The movie "At First Sight", starring Val Kilmer and Mira Sorvino, poignantly portrays the role of the mind in visual acuity. That is, your MIND must tell your eye what it sees -- or you can't see, even if sighted. A person can be sighted, but because mentally blind, can't interpret/recognize what he sees. Man is born blind to God, so must be TAUGHT how to see God; only God can teach one how to see Him; His System for teaching requires positive consent, among other factors. So: if the MIND of Christ isn't operating in the soul, one can't understand Scripture, even if sighted, and erroneous interpretations are inevitable. That is why the unbeliever can't understand Scripture, and why the Holy Spirit's Power alone enables accurate vision (read John 14 and 1Cor2, using 1Jn1:9 as you do so).
These characteristics of the satanic signature, as distinct from our own stupidity or arrogance, are covered in great detail in SatStrat.htm (Appendix of "Thinking Out Loud" webseries on Home Page). A simpler method of detection is find a) the goofiness, and b) the spin on the truth. As you dig into the details, you'll come to realize that both a) and b) are so CLEVER, no human could invent such a joke. So, as you read the following error list, note the kernel of truth embedded in the goofy lie.
Here's an example of how devastating the error, if a passage is mistranslated. If a passage in the GREEK or HEBREW manuscripts (original-language ones) says "ek koilia" or "mi beten", the proper LITERAL TRANSLATION is "OUT from the womb", "SEPARATED from the womb"; but in both languages the phrase is an IDIOM meaning "from the point of birth", and should really be translated that way. You flunk the question in seminary if you don't recognize the capped words' significance. [Idioms should be translated AS idioms, not literally. Any language translator at the U.N. or other secular institution will know this. Biblical scholars also stress that fact in seminary.] Yet, look in almost any English or other-language translation (except French Louis Seconde, which translates the phrase IDIOMATICALLY, which is most correct) and you'll find the clipped translation "from the womb"; or, even WORSE, "in the womb" -- which is the OPPOSITE of the meaning of the original-language manuscripts. (If I remember my BibleWorks 5.0 search results, there are approximately 40 verses with this phrase in it; 300, on related topics so you can verify the significance of the 40.)
Talk about a mistranslation in the name of "non-sectarian"! Do you realize how the mistranslation of these prepositions ALONE has caused millions of Christians to believe a blasphemy against God, blissfully ignorant because they don't do their homework? It's goofy as well as blasphemous to believe soul life is in the womb, because these verses admantly say otherwise; the belief itself thus makes God out to be a murderer if there is ever even ONE spontaneous abortion. It makes God out to be a sadist, too, lol! For IF a soul were in the womb, all those growing body parts would BE SENSIBLE to the soul; thus they would cause torture beyond what the vilest hitler could do. A satan would sponsor such goofy mistranslations, since they blaspheme God. Of course, 'prolife' is a spoof on the Mother-Goddess (Cybele) cult of ancient Greece (with mutational versions worldwide in all epochs); it's a big hint Satan&Co. love to loudly trumpet 'prolife': you should castrate yourself for 'mother', see (Cybele cult focused on self-castration for Cybele -- look up "Atys" in an encyclopedia). Mother, NOT Father, THE Father of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Who ALONE makes a soul AT BIRTH (immateriality cannot propagate, can only be created by God, duh). CONCEIVED again, NOT BORN again: Gospel is merely conceived, hoo-boy! Do you NOW get the satanic CASTRATION joke against salvation that 'prolife' really is?
[Nerd note: castration is the ultimate form of abortion, for if the FATHER is castrated, no human can come from his loins, since he no longer HAS loins. So, by CASTRATING the translation of Scripture on this topic, the Christian ABORTS from the Spiritual life, since by believing a FALSE DOCTRINE he thus is always 'lying against the Spirit (cf. Acts 5). Of course, there are myriads of other castration metaphors in this joke. For example, by stressing 'mother', FATHER is cut out of the picture; FATHER's role in creation is CASTRATED, so the 'fetus' of spiritual understanding can't be born; aka sex without 'fruit', a favorite satanic ploy. So by stressing 'prolife', SPIRITUAL ABORTION is promoted, lol: it remains dead-in-womb, merely conceived, so stillborn. The 'prolife' Christian never grows up spiritually, since he focuses his attention on something OTHER THAN Father's ordained role for his life. Paul likens the entire spiritual life to a pregnancy in Romans 8, beginning around verse 11 and going to the end of the chapter. No pregnancy bears fruit until born; no war is won until finished. James uses the same analogy in James 1; Paul in Gal 1:15(?) uses the famous "OUT FROM THE WOMB" moniker to denote God preordained him a prophet (only NIV gets that verse right).]
