The opposite of an opposite isn’t always the opposite

The opposite of error isn’t necessarily the truth. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

 

Never does Satan use pure error. He is a deceiver, and he will always mix in truth; or he wouldn’t be the father of lies. Even into spiritualism he brings a little bit of truth. He will use the names of God, Christ, the Spirit, the cross, sacrifice, and even Bible excerpts. But, the substance behind the names are gutted. The devil used the Holy Scriptures to overthrow Christ in the wilderness. But, Jesus exposed his chicanery.

 

“Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.” (Matt. 4:5,6).

 

But, what did the Bible really say?

 

“For He shall give His angels charge over Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways.

They shall bear Thee up in their hands, lest Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.” (Ps. 91:11,12). Where was the deceiver’s deviation from the truth? Two places. First, he omitted “to keep Thee in all Thy ways”, that is in the way of obedience to the God of truth, the only true God.

 

The Lord knew the full intent of the scriptures. “He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” (Ps. 23:3). “For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.” (Prov. 6:23,24).

 

Secondly, Satan added the phrase “lest at any time” to “…Thou dash Thy foot against a stone” (Ps. 91:12). Jesus knew His Father and He knew the ways of His Father. God promises to protect us from suffering, but that doesn’t presume that He will protect us from all suffering. Living in the devil’s territory, pain is best for us. Pain was even good for the holy Son of God on the cross.

 

“Who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” (Heb. 5:-9).

 

Satan couldn’t tempt Jesus because Jesus knew the truth. In communion He had sat at His Father’s feet every day of His life and learned of Him. Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecy: “Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.” (Isa. 7:15). Jesus knew the scriptures too well for the mastermind of deception to mislead Him.

 

“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” (Prov. 3:5-7).

 

“Yea, let none that wait on Thee be ashamed: let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.

Shew me Thy ways, O LORD; teach me Thy paths.

Lead me in Thy truth, and teach me: for Thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.” (Ps. 25:3-5).

 

The same will be for all who sit at the Son’s feet. They will know the Son and the Father who sent Him to be their almighty helper. Their Comforter is the Spirit of truth, and will keep them from Satan’s many traps of error and the paths of sin.

 

“Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon His name.

And they shall be Mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not.” (Mal. 3:16-18).

 

“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16:11).

 

The path to hell lies right next to the path to heaven. This is not so because God made it that way, but because we live in Satan’s territory and he has made it that way. Satan keeps his path to hell right next to the path to heaven as long as he can. Nevertheless, God has left it that way for our sakes. It would keep His true children from indolence, which is the inheritance of sin.

 

“The track of truth lies close beside the track of error, and both tracks may seem to be one to minds which are not worked by the Holy Spirit, and which, therefore, are not quick to discern the difference between truth and error.” Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 202.

 

“As truth and error appear so near akin, minds that are not guided by the Holy Spirit will be led to accept the error and, in so doing, place themselves under the power of Satan’s deceptions.” Christ Triumphant, p. 324.

 

359.999° is not the opposite of 180°. It is close, and in pure math it sometimes might suffice. But, the apparent opposite of a falsehood is not necessarily the truth. 000° is the only true opposite of 180°.

 

Over time, over the eons, the difference of 0.1% is enormous. Fly a spacecraft out millions of miles and 0.3° deviation could miss the Sun. Likewise, keep an error regarding the character of God or the Godhead for thousands of years and you could miss the Son when He comes near. It has been done. He came to reveal His Father’s character, and as a result it revealed to us His own character, which was the Father’s character. But, after 2,000 years of waiting for the Son, wrong expectations of His character caused the waiting people to completely mistake Him when He showed up. We can’t afford to miss the next appearing of the Son of God. We can’t afford to misjudge God or the Son. Neither can we afford to misjudge the truth about Them.

 

“And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Rev. 14:6,7).

