False imitations of things Divine not difficult of detection.
It is Satan's wont, in all ages and on all possible occasions, to set up counterfeits of things Divine, in order to confuse men's minds, and make them mistake the false for the true. Aaron no sooner works a true miracle, a real proof that he is a prophet of God (Exodus 7:1), than Satan's instruments, the magicians of Egypt, are ready with an imitation of the miracle, on which they base a claim that Pharaoh is not to listen to Aaron, but to them. "Curious arts" (Acts 19:19) and "lying wonders" (2 Thessalonians 2:9) were employed to discredit the genuine miracles of the Apostles. False Christs rose up in various places, soon after the lifetime of our Lord, claiming to be the Messiah spoken of by the prophets, who "showed great signs and wonders," capable of deceiving, if it had been possible, even "the very elect" (Matthew 24:24). Apocryphal gospels were put out by the side of the true ones. A new and mystic philosophy was set up as the real "knowledge" which the Son of God had come to reveal, and new religions, like Gnosticism and Manichaeism, disputed with real Christianity the right to be viewed as the actual religion of Jesus. Fanatics, at the time of the Reformation, parodied the Reformed religion, and established "Churches of the True Saints," which while affecting extreme purity fell practically into fearful excesses. Even at the present day rivals are set up to the revelation of God given us in the Bible—and the religious books of the Egyptians, or the Hindoos, or the Persians, or the Buddhists, or the Mahometans, are declared to be just as good, just as much from God, just as deserving of our attention, as the Old and New Testaments. But, if men are honest and do not wish to be deceived, it is easy, with a little patience, to detect each spurious imitation. Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods of the magicians. It remained—they ceased to exist altogether. The "curious arts" and "lying wonders" of those who opposed the Apostles, if examined into, would have been found either mere tricks, or weak devices of Satan, with none of the power, the dignity, the awfulness, of a true miracle. And time brought them to nought—they built up nothing—effected nothing. So with the "false Christs," and the apocryphal gospels, and the religions of Gnosticism and Manichaeism, and the fanatical sects of the Reformation period: they took no hold on the world—the truth "swallowed them up"—they vanished away. With the spurious "revelations," if the case is not the same, it is nearly the same—if they have not, all of them, vanished, they are all of them, vanishing. Brought into contact with the truth—placed side by side with it—they cannot maintain themselves—they are "swallowed up" after a while. The ancient pantheism of Egypt perished in the fourth century; the religion of Zoroaster is almost non-existent; that of the Vedas is now crumbling to decay in the schools of Calcutta and Benares. Mahometanism shows signs of breaking up. When Thibet and China are freely opened to Christian missions, the last day of Buddhism will not be far off. The Divine sweeps away the human—Aaron's rod swallows up its rivals.
HOMILIES BY J. ORR