(Ver 1.0) This is now Part 5 in the study series concerning Understanding the Book of Revelation. If you have not read this series from the beginning, it is highly recommended that you begin with “Part 1” first. Very little past detailed information will be repeated again. In the last lessons we have been analyzing the puzzling questions about the book of Revelation, about why one Pastor “A” moved from a Futurist, Premillennial, Mid-Trib View to be led by the Spirit to a Pre-Trib View Perspective? And at the same time during the period of the last 20 years, we need to ask why another Pastor “M”, shifted from a Futurist, Pre-Millennial, Pre-Trib View to now believe in a brand-new recently created view in 1990 called “Pre-Wrath”.

And this new view is nothing but a recently revised and updated variation of the older 1940s “Mid-Trib” Rapture View. We should be asking what would cause one Pastor to go in one direction and the other Pastor to go in the opposite direction? Where is the Unity of the Spirit in these two opposing shifts?

I have become a firm believer after diligently studying the Bible for 35+ years and thousands of hours, that having so many views of the Book of Revelation for them all to be Truthful, is impossible. Especially for them all to be an accurate and truthful understanding of God’s point of View, because:

1. Each View Directly Contradict with the Other Views
2. The existence of so Many Views Causes Confusion and Chaos in Determining a United Truth
3. All of these Views being Taught Causes Division in the Body of Christ called the Church
4. So Many View choices Causes Strife, Argument and Debate which is a distracting Misuse of Time for Teachers to deal with.
5. Differing Beliefs in so Many views Causes some Christians to not walk in Love toward their spiritual Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
6. So many views existing, initiates name calling labeling Pastors and Teachers as False Prophets or Teachers usually by the spiritually immature Christians
7. Most of the Views have too Much of Human Reasoning and Not very much of Spiritual Blessings, Application or Benefits.
8. Many of the Views Include Private Interpretations External from the Word of God
9. Many of the Views Contain Scriptural Conflicts with other Verses that must be Explained Away or Ignored

These are just a few problems I have observed within the Body of Christ and their Views on Revelation. And here is a List of things that Must be Applied.

1. We must always attempt to take the Word of God as being Literal as if the Spirit of God knew what He was saying.
2. We must use the Word of God to Interpret the Word of God, believing God will explain the Words Himself.
3. We must Resolve ALL Scriptural conflict and Not Ignore them.
4. We must Understand that God Never Contradicts Himself, it is only our Human Understanding that is limited to not see how to balance everything for a resolution of the conflict.
5. We must Pay Attention to Every little Detail in Scripture including:
6. Determine the Speaker
7. Determine the Intended Audience
8. Determine the Subject Being Discussed in Context
9. Determine the Timing of the Message, and Timing of the potential Fulfillment; either Past, Present or Future.
10. Determine the Reason for Every Word Selected and how it relates to other verses in the Bible.
11. Determine the Meaning of Every Word in the Scripture from God’s Viewpoint
12. Determine the Application and Who it Applies to.
13. Always Allow the Holy Spirit to Create a Balance of every Scripture.
14. And Most importantly Be Led by the Spirit and Not our own Human Reasoning (Gal 5:18, Prov 3:5).

Therefore, we are going to follow the Holy Spirit and obey His rules of interpretations that we have covered previously and trust Him to lead us into all Truth as He promised He would in Psalm 25:5 and John 16:13. If you are ready, let’s get restarted again on the subject of Deception to continue our study series on the book of Revelation. And today we are going to focus upon what Jesus warned us in the Gospels about the days we are living within right now.

Introduction to Deception
Making the Words of Jesus our Top Priority

Here are two of our beginning Foundational Verses for today’s lesson:

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.

As you can clearly see, Jesus is warning His disciples and this applies to us all, about “Deception”. And He specifically speaks of individuals coming in His Name saying they are Christ. We will address this more in Context but for now notice the Key Word “Deceive”. This is the Greek Word G4105 Planao. This is our specific subject today. And this Greek Word Planao occurs twice in our 2 verses. And later we will learn it also occurs 8 times in the book of Revelation.

