1.17 How the Evil Spirits
Deceive by "Doctrines"

from

Chapter 1: A Biblical Survey
of Satanic Deception

from War On the Saints
by Jesse Penn-Lewis

Scriptures Referenced in This Section:
          (Follow the Scripture links if you want to study the Scriptures for yourself.)
2 Cor. 11:14

How the evil spirits as teachers get men to receive their teachings, may be summed up in three specific ways:

(1) By giving their doctrines, or teachings, as spiritual revelations, to those who accept everything supernatural as Divine because [it is] supernatural - a certain class unaccustomed to the spiritual realm, accepting all that is "supernatural" as from God. This form of "teaching" is direct to the person; in "flashes" of light on a text, "revelations" by visions of Christ, or streams of texts apparently from the Holy Spirit.

(2) By mixing their "teachings" with the man's own reasonings, so that he thinks he has come to his own conclusions. The teachings of the deceiving spirits in this form are so natural in appearance, that they seem to come from the man himself, as the fruit of his own mind, and reasoning. They counterfeit the working of the human brain, and inject thoughts and suggestions into the human mind; for they can directly communicate with the mind, apart from gaining possession (in any degree) of the mind or body.

Those who are thus deceived, believe that they have come to their own conclusions, by their own reasonings, ignorant that the deceiving spirits have incited them to "reason" without sufficient data, or on a wrong premise, and thus come to false conclusions. The teaching spirit has achieved his own end by putting a lie in the man's mind, through the instrumentality of a false reasoning.

(3) By the indirect means of deceived human teachers, supposed to be conveying undiluted Divine "truth," and implicitly believed because of a godly life and character, believers saying, "He is a good man, and a holy man, and I believe him." The life of the man is taken as a sufficient guarantee for his teaching, instead of judging the " teaching" by the Scriptures, apart from his personal character. This has its foundation in the prevalent idea that everything that Satan and his evil spirits do is manifestly evil, the truth not being realized that they work under cover of light ( 2 Cor. 11:14; top ), i.e., if they can get a "good man" to accept some idea from them, and pass it on as "truth," he is a better instrument for deceptive purposes than a bad man who would not be believed.


[1.16] The Satanic Forces Described in Ephesians 6
π
[1.18] False and Deceived Teachers
1. A Biblical Survey
of Satanic Deception - Table of Contents
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