The subject matter
which I am going to discuss in a few moments is an explanation of a
psychological effect which will have a significant effect on
Christians in the days to come. In fact, it is already affecting many
of them. While I deal with many doctrinal subjects, the main thrust
of both my blogs is eschatology. With that in mind, I am sure most
who have studied the subject of the end times in even the most
minimal way will know that the one thing that is stressed over and
over by Christ in the Olivet discourse, and what God warns us of in 2
Thessalonians 2 is that there will be great deception at the time of
the end, which we are rapidly heading toward.
Matthew 24:4-5 “And
Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive
you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and
shall deceive many.”
Matthew 24:11 “And
many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.”
Matthew 24:23-26
“Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there;
believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false
prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if
it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold,
I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold,
he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret
chambers; believe it not.”
Mark 13:5-6 “And
Jesus answering them began to say, Take heed lest any man deceive
you: For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and
shall deceive many.”
Mark 13:21-23 “And
then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is
there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets
shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it
were possible, even the elect. But take ye heed: behold, I have
foretold you all things.”
Luke 21:8 “And he
said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come
in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not
therefore after them.”
2 Thessalonians 2:3
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not
come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of
sin be revealed, the son of perdition;”
2 Thessalonians
2:9-12 “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with
all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not
the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this
cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
The delusion God
sends, the deceptions of the antichrist will be so great in fact,
that even the elect, we Christians, have the potential to fall for
the deceptions and fall away from the faith. Not possible you may
say? Well, let’s take a look at what is going on these days and
see how that might happen.
I think the one
thing that all Christians should desire is to know truth. At least I
believe we all would hope so. After all, Jesus says about Himself
“...I am the way, the truth, and the life...” John 14:6
As Christ is the truth, if we are to be in a harmonious relationship
with Him, we must desire truth above all else. God has said that He
wants us to worship Him in truth and spirit. John 4:23 “But the
hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father
seeketh such to worship him.” Christ made a point of saying that
people who are true worshippers
are those who worship the Father in truth. The problem with
truth, is that it is often very hard to accept, therefore most people
do not want to know it. There is only one truth when it comes to
God’s Word, but there are many disagreements as to what that truth
is. And even worse, God warned us that in the last days, people –
in particular Christians – would have itching ears and would not
desire to know the truth. Therein lies the problem. 2 Timothy 4:3
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers, having itching ears;”
Most Christians
attend church, and every church has its particular doctrines. If we
have one view of Scripture and someone else has another view, we take
a dim view of their view. (I know, I’m getting redundant with the
word “view”). We will defend our view to the death if need be,
and find ways (even ways that aren’t really kosher, if you’ll
excuse the term) to disprove theirs. The problem with this is, we are
not always right. In fact I have come to wonder if there is a church
denomination that has all their doctrines actually proven by all
of Scripture, not just the
verses they pick and choose. I have yet to find one and I have
attended a number of denominations. When it comes to doctrine,
sometimes we are both right, sometimes we are right and they
are wrong, sometimes we are wrong, and they are right, and sometimes
we are both wrong. I have always wondered why scholars have not been
able to come to a consensus of agreement on what God’s Word
actually says, for God only has one truth, but I have recently been
learning a lot about cognitive dissonance, and now realize that this
is one (there are other reasons as well) of the reasons that a
consensus cannot be reached. I have already seen techniques of
hypnotism, persuasive speech, subliminal messaging, and what I call
brainwashing (which may be just another name for these first three
things working together) at work. Each of these things can lead
people away from truth and so can cognitive dissonance. And each one
of these things has become rampant in our world. So rampant that
truth is becoming an almost impossible commodity to find these days.
So what is a Christian to do? I’m sure the question in your mind
is, “How does one find and hold on to the truth and know when they
have been fed lies? How can we know that anything that anyone says is
truth?” Good question.
