Down the Wrong Road

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. (1 Tim 4:1-2)

This is a stunning statement from Paul to Timothy. Paul says that some will fall away and he explains how. Notice the two components.

First, the origin of the problem is "deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons". I've often suggested that there is a conspiracy on many fronts. Some think I'm talking about people -- the Left, the "LGBTQx", whatever -- but I'm not. I'm talking about Satan. I'm talking about a spiritual conspiracy from spiritual forces that blind (2 Cor 4:4), mislead (Eph 2:2) and deceive (Rev 20:3; Rom 16:18; Jer 17:9) the world against God and His Word. Paul is saying the same thing. The error that those who fall away fall into is derived from spirits and demons offering deceitful doctrines.

The confusion regarding my conspiracy claim is that it's easy to confuse the source with the outlet. If you buy a pair of Nike running shoes and someone asks, "Where did you get those?" when you tell them the name of the store, they need to keep in mind that the store didn't make them; the store sold them. That's the difference between the outlet (the store) and the source (Nike). The deceitful doctrines that people fall into are sourced from demonic forces, but the outlet from which they get these doctrines is "the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience."

Now, that's a phrase, isn't it? Let's unpack it. At its center is the basic component -- liars. These people are not speaking the truth. They are deceiving. Why? Paul says they are hypocritical. They say they're trying to enlighten you, trying to encourage you, trying to lead you to the truth. They say that they've arrived at the truth and you haven't and they'd love to help. They're lying hypocrites. They haven't arrived at the truth; they've jettisoned it. They had it and they let it go. The third part of the phrase, then, is how they let it go. They are "seared in their own conscience".

You get that, don't you? All humans, even the very young, have a conscience. It's a mechanism that is built in that says, "This is right and that is wrong." We train it when they're young -- refine it, adjust it, inform it. But it's there. I've seen little children react with fear and regret when they get caught doing something they know to be wrong even when they've never been told it was wrong. Well, just as it can be improved and refined in youth, it can also be scorched over time. With enough ignoring of the conscience, it eventually ends up burned, leaving its owner without the natural "This is right, that is wrong" mechanism. They no longer are aware of it. Violate it and ignore it long enough and it stops working. "Seared in their own conscience."

So, folding all this back together, the Spirit explicitly says that in later times (like ours) it will be that people who appear to be in the faith will exit. They seemed to be there, but they fall away. Why? They pursue lies offered by hypocritical teachers who no longer have a working conscience and offer, in the place of the truth faith, deceitful doctrines of demons. Now, you know that something that doesn't fool anyone is not considered "deceitful", so it's not like this stuff isn't believable; it's just wrong. But, notice ... what came first was "the faith". These deceitful doctrines carried by hypocritical liars comes after. An easy clue, then, is when someone starts with the biblical, historical faith and then jettisons it for "something better".

Scripture is clear. We need to remain in the faith, to persevere, to continue (e.g., Col 1:23; 1 Tim 4:16; 2 Tim 2:12; 2 Cor 13:5; Heb 3:12-14; 1 Cor 15:2; Matt 10:22; Matt 24:13; Heb 10:26-29; etc.). Don't misunderstand me. Scripture is equally clear that God ensures that His own do (e.g., John 6:37-39; John 10:26-30; Phil 1:6; 1 Thess 3:11-13; Rom 8:1-4; Rom 8:28-29; Jude 1:24; etc.). So God's Word tells us that perseverance is necessary and God works in His own to make sure they do persevere. That leaves two other categories. There are those who never believe or even appear to believe and there are those who appear to believe but, not persevering, demonstrate that they are "not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us." (1 John 2:19)

There is a clear message here. We need to persevere in "the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." (Jude 1:3) That perseverance is something God does (Phil 2:12-13). Outside of that faith there is no shortage of deceitful doctrines of demons offered up by hypocritical liars who are no longer aware that they're wrong or even clear on what is good or bad. The first category is where you want to be -- in the faith. Avoid the latter.