The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 2 – 4
In 2 Corinthians 11:3 Paul expresses a great fear for his converts being deceived by a false religion. What was that fear exactly? That Christianity would be overwhelmed by Baal-worship? That they would be deceived by Bacchus or Apollo? What was his fear? 2 Corinthians 11:4. There is a clear difference between worshiping Satan and worshiping Jesus. And once in the church they were very unlikely to be led away into something so obviously pagan and evil. But Paul’s concern was “what if Satan changes his name and PRETENDS to be Jesus!”
He feared they would be seduced by a counterfeit religion – one that worshiped the name of JESUS! One that had its own “holy” spirit, and its own GOSPEL! From a distance, it would look the same. It would use words like love, faith, holiness, praise, worship, God, and hallelujah. But the “Jesus” at the head of this religion would be a DIFFERENT Jesus – a FALSE Jesus – an IMPOSTOR!His fear was a subtly different religion – one that was ALMOST like what Paul preached… but not quite! He knew most people were clever enough to recognize and avoid open idolatry. But were they clever enough to recognize a false God called Jesus? Matthew 24:24.
I want you to slow down and think about this. These false Christs, false prophets, will be SO CONVINCING that they might almost deceive the truest Christians! This is serious, because it means that unless YOU are smarter than the “very elect”, you might be deceived right now! How would you know? A deceived man, by definition, doesn’t KNOW he’s deceived! In fact, the more deceived he is, the more CERTAIN he is that he knows the truth! 1 Corinthians 8:2. What should you do? 1 Corinthians 10:12.
RECOGNIZING THE COUNTERFEIT
If you suspected a $50 bill was counterfeit, how could you PROVE it? What would you do? You’d compare it to the original! You’d put it side-by-side with a bill you KNOW is real, and see if they match in every detail! You know the counterfeit will look mostly like the real thing! Who would be deceived by a bill with Daffy Duck on it? Or a napkin with $50 written on it? No, it will look a LOT like the real thing – but the details will be wrong! The details that are hard to imitate and which most people won’t bother to inspect! So since this is how someone would look at a possibly-counterfeit bill, why don’t they look at their possibly-counterfeit Jesus with the same detailed inspection? If you wouldn’t gamble on a $50 bill, why would you risk your salvation on a questionable savior? Especially when all you have to do to be sure is hold Him up against the Light!
So how do you know that the being you pray to isn’t the false Christ? How do you know that YOUR church isn’t a false church, with a false gospel? By comparing it to what the Bible teaches! Here is a quick quiz you can take… Most churches believe Jesus destroyed the law; the true gospel says… Matthew 5:17. Most churches teach that David is up in heaven right now. But the true gospel says… Acts 2:34. Most if not all churches believe we can’t know God’s will. But the true gospel says… Ephesians 5:17. Most teach that ALL the righteous dead are in heaven. But the true gospel says… John 3:13. Most churches teach that God loves everyone, even sinners. But the true gospel says… Psalms 11:5. Most believe He spoke in parables to make it easier to understand. The true gospel says… Mark 4:11-12.
These are just a few of the smallest examples which show there is a blatant contrast between the religion you’ve probably always known and the religion of the Bible; between the gospel you’ve heard, and the gospel Jesus BROUGHT!
SATAN’S GOSPEL
Do ministers for this counterfeit church appear as ministers for Christ? 2 Corinthians 11:13. When people are deceived away from the true church, what are they led away into? 1 Timothy 4:1-2. How can they be led into doctrines of devils? Doesn’t Satan have a pitchfork and horns and appear all red and everything? 2 Corinthians 11:14. So how does his counterfeit religion appear – holy and clean, or evil and insidious? Do its ministers seem to be sincere, and teach good things? 2 Corinthians 11:15. Get that! Satan appears as an angel of LIGHT, not as a pitchfork-toting devil! And he is a master of deception! The whole point of deception is to DECEIVE you – and no one is deceived by a devil that LOOKS like a devil! How many people would be deceived by Satan walking up to them and saying “Hey! I hate God! Let’s go sin so we can go burn in hell for eternity!”
Seriously! Who would be deceived by that? At best, one or two mentally challenged people. But is it just one or two who will be deceived? Matthew 24:4-5, 11. But do these false prophets led by the devil speak GOOD words? Romans 16:18. The devil’s greatest successful deception is convincing the world that he appears like a devil! But God told us the truth – the devil is beautiful and eloquent! (Ezekiel 28:12-15, Genesis 3:1). So the deception won’t be easy to spot. Satan won’t try to deceive you into following a church called “the Church of Satan”!
