Summary: When Jesus lived on earth, he told his disciples that the time would come where there “shall arise false Christs, and false prophet, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” This statement raises three questions: who are the very elect, who are the false Christs and prophets, and how will they be able to deceive the very elect? This article seeks to answer these questions.
One day, near the end of his mortal ministry, “as [Jesus] sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you… For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:3,4,24).
This statement raises three questions. The first is, who are “the very elect,” second, who are the false Christs and prophets that Jesus spoke about, and three, how will it be possible for them to deceive the very elect?
First, “the elect” are those who have entered into a covenant with God to take upon themselves the name of Christ and have promised to endure to the end in keeping his commandments. They are “elect” because they are among the very few people in the world who have made that covenant with God by repenting of their sins, being baptized by an authorized priesthood holder, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and becoming a member of Christ’s true church.
Second, the false Christs and prophets are those the apostle John refers to as “the antichrist” who he says is anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ and denies the Father and the son (1 John 1:22).
It’s common to hear Protestants talk about the antichrist as being a powerful political figure who will appear in the last days to wage war against the saints of God, however, the Bible dictionary says that the antichrist “is anyone or anything that counterfeits the true gospel or plan of salvation and that openly or secretly is set up in opposition to Christ.”
In other words, there isn’t just one person who is the antichrist, but it is anyone who seeks to pervert “the true gospel or plan of salvation.” These are those who Jesus said were false prophets and false Christs, and this agrees with John’s description when he told the saints of his day, “as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists” (1 John 1:18). There were many antichrists who were trying to pervert God’s plan of salvation even in the days of the early apostles, and there are still many antichrists among us today.
Third, the way these false Christs and prophets will attempt to deceive even the very elect (the members of Christ’s true church) is by using all forms of deception, trickery, and lies, and those who do these things are they who have been inspired and motivated by the devil.
The Bible dictionary defines the devil as “the enemy of righteousness and of those who seek to do the will of God,” and the devil’s most effective technique is by imitating the works of God thereby causing people to think “they are following God’s ways when, in reality they are deceived by the devil into following other paths.”
Jesus said, “that IF it were possible, [the false Christs and false prophets] shall deceive the very elect.” which indicates it’s possible for the elect not to be deceived, so the question is, how can the elect keep themselves from being deceived?
The very first thing someone must do to keep from falling for the lies of the devil is to gain a strong testimony that Joseph Smith was indeed a true prophet of God, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is truly the kingdom of God on earth and that it is being led by divinely called prophets and apostles.
That is the very foundation on which everything else is built, and unless someone has a sure knowledge that these things are true, they are like a man standing on a rowboat in the middle of the ocean. As long as the winds and the waves are calm, they can safely stand, but as soon as the wind begins to blow and the waves begin to rock the boat, the person standing inside the boat will have a hard time maintaining their balance, because the foundation on which they’re standing is unsteady. And if the wind and the waves become too strong, that person will fall out of the boat.
Unless someone has a rock-solid testimony of Christ’s restored church, they will have a hard time maintaining their beliefs when they encounter an argument they don’t know how to answer. And the more challenging the argument, the more unsure and unstable their testimony will become. And if they are not careful, they will fall away from the church.
But when their belief is strong, even though they may encounter things they don’t know the answer to, their testimony is what will keep them securely connected to the teachings of the church because, if nothing else, they can always rely on that knowledge as an anchor, preventing them from drifting away from the true gospel of Jesus Christ.
If someone doesn’t have a strong witness that these things are true, then it is critical to their spiritual survival that they strive to obtain such a testimony. Either the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is what it claims to be or it isn’t. If it is, then it is the only one that can save people into the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, if it isn’t what it claims to be then it is a false religion that has no power to save anyone. That’s why it is critically essential for people to know with certainty which of these two positions is the correct one because their salvation is dependent on knowing the answer to that question.
But, as important as this is, it’s only the first step needed to keep from being deceived.
After Jesus had fasted for forty days in the wilderness, Satan came tempting him, and he did so by quoting scripture. We’ve been counseled to not only read the scriptures but to study them, however, when doing that, it’s easy for people to come up with what the apostle Peter calls having a “private interpretation” (2 Peter 1:20). This is the reason why there are over 20,000 different Christian denominations in the world today, with each one claiming that the Bible supports whatever beliefs they espouse, and the members of Christ’s restored church are not immune from coming to their own private interpretation of what the scriptures teach.
