spinning messianic themes and requiring the sacrifice of royal heirs for the good of the nation (2Kings 16:3 / 17:7,31 / 21:6; 2Chronicles 28:3 / 33:6; Jeremiah 7:31 / 19:4-5; Ezekiel 16:20-21 / 20:26,31 / 23:37-39).

   Over time the idea of sacrificing children to appease deities spread globally.¹  Molech may have been ‘front-god’ throughout Middle Eastern communities, but the god Baal was Satan’s avatar.  As argued in Part IV / The Great Pretender, Satan is driven to upstage Jesus and so appropriates many of the epithets by which Jesus is referenced.  For instance, whereas Jesus is called the Sun of Righteousness (Malachi 4:2) and the Morning Star (Revelation 22:6), Satan came up with Sol Invictus for himself, the ‘Unconquered Sun’ whose cult was born on December 25, 274 AD, the date traditionally ascribed to the birth of Jesus—and the god worshipped on Sun-days.²

   Likewise, Baal, a noun meaning “owner” or “lord,” was variously called “Prince,” “Lord of the Earth,” “He Who Rides on the Clouds,” and “Lord of Heaven.” ³  Where Jesus is concerned, these epithets appear in Isaiah 9:6 [Prince]; Isaiah 54:5 [God of all the earth]; Daniel 7:13-14 / Matthew 24:30 / Mark 14:62 / 1Thessalonians 4:17 / Revelation 1:7 [He who rides on clouds]; and Matthew 28:18 / 1Corinthians 15:24-25 [Lord of Heaven].  This is why in Genesis 1:17-18 the moon, who rules over the realm of Darkness (Genesis 1:4,16), is a symbol for Satan, for not having light of his own, he can only reflect Jesus’.  And in Revelation 12:1, it appears under the feet of the Church, symbolizing the perennial enmity between Father’s people and Satan’s progeny (Genesis 3:15).

   Conveniently for Satan, Deuteronomic curses for disobedience created the impression—held to this day—that Yahweh was a vindictive demiurge; and unless men obeyed Him, He was likely to nuke them.  But these ‘curses’ were in reality warnings about what to expect from Satan after men defaulted on Yahweh’s covenants.   Father does know Satan best.

   Psalms 106:35-38 made the direct link to demons:  “Instead, they [Israelites, shadow for the Judeo-Christian nation] mingled among the nations and learned their ways.  They worshipped their idols, and this became a trap for them.  They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.  They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters—whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, thereby polluting the land with blood.”  Because it is an article of human nature that men never learn from their past mistakes (Ecclesiastes 1:9-11), Paul echoed the message for future generations:  “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles [all non-Jews] sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God; and I would not that you should have communion with devils.  You cannot drink from the Lord’s cup and also from the cup of demons; you cannot eat at the Lord’s table and also at the table of demons” (1Corinthians 10:20-21↔1Timothy 4:1).

Idolatry

 As seen from the above, child sacrifice and the worship of demons are inextricably linked to idolatry; and idolatry in physical or metaphorical senses is the mitochondria of spiritual adultery.  During Exodus it underwent a revival:  The going was uncertain; Moses was missing in action; Yahweh was literally and figuratively a no-show; and since the visual comfort of idols amongst Israelites had not waned, why not nudge them in that direction?  Thus Aaron was petitioned to make a golden-calf, no oddity really since Israelites had spent centuries under an Egyptian pantheon of animal-faced deities—and another satanic “dart” hit bull’s-eye (Exodus 32:1-6).  As verses 5-6 show, the Israelites had their cake [they did things their way] and ate it too [in name of Yahweh].

   In Romans 1:21-23 Paul holds men wholly responsible for this blasphemous tendency; but while it is true men execute Satan’s designs, we must supplement Romans with Genesis 3:5, for this was the template for all subsequent deceptions. Insinuated disobedience led to a semblance of equality with/independence from God; conditionally true in Satan’s case (Luke 4:6; 2Corinthians 4:4; 1John 5:19), but marginally so in men manipulated into rehashing what their puppet master contrived and channeled through them.  If Yahweh took His time keeping His promises [↔2Peter 3:9], other gods/idols might have shorter response times [↔Jeremiah 44:17-18].  The fact that truly evil people get away with truly egregious acts for years on end feeds the consensus that the good finish last; or as was so cynically worded in an old movie comedy, the meek will inherit the earth after the strong are through with it. 

