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Deception


MyLordsServant

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Deception is the single greatest threat to Christians.

It is warned by Jesus and others, many times. Even the elect may be deceived. Atheism, persecution, etc,. are nothing in comparison. Satan's best weapon is infiltrating from within. Just look at what's happening in churches today. Look what's happening in the world. I've been newly born for less than a month and the deception has been merciless. 3-5 decades ago, clapping in the church, short dresses, chewing gum, etc.; Things that are now seemingly small, were considered wrong. Now where are we? Now all of these little things have been instituted, that are slowly corrupting. The church I attend has a period during service, where everyone takes out candies and makes a racket with packaging. This service is barely an hour long, and people can't wait? What if Jesus was preaching. Would we do these things in God's presence or in a Holy place? How far have we strayed in relativity to O.T. Jewish Holy temples and their customs. I wouldn't doubt God has forsaken many churches. In the condition they are in, no Holiness can dwell.

The anti-christ and his spirit will arise from within the church. "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." 

If you throw a frog into boiling water, it will jump out. If you leave the frog in the water, and slowly raise the temperature to boiling. It will stay there until it dies. Satan has been slowly turning up the temperature. We're nearing the end.

When you see abomination of desolation in the church, get ready to run. Be careful out there, brothers. These are with no doubt, the end times.

 

Signs of the End of the Age

3While Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will all this happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?”

4Jesus answered, “See to it that no one deceives you5For many will come in My name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. These things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.

We are now in this stage:

Witnessing to All Nations
(Mark 13:10-13; Luke 21:10-19)

9Then they will hand you over to be persecuted and killed, and you will be hated by all nations on account of My name. 10At that time many will fall away and will betray and hate one another, 11and many false prophets will arise and mislead many.

12Because of the multiplication of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold.13But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

  Few things are left to be accomplished before our Lord returns.

Edited by MyLordsServant
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3 minutes ago, MyLordsServant said:

The anti-christ and his spirit will arise from within the church. "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works." 

"DID" ,  not "WILL"  ;  well,  many opposed to Christ, not necessarily "The" anti-christ.

For many centuries already.... "DID" deceive billions .....

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2 minutes ago, simplejeff said:

"DID" ,  not "WILL"  ;  well,  many opposed to Christ, not necessarily "The" anti-christ.

For many centuries already.... "DID" deceive billions .....

That's correct, good catch.

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And yet our truly WONDERFUL counselor still loves and keeps us. Yahweh has such patience! The 'church' that thinks it is holy is as you indicate, is quite nicely boiled already. Yet the Lord God still calls and some few manage to disentangle themselves from the mass corruption of the institutions.

It is a real witness to the long-suffering of our Lord Yeshua. He just does not give up on us in our foolish sheep-like activities. And by the foolishness of preaching, still many are saved. He does not WANT any of us to perish. He will hold a feast for His people and boiled-frog is not on the menu!

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OH, and the topic. Deception is as deception does. You will not know it. It is INVISIBLE...

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The bible doesn't say where the antichrist will come from or who that will be. It only gives a description of his attitude and actions. So to say he will arise from here or there, is purely speculation.

2 Thessalonians 2 : 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

The time when certain things were not done in church or church members were told they couldn't do. A lot of it is legalism and that isn't anything new for legalism occurred in bible times. Declaring certain activities sinful, when the bible shows they are not. Clapping of hands in church for example. Which like singing and dancing, are a form of joyful worship from the heart.

Psalms 47 : 1 Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy

 

5 hours ago, MyLordsServant said:

The church I attend has a period during service, where everyone takes out candies and makes a racket with packaging. This service is barely an hour long, and people can't wait?

This is a general statement, not intended to be aimed at anyone specifically. There is such a thing as being too holy. It is an attitude of some people that others are not taking bible and God as serious as they are. They demand that others conform to their view of what is righteous or not. This is self righteousness at its core. A holy than thou, attitude.

I don't disagree that candy wrappers are noisy. But things like that are not huge issue; because there are far more activities that people are very complacent about that lurk in the heart, such as . . .  unclean thoughts, unkind thoughts about someone. Anger, resentment, jealousy, covetousness, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

These things I've above listed is far more sinful and destructive than someone opening a candy wrapper , chewing gum or other minor activities. A paraphrase of Romans 2 : 1

“Well,” you may be saying, “what terrible people you have been talking about!” But wait a minute! You are just as bad. When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are talking about yourselves, for you do these very same things.

What is deceptive about the things I've listed above is that people in general, can not see these things in themselves, so they feel all is well. But there are things even more deceptive and destructive that have been creeping into mainstream Christianity is heresy, false doctrine, new age ideas and teachings all with a straight face, and without the slightest fear.

The sign of end times . . . 2 Timothy 3 : 1 – 4 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—

The person that is truly a Christian does not need to concern himself with who the antichrist is, and besides that, he will not be revealed and recognized until the appointed time. What we should be focused on is to see that we ourselves are daily improving and growing in Christ. That we love him more and more with.

 

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"And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2 Thessalonians 1:7-8)

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6 hours ago, MyLordsServant said:

Deception is the single greatest threat to Christians.

