being deceived with false sin into real sin?

[Anonymous0210]

I had a thought earlier today and im curious what you all think of this. Is it possible for satan to deceive us into thinking that certain things are sinful only to have us focus so much on what we are perceiving as sinful that we can fall into something that truly is sinful like coveting over it? Thoughts?

 

[Scoutship]

I had a thought earlier today and im curious what you all think of this. Is it possible for satan to deceive us into thinking that certain things are sinful only to have us focus so much on what we are perceiving as sinful that we can fall into something that truly is sinful like coveting over it? Thoughts?

Like all true Christians you're largely immune to satan's little tricks, it's those who don't believe he exists who are the ones he'll have for breakfast..

 

[timewerx]

I had a thought earlier today and im curious what you all think of this. Is it possible for satan to deceive us into thinking that certain things are sinful only to have us focus so much on what we are perceiving as sinful that we can fall into something that truly is sinful like coveting over it? Thoughts?

It's certainly possible because Satan is also referred to the "accuser". Someone who accuse a person of guilt even if the person has done nothing wrong. Like a lawyer or a prosecutor.

However, in most cases, Christians are deceived by simply believing in false teachings spread by false teachers.

There are things many Christians believe to be sin or wrongful action, yet are not because for believing in false teaching or false interpretation of Biblical teachings.

 

[timewerx]

Like all true Christians you're largely immune to satan's little tricks, it's those who don't believe he exists who are the ones he'll have for breakfast..

You're right! True Christians are largely immune to Satan's deceit because they seek the truth day in, day out with big help from the Holy Spirit. They stand prepared, alert, and probably knows every trick of Satan.

Christians who "don't believe Satan exists" are in reality terrorized by the possibility that Satan could manifest in their worldly paradise they have worked hard to achieve and wreck it. They summon faith that Satan will never manifest in their lives is about the same thing as believing that Satan does not exist.

Even Jesus encountered Satan, even had conversation with Satan. While Jesus is immune to Satan's tricks, He is not immune from getting approached by Satan and even Satan speaking to Him.

 

[Anonymous0210]

Like all true Christians you're largely immune to satan's little tricks, it's those who don't believe he exists who are the ones he'll have for breakfast..

Give me an example of his tricks we should be immune to. I'm curious.

 

[St_Worm2]

Is it possible for satan to deceive us into thinking that certain things are sinful only to have us focus so much on what we are perceiving as sinful that we can fall into something that truly is sinful like coveting over it? Thoughts?

Hello Anonymous0210, sure, just like it's possible for him (Satan) to deceive us into thinking that something that actually IS sinful, isn't.

The answer to defeating Satan's deceptions, half-truths and lies that we face each day begins with knowing and understanding what the truth really is, by believing and trusting the Author of truth, and by ALWAYS choosing to take Him at His word (instead of listening to and believing what Satan and/or your "feelings" are telling you in the moment, instead).

As the Lord told us plainly,

John 8​

32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.​

Also, as you continue to grow in your knowledge and understanding of the truth/God's word, you will be able to more and more quickly recognize Satan's attacks/"flaming arrows" for what they truly are and take them "captive" / (REFUSE to accept them), so that his temptations are never allowed to turn into sins.

​

2 Corinthians 10​

5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.​

I believe that this is also the principal way that we obey another one of God's commands, one that comes with a wonderful promise from Him attached to it.

James 4​

7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil ... and he will flee from you.​

God bless you!! (Psalm 1:1-3; John 17:17; 1 Corinthians 10:13)

--David

Psalm 119​

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Thy word.​

11 Thy word I have treasured/hidden in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee.​

 

[St_Worm2]

Give me an example of his tricks we should be immune to. I'm curious.

Hello again Anonymous0210, there is a book that you should read called, The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, because it is loaded with examples of his tricks. It's actually a collection of short stories that he read on the radio back in the 1940's, and it's fiction, of course, but I've never read a book that is as helpful with various aspects of spiritual warfare (in the real world) as this one is, outside of the Bible.

It's a Christian Classic and a GREAT read, and if you'd like to buy it, I highly recommend the Annotated edition (because of all of the extras both from and about Lewis that are contained in it).

Finally, it's one of the most unusual Christian books because it's written from the demons' POV (so when you see the word "Enemy" being used, for instance, this particular book uses it to refer to God).

It is, for the most part, a dialogue (between two demons, one a mentor, Uncle Screwtape, and the other his nephew and apprentice, Wormwood) about the best ways to tempt us (their "patients") and why (and I believe that you will find some of this very eye-opening because you will immediately recognize that many of these "tricks" have already been used on you, personally ).

You can also read this book FOR FREE online, here (I'll also include the dedication and preface from the book below, and then Chapter 1 in the next post).

The Screwtape Letters​

To

J. R. R. TOLKIEN

"The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn."

- Luther

"The devill . . . the prowde spirite . . . cannot endure to be mocked."

- Thomas More


PREFACE

I HAVE no intention of explaining how the correspondence which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. The sort of script which is used in this book can be very easily obtained by anyone who has once learned the knack; but disposed or excitable people who might make a bad use of it shall not learn it from me.

Readers are advised to remember that the devil is a liar. Not everything that Screwtape says should be assumed to be true even from his own angle. I have made no attempt to identify any of the human beings mentioned in the letters; but I think it very unlikely that the portraits, say, of Fr. Spike or the patient's mother, are wholly just. There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.

