THE IMITATION OF TRUTH
THE IMITATION OF TRUTH
The more fully and distinctly truth is circulated and accepted, the more must it be the device of Satan to counterfeit it, and then beguile souls from the truth, which alone sanctifies unto God. If truth were not known and accepted, the counterfeit would be useless; but in proportion as the true and the real is valued, so does Satan seek to counteract it by an imitation. For [p. 85] if souls are led away by the imitation under the idea that it is the truth, the conscience is lulled, and they are a prey to the serpent. They are not only unsanctified, but they are led astray under Satanic influence. We ought not to be ignorant of his devices. It is plain that as a truth prevails, and souls through the power of it are delivered from darkness and the power of Satan, the enemy must not only oppose the circulation of it — which he does in the first instance — but we find that he also institutes something bearing a resemblance to it, in order to deceive souls and lead them into his snare, while under the impression that they are adhering to the right. The children of Israel were forbidden to make any similitude of God; Deuteronomy 4: 15 - 20. Man’s similitude could not rise higher than man himself. Satan from the first beguiled man from the worship of the true God to the worshipping of demons, and the idols were only the representation of the ideas which were sanctioned by the demons.
We have to do with the simple fact that as truth was presented and effective, so was it an object to Satan, not only to oppose it, but when it had gained acceptance, to set up a counterfeit in order to create a diversion. The apostle in 2 Timothy distinctly warns us that as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so would there arise teachers in the last days who would resist the truth after the same fashion. By imitating the truth of God, they would withstand it. Hence it is the duty of the faithful to be prepared for the counterfeit of every truth which has obtained acceptance and influence, just in proportion as it has done so; and this with the conviction that Satan does not resort to this device until every other opposition to the truth has failed to check its progress, so that the very existence of the counterfeit is proof positive that the truth has been effective.
Satan’s most daring act will be seen in his setting up Antichrist — a counterfeit of Christ as Messiah and [p. 86] King — man in the temple of God, showing himself to be God. “Many”, says our Lord, “shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many”, and if it were possible, “the very elect”. Well then, as assured that there will be, and is, an effort of Satan to rival by imitation the truth which through mercy has most effect in our day, let us, as prepared for it, consider how we may detect the counterfeit. The proper and simple way to be preserved from any counterfeit is by accuracy of knowledge of the true. If a banker has accurate knowledge of a true note, he is able to discover any discrepancy. The first great thing is to be assured of possessing the truth — to “continue ... in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of”. This is really the course for oneself; but one has often to point out and expose to others the counterfeit; and therefore it is well to bear in mind that the counterfeit always gives the prominence to man. Satan always uses man as his instrument for contravening the purposes of God. Man being made in the image of God, Satan finds him his best adapted engine for circumventing God, and diverting from His ways and mind. Man is thus made the rival of God, and Satan is the energy by which this terrible evil is carried out. Hence, wherever man is made prominent, the spiritual can at once pronounce that it is a counterfeit, in whatever specious way it may promise good results, and therefore to them it can have no value. Secondly, there is another mark, which is not so easy to describe or expose, one which is practically seen in the magicians of Egypt, in that they could not turn the dust into lice by their enchantments (Exodus 8: 18), though they had been able to imitate Moses and Aaron up to this point. I believe it to be simply this, that even as this miracle, being the creation of life, marked the “finger of God” and precluded the imitation of the false prophets, so no genuine expression of life will ever be found to flow from a counterfeit. There may be [p. 87] a great appearance and assumption of power and devotedness; but in the activities there will be found no moral power, nothing really of the life of Christ.
It cannot be denied that every truth which has obtained a place has been imitated. Popery is but a huge glaring imitation of the church of God; and every order of the world assuming to be christian is also an imitation, and hence a counterfeit, because it is not the real thing. The more even the idea of a right thing obtained, so has there ever sprung up the counterfeit of it. The subject is too wide to pursue it here; but let us notice one of the counterfeits existing at this very hour, respecting a truth lately revived among the saints.
