FOUR WAYS CHRISTIANS ARE BEING DECEIVED

The Repackaged Lie

Satan is brilliantly clever at taking age-old lies, disguising them in subtlety, and gradually introducing them to even those who insist that they believe in the infallible authority of the Bible. Examples of lies the Enemy has deceived us with are all the various ways we are obsessed with “Self”; the numerous techniques of “Christianized” sorcery and divination within the Church; and the many issues and fads designed to give us a “Tower of Babel” vision for global unity. Ancient paganism infiltrates society and the church via psychology, mysticism, the human potential movement, and motivational training.

The ultimate in Selfism is the lie of salvation by works. The world is being united by a false vision of doing “good”… “making a difference”. Nothing is more important than who Jesus is and what is the Gospel that saves. Salvation is by grace through faith alone in Christ alone. And yet increasingly Evangelicals are minimizing the Gospel that saves and promoting good works in its place, yoking with Catholicism, Muslims, Mormons, and Masons.

“Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3) The Serpent’s lie begins with the questioning of God’s word. For centuries the Bible was burned. For centuries the scholarship of Bible doubt has promoted a distrust in the validity of the Bible.

Blurred Distinctions

Not only is Satan the “Father of lies”, but he is also the “Author of confusion”. It is getting harder and harder to tell the difference between neo-paganism and the liberal church; or between the liberal church and Evangelical Christianity. The message and the priorities of the Church are becoming indistinguishable from the World. Books by M. Scott Peck, for example, are found in both Christian bookstores and New Age/Occult bookstores. These books teach that humans are evolving to godhood; that we must become “mystics” and use Eastern meditation; and they advocate a one-world government.

Unequal Yoking

Christian leaders and Christian organizations are more and more yoking themselves with unbiblical, pagan groups and movements which set the followers up for synthesis, syncretism and compromise of doctrine and priorities. What fellowship does light have with darkness? These unholy alliances are often taking place in the name of “traditional family values” and involve relationships between Evangelicals, Roman Catholicism, Mormons, Muslims, and Moonies; or, the alliances involve solving the problems of “Mother Earth” in association with various make a perfect society global vision movements.

A major way that unequal yoking is engineered is by Satan working both sides of every worldly, fleshly conflict. Extremists are used to force people in the opposite direction. Boys who cry wolf are used to dull the masses’ understanding. Opposites in conflict are used to polarize people as described by Machiavelli and G.W.F Hegel, including professing Christians. Strange bedfellows are produced. Sadducees and Pharisees unite against Jesus. Groups are merged. Satan controls both sides. The opposites are synthesized. The world system moves toward the rule of the counterfeit Christ.

Following Gurus

The final way in which Christians are being deceived is very much related to the first three. We are much more likely, these days, to not refer to our Bible for our convictions and world- view, but instead to follow the opinions of leaders we look up to. In these days of “Christian Mass Media”, Celebrity Ministers are likely to draw our attention and our allegiance. It is a dangerous thing to set up Gurus within the Body of Christ who are beyond criticism.

“Touch not the Lord’s anointed!” we are told when the Guru’s doctrine or behavior is questioned, which is a reference to 1 Samuel 24 and 26. In those references, David was referring to not KILLING Saul. He was not forbidding CRITICISM of Saul. In fact, David himself rebukes Saul publicly.

In these last days we cannot afford to follow human leaders as if they were Gurus; whether they be Rick Warren, Dr. Dobson, Bill Gothard, C.S. Lewis, Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, Timothy Keller, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, or Francis Chan, or leaders who jump on a media bandwagon, or celebrity musicians, or New Apostolic Reformation “Prophets”, or Emergent Church leaders, or billionaire entrepreneurs, or demagogic politicians.

We are to be disciples of Jesus, and Him alone.

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Our only hope to not be deceived in these last days is to “abide in the vine”; to surrender our hearts moment by moment to the Holy Spirit; to be Acts 17 “Bereans” and filter everything through the written Word of God; and to be lovers of the Truth.

“Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

2 Thessalonians 2:9-12

Lucifer, the Garden of Eden, & the Tower of Babel

Roman Catholic Empire

The Scholarship of Bible Doubt

Questions for Christians About Psychology

The False Gospel of Self Esteem

Contemplative Spirituality

Emergent Church Movement

The Evangelical Subculture

Counterfeit Christs: Is your pastor a one-man show?

Professing Evangelical Christians are effectively becoming Unitarians.

Political Action – Social Activism 

Machiavelli and How Rulers Think

THE NEW WORLD ORDER – Part II

A HISTORY OF ANTI-CHRIST

We Are In the Time of the Fourth Beast