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.
Stay lost in His love!
Tom, the least of Abba's children
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