Counterfeit Promises

When people think of the US Secret Service, they think of agents protecting the President. However, the Secret Service was originally created in 1865 to stamp out counterfeiting. Counterfeiters had taken advantage of conditions during the American Civil War to print bogus banknotes. By the end of the war, as much as half of the currency in circulation may have been counterfeit.¹

Today, a different kind of counterfeiting operation is going on. The ringleader is Satan. He is pumping out counterfeit promises to an unsuspecting world. He is promising that if you live according to the ways of the world, you will get pleasure, success, and power.

Satan’s counterfeit promises began in the Garden of Eden. Satan promised Eve that if she ate the fruit of the tree, she would not die. Instead, she would be like a god, knowing good and evil. Eve took the counterfeit.

For each one of God’s promises, Satan has a counterfeit. Satan has a counterfeit kingdom, false comfort, a bogus inheritance, phony satisfaction, deceptive mercy, and a fake identity. These counterfeits enjoy wide circulation.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus promises that those who follow Him will:

• enter the kingdom of Heaven
• be comforted
• inherit the earth
• be filled (satisfied)
• obtain mercy (undeserved acceptance)
• see God (and enjoy Him forever)
• be called the children of God (find their identity in Him)
• possess the kingdom of Heaven forever

Don’t be fooled by the counterfeits!

The new Bible Helps article “Hungering and Thirsting for Righteousness” (4th in a Series on the Beatitudes) is now available online.