In conclusion, I ought to add that no effort has been made to clear up the chronology of the letters. Number XVII appears to have been composed before rationing became serious; but in general the diabolical method of dating seems to bear no relation to terrestrial time and I have not attempted to reproduce it. The history of the European War, except in so far as it happens now and then to impinge upon the spiritual condition of one human being, was obviously of no interest to Screwtape.

C. S. LEWIS

MAGDALEN COLLEGE

July 5, 1941
.​

 

[St_Worm2]

The Screwtape Letters​

Chapter 1​

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I note what you say about guiding our patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naif?

It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" of "false", but as "academic" or "practical", "outworn" or "contemporary", "conventional" or "ruthless". Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous - that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.

The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy's own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it "real life" and don't let him ask what he means by "real".

Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's!) you don't realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear What He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch. At least I think that must have been His line for when I said "Quite. In fact much too important to tackle it the end of a morning", the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added "Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind", he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of "real life" (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all "that sort of thing" just couldn't be true. He knew he'd had a narrow escape and in later years was fond of talking about "that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic". He is now safe in Our Father's house.

You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can't touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don't let him get away from that invaluable "real life". But the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is "the results of modem investigation". Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!

Your affectionate uncle,

SCREWTAPE

 

[BeyondET]

Like all true Christians you're largely immune to satan's little tricks, it's those who don't believe he exists who are the ones he'll have for breakfast..

Wrong even Jesus wasn't immune, yea that's one of his tricks too, you've been devoured by the roaring lion.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

I had a thought earlier today and im curious what you all think of this. Is it possible for satan to deceive us into thinking that certain things are sinful only to have us focus so much on what we are perceiving as sinful that we can fall into something that truly is sinful like coveting over it? Thoughts?

That sounds like someone deceiving themselves.
Blessings

 

[Scoutship]

Scoutship said-Like all true Christians you're largely immune to satan's little tricks, it's those who don't believe he exists who are the ones he'll have for breakfast..

Wrong even Jesus wasn't immune, yea that's one of his tricks too, you've been devoured by the roaring lion.

Satan likes to sift and probe people's minds to pick up on any character flaws that he can exploit,-
Jesus said- “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith may not fail" {Luke 22:31/32)
Christians can usually sense when he's trying it with them and tell him to hop on his bike..
"Don't give the devil a foothold" (Eph 4:27)
"Resist the devil and he'll flee from you" (James 4:7)
and hopefully we'll then be able to say what Jesus said-
"Satan has no hold on me" (John 14:30)

Below- Satan in Gibson's 'The Passion', always slyly lurking and trying to sift our minds-

 

[BeyondET]

Scoutship said-Like all true Christians you're largely immune to satan's little tricks, it's those who don't believe he exists who are the ones he'll have for breakfast..

Satan likes to sift and probe people's minds to pick up on any character flaws that he can exploit,-
Jesus said- “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith may not fail" {Luke 22:31/32)
Christians can usually sense when he's trying it with them and tell him to hop on his bike..
"Don't give the devil a foothold" (Eph 4:27)
"Resist the devil and he'll flee from you" (James 4:7)
and hopefully we'll then be able to say what Jesus said-
"Satan has no hold on me" (John 14:30)

Below- Satan in Gibson's 'The Passion', always slyly lurking and trying to sift our minds-

View attachment 363482

Well you didn't sense it, seems you think Christians are mostly immune.

Non-Christians don't have a adversary they are complying. Christians are the ones with a adversary.

 

[Scoutship]

Well you didn't sense it, seems you think Christians are mostly immune.

Non-Christians don't have a adversary they are complying. Christians are the ones with a adversary.

Nonchristians don't believe Satan exists, so they don't know when he's pulling their strings..-

 

[BeyondET]

Nonchristians don't believe Satan exists, so they don't know when he's pulling their strings..-

View attachment 363489

Satan doesn't have a hold on Christians but he wants a hold no doubt.

Satan doesn't have to put much effort towards non Christians.

It's Christians that he places his most efforts towards. That's why it's important to be alert and wise as a serpent.

 

[Scoutship]

Satan doesn't have a hold on Christians but he wants a hold no doubt.

Satan doesn't have to put much effort towards non Christians.

It's Christians that he places his most efforts towards. That's why it's important to be alert and wise as a serpent.

Yes, and one of satan's little tricks is to try to plant people in our lives to make us unhappy in some way, for example as a single man he likes to plant women in my life to tempt me. such as two nice friendly ones who it turned out were members of a Spiritist Church, so as soon as I found out, I politely ditched them..

 

[BeyondET]

Yes, and one of satan's little tricks is to try to plant people in our lives to make us unhappy in some way, for example as a single man he likes to plant women in my life to tempt me. such as two nice friendly ones who it turned out were members of a Spiritist Church, so as soon as I found out, I politely ditched them..

Indeed he has many tools in his tool box.

 

[com7fy8]

I had a thought earlier today and im curious what you all think of this. Is it possible for satan to deceive us into thinking that certain things are sinful only to have us focus so much on what we are perceiving as sinful that we can fall into something that truly is sinful like coveting over it? Thoughts?

Yes, we can have something that is good and maybe feel guilty that we are being spoiled by having it, but then we can really sin by lusting for it.