Before discussing
how this affects the church and Christians, if one wants to see what
a mass eruption of cognitive dissonance looks like, then the reaction
when President Trump was elected is the perfect example. If one can
stand back and see the situation without a bias for or against the
man, one finds that he was portrayed in the mainstream media as
virtually another Hitler, because he is a master of persuasive
speech, and admittedly he is quite arrogant and somewhat vulgar. (If
these qualities make someone Hitler, then there are many more
Hitler’s out there. Some in the pulpits of churches in fact.) He
was going to destroy the country in the opinion of his opposition and
they used the trigger word “dark” to manipulate people’s minds
into seeing him the way they wanted him portrayed. This led people to
attribute evil motives to everything he said or did. The word “dark”
and therefore “evil” lodged in their minds with every story they
heard, and especially if they listened to the media broadcasts put
out by his opposition, whether true or false. The truth was not
important to people, the frame of mind was.
Trump used the same
psychological effect on Hillary calling her crooked Hillary, making
everyone distrust her every action. If people are paying attention,
they will find that he finds an appellation to apply to all those
with whom he is in opposition, to try to get people to think as he
wants them to think about that person. And each appellation has a
logical reason behind it. Persuasive speech is part and parcel of
politics, and he is a pro at it. This may come as a result of some
natural ability and some study. People can learn to do this, and he
was a businessman who needed to win at negotiations, so he became
good at The Art of the Deal, as
he named his book. I
am not going to elaborate on the truth or fiction of either of these
persons’ epithets, for that is not the point of this article. The
fact is, for people who were easily swayed due to not researching the
truth with an open mind, the appellation of “dark” was enough to
cement in their minds what they should think of the person, whether
true or false. In fact, as a result, some not only think Trump is
Hitler, they believe he is the antichrist. This goes to show how
successful this persuasive speech was in the minds of some people.
The truth of his actions became irrelevant. The
interpretation, exaggeration, or even suppression of the facts became
the “truth” that was presented by the opposition (on both
sides), so that minds would see what some wanted them to see. Every
story would fill the preconceived and programmed mindset, except for
those who were able to stand back and see the real truth.
When Trump won the
election (unexpectedly on the part of many people, but not for those
who understood what was happening), the left wing camp of the nation
went berserk. Riots, violence, all sorts of things broke out.
Colleges had to offer “safe spaces” with things like crayons and
coloring books, puppies, and who knows what else, as these children
were emotionally melting down. They had not expected Trump to win,
and when he did, their minds couldn’t handle it. So he was labeled
a Hitler and antichrist, and nothing he does, no matter how it may
benefit the country, is worthy of credit in the eyes of those who
believe he is “dark”. His actions that are not really morally
defensible are portrayed as the vilest things that any president, nay
any person has ever done (They have short memories of our other
politicians and presidents.), and many epithets are attached to his
name, even if not truly factual. So, those who bought into the
persuasion became victims of a conspiracy by foreign nations instead
of merely losing an election, and Hillary Clinton is still basically,
a year and a half later, crying to anyone who will listen that she
actually won and she can’t understand why nobody will believe her
and put her in office. She has a severe case of cognitive dissonance.
As far as many Christians are concerned, the end of the world has
come and pre-trib rapturists are expecting to get out of here any
minute now, because obviously the antichrist is here, and they are
setting rapture dates left and right. Cognitive dissonance at its
best. (Granted, every day brings us closer to the end of this age
regardless of what happens, so these events should not concern or
surprise us.)
If the term is
unfamiliar to you, cognitive dissonance is basically when a person’s
worldview (or in the Christian’s world also his theological view)
is put in conflict with the evidence or facts to such a degree that
their mind cannot handle it, so they create imaginary reasons to
rationalize the incongruity between what they think and the facts
with which they are faced. They will rewrite reality to even the
absurd in order to preserve their beliefs as being right. They may
also get very agitated and even angry, as we saw from the riots and
violence that ensued after the election.
One of the methods
of rationalization is to use what is called confirmation bias. This
is to irrationally believe that the new fact or evidence actually
supports the view, even when it doesn’t. Or on the other hand, it
allows a person to ignore the facts that do not agree with their
belief while accepting those that do agree, thereby thinking the new
evidence supports their view. If you have ever wondered why a person
is not understanding what you are saying when you disagree with them
and are presenting facts that refute their belief, this may be part
of the problem.
Let me give some
examples of this. I believe (and have an article on this) that
according to all of Scripture taken in context, a person can lose
their salvation if they do not continue to abide in Christ and endure
to the end of their life in a close relationship with Christ. There
are many verses that will back this up, and I have the arguments
provided for this in my article on the subject in my archives. I am
only using this as an example of cognitive dissonance, as it was just
recently an experience that I had which demonstrates the
psychological phenomena. It is not a complete study on the subject of
eternal security.
