The Nature of Deception

There is a difference between falsehood and deception. It has been said that falsehood is 99% lie and 1% truth; deception is 99% truth and 1% lie. Let me illustrate:

If a waiter were to bring you a manifest plate of poison, would you eat it? No. What if it were half good food and half poison? Would you eat it? Normally speaking, you would not. If he were to bring you 90 or 95% good food and the remainder poison, would you eat it? Again, in normal circumstances, no. What if the plate was made up entirely of good food except for a smear of poison on the side of it, not even touching the food? Would you eat it? No, not unless you had no choice and you were hungry. Instead, you might be indignant, complain to management and walk out, never to return.

Now let's say that the waiter hid it in the meal. Let's say that only 1% of the food was poison and the rest good. Would you eat it? Given you had certain reasonable assurances that such a possibility was highly unlikely in the food served in this restaurant, yes. How many people go to restaurants and put their faith in strangers, not for a moment fearing a poisoning, whether it be accidental or deliberate! And many have been poisoned, even if in small ways or in ways the results of which would show only at some time in the future, though no one might ever know.

So with deception. Deception would not be deception unless it came deceiving. To come deceiving, it must appear to be that which is good and desirable. In fact, it can have that which is good and desirable, real and true. The plotting waiter can bring poison made to look like good food or he can bring genuine, tasty, tantalizing, nourishing, edible food, and thus get you to eat the poison which is hidden in the food, unknown to you. The former is more a typical falsehood, 1% truth and 99% lie; the latter is more a typical deception, 99% truth and 1% lie. Many think in terms of falsehood and how to avoid it. Few think of deception and are snared. >

Satan is the arch deceiver. He is a spiritual being, very powerful, very clever. He knows his stuff. He knows exactly how far he can go with any person. There are those to whom he can give a plate full of poison and they will eat it. Why? Because they have never known any better. They are children of darkness, his slaves from birth. They are already dead. They will eat spiritualism, or satanism, or occult worship or any of the heathen religions, though these be so contrary to the truth, because they have not known the truth and have no way to compare nor discern. Then there are those who have tasted of the truth and they will not fall for the obvious. Having known the truth, they also have power to resist, in a measure no longer being slaves to the liar. To these, Satan must serve up some of the real thing to which they have become accustomed. Only then will they eat the hidden poison but by the grace of God.

Now a poisoner may serve up poison little by little to have its accumulating effect on the victim in due time or he may try to put in one massive, fatal dose. The end is still the same. But both are disguised in the real thing and that is the point of this paper. Lies are hidden in truth, the counterfeit in the real. If a counterfeiter wishes to pass false currency, he often hides it among true currency to promote confidence and avoid suspicion.

Decades ago, the Lord commanded me to come out from all the religious life and activity of the nominal Christian world, its churches particularly, and to have nothing to do with its teachings, doctrines, customs, traditions, formalities and with its ways and thoughts in general. A conglomeration of truth and error was destroying His people. I was to leave it behind like dung left in a toilet. I was to throw out all literature and books. Initially, in my walk with the Lord, I was to read the Bible and only the Bible. For the most part, my wife and I have done so. Since then, from time to time, I have watched "Christian" television programs, watched and listened to "Christian" tapes, read such literature, heard of great revivals or moves of God and often thought, "What's wrong with that? Some truths of the Bible are being preached, especially the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ through His death and resurrection; there are people converted, healed, delivered from drugs, tobacco, alcohol; marriages are restored, finances are corrected, families are reunited, enmities are quelled, tyrants are removed, and people come together rejoicing and united instead of being miserable and striving. Where was despair, now there is hope; where sadness, now joy; where taking, now giving; where hate, now love; where adultery and fornication, now fidelity and chastity; where bars, now churches; where pornography and smut, now the Bible. What can possibly be wrong with that?! Surely we have deceived ourselves and have become spiritual, judgmental hypocrites...separatistic, Pharaisical, self-righteous, so deluded that we can't see the good and the real if it is splashed violently in our faces! Have we missed out? Lord, what has happened to us? Are You among us, or not?"

Then would come the Amalekites harassing and slaying, coming right on the heels of the Israelites doubting and saying, "Is God among us or not?" (Ex. 17:7,8). I would begin to doubt, to feel guilt, shame and fear. But many times has this happened to us. Whether by disobedience in exposing myself to these forbidden things or by temptations ordained of God to try me, I have been tried and have had battles, and thus far, in all those things that appeared to be the great work of God, there was deception and ultimate exposure of those men and their works.

Does not the Scripture say that the "man of sin" will come with all power, signs and lying wonders, working miracles, coming in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, sitting as God? Did not Jesus say that the deception would be such that if possible, the very elect themselves would be deceived? How can such a thing be possible unless the false was dressed up in the true? Of course, the elect will not fall for the obvious. They must be tried according to their stature. One does not send a child to spar with an adult heavyweight boxer. One does not give a seasoned weightlifter anything but challenging weights to lift.

When is it most effective to tempt one to eat? When that one is hungry, of course. Some will eat almost anything edible when very hungry. "To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." People have done the utterly unimaginable, eating their own children in sieges. Jesus was tempted with food after 40 days of fasting and when hunger came upon Him. So the approaches of the enemy are most effective when the tried one is hungry.

In the past, we have been alone and lonely, seeking for fellowship, for tangible meaning, for the manifesting of God in whatever way He chose. At such times would we be tried. But we would find our way through the deception, being kept by the Lord. He would simply keep us, giving an inner witness and Scripture verification, discernment and wisdom to know the difference between false and true. In time, the truth was manifest, the deception exposed. But in this last time, He went farther and revealed or brought home a truth to me that I do not recall His having done before. He showed me that deception, to be powerful and effective, had to come in a plateful of real and good food, that there was no other way. It seems I had not ever really understood this before. Somehow I was under the mistaken impression that the false appeared as true, that there was a counterfeit happening. To be sure, such is often the case. We have artificial flowers, food and other things that look like the real thing. So with spiritual matters. BUT THE TRUE ESSENCE OF DECEPTION IS THE FALSE HIDDEN IN THE TRUE AND NOT THE FALSE POSING AS THE TRUE. Again, the difference between falsehood and deception is that falsehood is 99% lie and 1% truth while deception is 99% truth and 1% lie!

How then does one know there is poison in the food when it is hidden in food that looks so good and not only looks good, but IS good? How does one know he is not in fact refusing a genuine and necessary good plate of food from the Lord and thereby damning himself? I have already mentioned that the Lord kept us, giving us a witness, confirmations, discernment and Scriptural guidance. If one has spent his time in the Scriptures instead of in the words of men, no matter how famous or popular or learned or impressive they may be, that one will be quite surprised to discover how much error is out there mixed with truth and how these learned men with all their titles and degrees are in much darkness, presuming to lead others into the light, and that in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, the Lord must reveal the Scriptures.>

Furthermore, I have learned that appearance-wise, good and evil, truth and error can be identical, that there is no possible way of knowing the difference by ourselves, that it takes the grace of God to open our eyes, to understand, to be delivered from deception. Satan can and often does indeed come as an angel of light, not of darkness; as a preacher of the gospel, not of falsehood; as a good and not an evil man.

Yes, he comes as a man, through a man, even as the Lord comes as and through a man. In fact, Satan savours the things that are of man and will surely please those who are not crucified unto the world and the world unto themselves, who are in the flesh and not in the Spirit. Jesus comes in a man today, presently, but He comes with a call to death, to self-denial for His sake. Will you discern which is which? Only by the grace and mercy of God. Put your trust in Him. We are not our own saviours.

Victor Hafichuk