deception by Collins 1) noun, the act of deceiving or the state of being deceived
2) noun, something that deceives; trick
Collins English Electronic Dictionary - Digital Edition: 2008 © HarperCollins Publishers 2008 (bold emphasis mine)
It was in the middle of a conversation with Mel that it finally dawned on me, after all these years, that when a person is deceived they CANNOT understand or believe the truth. It is impossible.
I had always thought that a person could just decide to believe something, to just know that something was a lie or false, that this is right and that is wrong. That faith, in other words, was a matter of chosing to believe the truth rather than a lie.
Duh! I am a Calvinist - what was wrong with my thinking??? Why did it take me so long to understand that? I don't know. Other than the fact that I think if people just had more 'common sense' they wouldn't believe so much garbage that is being put out there today. Now I realize that is not true - it doesn't matter how much common sense a person has. If a person is deceived, they cannot understand the truth until they are no longer deceived.
In some ways it seems a bit circular to me. And I'm sure I could get into a whole bunch of philosophical discussion about all sorts of things, like what is "real", what is "truth", and so forth and so on. But that's not where I'm going here. I am not a philosopher! :)
Christ's words are on my mind right now, and have been for several weeks. "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Matthew 24:9-14 (again, bold emphasis mine)
I have been thinking more and more about the idea that false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Coming from a religious background, many of those false prophets are obvious - Jim Jones, Mark and Elizabeth Claire Prophet, Sun Myung Moon, David Koresh, Joseph Smith, Mary Baker Eddy, Charles Taze Russell and many, many more. There are also other false prophets within the evangelical church and I will name a couple names here: Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland. There are others. And of course, there are the false prophets of major world religions practiced world-wide today. These people I have named deceived people into various religious groups and cults, literally millions of people all over the world.
But there are other forms of deception today as well. One that is very loosely connected is the New Age movement. Maybe it goes by different titles in different areas and at different times, but it's all one and the same.
Living in the Wet Mountain Valley in the mid-90's we saw a lot of New Age stuff. On the west side of the Valley are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Blood of Christ Mountains), so named by the first Spanish explorers to the area. Nestled in the Valley are two towns, Westcliffe and Silver Cliff. Located up against the eastern foot of the Sangres at the bottom of Horn Peak is Sangre de Cristo Seminary, where Mel attended and graduated from.
On the other side of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, to the west, is the San Louis Valley. Nestled at the western base of the Sangres, almost directly on the other side of the mountain from the seminary, is the little town of Crestone. One of the best articles I've read on Crestone is located here: Shambala of the Rockies, The Mythos and Power of Crestone, by Allison Rae and Reprinted with permission of Four Corners Magazine, Sedona, AZ.
I have often wondered at how God leads people and why He puts them in specific places at specific times. There are no accidents with God. He put us right smack dab in the middle of the Wet Mountain Valley at the end of the '80's and through the middle of the '90's. He put us right there in our little mobile home on the west edge of town exactly where He wanted us to live. Mel worked at a little cafe and pastored a church north of town, both exactly where God wanted him to be. I worked at a Christian conference center and later at the public library in town exactly when God wanted me to work at both places.
Those facts are important. There are no accidents in God's plan. We were supposed to experience, to see, to hear, to learn EXACTLY what we experienced, saw, heard and learned - about a variety of things. I have often thought that God wanted us to get a handle on what was going on within the New Age community without actually being IN it.
We heard about the time Shirley McClaine came through the valley, looking for property to buy so she could start a big New Age center of some kind. The story that went around town - I don't know if it was true or not - is that the real estate agent took her and her chauffer to various big ranches that were for sale, they would stop, she would pick up some of the dirt and sniff it or something to determine if this was 'the place' she was supposed to buy. Obviously God had other plans for her because she eventually bought part of the Baca Ranch at Crestone, on the other side of the Sangres. Believe me, when people heard she was thinking about the Wet Mountain Valley, many prayers were said, pleading with God to make her go away. :)
If you read the article I linked to above about Crestone, you will remember that that part of Colorado is considered to be very spiritually alive. Blanca Peak,
at the end of the Colorado Sangres (there are more in New Mexico) is considered a sacred mountain by the Navajo and other Southwest tribes. Taos and its' famous hum are just to the south and a bit west a few miles. The San Louis Valley and Costilla County are home to dozens of cattle mutilations, UFO reports (there is even a 'UFO viewing tower' located along one of the main highways), 'black helicopters' and other strange phenomenom. 
