(Ver 1.3)  This is Part 1 of a series of lessons on the subject of deception found in the Bible.  Today I want to discuss how Satan causes people not to see the truth of God’s Word.  It is a common practice in military training for Generals and commanders to study their enemies.  By understanding an enemies strengths and weaknesses you are better able to defend against them or better yet to defeat them.  The more you know about your enemies the better off you are.   So does the church have any enemies?  You must be an ostrich Christian with your spiritual head stuck in the ground if you do not see that we do.  There is a spiritual force of evil in the world that is bent on taking the church down.  They have specific tactics and tools that they use to try to defeat the church.  We know that the Bible says that we “wrestle not against flesh and blood” so we know that people are not the source of our opposition, even though Satan does use people to try to get to us.  We know that those forces of evil that we fight against are the “principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world” (Eph 6:12).  So just because flesh and blood comes against the church with accusations and verbal or physical attacks, these people are controlled by a spiritual force that we cannot perceive with our physical senses.

2Ti 2:26  And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken  captive by him at his will.

We can understand that Satan, our enemy uses “snares” to come against us.  A snare is a trap, a trick or strategy that causes us to become captive or a prisoner.   If every trap was obvious, we would never be caught.  So these traps must be hidden or covered so that we do not see them clearly.  I believe that Satan’s primary weapon is the deception of thoughts that are placed in our minds.  What is deception and how it is used against us, will be my subject for today.  Let’s start by defining the word “deceived” from the Bible:

G4105

From G4106; to (properly cause to) roam (from safety, truth, or virtue): – go astray, deceive, err, seduce, wander, be out of the way.

That is a very interesting definition for the word “deceived” found in the N.T.   This word means to “cause to wander or roam from safety, truth or virtue”.     If you have ever been hiking in the woods, you know that usually there are designated trails and established pathways.   However, if you become adventuresome, and attempt to deviate and make your own way, this is normally where your failure and deception begins.   Many times a path will have a fork in it and if it is not clearly marked you better have a good map.  Sometimes walking down a path you encounter what looks like a good way to go and it suddenly turns into a dead end.  When I was younger, my wife and I started climbing a mountain in Colorado.  It took a good part of the day to get to the top.  We did this on a whim and were not planning on being gone as long as we were.  We took no food or water and on the way back down the mountain decided to try to take a short cut.  If this short cut would have worked, we would have been back to camp in time for dinner.  However, we ran into a cliff and a steep terrain that there was just no way to continue.   So we ended up going back up the way we came and finally back the way we climbed up.  This little analogy has vast spiritual implication on it.  Jesus told us that he is the “Path”, “The Way” and He revealed there is no other way to God (John 14:6).  So where did all of these other religions in the world come from?  Who gave us these religions and why are they here?  You do know there are well over 20 major religions in the world and within these 20 or more religions there are further divisions or sects and all of these just cannot be the truth.  The variation in what they believe and teach is so radically different that there is no way they are even related.  This is what I believe about these religions, and why they exist.  I believe they are an attempt of the enemy to provide information overload.  By providing you so many options and so many possible ways of thinking you are easily overwhelmed to know which one is right.  How do you know which one to choose?  So God comes to the earth and gives you the truth and tells you that Jesus is the way, but all of the other religions of the world say no, that is not right, we have the only truth.  Wow, what a trick!  What a major distraction!   What a way to get people to not see the real way!  Who is responsible for all these lies?  The Bible tells us very clearly, that there is one individual, a spirit being that is responsible for this dissemination of invalid and false information and it is Satan:

Rev 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.

