In my previous article, I revealed some of the mechanics of how deception works. Now we need to see how followers of Christ can practically repent from embracing deception. I will use evolution as an example.

Satan spins his lies inside cultures like a deadly web so that, ideally, little children are taught the lie before they are old enough to discern what is happening. When these lies are taught to them by trusted adults, mental lie-based “strongholds” form that can be quite difficult to tear down or escape.

We can see this strategy playing out in our public schools, which to some degree have become satanic indoctrination centers. At present, small children are being taught that gender fluidity is normal and must be embraced. As with all satanic deception, this one requires us to deny our common sense understanding that there are only two genders.

Once the devil can get a person to go against his or her own sense of what is right or obvious in favor of a convoluted lie, the mind has been captured by deception.

Paul wrote about these strongholds in his second letter to the church in Corinth.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (NASB95)

The spiritual battle we face is largely in the mind. God uses his Word and the Holy Spirit to deliver people from deception, without which we are hopelessly captured.

Satan captures our minds using speculative arguments to tear down our reliance on God’s truth and our believing in God at all. Satan’s goal is to produce an atheistic, purposeless, immoral populace that only seeks its own pleasure and lives without reference to God or any fear of his coming judgment.

The more a system of knowledge or a theory relies upon unprovable hypotheses that are in opposition to God’s Word, the greater the likelihood that it originates with Satan.

We are designed by God to live by faith in him without having to know everything for ourselves. Satan convinced Adam and Eve that they needed to know for themselves in order to become like God. This is an innate human tendency now.

We are drawn quite naturally to any supposed system of knowledge that goes beyond what God has revealed and does away for the need for God altogether.

People who have bought into this way of doing life look down on those of us who do our best to rely upon what God has revealed to us in the Bible. They consider us to be childish simpletons stuck in an archaic way of viewing things.

So-called “fact checkers” are ideologically driven hirelings who act as guardians against our discovering truth by blocking, mocking, or otherwise hindering us in some way. When we encounters such resistance, it is a clear indication we are right on target.

This was obvious during the Covid “pandemic,” when truth speakers were routinely censored and truth seekers were blocked from reading or hearing anything that went against the official narrative that masks were pointless and the jab was safe and effective. This barrier against the truth is very real, and those who relentlessly pursue truth will run up against it. The cost for truth telling can be as great as your life, as many whistleblowers discover. The cost associated with seeking truth can be high, too.

The murder and persecution of truth tellers is Satan’s attempt to intimidate the rest of us into submission to the lie.

Our minds are useful tools when guided by God’s Spirit and protectively fenced in by God’s revealed truth, but when we diverge from the truth in pursuit of speculative ungodly theories, we go crashing down the same path as did Adam and Eve. Satan is far more clever than we are and will arrange for our deception when we stray from God’s revealed truth.

The only escape from whatever fortress in which we may be caged is to go back to the Bible’s teachings and fully embrace them, even when it makes us appear foolish in the world’s eyes.

Those who hearts are not in love with God’s truth readily embrace Satan’s lies and deride anyone who makes an attempt to break down the fortress wall to escape to freedom. Those who desire to be set free must be ready and willing to endure the ridicule, resentment, persecution, and even death from those who love lies more than God and truth. The pursuit of truth always has a price tag attached to it. For many of us it is too dear. We prefer the comfort of the lie.

Evolution

The unprovable hypothesis of evolution is taught as fact to young children by influential adults.

This lie from Satan was readily adopted by intellectuals who were looking for a theory that appeared scientific and could give them a plausible way to support their atheism.

Evolution is a perfect example of a satanic stronghold because it is entirely speculative while appearing to give us a scientific (knowledge based) system for explaining how we got here that does not rely upon a Creator.

It is based upon some very big unprovable assumptions. Let’s look at three.

1. The Copernican universe came into being spontaneously and is staggeringly immense and billions of years old.
2. Incredibly complex living beings can emerge from inanimate matter purely by chance given billions of years over which it may happen.
3. Through a process called mutation, living beings can evolve or change over time, acquiring new positive abilities and functions.

Each of these presuppositions require us to take a gigantic leap of faith, since all are pure speculation. Each of these assumptions deny the revealed truth of God’s Word. The first presupposition requires us to accept something that is categorically foolish. How can anything spring from nothing? And if it is allowed that there was matter and energy present when the supposed Big Bang took place, where did it come from? The second and third require us to deny our own observations and common sense by accepting that order can spring from disorder and simple can become complex all by itself.

Evolution therefore requires its adherents to deny what is obvious in favor of a lie. This embracing of deception captures the mind.

Let’s examine each of these presuppositions.

1. There is no scientific proof for the age of the universe. Carbon dating is unreliable. This is an example of one speculation nesting inside of other speculations. There are many well-educated scientists that give plausible arguments for the earth being relatively young, just as the Bible says it is.
2. Spontaneous generation of living beings from inanimate matter has never been demonstrated but is accepted as a fact. It is another unprovable speculation which, if untrue, demolishes the entire hypothesis.
3. Mutations do happen and are almost always destructive. In fact, there is a scientifically proven process called genetic entropy which shows that our DNA actually “devolves” over time. Every generation has more harmful mutations than the previous one, which is why there is genetic “distance” between us and our ancestors. The closer in time we are to our ancestors, the fewer number of mutations. This is well known to anyone who studies genealogy using readily available DNA testing. In fact, genetic entropy is so profound that it absolutely rips apart the entire speculation that humans have inhabited the earth for millions of years. Our DNA would be hopelessly corrupted by now. So, through mutations we are actually devolving not improving.

These few examples of the problems involved with accepting the evolutionary way of looking at existence should provoke a lover of truth to come to some conclusions about the entire system, but the average person will simply keep believing it because he or she was taught from childhood that it is so, because so many respectable scientists affirm it is so, and because most of us are unwilling to endure the ridicule and other consequences associated with admitting we no longer ascribe to the lie.

To escape this stronghold I must make the decision that I will accept what God’s Word says, no matter what the personal cost.

The Bible teaches that the earth is quite “young” and that God created Adam and everything else in our world, both animate and inanimate.

Followers of Christ face the critical decision to either believe all that the Bible teaches or start making “exceptions” anywhere we think “advances in science” prove that the Bible is inaccurate.

Let us accept Paul’s warning and determine to repent from believing lies.

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— 21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you. 1 Timothy 6:20–21 (NASB95)

Prayer

Creator God, I repent for arrogantly denying your Word and thinking we humans know better. With your help, I will reject every false system, even if it costs me personally. Amen.