Conspiracies, Deception and the Mark of the Beast!

     The following, a post on FB generated quite a response: "Why I never pay attention to conspiracy theories or worry about The Mark of the Beast:

• It’s not my job to protect myself (that kind of thinking comes from an orphan mindset). The Lord is my shepherd and He is committed to protecting His sheep. My responsibility is to follow Him, listen for and trust His voice, etc., not anxiously make sure I am not deceived. I am to focus on Him, not what the enemy is up to.
• If I stay humble and in community with other healthy believers, I won’t be deceived. John 10:2-5 (NIV) 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice.”

      When I made the FB post, I promised to write more about this here on my blog, so I will write a few thoughts here and also post links to earlier blogs on this subject.

     The point of my original statement is that fears about being deceived or fearful fascination with conspiracies, etc., are  unnecessary and even harmful for believers. Fear itself can be a doorway to deception! That doesn't mean, however that we are to live in la-la land! I gave hints as to how we can stay safe in the original post: humility, community, intimacy with Jesus, etc. When I first started hearing God's voice clearly and moving in the supernatural, I asked Him how I could be sure I wouldn't be deceived by these "subjective experiences." Here's what He said to me:

• Humility: His first answer was "Humility." It's proud people who are vulnerable to deception, not humble ones. Pride is what caused, the devil, our adversary to be deceived into thinking he could be equal to God. Pride is now one of our enemy's favorite landing zones. :-) But God gives grace to the humble (1 Peter 5:5-6) and that grace keeps us deep within His shalom and shelter.
• Community: God's second answer to my question (after humility) was community. People who allow mature and trustworthy others to speak into their lives won't be deceived. I have heard more than one wise leader say, "The way to be sure you aren't deceived is to trust someone more than you trust yourself." We need to be wise in whom we trust, but having community around us is essential. Isolation is often a first step down the path of deception.
• Scripture: The third thing Papa mentioned was, of course, His Word. Why is it listed third? Not because it's not the most important, but because it needs to be interpreted in community from a place of humility. And when I speak of Scripture I am speaking of the whole of Scripture and especially of the nature and character of God as revealed in Scripture. Psalm 119:104 is one of many passages that remind us of this: "From your precepts I gain understanding; this is why I hate every false way." (CJB 2016) 
• Intimacy: God's fourth answer to me was, "Stay close to me, remain intimate with me." After many years of living close to Him, I know a bit more about what He meant. I have learned that I can trust Holy Spirit to give me little nudges when I start to wander from living aware of Papa's presence. I have learned that He will also alert me to the temptation to pride, to any tendency to rationalize, etc. When we pray, "Lead us not into temptation" we are affirming that God will for sure lead us, dear ones! And our surrendered hearts that follow Him wherever He leads and our sensitivity to any movement away from Him will keep us secure and safe in the midst of His love and protection.
• Authenticity: God added this one to my list just recently. I have come to realize that most people who wander off track choose, at some point, to stop being honest with God, themselves and others. Community won't help us if we hide, and intimacy with God isn't possible if we are not fully honest with Him and with ourselves. Being alert to the slightest movement towards rationalization or compromise will help to keep us far from the big D.
• I could write more, of course, but perhaps my other blog entries will cover most of that! The links are at the bottom.

     But what about conspiracies? I am sure there are some conspiracies out there, but I know I can trust God to alert me to anything I need to know, especially if I live as described above. The same goes for  "The Mark of the Beast" and anything else that may come my way. The point of my original post on FB is to live focused on God and pay attention to what He is doing, trusting Him and others who know Him well (as evidenced by the fruit of their lives) to guide you and protect you as you live intimately with Him and join Him in advancing His Kingdom. 