It is warned by Jesus and others, many times. Even the elect may be deceived. Atheism, persecution, etc,. are nothing in comparison. Satan's best weapon is infiltrating from within. Just look at what's happening in churches today. Look what's happening in the world. I've been newly born for less than a month and the deception has been merciless. 3-5 decades ago, clapping in the church, short dresses, chewing gum, etc.; Things that are now seemingly small, were considered wrong. Now where are we? Now all of these little things have been instituted, that are slowly corrupting. The church I attend has a period during service, where everyone takes out candies and makes a racket with packaging. This service is barely an hour long, and people can't wait? What if Jesus was preaching. Would we do these things in God's presence or in a Holy place? How far have we strayed in relativity to O.T. Jewish Holy temples and their customs. I wouldn't doubt God has forsaken many churches. In the condition they are in, no Holiness can dwell.

 

I disagree with the bolded statement "Deception is the single greatest threat to Christians".

In my opinion, the single greatest threat to Christians is not consistently walking with God themselves.  It is the time we spend in prayer, Bible reading, meditation, study, being with other Christians, and other such spiritual exercises that causes us to grow strong and mature.  It is when we neglect those things that we become weak spiritually.  

Being deceived is one symptom of many of not walking closely with God.  It is not so much a cause of spiritual weakness as one result of being spiritually weak.  We do not avoid deception by spending our time looking for it to identify it.  We avoid deception by knowing God so well that anything not from Him becomes obvious to us.  This is a result of growing spiritually and walking closely with God.  

Another symptom of not walking closely with God is turning holiness and righteousness into a series of litmus tests we apply to our brothers and sisters.  Instead of looking to actual fruit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control and similar things as listed in Gal 5) and changes in people's lives, we look at particular behaviors.  Chew gum in church?  They obviously are not serious about God.  Clap in church?  They are completely irreverent and lack respect for God.  Read the wrong version of the Bible?  They're on the road to serving Satan.  Not go to church enough services per week?  Falling away or not saved.   The bottom line is that many Christians and churches create a man-made system of rules of so-called holiness that really amounts to "this is the way we do it and thanks be to God we're the only ones who do it right."  If you don't sing the right songs in the right way with the right musical instruments, read the right version of the Bible, pray just the right way (no too loud and exuberantly nor too soft or timidly), act just right in church (not too dead and frozen but not too loud and emotional), avoid particular worldly influences, vote for the right political party, etc., then you are failing as a Christian, or most likely, you are not even a real Christian but just deceived that you are a Christian.   Anyone disagree with that?  They are obviously a wolf, false prophet, or completely sin-filled and deceived.

I'll be completely blunt.  Some Christians waste time on spiritual witch hunts focusing on seeking out every possible Satanic influence in the world and the church.  Many of them seem to take the approach of, "when in doubt, throw it out" with regard to anything and everything that offends them.  Time (that in my opinion) would be better spent learning more about God, how to walk with Him, and doing what He wants us to do is being wasted on reading newspapers to see how they correlate with Bible prophecy, internet conspiracy sites, and books that are obsessed with pointing out and cataloging every possible error and sin the authors can imagine.  Opportunities that could be taken to learn from other Christians are instead viewed as opportunities to correct them and argue with them about how they are wrong.

Frankly, these Christians are very much like Peter walking on the water (Matt 14:22-33).  At first, he was focused on Jesus and became the only person other than Jesus to walk on water.   Then he started to look around at the wind,  waves, and sea and started to fear and sink.  Some Christians seem to want to put their attention onto the wind, waves, and sea and worry about everything around them.  At some point, if you are spending more time focusing on the wind, waves, and sea than focusing on Jesus, you will start to sink.  Time that would be better spent advancing the Kingdom of God is instead spent on arguing who is greatest and most correct.

To be blunt, the OP is completely focused on avoidance, not advancement.  You can flee a thousand directions from a thousand bad things.  However, you can only advance in one direction toward Jesus.  Put your eyes on Jesus and look to follow Him.  Of course, there will be trouble, sins, persecution, and testing around us in the world.  However, we need to keep our focus on Him and help encourage our brothers and sisters to do the same.  The more we focus and talk about the wind, waves, and sea around us, the more we draw our attention and their attention away from Jesus as well.

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1 hour ago, GandalfTheWise said:

I disagree with the bolded statement "Deception is the single greatest threat to Christians".

In my opinion, the single greatest threat to Christians is not consistently walking with God themselves.

No worries, many worries,  just perceived different.   "the greatest threat.... not .. walking with God" is so common because so many are deceived.  They think and believe they are actually okay with God, as if He is okay with them,  and so they die in their sin and don't find out they were deceived until judgment .....

Thus how more earnestly it is of the utmost importance to be judged now, today, instead of too late, later, to start walking "right with God themselves" as you put this. 

 

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5 hours ago, Justin Adams said:

OH, and the topic. Deception is as deception does. You will not know it. It is INVISIBLE...

haha ,  had to chuckle (though it is serious) at this one ......   go back and read 10,000 threads.  (if you would like to see deception that is NOT INVISIBLE).    You (singular) will see the posts that are deceptive, clearly contrasted with the posts that are not deceptive,  plain as day and night.

Perhaps same as the disciples and Apostles when they were listening to TORAH at the TEMPLE or SYNAGOGUES - as Jesus told them;  "LISTEN to TORAH when it is taught",  but don't live as they live who are teaching it, because they are hypocrites and do not live as they teach.   Jesus and the Father granted they (all disciples following Jesus) could see the TRUTH,  and not be deceived by the ones who were corrupt graves covered over ("actors on this stage of life") .

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