The Bible teaches us that Satan has deceived the whole world (Revelation 12:9).
How extensive is this deception? Jesus told His disciples: "Follow Me" (Matthew 4:19). He and His disciples kept the Sabbath and the Holy Days, yet history records that after the death of the Apostles, most who were in the Church turned to pagan practices of worshiping on Sunday (the day of the sun), and celebrating Christmas (the Roman Saturnalia) and Easter (dedicated to the goddess Ishtar)—in spite of biblical prohibitions (Jeremiah 10:1–3). The vast majority of professing Christians today simply do not recognize this deception!
Our modern scientific world has been deceived into believing the theory of evolution, even though experimental attempts to create life in keeping with this theory have consistently failed, and no one has been able to create a new species. In the last century, millions were deceived into believing in national socialism or communism, with tragic results! Millions today are told that fornication, adultery and divorce can bring happiness, and that biblical roles for men and women can be discarded without any consequence— yet these are also tragically deceptive ideas.
You can often recognize, quite easily, when someone else has been deceived. However, it is usually much harder to admit to yourself that you have been deceived. In this article, we will examine whether Christians who have been called by God can be deceived, and whether it is possible for even the elect to be deceived. If our goal is to be in the kingdom of God, we must learn to recognize deception and understand how to avoid being deceived. The Bible provides vital keys to help us deal with this important challenge.
Targeting God's People
Jesus called Peter to be a disciple and an Apostle. Yet when Jesus began to explain that He would be killed, Peter "took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying: "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You'" (Matthew 16:22). Jesus then told Peter that Satan had misled him in his thinking and reasoning (v. 23). Peter had been deceived! The Apostle Paul told Timothy that "all those in Asia [who had once professed belief] have turned away from me" (2 Timothy 1:15). Paul also mentions two individuals, Hymenaeus and Philetus, "who have strayed concerning the truth… and they overthrow the faith of some" (2 Timothy 2:17–18). Paul clearly wrote that, as the end of the age approaches, some "will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables" because they were deceived and lost their love for the truth (2 Timothy 4:3–4; 2 Thessalonians 2:9–12). From these verses, it should be obvious that individuals whom God called to understand the truth can be misled and deceived—and can fall away—if they are not alert and able to recognize deceptive thoughts, feelings and ideas. We must constantly remain aware of this!
Recognizing and Resisting
The first and most fundamental step in avoiding deception is to recognize that Satan is real and that his goal is to deceive—especially to deceive those who have been called to understand the truth of God. Jesus told Peter: "Satan has asked for [desired] you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail" (Luke 22:31–32). However, just knowing and believing this truth is not enough. The second step in avoiding deception is that we must be able to recognize how Satan tries to deceive us. Paul warned Christians that they should not be ignorant of the devil's devices, "lest Satan should take advantage of us" (2 Corinthians 2:11). Satan has a whole "bag of tricks"—devious methods, which he uses to deceive—that we must be able to recognize if we are to avoid being misled. Yet merely recognizing Satan's methods is still not enough; we must also resist Satan's cunning efforts. Peter wrote knowingly about this: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, [remain] steadfast in the faith" (1 Peter 5:8–9). James commented: "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you" (James 4:7–8). But what methods does Satan use that we must recognize and resist if we are to avoid being deceived?
Satan's Methods
The Bible informs us that Satan is a liar who promotes lies (John 8:44). If we accept or believe his lies, we can be deceived. When Paul advised, "Test [prove, examine] all things; hold fast what is good [true]," he was offering advice against being deceived (1 Thessalonians 5:21). John wrote that we must "test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). Not every thought, idea or doctrine that is presented or assumed to be "Christian" is actually coming from God or the Bible; some may be cleverly conceived deceptions. We can also be deceived into believing or spreading lies about people, unless we actually take the time to get the real facts—which usually involves hearing and evaluating both sides of a matter (Proverbs 18:17). We may actually be deceived into living a lie if we profess to be a Christian but reject—or do not really believe and follow—Jesus' plain teachings.
Scripture describes Satan as an accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). Anyone who gossips and spreads rumors about other people, or who assigns motives incorrectly or where no motives exist, can slip into this satanic deception and unwittingly become a tool in Satan's hands. This is why Jesus said: "Judge not, that you be not judged" (Matthew 7:1–5). Our goal as a Christian is to focus on getting our own life in order, instead of being eager to point out others' faults. Paul offered a similar warning, that "if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another" (Galatians 5:14–15). Paul knew that comments about other people could be very destructive, and that a willingness to make such comments (for example, about a person's conversion or motives or actions) does not reflect real Christian love. If we make comments like this about others, we are deceiving ourselves that we are Christians! Real Christians are not naïve, but they look for the positive aspects of others whom God is calling, and they encourage the development of those qualities (Philippians 4:8).