And we need to understand that All of these verses in the New Testament were written in Greek by God’s sovereign choice, and not in the Hebrew Language written by Hebrews for the Old Covenant. Perhaps that last statement was confusing for some. The New Testament was written by a majority of Hebrew writers that spoke Hebrew and were previously participants in the Old Covenant only. But that is not the language it was chosen by God to be written in. This is a very important concept that is teaching us a shift of priority for God, by Him departing completely from the predominant Old Covenant Language of Hebrew.

This appears to indicate a strong transition of God’s focus from the single Nation of Natural Israel to now reach His message to an entire Globe of Nations. We are Confirming God’s transition of reaching the World containing all of the uncircumcised Gentile nations according to the flesh. Greek was the language of almost the entire world in those days for commerce and almost everyone needed to speak Greek in order to Buy and Sell. And that knowledge appears to connect us to Revelation in a future lesson with the Mark of the Beast.

Therefore today, we are taking our time to study the subject of “Deception” as God chose to sovereignly write it into the Gospels and New Testament. You are going to find out very quickly if you are not familiar with this Bible study site, that most teachings are written topically. Every series is focused upon an individual subject, either of a basic or an advanced topic that should be understood before attempting to understand the more complex parts of the Bible, like Revelation. Therefore, in a study of a main subject like Revelation, we are going to need to dive deep into several other topics and “Deception” is one of these key subjects that needs to be understood because of the apparent number of vast untruths being taught about the book of Revelation today.

Therefore, to accomplish a strong building foundation we are going to need to go back to other books of the Bible like Genesis, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21 and potentially many others first, to find out what Jesus and other prophets said on this topic of Deception in relation to the End Times, and many other subjects. Consequently, in today’s lesson we are mainly focused upon the early New Testament books and the specific topic of “Deception”.

I will tell you up-front that I believe ALL the Words written in Red Ink in the Bible represent the God Supreme Court final answers for All Truth. This belief is because Jesus Christ spoke these words and He was God in the Flesh walking directly with us (Emmanuel) to explain God’s Words given through every other inspired prophetic voice. Jesus also claimed that He only Spoke the Words that His Father God gave to him and this places greater importance upon each word (John 8:38).

For example, when Jesus refers to the words of the Old Covenant Prophet Moses concerning the Days of Noah (Matthew 24:37-38) and the Days of Lot (Luke 17:28), He is doing so to teach us how these events apply to His future coming. Jesus in these verses refer to both of these “Past” Events as patterns of the “Future” Event Coming and I firmly believe both of these events are types of the Rapture when correctly interpreted.

Jesus specifically chose these Old Covenant verses from Genesis, that were written at least 1500 years before He spoke and used them to apply them to His future coming that would occur at least 2000 years after His first “Appearance” on the earth. Therefore, these events past and present are separated by nearly 4000 years with a center point of Jesus’ first appearance nearly 2000 years ago.

I believe He did this to reveal How God Works in Scripture. And how we should properly apply the natural Old Covenant Scriptures and events that are apparently used by God as patterns and pointers directing us into understanding the New Covenant Spiritual Realities and Fulfillments.

Did you understand what I just said? I said the Days of Noah and the Days of Lot were prophetic allegories of the “Future” coming of the Lord in Revelation. And the prophetic books in the New Covenant like Revelation are not allegorical applications to help us understand the Old Covenant. The Idealist View of Revelation is attempting to project a backward reverse application to the book of Revelation away from the “Future”. And this is not following the patterned example given by Jesus of a “Forward Future” application of Old to New.

It appears to me that any backward application of the Book of Revelation can possibly lead us into the wrong direction in finding God’s real Truth. Can we at least agree it is not following Jesus’ example? I would prefer to follow the Jesus example, rather than an example that opposes the Pattern of His methods of Interpretation.

