Editorial

January 2005

Do You Live in Fear of Satan?

One of the main reasons more people don't visit the Painful Truth website is because they are afraid of being influenced by Satan.  Probably the vast majority of COG members were originally trained in the Worldwide Church of God, where fear of Satan was elevated near to terror status.  No doubt that terror is even worse today.

We were taught that God controlled the universe, but Satan, the "prince of the power of the air", still sits on the throne of earth; he controls the airwaves, the print media, and every form of communication; he influences men's minds directly, and is directly responsible for the "filth" that comes into our homes from every direction; Satan already has the world in his clutches, and now concentrates his efforts on capturing God's elect.

Therefore, it is very important that you don't read "dissident literature", because such information is a trap to steal away your eternal life.

Such a belief is entirely logical, from a COG point of view, but it contains one vital flaw.

I was under the influence of WCG for 40 years, and directly associated with it for 31, and during all those years I never once had a demonic or satanic experience.  I knew several people who claimed such experiences and others whom the ministry accused of them, but I never saw any evidence of it.  I've been out of WCG almost 13 years and still have seen zero evidence that Satan even exists.  I've been in contact with dozens of other ex-members who report the same thing.

Yet the COG member has a point: Very often, after someone allows "dissident literature" into his mind, that individual leaves God's church!  Not everyone, certainly, but many do.  Isn't that evidence that the ministry is right?  That once you allow Satan into your mind, he will wrest you out of the saving embrace of Jesus Christ?  I mean, where can you find salvation except in God's true church? 

Well, that's one way to look at it.  But there is another.  How many COG members have considered this possibility: Could it be that those who left did so because they found documented, irrefutable proof that the WCG and its leadership were not of God after all?  Is it possible that they were forbidden from reading "dissident literature" simply because that very literature was true?  That once you knew the truth, the truth would set you free? 

Let's face it -- members of WCG and its spitoffs are supposed to have the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the very essence of God, the mind of God, the personality of God...the power of God!  If you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, do you really think Satan is more powerful than the Holy Spirit?  Isn't the Holy Spirit capable of discerning truth from error, even without a minister to hold your hand? 

Did God give you a mind or not?  Did he give you the Holy Spirit or not?  If you read material designed by Satan, isn't the Holy Spirit, like a virus detector, capable of intercepting that deadly message and neutralizing it?  By the same measure, isn't the Holy Spirit capable of advising you, when you read something true, that it is indeed true?  That your logical mind has the ability to detect that truth even if your minister says it's a lie? 

Could it be that your minister doesn't want you to know the truth? 

So what are you afraid of?  Anything that holds you in the grip of terror has power over you.  If you're afraid of your boss, he has power over you.  If you live in fear of drug dealers, they have power over you.  If you're afraid of spiders and snakes, they have power over you. 

Living in terror of Satan is no different than living under Satan's rule.  If you have the Holy Spirit, you should have nothing to fear.  You can read anything you want, listen to anything you want, and you will have the ability to discern good from evil. 

Don't live in fear for another minute.  If you truly have the Holy Spirit, you are more powerful than Satan.

 

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