{"id":12347,"date":"2025-12-14T21:01:39","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T21:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=12347"},"modified":"2025-12-14T21:01:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T21:01:39","slug":"tomczak-billy-grahams-4-words-to-defeat-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=12347","title":{"rendered":"Tomczak: Billy Graham\u2019s 4 Words to\u00a0Defeat Deception"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n              <span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading Time:<\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 4<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Throughout history, deception has been used to manipulate people to believe lies. Pharaohs in Egypt used it to trick people into believing they were gods. Hitler wrote of it in his manifesto, <em>Mein Kompf<\/em>, as a \u201cBig Lie\u201d to mislead masses while his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels allegedly said, \u201cIf you tell people a lie long enough, they\u2019ll believe it.\u201d Tobacco companies used to tell us cigarettes \u201cweren\u2019t addictive but healthy!\u201d\n<\/p>\n<h4>Become a Monthly Ministry Partner today.<\/h4>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jesus told us the number 1 sign in last days before His Return was massive deception! He cited it four times in His \u201clast days\u201d discourse, Matthew 24.\n<\/p>\n<p>The White House just launched the \u201cMedia Offender of the Week\u201d to expose deception in our day. \u201cMisleading. Biased. Exposed.\u201d declares the website.\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>Preparation<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<p>Deception is rampant today. What do we do to recognize it and courageously counter it as truth tellers? Prophetic author, George Orwell, said in his classic work, <em>1984<\/em>, \u201cDuring times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cStand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist\u2026\u201d\u00a0 (Eph. 6:14).<\/li>\n<li>\u201cNow the Spirit expressly says that in the last days, some will depart from the faith,\u00a0giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies\u2026\u201d (1Tim. 4:1-2).<\/li>\n<li>\u201cLet no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away (Greek, apostasy) comes first\u2026\u201d (2 Thess. 2:3).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>4 Precautions<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit whom Jesus said was \u201cthe Spirit of truth who comes and will guide you into all the truth\u2026\u201d (Jn. 16:13). We must learn to discern truth from error, remembering the words of Charles Spurgeon, \u201cDiscernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong, but right and almost right!\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Make sure you are faithful and committed in a local church, embracing the authority of sacred Scripture. \u201cWe should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting\u2026\u201d (Eph.4:14).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Cultivate humility and teachability, inviting input and correction. \u201cGod opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble\u201d (Jam. 4:6). C.S. Lewis cautioned us, \u201cHumility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Study the scripture consistently and do not compromise with anything or anyone who discredits it and\/or deviates from its divine inspiration. \u201cStudy to show yourself approved unto God, a workman not to be ashamed able to rightly divide the word of truth.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Years ago, I had the distinct honor of having a \u201cdivine appointment\u201d with Dr. Billy Graham, one of Christianity\u2019s greatest leaders. I shared with him that during the Jesus Movement there was a gathering of 2000 primarily young people meeting weekly 10 minutes from the White House and asked what one bit of advice would he want me to convey to the gathering? \u00a0He pointed to his Bible saying, \u201cStay in the Book! Stay in the Book!\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>So we stay on track and steer clear of today\u2019s tsunami of deception. Let\u2019s seize the safeguard God has provided us.\n<\/p>\n<p>Sobering Stories\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For the first time in our almost 250-year history an outspoken former rapper who identifies as a \u201cMarxist and Islamist\u201d was elected mayor of a major American city, New York! Imagine our largest and most influential metropolis, home to the Stock Market, United Nations and the New York Times governed by a 34-year-old with no political experience, touting communist policies that brought death and destruction to hundreds of millions in the last century.<\/li>\n<li>The church we founded in the DC area during the Jesus Movement that birthed churches and ministries now in 47 countries was turned over to a nationally known young leader years ago. He later departed and denounced Christianity, divorced his wife and devastated his children in the wake of his deception.<\/li>\n<li>An NFL superstar shared about his wonderful Christian experience as a young man, mission trips, and commitment to Christ. Then he pivoted seeing \u201creligion as a crutch\u201d and does not believe in people being saved or in heaven or hell and likes the Dalai Lama.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Here\u2019s the Deal:<\/strong> We live in days of deception. We need to stay close to Jesus and authentic Christians in strong churches committed to \u201cStay in the Book! Stay in the Book!\u201d\n<\/p>\n<h4>How are you praying about deception? Share your prayers and scriptures below.<\/h4>\n<p><em>Larry Tomczak is a best-selling author of 10 books, cultural commentator of 50 years, Intercessors for America board member and a public policy advisor with Liberty Counsel. Go to www.larrytomczak.com to watch 30 amazing, free, on demand, brief videos done by some of America\u2019s top leaders to confidently address today\u2019s tough issues. Photo Credit: Paul M. Walsh \u2013 Billy and Franklin Graham, CC BY 2.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=4934708.<\/em><br \/>\n&#13;\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reading Time: 4 minutes Throughout history, deception has been used to manipulate people to believe lies. Pharaohs in Egypt used it to trick people into believing they were gods. Hitler wrote of it in his manifesto, Mein Kompf, as a \u201cBig Lie\u201d to mislead masses while his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels allegedly said, \u201cIf<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3342,733,2850,3343,1735,267],"class_list":["post-12347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-billy","tag-deception","tag-grahams","tag-todefeat","tag-tomczak","tag-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}