The reason for all this confusion is because people haven’t truly come to a knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and this is a major reason why the devil can so easily fool people into following a course that leads them away from Christ while making them think they are drawing closer to him. Satan used this tactic with Jesus when he quoted scriptures in an effort to tempt him to sin, but Jesus was able to thwart Satan’s plan because he not only knew the scriptures, but he correctly understood them.
The reason why this technique of the devil is so successful is because they take advantage of people’s ignorance and Satan is the master conman. To protect ourselves from being deceived, we need to have a clear understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That includes having a correct understanding of the plan of salvation, the purpose of earth life, of the atonement of Christ, and of our divine potential. It’s when our understanding of any of these things is incomplete that we become vulnerable to accepting the lies that come from those who are instruments of the devil.
To illustrate this point, today the idea of socialism is being presented as a wonderful system for people to live under and many young people especially are being persuaded to embrace this form of government. But those who have lived under socialist rule are not fooled by the glowing things said about it. In the same way, when someone who has been enlightened about the gospel of Christ and has tasted of its heavenly gifts, it becomes harder for them to be deceived by Satan’s lies.
Then how do we gain this kind of sure knowledge about the gospel, especially when so many people have been lured into believing so many erroneous ideas?
This is why Jesus has restored his church on the earth. As Paul explained, the reason why God has given us “some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers… [is so] that we henceforth be no more children , tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and dunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4:11,14).
One of the main responsibilities of prophets and apostles is to ensure that the pure doctrines of Christ are taught in the church. In fact, most of the letters Paul wrote to the saints were to correct false doctrines that the early Christians were beginning to believe.
It’s important to study the scriptures, but we need to understand them in light of what our living prophets teach because they are responsible for giving us the correct knowledge, we need to keep from being deceived by the current false teachings of our day. The Pharisees and Sadducees in the days of Jesus diligently studied the scriptures but they held many false ideas about what they taught. Worse yet, when Jesus sought to correct their understanding, they reviled against him, as their fathers had done against the prophets God sent them. When we hear people advocating doctrines that we wonder if they are true or not, if those beliefs are not supported by what the living prophets teach, we need to be careful about embracing them.
One of the ways Satan uses to get around this is to have people spend their time searching and focusing on the mysteries of God. It’s okay to contemplate such mysteries, but what we should always remember is that our salvation isn’t dependent on knowing about them, and anything that takes us away from doing those things that help us become worthy of receiving exaltation, should be a sideline interest at most, rather than becoming the focus of our spiritual life.
The purpose of life is to be tested to see if we will “choose eternal life through the great mediators of all men or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil” (2 Nephi 2:27)l. When we lose sight of that, we leave ourselves vulnerable to being enticed to take a different course than the one God has outlined. If what someone tells us doesn’t bring us closer to Christ or helps us become more Christi-like, or doesn’t fit with what the prophets teach, then we should be very wary of believing in it.
In addition to this, the Spirit is the greatest teacher of truth, however, many people claim they are inspired by the Holy Ghost yet believe in things that are not in keeping with the teachings of Jesus. So, the question is, how can we be sure if it’s the Holy Ghost who is speaking to us or if it’s another spirit?
The apostle John taught, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. (1 John 2:3-5).
When Jesus was asked, “Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, (John 14:22-24)
The greatest of all commandments is, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30) and the way we keep the greatest of all commandments is by sincerely striving to do everything God asks of us. That’s how we show God we love him with all of our heart. As John said, he who says he loves the Lord but doesn’t do what he says is a liar and the truth is not in him.
If we are doing what God asks then we are promised he will come and abide with us, and what he has asked is for us to keep the Sabbath day holy, serving faithfully in his church, honestly and sincerely renewing our covenants each time we take the sacrament, and avoid doing anything that will drive the Spirit away from us. If we do these things, we’re promised to have his Spirit, the Holy Ghost, with us always.
But the opposite is just as true, which is, if we are not doing what God asks, we have no such promise and when that happens, we can find ourselves relying on our own wisdom to detect truth from error. However, because the devil is so clever, without the inspiration of the Spirit, we can easily be fooled into accepting Satan’s devious and convincing lies.
Perhaps it might be more accurate to say that if we are not listening to what the Spirit tells us it’s because we don’t want to follow his inspiration. In that case, when we think we’re receiving revelation from him, it’s highly doubtful he’s the source of it. On the other hand, the more we strive to keep God’s commandments, the closer his Spirit is to us and the more we recognize his voice when he speaks and are willing to hearken to what he says.
