Deception!

It’s virtually Christmas and we should take note that In Matthew 2:1-18 there’s an incident of religious deception that many are not aware of.

Some honourable wise men had brought news of a new king’s birth and that they wanted to worship him. And Jerusalem’s King Herod became disturbed, indeed terrified.

History tells that Herod desired favour with people and things his way. He had even publicly identified himself as religious, claiming conversion to Judaism. Josephus, the Romano-Jewish historian, writes revealingly about him; Modern scholars agree that he suffered throughout his lifetime from paranoia and depression.

Now Herod endeavours to deceive, even sounding spiritual to these magi. Having conversed with local religious leaders about messianic scripture predictions, he arranges a secret meeting with the magi.

The Message Bible reports: ‘Pretending to be as devout as they were, he got them to tell him exactly when the birth-announcement star appeared.  Then he told them the prophecy about Bethlehem, and said, "Go find this child. Leave no stone unturned. As soon as you find him, send word and I'll join you at once in your worship".’ 

But this self-agenda king had no intention of fulfilling his word. Verse 16 says, ‘When Herod realised (later) that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem…’ 

Dangerous deception
Deception, such as Herod intended, is the state of being misled by false representation, tricks or illusions or fraud. MacMillan Dictionary lists it as the act of tricking someone by telling him or her something that is not true.

Jesus himself warned against being deceived, especially in the end times.

In Matthew 24: 24, he said clearly that false Christs and false prophets would appear demonstrating signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect - God’s people. 

The Message Bible puts it this way: ‘Fake Messiahs and lying preachers are going to pop up everywhere. Their impressive credentials and dazzling performances will pull the wool over the eyes of even those who ought to know better.’

Paul too,  acknowledging the Holy Spirit’s concern, warned about deception in the end times: ‘The Spirit makes it clear that as time goes on, some are going to give up on the faith and chase after demonic illusions put forth by professional liars’  (1 Tim 4:1).

In 2 Tim. 3:13 he wrote, ‘Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They're as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse.’ 

A current need to be on guard
To some the Message Bible may sound quite strong here but there is a need today for pastors and indeed every Christian to speak out strongly against religious and satanic trickery. We’ve been hearing recently of a few people deceived by smooth talkers who appear to be knowledgeable about scripture.

A good friend emailed  recently regarding last month's  blog about gullible Christians falling for deceiving, seemingly religious so-called ‘prophets’ - one that I  had thought I’d worded rather strongly: ‘Robert and Maureen …never hesitate to spell it out or apologise for doing so. A lot of Christians are being so subtly deceived today. We’ve been trying to help such people but just can’t get through. They’re deceived and, worse still, they now sounding so spiritual, saying, “Oh, the Spirit told me. I know I’m right.”’ 

Then an astute pastor friend emailed pointing out a concern that many preachers don’t spell things out clearly. That they merely make suggestions but do not give clear directions or examples to their people.

And even more recently, Cheng, a friend that we had helped lead to the Lord phoned enquiring about someone who engaged him while shopping. This new contact became very friendly, seemed so interested that Cheng was a new Christian and offered to explain scripture for him. At first he seemed so spiritual but then expressed that Cheng shouldn’t accept certain things his church had taught and subtly suggested he leave that denomination, a good biblical church that we had gone out of our way to establish him in. 

Now because our friend is newly arrived from Asia and hasn’t got a full grip on English or ‘Aussieisms’ yet, he was feeling a little unsure of this glib speaker’s approach. 

But at least, new Christian that he is, Cheng is aware of the Spirit’s inner leading and followed through on the warning he was sensing. He felt within that something wasn’t right and was wisely seeking clear guidance from his pastoral friend whom he knew that he could fully trust.

Willingly Cheng accepted our explanations regarding what I was sensing about this Matthew 7:15 ‘ferocious wolf in sheep‘s clothing’ type that Jesus warned about: ‘Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practised sincerity. Chances are they are out to rip you off some way or other. Don't be impressed with charisma; look for character.’

It was a case of what Paul in 1 Timothy 4:1 calls a deceiving spirit, what the old KJV called a seducing spirit. Cheng immediately said he’d have nothing further to do with this person with his hidden agenda. 

Delusion
To delude someone is ‘to mislead his or her mind, to deceive.’ Delusion relates to false beliefs and opinions. This is what enemies of genuine Christianity seek to do – and they’re usually mixed up themselves.

Evidently Herod had been a bit like this. When the magi had shared their good news about the new king, he wanted things his way, to keep his own kingship secure. So he sought, sounding so religious and worshipful to deceive the wise men. But they weren’t deluded. 

Christians, who are experienced in their relationship with the Holy Spirit, are well-versed in scripture and know the heart of God, and can recognise deception and delusion have a responsibility to guard others from such misleading religious trickery of mind. Freeing people such as our friend Cheng from those seeking to have their own way by deluding them with their beliefs is essential.

 

Proverbs 22:12 says that ‘God guards knowledge with a passion, but he'll have nothing to do with deception.’ When we hear of God’s word being twisted, misread, misinterpreted, and ‘works programs’ being pushed before God’s grace, let’s quickly reach out with godly passion to help those in danger of being deceived and deluded.

