It is not surprising, therefore, if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of Righteousness. But their end will be in accordance with their actions.
"You incarnation of deceit and all fraud! You son of the Devil! You opponent of all that is good! Will you never cease to divert 'the straight paths of the Lord'? Listen!
Why should we not say-as some people slanderously assert that we do say-'Let us do evil that good may come'? The condemnation of such men is indeed just!
Are they 'Servants of Christ'? Though it is madness to talk like this, I am more so than they! I have had more of toil, more of imprisonment! I have been flogged times without number. I have been often at death's door.
For ours is no struggle against enemies of flesh and blood, but against all the various Powers of Evil that hold sway in the Darkness around us, against the Spirits of Wickedness on high.
In their covetousness they will try to make you a source of profit by their fabrications; but for a long time past their Sentence has not been standing idle, nor their Ruin slumbering.
For there have crept in among you certain godless people, whose sentence has long since been pronounced, and who make the mercy of God an excuse for profligacy, and disown our only lord and master, Jesus Christ.
and in consequence of the marvels which it was allowed to perform under the eyes of the Beast, it is able to deceive all who are living on the earth. It bids those who live on the earth to make a statue in honour of the Beast, who, despite the wound from the sword, yet lived.
The Beast that I saw was like a leopard; but its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth like the mouth of a lion. The Dragon gave it his power and his throne, and wide dominion.