Be Not Deceived - Glenn Conjurske
Be Not Deceived
by Glenn Conjurske
The Bible tells us that the devil is a great deceiver, and indicates also that he enjoys the utmost success in his arts of deception. He is “the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.” (Rev. 12:9). He deceives the world upon many themes, but there is doubtless nothing more dear to his venomous heart than to deceive men concerning the salvation of their souls. He preaches today, and preaches with almost universal success, the same lie that he preached in the garden of Eden, namely, “Ye shall not surely die.” That is, you may have the forbidden fruit, and yet have life also. You may have the sin, without the consequences of sin. You may have your sins while you live, and heaven when you die. Thus sin—-the great issue in Scripture—-is made to be no issue at all. This is the greatest of the devil’s deceptions.
And so successful has the devil been in his arts of deception, that this great lie has prevailed in the very church of God. The very evangelical and fundamental pulpits around the country ring with the devil’s lie Sunday after Sunday. Some years ago I attended some evangelistic meetings in a Baptist church in Colorado, and heard the preacher tell the people night after night, “You don’t have to give up anything!” That is, You may have Christ and salvation without giving up the world, without crucifying the flesh, without renouncing the devil—-without forsaking a single sin. The same is repeated in fact, though not always in such explicit terms, in evangelical churches all over the country.
But this is nothing other than the devil’s lie, which has now gained the reputation of orthodoxy, and goes by the name of grace. The theology of the church has been dyed with it, through the influence of a host of the leaders of Fundamentalism of a past generation. The devil, of course, practices his deceptions as “an angel of light.” He preaches his lie as greater doctrinal purity, and as grace theology, but it is the same old lie which he preached in Eden for all that. And while that lie bears full sway, evangelical preachers tell us, “It is not a sin question, but a Son question.” But an old proverb says, “A witticism proves nothing,” and this witticism flies directly in the teeth of Holy Scripture. The Bible, from cover to cover—-Pentateuch, historical books, poetical books, prophets, Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation—-makes it a sin question. We may grant (though I do not like to use such irreverent forms of speech) that it is both “a sin question” and “a Son question,” but the sin question comes first.
But while the devil’s lie prevails, and “Ye shall not surely die” is the theology of the evangelical church, the issue of sin is excluded from the gospel which is preached. The church has produced a gospel which contains no moral responsibility, and produced at the same time a multitude of converts which display no moral difference from the unconverted. Nor is this exclusion of moral responsibility from the preaching of the gospel a mere oversight. It is designed and deliberate. It is the theology of the church which excludes it. One of the most prominent and influential of Fundamentalism’s teachers was Lewis Sperry Chafer, who calls it a false message, a “False Force in Evangelism,” to raise the issue of sin, or righteousness, or repentance at all. “The issue before the unsaved,” he says, “is not one of after conduct. . . . The individual may be willing to accept Christ, but be wholly unable to see beyond that one step until that one step is taken.” This last sentence is really foolish, for it is a plain matter of fact that most sinners see very plainly, and know very well that if they come to Christ they cannot continue to live the life which they do. This is the very thing which keeps them from coming to Christ—-till they are deceived to the contrary by evangelical theology. But it is Chafer’s first sentence that we are concerned with. According to this, the way he shall live after he is converted is no issue at all to the sinner. The prodigal may return to the Father’s house with no purpose to stay there, nor to serve or honor his Father—-without ever considering that issue at all. He wants the “bread enough and to spare,” but how he shall treat his Father is no issue to him. He wants Christ as his Savior from hell, but it is no issue to him whether he shall submit to him as Lord. Whether he shall stay in the Father’s house and behave himself, or rob his brother of his inheritance and return to the far country, is no issue at all, if only he has faith to obtain the best robe and the fatted calf.
And as is the gospel which is preached, so are the converts which are converted by it. They believe the devil’s lie, that they may have their sins and salvation too, and this lie they call the gospel. And as they believe, so they live. But the plain fact is, those converts are deceived, and it is the gospel of the church which has deceived them.
