CHARLO, New Brunswick, October 1, 2023 – The devil once crowed that the greatest trick he ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.

But the devil is a liar, as we know from scripture, so we shouldn’t be surprised that he’s lying about his so-called greatest trick, too.

People didn’t stop believing in the devil per se; they stopped believing in God. When they stopped believing in God, belief in the devil also got thrown in the trash.

If you want to know the greatest trick the devil ever pulled, ask a former heavenly angel who fell with Satan. Actually, don’t ask a fallen angel; that was just a turn of phrase. What I meant to say is that the former heavenly angels know full well what the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was and what a consummate liar he is, as he sold them all a bill of goods when they were still in Heaven, only for them to find out too late and forevermore that they’d been lied to. What he’d promised them, he could only half deliver on.

The devil is still using the same ol’ half-truths to trick humans into signing on the dotted line of his infamous deal. In exchange for their soul, he promises them not only wealth, prestige, fame, and protection from prosecution, but also that they’ll never die. Sure, he delivers on the wealth, prestige, fame, and protection from prosecution (those are easy-peasy for him and well within his God-given jurisdiction), but what he doesn’t let them know (it’s buried in the contract’s fine print) is that he doesn’t actually have the authority over their immortal soul and what happens to them after Judgement.

Humans are notorious for not reading a contract before signing it. Case in point: How many times have you tapped “Agree” for online Terms of Service without reading past the Terms’ first few sentences? You have no idea what may be buried deep within the legal verbiage of the TOS, but you hit “Agree” anyway so that you can get on with your day.

The deal with the devil’s not much different. He offers his own legal advisors (you’re not permitted to use yours) to help you with the intricacies of the fine print of his contract, but the force of his charm so overwhelms you, you don’t think to question anything he says. You just accept him at his word. To be honest, you’re flattered that he would even want you on his team. You don’t want to mess up a good thing by asking too many questions or any questions at all.

This is how most souls are drawn into the contract without reading the fine print. They agree to the terms without knowing what they’ve agreed to, but the devil, as they say, is in the details. And then, as untold wealth falls into their lap and doors that were previously closed swing open, as the red carpet unfurls seemingly endlessly before them and every worldly pleasure is theirs for the asking – then the truth begins to seep through and the details they hadn’t bothered to inquire about slowly emerge.

There’s no eternal life for those who’ve knowingly and with full intent signed on with the devil. They get eternity all right, but not the kind they’d envisioned, not the kind they’d exchanged their souls for. You see, these people were promised they’d never die, that their soul would migrate from body to body forever more. But that’s just not the case. Paul says we live once and then the judgment. This is the same for everyone, whether they’ve signed on with the devil or not. The body dies and the soul is reserved for judgement. There is no “second chance” in another body. Soul migration is one of many lies the devil tells humans.

What migrates from body to body are disembodied demonic spirits, the ones that fell from Heaven, the original believers in the devil’s lies. In the process of coming under the devil’s authority, these fallen spirits became liars themselves, habitually passing themselves off as reincarnated human souls. Having sold their services to the Father of Lies, demons have to do his bidding, whether they want to or not. They have to lie, whether they want to or not. They have to move from body to body, whether they want to or not (think of the demons that were cast out of the man with the Legion, only to end up in swine that were then herded off a cliff).

The people who got hoodwinked into signing the deal with the devil are in the same boat as the fallen angels. They serve the devil, so they have to do precisely what he orders them to do. Sure, they get some cheap thrills and flashy bling in exchange for their service, but there’s no way out for them. Not for most of them, anyway.

I’ve written before how some people sign the devil’s contract without really knowing what they’re doing. These people are salvageable, but the desire to be saved must come from them. It would be an extraordinary ministry, to help these people – extraordinary and extremely dangerous. By dangerous, I don’t only mean mortally dangerous, but immortally perilous. You would be as much a target of the devil’s temptations as Jesus was, and by the same people.

But the rewards of such a ministry would likewise be extreme. You’d become part of God’s elite search and rescue team for souls, like Jesus, Paul, and the apostles were. You would join their ranks, and like them you would be just as protected, just as exposed to danger, and just as handsomely eternally rewarded at the completion of your mission.

I’m not asking you to help those who signed on with the devil without knowing what they were doing. It’s not for me to make that request; only God can do that. All I’m doing here is mentioning that such a ministry is urgently warranted. Years ago, when I was first born-again, I used to wonder why Christian ministries made such an effort to go on missions to Africa when so many people in first-world countries are just as spiritually needy, if not more so, and none are more needy than the most wealthy and powerful among us. Jesus said: “How hard it is for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom!”, but he also said that what seems impossible to us, is possible with God. The CEOs in the top-floor corner offices, the presidents of universities, the politicians, the lawyers, the judges, the celebrities – most if not all of these people are lost sheep who need to hear the Gospel as much as anyone else, and urgently so if they’ve signed on with the devil and are now secretly regretting it.

We need to be there for the Nicodemus’s as much as for the Mary’s. The devil doesn’t like us messing with his assets, but if his assets come to us of their own free will, like Nicodemus went to Jesus (secretly and under cover of night), who are we to turn them away? They are fair game and we’re not breaking any rules by helping them. The least we can do is to let them know that we’re here and are willing to help.

God will arrange the rest.

What I tell you in darkness, speak ye in light; and what ye hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops.

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10: 26-28