Recognizing Deception
by Dene McGriff
Introduction
Some time ago I wrote “Recognizing Deception and Apostasy” but I have begun to realize that there is a big difference between the two. Apostasy is about the church falling away – not just doctrinally but from the living Lord Himself into dead works, teachings, forms and so forth. Deception is another matter. Non-Christians are already deceived because they don’t have the Spirit of God living in them so it is rather hard to be enlightened if the human spirit is dead. However, Christians can also be deceived if they are living in the flesh instead of the spirit. So I am splitting the book into several parts – apostasy, deception and the answer – the church life.
Man, by his very nature, is easily deceived whether by a magician, a politician or the media. We are deceived because we want to be accepted by others so we tend to think like those around us. We are self deceived by our own lusts and desires. We are deceived because the world is so complex, we want simple answers and we are too lazy or mentally challenged and don’t want to be confused with the facts. Sometimes we are deceived because we want to be. We are deceived because we believe what we are told and taught. We believe the experts. But more than anything, we are easily deceived because we are human. Some because we want to believe the best, and don’t want to believe the worst. But mostly, the inertia of society and our friends and relatives carries us along and we don’t question. Few think outside of the box.
Deception is rampant in humanity because we don’t always like the truth. We don’t always seek the truth or love the truth. The Bible says that the human “heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.” (Jeremiah 17:9) 2 Timothy 4:4 says that men “will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” We don’t really like the “truth” as much as we think we do. In fact, the Bible tells us that in the last days there will be “unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11).
These
days Christians, especially American “Christians”, seem to think there is no
problem. God loves them and will take care of them.
They are comfortable
in believing that they have their eternal “life insurance” policy. They have
been taught that the only thing that is really important is agreement on the
essentials of the faith (basically the person and work of Jesus). Everything
else is of lesser importance – not even worth arguing about. The only thing
that matters is the basics. There is no point dividing over opinions about
prophecy in particular. It is way too controversial and everyone is entitled
to their opinion. We just need to respect one another. So we live in a
Christian society that pretty much mirrors the world. Sure God’s Word is
truth but some truth is more essential than others. So we respect each
other’s opinion on the non-essential elements in our attempt to “keep the
unity of the faith.”
I am afraid this attitude may lead to massive deception among Christians. If we are the generation that has a “need to know”, God is going to open up the prophetic Scriptures (some feel one fourth to one third of the Bible) more than any time in the past 2,000 years! Does it matter what we believe about prophecy? It might. A person steeped in dispensational teaching who has been taught the church will rapture prior to the Tribulation, that America has no place in prophecy, that the antichrist is Roman, a Jew or the Pope, or a system; that Europe will rise and America will either be destroyed or fall by the wayside, will live his life according to his understanding. I’m not condemning anyone. Certainly we are entitled to our own opinion (see what a good modern man I make?) but we are entitled to it at our own peril because the only “opinion” that really matters is God’s.
Take the doctrine of the rapture for instance. Controversy rages over whether it is pre, post or mid so much so that some declare themselves to be “pan-rapture” – as in it will “all pan out.” Is our concept that it’s okay to disagree on this non-essential doctrine correct? Does God really care? Is the Bible so foggy and vague that differing opinions are acceptable? I guess God doesn’t care either. It doesn’t really matter because there is no truth here – just opinion. But I would submit that there is only one true answer to that question. They can’t all be “right” and maybe things won’t “pan” out because “I’m okay and you’re okay.” So we have four boxes: pre, mid, post and pan. Which box is it? That is for each person to go to the Lord and ask. That is your responsibility. It seems God would have an opinion as well and be pretty clear in His Word in this regard.
All I can say is that no, this is not a doctrine where anyone’s salvation is at stake. However, I would submit that this, along with many other teachings regarding the last days does have something to do with our susceptibility to deception. Further, I would submit that today’s dumbed down, Laodicean churches that are at the very least flirting with apostasy may well be tickling your ears with feel good teachings that won’t upset you, your dear wife or darling little children. Could it be that those “purpose driven”, “seeker friendly” churches who are working so hard to attract new people with a message of hope, self-fulfillment, acceptance and meaning are leading millions down the path of deception? Could it be that if they have any prophetic message at all, it is either wrong or so watered down so as to not offend or upset anyone?
I have noticed two trends in today’s American church. Most churches have relegated prophecy to the least important priority where it is hardly mentioned at all. If it is mentioned, it may be like a message I heard recently at a Calvary Chapel titled “Lift Off” – escapist to the max! The latest is to be told that we have been in the “last days” for the past 2,000 years while others talk about the church taking dominion. Most just don’t say anything.
