Deception

By Steve Blackwell

Part 1

Establishing the Fact

Why is it that everyone you talk to, “Christians” that is, thinks they are going to Heaven?
The Bible is very specific about the fact that that isn’t going to happen. But, it doesn’t
matter, who ever you talk to, they’re all going. Now, we have a little problem; either the
Bible is incorrect or a whole lot of people have been deceived into thinking they have it
all squared away and they’re just waiting on the bus. Of course the idea that the Bible is
not the final word and not totally correct is becoming more popular, and the issue of
“having it all squared away” is becoming less controversial; there is a general consensus
that that particular point is settled and we’re O.K., but the other idea, deception, ends up
being the more realistic problem.

Deception, trickery, ruse, sham, fraud, con, cheat, what interesting words. Here again, if
you ask who has been deceived or tricked, the finger will always be pointed at the other
guy, not at ourselves, we are sure we are “saved.” Is it conceivable that so many
Christians are deceived? Who is doing the deceiving? The preachers? The devil? The
government? God? Maybe it is ourselves; Paul says, “…let no one deceive you…” as if
we can only be deceived if we “let” ourselves be deceived. I can understand deception in
the area of un-believers, but we’re talking about “Christians.” Ask anyone who has raised
their hand during a worship service, during the invitation, and they can assure you that
they have their bus token, regardless of how “straight” or small the gate. Who is it then
that the Lord was referring to when he said in Matt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me,
'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven...” Paul, interestingly enough, encouraged
Timothy to “lay hold of eternal life,” creating the notion that it might slip away, or tear
itself loose from its mooring, that even he might be deceived. Deception, a very
interesting word indeed, and one that needs to be comprehended, after all, it could be
soundly stated that we are living in the age of deception, at the end, when all the chips
are on the table and the great contest of wills and wit comes down to “the Lie,” the bluff
that will win the ranch away from so many deceived Christians. But it isn’t just salvation
that is at stake here, it is the whole body of Truth. This is a dangerous time, a time when
we must be able to think straight, and be able to cut through the haze and fog, and discern
Truth.

The Bible instructs us to understand the “signs of the times.” Even professional poker
players, gamblers in the world, make their living knowing how to read signs or “tells”
that enlighten them on how to stay in the game. The overriding principle of winning the
game of poker is to “put all the odds in your favor,” so studying the cards, being able to
read the other players, having discipline, and being consistent, are keys to winning. No
professional poker player thinks poker is a game of chance; if he puts “all” the odds in his
favor he knows he can win. There is something to be learned from their technique. We
can put the odds in our favor by knowing how to read the signs of the times (discernment
Jn. 16:13), by studying Jesus (Heb 12:2-3), looking for the “tells” which expose false
teaching (Matt. 7:20), living a disciplined life in the Lord (walking in the Spirit Gal.
5:16), and by being consistent (faithful Jas. 1:6). We can not allow our salvation to
become a game of “chance.”

Things have been going the way they are at present for an extremely long time. If we are
deceived, when did the deception sneak in? We should be able to look into the past and
discover a point at which the path was departed. At the point of departure is where we
must return. We need to begin with a firm foundation, of belief and doctrine (1Tim. 4:16),
from which we can establish a boundary marker or a base, and then we can determine if
those markers have been moved or tampered with. Once we see where the boundaries
belong we can alter our heading to resume the correct path. Getting back to where we
belong may mean an exercise of extreme faith, saving ourselves and becoming a beacon
of light for those who follow. The laws of inertia have a cementing effect on men,
especially men who have become weak and at rest, and much effort will be involved to
get them moving again, effort directed by the Holy Spirit.

First, we need to establish the fact that it is conceivable that the masses of mankind can
be deceived. If this fact cannot be firmly established then we are wasting a lot of time
looking for something that may not even exist. We talked about discovering the old
surveyor’s marker that determines what the standard should be, the boundary marker that
tells us that we can go this far and no farther. Now we are at the spot where we have to
ask ourselves, “Will I believe what the marker says or will I be enticed to move the
marker and break through the wall into areas I’m not permitted.” The Bible is our
standard; it is the ancient boundary stone that we are forbidden to move at our own hurt.
Hos 5:10 says "The leaders of Judah have become the lowest sort of thieves” as those
who move boundary markers to steal property from their brothers and from the Lord (see
Dt. 19:14, 27:17)

The truth is we have moved it many, many, times over the past two thousand years and
that is why we are wandering in confinement, dreaming of Agape (Divine love),
Koinonia (fellowship), and Ecclesia (the gathering of the saints) but knowing deep inside
we are only deluded. We get the sense of it, the scent of it, like a flower we can’t see, and
we know it exist because we can smell it. It is genuine and it is that yearning, for the real
thing, not the “replica,” which demands that we press forward; it is the smell of our Lord
that we sense and it is He that draws us to Himself. It is Jesus who is the boundary
marker, the standard, and it is He that the Bible speaks of, from beginning to end. Jesus
can be trusted and He Himself cautioned us to, “Take heed that no one deceives you for
many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many”( Matthew
24:4-5).

“ Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many” (v. 11.)
“ For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to
deceive, if possible, even the elect"” (v. 11.)

Note the words Jesus used: ". . . Many will come . . . and will deceive many . . . Many
false prophets will rise up and deceive many." The Greek word polus, translated "many,"
means "many, much, great" (Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New
Testament Words, 1985, "Many"). This deception is clearly massive and widespread.

Who is the real mastermind behind this worldwide deception?

". . . Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing
if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will
be according to their works" (2 Corinthians 11:14-15).

What is the approach of this religious deception?

"But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds
may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches
another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you
have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put
up with it!" 2 Corinthians 11:3-4.

"I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of
Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you
and want to pervert the gospel of Christ" Galatians 1:6-7.

Jesus Christ predicted that some would take His name and claim to represent Him—but
those same people would be deceivers. They would claim to be Christian but would bring
a different message and a counterfeit Christianity.

In Paul's day this movement was well under way. Some were already preaching "another
Jesus" and "a different gospel." Most churches in our time focus on a gospel about Christ
while ignoring the focus of His teaching. Obscuring His intended message, they preach a
gospel that is different from "the Gospel of the kingdom of God" Jesus taught Mark 1:14,
15.

What is the extent of this deception?

"... that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world" Rev
12:9

“…and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so
that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But
after these things he must be released for a little while” Rev 20:3.
“Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and
will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and
Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea…” Rev
20:7-9.

“Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived
the inhabitants of the earth” Rev 13:14.

Who is involved in this deception?

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of
Christ" 2 Corinthians 11:13.

Within only a few years after Jesus Christ's death, people began to distort and
misrepresent His message. When two decades had barely passed, the apostle Paul warned
congregations about "false apostles," telling them that he had already suffered at the
hands of "false brethren" 2 Corinthians 11:13,26. These deceivers came in Christ's name,
but they led many astray with their distorted message. By the time we reach AD68 Jesus
is telling John that if the Church did not do its first works over their candle stick would be
removed. The social gospel had been born and was gaining a life of its own, a child of
deception, and the offspring of Satan. The social gospel was no threat to Rome because
they were of the same family. These new believers could worship their god without the
risk of persecution, just like the church in America and Europe.

In the face of real persecution the newly established “Body of Christ” grew at an
astounding rate. Within 300 years nearly the whole known world had been Christianized.
All of this took place as Satan and his demons were lighting up the Roman Empire with
the bodies of Christians, turned into human torches; while hungry lions gorged
themselves on the members of Christ’s body; while Christians hid in caves and
catacombs and fled for their lives into the vast reaches of the then known world, carrying
with them the news of God’s immense love, His Kingdom come to earth, as exhibited
through the living Body of Christ, the Church. In A.D. 311 the Emperor Constantine
declared the Roman Empire a Christian nation and established Christianity as the
state religion. Did you catch that? Now, believing became easy, as the cost was reduced
and persecution stopped. The doors were swung wide and the pews became packed with
unbelievers anxious to partake of this free lunch. The numbers grew steadily, for awhile.
(Today, in this same area of the world, Christianity has been reduced to just a handful of
believers and persecution is on the rise.) Now building the church was something men
did. Men sanctioned it, men sponsored it, and men built it, with earthly materials. It was
decided by men that building, maintaining, and spreading Christianity was something
best accomplished by trained experts. Jesus was no longer the living head of the church
body but rather the absentee landlord who has become a symbolical figurehead of the
new church organization. The Body of Christ had become an organization instead of the
living organism that characterized the early church of the Book of Acts. Only rumors and
spotty second hand accounts remained to identify this new church with the power of the
Holy Spirit displayed in the form of gifts and miracles and supernatural love. The church,
as warned by Jesus Christ, was now in the hands of its captors.

An historical account taken from Schaff’s History of the Church

\Volume Three - From Constantine the Great to Gregory the Great (A.D. 311-
590)\NICENE AND POST-NICENE CHRISTIANITY (A.D. 311-590)\1. Introduction and
General View. -

§ 1. Introduction and General View.

“From the Christianity of the Apostles and Martyrs we proceed to the Christianity of the
Patriarchs and Emperors.”

“The third period of the history of the Church, which forms the subject of this volume,
extends from the emperor Constantine to the pope Gregory I.; from the beginning of the
fourth century to the close of the sixth. During this period Christianity still moves, as in
the first three centuries, upon the geographical scene of the Graeco-Roman empire and
the ancient classical culture, the countries around the Mediterranean Sea. But its field and
its operation are materially enlarged, and even touch the barbarians on the limit of the
empire. Above all, its relation to the temporal power, and its social and political position
and import, undergo an entire and permanent change. We have here to do with the
church of the Graeco-Roman empire, and with the beginning of Christianity among the
Germanic barbarians. Let us glance first at the general character and leading events of
this important period.”

