“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said ” when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered: “Watch out THAT NO ONE DECEIVES YOU (capitals mine). For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will DECEIVE MANY (capitals mine) You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pangs. “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time MANY WILL TURN AWAY (capitals mine) from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and DECEIVE (capitals mine) many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Matthew 24:3-14
When was the first recorded lie or deception in the history of the world? Go all the way back to the Creation in the Book of Genesis when God created a perfect world and put Adam and Eve into the Garden of Eden. He told Adam directly, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you MUST NOT (capitals mine) eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” (Genesis 2:15-17). We have God’s own, very clear warning to Adam. You can eat of any tree but not that one!. Satan, however had a different plan. When he asked Eve whether she could eat of the tree of knowledge she responded that God said she would certainly die if she ate or touched the tree. Satan then deceived her and said “You certainly will not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 2:4). Here we have it in God’s own Words (the Holy Bible)! Only through the Bible are we told the things we can do and the things we can’t. Eve DID NOT listen to God but was deceived into believing what Satan said.If Satan can change our view of what the Bible says, he can deceive us then into believing it is OK to do what we want, not that which is commanded by God. Unfortunately, the deceptions did not stop in the Garden of Eden but continue with increased occurrence up until today!
The Winston Dictionary describes the word “deceive” as follows: “de-ceive, to cheat; mislead or cause to err; delude; impose upon; 2, to disappoint; Poet., to beguile; while away; cause to pass agreeably, as time Syn, delude, gull, overreach, dupe, mislead, outwit, circumvent, hoodwink, ensnare, trick, betray, cheat.” So if Satan is the Great Deceiver, as the Bible says he is, he will dupe, mislead, delude, ensnare, trick, cheat us, etc. in any way he can to accomplish his goals of having us walk away and break God’s commandments in order to follow him. As stated by Jesus above, those that do so will hate and betray each other and their love will grow cold. But why would people accept these lies? As is so clearly said in 2 Timothy 4:3-4:
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the TRUTH (capitals mine) and turn aside to myths.”
According to a recent poll, only 51% of Democrats, 30% of Independents and 13% of Republicans TRUST the news media to be honest and trustworthy. This means, according to this poll that over 70% of Americans feel the media CANNOT be trusted and will deceive us while only 30% believe they are unbiased and accurate in their reporting. Of course there has been much political discourse lately under the new US administration calling the media out on their “fake news”. Whether it is the main stream media or ordinary people “tweeting” comments that are inaccurate, we are today inundated continuously with facts and figures that after close evaluation are either totally false or oftentimes manipulated to achieve the perpetrators intended consequence. All of this falls of course within the area of “fake news”.
As a Christian, I believe the Word of God, the Holy Bible is 100% accurate! I may not be able to properly decipher parts of it but if I am asked whether I believe the Bible or the local newspaper, cable TV or Facebook post, I will side with the Bible every time! So, when we are told that there is right and wrong by God, we simply MUST follow His Word and not that of Satan. As politically incorrect as many will claim, the Bible is very clear on things that today are becoming morally acceptable in our world EVEN when those things go directly against the Word of God. That is because of the lies and false narratives that Satan is putting forward to the unbelievers to make them feel what they are doing is morally correct.
The Lord said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or FOLLOWED MY LAW (capitals mine). Instead they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals (false gods), as their ancestors taught them.”
Jeremiah 9: 13-14
The purpose of this blog WAS never intended to become political and I will not depart from that intent now. I sincerely doubt that when we stand before our Creator He will ask us which political party we belonged to or even what church we attended. He will, however undoubtedly hold us all accountable ONLY for following His Word, the Holy Bible:
“I say this because many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. Any such person is the deceiver AND (capitals mine) the antichrist.”
2 John 1:7
And yet, as a Christian and a believer in the Word of God, it seems I am constantly ridiculed for following and accepting what the Bible teaches us:
“But I desire to speak to the Almighty God and to argue my case with God. You, however, smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you! If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom. Hear now my argument; listen to the pleas of my lips. Will you speak wickedly on God’s behalf. Will you speak deceitfully for him.”
Job 13:3-7
To be clear, it IS NOT my place to condemn those that are breaking the Laws of God, but in the same way I CANNOT condone that activity either. And, in all honesty, I am far from being free from sin! In today’s society we are viewed as bad people through the news media if we DO NOT condone what the Bible says are sinful activities. If you recall the story in the Bible when the adulteress was brought before Jesus and the people demanded she be stoned to death for her sin. Jesus DID NOT question her guilt and he did not condemn her. Rather, he told the people that any of those that were without sin should cast the first stone. With that clarity and self incrimination on the sins of mankind, the people walked away without throwing a single stone. Jesus then turned to her and said “Go and sin no more”. In other words, He did not condemn her but he certainly did not condone her activity! Fornication outside of marriage is said by God to be a sin but yet Satan is getting his wish and the media and society today are deceitful to where today it is widely acceptable with no ill consequences.
“All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17
In other words, anything not said in the Bible can be honestly construed as being “fake news”. If God warned us about something and said not to do it and someone else says “Go ahead, it’s OK!” rest assured that approval to go against God’s Word is coming directly from the mouth of Satan. Whatever the issues of today being discussed – abortion, gay marriage, education, income inequality, prayer in school, etc. – we MUST always rely on the Word of God to tell us what is right and what is wrong and NEVER ever believe the false prophets led by Satan that give us “fake news”! We should ALWAYS question what the Bible says about it and use that as our sole (soul?) guide. Will “fake news” go away? Not according to what Jesus said above. However, if we stand firm, we WILL be saved! Therefore, “…comfort one another with these words.”