Deception comes from just living, absorbing the culture and attitudes of your church, school and the society around you. We are fallen creatures and our understanding, including the opinion makers of our society, is naturally darkened. You can pretty much count on the fact that what you have come to assume is correct may not be. What you have been taught isn’t necessarily correct. What you read isn’t. What is the source of all that opinion? You will only be freed from the deception in the world when you have a revelation from God within your human spirit that enlightens and renews your mind. This book is dedicated to helping you recognize deception, but beyond that, you have to pursue your own personal relationship with God to discover His opinion, His thoughts… that is all that matters – not your opinion, or mine, or your pastor’s. God has given us one book chock full of information. It is your responsibility to open your heart, read and let Him talk to you. May you have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying!
Characteristics of the Last Days
If these are the last days, and most Christians today believe they are – mainly because we see the Jews back in the land after 1900 years, surrounded by enemies who are calling for their total annihilation. But we also see looming financial disaster, peak oil, rising demand for limited world resources, wars and rumors of war, earthquakes, tidal waves, famine, the growth of religious wars – a rising clash of Christian and Islamic Civilization. There are many more signs but along with these is the matter of deception.
· And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you… For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many… Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many… For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect…(Matthew 24:4,5,11,24)
· Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. (I Corinthians 3:18)
· Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, (2 Thessalonians 2:3)
· But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:12)
· So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. (Revelation 12:9)
Not only does man have a great capacity for self deception, the whole world has a deceptive quality, a deceptive spirit. The last days are characterized by a demonic deception that so permeates the world, that man ends up worshipping the antichrist and accepting his mark. Meanwhile, the deception is so complete that a father delivers up his son and believers turn on one another thinking they are doing God a favor. (Matthew 10:16-22, Mark 13, Matthew 24) All people are susceptible to being deceived, but even more so, when a false christ or false prophet comes along with great power, signs and wonders, culminating in Satan himself deceiving the whole world.
The Nature of Deception
Man is deceived when he doesn’t know the truth. This sounds simple. We are brought up to think a certain way about life, the world around us, other people, even God and religion. Most people grow up and believe what they are taught. At one time people believed the earth was flat. They were absolutely convinced because the grown ups and other experts told them so. Tomatoes were thought to be poisonous. Breaking a mirror brought seven years bad luck. You had to be good or Santa Claus wouldn’t come. The tooth fairy put money under your pillow in exchange for a tooth. Man couldn’t fly. Of course, it was impossible to go to the moon. The sun moved around the earth every day. There are thousands of things that man once believed to be absolutely true and have since discovered not to be true at all. We were deceived because we didn’t know or recognize the truth.
Our attitudes toward one another, toward classes of people (as in India) or during slavery in America or apartheid in South Africa, man held all kinds of truths to be self-evident. Palestinians are raised to hate Jews and do so with a passion. So-called Christians hated Muslims and went on crusades; they burned witches and heretics, and later Jews. Christians and non-Christians alike have been convinced they were right in killing and persecuting others. Remember the lyrics of the song from South Pacific?
You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!
How unfortunate, but true. We are taught by our parents, our school and society and we absorb that system of values because they are the experts, the grown ups and they know better. One day we will be the grown ups and teachers and we will know better and teach our children just what we have been taught. Our churches are no different. The pastors have attended Bible School and Seminary and teachings the teachers were taught are passed on down, and then the professional clergy passes the same teachings on to the laity who pretty much accept what they are taught by the experts. And even more so because of the spiritual authority they carry as representatives of God on the earth or at the very least or their full time job is to stay up on religious teaching.
I’m not saying that it is all bad – but that is the way it is. We get life as a package deal. We realize some things – that there is no Santa Clause or tooth fairy, but things like God and what He has to say about us, remain mysterious to people. Now there comes a time in every Christian’s life when they realize they are pretty rotten to the core, that even when they want to be good, they can’t. There is something in them that likes to cheat, lie and covet (if not steal) at the very least. We try and satisfy our soul’s cravings with things, food, sex, money, entertainment – whatever until one day we are given an alternative. We were made to have a relationship with God, to be filled with His life and through Jesus Christ, he will forgive our sins, clean us up and come into our human spirit and begin a life long process of transformation. The day we were “born again” by His Spirit coming into us, something changed. The lights went on. We saw the darkness we walked in, the attitudes we held, the things we did for the first time from a different light. We have a new inward strength, a new life inside guiding and directing us, changing our attitudes and actions.
For those new to all this or who never experienced it, believe me, it is awesome. But it doesn’t happen over night. It is a transforming process that takes place over a life time and at any point in time, a Christian can stop the process and even fall back into his old ways. If he loses touch with the “life source” – that relationship with Jesus and starts to act like he thinks a Christian ought to act, what do you have? A HYPOCRITE! AN ACTOR! But if you want to see what a changed life is all about, read some of the letters of the apostle Paul. Here was a Jewish leader, a Pharisee of the Pharisees who was running around killing Christians. One day going down the road to Damascus, he was struck blind and met Jesus. “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord… As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:1, 3-6) If you read the rest of the Book of Acts and Paul’s letters to the churches, you will see a changed man. He had gone from one who was so deceived he persecuted the church to the one who did more than any other to pour his life out for it.
