It is far less likely that a person of faith can be deceived, if not at all. A person of faith is armed by what is in the Bible. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
Who can you trust to not deceive you or lead you astray? There are varying degrees of trust, like there are varying degrees in people.
The first instance of the testing of one’s faith can be found in Genesis, when after God commands Adam and Eve to not eat from the Tree of Good and Evil for they will die, Satan in the form of a serpent tells Eve that she and Adam won’t die but will know good and evil. Adam and Eve then eat an apple from the Tree. They disobeyed God and put their trust in someone else instead.
You might say they were at a disadvantage, since the Bible wasn’t around then. So, how would they know that they obeyed someone who would lead them away from God? They didn’t have the words of 2 Timothy 3:16-17. They didn’t have the words of Proverbs 3:5 which says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In eating from the Tree, Adam and Eve trusted in their own understanding instead of trusting in God by not eating from the Tree. They didn’t have the words of Leviticus and Deuteronomy telling them not to follow other gods. They didn’t have the words of the New Testament telling them to beware of being tempted and deceived.
But we have the Bible and we would be doing well if we read and understand it. Now there are people who claim to be of God, who will quote scripture with you, and who will tell you that God will punish all sinners including you, unless you give money to save your soul, trusting in the person who is telling you these things. What do you do? After all, the person may have quoted parts in which God destroys whole cities because of the sinners in them, and God has warned us not to follow other gods because that would prove to be our death and destruction. But for a small sum of money, or for your life’s savings in some cases, the person will show you the way to God.
Perhaps he will give you a copy of a book that quotes certain passages but not others. Yes, God will destroy sinners. But the Bible also says that God wants us to be saved.
Of course there are houses of worship that you may trust, who pass the plate around or collect dues to maintain themselves. They have accurately and dutifully conveyed God’s Word and have interpreted it based on what the Bible says. But there are cults who tell you to commit suicide to, say, escape the evils of this world. The Bible doesn’t tell you to do that. Proverbs 3:5 in the Bible tells you what to do. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells you what to do.
Some may find reading the Bible to be daunting with all the symbolism and associations that may be hard to understand at first glance. So who would you go to for help?
Anyone who talks on the theme of Jesus’ two great commandments, and of Genesis in which God commands Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, is more likely to be trustworthy than someone who off the bat tells you that, say, God will destroy you because of your sins, so give money to prevent it. Or, join their cult, where you can get free Kool-Aid.
In the meantime, 1 John 4:1-3 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”
Deuteronomy 18: 20-22 says,“…the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or6 who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”
Who can you trust to not deceive you or lead you astray? There are varying degrees of trust, like there are varying degrees in people.
The first instance of the testing of one’s faith can be found in Genesis, when after God commands Adam and Eve to not eat from the Tree of Good and Evil for they will die, Satan in the form of a serpent tells Eve that she and Adam won’t die but will know good and evil. Adam and Eve then eat an apple from the Tree. They disobeyed God and put their trust in someone else instead.
You might say they were at a disadvantage, since the Bible wasn’t around then. So, how would they know that they obeyed someone who would lead them away from God? They didn’t have the words of 2 Timothy 3:16-17. They didn’t have the words of Proverbs 3:5 which says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In eating from the Tree, Adam and Eve trusted in their own understanding instead of trusting in God by not eating from the Tree. They didn’t have the words of Leviticus and Deuteronomy telling them not to follow other gods. They didn’t have the words of the New Testament telling them to beware of being tempted and deceived.
But we have the Bible and we would be doing well if we read and understand it. Now there are people who claim to be of God, who will quote scripture with you, and who will tell you that God will punish all sinners including you, unless you give money to save your soul, trusting in the person who is telling you these things. What do you do? After all, the person may have quoted parts in which God destroys whole cities because of the sinners in them, and God has warned us not to follow other gods because that would prove to be our death and destruction. But for a small sum of money, or for your life’s savings in some cases, the person will show you the way to God.
Perhaps he will give you a copy of a book that quotes certain passages but not others. Yes, God will destroy sinners. But the Bible also says that God wants us to be saved.
Of course there are houses of worship that you may trust, who pass the plate around or collect dues to maintain themselves. They have accurately and dutifully conveyed God’s Word and have interpreted it based on what the Bible says. But there are cults who tell you to commit suicide to, say, escape the evils of this world. The Bible doesn’t tell you to do that. Proverbs 3:5 in the Bible tells you what to do. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells you what to do.
Some may find reading the Bible to be daunting with all the symbolism and associations that may be hard to understand at first glance. So who would you go to for help?
Anyone who talks on the theme of Jesus’ two great commandments, and of Genesis in which God commands Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, is more likely to be trustworthy than someone who off the bat tells you that, say, God will destroy you because of your sins, so give money to prevent it. Or, join their cult, where you can get free Kool-Aid.
In the meantime, 1 John 4:1-3 says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”
Deuteronomy 18: 20-22 says,“…the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or6 who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.”
