Deception is rampant (New York, NY)

Deception is rampant

More deadly than COVID is the plague of lies and deception. This fatal disease infects everyone in the world in one way or another. It is not limited to politicians rulers and famous people. Some marriages and relationships can t escape this deadly grip either. It is in churches synagogues and places of worship. It has become the fabric of advertising documentaries and entertainment it is in all areas of our lives. People receive phone calls from scammers telling them lies to steal their identity and hard-earned money every day. Some husbands and wives tell lies to cover adulterous relationships and other secret problems such as addiction to pornography drugs or gambling. The Church and its leaders have not escaped its tentacles. Pastors preachers teachers and followers deceive when the truth is not convenient or cuts across their desires or traditions they do not teach the word of God they teach the traditions and commandments of men. Cult leaders weave truth and lies to create false religions. Why is this Religion is one of the four hidden dynasties of Satan is why. Satan does some of his best work from a pulpit. Education politics and economics are the other three hidden dynasties of Satan. Watch the daily news and see for yourself how each of these areas are in the news and being affected in a negative way constantly.The Anti-Christ-The Ultimate DelusionPaul reveals why people (including church members) are easily deceived. He addresses the Thessalonian church concerning the last days and the Anti-Christ (son of perdition [Satan] lawless one). The Anti-Christ uses lies and deception to fool the people into following Him because they don t love the truth many are afraid of Gods truth. The pleasure of sin and convenience sets them up in a mindless state for strong delusion.2 Thessalonians 2 9 Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders 2 Thessalonians 2 10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved.2 Thessalonians 2 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie 2 Thessalonians 2 12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Sadly God s truth is not respected mainly because it is inconvenient as one politician put it concerning the environment. Who deceives the whole world Revelation 12 9 And the great dragon was cast out that old serpent called the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world he was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him.Both Jesus and His disciples cautioned the church against lies and deception concerning His return. Jesus had just told the disciples that the temple would be destroyed. They connected the destruction of the massive temple with the return of Jesus. But Jesus was more concerned about deception than brick and mortar. The first words out of Jesus mouth were cautions about deception regarding His return. He used the word deceive four times. The entire subject of Matthew s chapter 24 is to provide clarity about the signs of His return and His main emphasis was deception will run rampant.Matthew 24 4 And Jesus answered and said unto them Take heed that no man deceive you.Matthew 24 5 For many shall come in my name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many.Matthew 24 11 And many false prophets shall rise and shall deceive many.Matthew 24 24 For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect. Deception is the Fuel That Propels Satan s Devices.Deception is one of the major areas in which Satan operates in other words that s his primary strategy. Furthermore that s exactly what he used in order to get both Adam and Eve to sin against God in the garden of Eden (Genesis 3 4). His main goal is to influence men to believe in something untrue even though they may have already known the truth. After that men have constantly found themselves in a horrible mess struggling with a raging sinful nature which gives many an intense desire to rebel against God. Consequently that aggravates the problem much further because of that sinful nature men can t control on their own. This then makes them more prone to fall into the devil s traps to destroy every aspect of their lives. This sinful nature gives the enemy a legal right to deceive men and hold them captive indefinitely unless something powerful is done in their lives by God through Christ in order to reverse that sinful tendency men have. It s true that the enemy doesn t know what s going on in men s minds however he knows how they will react under certain circumstances. Why He s been doing it for several thousand years (since the first Earth age). He has developed great skills in manipulating enticing and provoking people to do what he wants them to do. He knows men s weaknesses and he uses that as an opportunity not only to deceive them but to keep them in bondage for as long as he can. Satan Uses Deception as an Influence to Keep Men From Coming to Christ.As God s children we all had been living under his influence at some point in our life. He was our master we were living a wretched out of control wicked and desperate life as a result. The things that are repulsive to us now by the grace of God are the exact same things that we used to indulge in. Shockingly we d been quite comfortable doing them because we d been blinded completely by the devil. It s notable that whenever people are offered with the message of the gospel sometimes some of them say they are not ready for it now or they have plenty of time just as though they have a strong hold on the future others despise and mock it. As Apostle