False teaching originates through the work of Satan and evil spirits. Though it comes through man it is the work of Satan who has access to the mind of man.
I Timothy 4:1 declares, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, ...” Weymouth’s translation says, “... giving heed to deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons.” Williams’ translation says, “... because they continuously give their attention to deceiving spirits and the things that demons teach.”
When Jesus warned us to “beware of false prophets” he didn’t just mean men who could be classified as false prophets, but also those we consider good men but who are in error. It is principally through deceived human beings that seducing spirits make their entrance into other lives.
There are multitudes of people including teachers and preachers who are blindly following demon-inspired false teaching. They think they are right because their minds have been completely taken over by seducing spirits through years of false teaching.
A deluded person is one who believes a lie to be the truth. He is absolutely sure in his own mind he is right. It is simply believing with all the heart in a lie. This is why the Lord says, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.” Jeremiah 17:9
Religious deception is most difficult to help people see. Everyone has been taught that he is right. If anyone is deceived it is the other fellow. By nature men want to believe in themselves and will invariably follow the dictates of their own depraved heart.
Knowing that man is prone to go from one extreme to the other, Satan cleverly gives man his choice. One extreme under the guise of exclusive revelation appeals to the narrow, sectarian type who is suspicious of everyone and everything.
The first work of Satan in leading this type into delusion is to convince him that almost everybody else is wrong. Strange as it may seem, Satan has a point of truth here that cannot be refuted. The many divisions of the confused religious world speak for themselves.
The other extreme is that spirit which approves of anyone and everything so long as it is called Christianity. This spirit appeals to the group that supposedly despises narrow, sectarian exclusiveness. They humbly take pride in the fact they are broadminded and gracious. They call it love because they supposedly embrace everyone and everything.
This group, which is growing by leaps and bounds due to the spirit of ecumenicalism that is working mightily in this hour, also has a point of truth that cannot be denied. However, both are wrong because of the spirit that motivates them.
Satan, under the guise of the Holy Spirit, is an opportunist who quickly counterfeits the genuine move of God’s Spirit. Any and every time there is a true expression of the sovereign Spirit that stirs things up, Satan will move in with a counterfeit to take control.
There is a true exclusiveness about the people of God that sets them apart from the world. But it is not a narrow, sectarian spirit based upon certain doctrines or experiences. It is the Spirit of Christ that the world cannot receive. John 14:17.
There is also a true ecumenicalism that embraces all who have the Spirit of Christ. They see the one body redeemed by the blood of the Lamb that is one in the mind and purpose of God.
When the fundamentalist thinks of a religious deception, he thinks of something far to the right or left of his own supposedly sound-in-the-faith views. The modernist thinks of religious deception as belonging to the archaic past or the fundamentalist who refuses to consider the higher light or modern scholarship. In between these two extremes we have a thousand and one cults who base their belief upon wrested and twisted scriptures. Among these we find those who have supposedly received great revelations by visions, dreams, visitations of angels, or other phenomena.
However the cleverest work of Satan is in the matter of doctrine that is neither to the right nor left of orthodoxy. It is considered sound, Bible-based teaching that all true Bible-believing Christians hold. Although there is much error and subsequent darkness in Christendom as a whole, what I’m concerned about here is the false teaching concerning the coming of Christ and the end of this age. It is directly connected to and part of the anti-Christ conspiracy to rule the world with Satan as its head.
It is my conviction that there is much error in most of the teaching concerning the coming of the Lord. As already stated, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul both warned us of being deceived about this. They both saw the deception that would permeate the religious world’s teaching on this subject.
Generally, the fundamentalist concept teaches that the Church will be raptured out of the earth and then the tribulation will set in with the reign of antichrist. During the tribulation the Jews will be converted and established in their earthly kingdom once more. At the end of the seven year tribulation the Lord will return with his saints, set up his kingdom and rule the world in righteousness for a thousand years. With earthly Jerusalem as the center, and Satan bound during this supposedly golden millennium, the Jews will become missionaries to the rest of the Gentile world that is still in unbelief.
After the thousand year reign, Satan will be loosed for a little season to deceive the nations once more. This deception will unite the Gentile world which will come against Jerusalem in a last all-out effort to destroy it. At this point, God sends fire down from heaven and devours them.
This, with some few variations, is the way much of our religious world says it will take place. To many the Scofield Bible with its footnotes has become a “thus saith the Lord.” Much of the error is caused by misapplication of the scriptures and a literal interpretation of certain passages that should be seen as types and shadows. From this error have evolved certain doctrinal views and it is considered heresy to question them.
I certainly take issue with this and say it is folly to not question the teachings of our confused religious world. “For God is not the author of confusion...” I Corinthians 14:36.