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The other evening I watched an episode of the awesome yet cheesy BBC Sci-Fi show Dr Who. The episode was called The Unquiet Dead, a creepy little tale of the dead coming back to life. The story, set in 1869 Victorian Wales, had the all the usual far-fetched elements fans of this genre have come to expect; stuff like tongue-in-cheek writing, average to bad acting, really bad baddies, and lots of far out FX. But what made this episode stand out to me was that this episode was an excellent visual reminder of the following passage of Scripture…

“Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.” 2 Corinthians 11:14-15

Throughout the episode dead people kept coming back to life in a funeral home in a small Welsh village; they looked dead and yet they were getting out of their coffins and walking around, all menacing looking. After a couple of run-ins with the dead the Doctor decides to communicate with the life forms he believes are aliens inhabiting the recently deceased. Gaseous blue angelic looking beings appear and tell him that their world is dying and that they wish to use the empty bodies of the dead to once more have form. To cut a long story short a young woman, the undertakers assistant, is the key to opening what is called the Rift, a channel by which these beings can enter our world.

All goes well. The Rift is opened, and where? In the crypt under the funeral home of course! We watch as beings from another dimension/world begin to come through the Rift. However, as soon as the beings begin to appear in the crypt and inhabit the recently dead (obviously there’s lots of cadavers in the crypt for these beings to inhabit) the lead being, who is hovering in the air looking all angelic like, suddenly turns into a fiery looking demon and tells all the living present that the end has begun for the human race – their intention all along was to come into our world, kill all the living humans thereby ridding them of their soul, and then inhabit/possess the empty shell left behind.

After this episode ended, and the Doctor had overcome these beings with a little help from none other than Charles Dickens… yes, Charles Dickens, I began to think about how much truth was contained in this story that was nothing more than a product of a highly imaginative writer intended for cheap thrills and entertainment value.

The evil demonic beings came as angels of light and told the Doctor lies to get him to agree to do what they wanted. They fooled the people in the show and it wasn’t until it was almost too late that the truth finally came out as to their intentions. But it’s only a show, right? We couldn’t be that easily fooled… could we?

You better believe it! The devil and his minions have had thousands of years and billions of people with which to perfect their schemes. They have tried every trick in the book, spoken every lie to deceive the young and old, male and female alike, and pushed every button and broken every moral law under the heavens. And at times, the Bible tells us, they’ve even posed as “angels of light.”

Listen up and listen well, they know what they’re doing! They have all but perfected their deceptions and lies into the most unique and often underrated art form there is – I say “almost” because they cannot truly perfect their devious schemes because of the one who stands in their way and shows us how to discern the truth from a lie!
So how will we be able to spot an “angel of light” or those “masquerading” as servants of God? Well, I believe you can only spot a fraud if you know the real thing. And how can we know the real thing? Through reading and learning from the Living Word. The Bible isn’t just a pretty book filled with nice sounding words. It isn’t some fairy tale or myth as some would have us believe. The Word tells us to listen only to teachers and preachers whose message, teaching and doctrines line up with the message, teaching and doctrines found in the Word.

Ever wonder why so many people follow false religions and cults? Why they listen to dictators, genocidal madmen, and charlatans? And even in Christendom there are those who would have us believe one thing when in fact what they’re teaching has gone AWOL and against the very Word of God they are supposedly teaching.

The simple question to ask ourselves in all of this is can we decipher the truth from and lie? And that is the key to all of this. Because if we fail to know what is truth and what is a lie then we are in danger of falling for the lies of the “angel of light.”

Join me next time as I look at True Lies.

Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
September, 2009

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