Paul states in (1 Corinthians 1 18) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. People in their blindness even claim that the gospel s message is something only the uneducated would believe in. They come up with all kinds of lame excuses in order to give some form of justification as to why they re not willing to accept Christ as their Savior. The truth is that the more you resist Christ the more the enemy is holding you captive. By the way that doesn t change the reality that you re moving toward your eternal fate. While men are ignorant or don t want to acknowledge that they have an enemy they have to run away from as quickly as possible but their ignorance has no impact on his destructive plan for their lives. The devil is working day and night while men are playing around with their eternity. Satan is very active in the field of deception because almost everything that he s doing is based completely on it. Embracing the Truth Which is Found in Christ is The Only Hope Men Have. Jesus says in (John 8 32) Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. This Scripture clearly indicates that if you don t know the truth or don t want to acknowledge the truth which Christ is the very embodiment of you are bound by an external force or you re a slave of deception. There is no doubt about that people can know the truth while still being held captive by the enemy. What really sets people free is the knowledge of the truth or embracing the truth wholeheartedly. Satan through sinful pleasures deception false religions along with false doctrine keeps men completely from acknowledging the truth that can set them free. Interestingly the devil doesn t have much of a problem with people believing in whatever they like to believe in but his main problem is with the truth. Consequently as long as men keep on living in such a horrible state by refusing to accept the truth that comes from God through Christ by His Spirit they ll never be able to make the right decision regarding their eternity. We re dealing with absolute and eternal truth. Therefore people can believe in anything they want to but that s pretty much futile because it has absolutely no impact on God s truth. Most importantly people s eternity will be determined based on the truth laid out in the Word of God. If there is one absolute way something can be done you can try all means as you want to. But apart from that way you re going to experience failure upon failure. The same analogy applies to divine truth. Believing in something untrue will not convert it into truth. The devil is so effective in keeping men in error they can t even grasp the truth that one day they will spend their eternity somewhere. Therefore the choice they make right now determines where they ll end up being. Clearly if men had really understood how valuable their soul is they would have run away from Satan a long time ago by coming to God. Satan is known as the father of lies according to Jesus (John 8 44) because that s consistent with whom he really is. There can t be any truth in him because he s disconnected to the source of truth that is God. As humans who have that wonderful opportunity to be saved and develop an intimate relationship with God through Christ shouldn t allow a loser who has absolutely no future to get us off track or to keep us completely away from God s plan and purpose for our life. The undeniable truth is that our life is far more important than the enemy s life because God has placed an eternal value on our life that He hasn t placed on Satan s life. How do you avoid deception and being deceived Study God s word cover to cover book by book chapter by chapter and verse by verse. How else will you know what is in God s word if you do not study it completely Connect the dots and get a much more complete picture. We are commanded to study see 2 Timothy 2 15 in a KJV Bible. What is truth See John 17 17 in a KJV Bible. God s word is the only place you can find truth always. You have to be extremely careful in other places such as news outlets they will only tell you what they want you to know. They will try to lead your opinion and beliefs in a specific direction they will deceive you if you allow it. Deception is everywhere Food for thought Another of Satan s tactics is to use our love for another to get us to go against the plan of God an example follows. Matthew 16 21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. (Jesus explained to His disciples about what was going to happen to Him and that He would be killed by the religious political leaders. It was written long ago and Christ knew it would happen that way. Where was it written Psalm 22 tells all about the crucifixion of Christ and Isaiah 53. Hebrews 2 14 and Hebrews 10 tell why Christ was crucified). Matthew 16 22 Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto thee. (Peter was allowing his love for Christ to go against the prophecy about Messiah. He knew better He just did not want to accept it. Jesus had been warning them for a while about what was ahead for Him. Sometimes its hard to accept what is ahead in our lives but if we look to Christ He will see us through even the toughest times).Matthew 16 23 But he turned and said unto Peter Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men. (Jesus was actually speaking to Satan not Peter. Peter was being influenced by Satan here and was only thinking from a human point of view not from God s point of view. How often are we influenced by Satan We need to keep focused on Christ and think more spiritually rather than worldly and in the flesh).