Chameleon

INTRODUCTION

The Bottom Line Up Front!

The secret things belong to the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. —Deuteronomy 29:29

Christianity is facing an existential threat. In 1998, it was estimated that by the year 2025, Christianity will have decreased around the world by 8 percent. Unlike the existential threat churches endured during periods of the Roman Empire, the threat to Christianity is more nuanced. One reason there is a decline in Christianity is that people are deciding to limit their church participation and activities and, in many cases, disassociate themselves entirely from church. ­The reason given varies between irrelevancy of the message being put forth to a sense of indifference and the lack of genuine love within the assembly. Yet others see the church pushing a flawed agenda that is mostly centered on things that elevate and glorify a human leader and phantom achievements but nothing that honors God. ­ The problem with such disassociation is that it has and will continue to have a cascading effect that will result in future generations being unfamiliar with church function, protocols, and expressions of worship.

But why is this so? Why are people willing to disassociate themselves from Christian churches? Who or what is causing this sense of disillusionment, discontent, skepticism, and falling away? What about those who still attend church, yet at the same time feel empty and uneasy in their spirits about the worship experience? Who and what keeps them coming back week after week? What keeps them giving and spending money beyond their means? ­

The answers to those questions will be addressed throughout this book, but to provide you with a little insight now, many Christians are being manipulated, challenged, and hoodwinked by the influence of super-deceivers. As the title of this book suggests, a super-deceiver’s outward appearance is like a chameleon, which is capable of changing color and appearance based on the environment into which it has settled. ­This book will attempt to bring balance in inspiring one to live a God-ordained life and to truly understand His message to us, His love for us, and His purpose through us. Most important, this book will bring attention to the tricks, traps, and trip-wires of super-deceivers. While super-deceivers have been in operation for centuries, their activities have become elevated.

A super-deceiver uses five variations of deception as a method of seduction:

1. sensuality—things that appeal to the physical body

2. popularity—things that appeal to one’s ego and attract or distract one from things that really matter

3. wealth—things that appeal to one’s socio-economic status but actually give a false sense of security

4. charisma—the attribute of persuasion, attraction, and believability that leads to hero worship and misplaced priorities

5. fear—things that control and manipulate one’s movement and purpose ­

If you were to take a short journey throughout history, you would find the deception started with Adam and Eve, when Satan disguised himself and misrepresented the truth of God’s words. Satan incited Adam and Eve’s curiosity and sensuality to break their focus.

The threats continued when the Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses, made a decree to slay all the Hebrew males to eradicate the male seed from Israel. To understand the mind-set of the Egyptian pharaohs, we need to know they considered themselves as gods. ­They used the position of authority, as well as superstition, to exert fear upon the citizenry and subjects. One of the goals of the pharaoh was to contaminate the Hebrew women by impregnating them with the seed of pagan Egyptian men. And if you agree with many of the biblical scholars who asserted that Egypt represented sin, then it is obvious what the goal of the super-deceiver was: to mix sin with what God had separated unto Himself. ­

­There were other instances of God’s message, love, and purpose, but such threats became a little convoluted when they were perpetrated from within the ranks of God’s people. It was Israel’s own King Herod who decreed that all male babies be slaughtered, which was an attempt to kill the baby Jesus. King Herod saw Jesus as a threat to his kingship, but in reality, Satan was using Herod’s proclivity for popularity and power to thwart God’s message, God’s love, and God’s purpose.

God’s true message from error practically became indistinguishable after the death of Jesus and during the time of the apostles. Even Paul exerted an enormous amount of energy contending with other so-called apostles about the truth of the gospel. Paul all but conceded that he was not as charming and charismatic as many of the other, which is why he stated, in part, “when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1–4).

The book of Revelation speaks about a well-to-do region in Asia called Laodicea. ­The church that was established in that region benefited greatly from the socio-economic status and business commerce associated with the area. While the city—and by default, the church—prospered in enormous ways, the emphasis and dependence on wealth displaced the church’s emphasis and passion for propagating God’s message, love, and purpose. In effect, the message became a message of prosperity, the love was for money, and the purpose was to gain more. As John, the beloved apostle, cited, “So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (Revelation 3:17).