Welcome back to One Day Closer with Mark and Dave where we are rekindling a spirit of hope and truth into today’s discussion. IF satan WERE A PASTOR: - He'd be friendly, charismatic, likable, and smile a lot. - He'd preach just enough scripture to make you feel good about yourself. - but not enough truth to make people repent. - He'd tell everyone they were basically good, and almost never talked about sin. - He'd never ask the people to consider why they might need God. - Don't offend people - Holiness is legalism - Judgement is hate - Everyone goes to heaven - He'd build big churches that are empty of conviction - He wouldn't have alter calls for salvation - He wouldn't baptize new believers - He'd remove the cross and never talk about sacrifice - He'd have emotional worship songs filled with distractions, light shows, smoke machines, and the best looking people to get our focus off God. - He'd preach motivation instead of transformation. - Self love instead of dying to self - Comfort instead of repentance - Because satan doesn't really need people to hate Jesus, he just needs people to follow a version of Jesus, another gospel that sounds and feels good, but doesn't save them. - The most dangerous lie is not the one that sounds evil, it's the one that sounds almost true. The bible says satan disguises himself as an angel of light and his demons as ministers of righteousness. (2Cor 11:14-15) Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom." (Mat. 7:21) And Paul says that in the last days people will follow pastors who tickle their ears, meaning, they will follow pastors who tell them what they want to hear. (2Tim 4:3+) - A gospel that does not confront sin, cannot produce repentance, and that's the first key to salvation. Dave opted to reach out to a few of our loyal listeners to solicit their thoughts to the question. Steve from Missouri shared this response. "Unfortunately, Satans Church would be like most services being held right now in our liberal denominations. Bastardizing The Word of God, using parts of The Word to justify anything they choose to do." Listener Paul from our home state submitted this observation. "It would be a world that supports, mutilating young boys because they wanna be girls, mutilating young girls that wanna become boys, having open borders where foreigners can come in and kill citizens, and the foreigner gets congratulated for it, a race is considered superior to the others because it is considered a minority and anything that happens to that race is called racism, even though they’ve got all the benefits of being a minority, killing little babies in the womb is acceptable and applauded, killing old people, and calling it euthanasia is applauded, attacking other people’s character and integrity is your number one weapon because you cannot stand behind anything you support and logically defend it and then Satan would say thank goodness for the Democrat world." Now that’s spot on…and yes it pretty well defines the progressive far left drunk socialist and TDSers on steroids. Ever wonder what the vestibule would look like as you enter the Church of Satan? I’m thinking the walls would have distorted, bloody bodies hanging on the walls and ceiling. No frescos or wonderful painting like you see in some of our ancient cathedrals. What would evangelism look like? Free Fentanyl distribution in schools and playgrounds. I’m guessing the Church of Lucifer would welcome everyone in. Their Sunday school leaders would teach Somalis how to game the system; the Elder Board would supervise from a distance and promote the most corrupt and creative scammers; the youth pastors would abuse the youth and set them up with Pimps making sure the children bring all the money earned to the church; recruitment of the very young would require being trafficked as sex slaves as they surrender their soul to be admitted. Today as Yesterday: Satans playbook Deception, misinformation, lies, half-truths, confusion, chaos….yet engaging, tempting, welcoming, no cost to Join, free admission, free will, laziness is a “gift” Revelation 21:8 ESV But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” I did a Siri search on What Does the Bible Say About Heaven and found an awesome piece from Eternal Perspective Ministries. I’ve left the link to this article in our show notes for anyone interested in this topic. It is rich with Bible links to scriptures that supports as evidence anything and everything you might want to know about Heaven. I encourage you to check it out. The author of the article showcases 51 statements about Heaven with a deep dive into each. Here’s an example: 24. Heaven has not remained the same since its creation, but has undergone several phases, and will experience future change as well. At least five distinct phases of heaven seem identifiable. There was the pre-sin heaven, before Satan fell (Is. 14:12-15), apparently taking a third of the angels with him (Rev. 12:4). There was the Old Testament heaven of Paradise or “Abraham’s bosom” ( Luke 16:22), which was then one of two compartments of Hades, “the place of the dead,” the other compartment being Hell. Then came the current post-resurrection-of-Christ heaven, where Paradise seems to have been relocated from Hades, and where believers now come directly into his presence at death (Eph. 4:8-10; 2 Cor. 5:8). The millennial kingdom, where Christ rules over the earth with his redeemed seems to be a phase of Heaven (Rev. 20:14). Then there is the Heaven still to come after the final judgment, the New Jerusalem in the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 21-22). The resurrection of believers has not yet occurred, and will not until just prior to the new heavens and earth (Rev. 20:12-15). Hence, though the present heaven we enter at death is a wonderful place, it is not yet complete, not in its most glorious form. I’ve often thought I was a pretty deep thinker, but the truth is I’m not. I tend to focus on the things I can understand, agree with and apply in my life. For example I understand fully the attributes of character worthy of emulating (honesty, kindness, truth, integrity, valor, strength, faith, etc), an I would expect they help us get into Heaven…BUT for me…applying these attributes TODAY regardless of the Heaven access, gives me a peaceful and worthy goal everyday as I interact with people. In a way it helps me create my own sense of Heaven in this lifetime. Does that make sense? To go the way of liars, cheaters, haters, murderers, angry and pissed if at everything and everybody just doesn’t sound like a good way to live TODAY! What a miserable existence! I may have surrendered my life to Christ initially during a southern Baptist sermon on hell fire and damnation…but my continual walk over the past 50 plus years is understanding the gifts and wisdom God offers and applying that daily…creating Heaven in my space HERE and worrying less about the things I can’t wrap my head around…like Heaven. You know a few shows ago we discussed the question of healing, why is it that some folks don’t get healed. I think that’s question and others like it, lead many former believers to the dark side…and they become agnostics or atheists. But for me, like I said a minute ago, I focus on praying for these people…knowing it gives hope, peace and comfort to the person sick AND to the caregiver or loved one that asked for prayer. That’s focusing on the Christian character traits that I CAN wrap my head around and actually accomplish. I can’t explain Heaven or Hell but I certainly can deploy the attributes of Christ, as best I can to others, and have peace knowing I at least did what we as Christians are compelled to do. https://www.epm.org/resources/2010/Feb/4/what-does-bible-say-about-heaven/ Send us Fan Mail
