I said two weeks ago our sixth lesson about Satan would complete our series.

However in the mean time I have come across an article in an issue of the Projector dating back to its early days, namely the March 1973 issue.  http://theprojector.org/projectors/mar1973.pdf

I have found much rich reading by going back to articles like the one entitled "Are We Aware of Satan’s Devices" by Dr. Joseph Henson.

Even after 36 years this article is remarkably timely for us and shows that what is coming to fruition today was planted many years ago.

That which was planted has been allowed to mature to our day where we are seeing much fruit being harvested from Satan’s fields.

Dr. Joseph Henson has taught at Bob Jones University for many years and was in fact a contributing editor of the Projector in its early years.

He has been to this church and may have taught this very subject while he was speaking at our Summer Institute for Christian Teachers that were conducted in those years.

But I think it valuable to take the meat of this article and turn it into one or two more lessons about Satan, particularly Satan’s devices.

Now we have learned that Satan is the prince of the power of the air.

He is the force, he is the angelic being who at this time is determining the course of this world.

Paul the Apostle, spoke of those who walk along this course, a course laid out by Satan for his children, called in Ephesians 2:1-3, children of disobedience.

Ephesians 2:1-3,  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; ²Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: ³Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

We are to note that the conversation, that is, the manner of life, of these children of disobedience, these children of wrath is guided by the lusts of the flesh and of the mind.

The manner of life of these children is not determined by the Word of God but by following the lusts of their flesh and the lusts of their mind for this is the realm where their father, Satan, operates.

The first verse of Ephesians 2 reads And you hath he quickened and the second verse reads wherein in times past.

In other words Paul is speaking to particular individuals, quickened individuals.

Individuals, who by God’s grace, have left those times past and are now equipped to be aware of Satan’s devices for they now walk in the light of God’s word.

For without this quickening an individual remains a child of disobedience, a child of wrath and will operate according to Satan’s course that he has established for his world.

Without this quickening an individual remains in this Satan devised world.

This individual is quite content to call this world his or her home for Satan’s system fits their manner of life quite well.

But with this quickening an individual no longer fits this world and looks with Abraham for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

So this study is for those who have been quickened, those who have been made alive.

It is for those who have been given the light of the world which is the only light which can penetrate the Satan imposed darkness that covers this world.

Only with that light can the Christian understand what Satan’s devices are, for his devices are prevalent in every area of life on this planet.

Dr. Henson in his article addresses several philosophies that are prevalent, philosophies that are obviously of Satanic origin for they are philosophies that are Anti-Biblical.

They are philosophies that easily are adopted by those whose conversation is governed by the lusts of the mind.

We sometimes think that Satan’s only work is to use the lust of the flesh but his greater success comes when he uses the lust of the mind.

The lust of the mind is a prideful thing and in Satan’s economy it is a mind that wishes to operate apart from the mind of Christ.

But the message for those who have light, for those who have the mind of Christ is that everything is to be judged in that light.

And if found not to be in accord with that light then it is of Satanic derivation.

And being of Satanic derivation it is one of Satan’s devices that he uses to determine the course of this world.

After studying these philosophies it will be easy to see that Satan is having a victorious period in our time for these philosophies are those mostly followed by world leaders and our fellow citizens.

I have provided you with a copy of a chart that Dr. Henson uses in the article.

The chart lists several academic areas, a non-biblical-ism or philosophy for each area, and a biblical-ism or philosophy for each area.

He has chosen only seven academic areas.

Satan is not satisfied only with these seven academic areas and has many more which he has corrupted.

But these seven were chosen to provoke us to think about Satan’s devices.

There is a common thread that connects the non-biblical philosophies.

Of course you would expect that thread to be used by the adversary of Christ for Satan hates Christ and wishes all knowledge of Him to be eradicated.

It is apparent that this common thread is the absence of any recognition of God in these non-biblical philosophies.

If you examine the men who promote these philosophies you will find them to be men who deny God and God’s absolutes.

They are men who press toward pragmatism and reject principles.

They believe "If it works do it" regardless of what principle they cast aside in the doing of it.

They are men who believe principles simply get in the way of where they wish to go.

They are the men whom John warns about in:

I John 4:1, "Beloved believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

As Paul says in 2 Timothy these false prophets are heady, high-minded men.

High minded men place their minds above God’s mind.

Another common thread in these non-biblical philosophies is that the solutions to man’s ills lie in a collectivization of one sort or another.

Collectivization! This was a big word when communism was big.

It was Karl Marx, the father of communism who said "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need"

The "from each" and the "to each" was determined by the state.

Now God calls men one by one. The gospel is to whomever, it is not to a group.

Satan calls collectively. Satan casts a net and draws the multitudes for he uses the fallen nature of men, he uses the lust of the flesh and the lust of the mind.

But this collectivization is foreign to the Bible for Bible doctrine teaches individual responsibility.

You cannot be right with God by being a part of a group.

God asks no group to repent and believe on His Son, Jesus Christ.

The Bible clearly teaches that I am an individual responsible for my choices and my actions and I am responsible for any consequences resulting from my choices and my actions.

God makes it abundantly clear that Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.

