Do Not Be Deceived

“Watch out that no one deceives you.”

Matthew 24:4

I have been meandering through Don Finto’s book, The Handbook For The End Times: Hope, Help, and Encouragement. Many things in the book are fascinating, and everything he writes is powerful, but his chapter on “Do Not Be Deceived” should be carefully read. Here is a quote at the beginning of the chapter on deception:

“My feelings as a Christian point me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter….In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders….As a Christian I have also a duty to my own people….The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not bind itself in the matter of creed to any particular confession.” Jim Walker, compiler, “The Christianity of Hitler revealed in his speeches and proclamations,” February 27, 1997, additions June 3, 2006, http://nobelief.com.

This is Adolf Hitlers’s idea of positive Christianity in the early 1920’s. Thousands of Christian leaders bought into Hitler’s “positive Christianity.” How could this happen?

“Traditional Christianity will not shield us from deception. Being members of a church will not suffice. We must know Jesus. His Word must be in our hearts and in our minds. Those who walk intimately with Jesus will be kept from deception.” (Page 104, Handbook For The End Times)

Finto says deception comes gradually and compromise seems so easy and safe, yet it will take us to destruction. (Page 105) He quotes from a friend saying,

“Sin always takes us further than we intended to go; we pay more than we intended to pay; and, we stay longer than we intended to stay.”

I am amazed how far some denominations have drifted away from what scripture actually says. Many think there is no hell, just heaven and everyone gets to go. That’s not found in scripture. Universalism takes everyone into deception. The problem is so few Christians want to read the Bible. They like to talk about going to church, and God-speak, but few know much about scripture. I have taught Bible studies for decades, and I am always shocked how few people have actually read the Book. Without the Holy scripture, we have nothing on which to base our lives. Our lives are built on shifting sand, and our spiritual houses will collapse when times get hard.

It is so easy to be deceived about the Holy Spirit, who He is, His role and power. Few pastors care little about understanding the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is mentioned in every Gospel, and all through the book of Acts, but ask the average denominational pastor about the baptism of fire by Jesus, and they are clueless about what you are talking about.

Our faith is a serious matter and yet we take it so lightly. Many people give so little time to the things of God, and yet they wonder why America is in the mess she’s in!!

If you have no strong foundation on which you have built your life, you will find yourself easily deceived.

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