SATAN’S EASY STREET

A neighbor told me a short time ago that sugar consumption was a sin. Well, not being one who follows men’s doctrine, I shrugged it off. But afterward I was led by God’s Spirit to look at candy in place of sugar, per se, and relate it to the impact it has on children. Well, that thought has prompted this message.

God’s little children, spiritually speaking, are those who are able to have only the ’milk’ of the Word of God, and are easily tempted away from the work necessary to grow mature enough to have the meat of the Word. Of course Satan knows this and will use any deceptive means to get his work done to destroy the growth of these little ones, and this is how he does it: change the milk of the Word to candy. Look at the impact candy has on a young child. An old saying, “as easy as taking candy from a baby” is a tongue-in-cheek statement; it is almost impossible without a fight. Just as candy is addictive to a child, and produces a dislike for real food, so Satan has used the same technique with God’s young converts. He has devised a spiritual “candy” to lure them and secure them.

The recent flood of modern Bible versions are full of “candy”. They are revised texts for easy reading, with Hell removed and various difficult Spiritual truths “corrected” for simplicity. Now, there is further harm than what is seen on the surface; the changes are not just grammatical, they are meant to change the meaning from Spiritual milk to harmful “candy”.

How can this be done? Watch! I will transform a word to show you how. We will take the word “candles” which are beautiful and light-giving. Jesus said, ”Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house“. (Matthew 5:14-15 KJV) Now I can destroy the whole meaning of this word by simply changing one letter. Let’s remove the letter ‘l‘; now we have “cand es” Ok? Now let’s insert the letter ‘i’; we have now, “candies”. Just what the children love. They will quickly swap the candles for the candies and the enemy wins this battle.

Far fetched? watch this! Let’s now change a little word, a preposition. Let’s use the word “in” instead of the word “of”. Here is a powerful, correct text, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 KJV) Notice the “of” in the text. It tells us that we live by Christ’s faith, not by our own. Now, a modern “candy” version of the same text; "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 NewKJV) Do you see the only difference in the two texts? The New KJV uses “in” rather than “of”. Why? because it takes a leap of faith to believe that it is by the faith OF Christ that we live not by our faith IN Christ. We trust ourselves now, not the higher way of trusting the unseen Christ; so we take the “candy”. Now our light shines, not the light of Christ in us, the light of the world. This is only one example of the deceitful work of the enemy. There are many more.

How are we going to help these young converts, unlettered in the Word, to let go of the “candy” box and take up the strong Word of the “Authorized Version’ of the Bible. It will require considerable work on their part to gain the spiritual depth needed to grow out of their weakened sugar fed condition to become mature. I believe it will require their submission to the true Gospel of Christ preached under the anointing power of the Holy Ghost of God for people to be willing to take the high road of the cross and begin to study the Word for God’s glory, and not for their present, comfortable spiritual status in choosing SATAN’S EASY STREET where fruitless branches are burned.

Way Truth Life Ministry http://www.wtlministry.org 12/6/01