The truth that “where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them”, has now for years been a word of strength and blessing to many; and they have, by faith in God, walked in and acted on it, thereby learning and knowing the presence of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit in their midst. This could not be without the setting aside of man, and the bringing in of the power of the Spirit of God, which is the membership and unity of all saints, that is, the body of Christ. It could not be a mere retreat for oneself; it must, because in the Spirit, connect us with all that is of the Spirit, by whom we are all baptised into one body. It could not be a mere meeting for convenience, and its end the edification of the two or three who had met together. The real thing — the fundamental principle of the church — which the word sets forth, ensures and confers wonderful blessing; but the saints, knowing the real thing, are separated from the flesh in the power of the Spirit, by whom Christ’s presence is known, and by whom they are baptised into one body. Now this simple truth, from which the greatest and most blessed results flow, is constantly imitated; and the proof that it is imitated is that none of the blessings which, as fruits, flow from [p. 88] the real thing are ever known or manifested by the imitators. It will be found that it is their own conscience, or comfort, or something of their own, which is their object, and not the One in the midst; and thus the gathering together bears the one sure mark of a counterfeit, even that man is uppermost, and not Christ; while the other mark can also be observed, that though they have apparently taken a great and a true step in accepting and adopting the great fundamental principle of the church of God, yet there is no advance in moral power, in the realities of life, nor any increase in the knowledge of Christ’s mind and His interests on earth. Nothing is more painfully manifest than the fact that many saints, who have avowedly sought to walk for God on earth, never advance in the knowledge of Christ or His ways. Scripture is read and dwelt on, but always with reference to one’s own state, where there is conscience, and never, I may say, with reference to Christ’s interests and thoughts; and hence there is no progress in the knowledge of Himself. A glance at the writings of the most earnest will authoritatively confirm this statement.
The easiest things, apparently, to imitate involve the most serious consequences if they be imitated. It was easy to imitate the holy anointing oil, but to do so entailed death on the offender; see Exodus 30: 38. The seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, might use the same words as Paul, but with what fearfully different results! (Acts 19: 14.) Hence the simplicity of any proposition of divine truth does not put it the more within the reach of man. Satan’s object is to divert the soul from the great and divine consequences which flow from true and accurate obedience; and he effects this by inducing man to make the attempt in a natural way, without faith, without the intervention of the power of God. Now it is a fact that we hear of christians meeting for breaking of bread when it suits any given number to do so, without any reference to others in [p. 89] the same place; so that it is not uncommon to find two or more of those meetings in a very small place, each in independence of the other, as if there were no common bond or baptism between them. What is this but imitation? In one sense, the imitators would be far better off if the truth which they imitate had never been presented and adopted, seeing that thereby an opportunity has been given to Satan to lead into this sad and disastrous imitation. I say it is sad and disastrous, because the leaders of the imitation withstand the truth, attracting and diverting souls by the counterfeit, and thus debarring them from seeking and finding the real and the true. And while they may be constant readers of the Scriptures, they are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth”. There is no truth of greater importance in this day than this fundamental principle of the church, and therefore there is none more imitated, and thus more used to perpetuate and accomplish the enemy’s work. When this truth is known and adopted in the Spirit, there is a daily deepening in the counsels and interests of Christ. The church, as His body, is fully comprehended in that membership which is alone true, even the Spirit Himself. There is through the Spirit, which is the unity of the body, a distinct claim on and link to every saint on earth, and a daily increasing sense of responsibility and encouragement too; so that the more truly any fraction walks in the Spirit, the more ability is there to help all others, and the more they are helped; even as with the natural body, when any part of it recovers from a lengthened debility, there is a reinvigoration of the whole. But when it is only the imitation that is adopted, then, as I have already said, there is never a thought above man, either in the preaching of the gospel, or ministry to the saints. Man’s good alone is insisted on and sought; there is no rising into communion with Christ, in His interests and the range of them, through the Holy Spirit on earth.