Job CLXXXVIII

 I recently had a protracted conversation with a brother about Christ’s warning to His followers to take heed that they not be deceived, and whether the current state of the contemporary church is due to catastrophic failure to heed His admonition on this matter. It was not a lighthearted or easy conversation to have because the first words out of my mouth were that what the church is currently experiencing isn’t deception but willful, open rebellion against the truth of the gospel. Deception and willfully disregarding what you know to be the truth of Scripture are two different things. Unless it’s self-deception, to be deceived requires a third party and an ignorance of the truth. 

When you know what the Bible says on a given topic, but you choose to disregard it, or do the opposite of what it says, it isn’t that you were deceived; you chose to reject the truth. What is happening isn’t deception due to the absence of the knowledge of truth, but a conscious choice to reject it and embrace the lie because they delight in wickedness.

If a preacher tasked with rightly dividing the word of truth delivers messages contrary to it, in opposition to it, and denouncing it, then by their actions, they unmask their true heart and are confirmed to be servants of their father, the devil. It’s not an oopsie. It’s not as though they didn’t see a pair of dark socks in a load of white laundry. It is a concerted, ongoing, deliberate effort to abandon truth, preach lies, and deceive those of the household of faith.

Unless someone can honestly say that the thousands of people sitting in the pews listening to someone preaching heresy never once cracked open their Bibles, never once read Scripture, never once happened upon the countless verses that contradict the words of the lauded man behind the crystal pulpit, then they’re willful participants in being led astray, and not innocent victims of deception.

Back in the day, shortly after communism fell and tourists began flocking to Romania because it was cheap and its geography had broad appeal, attracting both those who prefer the mountains and those who enjoy the sea, three-card monte became all the rage. For those with quick hands and no moral core, it was the sort of ‘business’ that required no upfront investment save for a cardboard box and a deck of cards. When something requires no barrier to entry and the upside potential has no ceiling, it will attract the worst society has to offer, and Romania was no exception.

The premise of the hustle is simple enough: you have three cards, usually two jacks and a queen, or two kings and a queen, facing down, and after the individual shows you the placement, he shuffles them around, and if you can pick the queen you win whatever money you were willing to bet that your eye was quicker than their hand.

You can honestly say that the first few people were deceived because they’d never happened upon anything of the sort; it seemed easy enough, and they were already counting their winnings before they walked away with empty pockets. After the first few, when those who had been tricked, deceived, and separated from their hard-earned money stuck around pleading with passersby not to participate because it was a trick, it was no longer deception but willful ignorance.

The promise of easy money was too tempting, and one after the other, people would sidle up and lose time and again, always justifying the loss as something other than what it was, an in-your-face, unapologetic con.

The same is true for those who having read, and having heard that you must walk circumspectly, be sober-minded, humble yourself, pick up your cross, crucify the old man, and deny your flesh, happen upon a peddler of sloppy grace, cheap salvation, and perpetual fire insurance. Even though they know the Bible says different, even though they’ve heard sermons on righteousness and holiness unto the Lord, the idea that they can have the best of both worlds and still be welcomed to the marriage supper of the Lamb is just too tempting a proposition to discount outright.

They talk themselves into believing that they can do what no one else has: have a divided heart, ride the fence, dip their toe into the mire without getting any mud on their feet, and still be in right standing with God. The promise of everything the world has to offer, and everything God has to offer, without there ever being a conflict of interest, is just too good to pass up, and that’s when the devil sees his opening.

I’ve known men who have gone down the slippery slope of just a little here and a little there that ended up being husks of their former selves, so far removed from truth, so resentful toward Scripture, so acrimonious toward God, that their new mission in life is to prove God wrong about something, anything, thinking if they can get one through the net they open up the possibility of Him being wrong about other things as well.

Just as no one who gets entangled with a con man dealing three-card monte ever walks away a winner, no man who sets himself against God and resists the truth will come out ahead. They may prosper for a season, their congregation may balloon, and money will flow like it was nothing more than printed paper, but in the end, it is destined to crumble for nothing that is built upon a lie, nothing that sustains itself with deception and deceit can hope to survive in the long run.

The cracks are already starting to show. Angry congregants are already beginning to shout down their supposed shepherds for not seeing the thousand-fold return in their bank account, for not seeing their breakthrough, or the infusion of prosperity promised to them if they helped pay off the ministry jet, or buy their bishop the watch that cost more than their entire house. It hasn’t even gotten bad yet, at least not if we believe what the Bible says about the last days.

How do you think these shepherds will fare when true famine sweeps across the land, and the just will live by faith? You spent decades selling people on a pipe dream, on fanciful tales, and vain imaginings, while you could have been preparing them for what the Word says is to come. Now that they have neither prosperity nor faith, now that the Father they claim as theirs, the Father you insisted will take them as they are for the low price of a hand wave, will not acknowledge them as His own because He never knew them, how will you be able to stand under those bright lights and stare them in the face?

Truth is lasting. It has permanence, and while others flounder in their rebellion and self-deception, grasping at straws, looking at yet another date upon which they will be disappointed and their hopes crushed, those who stand firm on the foundation of Scripture will weather the storms, look up, and see their redemption drawing near.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.