A Text out of Context is a Pretext!

There’s always something that sticks in one’s mind when a great preacher declares something profound. Personally we will never forget the above, made decades ago by an outstanding pioneer of Pentecostal truths.

For me (Robert) it linked perfectly with scriptures the Holy Spirit had burned into my heart three years previous when out-of-the-blue he spoke to my spirit. When he had stunned me by saying clearly that he would use us both to teach God’s word simply but in-depth, challenging Christians and leaders to understand what scripture is really saying, not what they think or suppose, or some ‘new voice’ declares as being ‘the latest thing in God.’

We refer, of course, to 1 and 2 Timothy. The Lord strongly impressed on us to deeply study these two books, to wholeheartedly devour Paul’s warnings about end time lack of hunger for truth in Christians and churches.

Spiritual junk food
In particular, he influenced me about a coming lack of desire for God’s word, a careless Christianity, and burned 1 Tim. 4.7 into my heart: ‘Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion’ and especially 2 Tim.4:2-4, ‘Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don't ever quit. Just keep it simple. You're going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food - catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They'll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages.’

Sadly over the years many Christians have done just that – ran after ‘the latest thing’ and in many cases have been deceived because they themselves haven’t taken time to read and study the word of God. They have fallen for weird so-called doctrines, have not sought a sound Bible-based shepherd’s guidance and have got caught up in wackiness. Unfortunately many end up totally confused and losing a grip on their faith.

Old chestnuts keep coming round... false end time predictions such as Harold Camping’s Judgment Day and Rapture date of May 21quickly followed by a ‘Sorry, it’s October 21.’ And what about last year’s ‘Want the anointing and a miracle? Then join in and do the Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey’? (US version of Hokey Kokey)

The latest we’ve heard about that is causing much confusion and has already led to some losing their faith through going back into worldliness? A wrong teaching about God’s grace.

A current deceit
For decades there’s been a saying: Weird church stuff soon filters from America to other western countries. Sad but true. But even sadder is this...because of wrong teaching and a lack of biblical knowledge among Christians and church leaders, Satan, that old wolf in sheep’s clothing is able to sneak in with destructive corrupted ‘doctrine’ and bamboozle uninitiated ministers and churchgoers alike.

Thank God for great balanced revelatory teachings by anointed preachers that have come from the States over the years but a current one is dangerous! The latest erroneous teaching going around stupidly states that once a person accepts Christ as Saviour they are so under God’s grace they are free to do whatever they want and never have to repent again!

Some naive Christians have foolishly embraced this false teaching. They’ve been told it’s all right to be worldly, have extramarital relationships, smoke, booze and just enjoy life to the full. And ‘Don’t worry – you’re under grace. You don’t have to ever apologise to God or ever repent again. God will overlook everything because you’re under grace.’ More like being under a spell!

Without God’s grace we would really be lost. We’d be condemned by God virtually every day because of wrong thoughts that slip in never mind wrong actions and words spoken in haste, as even the noblest but most honest leader will admit.

The grace of God is so precious. The only WTC Tower 2 actual impact zone survivor, Stanley Praimnath acknowledges God’s grace preserving his life. That’s scriptural, but one aspect of God’s incredible grace. (See ASSIST News Service's September article by Mark Ellis). In respect to grace and forgiveness of sins we must never trifle with scriptures and make them read as we want them to read! They become texts out of context and therefore pretexts!

An old deception
As our good friend Dr Jim McClure says: ‘Such false teaching is a result of “easigesis”, that is, reading one’s own ideas into the biblical text, rather than exegesis, that is, understanding what the text actually says!’

Bible college students, indeed anyone who has studied the Bible know that exegesis means seeking the correct explanation of scripture. Really understanding doctrine, linking and balancing relevant passages and verses before trying to expound that subject. It’s no wonder James warned in James 3:1 ‘Not many of you should presume to be teachers...because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.’

Unfortunately some Christians have been grievously deceived and wandered away from biblical truth through erroneous grace teaching. We can only pray that some friend, soundly balanced in the word, will come alongside and patiently help them back to reality and that they’ll find a church with a quality teaching ministry.

Incidentally this current wrong teaching is not some new ‘latest in-thing’ but one that goes back to the days of the early church and became known as Antinomianism.

We must always ask forgiveness!
The Bible assures us that yes, we are definitely under grace and our sins past, present and future are truly covered by grace. But it also tells me that we’re still only sinners saved by grace and we cannot afford to go on breaking God’s laws! Paul strongly warns in Romans 6:1-2: 'Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?' 

The Message Bible puts it this way: ‘So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there?’

John warns us that sinning is living dangerously before God (1 John 3:4). That if we claim we’re free of sin we’re only fooling ourselves - ‘a claim that is errant nonsense’ (1:8) but, verse 9, ‘On the other hand, if we admit our sins - make a clean breast of them - he won't let us down; he'll be true to himself. He'll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing.’ It’s so clear: If we sin we have to admit it and ask forgiveness afresh!

May every Christian be on guard lest any heresy slips in. Jim McClure’s scholarly new book Grace Revisited is recommended (Email jbmcclure@gmail.com). Discover what grace is really is. Note especially chapter 7!