Some of those things flowed over into the Wet Mountain Valley. In fact, the Silver Cliff cemetery is famous for it's "ghost lights", with them even being mentioned in a National Geographic magazine article several years ago (also see here w/ great photos of the area). I went out there many times at night and unfortunately never saw them - I really wanted to!
Over the years we lived there, more than one person told me they had seen black helicopters or mysterious lights in the sky at night. I remember one rumor of a mutilation. The funny thing is, I often walked at night with only starlight to see by, alone on deserted country roads. Several times Mel and I went for moonlit walks, both in the summer and in the winter. At no time did I ever see any of these things. I now think the reason for that is simply that I don't believe in it and/or God was protecting me from it all.Not too long before we left the Valley, the population of Westcliffe exploded. Lots of new families and couples and even singles moved into the area. When we moved into our mobile home on the edge of town, there were two or maybe three other mobile homes in the whole park. When we left there were several dozen. We had chosen our slot because it was on the very edge of the park with an incredible view of the mountains out the west windows. I cannot come close to describing how beautiful the view was. When we left, there were 3 more mobile homes parked between us and the view, at right angles to our mobile home.
Now, the one located farthest to the right, on the north side, was just a little trailer. A couple moved in. We discovered very quickly that they were involved in the New Age religion. One night we came home and there was a full sized Indian tipi located at the end of their trailer, between it and the road. We soon learned that they set it up during the full moon most months (at least we thought that was the schedule). One nice warm summer day I had all the windows opened and a nice breeze was blowing through the house. Suddenly I smelled smoke. Since Colorado is almost always in drought and the danger of grass fires is very real, I immediately went looking for smoke and grass fires. I looked out the boys' bedroom window, and there was our neighbor, dressed like an Indian with braids hanging down his back, dancing around his trailer, chanting and waving a burning brand of herbs and grasses. I went out, stopped him and asked him what he was doing. "Cleansing their property" was his answer. What he was holding looked just like this:
I complained that the smoke was coming in our windows and that it was very annoying, but he really didn't care. I went back inside, he continued to dance, chant and 'cleanse'. All I could think of was all the evil spirits he was calling down next to us! I immediately went back into the boys' room, watched him and prayed ferverently that God would protect us and our property, and make him stop. He soon did, but I think he was just finished with his ritual.The battle is very real. People who scoff at the spiritual world and it's influence - well, I firmly believe they themselves are deceived.
There are several other examples of things like this that happened during the years we lived in the Valley. That is just the one I always remember first. That neighbor was no more a Native American than I am - he was white. He was pretending to be an Indian - but more, he was totally deceived into believing the lies of Native religion and New Age religion.
Deceived. Deception. Lies. I could see the truth, I know the Truth - but this man and the woman he lived with could not, would not. They were deceived. I felt the presence of Evil whenever they were around. It was not a pleasant time.
Now, some 14 years later, this religion is permeating the internet, books, movies and television programs in America. A casual skim through YouTube shows proof of this. Hundreds, if not thousands, of videos on 2012 and the coming of Planet X or Nibiru, 2012 and the Awakening that will happen then. Just a skim of titles shows the connection between 2012 and 'chakra' (I think I spelled that right) and enlightenment. The History Channel has done programs on it, Discovery has done programs on it. Books by the hundreds are promoting it, explaining it, talking about it. 2012. We will see.
While we lived in Westcliffe one of the guys who used to come into the cafe where Mel worked went on a pilgramage to Medjugorje in Bosnia-Herzegovina. He and more than 35,000,000 (according to one site I looked at) other people from around the world have gone there to see apparitions of Mary, to experience healings, to see the sun 'dance' and change colors, have visions, and special revelations from "The Queen of Peace". I was shocked (why? I shouldn't have been, but I was) to read of how many people have been there to that one place alone. I explored a bit more and discovered that many other places in the world are also having apparitions of Mary. Why did I not know of this? Maybe because we are very insulated here from what is going on within the "Christian" community of the world and because Protestants by and large scoff at such things.
I no longer scoff. I think people really are seeing apparitions of something, that people are healed and see visions and hear prophecies. I am sure they really are seeing a 'beautiful woman' and the sun dance', etc. I also believe it is Satanic in origin. What I am amazed at most, though, is the total deception that is going on with all of this. People are DECEIVED and cannot believe the truth of what is going on.
I return back to the words of Christ above - Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.
These things are happening around us. Rather than being fightened or scoffing or ignoring it - knowing and understanding that it is really happening is a reminder to me that I must STAND FIRM in my faith. Stand firm because If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.' Isaiah 7:9b
and
"He replied: "Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not follow them. When you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened. These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.
Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near." Luke 21:8,9,29
Come quickly, Lord Jesus Christ!
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