Peace and Discernment in an Age of Delusion

Peace and discernment in an age of delusion. That is a topic we'll discuss today right here on the Christian Real View Radio Program, where the mission is to sharpen the biblical worldview of Christians and to share the good news of Jesus Christ. I'm David Wheaton, the host, and the Christian Real View is a non-profit radio ministry. We thank you, our listeners, for your encouragement and support, and also to our national sponsor, Samaritan Ministries, who are a community of Christians paying one another's medical bills. You can find out more at our website, thechristianworldview.org.

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If you have trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and believe God's Word to be what it claims to be, the basis for truth, do you feel sometimes like you're living in an alternate universe right now, where assertions made by politicians, government agencies, the media, scientists or doctors, and even friends and family are really the exact opposite of reality? I mean, the examples are endless. We've been talking about COVID recently on the program.

You hear this one. COVID is a dire threat to humanity when 99.98%, I believe it around to be, of people who get COVID survive it. And then not only that, but early treatment medications for COVID are suppressed and not made known. Or you'll hear this, we need to follow the science when the evidence shows that the COVID virus passes right through a cloth mask and that children wearing masks to school is of very little to actually negative benefit on them. Or we must mandate the so-called vaccine when it's not a vaccine.

It doesn't keep you from contracting or spreading COVID and their untold adverse reactions, including death that occurred from this injection. This is what the Bible calls a delusion. In other words, believing what is false. And COVID isn't the only example of delusion, by the way. I just listed out a few things here that we hear so frequently now that perhaps we don't even notice as much as we should.

You can change your gender, we're told today, or biological males who claim to be females should be able to compete in sports against females, or read books about transgenderism to little children in public libraries. Here's another one. The police should be defunded and dismantled. Or white people are racist, whether they admitted or not. Here's another delusion.

America was founded on white supremacy and is systemically racist. Or a homosexual can't change and conversion therapy should be a crime. Or a baby in the womb, you've heard this one, is just a kind of a group of cells or tissues, not a human being. Or marriages, whatever arrangement you want it to be.

After all, love is love. Or the universe, which is one of the biggest lies of all time, is the result of spontaneous combustion. Nothing somehow became something and exploded into everything. Okay, talk about delusion.

Government or socialism or the right global leader is going to solve our problems, solve man's problems, and then we'll have peace and unity in the world. One final one that is a little bit humorous if it wasn't so ridiculous. Cattle farmers are contributing to the destruction of the Earth's climate through their cows emitting gas. That is delusional. And all the things I listed up there are delusional. It's believing what is false. These delusional assertions are repeated endlessly, even by highly educated people.

There's no correlation between intelligence and wisdom and education. And then if you, as a biblical Christian, dare state the truth in response to these delusional assertions, well, you'd be fired from work. You'll be removed from social media. You'll be the outcast.

You're the one that's on the wrong side of history. So in this age of mass delusion, how can one have peace of mind and discern truth from error? Well, our guest today in the program is Greg Hauser. He's an associate pastor at High Point Baptist Church in Larksville, Pennsylvania, and we're going to examine how early Christians were struggling with similar kinds of delusion taking place in their day and age. And what the Apostle Paul told them about why delusion actually exists, what the future holds for us today, and how believing in the gospel is the basis for comfort and strengthens our heart. So let's get straight to the interview with Pastor Greg Hauser.

Greg, thank you for coming on the Christian worldview today. This is your first time on the program, so I often ask first time guests to tell us about your background, how you became a follower of Christ and what you do now. I grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the Roman Catholic religion, and went through parochial school, first grade through 12th grade, and then went off to college to sow my roots, if you will. And about the age of 30, 32, I had one broken relationship after the next. The question that was going through my mind is, did I even have the capacity to love another person? God started putting Christian people into my life, and growing up in Des Moines, these Christian people started inviting me to a men's business meeting.

