Living by the truth in this age of deception
Michael Dewar, Author
September 3rd, 2025
When truth walks out the door, all other values jump through the windows and deception becomes the new tenant. The disciples asked Jesus, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” He said, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many will come in My name saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matthew 24:3-5 NKJV). The key words for this read are truth, lies, and deception.
What is Deception?
Deception is a deviation from the truth, a lie made to look like truth. People often say, “this is the naked truth!” Why is that? Because truth is indeed naked; it needs no dressing up. But for lie to look like truth it must camouflage itself in truth’s clothing. For example, a counterfeit dollar bill is ordinary paper dressed up to look like true money. Counterfeiting is an act of deception, a lie passing itself off to be the real thing.
The bad actors in the world have been blurring the line between truth and falsehood for a long time, but at no time in the history of the United States has lies become mainstream as it is today. It now occupies high public offices dressed up as truth. The deception has permeated every level of society including government, politics, and religion.
Jesus warned about religious deception. In fact, the first warning given in the Matthew 24 passage is about religious deception. He said, “Take heed that no man deceive you, for many shall come in my name….” Many religious leaders who claim to speak for God have no saving relationship with Him. They are deceivers, wolves in sheep’s clothing. And the person who is not knowledgeable and well-grounded in the Word of God, can be easily deceived. As truth retreats from pulpits and houses of worship, it retreats from the public square.
It is almost impossible for the younger generations to discern truth from falsehood. And with the coming of AI, older adults will be easily deceived as well.
We have been adrift from the truth for a long time. To some extent, public education in the United States is inspired by secular humanism. And many who control higher education have convinced the larger society that “separation of church and state” means, separation of State from God and religious values. That is deception that looks like truth.
To mask the deception, we continue to do some traditional things—like swearing in top government leaders with a Bible, while repeating the words, “so help me God.” But once in office, the Bible and its values are thrown in the trash bin. Some leaders are amoral and lawless, and a vast multitude of Americans have succumbed this deception in high places.
What is Truth?
Like love, truth is hard to define but when it is not present you know it. Truth is hard to define because its origin is otherworldly; it comes from another place. To me, “truth is the unchanging standard by which you judge reality and morality.”
Since everything created is in a constant state of flux or change, to Christians Yeshua (Jesus) is the only standard of unchanging reality. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The first entry in Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary says, “Truth is conformity to facts or reality; exact accordance with that which is, or has been, or shall be.” Did you get that? Read it again and keep it in mind!
To sincere and authentic Christians, truth is personified in Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). What does He mean by, I am the truth? It means He is that unchanging standard by which we judge reality. “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6). The poet Henry F. Lyte gave us this line, “O thou who changest not abide with me!”
In this world the only constant is change, that is why you can’t step in the same river twice. But God has given us something unchanging to hold on to. That is His Word. By holding on to His Word we hold on to Him. If we throw away the written word, we also throw away the personified Word. We are left adrift on the open seas without compass or GPS.
Jesus, the truth, is other worldly. But He has come into our world as God incarnate (in the flesh). The apostle John tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1, 14).
Jesus is the personified Word of God (the truth); the Bible is the written Word of God and preaching the spoken word of God. If the spoken word does not conform to the written Word, then it is not conforming to the personified Word. When that lack of conformity to truth happens, the preacher is the area of deception; first, self-deception, then the deception of those to whom he or she is preaching. Jesus said, “Let no man (or one) deceive you.” One deceiving preacher can take a whole congregation to hell. Remember Jim Jones? If you don’t, Google the name.
One deceiver can destroy a lot of people, depends on which institution you place him: over the Justice Department, over the Pentagon, over the CDC, or over a megachurch. And there you have it.! Many deceivers are first self-deceived, but they don’t know it. They think they are passionately peddling the truth.
The Church should be the guardian of the truth. But many churches are in the United States and most in Europe are backslidden and silent. They are like watchdogs that don’t bark any more. They have thrown the Bible, the written truth of God, into the trash bin, and preaching another gospel, if any gospel at all.
Some have a prosperity brand gospel, others a political brand gospel, and still others a brand that does not demand repentance from a sinful lifestyle. They preach, God loves you as you are, but they hide the part that says, “unless you repent you shall likewise perish” (Luke 13:1-5). To enter God’s kingdom, you must change, repent (Acts 2:36-39).
What church does not require a thief to stop stealing, the killer to stop murdering, the fornicator, the adulterer to abandon their immoral lifestyle before extending the right hand of fellowship to be a member? If repentance is not required, what is?
In like manner, when a church marries two men or two women, they have turned the truth of God into a lie (Romans 1:18-27). They are trying to sanctify and bless what God forbids. They have thrown the Bible into the trash bin. When the church preaches a lie, and practices a lie, the whole nation becomes perverted and accepts a lie for the truth.
If you are a member a church where the pastor is man and married to another man or a woman and married to another woman, or people can just live together without the benefit of marriage, get out and get away from it. If the person in the pulpit cannot interpret, correctly, what God says about human sexuality, he or she is not qualified to interpret any other part of the Bible to you. Find another church and do it fast!
God loves people, but He requires repentance, a change from a sinful lifestyle. The gospel and the Holy Spirit are powerful enough to change any situation, but we must want to change. God does not give exception to any sin. Nor does He give anyone license to beat up of the sinner but to love them enough to tell them the truth. They must repent and God will give grace to live holy because He is holy.
The Spirit of Truth
Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth and the one who guides sincere believers into the truth of God (John 16:13). If truth is connected to the Spirit of God, then lies must be connected to another spirit. That other spirit is Satan. Jesus calls him a liar and the father of lies (John 7: 44). One of Satan’s names is deceiver; a deceiver is a master liar.
The age of deception in which we now live is under the control of Satan, the deceiver (1 John 5: 19). The one Jesus calls, the father of lies, controls every sector of human life: business, government, entertainment, politics, economics, and even some churches. Did you say, churches? Yes, churches! Satan knows the Bible more than most Christians, and he is not afraid to recruit followers from churches. A church that does not regard the inspired Word of God is a church without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Such a place is Satan’s playground. Get out!
Conclusion:
To know truth in this age of deception, you must first have a salvation relationship with Jesus Christ, the personified truth. That relationship comes about through repentance from sinful lifestyle and have a born-again experience into the kingdom of God (John 3:1-5).
Then in faith and obedience, fix you gaze on Jesus, the author and perfector of your faith. Embrace the Bible as the inspired, revealed Word of God. Study it carefully and find a Bible believing church that can feed your faith and help you grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesu Christ. And take heed that no one deceives you. Begin with this book, HEAVEN If you want in Register Now.
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