The Standard of Truth

1 Timothy 4:1-2  “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, (2) speaking lies in hypocrisy having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.”

This kind of text is a light in a dark place.  What will we do with it?  To say that something happens in the latter times does not really help much.  Each generation can see theirs as the last generation.  We see and hear that happening now.  I have been waiting for the end to come all my life, and it is not all bad to have this vision.  I think it helps you pay more attention. 

The light continues to shine in the darkness as we are told that in the latter times “…some will depart from the faith…”  I believe that the “faith” is shown more clearly in the red words in the Bible.  It is not what man has done with it since the Lord’s time.  So, when you look for a departing from the faith, look at the red words as your standard of truth.

The light continues: giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.  Now, this is not being spoken to those not in the church.  These are church folks who will depart from the “faith.”  An example of this would be the experience of the fall in the Garden.  They had the “faith.”  It gave them the truth—who they were in God.  It gave them the truth—there was a way that was true and a way that was false.  It gave them the truth—the key was staying in a relationship of trust and love.  The fruit of that relationship was obedience. 

Enter the deceiving spirit and doctrine of a demon.  The first thing the devil did was to use a medium that seemed trustworthy…another one of God’s creations.  There are a lot of lessons for us just in this.  The next thing the devil did was to distort the words of God by saying: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?’”  This is not what God had said.  And Eve entered into a conversation with the devil in which she was correcting the devils words.  Again there are so many warnings here for us. 

The light shines on: speaking lies in hypocrisy…the conscience seared.  Lies in hypocrisy means persons pretending to have divine inspiration and an extraordinary degree of holiness.  That was the devil.  He insinuated that God did not mean what God had said and that God was limiting their experience.  We can hear this same reasoning in the world today.  Distortion, insinuation, and contradiction…the devil is leading the woman to where she will accept a lie…”thou shalt not surely die.”  On earth, it was the first lie.

Unless we know the word of God, we will not know when it is being distorted.  There are many deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons that are being taught.  Many people are putting their own experiences ahead of the word of God.  Our experiences cannot define our beliefs.  The Bible must be the standard by which we measure truth.  Experience does not take the place of God’s word.  That truly is idolatry.  Experience becomes our God, and then we use distorted scripture to dress it up and make it sound good.  This was done in the Garden.  Satan repeated the tactic in the wilderness in Jesus’ temptation.  It did not  work…praise God. 

There is much that I do not understand as I observe what is going on in this world.  However, I have decided to be in the Word of God and know what it says…via the Holy Spirit…not man’s interpretation.  Man actually has not done such a good job.  It seems everyone believes something different.  The Holy Spirit does not do that to us…”When He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all truth. John 16:13”  This is such good news for us, and I hope it encourages you, too, to be in the red words.  God bless!