Deception of the Masses

INTRODUCTION

There is extensive coverage by the Bible on the subject of deception. The reason that deception is such a topical subject is because deception had started as soon as Lucifer rebelled against God. His first scheme was the deception of Eve in the Garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:1-7) Since then the spiritual war against God's plan for the redemption of Man has been waging since the beginning of mankind. This will continue to be waged and will not end until Satan and his accompanying fallen angels are cast into the Lake of Fire (Rev.20: 10). One of the weapons used in this spiritual warfare is the use of deception. Being deceitful is the nature of Satan for he is "the father of lies" and " himself masquerades (disguises) as an angel of light." It is not surprising then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness (2 Corinthians 11:14-15). This means that Satan can come as something that is outwardly and naturally good. This is why Jesus warned us about false prophets and teachers coming as wolves in sheep clothing. (Matt.7:15)

Deception especially toward the End-times will be so pervasive that our Lord Jesus warned that " At that time many will turn from the faith and many will betray and hate each other and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people." (Mathew 24:10-11). It is interesting to note that this warning was said to his disciples who were followers of Christ. Likewise, the Apostle Paul spoke about the "falling away from faith" in the End-times. (1 Thessalonians 2:3) Although these warnings referred to apostasy occurring in the End-times, one wonders how such turning away from the faith can occur in today's context. If it affects a large number of Christians, then the deception to pull Christians away from God must be so pervasive and subtle, that those who lose their relationship with God do not know about it. Or even if they knew, their hearts have gone cold and they do not care.

The key message is that as Christians regardless of the level of our spiritual maturity, we must always be on guard against subtle attacks by the enemy. From the study on the life of King Solomon, we must learn not to be complacent in our walk with God. The Bible tells us that King Solomon had riches and wisdom above all kings on earth. (1Kings10: 23) He built the Temple of God (1Kings 8:27). He saw our Lord twice. (1Kings 11:9) He wrote three books of the Bible. Also he knew of the strong relationship his father, King David, had with God. (1Kings 8:23-27) In spite of all these strong credentials and also in spite of God's warning, he was disobedient at the later part of his life and he worshipped other gods. (1Kings11: 6-12) His falling away led to the decline and disintegration of Israel as a nation.

"Deceit" is defined as deliberately leading oneself or others to believe or accept into doing which is false. Deception can be carried out in the following ways:

• Through misrepresentation or covering up the truth;
• Through conditioning or brainwashing so that the person becomes disoriented from the truth;
• Through enticing and exploiting the weaknesses (especially desires of the flesh) of the person so that the victim gets hooked or addicted.

Subtlety in deception usually is done through attacks targeting, firstly, the soul that includes our mind, will and emotions including what psychology calls the sub-consciousness, an area where our habits reside and secondly, our spirit that covers our conscience, motivation and creativity.

In the present age, if Satan is the god of this age or the fallen world (2 Corinthians 4:2-4) it is within his power to use whatever means available in the natural realm to deceive us. He could use modern technology, money, world events or people including Christians who do not have a strong relationship with God, as tools or proxies to carry out his scheme. These deceptions could be carried out subtly involving cover-up, repackaging and using subliminal approaches directing at the sub-conscious area of our minds.

It is evident from the scriptures that music is a way of worshipping our God. King David used music to worship and praise God as is evident in Psalms. Temple worship includes music. Likewise, Mary when she knew she is conceiving Jesus sang a song to glorify our God. (Lk.1: 46).

Music is part of man's culture. A civilization is often distinguished by its music. It is so to speak the ‘soul' of that society. Today, music is part of the pop and rock and roll culture and is a multi-billion global industry. It is pervasive in our lives and we hear it frequently in advertisements, radios, movie soundtracks, videos, etc. We often use music to express our feelings and dedications to someone or a cause.

With the advancement of technology, music can be distributed extensively to every individual through tapes, CDs and Walkmans. In many cases, especially among the teenagers, many are hooked on listening to music. Music is really a power drug. It can poison you, lift your spirits or make one sick without knowing why. Many ancient philosophers had realized the power of music. For example, the Greek philosopher, Aristotle had said, "…music has the power to form character." Likewise, Lenin, the founding father of Russian communism had said, "one quick way to destroy a society is through its music."