It will be a deception, so of course it will be called “the church of God” or “the church of Christ” or “the church of the true, full, complete, pure, saintly apostolic gospel”! His ministers won’t be witch doctors preaching sin is good – what kind of a deception is that? His ministers will be sober, loving, respectable, compassionate “ministers of righteousness”! They will preach “sure, sin is bad… but nobody’s perfect! All that matters is that you LOVE everyone!” And this false church won’t worship a serpent, or a golden calf, or a fallen angel – they will worship JESUS. And when they describe that Jesus to you, you’ll hear the same story you see in the Bible! He was born in Bethlehem, was chased by Herod and the Pharisees, died on a cross, and was resurrected. But if you pay VERY close attention to the details, you’ll see small things about “Jesus” that aren’t quite right.
It will be little things – just as it would be little things wrong with the $50 bill. Things like how their Jesus never judged anyone (John 5:30). You’ll notice their Jesus never got angry, never was insensitive at funerals, never refused to help the needy, never called people names, and many other things that the Jesus you’ve studied in the Bible actually DID! And that’s because their Jesus – the Jesus you probably were raised to believe in – is in fact that OTHER Jesus Paul warned you about! That is a shocking, unnerving, unbelievable statement – but why else would the Jesus you’ve heard about be SO different from the one in the Bible?
THE FALSE SPIRIT
And when these poor deceived people are supposedly “saved” and give their heart to this other Jesus, they’ll receive “another spirit” – not the holy spirit of the real Jesus, but the spirit of this false Jesus – the spirit of antichrist! That spirit may well do miracles (Revelation 13:14, Exodus 7:11), and speak to them in the name of God (1 Kings 22:22), and even give them the power to speak in tongues (1 John 4:1) – but it is not the spirit of Christ. Those are plain facts from your Bible. How can you be sure their “holy spirit” is not holy? Isaiah 8:19-20.
Regardless of how kind and wise they may appear or how they are dressed, what do such ministers teach? Lamentations 2:14. How do they handle the law, in particular? Psalms 119:126. What always stands out in this religion of iniquity that God hates so much? Zephaniah 3:4. What does Jesus say to such preachers who teach against the law of God? Matthew 5:19. But don’t they honor Jesus, and exalt Him, and pray to Him? Matthew 15:8. How did Jesus feel about that? Luke 6:46. What is the end result of hearing, but not DOING, what He says? Luke 6:49. These Pharisees who honored Him with their lips obeyed the commandments of men instead of the commandments of God; and what did Jesus say about their religion? Matthew 15:9. And what did He say about those who followed them, and were deceived by them? Matthew 15:14.
It is clear these ministers will appear in every way as the ministers of Christ would appear; they won’t be wild-eyed cannabis-sucking freaks; they’ll be straight-laced, suit-and-tie-wearing, well-educated and to all appearances ministers of righteousness – even though in reality they are ministers of the devil. In fact, by sight alone, you CANNOT tell one from another! And shocking though it is, if Jesus and Satan were to stand side-by-side in human form, YOU COULDN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE! In fact, you’d probably prefer Satan and choose him over Christ, just as Eve did – because he spins a better tale, a sweeter version of “truth”! Besides, Jesus was plain-looking (Isaiah 53:2), while Satan is unbelievably beautiful – so you’d naturally prefer him!
Likewise, you can’t distinguish his ministers or his church from the true church by how loving they appear on the outside, nor even by how many charities they have and how many good deeds they do! Satan can do good deeds too, if it serves his purposes… if it helps him to deceive the whole world!
THE MYSTERY GOSPEL
Nearly all churches today teach that “The Lord works in mysterious ways His many wonders to perform”. Most people suppose that comes from the Bible, but it doesn’t. Men made it up to explain why they didn’t understand God! It is true there are several places in the Bible where it speaks of the “mystery of God” (such as Revelation 10:7). But that mystery is NOT a mystery to those who follow God! It’s only a mystery to those who REJECT God (Mark 4:11). Did He say He would do NOTHING without telling His servants? Amos 3:7. Did He say these things were hidden – were a mystery – to the so-called wise, but revealed to babes? Matthew 11:25. Did Paul want us to be ignorant of this mystery? Romans 11:25.