It was called Cross Trainers. I always found it interesting that people found great comfort in reading the Bible, and there were times when I would read the Bible and just push the Bible away from me, because I had no clue what was being said. It made no sense to me, and I didn't understand why anybody would find comfort in the Bible, because it was so meaningless. But on April 19th of 2000, Wednesday morning, around 7.30, it was the end of the time, but we had a guest speaker that day, and the guest speaker came and started talking about Old Testament prophecy fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And specifically, he was talking about Daniel, the 70 weeks prophecy, and how in that prophecy, it came down to the exact day of Christ's entry into Jerusalem.

And I was really convicted about the truth that he was saying. Growing up Catholic, we would only study the catechism, and we wouldn't talk about the Bible and prophecy. I'd never heard these things, and I was convinced that the Bible was different.

How could something hundreds of years before it happen be so specific and exact in its fulfillment? But he also went on to talk about, well, this perfect person who came, Jesus, the Messiah, he came to live a perfect life, to die a death he didn't deserve, to take the punishment that we do on the cross. And I've come to learn that without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin. So when Jesus Christ died on the cross, he shed his blood for those who repent and trust in him.

He died, but he didn't stay in the grave. He rose three days later and ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. So he talked about the repentance necessary for your salvation. And so I was convinced by those Old Testament prophecies. I was convicted of my sin and recognized that that was my need. I was dead in my sin, and I needed Christ for forgiveness of sins. And it was about 730 April 19th of 2000 when I bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and have been following since then. What's interesting is after that point in time, there was a couple of times where I was reading the Bible and pushed the Bible away from me. Not an unbelief, but belief, because I knew what it was saying. And one of them was in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, where it talks about Moses coming down from the mountain and he was radiating the glory of God. And it says that so too it is to this day until that you receive Christ, you have a veil over your heart and you can't have understanding until that veil is removed and that veil is removed because of Christ. I'm very thankful for God saving me out of my religion of human achievement and adopting me into his family through repentance and trust in Christ. And all glory goes to him.

Thank you for sharing that. Greg Hauser with us today on the Christian Real View Radio program. We're going to talk about having peace and discernment in an age of delusion. You were in a state of delusion really before you came to saving faith in Christ. Everyone is who's an unbeliever. They don't have the Spirit of God within them. They can't understand the times.

And so they're just in darkness groping around. And that's why Christians need to be very clear about how people can be saved. And so we're going to get into that today. But I want to read a passage from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, the church in Thessalonica. And in this letter, I was reading the preview to this book of the Bible, this letter. And the study Bible, the preview said that there's three things going on in this letter that Paul wrote to the Thessalonians when he was actually in Corinth. So there's number one, there was pressure and there was persecution that had increased on the believers in that particular church.

Number two, that there were false doctrines, particularly about the day of the Lord. In other words, they were facing this persecution, this pressure. And Paul had told them previously that they weren't going to go through this time of judgment with the day of the Lord, but then they were starting to doubt. Like, well, boy, we're getting all this pressure and persecution.

Maybe we are going through it. So Paul wrote this letter to correct that. And number three, the third thing he intended in this letter, according to this preview, to this letter from the study Bible, that believers were not living sanctified lives. You know, there's a call to be holy.

They were not being obedient to the commands of Scripture. And so Paul wrote this letter to them and he says in chapter two, and I'm just going to read this passage, just the first 11 verses, and I'm going to ask you questions about various aspects of this chapter because there are lots of things I think are relevant to what Christians and what the world is going through today, the type of deception, the type of delusion going on in the world, and it also deals with what's coming in the future with the end times. And so I'm going to ask you to explain some of these things as we go through this passage.

But I just want to give an overview of the passage first. Let me just read 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 1 through 11. Paul writes, Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Verse 3, Let no one in any way deceive you, for it, the day of the Lord, will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.

We'll get into that. That's a reference to the Antichrist or the beast. Verse 5, 2 Thessalonians 2, Do you not remember that while I was with you I was telling you these things? Paul writes, And you know what restrains him now, the Antichrist, so that in his time he will be revealed.