In today's music world, demonic influences are introduced into music through demonic lyrics, back ground chanting, back masking (playing of demonic verses backwards as backup music) and lyrics with auto suggestion to commit suicidal acts such as putting a gun in one's heard to try out the excitement. Particularly in some heavy metal music, there are strong inferences to the occults. It is not surprising that the fruits of all these are the pervasiveness of sexual promiscuity, violence, suicide, drug addiction and rebellion especially among the teenagers who listen frequently to such music.

At no time in the history of mankind are we more concerned with the acquisition and accumulation of material wealth today. With increase consumerism and the secular value system which equates success in life to wealth, it is no wonder that the young are overwhelmingly materialistic, interested more than ever primarily in making money. We have been nurtured into a society seduced by affluence and which measures worth on the basis of possessions and positions. Even there are Christian preachers who preach the prosperity theology over emphasising narrowly on health, wealth and prosperity as the real benefits of salvation. Jesus came to bring men to God and not property to man. There is nothing wrong with achieving success, financial security, or personal security but at some point, a follower of Jesus Christ crosses the line into enemy territory.

The Lord once told a group of Pharisees, described as people "who loved money", that "what is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight" (Lk 16:15). In the parable of the Rich fool, Jesus warned " Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." Rarely do we see greed as a horrific sin. Greed is idolatry (Col 3:5). Jesus warned, "man cannot serve money and God. He must chose one over the other." (Lk 16:13) We can serve God with money, but we can never serve God and money. We either love one or hate the other. We cannot love both the same time.

The word "greed" means a consuming desire to have more or a lust to acquire more than is required. It is the very opposite of the contentment that accompanies true godliness (1 Tim.6: 6). The danger in possessions is that they often arouse the desire for more. We are warned that " the love of money is the root for all kinds of evil " (1Tim.6). and in Hebrews 13:5, " free yourself from the love of money and be contented." It must not be misunderstood that Christians cannot be wealthy or prosperous. But what is required is that we give priority to seek the kingdom of God first and then all these needs shall be added to us. (Lk 27:29-31)

In the New World Order, the power of money is being exploited by Satan to bring bondage both to nations as well as men and the latter will be enticed by the fact that wealth and money also generates other powers and authority especially in politics.

Today we are witnessing the prophesy coming true as stated in Daniel 12:4, " but you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge." We are in the knowledge-based society. In the developed nations the number of knowledge-based workers now forms about 90% of the workforce. New sources of wealth are created through the use of knowledge. With the continuing advancement in information and communication technology, reaching the masses globally is made possible by the existence of satellites and telecommunication infrastructure. For the first time in the history of mankind, all countries in the world are connected in a virtual global village. Today, the total number of users of the electronic network called Internet is about 171 million and this is growing at a rate of about 20% per annum. In 1996, there were 13.5 million websites and daily, this amount is increased by 20,000 sites.

The existence of the Internet allows us to search for and share knowledge "here and there" on a global basis but the accessibility is now made possible to individuals directly practically from anywhere to everywhere. Knowledge has become a source of power to wealth creation as well as to influence opinions, mindsets, attitudes and ultimately values of each individual as well as group of communities or the whole society. The Internet had made possible for the dissemination globally to individuals extensive information at high speed and in an unrestricted manner. Both desirable as well as undesirable information become easily available. Therefore, from the spiritual perspective, this calls for discernment in the use of knowledge because one of the most strategic approaches adopted by the enemy is to substitute knowledge of God with knowledge of darkness such as false teachings and doctrines.

Deception of the masses in the area of knowledge will have the primary objective to confuse Christians, undermining their faith in the Lord, creating doubts and providing alternative beliefs and gods. The result is apostasy and lost of salvation as stated in 2 Peter 2:20 "If anyone have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at beginning."

