There is a story that was written a long time ago called The Hidden Hand.

In that story was a criminal named Black Donald. The story is full of interesting twists and turns but, suffice it to say, a few of Black Donald’s sidekicks ended up in jail. That is the setting.

The girl and her motherly chaperone went to the fair. There they found the revival tent of Reverend Grey. Reverend Grey was thin and frail and elderly. The chaperone was drawn to him from the start. Not in a romantic way but as to someone who was solid in the faith; as someone who spoke the truth with charisma. And spoke the truth of God’s Word he did.

The idea was put forth that he visit the town prisoners. They’d been there for several months now and they were as hardened as ever.

Reverend Grey was frightened and refused, at first. But, eventually, he worked up his courage and said he would go.

The day after he went, the prisoners escaped.

How do you think that happened?

It happened because the very “biblical”, self-effacing man called Reverend Grey was not a reverend at all but was, rather, Black Donald himself. He had starved himself until he looked just a shadow of himself and then he had carefully put a very convincing costume together, along with the right expressions and knowing the right words.

He did what he needed to do to reach his goal. And his goal was to get his friends out of prison. It worked just as he had hoped.

This is a story. Written in the dramatic, Victorian style, it is a bit far-fetched, at that (although a fun read, for sure!) But I cannot help but think of how many “Black Donalds” we have in our midst today.

People pretending to be something they are not. People with selfish goals of money and power (to name a couple) who will do anything to get them. There are other goals. Goals much more nefarious as there are those who are working to bring in the antichrist system and fully know what they are doing.

What is happening in Christianity today is a critical component of this deception. You cannot have a religion that is based on the Bible if you want to bring in the one world religion. You have to get people’s eyes off the Bible and on to their experiences (mysticism).

Satan, called the Angel of Light for a very good reason (2 Corinthians 11:14) has devised very subtle, very devious ways to work his way into our minds and uproot the biblical roots planted there by godly parents, pastors, and teachers from the past.

This is mostly done through very attractive, very “humble”, very “biblical-sounding” people. People very much like Reverend Grey, who come across sincere, self-effacing, and humble.

Our only hope—truly—our ONLY HOPE, is to compare everything to Scripture. Every. Thing. We cannot make a judgment about them based on their personality, their attitudes, their niceness, their charisma and way with words…and then simply choose to trust them.

As humans, we have a tendency to do that but it is so dangerous. Especially now. Instilling Mysticism in the minds of those who call themselves Christians is absolutely critical for Satan to succeed in bringing in what we read in scripture. We know many will be deceived in the last days. That time is now. We must pay attention.

Let me give you four recent examples from my own life of this deception and how it’s coming in from all directions—

First, I started reading a novel. It is by a “Christian” author whom I have read before. As I began to read, I noticed her penchant to add special revelation (God speaking, dreams, visions) in the lives of most of her characters. She is opening the door and her readers are walking through it. Contemplating this is moving the biblical reader from basing their faith on the Bible to just beginning to consider that perhaps there is more. Oh, she uses the Bible, too. The Bible is always around in these scenarios. But the most important thing is that Jesus Himself is talking to these people and this is more important than scripture.

Second, someone recently told me about a book they are reading for research purposes. It is a wildly popular book amidst the younger generation and the whole thing turns biblical Christianity upside down on its head. It completely turns “Christianity” into a form of Mysticism. One book. But not only this book. There have been many books doing this for the past twenty or so years. Books labeled “Christian” that are anything but. I caution you about reading anything that is on trend. There is generally a reason these books have made it to the bestseller list.

Third, there was recently a “Worship Night” on American Idol. I could probably write a whole post on this alone and I actually thought about it but I didn’t have the time to do the research that needed to be done for it. Suffice it to say, that at least three of the performers in that concert have been researched by myself in the past and they are not biblical in any way. They have wonderful voices and they may sing an occasional biblical song, but their lives are unholy and they embrace the world and its ways while claiming to follow Christ, something that we clearly cannot do, according to scripture. They remove people’s eyes from the Bible by living lives that give no heed to what it says whatsoever. And, yet, many Christians are declaring that we are having a REVIVAL. No, we are not. What we are having is an explosion of a false religion called by the name of Christianity that is moving people from the Bible into mysticism.

