Why do we find such solace in the Twenty-third Psalm when we don't even believe what it is saying? Why should God bother to lead us in paths of righteousness when we are already perfect in Christ? Are there really paths of righteousness? Is there really a way of righteousness, as Peter says? Do the righteous actually live by faith? Is the Lord Jesus the ticket or the way?

The deceptions prevalent in current Christian thinking work against the producing of actual righteousness, of righteous character and behavior, in the peoples of the earth. Rather, Christian theology points toward Heaven, the spirit Paradise, as being the place where righteousness will be practiced.

Each of these deceptions has as its purpose the preventing of the doing of God's will in the earth, the hindering of the entrance of the Kingdom of God into the earth. It is the doing of God's will in the earth that signifies the overthrow of Satan's Kingdom.

Satan's goal is to prevent Christ and His righteousness from entering the earth. No doubt, imputed (ascribed) righteousness is of little concern to Satan. Satan's concern is actual righteousness, through Christ, of thought, word, and deed.

Satan is not troubled concerning what we intend to do in Heaven; his worry is what Christ intends to do in and with the inhabitants of the earth.

Let us take a closer look at eight doctrines we believe Satan has influenced. It appears they represent the bulk of today's Christian teaching and preaching:

* The purpose of Divine grace is to provide us with a ticket to Heaven.

* No believer in Christ will be punished at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

* God's love is to be emphasized but His wrath is not to be emphasized. The positive is to be stressed but the negative, the unpleasant, is not to be stressed. God's goodness is to be pressed but His severity is not to be pressed. The sinner is to be invited warmly but not warned and rebuked with vigor.

* We are to reverence God but not fear Him.

* The validity of our salvation cannot be affected by our behavior.

* The believers will be translated secretly for the purpose of avoiding suffering.

* The Gentile believers are a special dispensation of God and are not required to obey the laws of righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.

* It is God's will that Christians use their faith for material gain.

Is it your opinion that these doctrines will produce righteousness in the churches?

Do you hear the voice of Christ in them, or the sly persuasions of the enemy as he plays on the self-love of the Christians? Do you smell the holy incense coming from God in Heaven, or is the odor more like burning sulfur?

Will these humanistic doctrines bring forth righteousness and praise in the sight of the nations of the earth? Have they not, in fact, created such immorality, covetousness, and dishonesty in the Christians that the world, which knows that anyone who truly belongs to God will behave righteously, has little confidence in the Christian Gospel?

Take another look at the eight doctrines listed above. They are proceeding from the spirit of error in the churches. The Christian churches are preaching error and the error has produced a valley of dry bones instead of a rich harvest of righteousness, holiness, and obedience to the Lord.

To be continued.