Today, man's search for inner peace has led to a collective shift toward mysticism. There seem to be a renewed appreciation for the spiritual side of human nature and a growing hunger for spiritual experiences. This collective yearning stems partly from a legitimate desire to verify that life has meaning and purpose, to know death is not the end of our existence and to be reassured that we are not alone in this vast universe with our crushing problems. But many of today's spiritual seekers also have other goals in mind. They are apt to think of spiritual practices as methods of making contact with a deeper part of themselves, developing and mental prowess, and inducing emotion highs or unusual experiences rather than as a means of making more meaningful contact with God. Many nominal believers are delving eagerly into New Age/ New Consciousness teachings, Eastern traditions and paganism in their search for new heights of spiritual experience. Some have even taken to the belief in UFOs as benevolent aliens or even angels in Christian ministries. The problem is that many would search for spiritual experience regardless of the source of the spiritual object. Their spiritual naivety makes them gullible to accept high-sounding labels that cover up the demonic nature of the methods or practices behind these labels.

As a means to contact the supernatural, man has been taken in by the ancient art of using techniques to induce an altered state of consciousness (Figure 1 below). Going into an altered state dramatically increases one's chances of having a demonic spiritual encounter as the one's ability to discern or screen out deception by using logic and his ability to reason. In an altered state, a person's defence mechanisms are stripped away, allowing for spirit entities to bypass the screening process and communicate directly with one's subconscious mind. This can skew one's entire view of reality, allowing Satan to plant untrue thoughts that may lead to unjustified behaviour leading to spiritual rebellion against God. God forbids such practices as stated in Deut. 18: 10-12, "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or cast spells, or who is a medium or spiritualist or who consults the dead. "

Satan uses man as proxies to supply the various techniques to achieved altered state of consciousness. These demonic techniques are repackaged, promoted and taught as innovative and modern methods of increasing the use of our untapped potential and talents, providing relaxation, getting inner peace and managing stress. These methods form a deception, leading men to think that they are communicating with a higher self or god but the effect is to remove man from having a relationship with the true God.

Towards the end of the age there will be wars and rumours of war. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. (Matt.24: 7) Clashes between civilisations and ethnic groups due to differences in values and religious beliefs will increase. Man's effort to bring global peace and stability will not be successful as by nature man is erred towards evil (Genesis 6:5) and self-interest. Everyone talks about changing Man but no one talks about changing himself especially from the inside. As a defence against sectarianism, the United Nations had initiated the inter-faith movement that had led to the United World Religions Initiative. While the aim is to encourage dialogue among the world's religion with the primary goal of reducing sectarian conflicts and bringing peace is noble and a desirable goal, such movement is now increasingly promoting the merging and compromise of the scripture to include the teachings of other faiths. The rallying call made by UN emissaries is that " all revealed religions are part of one God's plan for humanity. Full realisation of the Divinity and His plan for unity will come from congregational chanting of the Names of God from different religious traditions ". This teaching is similar to the New Age Movement which believe that each religion provides part of the truth and collectively, the core of the world's religions contain the complete truth.

While there is a place for discussion and dialogue to promote understanding and peace in society, the problem with inter-faithism is that it offers false unity through fatal compromise of the Word of God. It is not a unity based in truth. God's truth is absolute and cannot be modified for the sake of achieving a particular goal. If worldly unity becomes the main pursuit, truth is sacrificed, and participants end up believing a lie for the sake of their cause. True unity comes from God and the result of seeking and believing His truth. It is never an end unto itself. As our Lord said " blessed are the peacemakers" (Matt.5:9), the Christian Gospel is a gospel of peace. God has called us to live in peace as stated in Roman 12:18, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone ". True peace can only be achieved through loving our neighbour as ourselves and the fear of the Lord will equip us with knowledge and moral wisdom. As 2 Timothy 4:3 aptly describes " for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrines. 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 and turn aside to myths."

One could not help thinking that inter-faithism is a means used by Satan to make faithful Christians look bad in the eyes of the non-believers. From the spiritual perspective, it is could be a means through which Satan will use to isolate and undermine the Church by propagating doctrinal compromises which he well know that Christians cannot accept. This same strategy was used in the days of Daniel where his accusers cannot find anything wrong to accuse him, so they plotted to use something against him that they knew he could not comply unless he broke the law of God. As stated in Daniel 6:5 " We (the conspirators) shall find against him (Daniel) unless we find against him concerning the law of his God".