It is a Satanic effort of the culture of today to erase this edict of Almighty God.

We even see this taking place in our government’s bailouts.

Erase accountability by bailing out failure.

Make sure you do not enter into this effort in your home as you rear children.

If you do, you will be aiding and abetting Satan for Satan preaches no accountability.

God said to Adam in Genesis 2:16,  Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: ¹⁷But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

God’s commandment at the first, established consequences!

But the first thing Satan did when he spoke to Eve was to tell her there were no consequences.

Not only did Satan teach no consequences but he taught that there was reward in disobedience, in that Eve’s eyes would be opened and she would be as gods.

A desire for no consequence has promoted the blame game.

When you hear people try to justify their choices and actions by playing the blame game you can, in the same vein as Christ’s comments to Peter say, "Get thee behind me Satan" for they are dancing to his tune.

Today one of modern psychology’s outputs is reinforcement of the blame game.

I was abused as a child, my parents abandoned me.

We were poor and needy. I have no education.

Dr. Henson in his article said this:

I am reminded of the story of one of the lawyers at the Nuremberg trials where war criminals of WW II were tried.

The lawyer said that he finally came to the conclusion that the polar bears were responsible for starting the Second World War because he had been unable to find a single individual in Germany who had had anything to do with it.

Now let us look at the first of the academic areas of this chart, the area of Ethics.

The ethics of the non-biblical philosopher is determined by Humanism while the ethics of the biblical philosopher is determined by Theism.

Where you get your ethics from, created beings or from the creator of beings, determines what you are.

Ultimately any person has to accept God and his Word as the final authority for his ethics, or he has to accept man and his word as the final authority for his ethics.

Regardless of how man complicates things this is the choice and most men, most women choose man and his word as the final authority and that determines his choice as to where his ethics come from.

Ethics of course is a system of moral principles.

Now moral principles from God change not, while any system of human derived moral principles constantly change.

Satan has so arranged things in the course of this world that the prevailing philosophy today in any area of endeavor concerned with human problems is Humanitarianism.

Humanitarianism is the belief that man is the ultimate reality in the universe and therefore it is man who determines his destiny.

Humanitarianism is the doctrine that humankind may become perfect without divine aid.

In this quest, ethics, a system of moral principles, is evolutionary and leads toward this perfection but cannot be fixed for man it not yet perfect.

One obvious area where this is taking place is in the area of marriage.

God’s principle of marriage is fixed, being the union of one man and one woman.

Humanism’s principle is fluid and permits and encourages evolutionary growth and now defines marriage as between man and a man, woman and a woman or if you cannot help yourself between a man and a woman.

Humanism may in time define marriage as between anyone or anything, for moral principles are fluid in humanism.

If moral principles are fluid soon you will be able to marry your cat!

That is why situational ethics are pressed today in all areas of life.

There are no principles for everything depends upon the situation.

God’s fixed moral principles are rejected in favor of principles which in reality are not principles.

Humanism’s principles, being fluid, sees man as guinea pigs.

White mice upon which to test new methods, new procedures, new schemes.

As usual God’s word warns us of these men, as Peter has written in:

II Peter 2:3,  And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you……." The "they" of this verse refers to the false prophets and false teachers of verse one "who privily shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord who bought them.

God, the God who is love, is concerned about the worth of each individual and his welfare.

His moral principles are in support of this concern but in contrast the so called fluid moral principles of the humanist are simply testing procedures on the way to what he defines as perfection.

God’s plan is perfection through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

It is perfection by the works of God.

The humanist’s plan of perfection is through the works of man.

God’s plan is motivated by love but man’s plan is motivated by covetousness.

The humanist pretends a great concern for the well being of men but they are simply covetous and desirous of exploiting the people they pretend to be concerned about for they are simply test subjects.

Judas pretended to be concerned about the poor when he objected to the pouring out of the expensive ointment upon the feet of Jesus.

In reality he was only concerned about the decreased heaviness of the money bag.

He could not stand to see the money float away as he smelled the perfume of the ointment filling the room.

The humanist, like Judas, not having a proper view of God and eternity, cannot have the proper view of the worth of an individual.

The humanist can accept the destruction of millions of the unborn for this is simply the product of the evolutionary ascent of man.

Why clutter the earth with unwanted children?

The second academic area on your list is Philosophy, the contrast being between Materialism and self-denial.

It is not hard to see that the course of this world, established by Satan, is Materialism.

This is the precept that the important things in life are material rather than spiritual.

Of all the academic areas listed this is the one where most Christians fall.

I don’t think we really know how materialistic we are, because we all wish to realize the American dream.

A popular political saying during the Clinton campaign was "It’s the economy, stupid!"

This remains the mantra of the world and its voice is getting louder all the time.

Through feigned words they shall make merchandise of you certainly applies as sometimes our whole existence on earth is to be consumers and fuel the economy.

This of course is not Biblical for the scriptures present a view of unconcern over the acquisition of "things."

In Luke 12:15 we read,  And he said unto them, take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man’s life consisteth not in abundance of the things which he possesseth,  and in Proverbs 23:4 we read, "Labor not to be rich;