You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! (James 2:19)
If we were to interview Satan (and we would never want to do that), we might be surprised at how orthodox he is. For example, if we were to ask him, “Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?” I think he would say, “Yes, I hate every word of it. But I know it is the Word of God.”
If we were to ask, “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?” again, I think he would say yes. When Jesus encountered two demon-possessed men, the demons cried out, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God?” (Matthew 8:29, emphasis added). They knew Jesus was the Son of God.
James wrote, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19).
I think the Devil reads the Bible, but he reads it to misquote it. In the same way, false teachers memorize their little group of Bible verses to prove their false doctrine. And if we don’t know the context of those verses and what the Bible teaches, we can be pulled into their false teachings.
The Bible tells us that in the last days, false teachers will draw people after themselves who have an itch for novelty. They will tell people what they want to hear.
For those of us who are called to preach, the way to counteract that is to “preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching” (2 Timothy 4:2).
If you don’t know the Bible well, you can be misled. But if you’re conversant with the teaching of the Bible, when something false comes along, you’ll know the difference between what is true and what isn’t.
