SATAN THE "COUNTERFEITER". Jesus condemned the religious leaders of His day for their hypocrisy. Those ecclesiastical figures made a pretense of being godly, yet refused to follow the spiritual intent of God's law. Jesus attributed to them Satan's own character, using the analogy that since their father was Satan, they could only behave "like father, like son." The Devil lies and murders, so who should be surprised if the Devil's children do the same, preaching a perverted gospel of deception and falsehood? It is important to grasp that Satan is the literal "father of lies." He continually and cleverly lies and deceives mankind, and so do his servants. In fact, lying becomes so common to people under Satan's influence that they often find it easier to tell a lie than to tell the truth! As part of his conspiracy to thwart God and overthrow His great plan for mankind, Satan has his own ministers! The Apostle Paul warned Christians about the great deception caused by Satan and his ministers: "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). Satan's ministers often look like and sound like what deceived people think Christ's ministers should sound like! But they preach "another Jesus" and proclaim a "different gospel." It is up to each individual—including you!—to genuinely study the Bible and to prove what Jesus and the early apostles taught and practiced.