Escaping the Pentagon of Lies

A few years ago in 2011 I had the following thoughts concerning my experience. I was sitting in an exhausted condition at the top of a very high hill. I was breathing hard because I had been scaling this hill with all my effort. As I looked from the top of this hill I viewed the place that had been my home. I had been in a maximum security prison. I stared in horror at the security of its walls and the razor wire that protected it. I was totally amazed how it was possible for me to escape from this formidable structure. I thanked God for His mercy on me that I should be able to be set free. From my vantage point I could see over the wall into the open areas of the prison. I saw many of my friends in this place. I felt a deep pain in my heart and a desire to alert them to their condition of deception and slavery.

I prayerfully descended the mountain and approached the prison. The walls were very high but as I drew closer I noticed that it had very thick glass all around it. The people inside could see me. I began to call out to them but they could not hear me because of the glass. I began to cry out loudly and wave my arms urgently for them to seek to escape from this prison. The people inside could see me waving my arms and crying out urgently but they could not hear anything I was saying because of the thick glass walls. I tried again and again to reach them but it seemed impossible. The people thought I was crazy with all my movements without noise. They did not discern the thick glass and only saw that I was waving frantically without making any noise. It seemed very strange to them. Some of them laughed and others mocked and yet others just stared at me and said nothing. I finally fell to the ground exhausted and was sobbing out the words, “they can’t hear me, they can’t hear me!”

This was where the impression I received ended. In light of these things I am reminded of the following quote from inspiration.

Satan has long been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. The foundation of his work was laid by the assurance given to Eve in Eden: "Ye shall not surely die." "In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4, 5. Little by little he has prepared the way for his masterpiece of deception in the development of spiritualism. He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time. GC 561.

The prison I saw was this masterpiece of deception. What was revealed to me as a maximum security prison was not revealed to those inside it. As the walls were of thick glass they did not see them and yet at the same time they showed no indication that they felt they were in prison.

As I have thought about this prison I have discovered five key foundational pillars to this prison. The seed of this prison system is the lie that was spoken to Eve, “you shall not surely die.” Connected to this statement is another in Great Controversy expands this system of deception created by Satan.

Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome. GC 588

So the two great errors that are foundational to this system of deception are the doctrines of the immortality of the soul which lays the foundations for spiritualism and Sunday sacredness which creates a link to Rome.

The doctrine of the immortality of the soul completely distorts our sense of reality and damages the vital nature of our relationship with God. The truth that we are dependent upon God for every breath is supplanted with the notion that our souls are immortal and we cannot die. Such a belief turns the warnings of God about disobedience into death threats on His part. So this original lie changes our human perception of the character of God. This attack on God’s character is revealed in Satan’s original three charges against God in heaven. We can find these three charges in Patriarchs and Prophets.

1. To dispute the supremacy of the Son of God, thus impeaching the wisdom and love of the Creator, had become the purpose of this prince of angels. PP 36
2. Lucifer went forth to diffuse the spirit of discontent among the angels. He worked with mysterious secrecy, and for a time concealed his real purpose under an appearance of reverence for God. He began to insinuate doubts concerning the laws that governed heavenly beings, intimating that though laws might be necessary for the inhabitants of the worlds, angels, being more exalted, needed no such restraint, for their own wisdom was a sufficient guide PP 37
3. For the good of the entire universe through ceaseless ages, he must more fully developed his principles, that his charges against the divine government might be seen in their true light by all created beings, and that the justice and mercy of God and the immutability of His law might be forever placed beyond all question. PP 42

The teaching that man is immortal allows men to think independently of God. As immortal beings they are not dependent on Him for life, yet if they choose to believe this lie of independence they must fear the sovereignty of God. The obedience and submission of the Son to His Father stood in the way of Satan of establishing his independence. Thus Satan attacked the relationship of the Son of God to the Father. He disputed the position of the Son of God and went about to destroy Him. When God defended His Son, Satan turned directly upon the Law of God and questioned its necessity. When Satan combined his lie of immortality with the penalty of the law resulting in death, he convinced many of the angels that God could not be loving and just. He charged God that His law made Him either cruel in punishing the transgressors or weak in excusing their transgressions of His Law.

In summary we see five key areas

1. The immortality of the soul that lays the foundation for spiritualism
2. Sunday Sacredness that creates a bond of sympathy with Rome
3. Attack on the Son of God and the Father and Son relationship. The most refined version of this attack is found in the teaching of the Trinity
4. The Law of God and after the fall of man this was extended to God’s covenant in relation to the law of God
5. The character of God. Is God loving and just? How can He be both? He must either excuse sinners or kill them.   

These five teachings form a framework to enslave the mind to Satan’s deceptions for those who seek to follow the Scriptures to find eternal life. These five points are central to both the Roman Catholic and Protestant theological systems.

The Millerite Adventists began their escape from this Babylonian prison of the mind with their rejection of spiritualism through Miller’s rules of interpretation. A number of these Millerites took the natural implications of this method of interpretation to rejection the doctrine of the immortality of the soul through the teaching of George Storrs and others. Several key figures in the pioneer Adventist movement came from the Christian connection and this movement had restored the position of the Son of God to His true relationship to the Father. Men like David Millard who was the pastor of Joseph Bates taught clearly the true Sonship of Jesus. The early Adventist pioneers embraced this truth and broke free of the second key pillar of Satan’s pentagon of lies.

Shortly after this James and Ellen White responded to Joseph’s Bates study on the Sabbath, and the Sabbath truth burst upon the minds of the Adventist pioneers. Now there were three of the five pillars of deception destroyed. Could Adventists break free of the last two regarding the law of God and the Character of God? It would take 40 years for Seventh-day Adventists to have the opportunity to break the yoke of Satan regarding the law of God. Through the work of Augustine, Satan enthroned the dispensational covenant system into Roman Christianity. This teaching vaccinated the Protestants from ever truly coming into the full light of the gospel. This same principle found its way into the thinking of the early Adventists. This dispensational system caused James White to defend the eating of pork in the Review and Herald in 1850 and it caused the Adventist movement to hesitate about using the tithing system of the Jews because it was part of the Old Covenant as they imagined wearing the glasses of Augustine’s covenant system.

In 1888 E.J Waggoner spearheaded a message that would have allowed Adventism to take out the fourth pillar of Satan’s prison system for the mind; his pentagon of lies. Sadly the Adventist church refused to step into the light and take out this forth pillar of deception. This failure would make it extremely difficult to capture the last Pillar regarding the character of God as one who is loving and just and that does not murder those who resist Him.

Today we are offered the opportunity to completely breaking free of this pentagon of lies that enslaves the Christian world. Sadly when the Adventist movement backed away from taking down the fourth pillar it then retreated slowly back into the Pentagon and within 50 years had begun to rebuild the doctrine of the Trinity. Time will tell if there will be a complete retreat in the doctrines of Sunday and the immortality of the soul. One thing is for sure that a person can only be heading in one direction or the other.

Today the call is being raised to completely smash the walls of this master deception that enslaves the Christian world and come completely out of the mindset of Babylon. Those who take this step will be ready to receive the light of the fourth angel that will lighten the whole earth with its glory.    

* These thoughts will be expanded in the coming meetings in Germany and the USA in Oct and Nov this year