Chapter One – How Religion Held Back Christ’s Message for 2,000 Years!
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The truth of the gospel—God’s astonishing purpose for man—has been withheld from the world. It explains why you were born. It is incredible knowledge that will leave you dumbfounded! This amazing understanding is now revealed—along with the cover-up to suppress it!
Billions are now deceived. Previous billions have been. Even you have been lied to. A complete seduction has taken place, and all the world’s religions have played a part in it. Knowledge of your incredible future—your AWESOME POTENTIAL—has been kept from you!
Many wonder and worry about the unknown—and what their future holds. Others fear they do not even have a future. Still others fear that civilization has no future. You need never be in doubt about your future again—or of mankind’s.
If only humanity knew what God has in store for it! Yet a deliberate suppression of the truth has withheld this knowledge from all but a few. You can be an exception—one of the few who is not deceived!
The world has believed a false gospel for 2,000 years. It has generally supposed that Jesus Christ is the gospel rather than the Messenger of it. The Message—the centrepiece—of the gospel is not Christ. By focusing on Him—the Messenger—religious deceivers have been able to successfully suppress and cover up the Message He brought!
The vital knowledge of how man could have solved his problems and understood God’s Supreme Purpose has been withheld from the world, keeping it in darkness. Man does not know what he is or his reason for being. He does not know the way to abundance, peace, and all the good things of life. The gospel would have shown mankind the solution to its most insoluble problems.
And yet, except for the apostle John, all the original apostles were martyred for teaching the truth of God’s incredible purpose. Jesus was crucified because people did not want to hear His Message!
A correct understanding of the true gospel reveals crucial knowledge. It contains a dimension of understanding that cannot be discovered by scientific inquiry. Every supposed “great religion” of the world has helped suppress it. Their theologians neither comprehend nor are willing to teach it. We will see that they have held back the great key that unlocks your purpose for being—YOUR AWESOME POTENTIAL!
How did this happen? And who is behind this suppression of knowledge?
Contents
The Super Deceiver
To the unlearned, the Bible is a book of shocking statements. It reveals startling truths, completely unknown even to those who profess to understand it. But there are few statements more astonishing than that found in Revelation 12:9. This verse directly states that Satan the devil—who does exist!—“deceives the WHOLE world.”
As “prince of the POWER of the air” (Eph. 2:2), Satan has influenced, guided, controlled, and completely deceived the unsuspecting masses.
This is an absolutely staggering revelation—so much so that most simply ignore or reject it, believing that it cannot possibly be true. But it is in your Bible. And the entire world remains deceived about the fact that it is deceived!
The Bible states that, since his rebellion prior to the creation of man, Satan has greatly “weakened the nations” (Isa. 14:12) and “deceived the nations” (Rev. 20:3) in both understanding and critical knowledge explaining God’s purpose. His deception has been complete. We will explore how he is so effective in greater detail later.
This World’s God
The Bible also calls the devil the “god of this world”—another shocking revelation! This is what2 Corinthians 4:4 states: “In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel … should shine unto them.”
Satan blinds the world to the true gospel for a personal reason. It describes the soon-coming kingdom of God—God’s world-ruling government. Of course, Satan seeks to block people from understanding this marvellous truth, not wanting “light” to shine on God’s incredible purpose for mankind. He wants humanity, collectively, and individually, to think it has no future! Actually, the devil also recognizes that the arrival of God’s kingdom means he will be banished from his current position (Rev. 20:2-3) of global influence as the god humanity unwittingly worships. He will no longer be permitted to deceive or weaken the nations. He also realizes he can never receive what God has offered to men.
In John 12:31, 14:30, and 16:11, Christ refers to Satan as “the prince of this world.” These verses state that the devil will one day be judged. Take a moment to read them! John 12:31parallels the judgment of this world with Satan’s judgment. Why? Because this world is his! Paul’s inspired statement reveals that he is literally its “god.”
This is the plain truth from your Bible! Man’s civilization, with its cultures, ways, and systems, is under the control of the devil!
Consider. If Satan has deceived the entire world, then this cannot be God’s world. And since the whole world is deceived, it is cut off from God. Deceived people do not know their purpose for being, and practice lives that reflect this ignorance (Isa. 59:1-2; Jer. 5:25). We could ask: how can a single being deceive over six and a half billion people? There are two primary ways.
First, Revelation 12:9 concludes with, “he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Notice that it says, “his angels.” These beings, which he leads, are referred to as demons (or fallen angels), and they assist Satan in his role of super deceiver. Therefore, Satan does not work alone—he has millions of deceived spirit beings (fallen angels) who help him.
But there is much more to understand. There is a second, equally important way through which Satan has so successfully deceived such vast numbers of people—and hidden their enormous potential from them.
Satan Has Ministers
Christendom is represented by hundreds of different, competing, arguing—and multiplying—denominations, and sects. Supposed Christianity appears in every conceivable shape, flavour, colour and texture of belief and custom. Most have assumed that this is the natural state of affairs in the “Christian” world—that this is the way God must want it.
How wrong they are!
Put another way, this means that there are hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, of clergy who represent and teach the beliefs of this kaleidoscope of differing and disagreeing brands of Christianity. Most who attend these various churches have also assumed, therefore, that all these must generally be God’s ministers—that they represent and teach what God wants taught. There could be no more dangerous—or plain wrong—assumption!
Now here is yet one more shocking statement!
As the god of a completely deceived world, which must, therefore, include all the differing forms of Christianity and other religions, Satan has his own agents. He uses these agents to unwittingly spread his false doctrines. Yes, he has been able to achieve this almost universal success because the devil HAS HIS OWN MINISTERS! Of course, his agents—his ministers—are themselves deceived into believing that they are God’s ministers. Some teach a few aspects of God’s truth, but virtually none of His most important truths!
Now notice 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. The apostle Paul warned of the cunning with which Satan’s ministers successfully deceive: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
This is a blunt, stunning scripture. Yet, it is true that Satan’s ministers appear to be the ministers of God. Grasp this! Satan does not talk directly to human beings. He works through his servants—his ministers!
And here is the greatest deception of these false ministers: the devil uses them as instruments for spreading a false gospel about the Person of Jesus Christ—instead of His Message of the kingdom of God, the one that Christ brought. The greatest truth that the ministers, theologians, and religionists of this world deny is the incredible potential that each human being carries.
The following verses continue Paul’s description of the work of false ministers. They demonstrate the ongoing danger of Satan’s agents seeking to penetrate the true Church to blind God’s true servants a second time to the wonderful truth of the gospel and return them to darkness. Notice: “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your [the Corinthian brethren’s] minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that comes [speaking of false preachers] preaches another Jesus … or if you receive another spirit … or another gospel, which you have not accepted …” (2 Cor. 11:3-4).
Paul warned of “another” spirit that was even able to enter the true Church. This very different spirit perverted both the truth about the gospel and the real Christ of the Bible. Historically, the counterfeit Christianity of today first appeared almost immediately after Christ’s death and resurrection. Also, ask yourself: if Christ is the gospel, then why cite “another Jesus” and “another gospel” as two separate doctrinal errors?
We will return to this.
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