For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Verse 8, Then the lawless one, again the Antichrist, will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of his coming. Here's the day of the Lord. That is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, without power and signs and false wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. Verse 11, here comes the delusion part of it, for this reason, because they didn't receive the love of the truth, to be saved, for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence, some versions write a strong delusion, so that they will believe what is false.

There's the definition of a delusion, believing what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. At Samaritan Ministries, our members are passionate about being part of a Christian community that shares one another's medical needs without the use of insurance. But for Samaritan members Tony and Ginger Mallick, that passion to share health with others is a way of life. It was my wife's dream to come back to the farm. She wanted to be able to do sustainably raised vegetables and teach people where their food comes from.

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Now, back to today's program with host, David Wheaton. Before we get into some specifics from that passage, you could give a brief overview of the three main eschatological or end times views. There's the premillennial view, there's the amillennial view, there's the postmillennial view, and why the premillennial view was what we hold to, that we understand scripture to teach here at The Christian Worldview.

I know you do as well. Why you believe that particular view is most faithful to scripture. When you think about the millennium, where does that even come from? Of course, that comes from the book of Revelation. It's really taking a thousand years and is saying that the promises that God made to Israel with regards to the Davidic kingdom, that they would have an eternal ruler, an eternal kingdom, an eternal throne, and an eternal house.

And that never occurred during the time of the kingdom of Israel. And so we would hold to that there's going to be a point in time when God regenerates Israel. There'll be a point in time where they will repent and trust into their savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ will rule and reign for a thousand years in a literal, physical, earthly rule and reign. And when you look at Acts chapter 1 verse, I believe it's 6, before Jesus's ascension, the disciples came together and were asking him, Lord, is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom to Israel? Jesus didn't correct their thinking. He didn't say, no, it's not going to be a literal, physical, earthly kingdom. He said, it is not for you no to the times or the epochs which the Father has fixed by his own authority.

And that's when he gives them, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witness both in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, even to the remotest parts of the earth. So, Jesus had an opportunity to correct their thinking that it wasn't a literal, physical, earthly kingdom. It was a figurative, spiritual, heavenly, millennial kingdom. So, a premillennial viewpoint would say that Jesus Christ will return before the thousand years. So, premillennial. I don't mean to keep saying this again, but I want to stress it is a literal, physical, earthly rule and reign. The other ones, amillennialism and postmillennialism.

Amillennialism is a bit deceptive in terminology because in the Greek form, a in front of a word is a negation. So, it doesn't necessarily mean that there is no millennium, but what they are saying is that the events that are occurring today are the millennial aspects between Christ's first and second coming. Then, from a postmillennial standpoint, they do something very similar to that. So, post being end millennium, that Jesus Christ will return at the end of the millennium.

They are viewing that, once again, we are living in that time right now. The millennium, right now, the Christian way and system of beliefs will continue to expand and grow similar to the parable of the mustard seed to the point where it's going to be kind of like a golden age of Christendom. That we are living in this golden age right now and what Christ will return. So, those are very brief summaries and there's more ins and outs than that, but I think that the simplest things is that amillennialism and postmillennialism takes the literal, physical, earthly promises and turns them into figurative, spiritual and heavenly fulfillments. When you use a literal, grammatical, historical hermeneutic, how you interpret scripture, the basic interpretation of scripture would be premillennialism.

Why is it important to get this right? To accurately handle the word of truth, basically, on this issue? The book of Revelation is the one book that says, specifically states, Blessed is the man who reads, hears and heeds the words of this book. When you think about the Bible, the Bible is God's wonderful story and we know the ending.

The end of it is God returns to rule and reign for a millennium and then the new creation of the heavens and the earth. I think it's important because it is most faithful to following the promises that God made to the Old Testament covenants and when I look at those different covenants, I would hold to the Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, the Priestly, Davidic and New Covenant. Those are the six main covenants that I would hold to. When you look at the promises that are being made, only one of those covenants, the Mosaic covenant, is revocable. All the other ones are irrevocable and unilateral.

