How deception finds a narrative in our life story

by | Posted April 19th at 10:24pm

“How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him!” (1 Kings 18:21)

Over the years, I have been amazed at how people will defend their faith, even if a belief/doctrine is not lining up with scripture.

Where doubt persists, one must be mindfully honest to allow the Holy Spirit sway to open up potential myopic misperceptions to see if any persistent conformity to a group has forged a mind-trap, keeping one stuck in an erroneous loop. With our Lord’s guidance and power, we can be delivered from false opinions, learn from the pain and move out of a false cultic paradigm, if it condones a teaching that has a harmful consequence (moral, intellectual, psychological or physical harm); especially if it hinders knowing Christ as our High Priest in a sanctifying, trusting relationship.

Intellectually, individual ethical freedom can exist only in truth outside of any collective mindset bound to deception. Once truth dawns, act vigorously to escape misconceived views of scriptural truth. Avoid creating a narrative as a defender of an errant faith. If you belong to and support a group with apparent false doctrine, you may find yourself narrativising that meaning into your existence.

We are told very clearly by Jesus that we can ask the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth. We should never solely rely on a religious stack of doctrine without fully asking the Lord to confirm scriptural dogma.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:13)

If your life story continues to corrupt with the leaven of injustice due to influencing deception within any religious paradigm, ask five questions:

  1. Is my faith corroborating at a leadership or laity level to cover-up a mistaken history in doctrine (which often leads causatively to a lifestyle failure)?
  2. Is my faith supportive of leadership that holds to and promulgates a false doctrine which could influence harming others, or needs the intervention of civil justice?
  3. Is anything registering as psychological pain in my intellectual life which I had hoped was aiming at honesty and transparency?
  4. Am I procrastinating by not agreeing with a revealed truth?
  5. Can I honestly support the teaching of my church to the extent I would advocate teaching it to my children/grandchildren? (see Deuteronomy 6:7; 11:19)

If when a study compares scripture with scripture, reveals a false doctrine, especially in the context of the Atonement or High Priesthood of Christ, a sound mind will spiritually ascertain a shaking foundation constructed with rotted-out pillars of deception (1 Corinthians 3:12-14).

One must pivot to the primary Truth.

That means for some who have taught others, evangelised an entire set of beliefs in a family or taught or preached in more extensive fields of doctrinal influence inclusive of false doctrine, a radical personal reformation must occur. Pastoral and professorial careers—if resting on a false premise – must address their mistake. Ask: Do I hide or conjoin with the error of the group? Do I rise above my ego built on a collective narrative for many years? For some faiths, a doctrinal error has prevailed for centuries, and such reformation will take a will sanctified unto the Lord’s glory.

When faced, necessarily, with a shifting intellectual paradigm, where psychological, familial, and regulated faith habits are well-established, which could fall apart, then what’s next? Though worrying, it needn’t be terrifying! (Proverbs 3:6 NLT) You can find courage in Christ to think things through and act. For others, I think in terms of our Lord’s patience and grace because each of us as a repentant sinner is in need of mercy and redemption.

Demonstrate Grace, though you reject biblical error.

I understand that most churches have one or two doctrinal discrepancies that seem to be either ambiguous or questionable, perhaps not erroneous. In many such cases, we may not know the absolute truth if it is not clear, or there are two or more views. Insofar as you can hold your view academically speaking, and not be viewed as an insurgent, and can happily enjoy your congregation, praising the Lord with them, and if as a teacher you can teach comparative doctrine therein with other academically-minded brothers and sisters, then you may be able to freely and comfortably worship in this context.

However, to obstinately stand against a revealed truth (regarding clearly presented Christian truth) for any period is not merely spiritual procrastination. It is beyond an inner psychological struggle of loyalty that generally sincere people may exhibit but may not be held responsible before the Lord. There are many that compromise a doctrinal truth, though quietly disagree among the like-minded, for fear of dividing the flock. For leaders, in some cases, there may be fear of losing a pension, or later in life’s journey, ruining many good memories of working with beloved friends in the ministry, while teaching the best lessons of the gospel to the beloved laity. Personal decisions understandably must be made as you rely on the Lord to lead for the higher good.

