Being on Guard Against Deception 

Recently I was sent an email expressing appreciation for my devotional book, Be a Holy Man. I have received communications before from people claiming to be familiar with the book and wanting to help me market it. I easily recognized those proposals as deceptive attempts to get my money and ignored them. However, this correspondence was different. I told my wife that if this was a scam, it was a really good one. It claimed to be from an author whose name my wife recognized as having written numerous Christian novels. The letter of commendation was several paragraphs in length, going into considerable detail about the content of my book. It gave all appearances of being from someone who had read the book and was familiar with its contents. Additionally, there was no financial request involved, only an invitation to have further communication with this person in order to share how I had come to write the book.

It sounded legitimate, and frankly it was flattering to think that a noted author would appreciate my work. However, I knew in my heart that it likely was not genuine. There were a couple of little oddities in the email that stood out to me. Therefore I looked up the author’s website, found the contact information for her representative, and sent her a note to check it out. Not surprisingly, I received a reply thanking me for checking and assuring me that the email did not come from that author. I have concluded that it must have been an AI generated letter. At least I hope if a real person was as familiar with the content of a book on holiness as this person seemed to be, that she would not be going around deceiving people.

This is just another reminder of one of the biggest dangers we face today and will have to deal with in the days ahead. Deception. And with increased technology, such deception can be harder and harder to recognize. It is not just people trying to trick us into revealing personal information or to get us to send them money, but it is also those attempting to deceive us in connection with spiritual matters and truth. Deception and lies have always been a favorite tool of Satan. But the Bible warns that in the last days this particular danger will increase as “evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (II Timothy 3:13).

How do we guard against such sophisticated deception? Don’t accept things at face value. Check them out for yourself. Go directly to the source when you can, as I did with that author. And that includes going directly to the Bible to discover what it really says about subjects. Additionally, watch for those “little red flags” – those things that just don’t seem quite right – whether in someone’s words or actions. Pray for discernment. Know those whom you can trust and seek their opinions about matters. Listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit as He seeks to guide you into truth.

I am not suggesting that we need to become like a few people I know. They are overly-suspicious, often think the worst of people, and question the motives of others for no reason. However, we do need to be aware of the presence of deceivers and imposters in our world. We need to keep in mind that we can’t accept every word we hear even when coming from Christian leaders. Neither can we believe everything we see due to how images can be edited.

Jesus said that even His chosen ones could be deceived in the last days. Let’s not allow that to happen to us.