     Here are the links to earlier thoughts: 

• Avoiding the Big D(deception)
• The Discerning Community, Part One
• The Discerning Community, Part Two

Stay lost in His love, safe in His arms,

Tom, one of Abba's sons

Avoiding the Big D (deception)

     This is an update of an earlier post (February 28, 2008). For many reasons, it is a good time to update it.
     As you probably know, the Internet has just about every kind of warning you can imagine about being deceived. Many of these websites generate a lot of fear with their self-appointed "ministries of warning" as they "inform" people about the dangers of being deceived in "the Last Days."
     Now the problem with being deceived, of course, is that you don't know you are deceived! So we do need to be wise and cautious about what we read, hear and allow into our minds and hearts. But we aren't left on our own in terms of being wise. The Bible offers some wonderful help (and assurances) to those of us who are born-from-above followers of Jesus. Here are a few of those biblical helps that will help you evaluate not only these "warnings" but the websites themselves and the things they warn about.
     First, the Apostle John supplies us with a way to check out various "spirits" and teachings. In 1 John 4:1-3 he tells us the test of any teaching/spirit is whether or not it confesses that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. When John first wrote those words, many false teachers were going around teaching something called "Gnosticism" which taught that "the Christ" never really became flesh (because of the Platonic view that all material things were corrupt). We can still use his test, though, because it's a good one: anything that lessens or diminishes either Jesus' humanity or His divinity or questions the mystery and miracle of Him being fully God and fully man should be thrown out. 
     Another helpful passage is Matthew 7:15-23. In this passage Jesus makes it clear that He expected His followers to be able to identify false teachers. We are able to detect false teachers/teaching by their "fruit." This means that we will be able to detect deception by determining whether a person's ministry is characterized by (and produces things) like increasing love for God and others, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, humility, generosity, etc. A second "test" Jesus gives is that those who are true and good will be obviously committed to knowing Jesus and His Father more and more intimately and clearly committed to obeying Him, etc., (as it implies in verses 21-23).
     The Apostle Paul also gives some keys to detecting things in his discussions about those who would try to deceive others. I won't list the passages for these, but some of the things Paul gave as indicators of deceivers are: they will be self-promoting and draw people to themselves more than to Jesus, they will be self-indulgent and self-oriented, they will proud and arrogant, focused more on earthly things than on the things of God, etc.
    Based on these "clues" and others in Scripture, it will prove helpful for you to ask questions like the following as you seek to discern truth and error.

• Does this (book, ministry, person, etc.) lead me closer to God as Father, Jesus as Lord, and help me to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit?
• How does this person treat others, especially the "unimportant," the unnoticed, the poor, the disadvantaged, etc.? For me, how people treat the "least" is a huge indicator about whether or not I should trust them.
• Does this website (book, message) cause faith or fear to rise up in me? Many of the websites out there that warn people about deception literally exude fear and cause fear to in those who read their stuff. Does that sound like God to you? Isn't He the one who is able to keep us from falling? (Jude v.23).
• Does it build people up, really?
• Does it respect those with other viewpoints even while correcting them? (See 2 Timothy 2:24-26)
• Does it "feel humble"? Pride and deception go hand in hand.
• Does it go against most of the rest of the Body of Christ? Many websites out there attack very well known leaders who are known by many to be godly, trustworthy people.
• Does this person who is warning me have a faulty view of Scripture? Many of the websites out there that warn people about everything under the sun are written by those who are stuck in a non-Biblical understanding of the supernatural (they are deeply afraid of it). They hold this faulty view because they are trapped in a western,  highly rationalistic worldview that is no more biblical than paganism. 
• I think you get the picture. Ask questions that relate to things like humility, love, kindness, etc. That will help on both sides of any issue. It will keep you from being filled with fear from those deceived people who are warning us about deception, and it will keep you from following someone or some teaching that may truly be deceptive.

     That's enough for now. And for the record, The Shack, as you know, has been used by God to bring untold numbers of people into a wonderfully close relationship with the God of Scripture, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Any who would suggest that it's a deception are simply missing its message, a message that reveals the loving and redemptive heart of Papa God.

Stay lost in His love!

Tom, the least of Abba's children