In the Gospels and the Book of Revelation we can find many Words of Jesus written in Red Ink in certain Bibles, that I believe take Precedence, Preference and Priority over all other words of Prophecy, Interpretations and Explanation for usage examples. I choose to never allow any other writing “about” the Bible to overrule what Jesus claims. I believe He understood the Bible better than any other human writer or teacher that ever existed before or after us. Can we agree?

This is called using the principle of “Building a House of Truth” that cannot be shaken, by establishing “Building Block” Topics of Truth in the Bible. We must understand that in the Bible there are varying levels of Truth and God’s Truth triumphs over every other natural or spiritual “Fact”. If you do not understand the concept of some Truths triumphing and ruling over other truths in God’s Word, let me give you an important example:

Romans 8:2 – For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Here is a major inspired point of one God Created Law called the “Law of Sin and Death” written about in Genesis 2:17, being overruled and disavowed by another God created Law. The winning “Triumphant Law of God” is Called the “Law of Spirit of Life in Christ”. And this Greater Law creating Life overrules the lesser Law creating Death. Therefore, this rule causes us to change our focus onto “How to Be in Christ” rather than to worry about a fear of the “Law of Death”. And here is another important connection coming from the Supreme Court of the Words in Red Ink spoken by Jesus:

John 6:63 – It is the spirit that make alive; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Did you see how Jesus is taking the Law of Spirit and Life in Christ and showing us how to activate it in our lives? Jesus did these sort of things continually in His messages. Jesus’ words would bring clarity and focus upon many other concepts that are easily misunderstood. In this example, Jesus emphasizes His Spoken Words Are “Spirit” and “Life”. Meaning these spoken words would cause us to live and not die if we choose them. Let’s get back to our subject now.

In this approach of prioritizing Jesus’ Spoken Words, we learn the foundational truths first and then build upon those an unshakeable house of Truth from the Bible allowing the Supreme Court Words to confirm our Beliefs. And when we choose to use the “Words of Jesus” written in Red Ink as the supreme Authority we are aligning with the Author rather than a church Bible teacher.

However, I need to qualify these statements to make them clearer. Not every human hears the Word of Jesus Correctly. Jesus primarily spoke of things in the World and the Words written in the Old Covenant from an eternal “Spiritual View”. And this was then and still is not like normal humans who view the Bible from a “Natural Thinking Mindset”. It is only possible to think about the Words of Jesus more correctly after many years of Spiritual Growth. And I have found that this is still a major problem occurring today even for many “Church Pastors” and “Bible Teachers”. Let’s move to our subject of Deception next to establish our God definition.

God’s Definition of Deception

We began this subject of “Deception” in the last lesson by emphasizing the need to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit correctly so that we would not be led into deception. I think I would like to remind you that you appear to have been led here to read this subject. Do not take that lightly just because you do not agree with some of the message. Trust the Holy Spirit’s leading and follow through with this to the end. Who knows the Holy Spirit could have directed you to help me understand better, or even you understand something new. Either way, you are a welcome guest and I love you.

Today we are going to learn exactly what the Lord and Master Jesus taught us about this very important subject called “Deception”. But before we learn the Principles I believe we need to address the “Definition” of what “Deception” represents in the Bible. Here is one Definition from the Strong’s dictionary.

G4105 Planao

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

The Christian Faith in the beginning was called “The Way” (Acts 16:17, 18:25-26). And remember that Jesus Himself claimed to be “The Way” to the Father, Life, and Truth (John 14:6). Again He was establishing His Words as the Superior Authority overruling all other words. Therefore, the True “Way” of God is through entering the “door” of Jesus Christ and knowing Him by His Word. This knowledge, certainly establishes the fact that there are potentially many other ways that can be found in the world today, that are not “The Way” God has opened for us to go into. Can we agree?

Now please tell me, did you really notice what the word G4105 means? The concept of deception is built around causing people to “Roam” away from God’s established and stated “Ways” of “Truth”. In other words, for someone to not be swayed (persuaded) from roaming away (deceived) is for us to remain on the “WAY of TRUTH”. This simply means we must first be on the path of knowing God’s Truth, in order to be led away from it.