   The Greeks were all-time idolaters, proven by all those gorgeous god-sculptures they left behind; but who were pragmatic enough to cover all cases so that no overlooked deity would feel slighted (Acts 17:22-23).  At least they had the impeccable taste of fashioning gods in humankind’s idealized image, not as elephants or crocodiles.  The idolatry that Paul was decrying has been given a neo-Christian veneer under Roman Catholicism:  The cult of saints, all of whom were chosen as embodiments for whatever attributes their counterpart, pagan gods used to represent.  Recalling the goddess Athena [she had an owl, an unclean animal], these saints are usually associated with some animal—perhaps a Satanic spin on the fact that Jesus likened converts to sheep (John 10:27) or fish (Matthew 4:19)?

 Santeria and other Yoruba-based religions, which spread far afield during the times of the slave trade, syncretized their gods with Roman Catholic ‘saints’ in order to escape detection; to this day animal sacrifices are essential for practitioners to receive blessings/jump-start idols by anointing them with blood.  And while conspiracy theories abound about child sacrifices amongst modern elites, we need not go that far:  Any child ‘dedicated’ to false gods has been entrusted to whatever demons operate under that guise;⁴ and unless redeemed somehow, the soul of that child may be burned at Armageddon along with Baal, his Baalim, and all of men’s “repugnant” idols (Ezekiel 6:1-13).  It should not be difficult to see the correspondence between parental involvement in old sacrificial practices and modern rearing methods.

Marian apparitions

   Marian worship is the revival of proscribed Asherah cults that took place in high places and under trees (Leviticus 26:30; Deuteronomy 12:2; 1Kings 11:7; 2Chronicles 28:25; Ezekiel 6:13, 20:28,32); long before Yahweh became a patriarchal deity, female goddesses had been staples of cultic worship.   As is the case with Marian apparitions, we have to surmise that in antiquity ‘miracles’ took place in sites made ‘holy’ by the powers of resident deities.  Whereas Jesus was not too keen on miracles but preferred faith in the absence of proof (John 4:48, 20:29), Satan goes for the jugular with visible manifestations (2Thessalonians 2:9).  He wants men to walk by sight, not by faith.

   The purported curative waters Bernadette Soubirous uncovered at Lourdes has its Biblical correspondence in the Bethesda Pool, where some “angel” rippled the waters to initiate a bathing stampede among the sick and infirm (John 5:2-5).  While neo-Christians believe this free-for-all healing to have come from Father, the whole affair smacks more of Pavlovian conditioning than true faith rewarded:  At the slightest ripple [the visible stimulus], jump into the water and get cured no matter personal faith or moral worthiness.  This is not on the same level as when Naaman the Syrian, as per Elisha’s instructions, was cleansed of his leprosy by bathing in the River Jordan (2Kings 5:9-14; Luke 4:27).  As if to preempt modern misconceptions, of all the people present at the Bethesda pool, Jesus cured the only one who could never bathe in time, for whatever this man’s shortcomings, the belief that had sustained him for 38 years surely qualified as faith.

   Marian apparitions play on another cherished misunderstanding:  That children are more in tune with spiritual realities.⁵  Thus Marian visionaries have been children, young people, or illiterate folk who lack the Biblical sophistication to see through the deceptions not only of requesting shrines to be built on the very sites Yahweh had railed against, but in worshipping relics violating the Second Commandment.  Some visionaries entertained the notion that Satan might have been deceiving them; but already compromised by ingrained Roman Catholic beliefs, they were more the case of a cat in the bag with no means of escape.  The apparitions were a feast for the eyes, non-threatening, and accompanied by feelings of joy and ecstasy.  And as the archetype of motherly love, Jesus’ youthful “mother” was irresistible, though as one of Yahweh Son proxy Creator‘s creatures [i.e., Woman], the Biblical Mary was more Jesus’ ‘daughter’ than she was his ‘mother.’

