This partial recognition of the truth is required by the world to-day, for, while the direct result of the believer’s testimony to the Satanic system has been toward the gathering out of the Bride, there has been an indirect influence of this testimony upon the world which has led them to see that all that is good in their own ideals has been already stated in the Bible and exemplified in the life of Jesus, and that every principle of humanitarian sympathy or righteous government has been revealed in the Scriptures of truth.  Thus there has grown a more or less popular appreciation of the value of these moral precepts of Scripture and of the example of Christ.  This condition has prevailed to such a degree that any new system or doctrine which secures a hearing to-day must base its claim upon Scripture, and include, to some extent, the person and teachings of Jesus.  The fact that the world has thus partly acknowledged the value of the Scriptures is taken by many to be a glorious victory for God; while, on the contrary, it cannot be proven that fallen humanity is any more inclined to accept God’s terms of salvation than in the generations past.

It is evident that this partial concession of the world to the testimony of God has opened the way for counterfeit systems of truth, which, according to prophecy, are the last and most to be dreaded methods in the Satanic warfare.  In this connection it must be conceded that Satan has really granted nothing from his own position, even though he be forced to acknowledge every principle of truth save that upon which salvation depends.  Rather is he advantaged by such a concession; for the value and delusion of a counterfeit lies in its greatest likeness to the real.  By advocating much truth, in the form of a counterfeit system of truth, Satan can satisfy all the external religious cravings of the world, and yet accomplish his own end by withholding that on which man’s only hope depends.  It is, therefore, no longer safe to blindly subscribe to that which promises general good, simply because it is good, and is garnished with the teachings of Scripture; for good has ceased to be all on one side and evil all on the other.  In fact, that which is evil in purpose has gradually appropriated the good until but one issue distinguishes them.  Part-truth-ism has come into terrible and final conflict with whole-truth-ism, and woe to the soul that does not discern between them.  The first, though externally religious, is of Satan, and leaves its followers in the doom of everlasting banishment from the presence of God:  while the latter is of God, and “has promise for the life that now is and that which is to come.”