The Devil's Deception

by Garry D. Pifer

Bible students everywhere are knowledgeable of the fact that there is a devil and that he is referred to by the Apostle Paul as the god of this world and as the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.  The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is well known.  Satan the devil, in the form of the serpent, lied to them.  God had told them that if they were to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they would surely die.  The devil’s words, the first recorded lie, were “Ye shall not surely die.”  The Apostle John records Jesus’ words regarding the devil, “for he is a liar, and the father of it.” (John 8:44) The devil has been lying to mankind ever since that first encounter with man.  And through his lies he has deceived the whole world.  (Rev. 12:9) Of course, we often feel this applies to everyone but us or our group or organization.  But, the Scripture is very plain; “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.” We have all swallowed his lies. Often we think the devil’s deception is only in the area of Biblical doctrine.  But, it is in virtually all areas.  The devil will contradict God and often counterfeit His Truth.

It has been said, and is very true, that a deceived person doesn’t know he is deceived.  Most of us, Christians and Bible students included, have been and remain deceived regarding God’s promise of healing.  The devil has done a real number on us.  His lies have been swallowed by us all.  God (“that cannot lie” Titus 1:2) says believers “shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”  The devil tells us that God isn’t healing today as He did in the days of Jesus.  He explains that it is to God’s glory that we remain sick.  He says that we can’t know God’s will regarding healing, or that it once was God’s will to heal but His will has changed.  And, many of us have believed his lies.

But, the great lie and deception that the Devil has pulled off may be his greatest counterfeit.  He doesn’t want anyone to turn to God and His promises and blessings.  Through his lies and deception he has deceived the whole world into rejecting God’s healing which was made possible through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  He has set up a counterfeit, a source of “healing” that many of us look to and trust in-- doctors and their drugs, medicines, potions and surgeries.  Few truly see the counterfeit.  Many well meaning Bible students and teachers will try to explain how “trusting” God for healing and going to the doctors is compatible.  But, as we have mentioned in other studies, James tells us that we can’t be double minded.  Our faith and trust has to be absolute.  If we doubt, waver and are double minded, saying we “trust” God and yet seek another power such as  medical treatment, we are told by James “ let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.”

Only God can heal.  Healing is the removal, the bearing away of our pain and our diseases, which Jesus Christ did.  It is by His stripes that we are healed.  The Devil doesn’t want us to understand this.  He bombards us with “medical news,” and with commercials for all types of drugs and medicines.  Our society is cared for by the medical professional from before we are born until we die. His counterfeit permeates every aspect of our society and our lives.  Our first thought is to “see the doctor.”  We reach for a pill, or a potion of some sort whenever we have a pain.  Our first thought is not of calling out to God and putting ourselves in His care but to calling 911, getting to the emergency room, seeing the doctor, seeking the “modern medical miracle.” Do these works demonstrate faith in God?

God’s Word, His Scriptures, reveal the devil’s counterfeit to us if we have eyes to see.  The translators have in many places used words and phrases that do not convey clearly what was inspired to be written down for us.  In the book of Revelation, the eighteenth chapter, we read an account of the great fall and destruction of “Babylon the great.”  Ancient Babylon, long ago destroyed, was a city that was full of evil and sin and was totally ungodly.  This modern counterpart, referred to as Babylon the great, appears to be cut from the same cloth.  My intent is not to attempt to identify just who this Babylon the great is.  Some have seen her to be a great Church.  Many feel this is more accurately seen as a system, involving the nations in alliances, commercialization, etc.  But, what I wish to look at is recorded in chapter 18 and verse 23, the last part.  Remember these words are the revelation of Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:1).  He tells us, referring to Babylon the great, “for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.”  We saw earlier that the whole world, “all nations,” are deceived by the Devil.  It is apparent that this Babylon the great is the Devil’s city, nation, church or system.  It is used to deceive all the nations, the whole world.  And, what was it that was used to deceive?  “Thy sorceries.”  In this “modern” age we don’t hear much about sorceries unless it involves Harry Potter or some group of the occult.  But, what is Jesus revealing to us?  The deception is of the whole world, all nations.  I don’t think the occult has become so pervasive that it could be said that it has deceived the whole world.  What we are being told becomes much clearer when we look at the Greek word here translated “sorceries.”