So we can clearly see that the “great dragon” who is called Satan is responsible for the deception that is being perpetrated upon the human race.  People are being led down paths away from the truth and in directions that are directly opposite from the truth, into a realm of darkness and they do not even know it.  These deceptions are being instigated at every level and every location on the globe.  Satan is interested in deceiving everyone, because why?  Is Satan just a really bad guy who does evil just because he can, or is there a greater motivation and purpose to his behavior?   You should really think about that question and determine Satan’s motivation, since that is not my primary subject I will not try to elaborate on it for now.  However, I will talk about a related subject and mention this:

2Jn 1:7  For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

We have already seen that Satan is the chief initiator of all deception.  However, as I said before, Satan uses people to get his messages out.  Satan is a spiritual being that controls and manipulates natural people.  So we have people, even in churches today that stand up and teach things that are lies.  Here is one of the ways to determine if they are telling the truth or not.  It would seem that Satan is highly opposed to letting people believe that God came into the world in the flesh, in the form of a man named Jesus of Nazareth.   Why is Satan so opposed to this message?  Did God’s presence on the earth cause something to happen to Satan that Satan wants to try to undo?   Let me ask you this, if I said that the Holocaust never happened in Germany like some idiots try to say in the world, does that mean it is not true?   No it doesn’t change the fact that it occurred just because you don’t believe it occurred, does it?   But, what happens is it changes your perception of reality and therefore it changes your results and you lose any benefit of believing the truth, because you have bought into the lie.  This is the net result of telling people God did not come to the earth in the man Jesus Christ.   By telling people that Jesus was just a normal human male, you take away His ability to save you and forgive your sins.  As a result you are lost with no hope of salvation and that is really bad news for you.

So this next part will not be particularly popular with some Christians, but yet I believe it needs to be said.  Deception involves someone speaking false words.   False words is a nicer way of saying lies.   A liar is a deceiver.   A deceiver is a liar.  They go hand in hand.  Where one is, the other is also present.  They are the Siamese twins of Satan.

Joh 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Jesus speaking to the Jews reveals some very strong words of truth, and says they are of their father, the devil.   Since that is not my subject I will not go there today.  Then Jesus tells us that Satan is the father of all lies.   That is just another way of saying that Satan is the initiator of lies.  However, it is interesting to note that not everything that Satan says is necessarily a lie.  Jesus said “When Satan lies” not “When Satan speaks”.  There is a major difference.   It also makes deception much harder to recognize.   When Satan speaks 10 truths mixed with one or two lies, how do you know which is which?  If you notice back in Genesis 3, when Satan spoke to Eve he said some things that were true, but then he also mixed in a lie.  This is how Satan operates, mixing truths with lies so that you become deceived into believing the lie.  Here is a definition of one of the Greek words translated as “lie”:

G5574

Middle voice of an apparently primary verb; to utter an untruth or attempt to deceive by falsehood: – falsely, lie.

To utter an untruth.  In other words to speak a lie.  What is truth?  Truth is based upon the Word of God, because the Bible says that it is impossible for God to lie (Heb 6:18).  So God only speaks the truth.   What God says we can take as the truth.  The Bible contains the truth of God, but not everything in the Bible is truth.  That statement shocks some Christians also, but you have to understand when you watch the 6:00 evening news, is everything that they say or report true?  What if they interview a known criminal and he says I’m innocent, I did not kill that woman.  Should you believe it just because it was on the news?   So it is with the Bible, not every recorded word or statement of men and women in the Bible is the truth.  It is true that they said what they said, but it did come out of the mouth of God so why are we suppose to believe it all?  Job said some stuff that God reprimanded him for and asked him, were you there when I made the heavens and formed the stars?  If you read Job 38:2 God says “Who is this that darkens counsel with words without knowledge”.  That doesn’t sound very good for Job’s words, does it?   We have the recorded words of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar Ananias,  Pilot, just to name a few men who were not saved, nor were they prophets of God.  So truth come from verses that say “Thus saith the Lord”.  Truth comes from the Words in Red in the N.T.  Also truth comes from the mouth of God’s prophets.

