The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 561
Many will be confronted by the spirits of devils personating beloved
relatives or friends and declaring the most dangerous heresies. These
visitants will appeal to our tenderest sympathies and will work miracles
to sustain their pretensions. We must be prepared to withstand them with
the Bible truth that the dead know not anything and that they who thus
appear are the spirits of devils.
Just before us is “the hour of temptation, which shall come upon
all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Revelation
3:10. All whose faith is not firmly established upon the word of God
will be deceived and overcome. Satan “works with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness” to gain control of the children of men, and his
deceptions will continually increase. But he can gain his object only
as men voluntarily yield to his temptations. Those who are earnestly
seeking a knowledge of the truth and are striving to purify their souls
through obedience, thus doing what they can to prepare for the conflict,
will find, in the God of truth, a sure defense. “Because thou hast kept the
word of My patience, I also will keep thee” (verse 10), is the Saviour’s
promise. He would sooner send every angel out of heaven to protect His
people than leave one soul that trusts in Him to be overcome by Satan.
The prophet Isaiah brings to view the fearful deception which will
come upon the wicked, causing them to count themselves secure from
the judgments of God: “We have made a covenant with death, and
with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass
through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and
under falsehood have we hid ourselves.” Isaiah 28:15. In t he class here
described are included those who in their stubborn impenitence comfort
themselves with the assurance that there is to be no punishment for the
sinner; that all mankind, it matters not how corrupt, are to be exalted to
heaven, to become as the angels of God. But still more emphatically
560