FIFTEEN WAYS THE DEVIL CAN SEDUCE YOU AND YOU WON’T EVEN SEE IT COMING

If you hold that we are in a spiritual battle with the forces of Evil played out on the playground of the seventy or eighty years we each live, then it is good to know your enemy. With Baptism, we have the energy (from God), and the tools (from Jesus and the Holy Spirit) to at least have a chance to fight the good fight, in season and out of season. Read this whole passage from 2 Timothy 4. Some people hear God’s word then walk away, while others will listen to myths and not hear the truth.

Reward for Fidelity.6^*e For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand.7^* I have competed well; I have finished the race;^f I have kept the faith.8^* From now on, the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day,^g and not only to me but to all who have longed for his appearance.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2timothy/4

1. TEMPTATION ONE: “There is no such thing as temptation.” The Devil cannot make choices for you because only you have the power to choose alternatives. The Devil is a spirit and not corporeal but roams as a lion seeking whom he may devour, as the Scriptures says.
2. TEMPTATION TWO: “Don’t let anyone tell you what to choose, especially God.” Do you feel the jealousy, the anger, the envy, the hatred of the Devil in this choice?
3. TEMPTATION THREE: “All this religion stuff is just fairy tales.” Perhaps the most seductive thoughts to place in your mind, these are insidious in their permeation of truth. Believing in Christ Principle means you must choose something that goes against your nature for you to actually discover the next stage in our evolution, that of being an adopted son or daughter of the Father.
4. TEMPTATION FOUR: “There is no heaven or hell. It is only a story to scare little children.” It is quite a story indeed, one that states that each individual human is accountable for how well they loved others as Christ loved us. Scriptures show us how to walk the minefields of sinfulness without setting off the mines. If we do step on one, we have Christ to make all things new again.
5. TEMPTATION FIVE: “All you need to do is be baptized and you will automatically pass to heaven, no matter what you do in life that is evil.” While true that Baptism takes away Original Sin, we are prone to sin and temptation until we die. We are pilgrims in a foreign land (the World) and we need Christ to be with us each day or we will sink beneath the waters of life. Taking up the cross each day is work.
6. TEMPTATION SIX: “Jesus is not the redeemer.” Of course he is not, if you don’t have Faith, all this is a stumbling block to the Jews and folly for the Gentiles. Read the Scripture passage above once again. What does it say to you about fidelity?
7. TEMPTATION SEVEN: “Your God is not as good as my God.” Do you see what the Devil is trying to do with introducing factions into your thinking? God is one, the Lord is one. Do not seek to love others by dividing them into categories that you set up to justify your faith. Do not have these strange gods before you.
8. TEMPATION EIGHT: “The Church is corrupt so it can’t tell you about Jesus.” The Church is corrupt, but so is all matter living. We are in a condition of Original Sin. The Church is holy because Jesus is without sin. Each and every member is sinful and prone to evil, taking the wrong path, being seduced by riches, power, and adulation. Christ alone is the way, the truth and the life, the Christ Principle. tHE Church is a gathering of those on earth still militant or fighting the good fight, plus those in heaven who pray for us, and those awaiting purification for their sins and omissions.
9. TEMPTATION NINE: “Jesus is the Eucharist is only a symbol.” The most difficult part of belief is to hold that Jesus is present body and blood, soul and divinity, in the Eucharist. It is no longer bread and wine, but is substantially changed to be Jesus. We can only believe this because the Holy Spirit gives us the energy to die to ourselves in order to live with Christ. All the people in the world can’t make Christ present as real flesh and real drink just by believing. Christ makes it happen. Many who can’t believe, walk away because this is a hard truth to bring into your heart. To those who do, heaven is now.
10. TEMPTATION TEN: “We all believe in the same thing, so all religion is the same.” It is not. This temptation is one of reletavism– each person has the right to believe so what each person believes is correct. It is not. What is correct? You have a lifetime of using your reasoning and choices to seek the truth. Truth is one.
11. TEMPTATION ELEVEN “Human nature is rotten and corrupt to the core and will always choose sin and pleasure over the cross.” Human nature is not rotten and corrupt. We live a a world that corrupts the physical properties (everything has a beginning and and ending; iron rusts; the world evolves), mental properties (hatred, murder, jealousy, envy, {Galatians 5}), and spiritual dimension (sin). Our nature is not that of an animal, nor is it to be God. Our place is to be consistent with our human nature and that nature has been granted adoption to be sons and daughters of the Father if you choose.
12. TEMPTATION TWELVE: “Prayer is useless.” Prayer in all its forms (audible, contemplative, collective, Liturgy of the Hours, Rosary, Eucharist, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Reading Scripture, etc…) is our desire to sit next to Christ on a park bench in the dead of winter and feel the warmth of His love by just being in His presence.
13. TEMPTATION THIRTEEN: “Scriptures and this Jesus stuff is boring.” Repititious may, but it is certainly not boring. Boring people are usually bored with the sameness of life and want to be enterained by new things, ideas, feelings. The Christ Principle is the most boring of all ideas but it NEVER changes. Each of us change because the the capacity we have to assimilate pure energy into our hearts. This is called capacitas dei (expanding Christ in you while you decrease). This change is neverending. This is why those who truly seek God each day in their lives are never bored.
14. TEMPTATION FOURTEEN: “You can’t see God because he is invisible, therefore he does not exist.” The problem with invisibility is you can’t see it. We have the ability to reason and make choices for the future based on that reason. There are three separate universes but one reality (physical, mental, and spiritual).
15. TEMPTATION FIFTEEN: “Human existence has no purpose other than to live, love, laugh, and then die.” Actually, human evolution has moved to another plane of existence, spiritual. To reach it, you must die to self (the world) and accept a reality that is completely opposite of the one you live in. You are given instructions and help to live in this lifetime (the Church and Scriptures).

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