Many verses in the Bible warn about deception. The antidote to deception is truth. So long as Christians are willing to accept emotional, self-indulgent, and extra-biblical doctrine in the church there will be deception. The spirit of deception grows and ingrains itself in a person. It reshapes how one thinks. It distorts the truth and leads people down a wrong-minded path and it consumes the thoughts, causing people to believe whatever they passion to believe, and read into and change the meaning of plain words. This deceptive spirit leads many astray, is paralyzing, and causes anger, anxiety, strife, false hope. It is a danger to the soul and to life itself. That’s why Christ warned: “Take heed that no man deceive you.”
I get many emails every day from people, ranging from encouragement to hate, but this is an example of the issue of deception among Christians leading to delusion and anger: “HOW DARE YOU CLAIM TO BE A CHRISTAIN! YOU OBVIOUSLY WATCH THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA AND DONT HEAR FROM THE LORD! YOU ARE A CARNEL CHRISTAIN THAT WONT GET FAR!…TRUMP IS THE ONLY PRESIDENT THAT HAS PROFESSED JESUS CHRIST AS LORD, HE DEFENDED THE UNBORN AND SUPPORTED ISRAEL! HOW DARE YOU BLAME HIM FOR THE RIOT AT CAPITAL HILL. DID YOU SEE THAT IS WAS ANTIFA WHO DRESSED AS TRUMP SUPPORTERS? DO YOUR RESEARCH PLENTY OF VIDEOS! PROOF IS OUT THERE! STOP SENDING ME YOUR UNTRUTHFUL DAILY JOT WHICH ARE ALL LIES! HOW DARE YOU NOT KNOW THE FACTS!”
Let’s unpack this. First, this person expresses outrage that I claim to be a Christian, then she says that I’m a carnal Christian because she doesn’t think I agree with her. President Trump is not the only president who has professed Jesus Christ as Lord. Yes, he defended the unborn and supported Israel—I have often praised him for these stances. I never blamed President Trump for the Capitol Hill riot—I said “because of the way things went down on Capitol Hill, conservatives and Christians will be paying that price of association for years to come, guilty or not.” So far, the arrest records indicate that radical conservatives and some Antifa were involved. The news media and the Democratic Party are using that incident to persecute conservatives and Christians, irrespective of whether Antifa was involved.
People can become so wrapped up in deception that truth cannot be discerned from lie, facts are relative to belief. Truth is not always found in videos with narratives that use the power of suggestion to make a point. Truth is not always found in people weaving such outlandish stories that the lie is easy to believe without even checking the facts—because one really wants to believe it. This is exactly how it will be so easy for an antichrist to deceive many. What does Paul say in 2 Timothy 4:3? “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.” Maybe sound doctrine cannot be endured because it isn’t taught much these days and when people hear it, they want to believe what they want to believe, and that becomes their truth.