Has He made KNOWN to us the “mystery” of His will? Ephesians 1:9. Did Paul “make it known”? Ephesians 6:19. Even though once hidden, has it now been revealed? Colossians 1:26. Did Paul say the mystery was now REVEALED to us, and made OBVIOUS? Romans 16:25-26. So you see that phrase is completely false. In fact, the phrase, “God works in mysterious ways” is the very essence of the false gospel – the counterfeit religion based in unknowable, secret MYSTERIES! The false Jesus works in mysterious ways, because he dare not reveal the truth about himself! But the true God works openly! John 18:20.
Jesus Himself identified that counterfeit religion, when He said those who “worshiped” Him without DOING the things Jesus said were “workers of iniquity”! God’s will is NOT a mystery! It leaps off of every page of the Bible, clearly telling us what to do and what not to do. But the false Christianity takes that clarity, that simplicity of Christ, and makes it into a MYSTERY, something we can never really understand. It does this to confuse people, so they won’t understand clear commands like “if you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15), or “no man has ascended up to heaven” (John 3:13). Was this religion alive and working in the church of God even in the time of Paul? What did he call it? 2 Thessalonians 2:7-9. Get that! It’s the mystery of iniquity! Iniquity is an archaic English word which means LAWLESSNESS!
But now read HOW the devil deceives them! 2 Thessalonians 2:10. He deceives them with unrighteousness! Not by BEING unrighteous – remember, he appears as a minister OF righteousness! (2 Corinthians 11:13-15). No, he deceives them by telling them that THEY can be unrighteous and still please God! (Romans 3:8, Malachi 2:17). This religion was created so we could be lawless without paying the price for sin! It’s a way to allow man to hurt his neighbour, and call it “love”. This has always been the devil’s favourite lie – that you can do evil, and good will come! That you can sin, and “Thou shalt not surely die!”
And it is kept as a mystery because it doesn’t make sense! It can’t! The details are kept secret, revealed only to the priests – only to people who demonstrate blind, unquestioning loyalty. Everyone else is told they must simply trust the ministry, because the flock is too stupid, too selfish, or too evil to understand! This is the mystery of iniquity! And this mystery religion only requires you to do a little penance, or put a little extra in the offering, and all is forgiven! Other churches go one step farther and tell us that grace covers ALL unrighteousness, past, present, and future, so there is nothing left to forgive whether you repent or not! But seriously… think about it! Does it make sense that Jesus nailed your obedience to the cross with Him? That because He died, you can be evil and God will love you anyway? No! But practically every Christian church in the world teaches some version of that!
FALSE CHRISTS
But did God say Christians could be lawless – iniquitous? 2 Timothy 2:19. Whoever names the name of Christ – that is, whoever calls Jesus their Lord – MUST depart from iniquity! They MUST cease their lawless ways! Yet all of today’s mainstream Christian religions teach ALL you must do to be saved is call on the name of Jesus! That by some mysterious method of grace and not being under the law, you can KEEP breaking the golden rule, keep hurting your neighbor, and IGNORE the things Christ said! They say if you merely call Him “Lord”, you’ll still be saved no matter what you DO! This is what your church probably believes, but the true Jesus will tell you to DEPART from Him if you fall for that lie! (Luke 13:23-27). The true Jesus came to save you FROM your sins, but the false Jesus promises to save you IN your sins!
Did Jesus prophesy that in the end time, OUR TIME, many false Christs would arise? Mark 13:22. And false prophets OF Christ, as well? (Same verse). Did He say MANY would come in His name, calling Him “Lord”, and deceive many? Matthew 24:4-5.
When the disciples asked Him about the end time – the time you and I live in – the very first words Jesus said were “Don’t let anyone deceive you!” because ours is a time of GREAT deception! Why? He explained why when He said that MANY shall come in Jesus’ name, saying HE IS THE CHRIST. Most people misread that verse. They assume Jesus warned us of people coming PRETENDING to be the Christ. But how many people are really deceived by sackcloth-wearing, self-styled prophets claiming to be the Messiah? A few, yes, but the MANY? And a deception so clever, that it might deceive God’s own elect?? Of course not! That verse says many shall come in Jesus’ name – that is, claiming to have His authority, calling themselves Christians, saying “Jesus is Lord!” –and deceive MANY! They would call Him their Lord and yet lead people into the false gospel, teaching them to follow a false Christ! And that IS HAPPENING TODAY!