Paul knew the battle that goes on inside from the experience in Romans 7 of being a Christian still trapped in the old sinful nature, to one freed by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus in chapter 8, to one fighting being conformed to the world and being transformed by the renewing of the mind (Romans 12). Only this process of transformation will protect us from the conformity of the world. Only learning to walk in the Spirit will free us from walking in the flesh (Galatians 3). For those of you who don’t have a “Christian” background, I’m going to tell you a little secret. A real Christian has a war going on inside. He always has the capacity to act like the worst sinner in the world if he lives by his own nature, or as a saint if he lives by the Spirit. His attitudes and actions, though not perfect as long as he is alive, will reflect the growing inward life and relationship he has with Jesus Christ.
What I have just described in a few paragraphs is what should be the normal Christian life which is characterized by stumbles and falls, and of a human being that has discovered a relationship with God, who confesses his weakness and failures and who day by day endeavors to live in the Spirit rather than the flesh, who tries his best not to act like a Christian but to maintain that relationship with God that gradually transforms his life. So what does this have to do with deception? A Christian has a clear choice. He can live in the flesh or in the spirit. He can try and act like he and others think a Christian should or he will live in the Spirit. There is a huge difference and any honest born again Christian will admit it. They may go through the motions of acting as they think a Christian should act and have no real relationship with the Lord! Working on that relationship every day is job one for a Christian. Everything should flow out of that relationship.
“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us”. (2 Corinthians 4:7) We are made of dirt, but there is a treasure inside. It is time spent in His presence that transforms us. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) We are imperfect but we are in the process of being transformed as in Romans 12:2 where Paul exhorts us to “not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
This world has never been more powerful. Once we had a few books, then radio, then TV, then Sirius radio and satellite TV, then Blackberries, I-pods, I-phones, the internet and more stimuli in one day than the average man got in a year! The world is full of things – things you are told you must have, you must work harder for. You will be happy if you have a bigger car, a bigger house, more speakers on your stereo, a faster computer, a slimmer more toned body, etc. There are more things to do, more places to go, more distractions, harder work, soccer games, swim meets….than we possibly have time for! The media screams at you all day long. It presents candidates for President and discusses their different positions ad nausea. Your church teaches you week after week. You go on retreats. You go to home fellowships. You tend to take on the beliefs of those you spend time with. So what is my point?
Very simply. If the spirit of this world is overwhelming you; if you are play acting as a Christian rather than maintaining a fresh daily relationship with the Lord, you will be deceived. “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13) God only knows, but after having been walking in “Christian” circles for over 50 years, I would guess that many “Christians” are play acting. I know there were times in my life when I deserved at least a best actor Emmy. It isn’t easy to maintain a fresh daily relationship with the Lord.
So here we are, starting a book on Deception and I gave you the secret in the first chapter. There is a lot more to it though. We have no idea how much of what we do and think has been programmed in us and is no more true than a man in the moon. Further, Satan’s goal is to deceive us and he has a lot of means at his disposal. But beyond that, because we have never questioned, there are a lot of “truths” we accept just because we have been raised with them. My job and yours is to question these things, including the things we have been taught as Christians. Are they really true? Or are we just passing things on? One thing I will mention several times through here but want to emphasize is this. When it comes to prophecy, a lot of well-meaning Christians have tried their best to make sense of prophecy but that was always within their own historical context. The prophet Daniel had a lot of questions and in Daniel 12:8-9 he asked, “My Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” The reason for so much confusion is that we have been trying to make sense of it but prophecy was sealed and concealed until the end or until (as we say in the intelligence community) we had a “need to know.” I would submit to you that much of what you have been taught about prophecy is wrong for this very reason. The result is that the study of last days prophecy has been discredited by many because it just doesn’t make sense the way it is taught. It doesn’t add up.
This also points out part of the deception. I’m not saying that it is part of some huge Christian conspiracy. But there is a conspiracy to deceive and Satan is using the fact that assumptions were made decades and even hundreds of years ago which have been incorporated into Christian thought. Once a teaching becomes entrenched there is a tremendous amount of inertia which seeks to defend and perpetuate it. Unfortunately, flexibility is not a common human trait. Rather, our tendency is to hunker down and defend what is commonly taught rather than to take a fresh look at Scripture and let the Holy Spirit illuminate it for this generation. As I have said before, I have been at this internet ministry for 12 years and I have never had someone write and say, “Gee thanks, you changed my mind completely.” Rather they all say, “Thank you so much for confirming and putting into words what the Lord had begun to already show me.”
It took revelation to see our need and become Christians. It takes fresh revelation every day to walk with the Lord. It takes revelation to have the prophetic scriptures revealed. We don’t claim to have a corner on the truth. We work with other ministries and find that the revelation is given to many who are seeing similar things. We urge you to go to the Lord and let Him guide you through the process of discovery and the unveiling of the mysteries.
Dene McGriff, Sacramento,
November 2007