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Preface
Innumerable books have been written about Jesus Christ and His Church, but a book about the church of the Devil seldom if ever appears. Why is this so? The same scriptures which testify of the existence of one testify of the existence of the other. Granted the subject of Satan and evil is forbidding, distasteful, and depressing. But this alone cannot account for such an absence of interest and scholarship. Men are continually addressing themselves to the task of analyzing and trying to solve disagreeable problems such as crime, disease, ignorance, and poverty. Such ills of mankind are the source of suffering, misery, pain, and sorrow and men consider it their duty to attack such problems with their pens, analyze them, expose their causes, and offer a solution. Why should they not do the same with Satan who, the scriptures teach, is the motivating force behind all of this evil? He it is who has “sought the misery of all mankind;” who is the “father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive:” who “hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning.”
However, more astonishing than the failure of men to interest themselves in Satan is their failure to give attention to prophecies regarding his church. The prophets have predicted that in these last days that organization would completely cover the earth; have dominion among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people; entice everyone to belong to it except that few who belong to “the church of the Lamb of God;” overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; make war against the saints and slay them; and finally be the cause of the destruction of all nations. Is such an organization worthy of our interest? Is there any problem facing mankind of greater importance? Why then the almost total lack of interest in those scriptures which testify of it?
Obviously, in this day “when the children of men shall esteem [the words of the Lord] as naught,” (Moses 1:4 1) the overwhelming majority of the people pay no attention to these scriptures because they don’t believe them. But how about those few who do? Some may have imagined that no useful purpose can be served by discussing Satan’s organization. Others may even consider it evil to do so. But let it be recognized that the prophets who wrote the scriptures did not view the matter in this light because they have discussed it at some length. It is true that there are certain practices of the devil’s organizations which they have been commanded to keep hidden, (Alma 37:27) but all which they have written, we are under obligation to know because we are commanded to “live by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God.”
It is submitted that Satan’s overwhelming success today is directly traceable to apathy and massive ignorance concerning him and his organization. The great majority of people would not join his church and participate in his plan if they were aware of what they were doing. Although the truth concerning him has been plainly manifest unto men, they receive not the light:
Behold, here is the agency of man, and here is the condemnation of man; because that which was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto them, and they receive not the light.
And that wicked one cometh and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers. (D&C 93:3 1, 39)
It is the “creeds of the fathers, who have inherited lies,” which are riveted upon the hearts of the children which constitute “the very mainspring of all corruption.” (D&C 123:7)
The “inherited lies” which have permitted Satan to extend his kingdom over all the earth today are principally those concerning organized activity. People don’t believe in a church of the devil. They do not believe that moral law applies to organized activity. Therefore, they have been deceived into using organizations to commit evil and destroy free agency. They do not believe that God holds them morally accountable for the actions they commit in concert with others.
To break this chain of inherited lies, parents must teach their children that God’s commandments apply to group action as well as individual action; that his negative commandments to refrain from evil group action are as important as his affirmative commandments to do good; that while it is essential to exaltation to identify and join the true Church of Christ, it is also essential to identify and reject the church of the devil.
It is submitted that the prophets have fully disclosed the identity of the devil’s church and kingdom and the nature of his plan to destroy free agency. In this book the author has under-taken to analyze some of their utterances.
—H.V.A.
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