The natural people of the earth are already living in the darkness and have never seen God’s Light of the Truth. Therefore, it is incorrect by grammar and definition to say a lost unsaved human has been “deceived”. By definition it takes knowledge of the Truth to be led away from knowing it. Therefore, if Pastor “A” was believing rightly to believe in a “Mid-Trib” Rapture View and change to an incorrect view of “Pre-Trib”, he would have been “Deceived” to have done this.

Likewise, if Pastor “M” was believing the “Truth” about the “Pre-Trib” view and was led astray to believe in a “Mid-Trib” Rapture variation, he too should be viewed to be “Deceived”. Nevertheless, both pastors cannot be abiding in the “Truth” and at least one has to have been deceived to leave and change. But it is still possible that both were deceived because the Truth might be “Post-Trib”. This is where we need to Study to find the “Truth” according to scripture. Finally remember it is us knowing the “Truth” and leaving it, is when we are “Deceived”. Living and abiding in ignorance of the Truth is not Deception by definition.

Therefore, we are learning that “Deception” is Satan’s primary tactical strategy to attempt to take people who are being enlightened by God’s Word through hearing the Truth, “away from it”. And the ultimate goal is, so that Christians will be unable to receive enough of the Light, to be saved and produce fruit and then share it with others. It is that simple (2 Corinthians 4:4).

This simply means, if any Pastor taught his congregation that the “Pre-Trib” Futurist View was God’s Truth, and then another pastor or the same pastor suddenly changes to teach a different view as the Truth, this certainly would cause his people confusion on which path was really correct. I believe confused “Sheep” are the most easily to be deceived into leaving the right path to now roam away into any new “Way” of belief. Clearly this is the work of Satan to deceive. Let’s check out some more words of Jesus written in Red Ink to verify:

Matthew 18:12 – How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?

Matthew 18:13 – And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

Matthew 18:14 – Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Three times in these verses Jesus selected the word translated as “Deceive” Planao to emphasize a major point. Yet we notice immediately the English Word “Deceive is never written. This is because Translators of the KJV Bible made the word meaning to be more accurately literal.

Also, remember, that Jesus claimed to be the Good Shepherd in John 10:11, 14. We also know from Matthew 25:33-34 that “Sheep” represent God’s people that will inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Wow! That is very important end-time information. And we can see the fulfillment of this described to us in Revelation 20, 21 and 22 with a New Heaven and a New Earth absent from Satan and all his evil followers.

So this parable in Matthew 18, was spoken concerning Jesus and us, His children called His “Sheep”. This gives us definition references to the subject. This is how I study the Bible. I allow the scriptures of God to interpret the scriptures under subject study. I have found, any other method only leads us to presumptive errors.

But here is my main point from these verses in Matthew 18. Jesus uses the word “Deceive” (G4105) three times, but here the translators wrote it in English as “Led Astray”. “Wow”. The visualization of these word descriptions are profound. Imagine it in your mind. Conceive the concept of a Good Shepherd leading a very large group of sheep. Then imagine one young sheep taking their eyes off of the shepherd and the other sheep and being distracted at something that looks good to the eye.

Do you see how that is a perfect example of what we are learning. Any little Christian can get distracted and enticed away from following the Truth and the Spirit of God. Sometimes it is by temptations, and other times it is just mental tricks in making people think wrong. Nevertheless, Jesus implies every 1 out of 100 people will wander away.  And that would only be a 1% loss. Some may say that is not that bad, yet God says very plainly “He is not willing that any should perish” and He implies that He will do whatever it takes to save them.

However, this is where we must balance some more scriptures into our study. This is where so many Pastors go astray also. They miss some verses that contradict with this verse and then do not try to find it and balance it with the subject. Therefore, they are led to teach error based upon one verse rather than the truth balanced upon multiple verses. For example, do you remember what Jesus said in Matthew 25:1-13?