Miscellanea

   We are never appreciative enough of how far-encompassing Father has made the Bible in order to help us deflect Satan’s “darts.”  Teachings regarding death and resurrection teach us that reincarnation cannot be (Hebrews 9:27); that ghosts are not what we surmise them to be (Ecclesiastes 9:6); that departing souls cannot look back on their dead bodies (Ecclesiastes 9:5), or that tunnels of light crammed with dead relatives urging us towards the light cannot exist, for death is a sleep-state (Daniel 12:2; Luke 8:52; Acts 7:60; 1Thessalonians 4:13-14; Revelation 6:11).  Matthew 27:52, for example, “and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints that had fallen asleep [↔Daniel 12:2; Acts 7:60; Revelation 6:9-11] were raised,” was probably the root for satanic “darts” egging on the purveyors of misinformation Paul railed against in 2Timothy 2:18: “Men who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some.” ⁶  Did Satan score any bull’s-eyes with this?  Yes, he did:  Faith had been misdirected and souls either lost or put at risk through erroneous preaching [↔Matthew 23:13].  Chips raked in.

   When Jesus instituted his Last Supper rites, “Truly I tell all of you emphatically unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you don’t have life in yourselves…[but he who does] has eternal life, and I’ll raise him to life on the last day, for my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink” (John 6:53-55), did Satan spin the symbolism into lore giving rise to ritualistic cannibalism and blood-drinking seeking to prolong life?  When Paul talked about treating his body harshly as metaphor for suppressing carnal cravings (1Corinthians 9:27), Satan gave it a spin that became carte blanche for misguided, pious zealots to flog their bodies, rake it over thorns, or to use a variety of devices to mortify the flesh—which at Fatima drove child-visionary Francisco, encouraged by ‘Mary’s’ reports that Father was pleased with his torment, to an early grave.  And was Paul’s exuberant claim in 2Corinthians 2:19 Satan-spun to justify sects engaging in forbidden behaviors so as to merit spiritual strengthening?

   From an “eye for an eye” to justify personal revenge to using Romans 13:1-2 to rationalize the inhumane treatment of migrants at nation’s borders, Satan has twisted Judeo-Christian orthodoxy to facilitate his genocidal agenda.  Again he cannot do anything on his own:  While remaining their source of inspiration (John 8:44), Satan depends on human minions to do his dirty work. And over millennia, the supply has proved inexhaustible.

Satan’s Card Dealers

“Foul” Mates

 Through different creeds, a cornucopia of perhaps sincere—if unenlightened [↔Deuteronomy 29:29; Isaiah 8:20; Daniel 12:10; Mark 4:11-12; 1Corinthians 2:10; 2Corinthians 4:3-4]—religious leaders, plus false ones in the game for money (Ezekiel 22:27) and prestige (Matthew 23:5-7), Satan is winning—and will continue to win—the hand against Christianity until Jesus’ second coming.  Satan ‘cleaned out’ the Jews while they were stewards of Father’s word, and Christians are now retracing the former’s trajectory towards apostasy.  Were it not for Father’s mercy and grace, nobody would be saved:  Time itself has to be cut short in order to ensure men’s survival by the proverbial skin of their teeth (Matthew 24:22).

   Are we being overly pessimistic?  Not if we pay attention to Jesus’ warnings.  Remember him?  He who told us he was to be our only Teacher, the anointer of the Holy Spirit Who would guide us to all truth without need for human teachers (Matthew 23:8; John 15:26, 16:13; 1John 2:27)?  He who freed us from priests and prophets alike (Luke 16:16)?  He whose exclusive appointment and qualifications have been co-opted by neo-Christians professing to serve him while disobeying his mandates (Matthew 7:22-23)?

