DECEPTION - THE CHALLENGE OF OUR AGE
"Take heed that no-one deceives you" Matthew 24:4
I have been reflecting for several months on the difficulty of obtaining information in which you can have confidence. In thinking about the trajectory, I remember my amazement in the mid 1990s when a computer guru was able to search for information on the relatively new internet and find images of astronauts doing space walks. Then in the early 2000s another tech guru came to our regular CEO meeting and demonstrated the power of YouTube and the information that could be found – that particular day it was a video on laying a particular and complicated Italian tile. After this I attended a course on information technology and one of the most memorable parts was a cartoon that I have shown below.
I started to wonder – how reliable is the information that we find on the internet?
Since that time over 20 years ago, the issue of “fake news” suddenly came into prominence, particularly during the years of the Trump Presidency. Next, many “fact checking” organizations, usually funded by various left-wing groups, appeared out of nowhere. As I read the fact checkers, I realized that the fact checkers themselves needed to be fact checked! The freedom of the internet was replaced in 2020 by a single view mandated by Big Tech and governments, most clearly evident with the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time the BBC convened a meeting that resulted in the “Trusted News Initiative” which, from first principles, you couldn’t trust! The day of the “media expert” arose with Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prominent in press briefings in the US. This concept was replicated in most other countries including Australia where government chief medical officers undertook a media blitz to convince people that there was a crisis. Those with opposing views to government funded public health officials were silenced from facebook, YouTube, Twitter and various other social media groups. The silencing of alternative voices has continued and expanded with the de-registration of health professionals by licensing bodies around the world because these doctors and nurses expressed views that were in opposition to that of the governments’ health advisors. It became clear that the medical profession was no longer one that was independent. Doctors with opposing views to government regarding COVID-19 treatments and vaccination were threatened with loss of their livelihood. “Independent” government medicine regulatory groups like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US and the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia, merely spun a government line. I remember a very significant moment just after the COVID-19 vaccines had been released in 2021 in Australia when some studies in Europe had indicated the increased risks of blood clots associated with the Astra-Zeneca vaccine. This was immediately denied by public health officials in Australia and the vaccines were said to be completely safe and there was nothing to worry about. We were told that clots were common in the population and these reports were nothing unusual. Then 2 weeks later suddenly the same public health officials said that there was a problem and you shouldn’t have the Astra-Zeneca vaccine if you were under 50 years old. There was no apology for their previous statements and now, despite millions of serious adverse events after all the COVID-19 vaccines and clear evidence that they are not effective, the vaccine narrative – “safe and effective” - continues to be promoted. Worse, in children and young adults, where the risks to health are much greater from the vaccine than from the disease, governments are promoting and mandating vaccination. How could this be so?
My own thinking is that this is part of the great deception spoken about by Jesus more than 2000 years ago (Matthew 24). He gave his disciples a private briefing, on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, after telling them of the coming destruction of the Temple, one of the then wonders of the world. Just hours before he was crucified Jesus responded to their question:
“Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”
Surprisingly, the first thing that Jesus said was
“Take heed that no-one deceives you”.
The Greek word used by Matthew in his gospel was πλανάω transliterated as planáō. There is a sense with this word in Greek of there being intentional misleading. The Greek word means to lead astray, to wander, or to mislead or cause to err, to form a wrong judgment, get off course, lead away from truth, or to be led into error or sin.
I have been thinking about the issue of deception for some years now because Jesus provides clear information about the period of time prior to His return and the issue of deception is raised by Jesus as the principal challenge ahead. It is clear to me that deception will continue to be one of the most challenging matters facing society in the years ahead. The opposite of deception is truth and Jesus declares Himself to be “the way, the truth and the life” - so a simple way to avoid deception is to follow Jesus.
Woven into the Bible story, from the start to the end, is the problem of deception. We encounter this first in Genesis 3:13 after Eve had eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve’s excuse was that “the serpent deceived me” and the Hebrew word used for deceived is - נָשָׁא transliterated as nâšâ’. The meaning of the Hebrew word is to lead astray, delude, seduce, beguile. Then at the end of the Bible, after Jesus has returned and Satan is released after Jesus’ 1,000 year reign, St John tells us that Satan will be released “and will go out to deceive (again the Greek word is planáō) the nations which are in the four corners of the earth” (Revelation 20:8). I suppose a good summary is “nothing deceives like deception”!
