Deception I: The Truth about Deception

What is deception? An outright lie, or a partial truth? Deception is a lie designed to make the person believe it to be true. If I said I was 7'12" you wouldn't believe me, but if I said I was 5'9", 180lbs, brown hair, mustache, and wore glasses you would believe me. If you did believe me, you have been deceived. Though most of that is true, I am not 5'9". That is where the deception is made. Humans are not idiots (though some peoples actions make that statement deceptive), they don't believe and outright lie, but humans are gullible and will believe a lie, if it is sprinkled with a kernel of truth.
"For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect - if that were possible." (Matt 24:24 NIV) One of thethe hardest things to do is deceive an "expert". Yet, today, there is an attempt to deceive "experts". If one truly knows and believes the truth, then they can not be deceived. As stated earlier, those who are "experts" about me can even be deceived. There are Christians that appear to be strong in their beliefs and convictions, yet, even just recently, have been deceived. Teachings, they thought, were infallible and unshakeable, have been shaken. Does that mean that they are weak? That they aren't strong in their faith?
Yes and No. A momentary lapse of reason, and they failed. After coming back to their senses, they realized they were deceived. In order to know our faith, we have to be tested in our faith. Many years ago, a gentlemen, whom I regarded as a strong Christian, said, "If someone held a gun to my head and told me I would die if I said I believed in Jesus, I don't know what I would answer. I don't know if I would deny Jesus." I puffed out my scrawny chest (spiritually and physically) and responded, "I wouldn't deny Jesus. I would accept death." My was I wrong. I deceived everyone in that room, especially me.
Was a gun held to my head? No, but my life from that point on, reflected a denial of Jesus. I became involved with a woman right after that. From there I deceived myself with the "everybody is doing it" and "I'm not hurting anyone else" and "there's nothing wrong with how I am living." With all those quotes and the life I was leading, I was denying Jesus. Those who knew me, thought I was a Christian. So, they would do what I was doing, thinking, "Daniel is doing it, so it must be ok." I quickly turned my back to Jesus. Thankfully, He didn't turn His back to me. And I must point out, my undoing was not because of the woman. She wanted me to continue on the path I was headed before we met, but I wanted the best of both, and lost both.
Afterwards, I was like Jonah. God had a plan for me, but I was running the other way. Finally, I was swallowed up, and spit out. I have been redeemed by God for my disbelief. He led me to another woman, sadly, that too didn't work out, but God has another plan for me. Maybe, somewhere out there, God has designed the one for me. Maybe she's from my past, or maybe she's in my future. I don't know, it's in God's hands from this point. But the point of this discussion is not to feel sorry for Daniel and his failed relationships. It's about deception.
The saying, "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, then it's a duck." I wouldn't' be to sure of that. Check it out completely. If something is based on reality and claims to be authentic, check it out. Do your own research. I just finished with a seminar on The DaVinci Code. The seminar was titled "Separating Fact from Fiction". When I say I finished, I mean, I still have 5 sessions left. (The next 5 Wednesdays) and when I say I finished, I mean, I am a keynote speaker. It is sponsored by the Abilene Wesleyan Church, Pastor David Swisher, pastor Jessica Swisher, and myself are the ones conducting it.
The sessions are "Priory of Sion" presented by Pastor David, "Can We Trust the Bible" presented by me, "Who Was/Is Jesus" presented by Pastor David and myself, "Paganism, the Occult and Sexuality" presented by me and "Suppression of Women by the Church" presented by Pastor Jessica. The one thing we were very careful to do was we didn't want to condemn the book, tell people not to read it or see the movie, nor boycott everything about it. Nor were we going to stand up and defend the church in it's wrong doings. We systematically did a lot of research, to bring the facts to the surface. The book is a nice mystery and a decent page turner. I would recommend it, but don't believe it, lest you be deceived.

Have a blessed week
Daniel G Vandenburg

Seek the Truth

Just recently, a movie was released, it was based on a best selling novel. The book and subsequently the movie was fictional. The mantra for those that don't understand the damaging effects it has to Christianity, is "It's just fiction, so why are you concerned with it." And I must admit, for the longest time I wasn't. I did view it as fiction and not worth my time to respond. Then people started asking questions based on the book and asking how come I don't believe it.
Then one day, God thumped me on the noggin, and planted a truth in my spirit. What if, you were standing there in line and someone walked up to someone else behind you, and started talking to them. You were not part of the converstation, nor were you invited into the converstation. Then one person says, "What I am about to tell you is going to be the truth." And the conversation stears toward your parent. They say, "So and So has 3 children (truth), they've been married for 30 years (truth) and then proceeds to tell lies about your parent. Harmful, hurtful, and hateful lies. Knowing you're not part of the conversation, do you still sit idly by while your parent is trashed or do you speak up and say, "I know the truth and what he says is not the truth."

Knowing that God is greater than anyone and that He doesn't need defended, I will still defend the truth. Why? For 2 reasons. First, He may not need me to defend Him, but He wants me to defend him and secondly, because silence is still acceptance.
I don't want to get too deep on the DaVinci Code aspects of things. The church is hosting a seminar on the DaVinci Code, and I am one of the panelists that will be sharing some things about it. I will discuss a couple of things here, though.
First of all, the idea of Jesus being married isn't something new. It's not something that just popped into this writers brain. There is a psuedo christian sect that has been teaching the marriage of Jesus for a mighty long time. They've taught that Jesus had children. The only thing I am unsure of, is if they teach that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
In the early 80's there was a book that promoted Mary and her baby as the holy grail. Once again, if this was a deep truthful secret kept by a secret society, they did a poor job keeping it. I definately wouldn't want them to keep a secret for me.
Aside from the other blasphemous aspects of the book (will be discussed later), I wanted to point out the strong occult teachings. The book is laced with it. In one part, the police chief made the comment about devil worship and the main character reprimanded him. In essence he told them that the Christians are narrow minded idiots and there is nothing wrong with any non christian practice. He gave him a history on early worship practices (which is goofed up anyway) and said that's how early cultures worshipped their gods. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with what they do.
I opened up my bible and found myself in Luke. "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatter" (Luke 11:23 NIV) Simply put, either you are for Jesus or you're not. If you have questions, ask. Most importantly. SEEK THE TRUTH!
Have a blessed week
Daniel Vandenburg