Writing specifically of the veil which Satan casts over the minds of men, F.C. Jennings states: 'He so weaves the course of this age: its religious forms, ceremonies, external decencies, respectabilies, and conventionalities as to form a thick veil, that entirely hides 'the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus,' which consists in righteous mercy to penitent sinners only. This veil is not formed by evil-living, depravity, or any form of what passes as evil amongst men; but by cold formality, heartless decency, proud self-complacency, highly esteemed external respectability, and we must add, church-membership - all without Christ. It is the most fatal of all delusions, the thickest of all veils, and the most common. It is the way that because it is religious, respectable, decent 'seems right unto a man but the end thereof is death'; for there is no Christ, no Lamb of God, no blood of Atonement in it' - From Lewis Sperry Chafer's Systematic Theology (section on Satan's motives)