“The reign of Constantine the Great marks the transition of the Christian religion from
under persecution by the secular government to union with the same; the beginning of
the state-church system. The Graeco-Roman heathenism, the most cultivated and
powerful form of idolatry, which history knows, surrenders, after three hundred years'
struggle, to Christianity, and dies of incurable consumption, with the confession:
Galilean, thou hast conquered! The ruler of the civilized world lays his crown at the feet
of the crucified Jesus of Nazareth. The successor of Nero, Domitian, and Diocletian
appears in the imperial purple at the council of Nice as protector of the church, and takes
his golden throne at the nod of bishops, who still bear the scars of persecution. The
despised sect, which, like its Founder in the days of His humiliation, had not where to lay
its head, is raised to sovereign authority in the state, enters into the prerogatives of the
pagan priesthood, grows rich and powerful, builds countless churches out of the stones of
idol temples to the honor of Christ and his martyrs, employs the wisdom of Greece and
Rome to vindicate the foolishness of the cross, exerts a molding power upon civil
legislation, rules the national life, and leads off the history of the world. But at the same
time the church, embracing the mass of the population of the empire, from the Caesar to
the meanest slave, and living amidst all its institutions, received into her bosom vast
deposits of foreign material from the world and from heathenism, exposing herself to new
dangers and imposing upon herself new and heavy labors.”
“The union of church and state extends its influence, now healthful, now baneful, into
every department of our history.”

“The Christian life of the Nicene and post-Nicene age reveals a mass of worldliness
within the church; an entire abatement of chiliasm with its longing after the return of
Christ and his glorious reign, and in its stead an easy repose in the present order of
things; with a sublime enthusiasm, on the other hand, for the renunciation of self and the
world, particularly in the hermitage and the cloister, and with some of the noblest heroes
of Christian holiness.”

“Monasticism, in pursuance of the ascetic tendencies of the previous period, and in

opposition to the prevailing secularization of Christianity, sought to save the virgin purity
of the church and the glory of martyrdom by retreat from the world into the wilderness;
and it carried the ascetic principle to the summit of moral heroism, though not rarely to
the borders of fanaticism and brutish stupefaction. It spread with incredible rapidity and
irresistible fascination from Egypt over the whole church, east and west, and received the
sanction of the greatest church teachers, of an Athanasius, a Basil, a Chrysostom, an
Augustine, a Jerome, as the surest and shortest way to heaven.
It soon became a powerful rival of the priesthood, and formed a third order, between the
priesthood and the laity. The more extraordinary and eccentric the religion of the
anchorets and monks, the more they were venerated among the people. The whole
conception of the Christian life from the fourth to the sixteenth century is pervaded with
the ascetic and monastic spirit, and pays the highest admiration to the voluntary celibacy,
poverty, absolute obedience, and excessive self-punishments of the pillar-saints and the
martyrs of the desert; while in the same degree the modest virtues of every-day household
and social life are looked upon as an inferior degree of morality.”

Today we have reached the pinnacle of pride and human glory in the man-made church
and it is identified with a totally outward appearance but utterly lacking of inward
substance. In the preface to his book The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer says the
reason for writing the book was “called forth by a condition which has existed in the
Church for some years and is steadily growing worse.” “Modern Christianity is simply
not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the
spirit.” “...The churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several
hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses
wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal
conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field.”
When we look for the church today it can be found in these outward characteristics of
architecture, religious symbolism, or the increase of knowledge and intelligence. Mans
seeking “his own” glory is at the root of the problem. Their earth bound desire to unlock
Holy Scripture reflects a similar incident, involving the Pharisees, related in Matt. 22:29
“You error, not knowing scripture, or the power of God.” If we are not seeing God’s
results from God’s Word then we are in ERROR and deceived. Even the disciples, after
three years of teaching had to be rebuked for their unbelief. It wasn’t because they didn’t
understand what they were told; it was because they did not believe what Christ said. “O
fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken” Lk. 24:25-27. All
the theological schools and universities and man made churches are filled to the hilt with
deceived “Christians” trying to determine what God means in His word. Almost ninety
times in the New Testament alone, an appeal is made to readers to just believe what “is
written,” as if everything was simple enough to understand if you wanted to. Pride, self-
will, self-deception, and rebellion against what “is written” are the causes of the Bible
being hard to understand.

The Body of Christ today has become the invisible church, only to be found by very few.
Today, as never before, it has become very apparent that all the building of our modern
Tower of Babel has failed. The sheep have scattered and are lost and hungry and listening
for a voice from heaven. Jesus promised that His sheep would hear His voice and would
follow Him. The Good Shepard’s voice is being heard now, even though faintly, calling
His sheep out of the dark. “My sheep know my voice….”

We have come to the end of this first section establishing the fact that it is possible that
what we see all around us, and much that relates to the Church, may be a deception.

Part 2

What are the Facts?

Stay tuned