For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. 2 Corinthians 11:13-15
Most of us are familiar with the phrase above. Various iterations of this idea date back to the 12th century A.D., but the current form of it is derived from William Shakespeare’s 17th century play The Merchant of Venice. The thrust of the statement is the need to take caution in appraising things. Though things may appear to be something precious, or concepts may appear to be true, sometimes things are not as they appear. Many people learned this reality the hard way when mining for gold and finding fool’s gold. At first sight, the coloration of the mineral makes it appear to be gold. However, upon closer examination, it is not the prized, precious metal. There is lots of fool’s gold in the realm of religious thought too.
Fool’s gold is one of Satan’s favorite tools to bring religious people to destruction. This is so because most religious people are genuine in their desires to do what is right which lowers his chances of turning such people into full blown rebels against God. In such cases he resorts to the subtlety that worked so effectively in the garden of Eden (cf. Genesis 3:1). He changed Eve’s perception of the forbidden fruit and effectively turned it into fool’s gold.
Paul spoke of Satan’s ability to disguise himself and those who do his bidding in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15. Paul was challenging a group of teachers who claimed to be apostles of Christ on par or even superior to Paul and the other apostles. The methods they used were deceitful as they transformed themselves into apostles of Christ. Obviously, they could not legitimately make themselves apostles as only the Lord could make one an apostle, but Paul was describing the appearance with which they had shrouded their true nature. He likened their deceptive skills to those of their master, Satan, who also transforms himself into an angel of light.
We see this deception play out constantly in the realm of religion as religious teachers subtly alter various points of doctrine found in the Bible. Many who now offer up this fool’s gold do not themselves know that is what they offer. The result is that more and more people go through life unaware that they are holding this fool’s gold. Since our sins are continuously forgiven by walking in the light (1 John 1:7), if Satan can deceive us with his fraudulent “light,” he can keep us outside the true light in which we must walk if the blood of Jesus is to continue cleansing our sins.
The good news is, as fool’s gold can be rather easily identified by learning the different characteristics of the two substances, so can the religious fool’s gold Satan peddles be discerned by knowing the true spiritual gold God has given. The trick is realizing not everything that glitters is gold and working to sharpen our senses (Hebrews 5:11-6:2).