Don't be deceived!
Jesus warned of a time, before his return, when some of his followers would succumb to deception and abandon biblical truth. In this post I look at the implications of this statement.
Let’s be honest, none of us likes to be deceived. Be that scammers who try to trick us into transferring a sizeable chunk of money to help out a supposed relative or a magician who outwits us with sleight of hand.
And card sharks only exist because some people are convinced that they’re immune to being duped. Which is the very essence of deception - not believing it can happen to you.
Of course, there are things we can do to prevent us from having the wool pulled over our eyes and which we’ll touch on this shortly. But first, what of those warnings of Jesus? Here’s the Bible passage in which he highlights them.
“At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah!’ or, ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you ahead of time.” Matthew 24:23-25. (The elect being those who have chosen or have been chosen - depending on your theology - to follow Jesus.)
A bit earlier in this passage Jesus begins this revelation about the indicators of his return with these words: “Watch out that no one deceives you”.
Although this passage speaks of false messiahs and false prophets, the plumb-line for discerning these deceivers is biblical truth. Jesus himself was only identified as the Messiah because of the numerous Old Testament prophecies which he fulfilled. But herein lies the danger.
If our biblical truth plumb-line is awry - if we do not hold fast to biblical truth - how will we spot that which is erroneous? It happened in Jesus’ day. Many of the religious leaders had overlaid scripture with their own ideas and opinions causing them to be blind to biblical prophecy being fulfilled before their very eyes.
And likewise for us it boils down to our attitude to the word of God. If we haven’t settled in our hearts that it is to be trusted and immutable we have already positioned ourselves for deception.
In that truth and deception are opposites, when we don’t believe the Bible to be true - in part or wholly - we inevitably have no reliable grid for perceiving deception. We don’t have to understand every jot and tittle of its 66 books to put our trust in God’s word. Believing the Bible is no more difficult than believing in Jesus. Both require faith. Yes, our faith will be informed by our understanding but faith is still an imperative. We are, after all, called believers!
While it is true that the devil is the ultimate deceiver, in this matter we cannot attribute all of the blame to him. We’re familiar with the saying about not deceiving ourselves but this can certainly hold true with regard to this Bible passage.
To wilfully choose to revise or re-write the word of God according to our prejudices and predilections perfectly sets us up for self-imposed deception.
Which begs the question: Will I be one of the elect who is deceived?
Our trust and confidence in the word of God will be the decider.
I believe that Jesus has given this chastening warning in Matthew 24 to present us with the opportunity to get our house in order so that we aren’t one of the elect who are deceived.