I don’t understand how electricity works, but I sure do make use of it, and appreciate being able to flip a switch and have light, and A/C and all the other benefits it provides. But I don’t have to understand it to use it.

And as often as I have flown over the years, I have never felt compelled to understand all the intricacies and science that make up aviation and the ability to fly a giant plane across sea and land possible. Nor do I ever feel a need to interview the pilots before we take off asking for a full explanation of how the cockpit works and what all those switches and knobs and screens mean and do. I simply sit back, close my eyes and enjoy the flight.

I will also tell you that my good friend who is a financial advisor and set us down years ago giving us some very good advice, can get my eyes to glass over quickly when he starts talking how all that investing and such works. I just know I trust his advice and have reaped the benefits of it.

But...when it comes to our eternal souls, it is an entirely different matter. We would be foolish to not have any concern to know and understand what is at stake and how ‘each person will give an account’ to God, the God who no longer ‘winks at ignorance’ as to how we responded to His word in this lifetime. I only say this because of the frequency of times we read in scripture and are warned to be on guard against false prophets, teachers, and deceptive doctrines that would lead countless people astray.

I don’t have to be an electrician, a pilot, or even a financial advisor and be proficient in knowing how all those ‘things work’. Nor do I need to be an educated theologian to understand the bible. But we better be sure that that the person behind that pulpit is telling us every Sunday what God says and not what he or other smart people think...God said, while throwing in a lot of other good sounding words that can ease our minds as we drift asleep, trusting that this many people...surely could not be wrong. Because a day is coming when ‘many’ will be shocked to hear they were deceived. (Matt. 7:21-23)

Solid biblical teaching, or ‘sound doctrine’ should be leading us to be conformed to the nature of Christ. (1 Tim. 6:3). The church was commissioned by Jesus to go and ‘make disciples’, along with ‘teaching them to observe/obey all the things He taught/commanded’ us. (Matt. 28:19-20)

We were not encouraged to round up a bunch of people who professed to believe in Jesus and then meet regularly while we sing our way to heaven, learning all kinds of interesting information about God as we fulfill our destiny in this lifetime. Paul warned of ‘perilous times’ coming in the last days...people who would ‘walk in a form of godliness, while denying the power (of the gospel to transform them) all the while they continued to live in the flesh...always learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth’. (2 Tim. 3:1-7)

Jesus was clear: “Make disciples and teach them to do what I have taught you to do!”

Doing...what Jesus said to do goes a long way in helping you stand firm when the flood comes. Just hearing what He taught won’t save you. (Matt. 7:24-25) And friends, not only is the ‘flood’ coming...it is here already. What did James say our condition would be if we were simply ‘hearers’ of the word, but not doers? (James 1:22).

What...did Jesus say would mark the last days? (Matt. 24:4-5,11)

So how exactly does this deception play out where many end up being deceived? Good question. Let’s examine some more scripture. Most people, you know...don’t get behind the wheel of a car and plan on dozing off. It does happen though, frequently; and the outcome is rarely good.

Paul warned Timothy (through the Spirit) in his first letter that in ‘latter times people will fall away’ or turn away from the faith, being led astray by ‘deceiving spirits and doctrines’. (4:1) This idea of people ‘falling away’ from the faith is a real danger. (2 Thess. 2:3). I would encourage you to take a moment and look up the following verses and see if you recognize a theme or particular word that surfaces: Eph. 4:14; Heb. 13:9; Matt. 24:39; Luke 17:27,34-37. And can I just tell you now that those folks who are ‘taken’ in Luke (34-37) is not talking about ‘rapture’.

Now...did you happen to notice that word ‘carried away’? We are being warned against the danger of being carried away, taken away or falling away and being destroyed. That is what ‘floods’ do...they come against and uproot and move and carry away everything in its path that is not rooted on solid ground. These are the people who are ‘destroyed’. But here’s the good news....YOU...don’t have to be destroyed because just as it was in the days of Noah...God has provided us an ‘ark’ to enter in to, and that ‘ark’ is Christ Jesus. But you have to be ‘in the ark’ in order to be ‘saved from the flood/wrath’. And just ‘saying Lord, Lord’ does not mean you are ‘in the ark’. (Matt. 7:21) Does that make sense?

Now please turn to Rev. 12:15 and let’s see who is behind this ‘torrent’ or ‘flood’ that seeks to sweep countless people, including professing believers, away. I bet you recognize and can identify who this ‘serpent’ is that is “spewing water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the ‘flood’ “, yes? And do you recall how this ‘enemy can come in like’? (Isa. 59:19)

You do realize there is a war for your soul and you have an enemy who does his best to keep the word of God from landing and taking root in your heart in order that you might truly believe and be ‘saved’, yes? (Luke 8:11-12). If he can keep that word from working effectively in you, then no fruit will be produced; and fruit matters. (Matt. 3:10; 7:18-19; Luke 13:6-9; John 15:4-8). He will offer up anything he can to ‘entice you’ so that you might be ‘drawn away’. (James 1:13-16; Deut. 30:17-18)

So just how does this happen? Allow me to attempt to simplify this for you today in closing. We know that the serpent spewed from his mouth, ‘water like a flood to carry the woman away’. What comes out of mouths? Words, perhaps? “The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters”. (Prov. 18:4).

Paul told us we should not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes. (2 Cor. 2:11). We are also told that he (the devil) can come as an ‘angel of light’ and ‘ministers of righteousness’. (2 Cor. 11:14-15); or as Jesus put it...’wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing’. (Matt. 7:15)

Do you know what this enemy is rather proficient at doing? He is a master of diluting the word of God, or as we say, ‘watering it down’. Hello? (2 Tim. 4:1-5).

He has, in fact, been doing this for a long time. Take for instance, all the way back in the garden where we are first ‘introduced’ to him and his ways. I was compelled to do a simple ‘counting experiment’ so stay with me here a second and hopefully you will catch the point here. God has set man in the Garden, pointed out two specific trees to him, telling him which tree he/they could eat off of, and which tree they were forbidden to eat from. And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he was told: “you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen. 2:17)

It only took God 17 words to lay a very clear message down. ( I’m not sure how this all plays out with various translations and such, but you should get the idea here so hang with me please).

In comes the serpent in chapter 3:1-5 whom we are told was cunning or crafty. You can read/count for yourself but out of his mouth proceeds 45 words, questioning, twisting, and then outright saying just the opposite of what God said. That is a 3:1 ratio more words than what God said. Words....words....words. Amazing, is it not...how so many words can actually make the word of God of ‘no effect’? (Mark 7:6-13). And how quickly does the enemy come to take away God’s word from your heart? (Mark 4:14-15). It’s as if he come in like a ‘flood’ perhaps?

Jeremiah had some things to say about prophets who peddle worthless words that lead God’s people astray. (23:16-22). Paul did as well in 2 Cor. 11:3-4.

So if you have hung with me this far today, and perhaps have been reading here for a while now, you might have some serious and legitimate questions, especially if a lot of what you are reading is not ‘mainstream’ or what you are accustomed to hearing on a regular basis. And you would have every right to question what I am sharing with you here. You SHOULD question and study for yourself...to see if what I am sharing is true. (Acts 17:11). Why do you think I provide so many scripture references for you to look up in your own Bible?

I would also heed Paul’s advice to ‘test and examine’ your own hearts to see if you truly are ‘in Christ’. (2 Cor. 13:5). There are some very clear ways of knowing if you take the time to examine the scriptures. What we don’t know...is when will that ‘door shut’? (Matt. 25:10)