I just finished the book, Operation Mincemeat, by Ben Macintyre, which is about an incident in World War II where the British totally deceived the Germans as to the invasion of Sicily. Macintyre had a very interesting observation about deception, which I think is just as appropriate for discussing false teachings.
"Deception is a sort of seduction. In love and war, adultery and espionage, deceit can only succeed if the deceived party is willing, in some way, to be deceived."
And, as I have mentioned before, once people are deceived they will often remain deceived due to their investment in whatever it is they are following - "deception by investment." People who want to be deceived are often hard nuts to crack with the truth. But we must keep trying to do so, nevertheless.
The LORD told Ezekiel:
ReplyDelete"...you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious people."
Yet - we do not read where our LORD told Ezekiel - enough, remain silent. We too are called to sound the alarm and like Ezekiel we must leave the results with God.
So true that it can be applied to false teachings.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, I let myself be made silent about lies that I saw. But then I decided, "no more!"
It is as Watchman said.