✝ Daily Encouragement (7/14/23) "A New, Ancient Form Of Deception"

Published: Fri, 07/14/23

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Friday, July 14, 2023

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"A New, Ancient Form Of Deception"

Message summary: "But still our ancient foe, doth seek to work us woe." We must always be on our guard against spiritual deception.

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“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15).

AI is a fancy thing, two letters that stand for Artificial Intelligence. But we suppose 99.99%+ of our readers already knew that!

Some believe AI shows promise in making life better but many see the potential for abuse for a variety of reasons. Today we want to consider one that we are sure our ancient foe will use, AI as a means of deception. As one commentator puts it “Garbage in, garbage out.”

Regarding the title of today's message I wanted to use a strike-through over the word "new" but don't have the skills to do so, although I tried. Most that seems new is really ancient such as our consideration of "woke" several days ago. In regard to deception there really is nothing new under the sun!

A specific deceptive use of AI is "deepfakes", which is digitally manipulated media designed to replace or alter a person's likeness. It might be putting words into a mouth that appear altogether authentic or even putting one person's words into another person's mouth, another form of counterfeit and masquerading. Many of you have probably seen examples of this and indeed it is very realistic. (see below for link to brief video)

In his great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress" Martin Luther wrote "but still our ancient foe, doth seek to work us woe". Indeed our ancient foe has always and continues to work us woe! Whether through deepfakes or something less technical life is full of masquerades and counterfeits that can be hard to detect, requiring us to have Spirit-empowered discernment.

The value of the genuine spawns the counterfeits and masquerades and thus it should not surprise us when we confront counterfeits and masquerades in the spiritual realm as well. Paul confronted and warned against counterfeit teaching and masquerading apostles. That’s one of the duties of a caring shepherd.

In 2 Corinthians 11:1-15 Paul dealt with the topic of false apostles who preach a different Jesus than the one he preached. This portion of Scripture is a warning in general about counterfeit teaching, a warning just as applicable today as the day Paul wrote it.

In another Scripture Paul specifically exposes the false teaching of two men, Hymenaeus and Philetus. These troublemakers, who were once teachers of the genuine gospel, had wandered from the truth, denying the resurrection, and were thereby destroying the faith of those who chose to embrace their false teaching (2 Timothy 2).

Paul describes the counterfeits he dealt with in 2 Corinthians as "false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ". The relentless attack on the genuine faith that Paul encountered continues unabated today and is actually increasing in my view. AI will likely be a new method in our ancient foes' arsenal of deception.

We face deception from the scientific realm, media outlets, the political arena, educational field, entertainment industry and certainly the religious establishment. On the personal level we daily face the flaming arrows from our enemy who seeks to move us off the right course. We must always be on our guard against spiritual deception.

The chief masquerader is Satan himself. It’s his very nature to masquerade as an angel of light. In the Bible he initially came on the scene masquerading as a cunning and clever serpent. In his deceptive craft he convinced Eve that he was able to impart wisdom and that he was looking out for her best interest. What a lie!

The word “masquerade” means “to transform one’s outward appearance, to disguise.” In the Garden not only did Satan disguise his outward appearance but also his inward motivation. Surprise, surprise, he lied! In our daily text the original Greek "masquerade" is translated in the present tense indicating this is something Satan habitually does.

It is not surprising that Satan’s servants also "masquerade as servants of righteousness". We must continue to examine and discern all that we see, read, and hear so that we base our standard on the genuine Word of God, which remains and always will be the firm foundation of truth!

Be encouraged today, ( Hebrews 3:13)

Stephen & Brooksyne Weber

Daily prayer: Father, we ask You to not only open our eyes to that which is around us, but we ask You to open the eyes of our hearts so that we might envision that which is true and that which is false on a spiritual level. When we hide Your Word in our hearts we more quickly discern that which masquerades as good, but its source is from one of Satan’s servants “masquerading as a servant of righteousness". Because Your Spirit reigns in our hearts and knowledge from Scripture fills our minds, we affirm that which is Scriptural and reject that which is heresy. May we be vigilant in attaining Scriptural knowledge and fervent in prayer as we encounter the gods of this age. In the matchless and true name of Jesus’ we pray, Amen.

Today's Suggested Music and Supplemental Resources

"Deepfake example. Original/Deepfake close shot of Bill Gates" Click to watch on YouTube (28 seconds)

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