Deceived — Believing the Lie
 Deception.
It all began in the Garden of Eden. We do not know how
long after Adam and Eve were created that Satan confronted
them with the lie, but we do know they rebelled against
God and placed the human race into a confrontation with
its Creator that is still going on today. Hatred, illness,
tragedy, sorrow, death and every conceivable kind of
pain that can be imagined are all consequences of humanity’s
fight with God over who is in charge and who is to be
obeyed.
Before saying much more about deception
it is important to understand a somewhat trivial, yet
very important point that we have a tendency to overlook
when studying Satan’s strategies. Satan has a
host of schemes (2 Corinthians 2:11; Ephesians 6:11)
that he uses against God’s people, and he and
his minions are very adept at individually tailoring
them so they will have the greatest chance of success.
But, at the core of each strategy is the lie. Not “a”
lie, as if he has an arsenal of lies and one is simply
chosen at random, but “the” lie. And the
great lie that undergirds every other lie is, “You
surely shall not die!” (Genesis 3:4 NASB). Notice
the exclamation point. The original language indicates
Satan made this statement the strongest point in his
argument with Eve and combined it with the promise that
she and Adam would be gods, too.
God had told Adam and Eve that rebellion
would end in death — a spiritual separation from
His Person and Presence which would happen immediately,
and, of course, physical death which did claim them
much later. At first they believed what God had said,
but that belief was replaced with doubt and finally
with rejection after they took the time to listen to
what Satan had to say about doing their own thing and
hot having to worry about consequences. They had never
considered disobeying God until Satan convinced them
they could do what they wanted with absolutely no
accountability. And that very same lie is the nucleus
of every other lie people fall for every day.
What makes the lie so effective in
deceiving people is that it appeals to the fallen nature
of man. Our sinful nature demands that we do what we
want to do and when we want to do it since we are the
masters of our own fates and the captains of our own
souls, and everybody knows masters and captains are
responsible to no one.
As you know, it is much easier to be
deceived by a lie that matches our own lusts than to
be deceived by a lie that does not. For example, snorting
cocaine might not be the desire of a certain man, but
the opportunity to steal money from his company might
be a very powerful desire. This gets back to how Satan,
whom Jesus called “the father of lies” (John
8:44), custom makes his schemes for individuals. Satan’s
basic focus, however, in every case is this: Go
ahead and do it. It is what you want to do anyway. And,
besides, the only consequence is your own pleasure..
In the book of Revelation Jesus referred
to deception five times: 18:23; 19:20; 20:3,8,10. Just
noting the chapters where the word is located tells
you a lot about the scenario — events that happen
during the last part of the 7 year tribulation period;
a time Jesus called the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21).
We have noted many times that great prophetic events
often cast their shadows before them, and this one is
no exception. There is no doubt that Satan has pulled
out all stops and is working feverishly in his bid to
deceive the entire world with the lie. Consider a few
means by which he is doing just that.
So-called modern prophets. The word
“prophet” has two biblical meanings and
it is important to distinguish between them. One means
to forth-tell; that is, to preach. The other, and most
familiar meaning, is to fore-tell; that is, to predict
the future. Every preacher is a prophet in the first
sense, but there are no prophets today that predict
the future. Now, we can foretell the future based upon
what the Bible has said about the future, but that is
a far cry from actually predicting the future based
upon an extra-biblical revelation.
Some have claimed such powers, but
when tested according to God’s standard they fall
far short. For example, the late Jeane Dixon, the world
famous astrologer and psychic, was supposed to be one
of the best at predicting the future. If, however, she
had been held to the biblical standard she would have
been stoned the first time she failed (Deuteronomy 18:14-22).
She missed it when she predicted the Russians would
beat the U.S. to the moon, that World War 3 would begin
in 1958, that a holocaust would occur in the 1980s,
that the Middle Eastern child she “witnessed in
the vision with Queen Nefertiti” on February 5,
1962 would unite the world’s religions into one,
that there would be peace by the year 2000, etc. 1 Though
Dixon was not in a pulpit calling herself a prophet
many are doing just that today. But, what if one of
those prophets is actually right about something? Moses
had a test for that, too. See Deuteronomy 13:1-5.