The Mosaic was conditional and revocable. In Deuteronomy chapter 28, for instance, it will say, if you do this, then. So with obedience comes blessing, with disobedience comes cursing. And you look at the curses that were being made to Mosaic, Israel is covenant unfaithful right now and part of the curse of covenant disobedience is exile. But God also promised in the new covenant that he would bring back his people in the new covenant.

Yes, we are partakers of that from the New Testament perspective as Christians, but it also is going to reconstitute the nation of Israel. And I think that premillennialism is the most faithful in accurately exegeting or explaining what those passages mean and being faithful to God's promises. And I think that when you move away from a literal, physical, earthly standpoint, you know, I just blatantly say it.

I think you're making God out to be a liar. And I think that's why it's so important to hold to a premillennial viewpoint. Greg Hauser with us today on the Christian worldview of the associate pastor of High Point Baptist Church.

That's located in Larksville, Pennsylvania. Let's go back to one more aspect of this premillennial view has to do with the rapture of the church. The rapture of the church is not the return of Christ. The premillennial view holds that the rapture of the church takes place at the beginning of the seven years of tribulation on the world.

There's a three and a half years of tribulation and then three and a half years of great tribulation before the Lord Jesus Christ returns, as you were just talking about, to judge and reign over the earth for 1,000 literal years. But this rapture occurs when Christ comes in the cloud and he snatches away all believers who are living during the church age and who have died during the church age. Okay, let's go down to the next part of this passage, how this relates to today. And then Paul writes that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. In other words, they were disturbed. There's a lot of persecution going on.

They thought, oh boy, maybe Paul was wrong. We are going to live through this time of tribulation and this day of the Lord, this time of judgment. How do you see that happening today with believers, just with everything going on in the world?

There's been a lot of unrest in this country and abroad, but specifically we'll talk about the United States, with COVID, with racial unrest, with the election, other things going on. Do you think there's a correlation between what the believers in Thessalonica were experiencing to what believers in America are feeling and experiencing today? Well, by application, I think there is some truth to that. The Christian church here in the United States has been blessed by a piece of paper that we call our Constitution, and in it gave freedom of religion and freedom of speech that no other nation has ever experienced like what we have before. So when you think about the type of persecution that was going on during that time from Thessalonica, where you're reading that book, yeah, people were receiving persecution.

There's no doubt about it, and there's definitely persecution that is occurring now in the United States and in Canada where pastors are getting thrown in jail. So I do think that there's a major correlation between that, but I also think it's important when you start thinking about diluting spirits and lies and apostasy, where does that come from? What's the origin of these lies? What is the first question asked in the Bible? And the first question asked in the Bible is Genesis chapter 3 verse 1, did God really say? And that question by the serpent was calling into question God's goodness, his integrity, and basically all the attributes of God, and Satan was calling that out and calling all of that into question. So when Jesus makes a description, for instance, in John chapter 8 verse 44, where he's interacting with the Jewish people and he says Satan is your father, if you're an unbeliever, Satan is your father, and you're living in the domain of darkness, and Satan is the father of all lies. There's no doubt that people are following lies because you're following in your father's footsteps. And it's easy to fall into these things because they're following after these lies. And what's interesting is in 1 Thessalonians 4 going into chapter 5, one of the things that it talks about after the rapture of the church, people will be looking at and calling out and they're thinking that peace.

What are we hearing from governments from all around the world? You get peace and safety by following our protocols. You get peace and safety by following these different things. And so the level of fear that's being instilled in people, you either fear the Lord or you fear whatever. Death, fear the outcomes, whatever. If you're not fearing the Lord, you're fearing something. Because all of us are image bearers of God and all of us are made to worship what's the chief end of man, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Well, we're all meant to worship God. And when you're fearing something and following lies, you have misplaced worship. Rather than worshipping the one true living God, you're following after the lies of Satan. And he's the father of light, he's the father of all lies, and he's deception.