And this principle applies to those who seek to convince us to accept erroneous beliefs. If they are not living the gospel then that should raise concerns about the truthfulness of their words. And when their words are not in harmony with the words of God’s prophets and the testimony we’ve received from the Holy Ghost, then we know that what they’re telling us is not from God.
In addition to this, there is another safeguard that will help us “be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11) and that is, we need to know and understand the many ways Satan uses to deceive us. As the apostle Paul counseled the saints in his day, “lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we [should]`not [be] ignorant of his devices.” (2 Corinthians 2:11).
Nephi explained some of the techniques the devil uses to lead us astray when he said, “[he] shall rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good. And others will he pacify, and lull them away into carnal security, that they will say: All is well in Zion; yea, Zion prospereth, all is well—and thus the devil cheateth their souls, and leadeth them away carefully down to hell. And behold, others he flattereth away, and telleth them there is no hell; and he saith unto them: I am no devil, for there is none—and thus he whispereth in their ears, until he grasps them with his awful chains, from whence there is no deliverance” (2 Nephi 28:20-22). In other words, the devil has a multitude of tricks he uses to lead us “away carefully down to hell.”
One of the devi’s most effective tricks is to mix in error with truth. It’s been said that Satan will tell a thousand truths to get us to believe one lie., and he slides that one lie carefully in between many truths in hopes that we will not notice it, and the devil is very good at doing this.
What makes this technique so insidious is that it fools people into thinking they are following God when in fact they are being tricked into following the devil. Satan knows God’s plan of salvation perfectly because he vigorously fought against it in our premortal state, therefore he knows how to perfectly imitate it and how to make very subtle changes that only those who are well acquainted with the gospel will notice.
Another tactic of Satan is that he will disguise illogic so it appears to make logical sense. In this way he can fool people into thinking that evil not only looks appealing and harmless, but that it’s very desirable. For example, the devil will try to convince us that there is no such thing as sin, therefore we should eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die, while to others he will say “fear God [but] he will justify in committing a little sins… and if it so be that we are guilty, God will beat us with a few stripes and at the last we shall be saved in the kingdom of God” (2 Nephi 28:8).
Since the prophets and apostles of God teach truth, Satan will seek to convince us that prophets are not infallible and therefore we shouldn’t believe everything they say because some of what they tell us could be wrong. But how will we know which of their words we should believe, and which ones are not true? Satan will tell us that we are the ones who should make that decision based on whether we agree with what the prophets tell us.
Yet another tactic is to convince us that if everyone else is doing something then it can’t be wrong. Salesmen use this technique to persuade a prospective customer to buy their product by telling them, or inferring, that lots of other people have bought their product. The idea is that people want to be like others because no one wants to feel like they’re different or odd.
Flattery is another powerful tool the devil uses to persuade people to do his bidding. Flattery is defined as: “giving excessive or insincere praise to further one’s own interests.” Its purpose is to appeal to a person’s pride and/or emotions with the intent of enticing them to follow what someone wants them to do. We see this in the story of Sherem who “began to preach among the people, and to declare unto them that there should be no Christ. And he preached many things which were flattering unto the people; and this he did that he might overthrow the doctrine of Christ,” and by laboring diligently, “he did lead away many hearts” (Jacob 2:2,3)
There was also Korihor who “did preach unto them, leading away the hearts of many, causing them to lift up their heads in their wickedness, yea, leading away many women, and also men, to commit whoredoms—telling them that when a man was dead, that was the end thereof” (Alma 30:18).
This works best when said in a calm, soft, caring voice, as though the person saying this is merely trying to be helpful. In speaking of the devil, President James E. Faust has taught, “His voice often sounds so reasonable and his message so easy to justify. It is an appealing, intriguing voice with dulcet tones. It is neither hard nor discordant. Satan is the world’s master in the use of flattery, and he knows the great power of speech, a power his servants often employ.” (Ensign, January 2007).
These are just some of Satan’s more obvious tactics but as we get closer to the second coming of Jesus, the devil will use more subtle, more sophisticated, and more cunning techniques as he increases his efforts, that if possible, he can cause even the very elect to fall away from God’s salvation. For this reason, it will require us to have greater spirituality to detect his lies and an increase in our spiritual strength if we are to keep from being deceived by the devil.
Related articles can be found at The Nature of Man