In these verses Jesus tells another Parable about the Rapture concerning the “Bridegroom” who is Jesus, coming for the church Bride, but symbolically labeled as “10 Virgins”. In this story Jesus wrote about 5 wise virgins that were prepared for His sudden return and 5 foolish virgins that went astray to buy some oil when He came. These that were not present at His coming (led astray by not being prepared) did not get to enter into the “Wedding Feast” and were lost. Therefore, in this example, Jesus implies there are potentially ½ the church that will not be ready for when the Rapture is fulfilled.

We are learning that almost half the church will not be ready for the Rapture of the Church. And I know we haven’t studied this subject. But there is an entire series written on the site about this subject of Rapture. And if you have read these lessons, you will have discovered that I am a firm believer in a “Pre-Tribulation” rapture event occurring. But we will further expand this topic to verify how it fits into our study in Revelation more, very soon.

What we should have learned in this section, is that Jesus is our Good Shepherd and we as Christ followers must not ever take our eyes off of Him. Jesus also said in John 10:27, “My Sheep know my Voice” and therefore, listening for His call, correction and guidance is absolutely essential. However, we have also learned that “Sheed” (Followers of Christ) can be deceived to wander away from God’s Words and Teachings of Truth. And that is the main warning for this section. Let’s move from the subject of the disciples to the subject of the teachers.

Shepherd/Pastor Deception

Now let’s examine this topic of deception from the “Shepherd” perspective. Can a born-again saved pastor of 50 years of Bible Study and Teaching still become deceived? If you do not believe this is possible, I believe you are already deceived. But potentially you are just ignorant and have not studied this part of the Bible. Let’s cover it briefly. Please read these verses found in the Old Covenant carefully. These are example patterns for the New Covenant to learn from according to 1 Corinthians 10:11:

Prophecy Against the Shepherds of Israel

Ezekiel 34:1 – And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

Ezekiel 34:2 – Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Ezekiel 34:3 – Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

Ezekiel 34:4 – The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them.

Ezekiel 34:5 – And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered.

Ezekiel 34:6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.

Ezekiel 34:7 – Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

Ezekiel 34:8 – As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock;

Ezekiel 34:9 – Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;

Ezekiel 34:10 – Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.

These 10 verses are very essential to learn. They establish an old prophetic pattern of a Bible concept of deception coming to the modern Church and our “Shepherd Pastors”. If you have not learned the law of “Patterns” in prophecy you are missing out on one of the most important principles found in the Bible, called “Repetition”. God reveals this concept to us in Ecclesiastes 1:9, a “Law of Repeated Patterns”. In this verse God declares, “The thing that has been, is that which shall be (again); that which is done, is that which shall be done (again); there is no new thing under the sun”.

Do you understand that this is God describing the world we live in? Years repeat, seasons repeat, Feasts Repeat, months repeat, days repeat, hours repeat, etc. Ecclesiastes 1:7 repeats this principle by declaring “All the rivers run into the seas, yet they are never full”. This is because of the evaporation and continual rain cycle of God’s creation. Everything is in a continual cycle of repetition.

For example, there has been at least two cities named Jerusalem in times past and there is a 3^rd New City Jerusalem being built in the Spirit Realm. There has been at least 2 Israels before the church existed and there is another being built right now. There currently exists one heavenly Temple from ancient times, and now in our natural world there has been multiple earthly temples built and rebuilt using the pattern of the Heavenly Temple given to Moses. However, yet there is a New eternal Spirit of God Temple being built right now again in the spiritual realm. I don’t have the time to explain these concepts in depth. That is not our subject. Just begin to read the Bible like there are multiple iterations of things and you will begin to see them pop out almost everywhere. Pray and ask the Lord God to reveal duplicated named realities and He will begin to show you them over and over.

Yes, I can hear the critics. There is only 1 God who created the heaven and earth! And yes, you are correct. But yet even God manifests in iterations of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And even the Son is called the Everlasting Father in Isaiah 9:6. So therefore, even the Father of His Son Jesus can become a Father also? This One God appears to minister to us in 3 personalities. I know this is going to offend some people, but that is what the Truth does (Galatians 4:16).