And people will easily follow that because they're following in their father's footsteps. Greg Hauser with us today in the Christian Royal View, the associate pastor of High Point Baptist Church in Pennsylvania. We're talking about having peace and exercising discernment in this age of delusion. Some of the things we touched on earlier in that passage from 2 Thessalonians about the man of lawlessness. This is the Antichrist, the beast who arises during the tribulation and demands worship of himself in the temple in Jerusalem.

We won't get into that right now and how people long for that. And there's a mark of the beast. We talked about the mark of the vaccine last week in the program, how people willingly want to get this quote-unquote so-called vaccine, which is really nothing more than a shot.

And there's going to be a quote, vaccine passport, or you have to have a pass card to be able to travel or buy and sell and do these things. And this is a prelude to what will happen in a much more global and serious level in this time of the tribulation. They also talk about the mystery of lawlessness going on. This lawlessness that's going on, it's always been going on, but it's going to increase in these end times.

And then it gets into the Lord's return. But I want to focus, move down to verse 11 where it says, For this reason, because there's a rejection of God, as you just talked about, a rejection of God for the purpose for which each one of us have been created, to know God, to worship Him, to obey Him, to glorify Him. For this reason, God will send upon them, and this is those who reject Him, a deluding influence or a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

What is a deluding influence, Greg, and how do you see that at work today in our society? Yeah, that deluding influence is just following and believing all that what is false, like it says there in that passage. As you were reading that, the thought process that went to my mind was Paul's letter to the Romans in chapter 1, starting in verse 18, where it talks about that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness because men are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness.

And then it goes on to, there's like a three-step process that gets followed, and three times in verses 24 to 28 it says God gives them over, God gives them over, God gives them over. That's the exact same point that Paul is making here in 2 Thessalonians, as he did in Romans chapter 1, verses 18 through 28, that people are following after lies, they're suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, they're calling good evil and evil good, and the last one in Romans says that they're giving hearty approval to these things. And you look at the trajectory of what's going on in the United States and around the world, hearty approval given to sinfulness is seen every day, and people that hold to a biblical Christian worldview are getting ostracized and being belittled for our archaic way of thinking, when in reality we're trying to express the truth as believers in Jesus Christ, rather than trying to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. It talks about how before becoming Christ in Romans, it says that your mind is at enmity with God, and that's what's going on here. You have a diluting influence because your mind is at enmity with God, but when you become a believer, it gives a description in 1 Corinthians that you have the mind of Christ. So diluting influences get exchanged for biblical truth. Rather than following after the Father of all lies, you're following after Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, and rather than following lies, the truth sets you free.

It certainly does. Well said. The Christian Worldview with David Wheaton returns in just a moment. David Wheaton here, volunteer host of the Christian Worldview radio program. Listeners are often surprised to learn that we as a ministry pay for airtime on the radio station, website, or app on which you hear the program. The primary way this expense is recouped is through listeners like you donating to the ministry or becoming a monthly partner.

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Short takes are also available and be sure to share with others. Now, back to today's program with host David Wheaton. Greg Houser with us today on The Christian Worldview. That passage is so strong there in 2 Thessalonians 2 with what's coming before the return of the Lord and the Antichrist and the strong delusion. But then the portion I didn't read was the rest of the chapter, verses 13 through 17, which is the peace and the comfort and the hope for those who have put their faith in Christ.

And I'll just read that as we conclude our conversation today. But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren, fellow believers, beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Holy Spirit and faith in the truth. It was for this he called you through our gospel that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us. And he finishes this in verse 16, Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and gives us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. In the contrast between those last four verses there in that chapter, in the first 11 verses, 11, 12 verses, where there's this very ominous, you know, what's ahead here?