The Bible contains no such gospel as this, but just the contrary. Against this very “gospel” the apostles of Christ give us repeated and explicit warnings, and those warnings are plain enough. The New Testament epistles contain repeated warnings against being deceived, and in all of those warnings the plain and undeniable issue is SIN OR SALVATION. The apostles are explicit and forceful in affirming that it must be one or the other, and cannot be both.
We begin with James, who says, “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to SAVE YOUR SOULS. But be ye DOERS of the word, and not hearers only, DECEIVING YOUR OWN SELVES.” (James 1:21-22). Now, though the translation is a bit cumbersome, to “lay apart ALL filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness” is precisely the Bible doctrine of repentance. That being done—-the right hand being cut off and the right eye plucked out, and no sin spared or cherished—-we are to receive the word which is able to save our souls. That this text concerns salvation is too plain to be mistaken. It is the way of many evangelicals, whenever they see a scripture which lays any such requirements upon men, to deny that that scripture has anything to do with salvation. But he must be a bold man who could deny it here. What is the saving of our souls, if not salvation?
But this much being said, James must immediately add a solemn warning, for many there are who receive the word, believe it, hold its doctrines, and even contend for the faith, who have never yet begun to do the word. They have never laid aside all sin, and really have no intention of doing so. They have been taught that this is optional, and that the salvation of their souls is no way dependent upon it, no way affected by it. James says they “deceive their own selves.” Those who expect the word to save their souls, but who will not do the word, are deceived.
But the objections to this text will be many. To begin with, James does not say explicitly that such are deceived concerning salvation—-though it would be hard to imagine what else he could refer to, when he has just told them to receive the word which is able to save their souls. But further, and most unfortunately for my doctrine, this text happens to be in James, and true Protestants know, having learned it from the father of Protestantism himself, that James is an epistle of straw, having nothing of the nature of the gospel about it. They do not state the matter in such bald terms as Luther did, but there are many who hold pretty much the same opinion. Beside all this, certain dispensationalists know also that James has nothing to do with the church, because it was not written by Paul. I admit none of these objections, but neither do I stop to answer them, for there is no need. The Spirit of God has been careful to repeat the same warning against deception often enough elsewhere, so that the very welkin of the New Testament would yet ring with it, if James did not exist.
The apostle John is just as careful to insist that it must be sin or salvation, and to solemnly warn us against deception on that point. Says he, “Little children, LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU: he that DOETH RIGHTEOUSNESS is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that DOETH SIN is of the devil.” (I John 3:7-8). Certain antinomian Fundamentalists (as John R. Rice) tell us that this means nothing more than that the “new nature” does righteousness, while the “old nature” commits sin. But John speaks nothing of natures here, but of persons. “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.” (Verse 10). When a man interprets this of the new nature and the old nature, he only makes it manifest that it is doctrinal bias which determines his interpretation. This is so far wresting the text from its natural and obvious meaning that my objection must be as much to such an unconscionable use of Scripture as it is to the doctrine. No man would ever have dreamed of such an interpretation, did not his antinomian theology compel him to it. Can anyone seriously suppose that John gives us a solemn warning to let no one deceive us concerning the fact that the new nature does righteousness, while the old nature does sin? Who was ever deceived about that?
The danger of deception lies in another direction altogether, and there it is very real. Men suppose that they are righteous by faith, righteous in Christ, righteous by imputed righteousness, while they do no righteousness themselves, but live rather in sin. Such are deceived. None are righteous but those who DO righteousness. All others are the children of the devil. If they “do sin”—-practice it, that is, as their habit and character—-and yet suppose that they are children of God, they are deceived. This scripture is so clear that there is no escaping it.
The apostle Paul bears the same testimony, and is even more forceful and explicit than either James or John. First, in I Cor. 6:9-10 he says, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? BE NOT DECEIVED: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Now observe:
1.This text unquestionably concerns salvation, for to “inherit the kingdom of God” certainly means to be saved. It has nothing to do with rewards for service, nor fitness for service, nor discipline in this life, nor with any number of other things to which such salvation texts are commonly applied by our “grace” theologians. The issue here is salvation, and nothing else.