These verses in Ezekiel describe natural people God calls “Shepherds” that were evil. These teachers were supposed to know the truth, but they personally chose to become “Greedy” to satisfy their own lusts, and ignored feeding God’s people called the sheep under their care. That is still occurring today in too many places. Let’s look at another warning from Jesus:

Matthew 7:15 – Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Here is another Old Covenant example given to us by Jesus. Jesus called these docile and peaceful looking types of people to inwardly be like predatory beasts that they are only intending to devour the real sheep. However, notice Jesus said these wolves were wearing “Sheep” clothing. And this gives us the appearance that they look Christ like even while they are doing the devil’s work. Uh oh! Let’s look at one more example in the Church.

2Timothy 4:9 – Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me:

2 Timothy 4:10 – For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

Notice in this letter, Paul is writing to Timothy for him to come see him and do it as quickly as possible. But then in verse 10 Paul says, “Demas has “forsaken him”. Uh oh! Forsaken is a synonymous term for “Deception” which meant to be swayed away from the Path of Truth. Paul seems to be saying Demas abandoned him which implies a sudden surprise departure.

Then we are told the reason why. Paul informs Timothy that Demas “Loved the present World”. And this again shows the characteristics of “Deception” as being enticed away from learning any other Truth for the sake of maybe financial riches or gain. It does not really give us any further details to make that conclusion clearly.

Nevertheless, we are seeing another example, of how deception effects people even after they are saved and have been in the ministry with others like the Apostle Paul who wrote 2/3 of the New Testament. This was clearly a very poor choice of decisions by Demas, and I pray he repented.

Of course, most all Pastors and Teachers believe that they are teaching the Truth as they have “Seen” it. But this does not make their words “The Truth”. Any Pastor could have just been taught wrong to begin with and without verifying the Word to be Truth, they have just blindly propagated it to others. This would be like Jesus taught in Luke 6:39 saying “Can the blind lead the blind; shall they not both fall into the ditch”?

In this case this would not be intentional “Deception”. But rather just someone who thought wrong and then acted on it without the Spirit’s leading. For example, read this confession of Paul:

1 Timothy 1:12 – And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

1 Timothy 1:13 – Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

Let’s  address the last statement first. “I did it ignorantly in unbelief”. True Bible Beliefs come from the accurate “Knowledge of the Word of God” which is Truth. Unbelief is defined as Hearing the Truth and Refusing to Believe it. And there are too many Pastors and Disciples both that are in this camp. However, the term “Ignorant Unbelief” is “Not knowing the Truth and still acting against the Truth” blindly. This is a troubling reality of people in the world that have never heard the Gospel Truth, yet still Fight against it with great passion.

Now notice that this is a short testimony of Paul who was once Saul. Remember this was the man who would eventually write 2/3 of the New Testament, and He was once a zealous persecutor of the church, who blasphemed God, casting many into prison and even contributing to the killing of some who knew the Truth of Jesus Christ. Yet Paul revealed that while he did these things thinking he was doing a righteous work for God, he actually was just a man who was “Ignorant of the Truth” and “acted out of Unbelief”. Wow, that describes a lot of Pastors today. Many should not be teaching some subjects like they understand them all in their entirety.

However, remember that we are discussing “Deception” and can it happen to pastors who knew the Word of Truth at one time. Let’s see what the Word has to say:

Hebrews 6:4 – For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

Hebrews 6:5 – And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

Hebrews 6:6 – If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Let’s start with Verse 6 and the term “Fall Away”. This is another synonymous term for being “Deceived” according the definition of leaving the “Pathway of Truth”. It really does not matter how anyone left the Way of Truth, it only matters that they are not on it any longer. This is why Christians need constant “Course Correction” daily. It only takes a Pastor a small drifting away from being on course, without making a course correction, for their end doctrinal beliefs to become far away from Jesus pure line of standards after 20+ years.

