INTRODUCTION
I sat
silently in my parked car, staring at the steering wheel. Jenny sat in the
passenger seat, staring out the window. We had been dating for a few months.
Already marriage seemed likely. However, she had just told me she believed a
U.S. politician I deeply admired was not trustworthy and that some of his key
policies and actions in office were based on lies.
This
disagreement might have been trivial for some couples, but not to me. I had
always been extremely loyal to my political party and its leaders. I believed,
in large part, they were good, moral, Christian men and women. Her suggestion
was so offensive to me that I seriously questioned whether we could stay
together.
Thankfully
she diffused the situation by sharing that she was not that into politics and
this wasn’t something she felt super strongly about. She was willing to listen
to my perspectives or just drop the topic altogether if I preferred. I
appreciated her openness. I thought to myself that in time I could shift her
perspective to something more accurate. Meanwhile, she prayed in her heart that
God would open my eyes to the truth. Years later, He did just that.
In fact,
an overhaul of my political views was instrumental in God delivering me
from a spiritual deception that nearly destroyed my marriage. Why?
Because a number of the deceptive Christian leaders I followed for over ten
years were also active in politics. Therefore, when I finally began to see how
unbiblical their political positions were, I started questioning their other teachings
as well.
Gradually,
the entrancing aura these leaders held over me unraveled. How could they be led
by God, I asked, and still zealously throw their support to politicians and
government actions that, in addition to being far outside of the biblical
mandate for civil government, were thoroughly rooted in lies and deceit? This
question perplexed me for a long time.
I spent
thousands of hours researching to find answers. One author’s observation
particularly stood out to me. She said if she had to choose just one word that
best characterized evil, it would be duplicitous.
I
eventually concluded that one of my most fatal flaws was misplaced confidence
in my ability to discern influential religious and political leaders. I
realized that their ability to come across as heartfelt and genuine, and their
ability to say just the right things in just the right way to convince people
to follow them, is precisely how many leaders reach their platforms. Their
words and teachings may actually have nothing to do with what kind of people
they are or what they believe in private. It is all about how effectively they
present and manipulate. I found this to be true across the political and
religious spectrum, including across Christendom.
As we will
learn in coming chapters, the Bible has a great deal to say, both directly and
by logical extrapolation, about topics like the proper role of civil
government, freedom of choice, labor, money, property, taxes, banks,
regulations, social programs, education, and how and why to go to war. We will
also learn how many of America’s systems and institutions are diametrically
opposed to scripture at every turn. Coming to understand this was a crucial
step in my journey out of deception.