The Deceiver and the Deceived

Is it fair to connect the teaching that the Torah has ended with the spirit of antichrist? It sounds harsh. Many who believe the law is over are sincere, kind, and devoted, and it is hard to think of them as under the influence of the enemy.

The Bible answers this question with care. Its answer is yes, but it is a yes with a careful distinction.

A Force Already at Work

Paul names the force plainly:

2 Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of anomia ἀνομία an-om-ee'-ah(Torah-lessness) is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.

“The mystery of anomia(Torah-lessness) is already at work.” Paul did not place this only at the end of the age. He saw it working quietly in his own century. To him Torah-lessness was not an abstract idea but an active force.

John tells us to test the spirits:

1 John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every pneuma πνεῦμα pnyoo'-mah(spirit), but test the pneumata(spirits) to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

And Yeshua named the effect anomia would have on people:

Matthew 24:12 Because anomia(Torah-lessness) is multiplied, most people's love will grow cold.

“Most people’s love will grow cold.” Anomia does not remain an idea. It cools the heart.

The influence, then, is real, and it reaches far. Yet Scripture does not stop there.

The Teacher and the Crowd

Scripture does not treat everyone under that influence alike. It sets the teachers apart from the crowds.

The heavy judgment falls on those who teach:

Matthew 5:19 Whoever then breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of the heavens; but whoever keeps and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of the heavens.

Notice the words “and teaches others to do the same.” To break a commandment is one thing. To stand at the front of the room and teach others to break it is another.

James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive a stricter krima κρίμα kree'-mah(verdict).

The weight falls on the one who teaches.

And the crowds? See how Yeshua regarded them:

Matthew 9:36 And seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and scattered like sheep without a shepherd.

The word for “felt compassion” is splanchnizomai σπλαγχνίζομαι splangkh-nid'-zom-ahee. It comes from the word for the inner organs, the gut, the place where the ancient world located the deepest feeling. It is not polite sympathy but a pain felt deep inside. Yeshua looked at the crowds and was moved to the depths of His being, because they were “distressed and scattered like sheep without a shepherd.”

For the most part, the people in the pews are not the deceivers. They are the deceived, wearing glasses that were handed to them by people they trusted.

What a Deceived Person Needs

A person who has been deceived does not need a verdict. Such a person needs the text, and someone who will gently lift the glasses away.

Paul told Timothy how this is to be done:

2 Timothy 2:24-25 The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them metanoia μετάνοια met-an'-oy-ah(repentance, spiritual domain) leading to the epignosis ἐπίγνωσις ep-ig'-no-sis(spiritual, complete knowledge) of aletheia ἀλήθεια al-ay'-thi-a(truth),

The change of mind itself is not ours to grant: “if perhaps God may grant them metanoia(repentance, spiritual domain).” Turning the heart is God’s work. Our work is to set the whole text on the table and to answer questions from it.

A Field Ready for Harvest

In all of this there is hope:

John 4:35 Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest already.

If most of those under this influence are sheep without a shepherd rather than wolves, then the field is not hostile ground but a harvest. What they need is someone who will open the Scriptures to them, as Yeshua opened the Scriptures to His disciples.

That is the spirit in which the rest of this book is written.

Back to the First Century

We are now ready to take off the glasses and come back to the pastor at the church breakfast, and to a sentence many of us have heard about what he eats.