So a lie is an untruth.  A statement not based upon facts or clear evidence.  A lie is a statement of “fiction”.   That is why I avoid reading books labeled “fiction”.  They are the words of someone’s imagination, either based upon some facts or no facts.  We are surrounded by Fictional movies, books and other examples of entertainment that challenge our Christian faith.  There is so much of this in the world today that it is amazing we can think at all.  Satan is the author and originator of “fiction”, “untruth”, “lies” and “deception”.   That is why I debate the fact that some authors call themselves “Christian Fiction Writers”.  To me that is just another oxymoronic term for a true lie.   I told you this was not going to be popular, but we need to consider what we feed on.  Just as we should watch we eat physically, we should also watch what we put into our spirits.  Here is a scripture that confirms this:

2Ti 4:4  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

This verse is speaking about Christians who knew the truth at one time, but have now followed fables.   The Greek word translated as “fables” means “myths”, “tales” and “fiction”.   Do you see the danger of “fiction”?   Satan can use it to lead you off of the path of eternal salvation back into a path of darkness.  That just can’t be good, right?

1Ti 1:4  Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith:

We are again warned of the introduction of “fiction” into our lives that results in us questioning our faith.  This verse tells us that truth “edifies” or “builds up our faith” and we can clearly see that “fiction” does the opposite.

2Pe 1:16  For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Cunningly devised “fiction” will lead some into paths they do not want to go.  To say something is “cunning” and “devised” means that it is purposely designed to lie to you and bring you down.  In other words fiction is more than just entertainment, it has a purpose and a design intended to do harm to you and to deceive you.    You can certainly see why this is not popular, but yet it is in the Bible, so what do we do with it?

So is deception becoming less prevalent or is deception in the world growing?  Are there less options or are the number of possible lies being exponentially increased in our daily lives?   I believe that with the advent of the internet and the information explosion era that we are living within, we are faced with an increasingly difficult levels of deceptions.  Sometimes the false information is blatant and obvious, but other times it is subtle and very tricky to see.  There is such a diverse set of false information on the internet and TV, that it is very difficult for most people to figure out what is real.  This is what the Bible says about deception:

2Ti 3:13  But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

The amount of deception in the world is increasingly growing at a rate that is difficult to comprehend.  The number of ways to be deceived, the number of ways that lies are presented are exploding on TV, movies, the internet and the other media sources, that there is no way to keep track of it all anymore.   If a Christian wanted to discredit all of them they would not be able to.  What Christians need to understand is that we are not called to teach against lies, we are just called to present the truth.  Those who believe will be saved and those who do not believe, will not be saved (Mark 16:16).

Eph 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Just as natural children are more easily tricked than adults, spiritual children are more easily deceived than mature Christians.   We are admonished to grow up spiritually and to become mature in Christ.   Otherwise we will be tossed around easily with the trickery of Satan.  You do know that Satan has been around a lot longer than you have, don’t you?  You do understand that he has more experience with what to do, than you do.  So if you are depending upon your ability to deflect the lies that he will present you, you are already deceived.  In this verse in Ephesians God tells us not to accept every teaching that is thrown at us.  I found the word “sleight” of men to be very interesting when I looked up the definition.  It means “dice”, or “a gambling cube”.  The implication is given that these men are gambling with your lives and theirs.  They are rolling their cubes and playing a game that is not easily won.  The next term in the verse is that of “cunning craftiness”.   This term means to be “subtle”.   If you recall this is the way Satan came to Eve in Genesis 3.  Satan used specific thoughts to deceive the woman and that is Satan’s only weapon against you.  All Satan has to do is trick you a little bit, distract you from the truth by just a minor difference and you are now off the true path.

Rom 16:18  For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

This verse is so amazingly true to our world that we live in, that I am shocked at the reality of our current government.  We seem to have a President who speaks “fair” words that have deceived the hearts of the simple minded people of our nation.   He says one thing and does an entirely different thing.  Simple refers again to those who are not mature, those who are not grown up.  To those who are still childlike.  It is amazing how many people qualify for this labeled description.   It is a very sad statement to the condition of our nation.

Flattering Words, Cleverly Designed Fables, Subtle Words of Deception, these are the tricks of the enemy, Satan.  He overwhelms you with information that is contrary to the truth that you have difficulty recognizing the truth.  The tricks of the enemy are the same as when Eve was deceived, the words and the number of words is the only difference depending upon your situation and circumstances.  Learn to recognize deception and choose not to be deceived.

If you would like to continue reading in this lesson series on this subject of deception, you can go to “Part 2“.

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