Lies of the Devil

By: Staff Writer; ©2004

The same lies Satan used so effectively against Adam and Eve in the Garden are equally successful today. The ATRI research staff illustrates using actual quotes from a number of religious leaders.

Lies of the Devil

PART I—Yeah, Hath God Said…

“And the serpent said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”—Genesis 3:1

Now consider these quotes:

One of the great heresies of modern Christendom is the unfounded assumption that the Bible contains all of the inspired teaching now extant among men. —Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 82-83.

The fundamental principle which constitutes the bedrock of Baha’i belief [is] the principle that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is orderly, continuous and progressive and not spasmodic or final. —Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Baha’u’llah, p. 115.

Sacred Scripture is the word of God in as much as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit. To the successors of the apostles, sacred tradition hands on in its full purity God’s word, which was entrusted to the apostles by Christ, the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Consequently, it is not from sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore those sacred traditions and sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of devotion and reverence. —The Documents of Vatican II, Walter M. Abbott, S.J., General Editor (The American Press, 1966), p. 117.

[The Bible] is not the truth itself, but a textbook teaching the truth. It must not be regarded as absolute in every detail. —Sun Myung Moon, Divine Principle, p. 9.

People cannot see the divine plan by studying the Bible by itself. If he studies the Bible alone, he goes into darkness. On the other hand, if he has merely read the Scripture Studies with their references, and had not read a page of the Bible, as such, he would be in light because he would have the light of Scriptures. — “The Watchtower” (Jehovah’s Witnesses), September 15, 1910, pp. 298-299.

The Bible is an indispensable part of the furniture of a Christian Lodge, only because it is the sacred book of the Christian religion. The Hebrew Pentateuch in a Hebrew Lodge and the Koran in a Mohammedan one, belong on the Altar; and one of these, and the Square and Compass, properly understood, are the

Great Lights by which a Mason must walk and work. The obligation of the candidate is always to be taken on the sacred book or books of his religion, that he may deem it more solemn and binding; and therefore it was that you were asked of what religion you were. We have no other concern with your religious creed. —Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, p. 11.

PART II—Ye Shall Not Surely Die

“And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”—Genesis 3:4-5

Now consider these quotes:

Death. An illusion, for there is no death; the unreal and untrue; the opposite of Good, God, or Life…. Any material evidence of death is false, for it contradicts the spiritual facts of Being. —Mary Baker Eddy (Christian Science)

Natural, physical death is not a mortal inevitability. The majority of advanced evolutionary beings, citizens on worlds existing in the final era of light and life, do not die; they are translated directly from the life in the flesh to the morontia existence. This experience of translation from the material life to the aorontia state— fusion of the immortal soul with the indwelling Adjuster—increases in frequency commensurate with the evolutionary progress of the planet. And what a beautiful occasion when mortals thus forgather to witness the ascension of their loved ones in spiritual flames, and what a contrast to those earlier ages when mortals must commit their dead to the embrace of the terrestrial elements! The scenes of weeping and wailing characteristic of earlier epochs of human evolution are now replaced by ecstatic joy and the sublimest enthusiasm as these God-knowing mortals bid their loved ones a transient farewell. — The Urantia Book, p. 623.

Pain, sickness, poverty, old age and death are not real, and have no power over me. There is nothing in all the universe for me to fear. —Emile D. Cady, Lessons in Truth (Unity School of Christianity)

For a realized man… death is just a silent declaration of no return—no return to the cycle of birth and death. —Maharishi, On The Bhagavad-Gita (Transcendental Meditation)

There is no dying, there is no dying at all. Dying is like diving into a deep lake on a hot day. There is the shock of that cold change, the pain of it for a second, and then accepting is a swim in reality. But after so many times, even the shock wears off. — Richard Bach, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, pp. 141, 143

PART III—Ye Shall Be As Gods

“And the serpent said unto the woman. Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”—Genesis 3:4,5

Now consider these quotes:

Nobody is a sinner. Even while you are in the darkest hole of your life, you are still divine. I tell you, there is no need for salvation, it’s within you. —Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Sannya” April 1978.

Jesus came… to help us share in God’s life. He was the Way-Shower…. He desires that you discover the fullness and splendor of your own Christhood. —Journey, R. Romney, Senior Minister, First Baptist Church, Seattle (New Age)

You are setting out on a training to become Creator—to become God! —Herbert W. Armstrong As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become. —Mormon Articles of Faith

In the degree that we open ourselves to the divine inflow are we changed from mere men into God-men. —R. W. Trine (Christian Science)

Man is a god in the making. —Theosophical Society

I do not believe in a closed Godhead. God is a family. We too will become part of the God-family because we are joint heirs with Jesus. —Garner Ted Armstrong

The real truth is the process of each soul’s progression through the ages. The real truth being each soul’s responsibility for its own behavior in the realization of its won divinity…. The skeptic’s view of higher knowledge of self is most limiting. Your dogmatic religions, for example, are most limiting for mankind because they demand unquestioned reverence for authority—an exterior authority. You are God. You know you are Divine. But you must continually remember your Divinity and, most important, act accordingly. — “John” in Out On a Limb, (Bantam Paper, 1983), pp. 204, 209.