email

Deceiving and Being Deceived

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. - 2 Timothy 3:13

Most deceivers are those who are deceived themselves. They may add to or modify something, but often they simply echo what they have heard or been taught. For this reason, they can add a great deal of sincerity to what they say. When someone presents you with an assertion, it can be helpful not to give too much weight to their sincerity. On a math test a teacher might ask the student to “show his work” (how he came to the answer). This allows the teacher to examine the underlying thought process to see if it is sound. In a similar way it can be useful to subject the assertions one is presented with to the same scrutiny.

Satan is called the father of lies and might be seen as the source of many deceptions. One tactic he uses is to make his deceptions feel good so that many people consider their feelings as confirmation that something is true. This can be seen with the song lyric, “How can it be wrong if it feels so right?”. For example, the assertion that there is no God is implied in evolution which also implies that one is the most advanced being in the universe (which can sound appealing).

The bible tells us that we can know some of what Satan is doing (2Cor 2:11). He is collectivizing the world so that he can leverage his influence. He also has established conduits of information such as media and colleges so that he can introduce information as a sort of alternative truth. The world now propagates much that is not true. Those who would seek truth can have a difficult time trying to find it.

Public education has conditioned children for 12 years to “shut up, sit down, and do what they are told”. As a result, many are conditioned to take in whatever they are told as truth. Selecting the single example of “global warming” can serve as an illustration of how to respond to deception. The assertion that the world is getting hotter is presented. It is supported by those in authority that we are supposed to trust. Having accepted this assertion as true, we are then told that we have to then accept various actions to “save the planet’ that all seem to enrich someone else or centralize control for someone else.

The first step is to question the assertion. However, we are told that the assertion is too complex for us to understand. By asking specifics such as, “The earth has two sources of heat, from the core (internal) and from the sun (external). How much are they varying to cause this increase. Since no one knows this variation, we are told it is because of the increase of carbon in the atmosphere (which has been increasing slightly since the introduction of the gasoline engine). We can then ask that since the earth is 70% water an increase in temperature would probably cause a proportional increase in water from the oceans being raised into the atmosphere as clouds, has the amount of cloud cover increased? If the cloud cover increases wouldn’t more solar radiation be reflected back into space and thus give us some cooling? These sort of questions are like asking those making an assertion to “show their work”.It doesn’t take long for them to fall back on, “Shut up, sit down, and do what you are told”.

The assertions that there is no God, the bible is not true, or that Christianity is foolish are all equally worthy of being questioned. Questioning is a way to test the truth of something. Most deceptions rely on a thin layer of support that is seldom able to pass close scrutiny.

God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. - Romans 3:4

Information about Christianity and the Christian life.