It happens in nearly every church on every street corner in the land! They come in his name, saying “Jesus is the Christ” and deceive many! Exactly as He said they would! And it is such a powerful deception that unless people are warned about it, this false Christianity could deceive the VERY ELECT! It may have already deceived you! Because Jesus said this “mystery of lawlessness” could conceivably deceive the greatest of the apostles! So if there was a REAL DANGER that it might convince EVEN THEM the law is done away… how much of the world is likely to remain true to the faith? Luke 18:8. How much of the world has Satan deceived? Revelation 12:9.
Satan – in disguise as the “Jesus” of modern Christianity – has deceived the WHOLE WORLD. He has convinced EVERY church that grace gives us license to sin! He has convinced them the wicked are in hell and the righteous in heaven even now, even though those doctrines are the very OPPOSITE of everything the Bible teaches! And it doesn’t stop there – there is not a single doctrine that Satan hasn’t twisted to his own ends! And only those who know Jesus best will be able to tell the difference between the Jesus of the Bible and the “Jesus” of false Christianity!
THE SIMPLICITY OF CHRIST
In 2 Corinthians 11:3 Paul said this false religion dates back to the Garden of Eden; Satan personally started it when he took the commandment of God “Didn’t God say thou shalt not eat of that tree?” and twisted it and said, “Oh, but God doesn’t mean that! The commandment doesn’t really apply to YOU! You won’t die if you break God’s law!” (Genesis 3:1-6, especially verse 5). Doesn’t every mainstream church teach the same thing – that if you break the commandment of God, “thou shalt NOT surely die”? Paul was afraid lest the Corinthians fall into the very same trap EVE did – the exact same lie! By following a COUNTERFEIT JESUS, with a counterfeit gospel! This deceptive counterfeit religion will corrupt your mind from the SIMPLICITY that is in Christ!
Because Christ’s message – the TRUE Christ – is very simple. It makes SENSE! These lessons you’ve studied have made a PACKAGE of the Bible, letting it explain and interpret itself and make it clear that the true religion must make SENSE! But the false religion takes you AWAY from that simplicity into ANOTHER gospel – a gospel that is complicated, and incomprehensible, that man isn’t permitted to know. A gospel that promises great things, but has nothing to back up their promises (2 Peter 2:17-19).
Gospel preachers are everywhere, but none teach the gospel Jesus brought. They teach a gospel about Christ, they exalt Him as a person, and acknowledge He died for their sins – but they never say a word about the MESSAGE Jesus brought. And that message was the gospel! And yet no one today is teaching THAT message! Remember, your Bible plainly says there is more than one gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4). In fact, it says it more than once, and pronounces a curse on anyone who brings a false gospel! (Galatians 1:6-9). Did people abuse Paul’s writings while he yet lived? Romans 3:8. Did Jude find it necessary to warn the church to EARNESTLY fight for the truth? Jude 1:3. Why? What deception were they in danger of believing? Jude 1:4.
Less than 30 years after the founding of the New Testament Church, Jude found it NECESSARY to remind them to fight for the truth they had once received – ALREADY it was being corrupted by “certain men, crept in unawares”!
And what were these “certain men” teaching? “Who pervert the grace of our God into an excuse for immorality” (Verse 4, Weymouth). They were quoting Paul, and saying “let us do evil, that good may come”! Do you recognize that?? They were turning GRACE into an EXCUSE to be immoral – saying that by GRACE we no longer have to keep the laws of God! That now we can be immoral, break God’s commandments (which the Bible calls “sin”) all we want, and STILL be saved! Isn’t that what YOUR church teaches?
Isn’t that what God condemned in Jeremiah 7:8-11 and what Satan taught Eve? “Thou shalt not surely die”! The MYSTERY of iniquity! And this was happening in the first century, while the apostles still lived! What do you suppose has happened since? Satan’s churches have had 1,900 years to improve their lies! Were there false apostles even in the time of Paul? 2 Corinthians 11:13. And what did God call those apostles? Revelation 2:2. Did Paul prophesy that in a matter of years, the church at Ephesus would start to fall apart? Acts 20:30. Did John find the true saints were being put out of a so-called “Christian church”? 3 John 1:9. Did Peter find people were abusing Paul’s writings (and the Bible in general, but especially Paul’s writings) to justify their sins? 2 Peter 3:16.
