Deceived Easily
Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world. II John 1:7
The Priests of God were among those who refused to recognize Jesus as the Christ. The chief Priests and the Pharisees said, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he say, 'I came down from heaven'? With such reasoning they denied his place as the messiah and accused him of blaspheming. With accusations of blaspheming they arrested him found him guilty and then took him before Pilate to have him crucified. However they remembered one thing that Christ said. 'After three days I will rise again.
They did not think that Jesus would rise from the dead but chose to predict that his disciples would steal his body from the tomb. To prevent this from happening the chief Priests went to Pilate to have his tomb sealed. A few of the members of the Sanhedrin chose to believe that Jesus was the Christ, but the majority of the Sanhedrin chose execute Jesus to keep the Romans from taking away their place and from destroying Israel. John 11:48 Those who were deceived became deceivers.
The gospel Jesus Christ preached brought people back to God and away from the practices that the Priests and Pharisees had established. They saw Jesus demonstrate his love for the truth. On the other hand, the Pharisees were zealous for the law reminded everyone that Jesus broke the Sabbath several times. It makes you wonder if God credited Jesus as the Christ with signs and wonders and still healed the sick and made the lame walk on the Sabbath to make a point. More so when the Pharisees saw the numbers of Christ’s followers growing and their influence dwindling.
The chief Priests and Pharisees thought Jesus was just another person who was making waves in their life of prominence. Offended by the words and actions of Christ, the chief Priests and the Pharisees were driven by the motives that keep them in the spotlight of leadership. To keep their authority to govern the laws of God, they overlooked the law that says do not murder and applied their minds to rid themselves of Jesus. With Jesus out of the way they could resume their rightful place of leadership in a world ruled by the Romans.
Every Christian has been deceived at least once during his lifetime. Then they came to know the truth about God through a person that gave them the gospel story. God told Hosea my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6 and that truth is still ringing true today. The truth is Christians suffers when they do not have a basic knowledge about truth, but everyone is included.
As long as you can determine what to believe it is possible for you to be deceived. Knowledge has always been the key to know the truth because it allows you to see the destructive effect the lie has. Unfortunately most Christians cannot interpret the bible and feel incapable of determining the truth for themselves. Instead they follow those who teach the word of God and take the risk of being punished for another person’s mistake.
What bothers me is the amount of theology that dominates the church community and is reflected in the personal beliefs of our fellow Christians. These doctrines are authorized by the church leadership and go unchallenged by the congregation. Christians can not talk about the Second Coming of Christ without reflecting on the pre-tribulational rapture. The pre-tribulational Rapture is based on the idea that a Tribulation Period has been prophesied to take place, but to prove that a Tribulation Period will exist in the future the words Tribulation Period would have to have been inspired by God and used in the scripture to define the Tribulation Period.
I have to ask the question, how did God foretell the Tribulation Period without using this specific term to identify it? Knowing what God is talking about is crucial, but men cannot read God’s mind. On the other hand, if the Saints are to be taken out of the world before the Tribulation Period begins why talk about the time authorized for Satan has to deceive the elect?
Satan has already partially deceived the elect because the doctrine about the Tribulation Period has nullified the answer Jesus Christ gave for what are the signs of the end of the age. God did not inspire the term Tribulation Period but described the last days as the end of the age and the time of wrath.
God’s word is the foundation to the Christian faith, but its evident that teaching about the Tribulation Period won’t go away unless we ask for a scriptural reference with the words “Tribulation Period” in it. The knowledge of the Tribulation Period is not a modern day miracle from God, for if the Tribulation Period had merits God would have used the term. The Tribulation Period is deceptive, an idea that has been added to God’s word, become a part of theology, taught by tradition and spoken about in the church as if it were the truth.
People that have been deceived get very disappointed when all their work was for nothing and heartsick because they did not achieve what they were working for. Disappointment turns to regret, frustration, bitterness and anger when they learn that they have been victimized and punished for the expert advice they trusted, and acted upon. One thing is common with being deceived, you suddenly learn what you should have done, when its too late to change what you could have done. You never get a second chance to make or do things right.
Within the church community deception begins when churches confine God’s word to a theme the church was structured to operate under. Another means of deception is to use teachings of great men of God to supplement the Bible and follow their teaching rather than to listen to God himself. The problem is not in the teachings of men or the theme the church was structured to operate under but in using the scriptures to justify the theme of the book or teaching they endorse. It makes you wonder whose message are they giving you.
I’ve been in churches where there is a shortage of qualified teachers and where they allow men to teach the moment they enter the church. Christianity can not be turned on or off, it is a twenty-four hour seven day a week life. When teachers can not live the life they formally advocate in class, aren’t they saying one thing and living a different way? Only those who have built their life on the foundation of truth, have put God’s word into practice and experienced God’s word are qualified to teach
God told Hosea my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6, nothing more could be closer to the truth. On the other hand, the more that you personally know about God the less likely you are to be deceived. The bible tells us that God wants us to develop a prudent life in his children.
The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young — let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance — for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Proverbs 1:1-7
Fools despise wisdom and discipline and yet the bible was written to attain wisdom and discipline, from the words that God imparted. Within the scriptures are words of wisdom spoken by God to those who make the effort to listen to his voice. Deuteronomy 8:3 declares that we live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Therefore, it is important to learn how to listen to God and know how to please him.
Listening takes a disciplined effort to acquire the correct knowledge, so that you may approve of God’s good and perfect will. Listening demands that you ask questions of a highly reliable source, an expert on the matter you are concerned about. However, too many Christians ask questions of God to prove the doctrines they already believe. What you already know and understand may be wrong and oppose anything God wants to teach you. The knowledge you already have will become a barrier that prevents you from hearing what God has to say. In the same way you probably a number of people that have you beat them over the head and repeat your instructions several times before they learn anything?
Listening to anyone demands that you confine your questions to what they say. The same is true about listening to God, you ask God questions pertaining to what he said to learn what he is expressing to you. The moment you ask God to prove what you already know is when you stop listening and begin to defend what you believe. That is argumentative and telling the expert that you know more that he does.
Fools despise wisdom and discipline and because they know more than they should and become the authority on every subject known to man. They are compelled to talk as an expert to gain the attention of those willing to hear their foolish advice. We are quick to speak from the mouth when we do not know and understand that the heart of man is deceitful above all things (Jeremiah 17:9)? The wise person seeks knowledge to learn how to make something of his or her life. The unwise seeks a relaxed and an unconcerned life filled with laughter, without the demanding effort to make his life worthwhile. His carelessness forces himself to struggle against the pattern of life and in the end of his life he left no mark on the world to show the goals he fought for.
The bible tells us that there is a deceiver who is actively busy leading the world astray. To keep from being deceived one must know the truth, the truth that sets you free. As a Christian the truth is our only means of defense and the foundation on which we take our stand on life. The number of deceived people in this world is incomprehensible and most hope that God will find them worthy of heaven. Unfortunately that hope they have will be crushed by the reality of the judgment day. God’s elect knows the truth of God’s word, which gives them the assurance of going to heaven when this life is over when they personally accept Jesus Christ as Lord of their life.
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