"For where God built a church, there the Devil would also build a chapel...Thus is the Devil ever God's ape." -Luther

"When God's holy Word arises, it is always its lot that Satan opposes it with all his might. At first, he rages against it with force and wicked power. If that promises no success, he attacks it with false tongues and erring spirits and teachers. What he is unable to crush by force he seeks to suppress by cunning and lies. This was his strategy at the beginning. When the Gospel first came into the world, he launched a mighty attack against it through Jews and Gentiles, shed much blood, and filled Christendom with martyrs. When this did not succeed, he raised false prophets and erring spirits and filled the world with heretics... And we must be prepared for this, and by no means allow it to disturb us, for so it must be, as Paul tells the Corinthians: "There must also be heresies among you that they which are approved may be made manifest (1 Corinthians 11:19)."


The Lord allows the devil to raise up his children within the church to test us, and so expose our hearts. If we are to continue in the truth, then we need to be in deep with the truth of God's Word, so that when the devil does come in our midst we can identify him, and his children, the tares, who he has sown in God's wheatfield.