TRUTH AND LIES
The Bible is commonly called a book of truth. While this statement is true, it is incomplete because it ignores the fact that the Bible is also a book filled with deception and lies. Consider these few examples:

This is a very small sample of many stories of deception and lies that can be found in the Bible. While Jews and Christians have little trouble accepting that Biblical characters practiced deception and were deceived themselves, they cannot easily accept that they also practice deception and are themselves deceived. They do not apply the truth that all scripture, including stories about deception, is useful for training in righteousness to themselves.

Reading the Bible carefully, we will be shocked to find that God also practiced deception when he enticed lying spirits to deceive his people and made it impossible for them to understand. Those lying spirits are false prophets still at work today in every religion. And even more surprisingly, God will send a deluding influence that causes people to believe what is false. That deluding influence is at work today in every religion, but religious people cannot easily accept that fact either.

When we read these stories of deception by God and others, we are challenged to understand how they apply to us in these modern days. If we believe, however, that all scripture is useful for training in righteousness, and if we believe that God does not change, we will study hard to learn how we have been deceived and how we in turn have deceived others by practicing and promoting religion. We will also accept that God still sends deluding influences that cause us and others to believe what is false. And the things that are false, of course, are all the deceptive teachings and practices that make up religion. And, perhaps must shameful of all, we will accept that we took pleasure in it all.

Knowing that God has allowed and even enabled deception to lead his people astray, we do well to learn how to discern good from evil and the holy from the profane. The challenge for ancient Israel and modern Jews and Christians is to understand that truth is concealed in false visions, lies and dreams fabricated by false prophets and shepherds.

False prophets are wolves in sheep clothing and angels disguised as angels of light. They claim that they are called by God to teach, and they are very clever and convincing in their preaching, but their claims and their teachings are lies. They spread lies and delusions through religion. These agents are the public faces of religion whom people wrongly idolize and trust as spokesmen for God. In fact, in God’s eyes, these agents function as gods and idols whom the people worship. These agents receive payment for telling lies to people who do not know the difference between good and evil, or clean from unclean, and who do not realize that religion is the fruit of lies and deception. They are the people God has in mind when he says “trust no man.”

Jews and Christians tend to skip over scriptures about deception because they do not understand them and/or do not think that they do not apply to them because they are so wise. Full of spiritual pride, they forget or ignore that all scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, they deceive themselves into thinking that Biblical stories about deception cannot possibly apply to them. And so they remain deceived about the evil of religion. They have stumbled over the stumbling block that God has put before them.

The fact that Jews and Christians fail to apply scriptures about deception to themselves is clear evidence that they are intoxicated with religion. Being convinced of their wisdom and righteousness, it never occurs to them to check out what God says about religion (i.e. it is sin). Because what their false prophets tell them seems right and true, most never doubt any of it. Those who dare express any doubt are soon branded as heretics. Furthermore, the fact of religion’s historical lasting power seems to affirm that it has God’s blessing. And the fact that friends and relatives are invested in religion also makes it difficult for many to reject it. And so religion survives.

If Jews or Christians had any questions or doubts about their religions, they would learn to read their Bibles to discover its symbolic references to religion. This can’t happen, of course, because their false prophets (e.g. pastors, priests, rabbis, etc.) have not equipped them to study for themselves. If they would teach people to study for themselves or listen to God’s voice, they would undermine their exalted positions in their personal, religious kingdoms.

But, even if people had been trained to listen to God’s voice, there is little apparent incentive for them to study for themselves. And they will remain unmotivated because the false prophets to whom they listen consistently affirm that their rigid, literal interpretations explain that their religion is exactly what God wants. Thus they keep depending on  religious professionals for instructions about truth and righteousness. And they remain deceived with no knowledge of the truth: God wants his people to worship in spirit and truth — not in fleshly religion in a physical place (i.e. mountain or temple.)