In my church I got
into a discussion in Bible study over this, as the church’s
doctrine says that you cannot lose your salvation. They believe once
saved, always saved, and if you walk away, you were not saved to
begin with. I pointed out a number of Scriptures that taught
otherwise. (here I include some, but not all to which I referred).
The responses were immediate denial and debating me over every
Scripture I gave them. The more Scripture I presented, the more angst
ridden they became. Here are just some of the Scriptures I presented,
and below them are some of the answers given to rebut those verses.
1) the parable of
the four seeds. (Matt. 13) Three of them accept
the Word, but two of them are choked
out due to either the
lust of the world, or the trials of life.
The second and third seed
are different from the first who did not receive the seed, in that
they did receive it. One endured for a while then
walked away and wanted nothing more to do with it,
and the other became unfruitful and
was choked out.
In this case, I was told that the two seeds didn’t really accept
the Lord. Period. They only had a “head knowledge”. The problem
with this answer? God’s Word says differently. The second seed was
received with joy and endures for a while
until persecution and trials become too much. Then he walks away.
The third grew until it became unfruitful
and was choked out. Then he walks away. You can’t become
unfruitful if you were never producing fruit to begin with. To
become something, in this case unfruitful which is a negative,
is a change in status and means that you had been the positive of
this at one time, or fruitful. He had been bringing forth fruit at
first. Nor can you receive and endure if you have never received.
How would you endure at all without having received? It is God who
gives us the strength to endure. The facts don’t fit their
interpretation. Faced with Scripture that said the opposite of
what was believed, it was changed in interpretation to support
the held belief, even in the face of the fact that it did not support
it.
2)
the parable of the ten virgins. (Matt.
25) They were all
virgins waiting
for the groom, but five of them had not properly prepared to wait out
the long wait, and so were
shut out of the wedding.
Their
answer – the five virgins were not really saved. They were tares,
not wheat. How is one
a virgin if
one is not a virgin? In the
context of spirituality, to be a virgin means to not worship any
other god than
God. Those who are
spiritually dead belong to Satan. They are not virgins. A virgin is
one who is spiritually pure – one who is redeemed by Christ’s
blood. The problem is that they did not endure by preparing to wait
until the end. They were scrambling to do what they should have been
doing all along, making sure they were ready to go. Making
their calling and election sure. Again,
cognitive dissonance in that the facts did not support their belief,
but they reinterpreted the facts to support their belief.
3)
2 Peter 1:10 “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to
make your calling and
election sure: for if ye
do these things, ye shall never fall:”
Their
answer – Your calling and
election are sure, but as good Christians we should walk in holiness.
The problem? Why would you
have to work to make
your election sure, if it is sure? Why would Peter indicate that
something could possibly make it unsure? There
is an “if” involved here. If you give due diligence and do the
things you should, you will never fall.
Apparently the possibility
exists that you can fall, as in fall away permanently,
if you do not do the things you should. Why
would this mean fall away and not just backslide for a brief time?
Because just committing a sin can be forgiven as we know, so this is
not speaking of that. The only thing that it can logically mean is
that you can fall away permanently, if you are not abiding in Christ,
otherwise, why say this at
all? It makes no sense in
the way they were trying to interpret it.
The lack of logic in
ignoring the “if-will” clause or
thinking it is just a simple sin that one can repent is
cognitive dissonance.
4)
2 Peter 2:20-21 “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of
the world through the
knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is
worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better
for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than, after they have
known it, to turn from
the holy commandment delivered unto them.”
The
answer was that the knowledge was not an intimate knowledge as in a
relationship with Christ. It was just the kind of knowledge that the
demons have – James 2:19 “Thou
believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils
also believe, and tremble.”
The people mentioned were
merely churchgoers and again tares. Where this answer falls down is
in several places. First, it says that their knowledge of the Lord
had allowed them to escape the pollutions of the world, but being
entangled again in them would be worse than if they had never known
the way of righteousness. How can a person who has
not been saved actually know
the way of righteousness?
