03/12/22 THE SPIRIT OF DECEPTION

03/12/22 THE SPIRIT OF DECEPTION

If the devil cannot get a person to deny a truth, he will get them to embrace that truth and then lead them to corrupt that truth. The devil knows, if he can confuse people about a word, he can control the thinking of those people concerning the actual meaning of that word.

This is what people often do with Biblical truth. Folks who are well-meaning embrace the Bible and its truths, but then they are deceived into reassessing or redefining those truths by adding to them, that which is contrary to those truths or subtracting from them, that which is essential to those truths, which is actually denial of those truths.

 

I try to be careful with my speech, my terminology, my phraseology. I try not to use words in a way that misrepresents the truth of those words.

I try not to apply words where they are inappropriate. I don't refer to cultists (the LDS, JWs, SDA, UPC, CS) as Christian or as true churches. In fact, I don't even like to use the words, Saints, Jehovah, Pentecostal, Church or Christian, when referring to those people. I don't even like to refer to the Roman Catholic Church as either Catholic (universal) or Church. Instead, I refer to them as the Roman Religion, or as Romanism. I don't use the word, "Church," when referring to false religious groups.

In fact, I try not to use Biblical terms when referring to groups who have left the Biblical faith. Pentecost is a good Biblical term, with rich Old Testament background and New Testament application. I also try to avoid using words (with Biblical roots) when referring to those who have gone beyond Biblical application, (such as Charismatic).

 

There is such a thing as a Pentecostal experience, which happened in the Book of acts. Though the attending signs of that day are not repeated, the work of God through the Baptism with the Holy Spirit (by which God purified the hearts of believers) is the real evidence and continuing result of Pentecost in the lives of Christians today. 

 

All true Christians are "CHARIS-matic." In other words, all true Christians are recipients of God's GIFTS. We have received the gifts of Jesus, salvation, the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself, the gifts of the Spirit. In that sense, all believers are CHARIS-matic.

 

However, deception has changed the use of these words. There was a time, before the Azusa Street meetings that the terms Pentecostal and Charismatics were applied to Christians who believed in the purifying work of the Holy Spirit. Then folks mistakenly called the errant "tongues people" by those two terms.

The same thing has happened with many other names and terms, over the years. This is why understanding and using Biblical terms term appropriately is important. Confusion comes from the devil.