CLAY CENTER — The Great Fire of Rome took place in 64 A.D. during the time of Roman Emperor Nero. Following the horrific fire, Nero falsely charged Christians for the fire, then gave orders for their arrest and execution. The public supported the baseless charge and barbaric murders of thousands of Christians.
During the 1930’s, when Adolph Hitler had taken the helm of Germany, he began a smear campaign against the Jewish people. Unjust laws were passed against them, Jewish books burned and boycotts were organized. Eventually it evolved into the genocide of millions of Jews with the public’s support.
Sun Tzu is known as a successful Chinese military strategist around 5 B.C. Some believed he wrote, “The Art of War,” where he stated, “All warfare is based on deception.”
Both Nero and Hitler used this tactic in their war on Christians and Jews. Who did they deceive? Their own citizens. In the Bible, King David spoke of being a victim of this kind of warfare, “For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.” (Psalm 109:3-4)
Merriam-Webster defines deception as “the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid.” In the simplest terms, deception is lying. And who embodies this more than anyone? The Devil. Jesus said about him, “...there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) You can be sure, where there is deception, there is the Devil. For he has been doing this type of work since the beginning of time.
After God created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, He laid down moral boundaries for them. Soon the Devil came gently and persuasively, taking the truth God spoke to them and twisted it to get Adam and Eve to doubt God and reject Him; which they did. Afterwards Eve accurately stated what the Devil did to her, “The serpent deceived me.” (Genesis 3:13) And what was the effect? Incredible evil! It caused separation from God, death and destruction not only upon Adam and Eve, but all humanity following them until this very day.
Note where responsibility fell. If you read the story, you will find that though the Devil was doing the deceiving, both Adam and Eve were held responsible for their actions. Why? Because the deception involved violating God’s moral law, and despite being presented a package of lies, in the end, they made a conscious choice to disobey God.
Nero and Hitler engaged in massive scale government deception schemes, strategizing to lead astray their entire nation to bring death and destruction upon particular groups of people. There were those who actively participated, doing what they knew was wrong while others sat by quietly, and allowed the tragedies to move forward without objection.
At the beginning of the gruesome actions of the Roman and German governments, the citizens could not see into the future. This is why we need wisdom and discernment now, more than ever.
Today, due to the advancement of technology, deceptive messaging is all around us like never before. This is where the world must have men and women of understanding who will courageously confront deceptive lies through boldly speaking God’s truth. This is what Jesus, our Lord and Savior did. This also was the work of the Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles. Confronting deception can lead to the salvation of souls and to the saving of human lives and entire nations from death and destruction. However, the cost is great. The prophets and apostles were persecuted, Jesus was crucified, and those who stood against Nero or Hitler, like Germany’s Dietrich Bonhoeffer, were killed.
Be the one our world needs. By the power of God, stand for what is wise, right and good no matter the cost.
A prayer for you – Lord God, raise up wise men and women that can understand the times in which we live. Raise up people of courage that are willing to risk it all while doing the godly work of standing for truth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Clint Decker is president of Great Awakenings. Share comments at cdecker@greatawakenings.organd follow his blog at clintdecker.blogspot.com.
