Some of Satan's Methods

William Gurnall wrote in The Christian in Complete Armor (Banner of Truth Trust, 2023 reprint),

"[Satan] hangs our false colors, and comes up to the Christian in the disguise of a friend, so that the gates are opened to him, and his motions received with applause, before either be discovered. Therefore he is said to 'transform himself into an angel of light,' 2Co xi. 14. Of all plots it is most dangerous, when he appears in Samuel's mantle, and silvers his foul tongue with fair language. Thus in point of error he corrupts some in their judgment, by commending his notions for special gospel-truths, and like a cunning chapman puts off his old ware (errors I mean that have lain long upon his hand), only turning them a little after the mode of the times, and they go for new light, under the skirt of Christian liberty. He conveys in libertinism, by crying up the Spirit. He decries and vilifies the Scripture, by magnifying faith. He labors to undermine repentance, and blow up good works…" (p75)

I wonder how many of us understand these methods and are aware of them at work in our own lives and the lives of our churches and denominations. Might it be that much that passes for Christianity in our modern day is actually a satanic variation aimed to keep people from really experiencing gospel life?