Now we are not only deceived by others but we often deceive ourselves. We know that we are not as good or worthy as Mother Theresa (although a new documentary has raised some doubts about her) but we’re surely not as bad as Stalin! I did hear an interesting talk by Derek Prince and his view was that self-deception is made more likely by pride. This seems correct to me because pride implies arrogant deceit – our own sense of who we are or what we know can deceive us into believing something that isn’t true - and most importantly we think that we are right.
Unfortunately we’re all in trouble, in our personal assessments of our worth and how we’ve lived our lives, because God’s standard for living is absolute. We also make excuses and lie to ourselves about our own behaviour- for example a white lie to cause less pain, or perhaps it is something I really needed, so it is OK to take it. It's easy and painful to make a long list of our own self-deception (if we stop deceiving ourselves) and as I think about this I condemn myself as I write!
The day-to-day trials of deception are part of the fabric of human life and it is evident from many of the Bible stories that deception is difficult to recognize. The Hebrew meanings – to lead astray, seduce or beguile help to understand that often we are unaware of deception because it is something that is appealing to us or seduces us – in fact we are preconditioned for deception! Deception is at the heart of the work of Satan, who first deceived Eve in the Garden and is described by Jesus as “the father of lies” (John 8:44). So – we’re set up for deception and it is difficult to avoid. It seems even harder today when crucial information is being suppressed by governments for their own purposes and we are being deliberately deceived, supposedly “for our own good”. So – how do we avoid deception?
Here are a few of my tips:
1. Assume that information from governments and government-funded groups including mainstream media is likely to be designed to deceive. An agenda or narrative probably is being implemented that has a purpose other than the message promoted. Laura Dodsworth’s book State of Fear demonstrated how the UK government used psychologists and psychological tools to produce fear in the population related to COVID-19 in order to control and lock down the population and force vaccination on a whole population. We can only speculate as to why this would be the case but it is good to remember the wisdom of President Reagan who said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. Governments always have their own agenda and this agenda is not focused on our welfare. James Delingpole and his brother Dick discussed the challenges of the new world order on the Delingpod podcast - and said that we have to remember that “they hate us and want to kill us”! This may seem slightly paranoid but it is a useful perspective in assessing the government, media and new world order narrative from groups like the UN, Word Economic Forum, World Wildlife Fund, etc. There is still excellent information available in independent publications and websites and I have made reference to these in previous newsletters.
2. Deception can be widespread in the churches. Many churches and church leaders were deceived during the COVID-19 pandemic and were subservient to the government mandates about not meeting together. I read numerous opinions from pastors who spoke on Romans 13 and the need to be “subject to the governing authorities”. It did not seem to occur to most of these apparently well-meaning pastors that the government may have had an evil and destructive agenda and that churches should take a stand against tyranny. There is a time coming when it will be necessary to worship an evil leader and take a mark to buy and sell (Revelation 13:16-17). It is horrifying how many churches capitulated to adhere to governments’ wicked agendas to prevent church gatherings. Vaccine mandates for unlicensed products were a preliminary “mark of the beast” as in many countries people lost their jobs because they failed to be injected with the experimental product. Some brave pastors in California did bring legal action against the government mandates to prevent church meetings and were successful, demonstrating that some churches at least were not deceived. Dr John Piper provides a short and powerful story of how churches can deceive using sophisticated arguments. Jesus Himself warned about false prophets and these false prophets may have appealing messages that mislead large numbers.
3. If the idea or law is against the law or word of God in the Bible, then it is certainly deception. At one stage Western societies’ laws were based on God’s laws in the Bible. Gradually God’s laws have been pushed aside in the name of “social justice”. Examples include: the implementation of abortion and euthanasia laws, laws denying God’s creation of male and female, promotion of animal rights being equal to human rights, legislation of homosexual marriage and worship of creation (the environmental movement) rather than the creator, being just a few. Many of these issues seem right to our modern thinking but God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8) and so we need to stand on His eternal truth rather than so-called progress. God says to the prophet Isaiah “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways” (Isaiah 55:8). Our ways are likely to be in conflict with God because we are deceived into thinking we are right and modern! To avoid deception then, we need to be familiar with the word of God, which means that we need to heed the advice given to Joshua when he crossed into the Promised Land. He said
“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)
This is the best advice we can receive today as a foundation for truth and avoiding deception. Our own desires can lead us into deception and the great Old Testament prophet Jeremiah said “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). It is critical that we have a “fear of the Lord” and His ways which is “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10) rather than a fear of man.