   How confident was this Jesus regarding men’s spiritual condition at end times?  “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth” (Luke 18:8)?  “Many false prophets will arise, and will lead many astray; and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many people will grow cold…And if those days were not shortened, no flesh would have been saved (Matthew 24:11-12,22).  Add the Holy Spirit’s confirmation to these predictions (1Timothy 4:1-3; 2Timothy 3:1-5), and we know we are in the midst of Christianity’s death throes rather than in times of spiritual revival religious ‘influencers’ would have us believe.

   Again, none of this is anything new.  Who contributed to Israel’s downfall?  Secular and religious leaders:  “Its princes are roaring lions; its judges are like wolves of the night that don’t leave the bones for the morning.  Its prophets are arrogant and treacherous.  Its priests have contaminated the sanctuary. They give perverse interpretations of the Law (Zephaniah 3:3-4).  “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth.  But you priests turned aside from the way, and by your teaching you caused many to stumble” (Malachi 2:7-7).

   How?  Not by telling people where they erred, but going with the flow for self-serving reasons: By preaching what people wanted to hear.  “From the least important to the most important, they’re all greedy for dishonest gain.  From prophet to priest, they all act deceitfully.  They treated my people’s wound superficially, telling them, ‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace…Therefore I am [Father’s speaker, Yahweh Son] full of the wrath of Yahweh [Father].   I am weary with holding in.   ‘Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days…For I stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land’” (Jeremiah 6:13-14, 11-12, in that order).

   Ever since the golden-calf affair, religious leaders have attuned to congregants’ demands while tuning Father out.  Early on, compliance was extorted out of Christian converts through threats of excommunication; and until the Scriptures were translated into native languages, by capitalizing on their ignorance.  With equal access to Father’s word came differences of opinions and protestations of who was right and who was not, again because people chose to be seduced by charismatic and divisive preachers.  We see inklings of this in 1Corinthians 1:12, 3:1-5 and in 3John 9-10.

   Solomon had said, “Don’t rebuke a fool or he will hate you. Rebuke a wise person and he will love you” (Proverbs 9:8); for we all know, do we not, that people love being told pleasing things about themselves rather than unsettling truths. Wanting to be chips of the old Moloch (John 8:44), why listen to a litany of transgressions when instead of grubby creatures, neo-Christians preachers transform us into dazzling ones?  With our blessings, we flung wide open the gates into Father’s pastures so that packs of wolves in preachers’ clothing feed off congregants’ delusions.

   Yet for a third time, nothing new here either.  “For they are a rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to hear Yahweh’s instruction, who have said to seers, ‘Do not see,’ and to prophets, ‘Do not prophesy to us straightforward things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits”(Isaiah 30:9-10).  “I know that when I’m gone, savage wolves will come among you and not spare the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29-30).   “And I call on you, brothers, to mark those who are causing the divisions and the stumbling-blocks, contrary to the teaching that you learned, and turn away from them; for these are the kind who do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of the naïve” (Romans 16:17-18).  “For if anyone thinks he is something when he is really nothing, he is only fooling himself” (Galatians 6:3).

   What does this talk about “appetites” bring to mind?  “Son of man [Ezekiel as a stand-in for the true Son of Man↔Mark 10:45], prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and tell them…Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves [at the expense of congregants’ wealth]!   Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep [spiritually]?  You eat the fat [monetary contributions], and you clothe yourself with the wool [fleeced out to support lavish lifestyles], you kill the fatlings [in the process condemning souls]; but you don’t feed the sheep [with Father’s word↔Matthew 4:4]… As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, surely because my sheep became a prey [for their transgressions]…to all the animals of the field [Satan’s minions worldwide↔the “field” in Matthew 13:38]…I am against the shepherds; and I will require my sheep at their hand [hold them responsible for the sheep’s blood↔Ezekiel 3:18], and cause them to cease from feeding the sheep [by replacing them with Jesus as only Teacher↔Isaiah 54:13] ; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore [out of a job↔Luke 16:6; 1John 2:27]; and I will deliver my sheep from their mouth, that they may not be food for them” (Ezekiel 34:1-3,8,10).

