Having succeeded in getting man to so exalt the ego to independence and superiority, he captured man as now a suited instrument for his purposes. Man ceased to be suited to the purposes of God, for his very nature was changed. The history of man in his natural state is the history of a lie, a false nature, a false expectation, a false hope, a false faith and a false world. The end of that man and that world is sorry, tragic disillusionment. By the aid of a spirit which, while still existing, is no longer in the place of living fellowship with God, this man faintly glimpses or senses something more of intention and purpose in his being than he can grasp.
Conscience still is more or less active, but always accusing or excusing, never approving.
As we shall see, the stronger the soul-life in a person, the greater the peril to that one, and the greater the advantage to Satan and the evil powers. The pursuit of this course is by a multitude of ways, always adapted to the people with whom he has to do. With the spiritual he resorts to yet other ways, and for them his whole system of deception is by counterfeiting God's system of truth. He counterfeits God Himself. He uses Scriptures in a false way to counter God's meaning by them.