Political and Spiritual Deception
Deception was rampant in the 20th century, both political and spiritual. Hitler, who declared he was the savior of Germany, deceived a nation. He was responsible for the deaths of some 38 million people, including 6 million Jews in the holocaust. Then there was Imperial Japan under the Emperor Hirohito who was responsible for the deaths of some 27 million people. He said, "I am a god." and his followers called him "The Son of Heaven." Stalin, Soviet Premier, who sought to irradiate Christianity through Communism, is said to have killed some 60 million people. Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Communist Party of China is quoted as saying, "I am the Holy Spirit". Yet he drove the Chinese Christians underground and is credited with killing 10's of millions. Italy's Mussolini, Cambodia's Pol Pot of the Kymer Rouge, Cuba's Castro, Iraq's Sadaam Hussein, and Palestine's Yasser Arafat are just a few of a multitude of leaders of the 20th century who claimed divine right to rule - killing millions in the process.
Then there have been the spiritual deceptions, all claiming to be 'the way' to God: false ways easy to identify, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Animism, Scientism, New Age, etc. One cannot forget the rise of radical Islam in the 20th and 21st centuries. With monies derived from oil revenue, they have spread their influence rapidly. To western nations, they proclaim themselves as a religion of peace, but in the rest of the world they infiltrate through the use of intimidation and terror. In the western nations, they claim the rights of freedom and equality, but, where they have taken over rule there is no tolerance, freedom, or equality unless one converts to Islam.
In the Industrialized nations, the rise of humanism has infiltrated Christianity like a slow-working poison. Christian Europe and the United States, being strongly influenced by the Reformation, once used God as their reference for truth and morality. Humanism, with its flagship of evolution, eroded that foundation. Man became the reference for truth and morality. What seemed good and reasonable to man became the "politically correct" standard to follow, regardless of how devoid of truth or impractical that standard might be.
However, for Christians, perhaps the most deceptive doctrines have been the commercialized versions of Christianity that present a message devoid of repentance and conversion, a kind of "I'm ok, your ok" doctrine. These perversions of the true Gospel have politically correct standards that accept most lifestyles and look very little like the Gospel delivered to us in the New Testament. The Apostle Paul warned Timothy these would come, "...lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them." - 2 Tim 3.5.
Jesus taught, "because wickedness will increase, the love of most will grow cold" - Matt 24.12. We must honestly check our hearts - do we spend more time praying now than when we first believed, or less? Do we watch movies or TV now that we would not have watched when we first came to Christ? How does our nation look now compared to how it looked 50 years ago? Do you expect some political leader to be the answer to our problems? The warning is clear, sin is the breeding ground of deception and it is like leaven in bread - it spreads!