And, fourth, and finally, I think I’ve mentioned this before but there is this belief pervading the minds of so many now that we can’t really trust the Word of God. That we can decide how to interpret it. And the way I interpret it might be different than how you interpret it. Do you see how this, too, is instrumental in moving people from believing in the absolute Word of God to trusting in their own subjective thoughts about the Word of God?

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Oh, I personally find the “Christianity” of today terrifying on so many levels. It’s chaotic. It’s confusing. How do you even share the Gospel in the midst of such deception and falsehood?

But God…

It’s not up to us to convince people to see the truth. It’s not up to us to change their minds. We just need to keep living our lives and speaking the truth, planting seeds as we get opportunity.

And we need to pray. Pray that God would keep us from deception in the midst of this tsunami of deception that is all around us everywhere. We need to pray for wisdom and discernment as we navigate all of this. And we need to know our Bibles.

Our only hope to survive all of this is through humble prayer and studying the Bible with a heart willing to submit and obey what it says, through the help of the Holy Spirit.

I may sound like a broken record, but I believe that with my whole heart and it’s the main reason why I am still here on this blog writing today.

On our own, we will be vulnerable to deception. But with God and with His Word, we will be equipped to travel through this modern-day “Christianity” and see the lies for what they are.

Stay strong, my friends, and don’t get discouraged. We are not alone, for God has promised to walk with us through this challenging time of history. And, one of these days, Jesus will return for us just as He promised and the battle will be over forever. Oh, I hope that day comes soon!

Last week I eyed my little seedlings sadly. I knew that I would have to thin them out in order for them to grow. That always makes me sad because it means choosing just one and ending the lives of the others.

I know they are just plants and they have no feelings and this is the way of life, but—for whatever reason—I always find this difficult.

But I knew that if any of them were going to have a chance at survival it had to be done. And so I grabbed by tiny yarn scissors and surveyed my seedlings. I picked the healthiest plant that resided closest to the center of the little jiffy pot and then either cut off or pulled the rest from around it.

If I would leave them there they would have all struggled together to get whatever water and nutrients were available and there’s only enough for one plant.

I will have to do the same thing when it’s time to garden outside. As anyone who gardens knows—we must thin our seedlings if we are going to grow healthy plants.

Perhaps this is something to remember for ourselves, as well. It is hard to have a productive, spiritually healthy life when we are trying to keep too many plates spinning in the air. We just don’t have the resources to do everything well.

I remember there was a point when I was a young mom that I had to acknowledge this. I was super involved at church, I was homeschooling my children, and I was doing all the bookwork for our landscaping company. I ended up doing nothing well and I finally had to admit that something had to go.

That was a really hard moment because I truly loved everything that I was doing and didn’t want to stop any of them. But, finally, I evaluated my priorities and I knew I had to cut something out.

My priorities had to be first my husband and my children and so I chose one or two things at church to stay involved in and I pulled out of the rest. I know now that this was the right thing to do; that that was just a short season (too short!) of my life and not a permanent way of living.

I can’t say I never got to that point again of trying to keep “too many plates spinning”, but I do recognize more quickly now the need to evaluate my priorities when life feels overwhelming.

Of course, there are some stages in life that are simply overwhelming, just by their very nature. In these times we find that our priorities outweigh our resources. And so we pray to the Lord for strength to get through because there are no changes that can be made. Thankfully, these times generally do not last forever.

Another piece of this, too, is that we can sometimes prioritize things that aren’t really priorities. That is a such a temptation for us all. Especially since the world tells us we can have it all.

But that’s simply not true.

We cannot have it all and we cannot do it all and something will truly suffer if we try to. It is important that we thoughtfully make choices about our time, rather than saying yes to every opportunity that comes along.

Paul gives us some counsel about this—

See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16)

Walking “circumspectly” means to walk in a careful and prudent way; to walk in such a way that wisely considers the ramifications of our choices.

It is so very easy to just fall into a busy way of life. We believe this is right and good. But is it?

It’s probably also important to add here: Determining our priorities must be determined by God’s priorities. What are His priorities for us? This is where we must begin. This is not about what we want but what He wants; and it’s not about what will make us feel happy or “fulfilled” but it’s instead about doing our Father’s will. What does He call us to do with our time?

If we do not have time for prayer and Bible study, we are too busy and we need to carefully examine our priorities. It’s not easy but it can be done, both for God’s glory and for our own personal peace.

May we all choose to walk circumspectly as we pray for wisdom to choose what is the BEST among the many good things we choose from each day.