 

Missing the highest point in history has already happened once before. But, an even bigger event, and higher point in history has yet to come. All that Christ accomplished came the first time, which brought God the Father infinite release, was to set the stage and prepare the case for the even bigger atonement, and final closure of sin and suffering in the great controversy. To be deceived and miss the soon-coming, highest of all events in history is to call for the mountains to fall on us.

 

“And when He [the Comforter] is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; …of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” (John 16:8,9,11). Many will fail in the coming conviction of the world when the Lamb of God returns because they would not trust in Him to help them overcome their idols; and because they would also fail to know God, whose exoneration in judgment condemns His adversary, the father of idols and lies.

 

The bigger atonement unveils the full disposition of God upon sin and Satan, and upon all who persist in clinging to sin and loyalty to Satan’s regime. The final judgment will be on all who refused to trust in the Son of God, after all that He did to win their trust away from this world that Satan rules, and to receive them to Himself if they could trust Him. His cross prepared for the final showdown between a holy generation and a completely depraved race of men.

 

Knowing a counterfeit doesn’t overcome the counterfeiter. Only knowing the true catches the counterfeiter in the fraud. And only the one, true God opens the windows of heaven to throw light upon the great deceiver. Only His power and unvarnished truth can undeceive our charmed flesh.

 

All who are lost in the end would not turn away from the fun and games, toys and entertainments, self-exaltation and self-indulgence offered from the god of this world. “Babylon … made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” (Rev. 14:8).

 

Are we close to Jesus’ return in judgment? Will I be destroyed in this global Gomorrah when Jesus destroys it at His coming? Or, will I come out of Sodom and never look back? God’s gift of the Protestant Reformation is nearing its close. Satan has conquered the denominational institutions. The glory of the one true religion has departed; the crucifixion and heavenly ministry of “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession” (Heb. 3:1) are taken away and supplanted by a funeral to Nimrod, the apostate high priest of spiritualism, and his resurrection to the Sun.

 

“The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.” (1Sam. 4:22). The heavenly kingdom, whose foundation is the just Law of God and its throne a mercy seat, has disappeared from our sermons, our Sabbath Schools, and our minds. Without justice bonded to mercy and righteousness kissing peace, who can be converted and saved? No one. The eternal union of justice and mercy, or truth and grace, are the womb in which wispy hope births the true substance of real faith, strong trust in a real Person, the only begotten Son of God. When the Son of man cometh will He find real, substantial faith in us? During this investigative judgment, this is His question to us that we are to be afflicting our souls to answer. Not social or scientific or political issues are to be our main focus. The chief issue must be Christ and His perfect righteousness imputed and imparted to us so that we obtain His character before the great Time of Trouble arrives.

 

The human solution to a wrong concept is often another wrong concept. Another good example of this is that the solution to spiritualism is Spiritual Formation. But, spiritualism and Spiritual Formation are one and the same, although the first is 100% darkness and the other is 99.999% darkness. The first is for bad witches and the second is for good witches. Satan advertises the black magic as evil, then he hands us the good magic, which is just as evil. But, divine spirituality and Spiritual Formation both sound spiritual, don’t they? Rather, they serve two opposite and opposing spirits, the Spirit of our Creator and the spirit of the destroyer. Not a trace of Jehovah’s union of justice and mercy into divine love and redemptive spirituality can be found in Spiritual Formation any more than it can be found in spiritualism. Yet, multitudes upon multitudes are flocking to Spiritual Formation to find God. And “God” is talking to them. But, this “God” is not putting the Law into their inward parts because that is the last thing this “God” would ever want.

 

But, we have the hope that “when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.” (Isa. 59:19,20). The Lord will win this war in the end, along with His army of overcomers who have turned away from sin.

 

The opposite of a sin isn’t always the cure. The opposite of error isn’t necessarily the truth, and two wrongs don’t make a right. Man-made taboos and sacred cows never put their finger dead on the issues of sin. Only the pure righteousness of Christ’s words and actions can expose and overthrow rebellion, pride, deception, temptation, darkness, and every other weapon in Satan’s arsenal.

 

“Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1Cor. 1:30).