Deception Knows No Bounds

I am a little sad this morning. Someone booted me from the TrueBeliever's group on Facebook and then blocked me so I could not be added in again. I am not taking it personally and I am not sad for myself. There are many good people in that group (which now numbers close to 600) with no assurance of their salvation. I explained to one person in a private message that it simply makes no sense to me that God would reveal the exact time of Jesus' return, but leave people wondering if He is coming back for them personally. My conclusion is that one of us is deceived.

There are two things that are ironic in their internal contradictions. One of them is ignorance and the other deception. By definition we cannot know what we do not know. Therefore, we cannot intentionally overcome ignorance. Deception, if anything, is worse. We have no idea where we might be being deceived. In fact, the deeper we go into deception, the greater the deception becomes. This, my dear friends and readers, is a major reason we need one another. Any of us can be deceived in any situation and have no idea we are. Let us explore this concept in some greater detail, with some possibly true-to-life scenarios.

Suppose we have a disagreement with a brother or sister regarding doctrine. One of my personal favorites is whether a Christian can have a demon. That does not come up much anymore because demons are not a very popular subject in most of the modern church. There are those who say a Christian cannot have a demon based on their understanding of 2 Corinthians 6:14 where Paul asks the rhetorical question, "And what communion has light with darkness?" The obvious problem here is that if our understanding is incorrect, if a Christian does have a demonic problem, there would be no solution because we cannot believe the problem really is demonically inspired. Our theology says a Christian cannot have a demon so there must be some other explanation. We could search for that explanation in vain as long as we tread this sod and never find the reason. Whenever our experience contradicts our theology, we should first question our theology.

Let us try another concept on for size. Suppose the problem is not theological in nature at all, but rather simply preference. People choose churches for any number of good or not so good reasons. Some choose a church because they like the music, others would not choose the same church because the music is too loud. Some people like good, solid, exegetical messages complete with references to the original languages while others are bored to tears by such teaching. People often choose a church because they are able to be involved in the ministry of that church and others choose a church where they do not have to be involved.

There really is only one reason to choose a church home. That is the clear direction of the Holy Spirit. When we make our choice for other reasons, we have already put ourselves on the proverbial "slippery slope." That is not to say we should expect to be at the same church for a lifetime. We can make the same mistake by staying too long in a place that we can make by leaving too soon--or not getting to the right place in the first place. Give the human resistance to change, we probably stay too long in places more often than we leave too early.

It would be heavenly if we always knew where we were to be and what we were to be doing. Unfortunately it is a matter of fact that we do not. That is another reason we need each other. Sometimes when we cannot see the forest for the trees (whatever that actually means) we need someone else to come alongside and help us find our way. It should go without saying that person has to be the right person. There are plenty of people who are more than willing to tell us what we ought to be doing or where to go (pun intended). Many of those people have not determined their own place or direction. In fact, people who know they are in the right place and are doing the right things rarely have time to concern themselves with what others are doing. In a sense, when we attempt to tell others what they should be doing, we have taken on the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Need we say none of us is qualified for that job?

To summarize, God has a place for each of us to be and meaningful work for each of us to do. Sometimes finding what that is, can be quite difficult. Sometimes we need the help of others to do it at all, but we cannot depend on them to have God's vision for us. How would it be to try and live one's life according to the vision of another? We shudder to think. As we seek our place and our work in God's kingdom, we need to constantly be looking to His Word and His people to help us. It is so very easy to get off track at any point. After all, deception knows no bounds.