We all have idols. You. Me. Your friend at church. Your neighbor. Your parents. Your kids. All of us.

Most of the time we do not really think about this. I’d say a majority of the time we aren’t even aware of these idols.

But they change everything.

What is an idol?

The best definition of an idol for a believer is that it is something that takes the place of God in our hearts; it’s something that becomes more important than God to us.

There are many idols. Things we may have not ever considered as idols: Children, family, friends, personal health and fitness, education, reputation, science (so-called), love for the things of this world, popularity, money, pride, celebrities, professionals (therapists, counselors, life coaches, etc.)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the importance of biblical interpretation. I mentioned I would write a second post as to why I believe people are being so loosey-goosey with their approach to scripture. I’ve been reflecting on this much over the past month or so. Before I even wrote the first post.

I think this is the answer: Idols.

Let me give a few examples—

—A parent says they believe in the historical interpretation of the Word of God and teaches their child this very thing. But this child grows up to choose a different lifestyle. A lifestyle that the Bible clearly deems as sinful. At this point, the parent has a choice to make. Will they continue to stand on their belief in the historical understanding of scripture or will they believe that all Christians throughout history got the whole thing all wrong and go with a “new”, liberal, twisted interpretation of these clear scriptural passages?

Many parents have decided to go with the thing that is less painful (i.e. it isn’t sin and it doesn’t matter) rather than to believe the truth as it is stated in God’s Word. With a little twisting here and there by a celebrity pastor or author, combined with the belief that there can be more than one interpretation and that none of us can really know, well, you can see where it can land you.

This person’s idol is their child. And they have clearly chosen which is most important to them in this scenario.

—Worldly Science declares a lot of things about this world. Things that go clearly against the Word of God. But to believe differently than what the world believes in this area is to be viewed as unintellectual and even stupid. And so many will try to combine the truth of God’s Word with what the world teaches. Or they will just believe what the world teaches, ignoring clear scriptures that say something completely different.

This person’s idol is science.

—A person wants to live like the world. They want to watch what the world watches; listen to what the world listens to; dress like the world dresses; and talk like the world talks. But, in order to do this, one must reject the traditional understanding of worldliness. And so this “you can interpret the Bible in any old way” comes in handy, yes? Suddenly, “remove obscene talk from your mouth” doesn’t mean foul language but it can mean something totally unrelated. Modesty can be talked around; filthy entertainment is “never spoken of” in scripture, etc etc. This person loves the world and wants what they want and will twist scripture in whatever way they want.

This person’s idol is the things of this world.

—A person is struggling to find their way in life. For whatever reason. Something has them upset and they decide to seek counsel. And so they find a “Christian” Counselor. This counselor, as most of them do, tries to marry modern psychology with the Bible by taking verses out of context and twisting scripture. But because these two things cannot be combined, as they are at complete odds with one another, this counselor leads them away from the Bible and towards worldly thinking. At this point, if the person stays with that counselor, they are idolizing their counselor or perhaps the wisdom of the world. They are, in essence, saying they believe this counselor and their worldly ideas will help them more than God’s Word.

This person’s idol is a professional.

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There are so many more examples we could list. It seems there are as many idols as there are people.

But I guess what I’ve been mostly thinking about is this: What is MY idol?

I am not immune from this approach to scripture. What do I hold so dear that it colors my interpretation of scripture? What verses do I conveniently ignore because I don’t want to obey them.

What are the things that “ruffle my feathers” when they come up in a discussion about the Bible and what it teaches, simply because I am unwilling to relinquish my grip on it or to move towards change?

Mark Twain once said this: “It ain’t the parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.”

I don’t believe Twain was a Christian, but he puts into words the plain old truth of the matter for us all, doesn’t he?

Because, at the end of the day, we can understand so much. But we don’t always like what we read in the Bible. And we certainly don’t always want to obey what it says.

And so to claim that interpretation is up for grabs and that the Bible can be interpreted any old way really works for us. It releases us from the obedience God calls for. Because we all get to decide what we need to obey. What you need to obey may not be what I need to obey.

It sounds so silly. And that’s because it is. And yet this is the “intellectual” thinking that is out there. Man thinks he can determine what is true for HIM. There are no absolutes.

We saw this kind of thinking coming years ago—no absolute truth— and now this has even weaved its way into the way church-goers think—even those who would consider themselves “evangelical Christians”.

