52 The Fundamentals lands, for oftentimes the meat offered for sale had first been offered to idols, and some of the Corinthian Christians had accepted invitations to feasts celebrated in the temple of heathen gods—feasts which were acts of idolatrous worship. Thus we see how the fallen archangel not only deceives, and holds in darkness the human race, but he adds to their destruc tion, by seeking to meet the desire for an object of worship which lies dormant in every breast. OUTWARD PROFESSION OF GODLINESS But apart from direct Satanic worship, Satan has other ways of meeting the need for some religion. Paul writes to the Romans, “Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?” (Rom. 2:22, margin) as he shows tiiat no out ward rite or ceremonial fulfillment of the law is acceptable to God. Satan knows this, and therefore persuades men that outward obedience to some creed is enough, thus deluding multitudes into a false peace by causing them to rest upon an outward ceremony or form of words. In the Lord’s message to the church at Smyrna, He spoke of those who “say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2 :9 ) . It appears by this that the adversary has not only a religion which gives him worship through material images, but that his “synagogue” or congre gation is made up of professors of religion who are without the inward truth. John writes, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness [i. e. in sin], we lie, and do not the truth” (1 John 1:6, A. V.) ; and the most severe words that ever passed the lips of Christ were His scathing exposures of the Pharisees. “They say and do not He said, and “outwardly appear righteous unto men,” when inwardly full of hypocrisy. He told them they were pf their “father the devil,” and called them “serpents,” and the “offspring of vipers” (Matt. 23:15). And yet the Pharisees claimed God as their Father, and were the straitest sect in
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