If inter-faithism becomes an acceptable norm in societies globally, the day will come when true Christians who live by the Word of God, will be considered as fanatics, bigots and a threat to peace. Moreover, in the last days when the Antichrist rules, this could be a reason for persecuting and eliminating the Body of Christ in the name of promoting peace and stability in the civil society. As stated in Revelation 17:13 "These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast".

Creating Values that are Against God's Values

Our conscience works within the framework of the information and knowledge that we have in our minds. The apostle Peter understood the importance of having knowledge when he said in 1 Peter 3: 5-8 "…. add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control…". Knowledge should lead to appropriate behaviour. Change starts with having knowledge which in turn gives understanding, which leads to changes in the way we see things, thus forming our attitude and values. With this frame of mind we behave accordingly. Therefore, to change man's behaviour is to start by giving him the appropriate knowledge.

In today's affluent society, with the help of mass communication through the electronic media, our knowledge and hence our values are being fostered and shaped gradually but surely by carnal principles. Either through persuasive intellectual debate or movies portraying sinful acts as acceptable norms of behaviour, sin is being desensitised. Ultimately, sin is no more defined in accordance with godly principles but in accordance to individual rights and convenience. Current debate on abortion and homosexuality are cases in point. In the book "The Three Battleground", Francis Frangipane aptly describes that spiritual warfare as a war over reality. That is, reality as defined basing on the standards and principles of the Kingdom of God or the reality as established by man. In the natural realm, whatever a society agrees upon and establishes through consent, compromise and constant use will ultimately defined reality to them. For example, there are already laws that are enacted in some countries that recognise marriage of the same sex and co-habitation of unmarried couples as legal family unit. While those who are engaged in such relationship might find comfort in man-made laws, it would be a deception to think that in the eyes of God such relationships are acceptable. As Proverbs 14: 12 says, " there is a way which seems right to man, but in the end it leads to death." With changes in values away from godly principles, people in the last days, will become godlessness (2 Tim 3: 2-5) and will grow cold in their hearts. This conditioning of our minds is one of the greatest deceptions of the masses as the end of the age draws closer.

The Internet has become one of the main enabling tools for learning as well as entertainment through the use of computer video games. The content of these Internet programmes will have a subtle influence on the attitudes and hence the values of the young. There are many games in the net that teach the players to solve problems through violent methods. The frequent use of these games often lead to a process of autosuggestion that influences the sub-conscience. Consequently, the player will not be able to distinguish between the real thing from the fakes. His values will be shaped by the role playing exercises that he frequently assumes in these computer games (please refer to text box below for an example of such a game). Recently, it has become increasingly evident that a number of juvenile crimes can be traced to the disorientation of the offender being unable to discern between right and wrong.

As we move toward the end of the age, deception through the use of music, money and knowledge will increase. The state of art of information and communication technology existing today now allows for direct access to each individual and hence churches. One way is to shut ourselves - just like a hermit-- from all things of the world but this is impractical. In reality most of us live within the carnal environment and would have to guard against deception using both the spiritual approach as well as using physical methods. As we are dealing with spiritual warfare, it is critical that the spiritual approaches be given priority, as the state of our spiritual maturity is the foundation of our ability to stand against deception.

The first defense is to be knowledgeable both in the Word of God as well as not to be ignorant about what is happening in the natural world. Knowing worldly knowledge does not mean that we need to practise it. The main purpose is to be aware of its dangers and not to be naïve. The Bible teaches us to be as shrewd as serpents (Matt. 10:6) so that we are not entrapped. As an analogy, we need to be aware of the dangers of drug addiction but we need not try to take drugs in order to know of its ill effects. We must have knowledge so that we do not go into captivity (Isaiah 5:13). Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of our times and the strength of salvation (Isaiah 33:6). As the scripture is one of the main ways of communication by God, Christians need to be strongly rooted in the Word so that we can take heed and see to it that no one takes us captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human traditions and the basic principle of his world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8). Increasingly, every Christian must move to strengthen his spiritual foundations, reaching spiritual maturity that is solid as a rock. To exercise the spiritual gifts of discernment, our walk with God must be Word-based as well as being Spirit-led and Christ-centered.