Idols blind us so fully that we can’t even see that we have relinquished the absolute truth of scripture so that we can keep our hold on our precious idol.

I believe the first step to change is prayer. Let’s pray that God will show us what we are idolizing over and above Him and His Word. Let’s pray for humility and a willingness to SEE. Yes, it’s a painful process but spiritual growth often is painful. May we not let that stop us.

Oh, that we may cast aside our idols and believe scripture for what it simply says.

No, this is NOT easy to do. But it is So VERY CRITICAL. It always has been but perhaps never more so than in the midst of this confusing, chaotic “Christianity” we find ourselves living in.

I grew up in the era of The Waltons. And, in fact, ended up living near the real “Walton’s Mountain” in Virginia for a short period of my life as Earl Hamner, the creator of the show, was from a town near where we lived. His series about his growing up years that took place there in the 1930s was quite popular back in the 70s. The Waltons was viewed as a wholesome show the whole family could watch together. And I guess, overall, it was that.

Last night I came into our bedroom to find my husband watching an old episode of The Waltons to wind down a bit before sleeping. On the TV was Grandma helping her grandson, John Boy, learn how to preach. He had been asked to fill in for the preacher and was quite nervous about it. Grandma was pounding her fist and taking the hellfire and brimstone passages and speaking them in a loud, angry voice. Of course, you can imagine how Hollywood handled that. And you would be right.

In the next scene, John Boy is on a mountain and his Grandpa comes up to him and starts talking about how Grandma has her own style of religion but he worships God in “his own fashion”. He and God have an “understanding.” As he continued to talk about his god, it was quite easy to tell he wasn’t talking about the One True God of the Bible. He not only worshipped in his own fashion but he worshiped a god he had fashioned on his own.

In the final scene we watched, we find John Boy in his room at his desk, surrounded by several big books, presumably commentaries. He is frustrated about this sermon he is supposed to preach. His father walks in and gives him counsel: “Just stop listening to everyone around you and put those books away and look inside you. What do you want?”

As we turned it off, John Boy was listening to his father and doing just that.

I found that fifteen minutes rather fascinating. For it was a foretelling of what most professing Christians would believe fifty years later.

Most professing Christians ignore or even despise sermons that speak the plain truth of the Word—particularly the unpleasant truths, such as sin and hell (like they ignored/wrote off Grandma Walton).

They fashion an idol of their own making that suits their own desires and call it “God” (like Grandpa Walton shared). But this isn’t God. The Bible is either true or it isn’t. And if the Bible is true, then God has quite a bit to say about Himself and we’d better pay attention.

And most professing Christians these days—even preachers— look in their own hearts for ideas and to other men for counsel without any consideration for what the Bible has to say at all (like John Boy).

Fifty-plus years ago, Hollywood was already spewing out garbage about God and His Word. And we ignored it. We rationalized it away. We just thought it was a nice show “except for…”.

If we look back, we can see this dynamic with a number of TV shows. They very deliberately shift the beliefs and morality of the culture.

The Waltons normalized not only a wrong view of the Word but also normalized women as the spiritual leaders of the household instead of men; The Cosby Show normalized career-oriented moms (purporting the lie that you can have it all and nothing will suffer); Three’s Company normalized adults living together outside of marriage and opened the door for homosexuality; Murphy Brown normalized babies out of wedlock; Love Boat normalized infidelity; Star Wars normalized new age philosophy, and Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Harry Potter normalized witchcraft and sorcery.

There are so many other examples. All these years later, these things aren’t only accepted by the world, many of them are even accepted by many Christians.

It’s actually pretty amazing how Hollywood has wormed its way into our homes and minds through that box that sits in our family rooms.

I am not saying don’t watch TV. That’s between you and the Lord. I still watch some. But perhaps we need to pay closer attention to what is being suggested to our brains through this medium. We like to turn off our brains when we watch TV but I am realizing more and more that we just can’t do this. Entertainment (even if it’s labeled “Christian”) is never just entertainment and we need to be vigilant and watchful, understanding that entertainment is one of Satan’s greatest tools in shifting a culture a specific direction.

I was planning to write the sequel to last week’s post this week, but I’ll try to do that next week. This was fresh in my mind and seemed more important for this week.

Oh, that we may remember that we have an enemy that seeks to devour us and he will use all methods and means to do so. Let us be sober and vigilant…even when—perhaps especially when—we are watching TV.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. (I Peter 5:8)