Now go back up to Verse 4. God is describing a Real Saved Christian. We know this because of the precise word description. This person has encountered and experienced God in a very intimate fashion. Let’s list them:

1. “Once Enlighted”. This means they left the path of the darkness of this world to know God who is Light, and to see His Word of Truth.
2. “Have tasted of the Heavenly Gift”. This is truly another experiential fellowship with the True God. Psalm 34:8 says “O Taste and See the Lord is Good”. There for to Taste of things given from Heaven by God is to experience God’s goodness.
3. “Made Partakers of the Holy Ghost”. This speaks of someone that is in “Partnership” with God’s Spirit. And we know from 1 Corinthians 6:17, “For he that is joined to the LORD is one Spirit”. To be one with the Spirit of God is a Covenant Marriage Relationship where two become one.
4. “Have tasted of the Good Word”. Again this is just further reaffirming that this person Loved God and His Word.
5. “Have tased of the powers of the world to come”. This is again speaking of heavenly experiences manifesting here on earth by the Power of God.

And this person being spoken of, has been experiencing and participating in all of these awesome things of God being One with Him. If you do not understand yet why “Tasting” means to become One with it, allow me to explain. Remember in 1 Peter 5:8 is where God says, “Be sober and vigilant, because you adversary the devil is seeking whom he may devour”.  The Greek word Devour means to “Gulp Down”. And this is again an experiential event taking place. But this time it is with Satan gulping down a Christian. And this is not good. It clearly signifies this individual being swallowed by Satan has become Joined with Satan.

Please allow me to very briefly explain the natural process of food and liquid assimilation into the body and then the spiritual application. When the human body consumes anything through the mouth where “Taste” occurs, it is broken down into many tiny particles and elements for nourishment in digesting. These elements are sent throughout the blood stream to every par to of the human body and then they are joined with other cells so that they become internal parts one of another. What is eaten and not absorbed into the body will not remain and is eliminated as waste with other parts being expelled. Jesus explained the process in Matthew 15:17. Again the Words in Red Ink confirm the Truth. Now look at these words also written in Red Ink:

Matthew 7:22 – Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

Matthew 7:23 – And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Jesus is speaking of people who are obviously claiming to be ministers for the Kingdom of God and telling Him of their works. These people said:

1. They Confessed Jesus to be LORD!
2. They Prophesied in the name of Jesus!
3. They Cast out Devils in the name of Jesus!
4. They have Done many Wonderful Works in the name of Jesus!

Yet Jesus’ response to these people is, “Depart from me” I never knew you”. And He called them workers of iniquity. This is Not Good News for a lot of people, and it should put the fear of God in many Pastors and Disciples. This example appears to follow the pattern of Judas, one of the 12 apostles that ended his life betraying Jesus after ministering with Jesus for 3.5 years. Again, we see patterns reoccurring.

Therefore we are learning that not everyone can be devoured by Satan, yet we find out some are opening the door to drift further away from the “The Ways of Christ” just by not making daily course corrections. Remember the concept of the lost “Sheep”. We learned, the further away from the flock the sheep travels the easier it is for them to be devoured by the predator lion or wolf. And to be devoured by Satan is to become “One” with him. In the same way for a human to continually taste the Word of God and perceive His goodness, is just an example of someone being joined into God. And this concept reoccurs in the negative realm with Satan devouring the deceived.

What we learned from Hebrews 6:6 is that is impossible for those that were joined to the Lord after they have been in close fellowship with God’s Holy Spirit and left Him through some type of deception to return to Jesus, because they will be Crucifying the Lord afresh. That is a very stern warning from drifting away from God. So, we are confirming even ministers can wander away from God’s plan for their lives.

The Negative Impacts of Deception

Jesus is not warning us of deception as His first priority in answering questions about His coming or the End of Days for no reason. I believe He is using me and many others in these last days to emphasize these warnings to us again. There is such as massive and obvious attempt to spread lies throughout the world today, and it appears like it is growing everywhere. Including it happening in many churches that embrace homosexual ministers as legitimate examples of Truth givers and any association with aborting babies as a legitimate birth control or female reproductive health right. Lies are everywhere and I only chose two very obvious one creeping into the church.

