A Bible study poster featuring Simon Brown studying the Scriptures, exploring the serious questions surrounding Christian deception, denominational divisions, and the importance of testing every belief against God's Word to discover the One True God and the true Christ.
HOW DOES A FALSE GOD AND A FALSE CHRIST HEAR AND SAVE?
A Biblical Examination of Christian Deception, the One True God and the One True Christ
THE DEVIL DECEIVES THE WHOLE WORLD
The Bible gives us an extraordinary warning in Revelation 12:9:
“And the great dragon was thrown out, the ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, deceiving the whole inhabited world.”
Think carefully about those words: “DECEIVING THE WHOLE INHABITED WORLD.”
Does Christianity somehow stand completely outside this warning? Can Christians also be deceived?
Jesus gives us a very serious warning in Matthew 24:24:
“For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.”
Notice those words: “EVEN THE ELECT.”
Therefore, no Christian should ever simply assume: “I am a Christian, therefore I cannot possibly be deceived.”
Jesus Himself warned us about religious deception. In fact, His warning tells us that deception can become so powerful that even those who consider themselves God's people must remain watchful.
This is why every Christian—including me—should continually examine what we believe against the Word of God.
CHRISTIANITY TODAY IS ENORMOUSLY DIVIDED
Look at Christianity throughout the world today.
There are tens of thousands of Christian denominations and rites when counted globally. We should be fair about what this statistic means: it does not mean that there are tens of thousands of completely different theological systems, because many denominations are divided geographically, organizationally or administratively.
Nevertheless, the central fact remains undeniable: Christianity is enormously divided.
Christian churches and denominations disagree about some of the most important questions imaginable:
Who is God? Who is Jesus Christ? What is the Holy Spirit? What is salvation? What happens when we die? What is hell? What is baptism? What is the Gospel? Did Jesus personally exist before His birth? Did Jesus create the universe? Is Jesus Almighty God? Is Jesus Michael the archangel? Is God one person or three persons? Is the Father the Son?
These teachings cannot all be correct where they directly contradict one another.
If one denomination says God is three persons and another says God is not three persons, both statements cannot be true in the same sense.
If one group says Jesus is Almighty God and another says Jesus is not Almighty God, both cannot be correct.
If one group says Jesus existed before His birth as Michael the archangel while another rejects this completely, both cannot be correct.
So we must seriously ask:
COULD THE ENEMY HAVE SUCCEEDED IN BRINGING ENORMOUS DECEPTION AND CONFUSION EVEN INTO CHRISTIANITY?
Could Revelation 12:9 apply much more widely than many Christians would like to believe?
If Satan is described as “deceiving the whole inhabited world,” surely Christians should not automatically assume that they are completely immune from deception.
THREE VERY DIFFERENT CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS
Consider just three well-known Christian traditions.
Traditional Trinitarian Christianity teaches that there is one God existing as three distinct persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Oneness Pentecostalism rejects the traditional three-person Trinity and understands the Father, Son and Holy Spirit differently, generally identifying them as manifestations of the one God rather than three distinct divine persons.
Jehovah's Witnesses reject the Trinity and distinguish Jesus from Almighty God, but teach that Jesus existed before His human life as Michael the archangel.
These teachings cannot all be correct where they contradict one another.
This demonstrates something extremely important:
SINCERITY DOES NOT GUARANTEE TRUTH.
There can be sincere, loving and devoted people within completely different denominations who nevertheless hold contradictory beliefs.
A person can sincerely believe something with all their heart and still be mistaken.
Therefore, our final authority cannot simply be:
“My church teaches it.”
“My pastor told me.”
“My parents believed it.”
“My denomination has always taught it.”
“Millions of Christians believe it.”
“This is what Christians have believed for centuries.”
Our question must always be:
WHAT DOES THE WORD OF GOD ACTUALLY TEACH?
ONLY ONE CONTRADICTORY TEACHING CAN BE TRUE
This is something we cannot escape simply by saying that every denomination is Christian.
