Recently, I tasted a dish prepared with a popular meat substitute. The appearance, texture and smell were indistinguishable from real beef. And the taste? As a die-hard carnivore, I would definitely eat this if I could no longer eat beef. I could not readily determine which was the substitute and the authentic product, even when tasted side by side. Very clever food chemists were able to concoct a combination of different plant based products to simulate meat. Yet, there were some subtle drawbacks. It is definitely more expensive. In order to make it palatable, more salt was added and even a synthetically engineered molecule, identical to heme, one of the products in red blood cells, was added, so that the final product oozed “blood”. Very clever, indeed!
This was simply food. What about our spiritual lives? Can we be deceived into believing a false god or religion? Could we ever be in a Christian church and be surrounded with lies and false teachings? We are always under attack by Satan who seeks to deceive everyone by twisting God’s Truth into lies. How does he attempt to do this?
These people are false apostles. They are deceitful workers who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no wonder that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. In the end they will get the punishment their wicked deeds deserve.
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (NLT)
Simply because an action is good and helps people does not mean that it is from God. Satan cloaks his actions under the guise of acts of righteousness. There are even churches that claim to be Bible-believing yet deny the Trinity and even the divinity of Jesus Christ. This is not Christianity. How can we know the difference?
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
1 John 4:1 (NLT)
It is important to know the difference when choosing a plant-based meat substitute over the real meat product. Our spiritual walk with God requires even greater discernment and scrutiny. We live in a world that is beset with spiritual warfare. False teachers and prophets. False servants of righteousness. The Bible instructs us to test everyone’s teaching, holding it up to the light of Gods’ Word, to see if it is the Truth.
Love and trust in the Lord; seek His will in your life.
The Bereans Blog 