2.The plain issue here is also sin. The issue is SIN OR SALVATION—-one or the other. This is Paul’s doctrine. “The unrighteous SHALL NOT inherit the kingdom of God.” And lest any should quibble as to who the unrighteous are, he immediately describes them in terms which are unmistakable. They are the fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, etc., etc. “They which DO such things,” Paul says elsewhere, “shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
This is Paul’s doctrine, and stated so plainly that it would seem that perversity itself could not deny it. And this doctrine he enforces with the solemn admonition to BE NOT DECEIVED, for then, as now, there were some who so perverted the gospel as to hold that the grace of God and the blood of Christ would take them to heaven, though they lived their lives in sin.
And understand, it is no question of faith here, but entirely of the life which they live. The issue is entirely one of personal and practical righteousness. Of course those who expect to be saved by the grace of Christ have faith, but there are multitudes of them who have a dead and worthless faith, which does not purify the heart nor save them from their sins. They remain in their sins, and trust in Christ to save them from hell. Such are deceived, or the solemn warning of Paul means nothing. We are very well aware, of course, that fornicators and idolaters and adulterers may be saved when they repent, and cease to be such, for this is precisely the message of the gospel. And so Paul no sooner delineates the sort of folks who shall not inherit the kingdom of God, than he proceeds to say, “And such WERE some of you, but ye are washed,” etc. There is no doubt that those who WERE such, but have repented, may be saved, but it is delusion and deception of the most deadly kind to suppose that any who ARE such shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Paul warns again against the same deception in Galatians 6:7-8. “BE NOT DECEIVED: God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
This is another of those solemn warnings which unquestionably concerns the salvation of the soul, but which is generally applied to something else. The text is most commonly applied to the judgements of the Lord purely in this life. I do not deny such an application. The principles of sowing and reaping which this text sets forth have often a very solemn application to the present life. The pages of Scripture, as well as the world around us, are full of examples of this. And yet for all that, it remains a certainty that that is not Paul’s meaning in this scripture. Paul is not speaking of the judgements of the Lord in this life, but of the eternal salvation of the soul. “He that soweth to the Spirit shall reap life everlasting.” He could scarcely make it plainer than this. This refers to salvation, and nothing else. It may be legitimate to speak of reaping the rewards of faithfulness even in this life, but the only thing which Paul speaks of reaping is eternal life. His whole warning, therefore, to “be not deceived” is concerned with salvation. It may be legitimate to apply the principle of the passage, “in due season we shall reap, if we faint not,” to the sowing of the gospel and the reaping of souls, but this is certainly not Paul’s subject. He speaks of our own salvation, of reaping eternal life, and nothing else.
Some, who have paid attention to what the text actually says, have seen plainly enough that it must concern salvation, for to reap eternal life could certainly mean nothing else. John R. Rice was one of these. But to recognize the proper application of the text, and to do that text justice, are two different things—-and Rice’s theology would not allow him to do it justice. He maintained that this sowing to the Spirit is one act of faith, performed once for all when the sinner comes to Christ—-and that all who have performed this one act of faith shall reap everlasting life, though they go on sowing to the flesh for the rest of their lives. But I am bold to say that such interpretation has nothing at all to recommend it, except the false theology which fathered it.
In the first place, Rice’s interpretation causes the passage to contradict itself. It is obvious upon the face of the text that Paul means to delineate two classes of persons, the one of which sows to the flesh, and reaps corruption, and the other of which sows to the Spirit, and reaps life everlasting. These are obviously two distinct and separate classes, and folks must belong to one or the other of them. But Rice’s shift puts many men into both classes at once. Here is a man who is sowing to the flesh, and so set to reap corruption. But in the midst of his course of sowing to the flesh, he sows one act to the Spirit—-and thus becomes the heir of eternal life—-and then goes on sowing to the flesh. So then it is no longer true that they who sow to the flesh shall reap corruption. Here is a numerous class who sow to the flesh—-daily and habitually—-and yet because one time they sowed one act to the Spirit, they shall reap—-not corruption, but everlasting life. Thus does John R. Rice give the lie to Paul, and break the point and blunt the edge of the sword of the Lord—-for he makes the text to support and sustain the very deception which it was written to overturn. We love and honor John R. Rice as a great and good man, but that does not excuse such handling of Scripture. Yet it was no personal fault that drove him to thus make void the word of God, but the theology of Fundamentalism.