   For those who think these are Jewish and not Christian-related prophecies, think again:  “For thus says the Lord Yahweh [Son]: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out…Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, the rams and the male goats” (Ezekiel 34:11,17).  For whom is the Good Shepherd that came to safeguard his sheep?  Jesus, so not a one should be lost (John 6:39, 10:14). Who is the Judge of all flesh?  Jesus, for the Father judges no one (John 5:22; Acts 17:31).  And who is portrayed in the Gospels as separating sheep [the obedient righteous] from rams and male goats [the willful unrighteous]?  Jesus (Matthew 25:32-33).

   And who was Jesus in his pre-existence?  Yahweh Son Angel God (Genesis 48:15-16; Exodus 3:2-6; Acts 27:23); called into being on First Day as “Light” (John 1:3-4; 1Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:15-17; Revelation 3:14); the Creator from Genesis’ Second to Seventh Days; the prophesied “child [to be] born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders [King of Kings↔Revelation 1:5, 19:16].  His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor (Matthew 23:8; Acts 26:14; 2Corinthians 12:9), Mighty God (Matthew 28:18; Romans 9:5; Revelation 1:8), Everlasting Father [not to be confused with God the Father, but in the sense of having been the male progenitor of mortal and immortal issue (Isaiah 46:4; Romans 14:9; 1Thessalonians 4:14)] , Prince of Peace [as Father’s heir, leader of his people, and eternal High Priest↔Acts 23:5; Hebrews 7:21,25-26,28, 9:11-12].  As Paul remarked, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

   It behooves us to consider the lessons to be learned from the Levitical priesthood:  It created a dependence on fallible and corruptible men to convey divine dictates; so that when obedience to Father hung in the balance, Father‘s worshippers were never to rely on men (Psalms 146:3; Jeremiah 5:31).  No matter the Holy Spirit-mediated system Jesus unveiled, a couple of centuries down the road new-fangled priesthoods sprang up usurping his role as mediator between Father and His people (1Timothy 2:5).  And the latter took to priests like ducks to water, perhaps out of Scriptural ignorance or familiarity with the ways of the world:  There were leaders and there were the rank and file; powers that be dictating terms; earth-shakers and the shaken.

   When Israel asked for secular rulers, Yahweh warned them to expect dire consequences (1Samuel 8:4-20).  Levitical priests were no better.  Up until the time of Jesus, they kept failing their divine commission to pursue personal agendas (Malachi 2:7-8; Matthew 23:4-6,13,23,27-28), during the execution of which whoever needed gotten rid of was (Lamentations 4:13; Matthew 23:35; John 11:49-50).  One and the other were rotten to the core (Isaiah 5:20-23; Jeremiah 4:22; Zephaniah 3:3-4); but while church and state joined forces in unholy synergy, religious leaders proffering assurances of divine protection and preaching comforting bromides were the most culpable (Jeremiah 23:16-17; Lamentations 2:14).

Satan’s “Winning Chips”

Trumped Players

 Jesus assured us the truth would make men free (John 8:31-32):  Free from lying, deceitful, manipulative, conniving, evil minions and erroneous beliefs.  For every person wishing to lord it over others [never a righteous behavior to strive for[↔Ecclesiastes 8:9; Matthew 20:26], there are hordes willing to be led by the nose to be spared the difficulties of making informed decisions; instead relying on ‘charismatic’ opportunists telling them what to do, what to believe, who to hate, who to kill.   Rest assured that in his contempt for men, Satan will hand-pick the worst of mankind to give the slave-minded what they want—and to ultimately unleash on both of them what they collectively deserve. After all “a person is a slave to whatever conquers him” (2Peter 2:19); and to whomever “you offer yourselves…as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—either of sin [Satan and his minions], which leads to death, or of obedience [to Father and Jesus], which leads to righteousness” (Romans 6:16).  It is fair that Satan and his slaves should share the same fate—eternal death by fire (Revelation 20:7-10), just as Jesus and his ‘slaves’ [↔Romans 1:1] will share immortal life in Father’s luminous new Creation (Isaiah 30:26; Revelation 21:23).⁷

 In the final analysis, the true losers are people lulled by seductive, secular/religious pied-pipers. Father tells men they would fare better under His rule; men prefer to be governed by human beings (1Samel 8:7,19-20).  Father tells them not to partake of idolatrous cults; they will do so come hell or high water (Jeremiah 44:4-10,16-18,25). Father may want men to partake of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10), and thus appeals—to no avail—to their better natures (Isaiah 1:16-18); but Satan, who knows men for what they are (Ecclesiastes 9:3), appeals to the worst in them, a strategy central to contemporary, political shenanigans which will be discussed in Part VI(d).