How can they be worse off after they pretend to be saved, than if
they hadn’t pretended? There is no difference in their status at
all spiritually, if they have not known the Lord intimately.
Second,
the word “known”
in these verses is a particular word for
a particular type of knowledge. Because
it is so special, it is only used a few times in the New Testament.
It is the word “epiginosko”
and means to be fully acquainted with,
which indicates an intimate knowledge of someone.
In 1 Corinthians 13:12 we
read “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am
known.” In the first case when we see the word “know”, the
word is “ginosko” and it means to be aware of, to feel you
understand.” Paul can only feel
he understands God,
as we see through a glass
darkly. He can’t have a
completely intimate understanding of everything having to do with
God. But when we see the Lord face
to face, then we shall know
(epiginosko) every intimate
detail of God, just as He
knows (epiginosko) us.
This knowledge
speaks
of having full intimate
knowledge of, not just
us of God, but it also describes how God knows us. God
knows us better than we know ourselves. Clearly
if we know God in the epiginosko way, it is speaking of
the most intimate knowledge of another, which can only be achieved
through accepting Christ as your Savior. There is no other way to
know Christ intimately like this. Therefore
when it says that if they are again entangled in the world, the
latter state is worse than the first state, it is talking of going
from belief back to unbelief. Why is this state worse? Because to
have known God and turned from Him is worse than never having known
Him at all. To
go from not really knowing God to not really knowing God does not put
you in a different state whatsoever. The latter state is no worse
than the former, because they are the same. What
is ironic, is that the pastor said of this verse that he knew that it
“looked” as if the way I was interpreting it was correct, but I
wasn’t correct. The
cognitive dissonance got worse, the more verses I presented.
5)
1 Corinthians 9:27 “But I keep under my body, and bring it into
subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I
myself should be a
castaway.”
I
don’t believe they had an answer for this one. They just ignored
it. Paul says that if he does not keep himself
under control and do as he
should after preaching this to others, he himself could become a
castaway. The word means to
be rejected, a reprobate, or worthless. In other words, to
be cut loose from God. Even Paul was worried that he could become
rejected by God if he did
not endure to the end. It’s
no wonder they had no answer.
6)
John 15:2a,6
“Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he
taketh away:....If a man
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and
men gather them, and cast
them into the fire, and
they are burned.”
This
was one that left them scrambling
to answer. The
explanation came that the
person again had to be a pretender, as they weren’t producing
fruit. Someone suggested that the fire was not the fire of hell, but
that the fires were the refining fires of our works and that this
referred to works being lost. Even the pastor could not go with that
interpretation. I pointed out that nobody can be “in” Christ or
in the vine unless they have actually accepted Christ. The
determination to reconcile it was strong. The insistence was that the
person could not have actually accepted Christ in spite of the “in”
factor. They were just
pretending to be grafted in, because real Christians have no choice
but to produce fruit and
good fruit at that. Really?
No free will choice but to be a good Christian? Uh, not what I see,
but okay. Have it your way.
7)
Hebrews 6:4-6 “For it is
impossible for those who were
once enlightened, and
have tasted of the
heavenly gift, and were
made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
And have tasted
the good word of God,
and the powers of
the world to come, If
they shall fall
away, to renew
them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son
of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.”
The answer to this was complete denial that the verse said what it
said. Again it was insisted that the person did not actually know the
Lord. The word “enlightened” was redefined as head knowledge, the
word “tasted” meant attending church and therefore being familiar
with the things of Christianity, the word “partakers” meant being
in church and watching other Christians in their walk, the words
“fall away” meant to simply quit going to church and the word
“renew” meant that they had not accepted Christ, so they would
not get into heaven. This is cognitive dissonance at its finest. The
absurd length which they went to twist the very clear meaning of
these verses showed how their brain could not handle it when faced
with a truth that did not agree with their beliefs. What this verse
says is that those who have received the spiritual enlightenment of
having their eyes and ears opened to God and His Word, which only
comes through accepting Him, those who have tasted for themselves
what God’s gifts bring to their lives, because as children of God
we receive certain blessings and gifts, those who have been indwelt
by the Holy Spirit, because you only partake of something if you
actually make it a part of yourself or interact with it, if they turn
their back on God and want nothing more to do with Him cannot have
their repentance renewed. Their ignoring the very pertinent word
“renew” was clearly a disassociation of their brain. You cannot
renew something which has never existed to begin with. When you renew
a contract, you have already had the contract in use and it has come
to a conclusion and must be renewed to be valid again. To renew your
relationship with Christ means that you once knew Him. This verse
does not indicate that every sin will end up with your loss of
salvation. It must be taken in context with the rest of Scripture and
indicates that if you turn from God and deny Him, then there is no
way to renew salvation, for it only comes through Christ and if you
don’t want Him, there is nothing left to provide salvation.
