Deceived
What’s up with all these university protests that we hear about nightly on the news? Why are student protesters chanting “From the river to the sea,” which is the terrorist group Hamas’s call for the utter destruction of Israel! Why have some students been heard chanting “Death to America?”
Did these protesters forget that on October 7th in an unprovoked attack on Israel, Hamas terrorists massacred 1200 people and took another 240 people hostage? Why don’t we hear the protesters calling for Hamas to release the remaining hostages?
The simple answer to all these questions is that these students are greatly deceived. Deceived by leftist curriculum at universities which labels Israel as an oppressor nation and the Palestinian people the oppressed, literally teaching students to be anti- Israel. In fact, some of the student groups now protesting were blaming Israel for Hamas’s brutal attack on Israel even before Israel had time to respond to the Hamas attack!
Deceived by professional protesters who helped organize, coordinate, and fund the protests. Thirty to fifty percent of protesters arrested at some of these universities were not students, and included individuals who are known professional protesters. Observers have also noticed how all the protesters happen to have the same type of tents.
Why all this deception? Because we are living in the last days. 2 Timothy 3:1-9 says:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth…
Doesn’t this particularly fit what is happening on our nation’s college and university campuses?
2 Timothy 3:13-17 continues by telling us what we as Christians need to do in light of the evil and deception of our day:
….while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived,… you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
We need to double down in our studies of the scriptures to be able to recognize truth from lies. For even as Christians, we still have the ability to deceive ourselves; we still battle the desires and temptations of our sin nature. 1 Corinthians 3:18-23 says
Let no one deceive himself… For the wisdom of this world is folly with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” So let no one boast in men…
We must not be enamored by the worldly wisdom of the so called learned. We must not be scared of “science” and try to make our scriptures some how fit what “science” says. As a doctor trained in veterinary medicine, I have witnessed firsthand, that what research or “science” says changes all the time. We must not be enamored with one individual or organization; we must be enamored with Christ alone. We must be in fervent prayer for our country, and we must preach the gospel to the deceived world around us. (2 Timothy 4:5)
Lastly, we must examine our own lives and ask God to show us the deceptions that we believe. It is easy for us outsiders to see how deceived those students are, but it is often much harder to recognize the deception in our own lives. Most of our deceptions are subtle, such as trusting in our finances more than God, judging our neighbor, holding a grudge, living for pleasure more than God, trying to earn God’s love instead of enjoying His grace. The list of possible deceptions is endless, but we can always trust Jesus to show us the truth, for he has said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6).
Note:For greater detail about the campus protest I suggest listening to the April 30th “Briefing” by Albert Mohler