WG-11-12. THE DECEIVER OF THE WORLD
12. THE DECEIVER OF THE WORLD
SATAN is given, among other descriptive titles, that of “the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9, R.V.). Jesus Christ is truth, life, and light. Satan is deception, darkness, and death. The world, as now organized, is full of “the deceivableness of unrighteousness.” In order to have the capability of deception, the spurious thing must closely imitate the genuine. A lie does not deceive unless it has the guise of truth. The deceptive contrivance or device, in order to fulfill the object of its author, must have the promise and appearance of desirable properties while lacking the substance thereof. The characteristic of deceitful ness may be discovered in Satan’s world-scheme at whatever point it may be closely scrutinized. Scripture speaks of the “deceitfulness of riches” (Mat 13:22), and this may well serve as the typical illustration of the subject, because there is in our day no other object so prominently set up by men before their own eyes as worthy of their most strenuous efforts, no other object in the ardent pursuit of which so many human beings are intently engaged as the acquisition of money. From generation to generation man’s experience has uniformly witnessed to the truth of the Scriptural statement touching the deceitfulness of riches; and yet the power of deception therein was never greater in its intensity or more disastrous in its results than at the present day. The amassing of colossal fortunes is one of the striking characteristics of the age. Men are, indeed, heaping up their treasure in the last days (Jas 5:3). No natural explanation will account for the deceptive power of riches. It can only be understood in the light of the explanation of Scripture that Satan is the god—that is to say, the architect, constructor, and engineer—of this world-system, and that his character inheres in his work. But let the scrutinizing gaze of the inquirer be directed to any other object which the director of the world’s affairs places before the minds of men, and he will perceive that the same quality of deceitfulness resides in them all. The apostle speaks of the “deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13) and of its hardening effect upon the nature of man. This brief word of Scripture is a veritable searchlight whereby the depths of human nature and the very core of the world-system may be explored.
It is beyond question a ray of the “true light.” Sin is deceitful, and men are beyond controversy hardened thereby. The truth of this appears on all sides. Is there, then, no one to whom we may go; no one in whom there is no deceit and no darkness at all? Yes, there is One, even He of whom God says, “This is My beloved Son, hear Him” And if we heed this command and listen to His words, what do we hear Him say concerning this world through which we are now passing? He has many things to say on this subject, solemn, pointed, urgent words. He says that it shall not profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul (Mat 16:26). He says that if we are of the world the world will love us, for it loves its own; but that they who are His are not of the world, because He has chosen them out of the world, and that therefore the world hates them (John 15:19). He says that if the world hates us we may know that it hated Him before it hated us (5: 18). He foretold that the world would rejoice at His death (John 16:20), and declared that His disciples were not of the world, even as He was not of the world (John 17:14). The Apostle who was closest to His heart gives us a picture of the men of the world and the theme of their talk, saying, “They are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them” (1Jn 4:5). Whoever has something to say in praise of the world, however false his flatteries may be, is sure of an audience. And through the same Apostle God speaks these piercing words: —
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the vainglory of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1Jn 2:15-17, R.V.).
What can this be but the direct consequence of the event described in the third chapter of Genesis? All the outward manifestations of evil in the world are classed under three heads. These manifestations have no explanation, and are absolutely incomprehensible without the event recorded in that chapter. With it “all that is in the world” is intelligible. The mother of all mankind “saw that the tree was good for food”—the lust of the flesh; “and that it was a delight to the eyes”—the lust of the eyes; “and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise”—the vainglory of life. Is it possible for any rational man, after paying the slightest attention to these scriptures, and perceiving but a small fraction of the magnitude and universality of the truth contained in these few words, to doubt that they are from God? Surely it must be plain, upon the briefest consideration, that no man could have furnished that explanation at the time the first book of the Bible was written (or, indeed, at any time), or have given the complementary comment upon it which we have received through the last of the inspired writers. This is not man; it is none other than the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, and the Living One, who is and who was, and who is to come (Revelation 1 :). But men love to be deceived. This is a common trait of humanity; and what can account for this fact but the explanation that the race, in Adam, submitted voluntarily to the influence of the deceiver of the world? This willingness to be deceived is strikingly evinced by the readiness with which the natural man gives ear to all who teach the pleasing doctrine that existing conditions are in the main satisfactory, and, anyhow, are steadily improving. We are exhorted to listen to the throb of twentieth century activity and to keep in step with the march of progress. And if this be too materialistic for some, the same vague and meaningless sentiments are put into various religious settings; as in a New Year’s greeting to his flock by an eminent divine, the central exhortation was to “bow before the sacred shrine of humanity.” Will any reader be surprised to hear that there was a demand for, and a wide distribution of, this greeting? Such phrases as these, whereof every worldling, whether clerical or secular, has a goodly stock, possess an amazing power of deception, producing upon the natural mind the effect of intellectual anesthesia, an effect which cannot be accounted for save by the event recorded in the third of Genesis.
Other evidences of the present working and widespread effects of this power of deception might be multiplied. We see it in the very general love of men for the improbable and unreal, and in the many ways in which human credulity manifests and gratifies itself; in the fondness for fiction, works of the imagination, romances, theatrical representations, so-called spiritualistic séances, feats of legerdemain, tales of occult happenings—in a word, anything and everything which represents unreality as reality or which aims to cheat the senses. Falsehood has thus a power even to entertain, to administer gratification, and to divert the mind, though it can never satisfy the heart of man; and when falsehood is presented in attractive forms and with practiced skill, it is even exalted as “Art,” and to it high religious authorities attribute a beneficial influence; and it even finds its way into the churches. Not such is the teaching of the Word of God. The man who is controlled thereby finds his delight in the law of the Lord. His enjoyment is not in “foolish talking and jesting, which are not convenient”; but he talks of all “His wondrous works” (Psalms 105 :). God’s words are in his heart; and he talks of them when he sits in his house, and when he walks by the way, and when he lies down, and when he rises up (Deu 6:6-7). Over him the deceiver has no power; for having been enlightened by the Word of God, he is not ignorant of the deceptive devices of the enemy.