Oh, my brothers and sisters in Christ, if sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.

And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stop, and not madly to destroy themselves.

If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.

– C.H. Spurgeon

Satan needed to counteract the truth. So he developed lies about God, eternal destiny, and other spiritual truths. The results of those lies first appear in Genesis 4:6-7: “The LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou angry? And why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” Sin ruled over Cain because he failed to obey God. Although the Lord had apparently made it known that He required sacrifices for atonement, Cain brought the fruit of his hands–things he had grown in the field. However, Abel brought a blood sacrifice. Genesis 4 records the initial development of false religion, which is based on one thing: human works. Abel brought a sacrifice for sin (i.e. Christ), which was a picture of the final sacrifice. Cain brought his own works, which has been the continual legacy for false religions throughout the centuries. All false religions claim that man enters God’s presence not on the basis of what God has done by His grace, but on the basis of what man can do himself if he is good enough.

Satan knew that if he was going to control the world’s system, he would have to do it through religion, since man is a religious being. So he developed a religion that opposed God’s grace and exalted man’s own achievements. There are basically only two religions in the world: the religion of divine accomplishment or the religion of human achievement.

– John MacArthur from “The Love God Hates”

“The conflict of the ages is upon us. This unbiblcal distorted thing called the church, that mixes with the world and dishonors its so-called Lord, has been found out for what it is, a fraud. The true church is born from above. In it there are no sinners,and outside of it no saints. No man can put another’s name on its member’s roll;and no man can cross another’s name off that roll.. This Church-of which, bless the Lord, there is still a small remnant in the world-lives and moves and has its being in prayer. Prayer is its soul’s sincere desire.”

Leonard Ravenhill

For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17)

“There is all around us, however, a very evident and continuing substitute for worship. I speak of the compelling temptation among Christian believers to be constantly engaged, during every waking hour, in religious activity.

We cannot deny that it is definitely a churchly idea of service. Many of our sermons and much of our contemporary ecclesiastical teaching lean toward the idea that it is surely God’s plan for us to be busy, busy, busy–because it is the best cause in the world in which we are involved.

But if there is any honesty left in us, it persuades us in our quieter moments that true spiritual worship is at a discouragingly low ebb among professing Christians.

Do we dare ask how we have reached this state?

How can our approach to worship be any more vital than it is when so many who lead us, both in the pulpit and in the pew, give little indication that the fellowship of God is delightful beyond telling?”

A.W. Tozer, “Tozer on Christian Leadership”

HAT TIP:  Christian Research Network

Although the Bible primarily focuses on the human agents propagating false doctrine, it also deals with the source of false doctrine: Satan and his demons.

Behind all false teachers are invisible demons. No false teacher teaches from his own wisdom; a demon or demons inspire him to teach. False teachers are mouthpieces for Satan.

– John MacArthur

See Also: Marks of a True Believer – Test the Spirits

We must have no truce, no treaty with Rome. War! War to the knife with her! Peace there cannot be. She cannot have peace with us—we cannot have peace with her. She hates the true Church, and we can only say that the hatred is reciprocated. We would not lay a hand upon her priests; we would not touch a hair of their heads. Let them be free; but their doctrine we would destroy from the face of the earth as the doctrine of devils. So let it perish, O God, and let that evil thing become as the fat of lambs. Into smoke let it consume: yea into smoke let it consume away.

—C. H. Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

“Salvation is of the Lord.” That is just an epitome of Calvinism; it is the sum and substance of it. If anyone should ask me what I mean by a Calvinist, I should reply, “He is one who says, Salvation is of the Lord.” I cannot find in Scripture any other doctrine than this. It is the essence of the Bible. “He only is my rock and my salvation.” Tell me anything contrary to this truth, and it will be a heresy; tell me a heresy, and I shall find its essence here, that it has departed from this great, this fundamental, this rock-truth, “God is my rock and my salvation.” What is the heresy of Rome, but the addition of something to the perfect merits of Jesus Christ—the bringing in of the works of the flesh, to assist in our justification? And what is the heresy of Arminianism but the addition of something to the work of the Redeemer? Every heresy, if brought to the touchstone, will discover itself here. I have my own private opinion that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith, without works; nor unless we preach the sovereignty of God in His dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor do I think we can preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the special and particular redemption of His elect and chosen people which Christ wrought out upon the cross; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation after having once believed in Jesus. Such a gospel I abhor.

—C. H. Spurgeon

1834 – 1892

Excerpt taken from a sermon titled “A Defense of Calvinism” by C. H. Spurgeon

HAT TIP: The Bororean