8)
Hebrews 10:26-31 “For if
we sin wilfully after that we
have received the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking
for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the
adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under
two or three witnesses: Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye,
shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of
God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified,
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? For
we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will
recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his
people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God.”
The
answer to this was pretty much the same as #8. Denial that the verse
said what it said. That this spoke of an intellectual knowledge only
and that sanctification was not due to being indwelt by the Holy
Spirit. The problem with the
head knowledge interpretation is that the word is the same kind of
knowing that we saw in 2 Peter 2 (#4 above). It means full intimate
knowledge of something. There is no question that this speaks of a
true born again believer who is willfully turning from God. The
verse used
to “prove” this was not
speaking of a true Christian focused the
emphasis on the word
“sanctified.” It was told to me that
because Scripture says that
when a saved woman marries an unsaved man, he and the children are
considered sanctified for the sake of the children, this
is the kind of sanctification spoken of here. That was a real stretch
since the context is entirely different.
Taking the verse totally out of context and misapplying it to another
Scripture does not make it
mean what they were saying
it meant. The sanctification spoken of in the marriage condition did
not mean salvation for the husband and children, which is what this
verse in Hebrews is speaking about. It meant that God would consider
the home as set aside for Him, because of the wife and would bless it
because of her faith. In the verse in Hebrews, it is talking about
personal sanctification, as
a result of personal intimate knowledge of Christ and truth,
which can only come through accepting Christ and being indwelt by the
Holy Spirit. It is talking about personal willful sin, after
having
received the knowledge and Holy Spirit. Then it speaks of God judging
His
people. People who are not saved, are not His people. This is
speaking about a Christian.
So
with every new fact, every verse that proved the point I was making,
the cognitive dissonance grew and denial became more and more
absolute. Truth was not important. Preserving the stability
of the brain became of paramount importance, and the brain chose to
interpret the facts in a way that would not cause distress or
confusion. This
is not an aberration. This is what our brain will do when we are not
allowing the Holy Spirit to try to teach us truth. The brain will
always seek out
reconciliation and peace of mind, even at the cost of truth, unless
you choose to let God have His way and show you truth.
Another method of
cognitive dissonance is to filter the information through a lens that
dictates their worldview. What does not fit in the picture gets
filtered out, so that explanation is unnecessary. If it is
inescapable to have to accept the fact for some reason, then as a
last resort the person will find a way to show how their belief was
misinterpreted and therefore it was not wrong, it was just
misunderstood and can be rewritten with as much of the original
belief saved as possible to fit the new information which must be
accommodated.
An easy example of
this is the myriad of rapture dates that have been set, have come,
and have passed. Everyone setting these dates are filtering out the
information in the Bible that tells us that the rapture cannot come
until certain events have occurred. When the date comes and passes
with no rapture, there is an immediate scramble to explain how their
math was a little off, or they accidentally had a little
misunderstanding of a particular verse or even word. And they set
another date accommodating the new information. You would think these
people would realize their mistake in trying to set a date to begin
with, but they don’t, even after multiple failures. They have a
certain expectation set in their mind, and they have to fulfill it.
To point out their error, that Scripture does not back them up only
leads them into denial and in fact, they never really accept that
they were wrong, they simply had a little error in their
calculations. Cognitive dissonance at work.
So what has this to
do with the church and why should it affect a Christian? Well, I’m
sure it is obvious to everyone from the examples above, but to
reiterate, God has one truth, but Satan has created many versions on
that truth. Versions which will deceive even the elect. That one
truth is crucial to how one approaches the end times, which I feel we
are on the verge of entering. To not know the truth, to not have that
grounding when nothing but lies come at you from every direction,
will allow cognitive dissonance to occur when things do not take
place as expected. That cognitive dissonance is the very thing which
will lead to people being deceived and falling away from the faith.
