Deadly Masters of Disguise

From kidnapper ants to wolves in sheep’s clothing

Depending on where you live, a battle for control in the insect kingdom may be raging between two ants in the ground beneath your feet. But it’s a quiet battle, one the loser won’t even know she is in until it’s over because the winner is a master of disguise.

The invader ant in the battle is from the genus Polyergus, which are described variously as slave-making ants, kidnapper ants, pirate ants or Amazon ants. The unsuspecting victim is a queen from the genus Formica. She never sees the threat coming because the queen kidnapper ant is a big phony in an ant-sized body.

National Geographic described the scenario this way in a 2018 article*: “Once a kidnapper ant queen identifies a headhunter ant colony, it sneaks in, murders the incumbent queen, and then ‘bathes in her bodily fluids.’ ... The imposter then uses this newly acquired scent profile to avoid detection while she pumps out a bunch of eggs” that hatch and become an army of kidnapper ants.

Below the ground, ants can’t always judge a queen by her scent. Above the ground, humans can’t always judge a sheep by its wool. (Matthew 7:15)

Photo by Maksim Shutov on Unsplash

Deception has been a spiritual threat almost since the beginning. The serpent, more cunning than any animal God created, used it to introduce sin into the world. He convinced Eve that God was trying to keep something good from her and Adam by denying them fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

“For God knows that on the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will become like God, knowing good and evil,” the serpent said. Eve fell for that pitch from the very first snake-oil salesman, and she convinced Adam to take a dose of the devil’s elixir, too. (Genesis 3:1-7). There hasn’t been a paradise on Earth since, and deception is still a go-to, soul-killing tool of Satan’s.

He pretends to be an angel of light (II Corinthians 11:14) to blind mankind from the light of the gospel. The ancient serpent is described alternately as “the god of this world” (II Corinthians 4:4) and “the deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:7-9).

The devil doesn’t work alone, either. While the queen kidnapper ant hatches an army to capture colonies, Satan is so effective at fooling some people that they willingly go to work for him.

Look up the word “false” in any concordance to see how the devil disguises his army of deceivers — false prophets, false apostles, false teachers, false brethren and even false Christs. They assume an appearance of godliness (II Timothy 3:5), but they don’t live godly. They infiltrate churches like kidnapper ants that invade colonies, and their mission is to lead souls away from Christ (II Corinthians 11:13).

These deceivers may target the easiest marks within a congregation first, using smooth and flattering speech to delude the most naïve (Romans 16:17-18). But their goal is to wreak havoc in every heart. What better way to capture a colony of Christians than to trick the elect (Matthew 24:23-24) or the elders (Acts 20:29)!

The devil will never stop trying to bring Christians and entire congregations down one by one, so beware. Everyone who removes the armor of God is susceptible to his schemes (Ephesians 6:10-11).

*The National Geographic article resurfaced via Twitter on Feb. 7, 2023.

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