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From:
"Christine Helrigel" <chichilouise@h...>
Date: Sat Jan 27, 2001 10:57
am
Subject: The two most common "hooks"
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In light of the discussion about James Trimm's "ranslation", I thought it
might be pertinent to mention the two most common hooks used by the evil one
to deceive men and women.
Hook One: "God's Word is unreliable" he tells people. Either God didn't
say "that", he didn't mean what he said, he was lying, or the Scriptures we
have today are unreliable, and he really said something else. However he
can use this hook of "unreliable" or "translations changed by people with a
certain prejudice, gentile or otherwise" to get us to distrust the Word, he
will. This is the very tactic used on Eve, convincing her that what she
"thought" God said, and why he said it, cannot be trusted.
Hook Two: He will attempt to convince the unsuspecting that the only reason
millions of other believers do not mistrust the Bible as it has been handed
down, is that they are ignorant, deceived, rigid, too stupid to reconsider.
And that the target individual whom hasatan is trying to get to bite the
fruit is bold, courageous, open-minded, smart enough to consider all
possibilities and choose the right one unerringly out of ability to compare
and study ideas. He offered the same bait to Eve, that she would "know good
and evil" and become wise, able to discern truth and falsehood. But she
wasn't. If she had been able to, she would have seen the lies in satan's
arguments. She would have resisted the hook of believing that God is
unreliable, but she herself is reliable.
We see this basic temptation acted out constantly if we look for it. If a
man or woman was not temptible-- would always refuse to believe anyone who
tells him that the Scriptures we have are unreliable, and the next
temptation --"they aren't willing to consider it because they are not as
wise as you..." then we could not be led astray. Yeshua said it is the
condition of our heart which enables us to be led astray. Until we learn to
things: that God is utterly reliable in all things, and that we must not
rely on our own understanding, we are sitting ducks for deception.
I tangled for a long time with a fellow who believes the Scriptures were
rewritten by pagans, and that the other things written in history are more
reliable -- tales of Yeshua surviving death and running off with Mary
Magdalene. He cannot be told he is wrong, because he just one, believes
that God had not ability to keep the Scriptures pure, and that two, he has
in himself the wisdom and intellect to sort out which is true therefore. So
now he believes that another Messiah must come, and the entire church and
all of its history has been for nothing. God has to start over with another
Messiah.
Satan doesn't have to work very hard to fool men, because it is never their
intellect that causes them trouble, but their willingness to believe in the
two basic hooks. "God did not...." and "You can." It makes me very tired
when I realize that the antidote for man's fallen nature is always
available. One "Believe in his Words." and two "Lean not on your own
understanding."
Chris
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