Hall of Mirrors
One time-honored tradition at carnivals is the Hall of Mirrors, where people can see their reflections distorted in humorous ways or see so many “copies” of themselves that it can be difficult to find the real person. It can be a good place to hide!
And that’s what Satan does. He puts up so many counterfeits to the Truth that people have trouble finding it. He knows he can’t destroy the truth so he puts out hundreds or thousands of copies, or incites people who have the truth to split up into warring factions. In Christian message boards, as I’ve written before, he pushes a multitude of off-balance views so nobody can tell which one is real.
In Greek, the word “anti” can mean “against” but it also carries the meaning of an impostor, a fake, a replica. So the coming Antichrist will pretend to be the real Christ, and people will fall for it. Since they have thrown away the only Book that can enable them to tell real from fake, they have to guess. They use their feelings or peer pressure to “decide”, as if the Holy Spirit wasted His time “breathing out” the scriptures to people who wrote the words down.
Although Satan is highly intelligent and his methods very effective, compared to God he is a poor chess player who simply mirrors his opponent’s moves. That is the basis for all the world’s religions; they are Satan’s replicas. That’s why they all seem so much alike. But there is one that stands out: the Bible’s “salvation by faith alone in Jesus alone”, which isn’t so much a religion as a relationship, a trust. Religion is about working for heaven, about outward appearances, about creating a class of the privileged who alone have discovered mystical secrets hidden from the inferior masses. But the Bible teaches that there is only one God and that we cannot earn the right to enter heaven; it is a gift to be humbly and gratefully received.
And that’s how you tell the Truth from the mirror images. In James 1:23-24 we read: “For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.”
Those who have burned their Bibles have walked away from the only Mirror that tells the Truth, and they forget what God has said through his prophets and apostles, turning aside to their own “wisdom”:
What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever. (Isaiah 5:21)
There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death. (Prov. 14:12)
Satan’s mirrors distort and confuse. He would have you believe that if you see many reflections there is no real Person being reflected. But common sense, if we dare to use it, tells us there must be an Original or there wouldn’t be any reflections. You can’t make copies of nothing! So instead of falling for the line that “All religions are fake”, remember that there must be one Truth for them to copy and distort. And it seems reasonable to pick the one that is fundamentally different from all the rest, the one that says salvation is by faith alone.
Choose wisely.