4. A few other practical tips – I’ve read a variety of ideas about avoiding deception and also found these tips helpful:
a. If you ask someone a yes or know question, and the response begins with the word “Well..”, there is a high probability of deception
b. If you are feeling doubtful or apprehensive, don’t feel pressured to make a decision but take time to be quiet before God and pray for His wisdom;
c. Don’t make life-changing decisions based on your emotions;
d. Don’t let anyone “guilt trip” you into making a decision that you know is wrong
e. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
f. “The best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour” as someone told me once, so look at the track record for truth and consistency to avoid being deceived
We are living in an era where deception will increase and we need to be on our guard. God’s Word, the Bible, is our best tool to help detect deception but in the most important challenges of life, we have to assume that we are deceived and so we need to be prepared to consider a view that may seem incorrect.
Some Additional Resources on Deception
Here are some links that have helpful articles on deception:
WORLD ROUNDUP
A Summary of Some Significant World Events in the Last Week
USA
The deliberate destruction of law and the rule of law has long been a focus of left-wing Democrats in the US. They have gained control of the tools of education, the media, the legal system and a sizeable portion of the church. While well-meaning people looked the other way, suddenly there is some recognition of a crime crisis. District Attorneys (DAs) have been elected in Democrat-controlled cities who refuse to enforce the law and these AGs have been bankrolled by groups that are controlled by George Soros, the Hungarian-born financier. It is estimated that Soros money has funded the campaign of 75 DAs over the last 10 years. Soros has a very chequered history and there is a new book out written by Matt Palumbo called The Man Behind the Curtain (Inside the Secret Network of George Soros) that demonstrates Soros’ influence and is worthwhile reading. Palumbo writes that “there is no man in politics more influential than George Soros”, who has donated more than US$32 billion through his Open Society Foundation during his lifetime and Soros still has a net worth today of US$8.6 billion. The foundation has a stated aim of “building vibrant and inclusive democracies” but funds seem to go to extreme left-wing groups and to fund election campaigns that seek to undermine the rule of law and eliminate national borders. In the last election campaign of the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, Soros was targeted as a person trying to undermine Hungarian sovereignty. Soros’ influence is extensive and he has meddled in Ukrainian politics as well as those of Europe and Asia. He also has ventured into higher education, funding left-wing colleges and the Central European University in Hungary, founded in 1991. In the US, Soros has funded election campaigns of extreme-left DAs including Kim Foxx the Illinois state attorney for Cook County (includes Chicago), the Los Angeles DA and the Philadelphia DA. All these areas have seen a dramatic increase in violence and theft because the elected DAs refuse to prosecute what they view as “minor crime”. The influence of Soros and the impact on the US justice system is outlined in an excellent recent article in the New York Post. It is extraordinary to realize the sinister role that various “philanthropic” and well-funded foundations have in the US and it is worthwhile watching the 50 min interview recorded in 1962 of Norman Dodd, head researcher for the Reece Committee - to understand how these foundations have had a sinister influence on the US and the world over the last 100 years
Well – as the saying goes – you can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time. San Francisco DA, Chesa Boudin, was terminated by the voters in a recall election, a unique feature of the Californian system. Boudin was another person who received significant funds from Soros but the dramatic rise in crime in San Francisco stimulated his recall by voters. Law enforcement is going to continue to be a major concern in the US and will be a significant issue in the mid-term elections. The Democrats know that an electoral bloodbath is coming and I suspect that they are planning some distracting events, one of which is the current January 6th Committee partisan show trial. Further events will be planned to distract voters from government failures.
The political left in the US is promoting lawlessness and justifying any violent or intimidating behaviour from their own side, in the name of social justice. The threats to Supreme Court justices have been endorsed by Democratic spokespersons. Most of the mainstream press has downplayed or not even reported the murder threat to Justice Kavanagh this week. Despite a law preventing intimidation of judges (Title 18, 1507 of the US Code) making it illegal to picket in front of a courthouse of judge’s home
“with the intent of interfering with, obstructing, or impeding the administration of justice, or with the intent of influencing any judge”,
no protestors have been arrested. Once there is lawlessness, and a lack of respect for the rule of law, any society is in trouble and I believe that we can anticipate a rise in violence and civil disturbances in the US, leading up to the mid-term elections. The aim of the Marxist agitators behind the protests and violence is the destruction of the US and its constitution. They will be successful unless the silent majority in the US stands up for God’s law.
