Having God's testimony that the serpent and the devil are one and the
same, we are prepared for the mark which our Lord puts on him, "A
murderer from the beginning ... and no truth in him." He had always
sought to pervert and discredit the word of God. He suggested to Eve
that she did not understand God's command; she had taken it too
literally, which is a popular form of attacking the Bible today. "Yea,
hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Are you not
mistaken? And when he had injected the doubt into the mind of Eve, had
gained an advantage, he seized it and boldly denied the word of God, "Ye
shall not die." He is an artful critic and successfully did his deadly
work.

Hence, the first great promise which God gave to the fallen pair, and
through them to the race, set the seed of the woman, the Messiah, in
conflict with "that old serpent called the devil and Satan." That
promise is now in process of fulfillment, and must reach its final
consummation when John's apocalyptic vision is fulfilled, "And the devil
that deceived them (the nations) shall be cast into the lake of fire and
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be
tormented day and night, forever and ever."

X. GOD HIS OWN INTERPRETER.

_"To the law and to the testimony, if they speak not accordingly to this
word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah viii. 20._

_"Thy law is the truth." Psa. cxix. 142._

_"Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very
faithful." Psa. cxix. 138._

_"Lead me in thy truth and teach me." Psa. xxv. 5._

_"The word of our God shall stand forever." Isaiah xl. 8._

_"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away."
Mark xiii. 31._

The destructive critics have assaulted the most precious prophetic
scriptures. It has been already stated that the final aim of skepticism
is against the person of Christ. If the unbelieving world can be rid of
both the prophecies concerning Christ, and the history of his life, his
sacrificial death and resurrection, they will be rid of that stumbling
stone which they have been pleased to call the "much-abused
supernaturalism." Hence, the strenuous effort is made to destroy
predictive prophecy concerning the person of the Son of God. The fact
that there are more than thirty-five prophecies, containing one hundred
and thirty distinct counts, concerning the birth, the life, the
teaching, the dea