In spite of the abundance of evidence
against these charlatans some people actually place
confidence in their words. The best defense against
this kind of deception is to know the truth, and if
someone makes a declaration that does not fit with the
biblical witness then write that person off as a deceiver.
It might be interesting to note that the most common
theme heard from such prophets is they want you to send
your money to God and to use their address.
False teachers. Peter said there were
false prophets among the Israelites and there would
be false teachers in the church (2 Peter 2:1). What
do these people do? They misquote scripture or flat-out
twist it from its context, and they even add to the
scriptures in order to shore up their blasphemous heresies.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses do this by inserting the
article “a” in the last clause of John 1:1
which makes Jesus a creature rather than the Creator.
False teachers also have a way of making
big promises on God’s behalf and when they do
not pan out they blame you for not having enough faith.
Faith healers is a good example. It is a wonderful truth
that God does indeed miraculously heal people today.
Some of us have witnessed decades-long healing for people
who were given up for dead. However, God is not a puppet
on a string who must jump each time a so-called faith
healer commands Him to. These people go around announcing
healing and they do so by, “...commanding it done
in Jesus’ name.”
A serious problem with this kind of
teaching is that if a person’s faith is based
upon being healed, what happens when that person is
not healed now or the next time? Their “faith”
goes down the tubes because it is not based upon the
word of God (Romans 10:17). Religion based upon so-called
signs is just that — mere religion— and
is void of genuine biblical faith.
Emotions. Some folks are deceived by,
or while in an orchestrated emotional state. Are emotions
OK? Certainly, for they are part of our being human.
We express emotions at weddings, funerals and even at
football games. The problem, however, is when people
get the cart before the horse. That is, when emotions
produce a belief system rather than when the truth produces
emotions. If someone has to orchestrate human emotion
in order to worship God, if the lights have to go down,
if the candles have to be fired up and if the music
has to be just right in order to pray more effectively
something is certainly out of kilter. Note Romans 16:17,18.
It is interesting that this same kind
of staging is done in satanic séances where the
door is opened for hellish influence.
Most people are inclined to emotions
because such feelings stroke the very sensitive and
pleasurable element of our being. Again, this is not
evil or bad in and of itself, but care must be demonstrated
because false teachers are often experts in exploiting
such opportunities for the implanting of their unbiblical
doctrines in unsuspecting and immature minds.
Self deception. This is no doubt the
worst kind of deception of all because people impose
the lie upon themselves. We live in the “feel
good” era. Thirty years ago the slogan was, “If
it feels good do it.” Well, that concept is now
part of a very dangerous religious belief system. Everything
is now based upon, “How will this affect me?”,
and, “Life is all about me”. The focus is
now inward instead of God-ward, and many are going far
and wide seeking a guru or a book or a teacher that
will assure them that their desires, methods and priorities
are all just fine in God’s sight.
These people often know better, but
they want someone to say, “You’re okay with
who you are and what you are doing.” They seem
to think that God cannot really know the most intimate
and private thoughts of their hearts and that if they
can
just find some self-proclaimed authority figure to sign
off on their spiritual agenda they will be able to live
like they want and in the end offer before God a defense
based upon their being deceived. Sort of, you know,
“It’s not my fault , God, so don’t
blame me.”
As the return of Jesus for His church
gets closer we can look for ever larger groups of people
to be deceived. More self-proclaimed prophets and more
false teachers will be coming out of the woodwork as
Satan knows his time is short. Look for more emphasis
upon emotions as more people incline toward “seeker
friendly” religious environments. Look for more
of the Robert Shuller “positive gospel”
stuff to flood into homes via TV and self-help books.
And one more thing. Expect to be looked down upon by
those who are deceived. Even now they look condescendingly
upon those who stand with the word of God on issues
like homosexuality, abortion, hedonism, etc. They exude
not only the “holier than thou” attitude,
but also the “smarter and more sophisticated than
you” attitude.
One thing more. We must never become
complacent or self-righteous in our Christian walk,
for the same lie that trapped so many others will also
trap us should we depart from the single source of eternal
and irrefutable truth — the Bible. DLM
End Note:
1) Carroll, Robert Todd. Jeane Dixon & the Jeane
Dixon Effect. Cited 18 May 05. Online http//skepdic.com/dixon.html.
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