Will you endure to the end, as Jesus said we must? Will you keep your faith and your hope? Will you stay on the narrow path to life? Those of you who haven’t clicked away from this page yet are doing well so far…
Our lives are a mixture of good times and bad times, and as demonstrated by the way-side,the rocky ground, and the thorny soil in Jesus’ sower parable, some people don’t endure through the tests and trials of life-they lose their faith and their hope. I’ve written a lot about the reasons for suffering: find some posts in the search box above.
In a sense, deception comes not just from the lies of the world but from our everyday trials. The deception which tests all of us from time to time is the wrong notion that if God were God, he would not allow us to suffer at all. If there really were a God, we’re tempted to think, he would make the path of our lives smooth and prosperous. Everyone would be good to us, and all our efforts and faith would be rewarded with success. There would be no crime, no accidents and no unfortunate coincidences: all would be well. However, not one page of the Bible will tell you this. Instead, the warnings in Scripture of the trials of life come very quickly after the initial creation of all things in the opening pages of Genesis, and continue through to the end.
If you are remaining in the love of Christ despite the trials of life, you may well consider yourself to be among that good soil that Jesus spoke of. But don’t become complacent: Jesus said that even the “elect” would be under the attack of deception. In fact, if you read the Olivet Discourse, you will notice that the bulk of Jesus’ warnings concern powerful deception:
At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved (Matthew 24:10-13).
It wasn’t just Jesus who warned of deception. Paul said this to the Thessalonian church:
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).
POLITICS: SCIENCE OR SORCERY?
Deception will be (and already is) the order of the day in the coming culmination of a godless culture. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is in politics. It seems that honesty, freedom, the rule of law and the concept of serving the people has been almost abandoned, and it’s difficult to trust any politican at all. Our government in the United States is busily covering up its wrongdoings and failures, even using the security services to help in their dark schemes. The Democratic party and its media are currently trying to convince the country that their main opponent and all his supporters-half of the country-are fascists and racists. This is far from caring for the nation: it’s devisive, deeply dishonest, and dangerous. The intention is not to create a prosperous and safe world for everyone, but to gain and maintain power, and to fulfill a political and philosophical agenda.
Unfortunately, much of the Church has withdrawn from politics, allowing the wicked to have free reign. “We shouldn’t be involved in politics”, is the current deception which I find very common. But we all have the right and duty to take part. Politics affects every sphere of life. It affects unborn babies and takes away their lives. It destroys small business, and makes life harder for all of us. It threatens our freedoms, including our freedom of conscience and freedom to practise and to share our faith. Bowing out is handing the country over.
WOLVES AMONG THE SHEEP
Under the umbrella of the professing Church we have multitudes of false prophets, just as Jesus warned, claiming to be speaking the very words of God, and claiming to be apostles of Christ. Those of us who read our Bibles and who don’t believe the nonsense of these people can usually see them for what they are. But millions around the world cannot, and the Church is mocked and distrusted because of them. What they are claiming to be the Holy Spirit is a mockery of the Holy Spirit. It’s a sham: a pathetic and powerless falsehood claiming to be powerful.
It’s an interesting fact within scripture that God himself will sometimes send or allow deception, in order to separate fakes from true believers. You can see this principle in the chapter I’ve already quoted from Paul’s letter:
For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12).
Many of these false prophets actually use the name of Jesus Christ, and speak incessantly about the Holy Spirit. But Paul has already warned us about them. Yes, they may use those names, but as Paul wrote, there are false Jesuses, false Holy Spirits, and false apostles:
For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough (2 Corinthians 11:4).
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
How do we know the difference between the real and the charlatan? Quite simply, we need to ask if the message they are preaching is scriptural. Is it instead a twisting of scripture, or even one of their own creation? Are their miracles genuine or just a charade? Does the boy in the wheelchair get healed, or does he leave the premises still sitting there? Is the focus on Jesus Christ and his sacrifice, or is it on something else or someone else? Paul’s testimony included real, tangible, obvious miracles-not just making people fall to the ground with a feel-good bunch of emotions:
I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles (verse 12).
However, even an apparently real miracle is not necessarily evidence that the performer of that miracle is from God:
For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24).
More clearly, Paul was an apostle because he saw the risen Christ (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).
Are these people who are claiming to be apostles after your money, and enriching themselves and their ministries, or are they working to help the poor in and out of the church, as Paul, Jesus and all the Biblical apostles did?
DEVOURING ONE ANOTHER
Deception comes at us in many other ways. In our time it’s very difficult for a young man or woman to find a trustworthy mate with integrity. The word “love” has come to be used interchangably with physical attraction, passion and sex, rather than commitment, respect and kindness. We deceive each other in our relationships, and we deceive ourselves into thinking that just because someone is physically attractive to us, they must be a wonderful person and worth living with. Our society is falling apart because we are unable to be honest with ourselves and with each other.
A DECAYING SOCIETY
It’s obvious to many of us that our institutions are no longer interested in objective truth, or in honesty as we once knew it. Our maintsream media is totally corrupt and biased, with no shame at misleading millions of people. Our education system is also politically biased, is revising history to suit political ends, and is teaching our kids not only that they can choose their gender, but that they are of no more value than slugs or pond scum. We evolved from nothing, they are telling us, and there is no such thing as objective truth. This is gross hypocrisy on a grand scale. If there is no objective truth, what is it that they are teaching our kids?
Fundamentally, we’re all under attack. The majority of people have already succumbed to lies and have no ability or will to find Truth: they are lost in more than one sense of the word. The rest of us are prime targets. The devil doesn’t have to bother with those who are already willingly lost: it’s professing and potential believers who are most under attack. As Jesus has warned:
For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect (Matthew 24:24).
WHICH BIBLE?
Even our scriptures are now under attack from revisers and from faulty and false translations. Do you have a good translation of the Bible? I suggest you find one for yourself, in hard form. Keep it very safe for the future. Read it for yourself and see what God is really like: what He has actually said, and not said.
Remember that our hearts can be led astray if we allow them to be. We are at war with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Ultimately, the way to endure deception, and to endure to the end, is to know our Bible well, and to hold fast to what it says. Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, but we know that Way by knowing exactly what He and those he commissioned taught.
Fuel for Faith 