The Truth About Right Living - A Personal Observation

In thinking about the closing of one's sin gap with God, a person needs to realize that much confusion already exists at all levels of religious affairs! In this world, many people are religious, but many are non-religious! Many are Christian, but many are also non-Christian. Many Christians know Scriptures and have a clear, mature understanding of God's well-documented principles, while many other Christians know very little about either the Bible or God's principles. Much, maybe even most, of that confusion exists because of the slanted, anti-God instruction of the system around us.

To understand just how bad that confusion really is and to see why it is so bad, one needs to understand the master of that system. One needs to understand the devil and see how he works. In Isaiah 14:12-14 and again in Ezekiel 28:14-17, Satan is described as God's enemy and adversary, and as such and also as we shall see, this essentially means that he is, by extension, also our enemy and adversary!

The two chief devices in the devil's arsenal are deception and distraction, and he uses both to perfection! One of his goals is to oppose God and to even be God if such a thing were possible. Another is to disrupt humanity. He tries to keep all of us from the truth about the Lord, plus he also attempts to ruin our lives whenever he can or as much as possible. If he can somehow keep one of us from knowing the truth by using deception, that is, either by telling us outright lies about God, about the Lord's salvation plan, or about God's principles for right living, then he will do so.

Two examples of his deceptive work come from the halls of Science and Academia in the form of the Big Bang theory and the Theory of Evolution. These two complex, scientific theories about our origin are unproven. For the most part, they either deny the existence of God altogether, or they, at the very least, relegate Him to a meaningless role in some corner somewhere.

Both theories, neither of which can be shown to be true, are clear examples of the devil's weaponry. Rather than promoting and glorifying the Lord as we and everything about us should, both theories offer explanations about the origins of life which are contrary to biblical teachings. With each, Satan has in his grip a weapon of scientific manufacturing, and he uses each with great skill to explain or, more accurately, to cloud and distort humanity's understanding of the great mystery of Creation. The result, in many or most instances, is that God does not get the glory that is due to His name!

Unfortunately, a large segment of society has bought into both of these two scientific theories. Why? Mostly because people are easily intimidated by the rantings and ravings of Science. If Science says that it is so, then most individuals readily accept that position without question or hesitation. At the same time, the devil has also used and still uses real-life tragedies and life's problems, in general, to build an even stronger case against the Lord. Through cataclysmic and even everyday happenings, he has been and still is very adept at blaming life's difficulties on God, despite the fact that the opening chapter of the Book of James says that God is not the real culprit.

By putting all of these pieces together, the devil has been and still is quite good at making most spiritually ignorant or spiritually weak individuals think either that God does not care, that He is out of control, that He has disappeared, or that He does not exist. None of these are true, but the devil has done a very good job of spreading these kinds of false accusations and making them seem believable. He is a master of deception.

Note with all of the various forms of deception how the devil has sufficiently covered all the possibilities! For those who would choose to deny God and be nonreligious, Satan has provided the above two unproven theories of science. Big Bang and evolutionary thinking both provide easy vehicles for denying God. Then, for those who would choose to believe in God but do not wish to really know and understand all the facts about Christ and Christianity, he has given the evidences of a hard, difficult and often frustrating life, all as refutations against both God's goodness and His mercy. None of these devil-initiated forms of deception are true! None are based on an honest appraisal of all the evidence, yet many have accepted the devil's lies, primarily because he is so convincing.

In most instances, Satan has put together a solid, well thought-out case. As a result, most people have failed to see through his satanic web of deception. They have failed to see him as the master that he really is, yet based on the authority of John 8:44, the devil is a liar! He has deceived many in the past, and he is still in the business of deceiving as much and as many of the populace as he possibly can!

The devil is very good at deceiving others, yet he does not stop with deception. Once again, it is important to realize that his first objective is to keep others from learning the truth about God. Of course, some people will still drift into churches from time to time, occasionally read a few words from the Bible, or maybe even converse with a few Christians along life's highway. Over time, they may actually accumulate a few assorted pieces of different spiritual truths.

When that occurs, the devil does not waste any time! He promptly goes into his second mode of operation and uses a technique which has already been called distraction. Again, his motives are clear! He will do whatever he can or whatever it takes to keep an individual off track and on the wrong subject, especially when it comes to understanding the truth about spiritual matters. The devil does not want anyone to know the truth! This is his number one objective, but for those who do get close, his number two objective is to keep them distracted so that he can prevent them from getting any closer.

Satan's distraction comes in a couple of forms. First, he tries to distract people concerning what is really important in this life. Most people are caught up with this idea of the American Dream and the earthly pursuits of education, world peace, good job, and money. Yet, even though all of these and many other areas of life have some value, the true benefit of any one is a distant second to that which is most important!

As serious as is this distraction, however, there is, in my mind, a second one which is greater still, and most people probably would not even think about it. In my opinion, this second example of distraction shows the devil at his absolute best! It is a distraction which can be easily seen by asking a single, multi-part question, namely how many different religious faiths and how many different denominations within those faiths exist in the world today? As a follow-on to that question, one might even ask how many of each of these are in this country. The answer in both cases is far more than most would really care to count, yet that is the very point of the question! The devil has very cleverly and very successfully lied to and distracted many of the very people who have chosen to follow the Lord.

If one pays close attention, he or she can observe the devil in every aspect and at every level of this existence, as he cleverly uses his two devices to work out his same form of devious, satanic magic over and over again. Because the devil wants to keep all of us from God and because he does work so hard and is so successful, our objective, therefore, must be the opposite of his. We must counter him at every opportunity and strive to draw closer and closer to the Lord. Once this has been done, we must endeavor to serve Him, not at a level of minimum effectiveness but always at our level of maximum effectiveness.

But how is that done? How does one sidestep all the traps, all the lies, and all the confusion, and then get to a place of genuine service? There are many different faiths from which to choose, yet one God practically demands that there only be one truth, one faith! Therefore, one's first objective must be to eliminate the false and then to identify that one true faith. Merely being religious is not good enough! To put up a good fight against the deceiving, distracting forces of the devil, we must have the real thing, the one and only true God! Otherwise, we are wasting our time!