The Greek word used here in Revelation 18:23 and translated “sorceries” is pharmakeia.  The lexicon definitions are “the use or the administering of drugs, poisoning, sorcery, magical arts.” Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament has the following.  “5331 pharmakeia, from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extens.) magic (lit. or fig.):–sorcery, witchcraft.”  “5332 pharmakeus from pharmakon ( a drug, i.e. spellgiving potion ); a druggist (“pharmacist”) or poisoner, i.e. (by extens.) a magician;–sorcerer.”    Notice what Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words has to say about this Greek word.  “Pharmakia (or -eia) (5331) (Eng., ‘pharmacy,” etc.)  Primarily signified ‘the use of medicine, drugs, spells’; then, ‘poisoning’; then ‘sorcery.’”

Do we begin to see what Jesus is revealing to us?  The Devil’s counterfeit, the whole medical system based around the use and administering of drugs and medicines, permeates all society.  It is not healing but is a counterfeit.  The English word “pharmacy” which is taken from this Greek word is defined as “the art of the preparation, properties, use and effects of drugs.”

Satan, the Devil, who is responsible for most of the sickness in the first place (Acts 10:38) has designed and developed and spread his counterfeit for God’s blessing of healing throughout the entire world.  And, it is a counterfeit.  The doctors with all of their drugs and medicines can not heal.  The whole medical profession has developed apart from God.  God had no need for drugs, potions, surgeries and the like.  Satan the Devil has deceived the world, the nations, through his counterfeit for healing, the medical system.

The Bible has a bit more to say about this system, it’s sorceries, it’s pharmakeia.  In Revelation the 9th chapter we read of the pouring out of the first of the three “woes.”  Notice, beginning with verse 20, that after a third part of the inhabitants of the world were killed the remaining two thirds “yet repented not.”  Look at what they refused to repent of.  “Of the works of their hands, that they should worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:” Specifically we see that they refuse to repent of their idolatry.  Continuing in verse 21 we see additional things they refused to repent of.  “Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”  Once again, the Greek word translated “sorceries” is pharmakeia.  Not only do they refuse to repent of their idolatry, their murdering and stealing, and their sexual sins, they refuse to repent of their attachment to and reliance upon the medical system.  They hold onto the numerous deceptions of the devil.

Yet, there is more in Scripture concerning this Satanic deception, of rejecting God’s blessing of health and healing and following after medicine and drugs instead.  Almost all of us are familiar with the “works of the flesh” and the “fruit of the Spirit” as given in the 5th chapter of Galatians.  We can probably recite quite a number of the various things mentions as “works of the flesh.”  But, as listed in the King James Version that most of us have used, many aren’t really understood.  Most us of aren’t truly sure what “lasciviousness” or “emulations” are.  Likewise, we have read right over and thought little about the one “work” listed as “witchcraft.”  We picture in our mind’s eye an old hag with a pointy hat riding on a broom, or maybe a group of old women stirring a boiling pot in the dark of the night.  But, what are we being told here in Galatians 5:20?  Once again we find the original Greek word is pharmakeia.  God is telling us, if we have ears to hear, that using and relying upon this Satanic counterfeit for His blessing of healing is a “work of the flesh.” Contrast this with the “fruit of the Spirit” listed a couple of verses later on.  One of the listed things is “faith,” total trust and reliance upon God. When we reject God, and don’t believe and trust Him, we begin looking for an alternative.  And, Satan the devil is eager to oblige us with his counterfeit. 

“Modern medicine” traces it’s roots, not to God, but to ancient Mesopotamia, Babylon, ancient Egypt and then to Greece.  Take an hour or so and go to your public library or spend it on the internet, and read the history of medicine.  The Encyclopedia Britannica has a great deal of information as do other encyclopedias and references. The earliest recorded history is found on clay tablets bearing cuneiform signs and seals that were used by physicians of ancient Mesopotamia.  Many of the tablets that mention early  medical practices have survived from the library of Asshurbanipal, the last great king of Assyria.  This library was housed in the king’s palace at Nineveh, and when the palace was burned by invaders, thousands of clay tablets were baked and thereby preserved by the fire.  Other tablets have been found at other sites.  Many of the tablets are prescriptions but some are viewed as treatises of diagnosis and prognosis. 

I’d like to quote a section from an article entitled “Medicine in Ancient Mesopotamia.”  (This article was found on an Indiana University internet site, http://viator.ucs.indiana.edu/~ancmed/meso.htm)  “In fact, as recent research is showing, the descriptions of diseases contained in the diagnostic treatise demonstrate a keen ability to observe and are usually astute.  Virtually all expected diseases can be found described in parts of the diagnostic treatise, when those parts are fully preserved, as they are for neurology, fevers, worms and flukes, VD and skin lesions.  The medical texts are, moreover, essentially rational, and some of the treatments, as for example those designed for excessive bleeding, are essentially the same as modern treatments for the same condition.”  In the concluding thoughts in this article the author states, “While many of the basic tenants of medicine, such as bandaging and the collection of medical texts, began in Mesopotamia, other cultures may have developed these practices independently.”  The final statement, “It was Egyptian medicine that seems to have had the most influence on the later development of medicine, through the medium of the Greeks.”

