Followers of the Messiah - How can I know if I’ve been deceived ?
Have you ever heard this saying ? “It is easier to deceive someone, than to convince them that they have been deceived”.
Well, I partly disagree because if someone really wants to know if they have been deceived, it is relatively easy to check to see if they have been deceived !
There are just two steps, as Peter explains in 2 Peter 2:1-2
1: Examine whether the one teaching you is “contradicting Scripture”
2: See if he/she has ”trained you”, intentionally or unintentionally, to speak evil of truth.
Please read it carefully.
2Pe 2:1 But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.
2Pe 2:2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. (KJV)
There is a lot of detail in these two verses, but perhaps for now, the most important thing we need to be aware of is that the Greek word translated as “denying” is αρνουμενοι, arnoumenoi, G720, which can mean denying, but in this context, means “contradicting”.
In order to TEST these two steps, can I ask you to please consider the following examples :
A: If someone says that, “all days are holy”, hasn't he/she called Yahweh (God) a liar, because Yahweh command us in His Word, (Exod 20:8), to, “keep the Sabbath day, the seventh day, holy”. In Gen 2:3, Yahweh says that the 7th day is to be sanctified/holy, & is therefore set-apart from all the other days - surely, the 7th day is the only day that is “holy”.
B: If someone says that, “Sunday is the holy day”, hasn’t he/she too, called Yahweh a liar, because of what Yahweh declared in Gen 2:3, & commanded in Exod 20:8 ?
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
In saying, “all days are holy” and/or “Sunday is the holy day”, isn’t that person speaking “evil of truth”, since we are told in Ps 119:151 that “ALL Your (Yahweh's) commandments are truth” ?
C: If someone says that, “the law has passed away”, isn’t he/she, calling Yahushua (Jesus) a liar, because Yahushua said in Matt 5:17-18 that, “He didn’t come to destroy the law” (v17), & “that until heaven & earth pass away, not one jot or tittle of the law would pass away” (v18) ?
Mat 5:17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
Mat 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Very sadly, many people have been “conditioned”, usually without realising it, to attack, with their doctrines, the Truth written in their Bibles, & in doing so, “ignorantly, they are speaking evil of truth”, by contradicting what is written !
Haven’t these people been taught that a really good way to serve Yahweh & Yahushua is to contradict what each has said, by “tossing Yahweh’s law out” ! Surely, when you carefully consider this, it is obvious that they are “speaking evil of truth”.
Don’t many Christians believe that Yahweh is a merciful Elohim (God), & that He will judge them accordingly ?Again sadly, Peter tells us & them in verses 4-7, how Yahweh dealt with various "guilty" groups in the past.
Wouldn't it be fair to say that the angels who rebelled against Yahweh believed that He was a merciful Elohim, & would forgive them for what they did, but in verse 4, we are told that Yahweh didn’t spare the angels that sinned.
2Pe 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
Again, it is likely that many of the people who lived in the time of Noah, also believed that Yahweh was a merciful Elohim, & that He would show them mercy by forgiving them for their deeds, but, verse 5 tells us that only eight were saved from the flood.
2Pe 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
I could provide several other examples of people who believed that Yahweh was a merciful Elohim who would forgive them, but again sadly, they were destroyed for their unlawful & unrighteous deeds (read about Sodom & Gomorrha in 2 Peter 2:6-8, & the people who worshipped the golden calf, & those whom Balaam corrupted into deceiving the Israelites in 1 Cor 10:6-14).
Isn’t it true that the “many” mentioned in Matt 7:13-14 & Matt 7:21-23, believed that Yahweh was a merciful Elohim, who would forgive them for their “law-less-ness” ? But alas, in Matt 7:23, Messiah Yahushua says, “depart from Me, I never knew you” ! Clearly but sadly, the “many” that entered the gate that was “wide”, with the way, “broad”, in Matt 7:13, ended up in destruction.
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
Mat 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work (law-less-ness) .
It is really sad that many don’t carefully read Acts 5:32, which clearly tells us & them, that the Holy Spirit was only given to those who ”obeyed” Elohim (God). So, even though many Christians claim to have the “holy spirit”, based on Acts 5:32, the spirit that they think they have, can’t be Yahweh’s Holy Spirit, since many believe that Yahweh’s law, which reveals His will as a way of life as was given to Moses, has “passed away”, & is no longer relevant. I strongly believe that such persons should read :
1 John 4:1, which tells us to test whether the “spirit” they believe they have, is of Elohim.
Act 5:32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Spirit, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.
The Holy Spirit Test
Isn’t it true that the Holy Spirit of Elohim will never contradict what Yahweh Elohim, & Messiah Yahushua, have clearly stated in the Word, nor will it speak evil of truth ? If a person claims to have a “spirit”, which tells them to contradict what Yahweh & Yahushua have written & said, in the Word, for example, by telling a person that “His law has passed away”, clearly that spirit cannot be Yahweh's Holy Spirit.
Yes, it is very easy to be deceived !