 But for now on the road to the Great Tribulation, the familiar, hypocritical double-standards.  We profess to put our trust in Jesus, but prefer to be guided of men.  Father will take care of us even though we turn a deaf ear to His laws (Proverbs 28:9; John 9:31).  We are instructed to shun organized religion but there is safety in numbers amongst a plethora of denominations (Hebrews 13:12-13; Revelation 18:4).  Let us be charitable at Christmas but forget the needy throughout the rest of the year (Matthew 25:41-46; Mark 4:17).  Let us prioritize family and enjoy life to the hilt even though Jesus’ left an example not to do so (Luke 6:32, 14:26; John 13:15).  Let us profess to love Father’s word but not truly embrace it (Jeremiah 6:10; Ezekiel 33:31-32; John 14:23-24).  Let us seek spiritual sustenance sucking on the milk of neo-Christian evangelism rather than partake of the solid food catered by the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 5:12-14).  We are all excited about the imminence of Father’s Kingdom but while the party lasts on earth, Heaven can wait.  Is it any wonder, then, that hypocrites will have their place where the crying and gnashing of teeth will be (Matthew 24:51)? 

   As stated many times before, the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem forecast those of Christians and Christendom:  When push came to shove, they did not have a nice time of it; nor will we according to Jesus’ end world predictions or Revelation’s horror-trove of events to befall.  The fact that they are written down in Scripture already tells us we will not be spared any of them—save for the deserving righteous (Ezekiel 9:4; Revelation 7:3, 14:4-5).

   We were warned in advance.  “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and My people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it” (Jeremiah 5:31)?  “When all this comes true—and it certainly will—then they will know that a prophet was among them” (Ezekiel 33:33).  Sadly, as always, understanding comes too late:  “The anger of Yahweh [will not cease] until He has executed, and until He has performed the intents of His heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly” (Jeremiah 23:20↔Deuteronomy 31:29; Proverbs 5:11-14; Luke 17:26-29).

   Whatever misfortunes befall each and every one of us, we have no one to blame but ourselves. 

¹ Check your archaeology.  There are reports that in modern-day Uganda child sacrifice has become a commercial enterprise, involving politicians and politically-connected, wealthy businessmen.  (BBC Africa News 11 October 2011).

² Satan is, after all, the god of this world (John 14:30; 2Corinthians 4:4; 1John 5:19).  Also, as discussed earlier, so-called ‘fathers’ of the church were comparing Jesus to Helios/Apollo, the Greco-Roman sun gods; and every nation has worshipped its own solar deities.  Japan’s Amaterasu is a female solar goddess.

³ Also worshipped in Egypt as Bel during the later New Kingdom, finally becoming the Greek Belos, identified with Zeus.  To GPS Bel’s current coordinates, refer to Jeremiah 51:4 and Revelation 2:13, 16:13 and 18:2.

⁴ A Satanic spin on Exodus 13:2↔Luke 2:22-23?

⁵ A Satanic spin on Matthew 19:14?

⁶ A Satanic spin on Matthew 27:52-53?

⁷ Paul’s comment is to be understood in the context of his ministry, in which he was bound to obey Jesus’ wishes unconditionally. However, once a person was perfected by enduring Father‘s discipline (Hebrews 12:5-8), Paul followed up with Galatians 4:1-7, where the former ‘slave’ became a legitimate son/daughter of God. In this he was extrapolating from Jesus’ teachings/personal experience (Luke 6:40↔Hebrews 5:7-9).