What we actually have in the text are two statements which are exactly parallel. He that sows to the flesh shall reap corruption. He that sows to the Spirit shall reap everlasting life. If sowing to the Spirit is one act, to be performed once for all, then sowing to the flesh must be the same—-but this is obviously false. Sowing to the flesh is a life-long thing, and so is sowing to the Spirit. And on this point I may refute John R. Rice out of his own mouth. I heard him preach once, years ago. He preached on prayer, from Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and ye shall find,” etc. In that sermon he strongly insisted upon the fact, which the text states, that “EVERY ONE that asketh receiveth”—-and insisted just as strongly that this asking cannot refer to asking but once, nor even to asking a dozen times, but must refer to him that keeps on asking, for such (Rice contended) is the meaning of the present tense, in which “ask” appears in the Greek. Be it so: but then observe that as “asketh” is a present participle in Matthew 7:8, so also is “soweth” a present participle in Galatians 6:8, and Rice cannot have it both ways. If, as he insists, “that asketh” means “that keeps on asking,” then simple consistency and honesty ought to have moved him to insist equally that “that soweth to the Spirit” in Gal. 6:8 must mean “that keeps on sowing to the Spirit.”
But we need not ask Rice’s leave to believe that this is the actual meaning of Galatians 6:8, for Paul himself makes that clear enough. He no sooner informs us in verse 8 that he that sows to the Spirit shall reap everlasting life, than he proceeds to exhort us in verse 9, “And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”—-that is, if we do not give up, and cease sowing to the Spirit. The reaping in verse 9 is of course the same reaping he had spoken of in verse 8, the reaping, that is, of life everlasting. We shall reap eternal life in due time “if we faint not”—-if we continue in well doing, or in “doing good,” as the expression really means, for “good” is a noun (the direct object), and not an adverb. And though some of our present-day teachers of “grace,” who are wiser than Paul, will doubtless decry this doctrine as heresy, there is no question whatever that, heresy or no heresy, it is the doctrine of Paul. It is in fact the very same doctrine which he also teaches in Romans 2:6 & 7, where he says that God “will render to every man according to his deeds: to them who by PATIENT CONTINUANCE in WELL DOING seek for glory and honour and immortality, ETERNAL LIFE.” But of Romans 2:7 prominent Fundamentalists inform us that “the case is hypothetical.” By this they mean that God would render eternal life to those who patiently continue in well doing, if there were any such, but there are not. But by this shift they do but manifest their settled antipathy to Paul’s doctrine. Will they tell us that it is also hypothetical that God will render indignation and wrath to those who obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness? The two statements are exactly parallel, and if one is hypothetical, we suppose the other must be also. But there is nothing hypothetical in either one of them, but a plain and solemn statement of what God will do. He will judge every man according to his deeds. He will render eternal life to those who patiently continue in well doing—-or in “good work” as the Greek says—-and he will render indignation and wrath to those who obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness. And even supposing it to be legitimate for the teachers of Fundamentalism to toss this out as “hypothetical,” they gain nothing by it, for they must yet reckon with the very same doctrine in Galatians 6:8 & 9, and I do not suppose any of them will dare to call that hypothetical.
“The very same doctrine,” I say, for so it is, and the same as the doctrine of the apostle John also. He that sows to the Spirit shall reap everlasting life. To those who patiently continue in well doing, God will render eternal life, for he that doeth righteousness is righteous. But over against all of this, he that soweth to the flesh shall reap corruption. To those who obey unrighteous God shall render indignation and wrath, for he that doeth sin is of the devil. This is the plain doctrine of the apostle Paul, and this it is which he introduces with the solemn admonition, “BE NOT DECEIVED.” Any man who supposes that he may sow to the flesh, as his habit and character, and yet reap life everlasting, is deceived.