Quoting from the Encyclopedia Britannica, article History of Medicine; “When the medicine of ancient Egypt is examined, the picture becomes clearer.  The first physician to emerge is Imhotep, chief minister to King Djoser in the 3rd millennium BC, who designed one of the earliest pyramids, the Step Pyramid at Saqqarah, and who was later regarded as the Egyptian god of medicine and identified with the Greek god Asclepius.”    We find later in this same piece some information on this Asclepius.  “Two characters, the military surgeons Podaleirius and Machaon, are said to have been the sons of Asclepius, the god of medicine.  The divine Asclepius may have originated in a human Asclepius who lived about 1200 BC and is said to have performed many miracles of healing.”  The next paragraph continues, “Asclepius was worshiped in hundreds of temples throughout Greece, the remains of which may still be seen at Epidaurus, Cos, Athens, and elsewhere.”

The Greek Hippocrates, who was born in Cos (or Kos) in 460 BC, is regarded as the “father of Western medicine”.  His “Hippocratic Oath” has been taken by doctors for hundreds of years, supposedly as an ethical guideline.  However, read the first line of what has been sworn to by thousands and thousands of doctors over the years.  “I swear by Apollo the physician, and Aesculapius, and Hygeia, and Panacea, and all the gods and goddesses,...”   (The balance of this oath can be found in numerous encyclopedias and on numerous internet web sites.)

It is quite apparent that there is no knowledge of or inspiration from the True God of the Bible.  He tells us, first of all, to NOT SWEAR.  I find it interesting that James tells us this, just two verse before he gives us instruction to call for the elders if we are sick.  Notice, “But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.”  (James 5:12) This is very important in God’s eyes.  James was inspired to say “but above all things.”

Hippocrates’ oath was to swear by four specific Greek gods and goddesses, AND then by “all the gods and goddesses.”  And, the Greeks had many.  In the account in Acts 17 Paul found that Athens was “wholly given to idolatry.”  They had an idol to every god and goddess plus one to “the unknown god.”  Paul declared the True God to them.

The specific gods and goddesses Hippocrates mentions are the ones that had to do with medicine, etc.  Apollo (Apollon) was the god of both the plague and of healing, of music, archery, and prophecy.  Aesculapius (Asclepius or Asklepios) was the god of medicine and healing.  One of his five daughters was Hygeia, the personification of health.  Panacea was the goddess of healing.  Isn’t it interesting that we use her name to mean a remedy for all disease or ills, a cure-all.

Aesculapius (Asclepius or Asklepios) had as his symbols snakes twined around a staff, crowns or laurels and pine cones.  Where have we seen snakes twined around a staff?  (Probably most recently on the ambulance you saw on the street.)  The following is a quote from the Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia found at infoplease.com.  “caduceus, wing-topped staff, with two snakes winding about it, carried by Hermes, given to him (according to one legend) by Apollo.  The symbol of two intertwined snakes appeared early in Babylonia and is related to other serpent symbols of fertility, wisdom, and healing, and of sun gods.  This staff of Hermes was carried by Greek heralds and ambassadors and became a Roman symbol for truce, neutrality, and noncombatant status.  By regulation, it has since 1902 been the insignia of the medical branch of the U.S. Army.  The caduceus is much used as a symbol of commerce, postal service, and ambassadorial positions and since the 16th cent. has largely replaced the one-snake symbol of Asclepius as a symbol of medicine.”

I would encourage everyone to study further about the origins of the medical system and its emergence from paganism/idolatry.  But, from these brief quotations and references it seems very plain that the medical system’s origin and various accouterments came, not from the True God of the Bible, but from the god of this world and his pagan religions. God did not give His people a medical system and physicians.  He revealed Himself as Yhvh Rapha, their God of health and healing.  Instead He gave them a priesthood to continually teach them of Him, His words and His commandments, which if adhered to would result in none of the diseases of Egypt being put upon them.

As Jesus revealed through John, the great dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, has deceived the whole world, all nations and peoples.  We need to be studying further the Word of God regarding faith, healing and idolatry and come out of deception. 

What will we do with this knowledge, this understanding, this Biblical Truth?  Remember the words of the Apostle Paul, following the listing of the works of the flesh in Galatians chapter 5.  “They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”  Also, keep in mind the voice John heard from heaven following the angel’s cry regarding Babylon the great being fallen.  What that voice spoke is recorded for us, you and me, in Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”