And of course, all we need to know is that Satan only needs to deceive one Pastor away from the truth, to potentially ensnare his whole congregation also. Therefore, if a congregation is blindly following a Pastor without being a Berean type of follower of Christ to verify the messages, they are easily tricked into believing a view that is potentially very wrong.

All of this simply means our attempt to remain on God’s spiritual search pathway for finding and verifying every Truth is a never-ending quest for increased awareness. And this means continuing on the Path of Truth, is not a single destination arrival achieved when we were first born again. It also means we can be deceived even when following someone teaching part of the Truth.

It is extremely dangerous to accept everything any teachers says automatically as Truth, simply because you verified previous lessons as Truth. Every lesson must be scrutinized diligently, and passionately. Do it in your personal pray and devotion times with God. Open your own Bibles and look up and study the Words in-depth. Look for weaknesses and outright mistakes. Let the teacher know and give them the chance to respond with items you missed and/or time for them make corrections.

Therefore, all saved Christians must maintain their personal relationship with the Holy Spirit individually and not trust any teacher. No one but God knows “ALL TRUTH”, the rest of us hopefully are traveling on the quest to find out as much and more of the Truth as we are able to bear it, with God’s Help. Some say Trust everyone, but I stress “Verify Everything” and “Trust God”.

Remember that even Paul the writer of 2/3 of the New Testament claimed to only know God’s Words of TRUTH in “Part” (1 Corinthians 13:9). How much less do you and I know compared to Paul? But also remember Paul was given revelation during the “Former Rain” years of the beginning of the church era of Grace”. I am convinced beyond any shadow of doubt that we are living in the “Latter Rain” period of God’s Grace Truth being poured out before Jesus comes to get His fruitful harvest (James 5:7, Jeremiah 5:24). Okay, back to “Deception” and analyzing the Words of warning from Jesus about the End Times.

Conclusion

Now that we have seen the definition of “Deception” to be leaving the Good “Path” of Knowing the Truth to be swayed away into walking in an evil path of tricks and lies, we can use this information to help us in our daily walk with Jesus. There still are no perfect men or women of God that teach 100% Truth. Too many are drifting further away from the Truth only one little step at a time. But unless we all repent and turn back into the correct direction to follow Jesus, we might be one of those that hears “Depart from me, I never Knew you”.

Seven times spoken to seven churches in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, Jesus Christ the Lord of ALL commands the saved people in the church to “Repent”. This is called making a course correction to get back on the “Way of Truth”. You do understand this now, right? Repentance can only occur for someone that has turned away from the “True Way of God’s Truth”. To Repent literally means “To Think Differently”. Certainly, Jesus would desire for His saved people to continue to follow Him. But repentance is only possible because that Christ follower has changed to wander away from thinking correctly. And that is the definition of “Deception”.

You see spiritual deception occurs in the mind of a Christian or a Pastor first. It only takes a moment to embrace the wrong thought to begin a departure to explore a new false doctrine. This means we need to stay on target. Aim for perfection and then adjust as soon as possible whenever it is realized we have strayed even a little bit.

Thank you for taking the time to read and study the Bible with us on AgapeGeek.Com We value your time and pray you were blessed with this warning message on “Deception”. This is a very relevant topic for the days that we are living within. The Deception taking place in the minds of people is causing many to be destroyed by untruths.

I have concluded after studying the many views of Revelation there is no possibility that they are all God’s Truth. Yes, there are elements of scripture in everyone that appear to be Truthful. Yet the contradicts and unresolved differences causes most of the overall teachings to become disqualified.

I personally, can see the Truth elements of each. But the conflicts are what trouble me. And they should you also. Currently, I am a very firm Futurist, believing in a “Pre-Tribulation” departure of the Church (Ecclesia). No other doctrine makes any logical sense. But we will continue through this series to hopefully help us all come to an agreement.

You are free to leave your comments. I welcome them all. But please include scriptures. Natural Reasoning does not have a lot of value without actual scriptures that confirm it. Thank you again, I love you and may God continue to bless you with the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in Knowledge of Christ Jesus. Amen

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