To the simpler folk, superceding love trumps doctrine equating to personal inter-relating love to one another, with whom one has travelled on their spiritual journey. For example, I have met several people within the Catholic church who are offended by the news of priests cultically molesting children and women as if it was an ordained right. Yet they are deeply narrativised amidst their church congregation. In these cases, I need to understand the parable of the wheat and the tares that Jesus taught realizing there are very innocent people who love the Lord and will remain stuck in a faith they have been traditionally bound to over the years. We are told by Jesus that the righteous in this context will be saved by the angles at his second advent. (Matthew 13:36-43).

I know many people who worship and love Christ our mutual Lord, who do not care to or are unenabled to venture into any in-depth theological comparison backed by the Bible. There may be a lack of personal devotion, or they are not reading the Word of God through year by year, or it is not their calling to discern scriptural absolutes. For these folks, I relax in the grace that our Lord provides for those misled into a scriptural error by the leadership of their congregation, insofar as the fly in the ointment remains a stench. Such a failure to speak to or correct the problem if possible is wrong to a gifted, reasoning mind.

I usually do not get involved in commenting on a specific religion unless it has affected my family directly, or the doctrine is seriously flawed to the extent it borders on societal injustice. As far as the Catholic priests as mentioned above, active congregants agree: priests should be allowed to marry, because marriage is never prohibited by the Word of God, except in random cases such as Jeremiah whom God called to begin to rebuke the evils of Israel and was directly told not to marry. Paul chose to remain unmarried as he shifted many away from the old covenant mindset to the new in Christ.

Many U.S. Catholics say they want to see the church make significant changes. For example, six-in-ten say they think the church should allow priests to marry and allow women to become priests. 1

God knows our thoughts even before we speak. I know a devout and dutiful Catholic woman who we met walking in the park. We chat often, and I sense her sincerity and love for the Lord. I know she is in Christ. I call her sister. She comes to pray in the park and ask the Lord to help her through many problems, including asking for comforting solace for an ailing lonely Catholic priest whom she visits regularly in the hospital. Add to this; she personally helps the shut-ins and poor where she can. I gently asked her about the news of the priests harming innocent children and women, as they took advantage of their assumed power over them. Then the narrative changed to complete disgust, and horror as she was quite aware of the harm done to others (ruined lives, suicides etc.). Yet I did not push my agenda for truth based on scripture alone, because she herself noted that in her mind, priests should be allowed to marry. She further noted that she has spoken up at church and to others, and made enemies, which to me should be a serious discomforting alarm: that you are being viewed as an insurgent, standing against, yes, in this case, a doctrinal causative to a great degree of sexual promiscuity — often a direct precursor to sexual frustration causing physical abuses within the church. Sexual frustration has caused serial and mass murders — killing sprees — it’s that serious!

My view is that where harm is being done where the law of the land should or does firmly act when harm is done to others, we need to hear God’s view on the need for justice. Moreover, we need to use this as a pivoting inner conviction of the Holy Spirit to part ways, to walk away from the continuum of dogma that is to a great degree causing the problem:

No one calls for justice; no one pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies; they conceive trouble and give birth to evil. (Isaiah 59:4-5 NIV)

When you see and personally acknowledge harmful error.

There is no fix in aligning the conscience with a mix of false prophecy, false priesthoods, or blatant lying, which is to place yourself at enmity with any Spirit-directed, revealed scriptural teaching.

If we presently promulgate known error, within an old failed doctrinal construct, when our will chooses to stay and justify a mistake, then self-deception whether consciously or subconsciously is admittedly our preferred story.

People are creatures of habit, and they do what they enjoy, and then justify and reinforce narratives of disobedience into faith-life accounts. God disciplines such folly in many ways. Procrastinating in error as perseverant self-discipline after the facts are in, is a sin. Opinions energised by the lusts of cultic egotism, hedonism, and paganism which defy the revealed will of God’s truth found in scripture alone, must be deconstructed, lest we hobble with the masses aboard a hell-bound train to judgement (Isaiah 3:9-10; 11).

Decca Records, Cover of Savoy Brown’s Hellbound Train

1 7 facts about American Catholics | Pew Research Center, Sept 4, 2018

Compliment this article with The Holy Spirit reveals the Truth of the Gospel.

Article posted by Glen R. Jackman, founder of GraceProclaimed.org

Glen has optimized his eldership role to teach the full scope of the New Covenant of Jesus Christ without boundaries.
You can read his testimony.