God warns us that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
Hosea 4:6. What knowledge do you suppose He is speaking about? His
Word of course. Truth in the form of God’s Word is the anchor which
will keep us grounded and faithful when everything around us no
longer makes any sense and we can’t tell heads from tails.
To show some of my
own journey with cognitive dissonance, regular readers of my blog
will have already discerned that I am a proponent of the last trumpet
rapture. Just as background I was raised a pre-tribber. Then I was
made familiar with the teaching of mid-trib, the post-trib, and then
many years later, I was introduced to the pre-wrath rapture. In the
beginning I merely accepted, as most people do, what I was taught as
the truth (since everybody believes their denominational theology is
the only right one and the only one with the entire truth), but as I
started to study the Scriptures without the use of the
denominationally approved theological commentaries to guide and bias
my thought processes, I soon discovered a great many discrepancies
between what God’s Word said and what I was taught. I began to
experience cognitive dissonance, but being a person who was addicted
to mysteries, I couldn’t just walk away from the problems I found.
I had to solve them. So I started investigating the other two less
held versions to see if they provided less difficulties. I still
discovered too many discrepancies to accept those theories and
experienced more cognitive dissonance which I had to overcome. I knew
that God’s Word, when rightly divided, does not leave us with these
discrepancies, so continued to look for answers. Some years later I
found that the pre-wrath theory brought me much closer to the truth.
The process to get to this point had been extremely painful. It was
like having the rug pulled out from under me. How could I trust
anything that they were teaching? But by now I was so determined to
find the truth that I was shutting down the cognitive dissonance in
favor of accepting truth, even in the face of that being painful.
Pre-wrath seemed really good, but something still continued to nag at
me that this was not correct either, as there were a few passages
that I still could not reconcile, as hard as I might try. Finally one
day I just started praying and praying for truth no matter how hard
it may be to accept, no matter how painful. When I finally put truth
above all else, it allowed God to show me the truth. The rapture is
just where Paul told us it was, where Christ told us it was, and
where John told us it was - at the last trumpet, the seventh trumpet
in Revelation. Finally all of those pesky verses that I could not
reconcile fell into place like the pieces of a puzzle. It all made
sense. But the revelation of that truth brought a whole new set of
concerns. Not for myself, but for other Christians. The knowledge of
how unprepared they were, like those five virgins, and knowing that
those virgins got shut out of the wedding, became a real
burden on my heart.
If as God’s Word
tells us, we are to go through the great tribulation, there would be
an abundance of deception going on. Christ did warn us several times
during the Olivet Discourse to not be deceived, and to not run after
men that people claimed were Him. If there were no chance of
Christians being deceived, why would Christ make such a point of
warning us not once, but several times over. And if the antichrist is
so easily dismissed as the real Messiah, as most Christians expect he
will be in their eyes, why warn us to not run after men who were
calling themselves the returned Jesus? We should not believe it,
should we? We can’t be deceived can we? Apparently the deception
will be very, very convincing. In fact the delusion is sent by God
Himself and people who have not believed the truth will
believe the lie. 2 Thess. 2:11-12 “And for this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That
they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure
in unrighteousness.”
For people who are
expecting a completely different scenario, whether pre-trib,
mid-trib, or pre-wrath, cognitive dissonance might actually make them
unable to accept the truth, and they will be deceived and fall away.
This is the extreme danger of this phenomena. While one might believe
that a post-trib believer could not be deceived, as they expect to go
through the great tribulation and see the antichrist, I have found
that among the post-tribbers and pre-wrath too for that matter, they
erroneously believe that
because they are Christians they are automatically going to be
supernaturally protected during this time, due to the promise to
the Philadephians. The deception in this is that 1) the time of great
tribulation is not God’s wrath, therefore no Christian is exempt
from persecution, and millions of Christians will die, many who are
not prepared to do so and 2) only the Philadephians (and maybe not
even all of them), out of seven churches are given this promise. The
other six churches are not given any promise at all to escape what
lies ahead. The Smyrnans, who are faithful Christians with no
condemnation from Christ are all martyred. The Thyatirans are told
“Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their
deeds.” Rev. 2:22. The phrase “great tribulation” is only used
three times in the Bible and each time it refers to that time when
antichrist will rule. Instead of being promised to be protected the
other six churches are told what their eternal rewards will be if
they are “overcomers.” So what is meant by “overcomer”?