The negative unbeliever makes a like mistake. He sees the goofy Christian or religionist, and lumps God in with them. So the goofy ideas of God are DEEMED CORRECT, so God Himself is not real, not good, not Triune, not that sect's definition, etc. See the goofiness? If part of what's said about an object is demonstrably stupid, and the spokesman is also, then what's said MUST BE TRUE about the object, so the object itself is stupid, too. There's an opposite corollary: if the speaker is 'respectable', then what he says MUST BE TRUE. In either case, the 'baby' is defined by the bathwater, and either drunk or tossed out, based on the bathwater, for crying out loud. Hardy har har.
Any truth has PARAMETERS. It's true within certain factual limits or conditions. Change the limits or conditions, and the truth itself is DIFFERENT. So a correct interpretation will reference the parameters, won't oversimplify. For example, if God sinned, which being Omnipotent He obviously CAN do, would God remain Perfect? NO. So, His Perfection is conditional upon His never sinning. Since He is Infinite, we know that perfection is likewise never going to change: for, if He ever was going to sin, He'd be imperfect even before that logical point in 'time'. See? Parameters (here, Infinity) tell you WHAT and WHEN a truth is, when the truth is something else. However, if we are too enamored of some truthclaim to investigate the parameters, we'll be suckers for whatever claim attracts us. At which point, we throw out the baby with the bathwater, or suck in both.
So it's not as though Satan doesn't KNOW the truth. He HAS the facts. He concludes OPPOSITE MEANING from those same facts. So, he spins Scripture to have OPPOSITE meanings based on genuine facts, waving the facts in man's face so man is distracted from seeing God's meanings. So, God's meanings are easily portrayed as goofy, with unthinking man being none the wiser; but for goofy meanings to be God's, oh! they would have to be holy! Ergo Satan's packaging: kernel of truth piggybacked with goofy lies = the popular ideas about God, Scripture, etc.
This stress on goofiness is also used to sell the skeptic yet another goofiness: only hostility is 'objective'. Thus, the skeptic prides himself on BEING a skeptic, deeming himself to be objective if he DISbelieves. Here, the illogic goes as follows: the believer believes and the belief is goofy, so if I do NOT believe, I am NOT goofy. Notice how no objective question like, Is there a non-goofy version? is analyzed. Documentaries and newscasts are famous for this, the skeptic's form of goofiness: if we confirm/applaud something those in power advocate/do, then we are pawns; only if we criticise are we independent, un-'embedded'. LOL: who ever said Satan was stupid?
Of course, men make errors on their own with no diabolical help. What distinguishes a SATANIC spin from the usual human-arrogance error is EXTREME lawyerly cleverness. Satan knows just what kernel of truth to tout, just what truths need to be shaded, etc. Man isn't even smart about secular truths, let alone Divine truths. So, the errors below vary in degree of satanic sophistication, from crass stupidities like taboos, to cleverly misstressed truths: like the fact that only the Bible is from God. So don't gloss over any of the errors: study them carefully, test them carefully, note the patterns. Basic satanic pattern of deception: depict a SELECTED kernel of truth (data), craft from it SELECTED premises, SELECTED stresses, SELECTED lie conclusions which simultaneously BLOCK detection and common sense. The selection is accomplished by emotional appeals (an appeal to reason is an emotional appeal, just like any other). The explanation in the links below will thus summarize each category of the foregoing pattern, so you can see it more easily. (A far larger explanation is in SatStrat.htm, which is part of the "Thinking Out Loud" webseries, accessible from Home Page.)
Later on I'll reorganize the order of the goofy errors categorized below. Caution: the Categories listed below overlap; so for example, what's listed in the "Spirituality" category, would also belong elsewhere. Eventually all of these bullets will be links, taking you to different sections on this webpage. So, it will be easier to print, as well as easier to read than my other pages. If you just can't wait until I figure out how to craft these explanations, try reading VERindex.htm, NTKeys.htm or godnotmag.htm: search on the keywords which concern you, i.e., "tongues", "good deeds", "taboo", etc. The larger explanation, into which all these topics fit, is in the "Thinking Out Loud" links accessible from the Home Page. (It took me over 30 years' research in Scripture under my own pastor-teacher before I could understand and write "Thinking Out Loud"; so it is an epic-story accounting. Like everything else in life, it is also unfinished. The learning never ends, thank God!)
Here goes...