One answer that I find interesting is the idea that Satan wants us to go through the motions of being holy, and thinking that we actually are holy.
There are two quotes below on this, and the first one says that Satan is willing that his subjects be Christians in name. In other words, he's happy if they play "let's pretend" games.
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Says the True Witness: "I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth." Satan is willing that you should be Christians in name, for you can suit his purpose better. If you have a form and not true godliness, he can use you to decoy others into the same self-deceived way. Some poor souls will look to you, instead of looking to the Bible standard, and will come up no higher. They are as good as you, and are satisfied. {1T 162.1}
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Satan is willing that every transgressor of God's law shall claim to be holy. This is what he himself is doing. He is satisfied when men rest their faith on spurious doctrines and religious enthusiasm; for he can use such persons to good purpose in deceiving souls. There are many professedly sanctified ones who are aiding Satan in his work. They talk much of feeling; they speak of their love for God. But God does not recognize their love; for it is a delusion of the enemy. God has given these persons light, but they have refused to accept it. With the father of lies, they will receive the reward of disobedience. It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. The testimony of John is, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected." {RH, June 26, 1900 par. 5}
One answer that I find interesting is the idea that Satan wants us to go through the motions of being holy, and thinking that we actually are holy.
There are two quotes below on this, and the first one says that Satan is willing that his subjects be Christians in name. In other words, he's happy if they play "let's pretend" games.
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Says the True Witness: "I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of My mouth." Satan is willing that you should be Christians in name, for you can suit his purpose better. If you have a form and not true godliness, he can use you to decoy others into the same self-deceived way. Some poor souls will look to you, instead of looking to the Bible standard, and will come up no higher. They are as good as you, and are satisfied. {1T 162.1}
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Satan is willing that every transgressor of God's law shall claim to be holy. This is what he himself is doing. He is satisfied when men rest their faith on spurious doctrines and religious enthusiasm; for he can use such persons to good purpose in deceiving souls. There are many professedly sanctified ones who are aiding Satan in his work. They talk much of feeling; they speak of their love for God. But God does not recognize their love; for it is a delusion of the enemy. God has given these persons light, but they have refused to accept it. With the father of lies, they will receive the reward of disobedience. It had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they had known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. The testimony of John is, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected." {RH, June 26, 1900 par. 5}
This is the answer I found to one of the questions:
What does Satan want you to believe?
1. Bible is not true
2. Prayer is useless
3. No need of Jesus
4. There is no Satan
5. There is no Law
Volume 7 of the orignal Testimonies to the Church... near the end. I'd give the page number but my reference may not match any of the others since these are no longer in print.
refulgent, I believe your quotes are directed more at the higher levels of Christendom. These are the ones Satan is most interested in deceiving. He knows he can keep all the world in his grasp by telling them the Bible is a fraud or just another book or whatever, but the ones who profess to believe it concern him, so he holds out to most Christians that the Bible is a great book, but was a product of its times, and there are so many translations, that it takes "scholars" to tell us what it really means.
His biggest worry of all is with us Seventh-day Adventists, so he reserves his most pernicious lie for us - that the Bible writers just got ideas from God, and then wrote the words down the best they could, but there are some inconsequential errors. We agree as a Church that the Bible is "infallible", but not "inerrant" as we used to.
May we repent, and believe Jesus that we live by "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God", and then follow those inspired words.