Where two teachings directly contradict each other, they cannot both be true.
Of course, different denominations can agree about many things. They may all contain sincere believers, and they may share many biblical teachings.
But if they teach contradictory things concerning the identity of God and Christ, those contradictory teachings cannot all represent the one truth.
This raises a very serious question:
IS THERE REALLY ONE TRUE FAITH?
The New Testament speaks of “one faith” (Ephesians 4:5), and Jesus prayed that His followers would be one.
Yet today Christianity is divided into countless organizations, traditions and theological systems.
Surely this should make us humble rather than confident.
Instead of automatically assuming, “My denomination must be right,” perhaps every one of us should ask:
“Could I have been deceived?”
That is a question I have had to ask myself.
I KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE DECEIVED
I am not writing this article as somebody looking down upon Trinitarians or Christians belonging to other denominations.
I was deceived myself.
For approximately TEN YEARS I believed in the Trinity.
I sincerely believed it was true.
I did not wake up every morning thinking I was following a false doctrine. I believed I was following biblical Christianity.
But when I was eventually shown biblical evidence challenging the Trinity, something happened very quickly.
My eyes were opened to questions and Scriptures that I had never properly considered.
Instead of simply asking, “What does the Trinity teach?” I began asking a much more important question:
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE ITSELF ACTUALLY SAY?
Once I began examining the evidence in that way, I became convinced that the Trinity was not what Jesus and His apostles taught.
However, not everything changed immediately.
Other beliefs took considerably longer for me to reconsider.
For example, it took me several years of further study before I became convinced that Jesus did not personally exist as a pre-human divine or angelic being before His miraculous conception and birth.
This taught me something extremely important:
IT CAN BE VERY DIFFICULT TO ADMIT, “I WAS WRONG.”
COULD PRIDE KEEP CHRISTIANS DECEIVED?
Sometimes we have believed something for ten, twenty, thirty, forty or even fifty years.
Our family believes it. Our friends believe it. Our church believes it. Our pastor preaches it. Our favourite theologians defend it. Perhaps generations of our family have believed it.
Eventually those beliefs can become part of our identity.
Then somebody presents biblical evidence against them.
What happens?
Unfortunately, sometimes instead of opening the Bible and carefully examining the evidence, the immediate response is:
“HERETIC!”
But calling somebody a heretic does not prove that their biblical argument is wrong.
This raises another uncomfortable question:
COULD PRIDE PREVENT CHRISTIANS FROM ADMITTING THAT THEY HAVE BEEN DECEIVED?
Nobody enjoys saying: “I was wrong.”
It can be even harder for a pastor, preacher or Bible teacher to say: “I have taught thousands of people something that I now believe was incorrect.”
But surely truth must matter more than our pride, reputation, denomination or previous teaching.
If Scripture proves me wrong tomorrow, then I must change.
SCRIPTURE MUST NOT CHANGE TO ACCOMMODATE ME.
Our attitude should be:
If I am wrong, show me from Scripture.
If you are wrong, allow Scripture to show you.
If we are both wrong, may God correct us both.
We should never be afraid of biblical evidence.
Truth has nothing to fear from investigation.
DO NOT SIMPLY BELIEVE ME
And I want to make something very clear before continuing this study.
I am not asking anyone simply to believe Simon Brown.
TEST WHAT I SAY.
Search the Scriptures.
Check the context.
Compare translations.
Examine the original Hebrew and Greek where necessary.
Test your pastor.
Test your denomination.
Test your favourite theologian.
Test my research.
And most importantly:
TEST YOUR OWN BELIEFS.
Because I know from personal experience that it is entirely possible to sincerely believe something for years and later become convinced from Scripture that you were wrong.
That realization should not produce pride.
It should produce humility.
And it should make every one of us determined to discover:
WHO IS THE ONE TRUE GOD?
AND WHO IS THE TRUE CHRIST WHOM HE SENT?
