Satan, His Gospel and Ministers

A.W. Pink wrote a wonderful little book titled Satan and His Gospel in which he noted:

In contradiction to the Gospel of Christ, the Gospel of Satan teaches salvation by works. It includes justification before God on the grounds of human merits. Its sacramental phrase is “Be good and do good;” but it fails to recognize that in the flesh there dwelleth no good thing. It announces salvation by character, which reverses the order of God’s word–character by, as the fruit of, salvation. Its various ramifications and organizations are manifold. Temperance Reform movements, “Christian Socialists Leagues,” ethical culture societies, “Peace Congresses,” are all employed, perhaps unconsciously, in proclaiming this Gospel of Satan–salvation by works. the pledge card is substituted for Christ; social purity for individual regeneration, and politics and philosophy, for doctrine and prophecy. The cultivation of the old man is considered more practical than the creation of the new man in Christ Jesus; whilst universal peace is looked for apart from the interposition and return of the Prince of Peace.

The apostles of Satan are not saloon keepers and white-salve traffikers, but are, for the most part, ordained ministers. Thousands of those who occupy our modern pulpits are no longer engaged in presenting the fundamentals of the Christian faith, but have turned aside from the truth and given heed to fables. Instead of magnifying the enormity of sin and setting forth its eternal consequences, they minimize it by declaring that sin is mere ignorance or the absence of good. Instead of warning their hearers to “flee from the wrath to come,” they make God a liar by declaring that He is too loving and merciful to send any of His own creatures eternal torment. Instead of declaring that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission” they merely hold up Christ as the great Exemplar and exhort their hearers to “follow in His steps.”1

The Irish Calvinst has a post titled What I Would Do to the Evangelical Church if I were Satan that includes a similar quote by Michael Horton.

1. A. W. Pink Satan and His Gospel (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1917) p. 52-53