I’m going to be blunt. Christians have absolutely no excuse for remaining biblically illiterate. Unfortunately, that is the state of most Christians today. As we approach the last days of this age, it’s imperative that we have a working knowledge of the entirety of scripture. After giving them a detailed teaching about what to expect as the end times draw near, Jesus told His disciples “Take heed that no one deceives you.” (Matthew 24:4) “Take heed” here is the Greek word blepo. It means to perceive or discern, have the power of understanding. In other words, Jesus said; obtain the power of understanding My word so that you will not be deceived. This “power of understanding” comes from deep study of our bible and allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s direction for our lives. Simply attending a Sunday morning service and a once a week bible study will not suffice.
Wide spread deception is already here, dominating media, governments, all sorts of social constructs, and yes, even our families and churches. We have no choice but to be individually prepared to deal with this deception even to the point of suffering intense persecution. And, its going to get worse. Much worse.
Just think about the amount of time we spend entertaining ourselves and browsing the internet and social media. If we spent equal time in God’s word, we would quickly become proficient in rightly handling scripture both to our benefit and to those in our sphere of influence. Most importantly, we would not be ignoring the primary means of communication to us directly from our Creator. We have in our possession a long love letter from our Master. We would do well to not ignore it. And, we would avoid the biblical illiteracy that leads to deception.
I hope that being this blunt doesn’t offend you. We all need to be strong in His Word.
Maranatha, Jim