This is a terrible, the man of lawlessness, the mystery of lawlessness, this strong delusion, the Antichrist. And then there's this hope for believers, this peace that believers can have because of God's offer of the gospel and to be saved. So what is the antidote? Using a word antidote as in COVID, what is the antidote to this delusion and judgment coming for the world today, Greg? To answer that question, I want to focus on just a brief part of that, where it says salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

That's the antidote. There's a term called justification, where there's a point in time where you repent of your sin and recognize that Jesus Christ is your only way of salvation. You're declared righteous.

That is a monergistic, mono being one. It is a act of God that you're declared righteous based upon the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Then there's a term called glorification. Glorification is we will receive glorified bodies. Some will receive glorified bodies for eternal life in heaven with God forever.

Some will receive bodies fit for hell and be eternally punished because of their active rebellion against God. So those two things are acts of God. So being declared righteous, you're freed from the penalty of sin. Glorification, you're freed from the presence of sin. And sanctification, what is sanctification? It is the process of becoming more and more like Christ.

So sanctification is the process of being freed from the power of sin. And that's done by Spirit and in truth. And if you look at Colossians chapter 1 verses 28 and 29, here's Paul's summation, if you will, of his philosophy of ministry that we proclaim him, him being the Lord Jesus Christ admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom so that we may present every man complete in Christ. So the aim of his ministry was to present every man complete in Christ. That's the power of God sanctifying in the process of becoming like Christ. For this purpose I labor, striving according to his power which mightily works in me. So being filled with and walking in the Spirit is allowing the words of Christ to dwell in you richly. It is a synergistic work to become like Christ. Sanctification, the process of becoming like Christ. It is synergistic, meaning I am working with the words of Christ to dwell richly in me. I'm allowing the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit to give me proper interpretation and understanding, to change me, to make me complete in Christ. And God uses prayer and his word and in Ephesians chapter 4 he talks about how, Paul talks about how Jesus gave gifts to the church with pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints. I think the church's response to what's happened over the last year and a half has been diminished because of the pragmatic, seeker sensitive nature of church, the health, wealth and prosperity.

Now we have the woke church. All of these things are not biblical Christianity which are allowing the words of Christ to dwell in you richly, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit to become like Christ and that's the antidote. It begins with the command, repent and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation.

Well we thank Greg Hauser for coming on the program today and he's exactly right there. The antidote to delusion is coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ. When you repent of your sin, as he was just saying, you turn from it, you confess it to God and you ask God to help you go in a whole new direction and change your desires, away from desiring what is sinful and of the flesh and desiring the things of the Lord, holiness and righteousness and then you put your faith, your trust in Jesus Christ, who he is, the Son of God, the perfect Son of God who came to earth and lived a sinless life and offered himself on the cross as the perfect substitutionary sacrifice for your sin, satisfying God's wrath and justice over your sin. When you believe in his work on the cross, his righteousness on your behalf, God looks at you and forgives you because your sin has been paid for by Jesus Christ.

So if you haven't done that, I would encourage you to make that most important decision, that commitment of your will today to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Okay, just some follow-up points to this topic today on delusion. Delusion and deception are rampant. Delusion applies to non-believers. It's believing what is false and I'll talk about why that is in a second. Deception applies more to believers.

Believers can be deceived, but true believers should never be characterized by delusion, just believing what is false. And so again, the examples are endless of this, even with the COVID crisis now. COVID is the biggest dire threat to our country.

Yet at the same time, somehow we're allowing illegal immigrants to pour over the border, many of whom have COVID and aren't very concerned about that, but mandates and shutdowns are all being considered everywhere else across the country. It's delusional. Or the more recent one that happened right here in the Twin Cities. George Floyd's death, the black man that was killed in Minneapolis in 2020 by a police officer, was due to racism by that police officer and just shows how systemically racist America is.

Yet never mind that not one word in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the police officer, had anything to do with—nothing was brought up about racial animus by him in the way he dealt with George Floyd and the arrest that day. So delusion is the mark of a non-believer. Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14, but a natural man or an unsaved man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, of the Holy Spirit, for they are foolishness to him. And he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised or spiritually discerned. You can't even expect, and we shouldn't even expect, the unbelieving, the non-believing world, the world that rejects God and His Word and rejects the revelation of Jesus Christ and who He is.