The second defense requires parental or adult guidance especially over children in their use of the Internet, the type or music they hear, the type of video games they play and the movies they watch. Children should be taught how to be discerning between good and bad information. All these must be done under good parenting guidance where parents maintain firm discipline while demonstrating genuine love. While it is not the purview of this article to deal exhaustively on the subject of parenting in accordance with biblical principles, we must pray for our children and they must be taught biblical values and with the Holy Spirit, they will be able to develop the fruit of self-control diligently. In addition, we must put Christ at the center of our home so that the whole family becomes spiritually healthy.

Finally, we must guard against deception within the Church; otherwise our Lord would not have warned us not to be deceived by the false prophets and teachers that will be present at the end of the age. (Lk 21: 8) Dealing with the enemy from within is perhaps one of the most daunting tasks for faithful Christians and requires perseverance to deal with such intimidation. If false shepherds are allowed to operate in the church, it means that there will be number of sheep or even the whole church that will be led astray. This is evident by the conditions of the churches described in Revelation 2 & 3 where five out of the seven churches fell short of the conditions expected by our Lord. As the church is the body of Christ, it will be the battleground where the epic of spiritual warfare will be fought. Therefore, defense against deception within the church must include sound governance of the affairs of the church based on the Word and being Christ-centered must be the cornerstone of everything we do so that we have the right motives that are in accordance with the will of God.

Deception is the primary means of Satan in spiritual warfare. Counterfeiting biblical truth is the main weapon used. We can recognize a counterfeit if we know the real thing. Knowing the Word of God gives us the means to benchmark the authenticity of every doctrine, teaching or activity so that counterfeits can be exposed. We are to " have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them." (Eph. 5:11) Therefore, it is essential that everyone is made aware of such devious schemes. Bible classes should include subjects on key contemporaneous issues or developments in the world and their biblical significance so that Christians can be equipped with better discerning skills. In 1 John 4:1, we are told not to believe every spirit but to test the spirits to see whether they are from God. We are to recognize false prophets by their fruits. Lastly, we ought to live holy and godly lives and grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so that we will be clothed with the full armor of God to protect us.

Endnotes:

1. New Straits Times, " Inter-faith Understanding is Our Defence Against Sectarianism", Nov.19, 1999.
2. The Greek word for ‘knowledge' is ‘gnosis' which means understanding of one's faith, especially moral wisdom as is seen in right living through knowing things that are lawful or unlawful for Christians.

Asian Wall Street Journal, "For more in U.S., a Hash of Religions Serves as a Spiritual Main Course", Feb., 1999.

Asian Wall Street Journal, "Technology-The Next Step in The Digital Revolution" Nov. 22, 1999.

Asian Wall Street Journal, "The Internet --- The Best Way To….", December 13, 1999.

Asian Wall Street Journal, "What Evolves, What Endures - The Amazing Future", January, 2000.

Bill Gates "The Road Ahead", Penguin Books Ltd. 1995.

Douglas R. Groothuis, "The New Age Movement", Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship of the U.S.A., 1986.

Don Tapscott, Alex Lowy & David Ticoll, "Blueprint to the Digital Economy", McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Eddie Sax, "Interfaithisim -The Religion of the New World Order", Endtime magazine, July/August 1999.

Francis Frangipane, "The Three Battleground", New Wine Press, 1994.

Gary H. Kah, " The New World Religion", Hope International Publishing Inc., 1998.

Neil T. Anderson & Steve Russo, " The Seduction of Our Children", Harvest House Publisher.

New Straits Times, "Inter-faith Understanding is Our Defense against Sectarianism", Nov. 19, 1999.

Reel to Reel Ministries, Florida, U.S.A. Video tape "Hells Bells --The Danger of Rock ‘N' Roll. "

World Bank Report, " Knowledge for Development 1998/1999", The World Bank.