United Kingdom & Europe
There is a quote attributed to Harold Wilson that “a week is a long time in politics”. For Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a day was a long time this week. As the UK celebrated the remarkable 70 years of the Queen’s reign with parades, concerts, lunches and days off work, Boris was suddenly confronted with a vote of no-confidence by Conservative MPs on the Monday of the 4-day Platinum Jubilee weekend. One would have thought that the bonhomie and sense of national well-being would have extended to Boris but it was not to be. The process triggering a vote of no-confidence in the Prime Minister is a sufficient number of members of parliament (54 or 15% of the 359 MPs) writing to the 1922 Committee - - to express their lack of confidence in the PM. Once this target number is achieved, then the Chairman of the 1922 Committee must call for a vote by all MPs about whether they have confidence in the Prime Minister. The vote occurred last Monday evening UK time and the result was that 211 MPs expressed confidence in Boris Johnson and 148 expressed no confidence. I thought that this result was clearcut but most commentators I have heard believe that with 40% of MPs expressing a lack of confidence that Boris will be gone within 6 months. This issue will continue to destabilize the Conservative government although an election is not due until 2024.
Russia and Ukraine
Russia seems to be extending its control of Eastern Ukraine despite the West pouring in billions in aid and arms. Western intervention appears to be simply prolonging the conflict and leading to loss of Ukrainian and Russian lives. Peace talks which started early in the war have been abandoned and Putin’s own survival is closely linked to a win in the struggle. It does seem to me that various parts of the law of unintended consequences are at work in the Ukrainian-Russian fight as it is possible that the war could become more extensive in Europe and a nuclear option is impossible to rule out.
The sentence of death by firing squad of two British mercenaries - who fought with the Ukrainian army and were captured in Mariupol has raised the temperature in the UK of the Ukrainian conflict. There is speculation today about a prisoner swap but it is interesting that the death sentence was handed down in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine.
The sanctions applied to Russia by the West have hurt the West more than Russia although Joe Biden has been able to blame Putin for his disastrous economic decisions in the US. Inflation continues to increase and fuel prices skyrocket in the West. Because of a range of supply chain issues, real of contrived, food availability will be impacted.
China vs The West
There are reports in the last few days about Shanghai returning to lockdown after detection of 11 new coronavirus cases in a city of 25 million! Of course this has triggered panic buying of groceries by residents and once again the power of the communist government is highlighted. I’m sure that the Premier of the Australian state of Victoria is taking notes!
In Australia, there is an attempt by the new socialist government to end what has been described as a “trade war against Australian exporters”. It is uncertain what Australia has to offer China apart from selling off more of the country and our assets! China’s economy is facing some significant challenges that are a direct result of lockdowns that have crippled economic activity. There also has been increased regulation of technology
“driven by Chinese President Xi Jinping’s retreat from private enterprise and embrace of Maoist socialism, has paralyzed a once-dynamic industry. A debt bubble in the country’s overinflated real estate sector has led to spectacular crashes, including the default of Evergrande, a gigantic property developer.”
China continues to support Russia in the Ukrainian conflict although it is clear that China’s “belt and road initiative “ will be impacted because of the threat of secondary sanctions.
Israel
Stories out of Israel this week indicate the lack of stability of the governing coalition which celebrates its 1 year anniversary this weekend. A member of the governing Yamina Party, Nir Orbach, is threatening to join Benjamin Netanyahus Likud Party, which would leave the governing coalition with only 59 seats. The major decision point will likely be the new state budget which has to be approved by the Knesset in the northern hemisphere spring but it seems likely that there will be a successful vote of no-confidence in the coalition before then.
The Iranian nuclear danger always hovers in the background for Israel and it must preoccupy the intelligence services. An interesting story was published this week about F-35 stealth fighter jets now being able to fly from Israel to Iran without mid-air refueling. The Israeli Air Force has conducted exercises recently that simulated attacks against Iran. The threat from Iran is greater than reported by most media because the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has noted the increased capability of the Iranian nuclear program. In an ominous sign, the IAEA monitoring cameras have been switched off by the Iranians. The Israelis won’t wait until the threat to their country is fully realized and I think that we can anticipate a significant event during the northern hemisphere summer.