TRUTH vs DECEPTION In seeking my Lord for this article, I had a couple of different thoughts. None were complete. You see, nearly all my teachings are derived from my learnings. The best example I can give is I dine alone with Christ. Then I invite you to dine with us. The last few months, I have been in a season of research. I am working through a book of how Christ is revealed in the Psalms. The Lord has given me hints of new revelations into more depth of knowledge in Christ, but I am currently digging through the topsoil to see what lies beneath. I do not yet have a clear picture of where Holy Spirit will take me in this specific study. A couple of weeks ago, I temporarily set that aside to simply drink solely of the cool, fresh water of the Word of God in His Bible. It seems every verse I read tugs my thoughts closer to Who Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit is. Yes, I said is. They are One. Anyway, today I write with these hints floating around in my spirit man. Yet, I have no clear concept of what to write. So, I finally decided to just sit down and write. Where this will go, only the Spirit of God knows. My current plan is to just share with you the Scriptures I have been reading and cross-referencing. Basically, I am going to take you on the same trip I went on the last few days. Perhaps (and my prayer is) you will gain your own understanding for reading them. After all, the eyes of those walking on the road to Emmaus were miraculously opened (see Luke 24: 13f). In fact, let us start here. In verse 35, they have returned to Jerusalem to tell the disciples what happened, “And they began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.” When I wrote of dining with Christ at the beginning of this article, I had no idea Holy Spirit would take us to this passage of the Gospels. He knew. So, this is my prayer that as we dine (break the bread of God’s Word) together with Christ, and we will all recognize more of Who He is! Hmm, where do I begin? I have been listening to a series of messages on the book of the Revelation. The minister discussed what he called the religious Babylon in chapter 17. He explained some historical facts to cause one to think of what that religion may be. Moving on, we know Scripture teaches of a false religion in the last days. As I listened, my mind went to Matthew 24:24 where Jesus warned, “For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.” Think of how powerful the deception will be. Who are the elect? Differing religions have differing opinions. (On a side note: Jesus once told me that God is not interested in man’s opinion. You see, my opinion bears no weight with Truth.) The elect is the Greek word eklektos. In the short version, this means to be, “picked out, chosen by God to obtain salvation through Christ.” “For many are called, but few chosen[eklektos]” (Matt. 22:14). So, the elect are the saved ones, the called out ones. A couple of articles ago, I taught on the deception in today’s world. This seems to be an ongoing theme. As I considered Truth vs. deception, a very familiar verse came to mind - John 8:32, “And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” I have always considered this verse to mean being free from sin and free to make Godly choices, not driven by my flesh. By the way, that is it’s meaning based on verse 34, “Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” In this particular moment, I also considered that it meant to be free from the trap of deception. I realize to not be deceived, we as the elect, must be inundated with Truth, the Word, theLogoswhich is Christ (John 1:1). Only Truth defeats deception. I later was listening to another minister’s message. In this message, he misquoted a verse of the Bible. He said “because they did not love the truth.” I sought out this verse to discover it did not exactly read that way. It reads, “And with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved” (2 Thes. 2:10). It was not that they did not love the truth, but they did not receive the love of the truth. 1 John 4:8 teaches us that “God is love.” To me, to not receive the love of the truth is to not receive Christ. I looked up the Greek for not receive. It means to “not embrace or not approve”. Love is agape which is the love of God. I am going to re-write this verse based on these Greek transliterations: And with all deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not embrace and/or did not approve of the agape of the truth so as to be saved. God’s truth is an expression of His love to bring us to salvation.Sadly, many today disapprove of it. Interesting enough, 2 Thessalonians 2:11 goes on to say, “For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false.” My train of thought then went to not believing one is above being deceived. We read already that only the grace of our Savior keeps us from deception. We can only deal with self. I decided to look at self-deception in Scripture. In meditating on what we have discussed here, James 1:22 takes on an interesting viewpoint, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” This points back to receiving the love of the Truth. It is not enough to just read it and hear it taught. I must practice it. Let’s look at the next verse which came to mind, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6). Looking that verse up led me to this one, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious; anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.” (1 John 3:10). I need not add more to this. Next, I went to 2 Timothy 3:7. Here Paul is addressing those who are in our midst for evil purposes and states how they prey on those who are “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” We already read about this above from 2 Thessalonians. Learning, not able to enter a relationship with truth, and easy prey for dealers of darkness…easily deceived. This is only a small bit of the Scriptures swirling in my spirit. I must close now. If Holy Spirit so leads, I will pick up with more in the next article. I ask you to look up these verses and study them for yourselves. If you think why bother, that it does not apply to you, I advise you that “ALL SCRIPTURE IS GIVEN BY INSPIRATION OF GOD, AND IS PROFITABLE FOR DOCTRINE, FOR REPROOF, FOR CORRECTION, FOR INSTRUCTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS” (2 Tim. 3:16). We just read in 1 John 3:10, that as children of God, we are to practice righteousness. Scripture instructs us in doing so. I do wish to close with two things: (1) my prayer in the opening that your eyes be opened as you break this Bread with me, and (2) Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” Thank you, Jesus, for your Truth which makes us free indeed! u GLAD TIDINGS 7 OCTOBER 2025 Signs of Life from The King's Highway Evangelistic Ministries SARA GOLDSTEIN Take courage, dear friend You WILL come through In the darkest of days God is there – for you Though deep down inside You may feel it’s the end Your broken heart The Saviour can mend If you’re feeling weak And unable to cope Take courage and Never let go of your hope Take hold of God’s hand That is stretched out for you He knows of the times When you’re feeling blue He knows of the depths Of your sorrow and pain He’s there to help you To live once again Take courage dear friend Look up to the King Through Jesus ~ our Lord This battle you’ll win by Christine V Mitchell Take Courage
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