In Revelation 12:11
we are told that Christians “overcome” the beast by their deaths.
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of
their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
The saints overcome Satan not be being protected. They overcome him
by not loving their lives up to death. To be an overcomer means to
remain faithful to the Lord by the power of His blood and endure to
the end even in the face of death by martyrdom. Rev. 14:13 “And I
heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that
they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.”
My greatest fear for
the Church, and here I must say it is mainly the Laodicean American
Church who do not believe God would ever let them suffer (the
churches in the rest of the world know better as they are dying every
day for their faith), is that when they are faced with the fact that
there was no rapture to get them out of here before the antichrist
starts killing them, they will go into cognitive dissonance and deny
that this is what is happening. They will rationalize and reinterpret
and make excuses and believe the lie, which will jeopardize their
very salvation. Not wanting to have truth more than comfort will
leave them vulnerable and frightened beyond their ability to cope.
And there seems to be no way to cut through this cognitive dissonance
that I have found. For God to show someone the truth, they have to
desire it, and as He said, people have itching ears. They don’t
want bad news. They want good news. They want the easy way out,
because they have been living the easy Christianity. One that is full
of the good life, entertainment, loose rules, carnal pleasures, and
false promises of once saved always saved and eternal security, not
holy living and self-sacrifice, with the Ten Commandments as a guide.
While politics and
religion will only walk hand in hand when our Savior is king, looking
at what has happened in America from the political upheaval is a
forewarning of what will happen in Christianity when the expected
does not transpire and the unexpected, which was considered an
impossibility, does. As the left had a melt-down, so will many
Christians when Christ does not return on their schedule. The parable
of the Ten Virgins becomes far more meaningful when you realize that
the point of the parable is that we will be waiting much longer for
His return than some are expecting to wait. Those who understand that
the wait will be longer and are prepared for it will enter into the
wedding. Those who are not prepared – well, you can read the
parable for yourself in Matthew 25.
So the question at
the beginning was, “How do I learn truth and avoid deception?”
The answer is not an easy one. It is not an easy one, because it
requires an enormous amount of work. The work it requires is getting
your Bible out and without the commentaries, without following
someone’s preconceived bias, ask God to show you the truth and
learn at His feet. That is one of the purposes of the Holy Spirit. He
was to lead us into truth. John 16:13 “Howbeit when he, the Spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not
speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak:
and he will shew you things to come.” We are told the Spirit will
show us things to come. In
other words, the truth of the prophecies which we should be studying
(Revelation has a blessing on those who read and heed the book) will
be given to us by the Holy Spirit. Not by Joe Shmoe, the such and
such denominational father whom everyone reveres. Joe Shmoe may not
have been guided by the Spirit when he was studying, so you shouldn’t
take his word for everything without checking like a good Berean. Be
prepared to take God’s Word at face value. He
actually wrote things in a way so that you would understand, believe
it or not. Prophecy in particular is not for private interpretation.
(2 Peter 1:20) The only way to avoid that is to take it at face
value, no matter how unreal or bizarre it may seem at first. Reality
may be far more “unreal” than you presently believe. Much of the
truth of reality (the entire spiritual world) is hidden from our
view, but the Bible tells us all about it. It requires letting go of
preconceived ideas and biases and just accepting the truth no matter
how hard it is to accept. The blessing in all of that? When Christ
said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free,” He was not being facetious. Letting go of false views to
embrace truth will be the most freeing thing you will ever
experience. I can say that from experience. At first it is
devastating. I will also
admit that, but the more you
accept truth, the easier it becomes to accept more truths, and the
joy that comes with knowledge, the knowledge that keeps you from
being destroyed as God predicted in Hosea, is a wondrous thing. Being
forewarned and forearmed and prepared is a blessing. God’s
Word will anchor you in truth when all else is nothing but lies. The
truth will make lies ring like a bell in your head when you hear
them. The truth will allow you to see subtle manipulations of
semi-truths. The truth will
set and keep you free from all the mind control in the world.
2
Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew
thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.”