Baal and the Queen of Heaven did a pretty good job against ancient Israel, but they clearly were no match for the New Testament church. It was clear Satan needed to update his counterfeit to keep up with the new revelations in the true religion! So he borrowed the name of Jesus; kept the words “gospel”, and “spirit” (2 Corinthians 11:4), but he changed the MESSAGE of that gospel! He changed the NATURE of Jesus! And the spirit was not the holy spirit of Christ, but the spirit of ANTICHRIST!
One of the greatest searches among those who love prophecy is for the name of the man of sin mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. They look through world events, religious leaders, news reports, trying to put their finger WHO this is! They study to find out where this man is who, it was said, would put himself in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God, who deceive many with the “deception of wickedness” ( 2 Thessalonians 2:10 ). A being greater than God’s laws, a being who seeks to allow you to continue breaking the golden rule and hurting others because he loves you so much. And the great irony is that they’ve been looking for someone whom they already worshiped. Because the name the man of sin is using today… the name he stole so that he could better deceive the world…is… Jesus.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
You’ve learned many things by now in this course that, at the very least, your church does not teach. Very likely you’ve learned many things your church actively teaches AGAINST, and yet they are plainly in the Bible. So you should be wondering WHY, if this is what the Bible plainly teaches, you haven’t heard it all these years! Where has it been hiding? Why didn’t YOUR preacher tell you this? Because he doesn’t know it! His Jesus doesn’t teach it!
If your church taught you the false doctrines you’ve seen above, then I have bad news. You’ve been deceived. Duped. The Christianity you’ve always known, the God you’ve always prayed to, and the Jesus you thought saved you from sin were counterfeits! The gospel they taught you was not the gospel of Jesus, but the gospel of Satan. And that’s why this Gospel you’ve learned in the Bible is so different from what they taught… because theirs was a lie! Romans 10:1-3 summarizes the problem with the Israelites, saying they couldn’t find God because they sought God THEIR way, using their OWN definitions of righteousness, and the traditions of men – NOT the way God commanded them (Mark 7:7-9). This continues to this day – and is not limited to the Jews, but is practiced by all religions everywhere!
Anyone who worships God in a way He didn’t command is “not submitting themselves to the righteousness of God”, but “trying to establish their OWN righteousness”. If they do that, then Jesus said that even though they may come in HIS name, and exalt HIM as their Messiah, DO NOT FOLLOW THEM! (Luke 21:8). Mark 7:7 (GWV) Their worship of me is POINTLESS, because their teachings are rules made by humans. Jesus said if your worship of Him is based on the rules MEN made up, rather than the commandments of God, your worship is POINTLESS! An utter waste of time! And today, millions are sincerely worshiping Jesus, and it is all meaningless because that worship is based on teachings of MEN, not the commands of Jesus and the Bible!
Do the majority find salvation? Matthew 7:13,14 Why? Verse 14. How big is Jesus’ flock? Luke 12:32. What did Jesus prophetically ask all professing Christians who worship a false Jesus? Luke 6:46. WHY do so many call Jesus their Lord, call Him their KING, and yet do CONTRARY to His every command! Matthew 7:23 (NKJV) “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice LAWLESSNESS!’”
Jesus said He would declare this to the MANY, not to the few! He would command all those who practice lawlessness to DEPART from Him! But who practices lawlessness today? Who teaches the law of God is not binding today – the few, or the many? And what does Jesus say to those teachers? Matthew 5:17-19. Isn’t it the BIG, POWERFUL churches who teach that – the ones that have MANY MEMBERS? Do THEY teach the law is against us, and bad for us, and to even TRY to obey it offends God? Jesus said IF you love Him, KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS! (John 14:15). He said you are His friends IF you do what He commands you!
On the other hand, those who gave their heart to Jesus, but keep the commands of men instead of the commandments of God, are worshiping God in vain! It is ALL FOR NOTHING, because they are practicing a FALSE Christianity, for a true Christian follows Christ! 1 Peter 2:21. You’ve lived your life in deception. But the good news is, you’re on the right track. If you truly “take heed that no man deceive you”, and “study to show yourself approved” (2 Timothy 2:15), then you’ll study the Bible and get to know the REAL Jesus. Once you do, when you are counted among the very elect who can no longer be deceived, you’ll be able to tell the counterfeit from the truth, art from forgery, wisdom from foolishness, love from hate, and – in a fascinating twist of irony – you will finally get Eve’s wish. You will be able to tell good from evil.
For more lessons enrol in the Comprehensive Bible Study Course by Nathanial Burson The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.