Deception
Seek the Truth with all your heart.
We need to be very discerning and wise in everything, but especially in Christian matters. As Christians become more threatened by opposing groups, we need to be careful to, be wary of, and guard against compromise of the Truth; and we can only do this by clearly knowing the Truth and being strong in it. One can only recognize error and counterfeit by knowing the genuine and original.
Isaiah 5:20-21 ‘Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.’
This scripture applies to such use of words as today’s distorted use today of such words as ‘wicked’, as in saying “A wicked time” meaning ‘a good time’. Such treatment of reality, truth and facts, is apparent in many aspects of life today. Putting an opposite spin on meanings might seem harmless, but in subtle ways it is creating distorted values.
Satan is very clever and uses clever and highly educated human beings to help him in distorting and disabling God’s truth. Most people do not realize that they are being cleverly seduced and deceived; and therefore, in a subtle way, their value systems are being distorted. Satan and his demons are experts at deception.
1 John 4:1-6 ‘Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from GOD, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of GOD: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is from GOD, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus, is not from GOD. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from GOD and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from GOD, and whoever knows GOD listens to us; but whoever is not from GOD does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.’
Deception - warning.
Matthew 24:4 ‘Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in My Name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”
Matthew 24:23-28 “At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ’ or ‘There is He is,’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs ad miracles to deceive even the elect, if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. So if anyone tells you, ‘There He is, out in the desert,’ do not go out, or ‘Here He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.”
2 Corinthians 11:14 ‘And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.’
2 Corinthians 11:29-39 “Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the Earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky (the myriads of angels), with power and great glory. And HE will send HIS angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather HIS elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn this from the fig tree. As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and Earth will pass away, but MY words will not pass away. No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the FATHER. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
Colossians 2:8-10 ‘See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, Who is the Head over every power and authority.’
Revelation 13:11-18 ‘Then I saw a second beast, coming out of the Earth. It had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the Earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose fatal wound had been healed. And it (Satan) performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to Earth in full view of the people. Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the Earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived. The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.
This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight, calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.’
The first beast is Satan’s base in Rome. The second beast is America. The second beast becomes the voice on behalf of the first beast.