The Accuser of the Brethren

Revelation 12:10 calls Satan “the accuser of our brethren.” John records that he “accused them [Christians] before our God day and night.” This endless pattern of accusation will only cease at the Return of Christ. The devil hates those who have escaped his captivity.

Wherever the true Church is found, accusation and persecution are seen. The devil seeks to thwart, hinder and falsely accuse the Church. When Paul wished to come to the Thessalonian Church, travelling with other ministers, he said repeatedly, “Satan hindered us” (I Thes. 2:18). One way he hinders God’s ministers is by using counterfeit human agents and instruments.

This very work of God has endured many such hindrances and persecutions—and they will continue until this world’s system is replaced by the establishment of the GOVERNMENT of God.

God’s servants are not of this world, though they are in it. Christ strongly warned His disciples before His crucifixion of what life would be like after He had ascended to heaven. We have already quoted a portion of the next verse. In John 15:18-20, He said, “If the world hate[s] you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also.”

Christ was hated! He was persecuted! He was put to death by crucifixion—one of the most painful, torturous deaths ever devised by human imaginations!

The plain facts of your Bible are clear. “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Tim. 3:12). There is no escaping this. If you doubt it, give this booklet to one of your more “religious” friends or relatives (of course, at your own risk) and watch their reaction.

Though the devil constantly attacks and accuses Christ’s true servants, many verses demonstrate His promise to “never leave nor forsake His Church” (Heb. 13:5; Matt. 28:20, etc.). Christ always keeps His word.

Why Were You Born?

God said that He made human beings in His “image” and “likeness.” This means what it says. God created you to become “like” Him in every way. Through His Spirit entering the mind, upon conversion, a new spirit life is begotten. A tiny spirit-begotten “fetus” comes into existence. Just as little children grow up to look like their physical parents, so also do God’s children slowly take on the SPIRITUAL likeness of their Parent, God, in character and nature (II Pet. 1:4), as in image and form.

Both the Old and New Testaments make this point absolutely plain! Has anyone ever pointed out the following scriptures to you? While many have some vague understanding that Christians might be “sons of God,” few ever consider this: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be LIKE Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (I John 3:2). We will one day have the very likeness of Jesus Christ. Remember that Romans 8:16 said that we are “children” of God with Christ.

King David also understood this when he wrote, “As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Your LIKENESS” (Psa. 17:15).

David knew that we will see the face of God. So did John. Both understood that at the resurrection—when we “awake”—we will be exactly like God, in form and character. So then, God is reproducing Himself in human beings who have received His Holy Spirit. He is creating children that will look and be just like Himself! This is why you were born.

God has perfect character. Character is facing a choice between doing what is right and doing what is wrong and choosing right, even against temptation and desire to do otherwise! Adam and Eve made the wrong choice and cut themselves off from the Spirit of God and the character-building process of conversion, leading finally to salvation in the kingdom of God—the God Family.

It is the very Spirit of God in us that will allow us to awake in the resurrection. Notice Romans 8:11: “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies BY His Spirit that dwells in you” (also I Cor. 15:1-58 and I Thes. 4:13-18). Christ was raised to return to His position alongside God the Father. He had fulfilled His task of becoming Saviour—assuring mankind’s RESCUE lies just ahead!

Now understand this point! The very same Spirit, dwelling in us from the moment of conversion, will raise us (all those begotten) to be with God in His kingdom.

Just as the newly begotten baby grows in its mother’s womb, the Christian must also grow before he can leave the “womb” of the Church. Peter wrote, “But GROW in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Pet. 3:18). Christians are to grow in this lifetime. To be given divine authority and power, as joint-heirs with Christ, they must qualify, through the building of God’s righteous character in their lives.

When Adam rejected the Tree of Life, he rejected the opportunity to receive the Spirit of God, which would have opened his mind to the plan of God—to why he had been created. His decision caused him and his wife, Eve, to be cast from the garden. Their joint decision carried grave implications for all human beings who came from them. All humans to follow could not have access to the Tree of Life, thus causing humanity’s captivity to continue for 6,000 years.

The Genesis account reads, “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the TREE OF LIFE, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the WAY of the TREE OF LIFE” (Gen 3:22-24). The “way” of receiving and living by God’s Spirit was no longer accessible to men.

Instead of following God’s instruction, Adam took of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” He thought he knew better than God. He took to himself the right to decide between what was right (good) and what was wrong (evil). He thought that he could trust his own physical senses in all matters. In this sense, this decision did “open his eyes” (Gen. 3:7)—but not to the things of God, which come only by receiving God’s Spirit. Adam’s decision precluded any opportunity to acquire spiritual knowledge. His understanding remained limited to what he could learn through the five physical senses.

With this decision, he cut off himself and all mankind from any access to God. It is this OTHER tree that has been guiding the thinking of the men and nations of earth ever since Adam’s fateful choice. We must understand what this means for you and me. It means that all human beings are NOT COMPLETE IN THEIR PRESENT STATE! All knowledge that would enter human minds could only be physical and material. For his enormous sin of rejecting God and the Tree of Life, he was rejected BY God and cast from the garden. Mankind was cast out with him and taken captive!

The arch-kidnapper’s work was complete at that moment. The whole world ever after would be held hostage—taken captive—until the coming and sacrifice of Christ would pay the enormous ransom necessary to free them!

God the Father has a plan to rescue His kidnapped children. This is the purpose for which He sent His Son (John 3:16)—to pay the ransom for and deliver His family.

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