Thus Paul issues the same solemn warning to the carnal Corinthians on the one side, and the legal Galatians on the other. And he is not finished yet, for to make sure that he shall catch all in his net, he must also issue the same warning in one of the prison epistles. So he writes in Ephesians 5:5 & 6, “For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. LET NO MAN DECEIVE YOU WITH EMPTY WORDS, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” Any man who supposes that he has an inheritance in the kingdom of God, while he lives in the sins of the flesh, has been deceived with empty words. “They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God,” says Paul. (Gal. 5:21). Any gospel which grants you an inheritance in the kingdom of God, while you cling to your sins and live in them, is not the gospel of God.
And I ought to point out here that in both I Cor. 6:10 and Eph. 5:5 Paul lists the covetous among those who shall not inherit the kingdom of God, along with the fornicators, idolaters, railers, drunkards, and adulterers. And are not the covetous in much greater danger of being deceived, than drunkards and adulterers? Men are ashamed of adultery and fornication and drunkenness, while covetousness is approved and praised. Men are put out of the church for adultery, but the covetous remain as members in good standing. We may, of course, look into some Bible commentary, and find the term “covetous” so watered down and emptied of its meaning that it shall convict no one, but as a simple matter of common sense, it is safe enough to say that if there are no covetous men in fundamental churches, then there are none in the world. Evangelical churches are full of folks who display the same care in grasping after worldly place and position and possession as the rest of the world does. Yet Paul says they have no inheritance in the kingdom of God.
We have now examined five apostolic warnings to “be not deceived.” The doctrine is the same in every one of them. It is sin or salvation, one or the other. Repent or perish, one or the other. Any man who thinks to secure salvation while he holds to sin is deceived. That there is a great danger of such a deception is indicated by the very existence of these warnings. This is the very point at which the devil deceived Eve, and he has not changed his tactics an iota. Why should he? The now sinful heart of man is surely more susceptible to that deception than ever Eve’s could have been. Men want to hold to their sins, while they of course also want exemption from the consequences of them. They therefore readily believe the devil when he tells them, “Ye shall not surely die.” How precarious is the state of sinners, who have so corrupt a heart, and so cunning and practiced a foe. But miserable indeed is their condition when their own spiritual guides—-the very preachers and teachers of Fundamentalism—-take up the devil’s deception, and, under the names of “grace” and “gospel,” make it the test of orthodoxy. How miserable their state when their trusted guides do their utmost to break the point and blunt the edge of these solemn apostolic warnings! And how awful must be the responsibility of those guides, who, with a Bible in their hands, exalt their own notions of grace above the plain doctrines of the apostles, and wrest and misapply and explain away the most solemn apostolic warnings, and so deceive precious souls for whom Christ died, and whom the apostles labored so fervently to undeceive. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do! Holy Spirit of God, open their eyes, while they may yet undo the damage which their doctrines have done.
“Just One Sin”—-by Harry Ironside. Friend, do you realise what an easy thing it is to lose your soul? Just cling to one sin; just let one sin come between you and God. Possibly someone is saying, “But you mistake the nature of your audience if you think we would stoop to the sin of which Herod was guilty.” Very well, if you know that to be true, if you know that you have never been guilty of these things, never stooped to these things, what other sin is it that is standing between you and your God?
When the Word of God is brought home in power to your soul, and you hear a voice within saying, “Now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6.2), and conscience says, “Yes, I ought to yield to God,” what is it that rises before you, and you say, “Oh, but—-but—-if I become a Christian, I cannot go on with that; I cannot do that any more; I will have to give that up, and I am not prepared for that.” You love that sin more than Christ; you love your sin more than a place in Heaven, and, therefore, you will have to sink with your sin into outer darkness, unless God in mercy still gives you repentance.
—-“How Herod Lost his Soul”; God’s Unspeakable Gift, by H. A. Ironside; London: Pickering & Inglis, n.d., pp. 174-175.
Glenn Conjurske