Protection from Deception by Prince Derek

Author:Prince, Derek [Prince, Derek]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Whitaker House
Published: 2008-01-23T00:00:00+00:00

Nearly every passage in the New Testament that pertains to the end of the age includes some kind of warning about being deceived.

In Matthew 24:4–6, Jesus cautioned,

Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

He added in verse 24, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

The “elect,” or God’s chosen ones, are not immune to deception. To avoid being deceived, we must be able to identify the truth. When Pontius Pilate interrogated Jesus before His crucifixion, Jesus told him, “For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37). Pilate responded with a question philosophers have been asking—without a satisfactory answer—for twenty-five hundred years: “What is truth?” (verse 38).

The only satisfactory answer to this question is found in the Bible. The answer is not completely simple, however, because the Bible presents the truth in three facets. To ascertain that we have the truth, we must check each of these facets—I call them the “coordinates of truth.” These three coordinates must align to confirm the truth.

The Coordinates of Truth

In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus is the truth. But in John 17:17, Jesus prayed to the Father, saying, “Your word is truth.” God’s Word—the Bible—is also truth. Finally, in 1 John 5:6, John wrote, “It is the Spirit who bears witness [to Jesus Christ], because the Spirit is truth.” The Spirit is also truth. The truth is Jesus, the truth is the Bible, and the truth is the Spirit.

To be sure that you are dealing with the truth, therefore, you must ask three questions. Is it true to Jesus? Is it true to the Bible? Does it have the witness of the Holy Spirit? If these questions are answered in the affirmative, you may be confident that you have the truth.

How Deception Displaces the Truth

Let us look again at Paul’s warning about deception:

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted; you may well put up with it!(2 Corinthians 11:3–4)

How quickly we lose our grasp on the truth, letting go to “put up with” false doctrine! I wrote earlier that Satan employs deception and pride to win people’s worship. Similarly, I believe pride is the primary door through which deception takes hold of our lives and misleads us.

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