When problems arise between people, the biblical admonition is to go directly to the person who has been offended (or has offended you), and prayerfully and respectfully try to resolve the issue (Matthew 18:15–20). This takes patience, humility, wisdom and courage. It also requires faith and trust in God that His advice should be followed. However, people often find it much easier to ignore a problem, hoping that it will go away, or to go to someone else (friends or others not directly involved), to talk about their pain and frustration! However, talking widely of a problem instead of following the counsel of Matthew 18 does not solve the problem—it only makes it worse. It is simply not how a Christian is to function. But it is another way that Satan can deceive us, if we are not careful!
Satan and his deceptive methods are the cause of confusion and division, whereas, God's methods produce peace, harmony and peace of mind (1 Corinthians 14:33). We are told that Satan is the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4), which can help us understand why there is such a bewildering array of religions and religious ideas in the world. However, Satan even works to divide churches that claim to be "Christian" or "the Church of God" by fostering contentions and disagreements over doctrines, practices and personalities (1 Corinthians 1:10–17). Unless we are carefully following the truth—and following the Christian leadership of those who are clearly preaching and practicing the truth (1 Corinthians 11:1)—we can easily be deceived into following an individual or an organization that only claims to be preaching a Christian message! God's true Church does not have different "denominations" that believe and practice different things, but is composed of individuals who are led by the same spirit (Ephesians 4:4) to be "perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (1 Corinthians 1:10). To believe or teach otherwise is to be deceived!
Satan also carries out deception by blinding us to the true origin and nature of our own thoughts and feelings. Even as a Christian, not every thought or feeling comes from God. God states plainly in Scripture: "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways" (Isaiah 55:8). Solomon warned: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12). Jeremiah observed that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). One of the regrettable and unpleasant discoveries that most people make at some point in their lives is that we can deceive ourselves through our own human reasoning. This is why the Bible advises: "Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety" (Proverbs 11:14). If we take the time to seek counsel from God's word through prayerful study—as well as from God's ministers, and from older and more experienced people who are willing to tell us what we may not want to hear about ourselves—we can usually avoid being deceived. However, this takes effort, and it is often not what we are inclined to do. It is much easier to dwell on our own thoughts and feelings and to nourish our real or imagined hurts. Doing so can lead us into deception.
Notice that the Bible reveals that we can even be deceived into fasting for the wrong reasons! Isaiah warned that some people, believing that they are religious, will fast "for strife and debate" so that their particular ideas about a doctrine or practice might prevail (Isaiah 58:4–7). When individuals fast for this reason, it may even be due to a lack of understanding of how God works in His Church through those He places in positions of responsibility (1 Corinthians 12:18, 28–30; 1 Timothy 4:11–16; Titus 1:5–11). A person with a truly converted attitude is teachable and responsive when godly authority is exercised in Church matters (James 3:13–18). However, if we do not like to respond to this kind of governmental authority, we can be deceived into accepting and promoting wrong ideas (2 Peter 2:9–17)—by the very being who gained the name "Satan" (the "adversary" or "hostile opponent") by opposing God and promoting his own ideas (Isaiah 14:12–14). It is sobering to realize that while we may be sincere in our intentions, we may nevertheless be sincerely wrong—and can be deceived—if we do not see the "big picture" of how the government of God functions. And God does have government in His Church (see Isaiah 9:6–7; Acts 15; 1 Corinthians 4:14–21).
God's Goal
The Bible reveals that God places a very high premium on unity. David wrote: "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity" (Psalm 133:1–3). Paul stressed that Christians should strive for unity within the Church—doctrinally and socially (see Ephesians 4:1–16; Romans 12:9–19)—which reflects the unity within the God Family (John 10:30; 17:11). However, this kind of unity does not just suddenly appear as a result of prayer and fasting. It comes as a result of following God's instructions, which promote unity—and which teach us to recognize and resist Satan's attempts to undermine and destroy unity through his deceptions. To achieve true unity within the Church of God, we must resist the temptation to spread rumors and accusations that may seem true to us, yet may not really be true at all. We must learn that going directly to someone whom we have offended (or who has offended us) is better than talking to others about the problem. We must learn the value of seeking experienced and objective advice, and must beware of placing too much trust in our own opinions and feelings or those of people with whom we may commiserate. We must also come to understand that decisions on doctrinal matters are to be made by those God has placed in positions of responsibility—and that, when we begin to spread our own ideas about doctrines and practices, this leads to division and disunity, and plays directly into the hands of Satan, the deceiver!
Deception is a very serious trap that every Christian must strive to avoid. However, with the keys that God has revealed in His word, we can meet and overcome this challenge. We need to learn to use these important and practical keys so that we can avoid being deceived, and can be in the Kingdom of God!