Symptoms of Deception: Doctrinal Errancy

The surest and most notable symptom or sign of deception is doctrinal errancy, or deviations from contextual scriptural exegesis and other scripturally established rules and principles for interpreting the bible. This is Satan’s way of getting us to put into the word of God our own perceptions and worldviews, as demonstrated in his attempts to get Jesus to deviate from His divine mission when He was tempted. During that encounter the devil misinterpreted and took the scriptures out of context to get Jesus to walk away from God’s truth and purpose for His life (Luke 4:1-13; Acts 20:30; Romans 10:1-4; Galatians 1:6-9; Colossians 2:6-9; 1 Timothy 4:1-6). Such is the conduct of deceivers (2 Corinth. 2:17; 4:2; Ephesians 3: 14; 2 Peter 3:16; 1 Timothy 4:1-6; 2 Timothy 2:14-18).
The bible admonishes us to “rightly divide the word of truth” or the words and statements in the bible (2Timothy 2:15; 4:1-4), and to not distort it (2Peter 3:16). One can safely conclude from Jesus’ encounter with Satan that doctrinal errancy or scriptural misinterpretations abounds wherever deception exists. It is such erroneous and corrupted understanding of the word of God that set us off in the wrong direction, and away from what God expects of us (Matt. 22:29; 2Corinth 3:12-15; Romans 10:2-3).

Doctrinal errancy facilitates and nurtures deception, confusion and disillusionment, hence its preference by Satan.
The Church of God is beset with half-baked truths and erroneous doctrines that emphasize certain truths to the total neglect of other equally important ones. It is done in a manner that subverts the simultaneous relevance of other truths to the issues. Such conducts weaken the potency of such doctrines, and create disillusionment and spiritual imbalance that transform their followers into narrow-minded spiritual fanatics, instead of raising mature Christians brought up in the whole counsel of God to the attainment of the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4: 11-14; Acts 20:27; Colossians 1:28).
A person or group walking in deception cares nothing about taking scriptures out of context, and interpreting the scriptures in ways that suit their whims and caprices in contradiction to other clearly established truths and doctrines in the bible. Jesus said, “a kingdom divided against itself shall not stand” (Matthew 12:25); which also means that God does not contradict Himself in scripture, neither does He alter what He has said (Psalm 89:34). The Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:19, that God’s word is not “Yes” and “No”. Such an attitude is contrary to God’s integrity. It undermines trust, and promotes nothing but Satan’s agenda.

It is, therefore, not of God to say or do anything to contradict that, which is already established in unmistakable terms in the Bible. We must, therefore, take seriously any situation where a preacher, leader, prophet or group’s teachings and conducts contradict or distort the words and statements in the bible in any form or shape. One mistake we oftentimes make is that we assume that such leaders know better than us, and hence give them a pass; ascribing clear cases of scriptural distortions to some mystical insight, which is available to only the leader. When in doubt about spiritual or scriptural issues, go to the bible; do a cross-reference analysis, and also look up their practical examples in the bible, and not out-of-context scriptural statements.

The truth is that God does not contradict himself or His word. Do not allow anybody’s spiritual or mystical aura to overwhelm or manipulate you into accepting instructions and teachings that contradict scripture or have a semblance of error that embolden a person to walk contrary to the word of God; not even the aura of an angel (Galatians 1:6-9). That was the mistake, which led to the death of a man of God in 1Kings 13:1-32, a habit that is still plaguing many in the church of God today.
Beware of doctrinal errancy or scriptural misinterpretations, for wherever such actions abound, deception is either present or never far off.

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