It is Satan's constant effort to misrepresent the character of God, the nature of sin, and the real issues at stake in the great controversy. His sophistry lessens the obligation of the divine law and gives men license to sin. At the same time he causes them to cherish false conceptions of God so that they regard Him with fear and hate rather than with love. The cruelty inherent in his own character is attributed to the Creator; it is embodied in systems of religion and expressed in modes of worship. Thus the minds of men are blinded, and Satan secures them as his agents to war against God.(GC 569)

I had come across other similiar references and had discussed it within our bible study group when a question came up which I could not answer. 'What if Satan came and AGREED with what the Bible says'?

'What if Satan came and AGREED with what the Bible says'?

The prince of darkness, who has so long bent the powers of his master-mind to the work of deception, skillfully adapts his temptations to men of all classes and conditions. To persons of culture and refinement he presents Spiritualism in
its more refined and intellectual aspects, and thus succeeds in drawing many into his snare. {GC88 553.3}


The line of distinction between professed Christians and the ungodly is now hardly distinguishable. Church-members love what the world loves, and are ready to join with them; and Satan determines to unite them in one body, and thus strengthen his cause by sweeping all into the ranks of Spiritualism. Papists, who boast of miracles as a certain sign of the true church, will be readily deceived by this wonder-working power; and Protestants, having cast away the shield of truth, will also be deluded. Papists, Protestants, and worldlings will alike accept the form of godliness
without the power, and they will see in this union a grand movement for the conversion of the world, and the ushering in of the long-expected millennium. {GC88 588.3}
Through Spiritualism, Satan appears as a benefactor of the race, healing the diseases of the people, and professing to present a new and more exalted system of religious faith; but at the same time he works as a destroyer.

Not one in twenty of those who have a good standing with Seventh-day Adventists is living out the self-sacrificing principles of the word of God. {1T 632.2}

Young Sabbathkeepers are given to pleasure seeking. I saw that there is not one in twenty who knows what experimental religion is. {1T 496.1}

It is a solemn statement that I make to the church, that not one in twenty whose names are registered upon the church books are prepared to close their earthly history, and would be as verily without God and without hope in the world as the common sinner.--ChS 41 (1893). {LDE 172.1}

Not one in a hundred among us is doing anything beyond engaging in common, worldly enterprises. We are not half awake to the worth of the souls for whom Christ died. {8T 147.4}

As Dedication pointed out, Satan will agree with SOME of the things the Bible says, but he cannot agree with EVERYTHING. Just look at what he did in Eden, and has been doing ever since. Truth mixed with error. That's why we must live by EVERY word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Only thus will we be able to distinguish truth from error.

Does anyone think we would be immune to deception by only testing on the Sabbath and whether his feet touches the ground? Would not his overall character be the determining factor? Can Satan feign Christ's character?