FOURTH QUARTER 2022
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #11
DECEMBER 10, 2022
“END-TIME DECEPTIONS”

 

End-time deceptions will be many. And they will come in various sizes, shapes and colors.  The deceptions discussed in the lesson this week have one common goal — to weaken, undermine, or cancel the Word of God.

Near-death experiences, reincarnation, necromancy (speaking to the dead), ancestor worship, and demonic personations are all deceptions that stem from and are made possible because of a non-biblical view of the immortality of the soul during the death that Jesus referred to as sleep.  Along with mysticism, these deceptions are used by the enemy of souls to undermine or contradict the Word of God through a reliance on the senses.  Reincarnation teaches an evolutionary development of the soul rather than the miraculous re-creation — the new birth of the soul — as taught by the gospel.  It also leaves us vulnerable to the idea that there is yet opportunity for the progress of the soul after death in much the same way as does the teaching of purgatory.

While these are all real and present dangers and are not to be disregarded or underestimated, these were not the concern of Paul as he addresses the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 11, the passage from which our memory text is taken.  He was concerned about a much more subtle deception — perhaps an even more dangerous one than those addressed in this weeks lesson.  And that deception would come to them via “apostles of Christ” and “ministers of righteousness.”

“For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity (sincerity, without self-seeking, bountifulness, liberality) that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!….But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works” (2 Corinthians 11:2-4,12-15, emphasis supplied).

You see that Paul presented the gospel that led them to their best beloved, Christ. And this gospel was one that brought redeeming power to prepare them for the betrothal so Paul could present them as “chaste virgins to Christ.”  The gospel that Paul brought was one that “works by love and purified the soul.” (Letter 21a, 1895)

But Paul was fearful of something “less than” the gospel being presented to them in a manner as subtle as the craftiness of the serpent in the garden. Just as Eve’s mind was corrupted in the garden by the innuendoes and “spin” the serpent put on the words of God, so Paul warned of similar nearly imperceptible alterations of the gospel as something that would corrupt (shrivel, ruin, spoil) their minds.

Right here we should stop and give pause.  What Paul is talking about is no small thing.  Think about the corruption that came to Eve’s mind as a result of the short encounter in the garden. The lasting effects this had on her mind and life had more than minor impact, to say the least. In like manner, one encounter with another gospel for the people of God, unless it is rejected immediately, can have lasting and profound ill effects on our mind and life.

Notice the corruption that Paul refers to removes the “simplicity that is in Christ.” The English word used here lends itself to missing Paul’s point so we need to look more closely at its meaning. The greek word here is ἁπλότης (haplotēs).  This comes from a root which means a folding together to make one.  And hence the idea to simplify. Two things becoming one.  But Paul understood the gospel having to do with a betrothal which is the two becoming one.  I can’t help but see this as part of his meaning when speaking of the “folding together to make one” as the thing that is corrupted by the false teachers about which he is speaking. Another gospel will not lead to the believer’s betrothal and union with Christ, or a chaste virgin to be presented to the Husbandman. Other thoughts that come from ἁπλότης (haplotēs) are: subjectively, without dissimulation (without concealment of one’s character), without self-seeking, and, objectively, copious bestowal.

So when Paul speaks of “corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” he is not saying these people are making this too complicated and the message needs to stay simple.  He is not referring to a quantity or organizational structure of the message of Christ. He is referring to a quality that in embodied in the folding together of the redeemed and the Redeemer. A coming together of two in such a way that there is no concealment of character; an experiential knowledge of who Christ is (everything) and who we really are (nothing), a putting away of self-seeking and an over abundance of promise and power to bring the two together to make one (atonement).  And all these things Paul tells us are things that are “in Christ” and, in Paul’s view, are ours.

It was the corruption of (shriveling up, spoiling, diminishing, or taking away of) this truth in Christ that the “false apostles” (as Paul called them) were responsible for because of what they were teaching the people. They taught “another Jesus.”  They brought “another spirit.”  They preached a “different gospel.”  Did they preach Jesus, welcome the spirit and proclaim the gospel?  Yes they did.  But these were different from the Jesus, Spirit, and gospel that God sent.

And notice in our passage what Paul was concerned about.  His concern was that they “may well put up with it.”  Isn’t that interesting? Of course Paul did not want them to believe another gospel.  But even more he feared they would simply not oppose it and tolerate its presence.

I once had a pastor tell me that I was “no Barnabas” because I was concerned about some things being taught to the people that diminished the gospel. I pointed these things out and expressed my concern.  I was no Barnabas because I was questioning these things and not being encouraging while most of the members and leadership in the church just accepted or put up with it.  It was this “putting up with” that Paul was afraid of for the church. (For more on Barnabas the encourager see Acts 15:1,2.)

Paul then goes on to say that he will continue to do what he does.  He will actively intercept the “gospel” spread by the false teachers and continue to lift up the true gospel, striving to cut off opportunities for the seeds of falsehood.

Then he tells us that those that would transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, which is not righteousness at all, will ultimately meet their end according to their works of pseudo righteousness.  This false gospel leads to works of human devising, based on human capacity and lacking in every way the measure of the fullness of Christ (i.e. the righteousness of Christ).

Among the churches in our land there are relatively few manifestations of near-death experience, necromancy, ancestor worship, and demonic personations. However, there are a plethora of ( I’m sure well meaning) men and woman who present “another Jesus,” “another spirit,” and “another gospel.”  And while we might expect this in the confusion that abounds in the fallen churches spoken of in the Second Angel’s Message (Rev. 14:8) and repeated in the Loud Cry (Rev 18:1-8), we would have to be blind or outright refuse to see (Rev 3:14-22) that this happens over and over again in many of the churches, schools, and publications of the remnant church of God.  Has the remnant church become so tolerant of a plurality of the gospel that we no longer recognize what is the true and what is the false?  Has Paul’s worst fear on this end-time deception come true that “we may well put up with it”?  Let us all discover, recover, and proclaim the most precious message that the Lord sent His church beginning in 1888.  This will give us the view of Jesus, the work of the Spirit, and an experiential understanding of the gospel that the Lord sent us.  This will prepare a people, the bride, for the betrothal (Revelation 19:7).  And this alone will make them fit vessels for the special measure of the Holy Spirit to be a living testimony for the Loud Cry that is to be proclaimed.

The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones. This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world. It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. Many had lost sight of Jesus. They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, His merits, and His changeless love for the human family. All power is given into His hands, that He may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent. This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure. (TM 91)

Let everyone who claims to believe that the Lord is soon coming, search the Scriptures as never before; for Satan is determined to try every device possible to keep souls in darkness, and blind the mind to the perils of the times in which we are living. Let every believer take up his Bible with earnest prayer, that he may be enlightened by the holy Spirit as to what is truth, that he may know more of God and of Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Search for the truth as for hidden treasures, and disappoint the enemy. The time of test is just upon us, for the loud cry of the third angel has already begun in the revelation of the righteousness of Christ, the sin-pardoning Redeemer. This is the beginning of the light of the angel whose glory shall fill the whole earth. For it is the work of every one to whom the message of warning has come, to lift up Jesus, to present him to the world as revealed in types, as shadowed in symbols, as manifested in the revelations of the prophets, as unveiled in the lessons given to his disciples and in the wonderful miracles wrought for the sons of men. Search the Scriptures; for they are they that testify of him. (RH November 22, 1892, emphasis supplied)

~Kelly Kinsley