We shouldn't expect anything more than delusion from non-believers. Verse 15, 1 Corinthians 2, But, here's the converse, he who is spiritual or is a believer appraises or discerns all things. It applies God's wisdom. Wisdom is seeing and thinking and living life as God intends or as God understands it. It's thinking like God and living the way He wants us to live.

That's wisdom, that's discernment. Verse 16, For who has known the mind of the Lord, that He will instruct him or instruct God? But we, he's talking about believers here, we have the mind of Christ.

I mean, just think about that for a second. Believers can have the mind of Christ. No, not the perfect, sinless, all-infinite, wise mind of Christ, but in that process of sanctification, that synergistic reality that Greg was talking about in our interview today, that it is God who works in you both to will and to work His good pleasure. The only remedy, by the way, to this delusion of the unbelieving world or the non-believer, the only remedy is for them to be saved. They must repent and believe in the gospel, just like Saul in Acts 9. The scales, literally, he was a religious man, he thought he was pleasing God in all things. He was on his way to Damascus to do what he felt were righteous deeds and persecute those Christians. And he meets the risen Christ on the way and he comes to saving faith.

He believes in who Jesus Christ is. And these scales, it says a couple days after he gets to Damascus and he's there, he's blind, these scales come off his eyes and it's representative of the blindness that he had before coming to saving faith. It's like he came alive spiritually, Ephesians 2, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Dead people can't know and can't discern anything, they're dead.

They need to be regenerated, made alive, born again, converted. So that's what has to happen for the world or for non-believers to get away from the delusion. Otherwise, they're just going to be deluded and we probably shouldn't be too surprised about it. The other aspect is deception. And this applies more to believers and this is why all the letters of the New Testament contain some sort of polemic element to them.

In other words, a pushing back, an exposing, a warning against false teaching and false teachers. Because believers, we're fallible, we can be deceived through false teaching and false teachers. So how do you improve discernment? Discernment starts with having the conviction that God and his word are the source of truth.

That they are infallible, that they don't fail, they're inerrant, they're without air, they're inspired, they come directly from God. And when you have that conviction, even though the world may sound convincing and there's elements of truth in what the world and non-believers have to say, the final authority is the word of God. So when you have that and you know the word of God, that starts to grow your discernment. And then conversely, knowing the world or understanding the world, including the so-called experts and the so-called highly educated people, that they really are opposed to God.

They speak maybe some partial truths, but what you're getting from them, no matter how convincing and how charismatic they are or how forcefully they say something or how much they're on television or how many books they write or what particular academic institution they work for, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, whatever it is, they are telling you something that is not truthful, that is going to be full of lies if they have not come to saving faith. If their mind's not being renewed in the word of God, they're just working on their own human reasoning. The next thing to improve discernment is to minimize your exposure to ungodly media and entertainment.

If you're constantly watching news sources and television and Hollywood stuff that's constantly feeding you delusional lies, what do you think your mind's going to become like? It's just like eating. When you eat healthy food, your body operates better. When you take in good spiritual food, your mind is going to operate better and vice versa. If you take in a lot of junk spiritual food, you can't help.

No one is above being impacted by that sort of delusional garbage. Next thing to improve discernment is to be influenced or discipled by sound teachers or preachers and be a part of a biblical local church. This is the way God designed it to be. He didn't design us to be some lone ranger Christian. He knows in that community of believers of a sound biblical church, and by the way, that's a big if, a sound biblical church, that there can be growth and a growing of discernment in that kind of environment.

And finally, just one more thing, and this list isn't exhaustive at all, but to be in the Word on a regular basis, daily basis, to pray for wisdom, ask God for wisdom without doubting, to spend time with other discerning believers, and to be like the Bereans, comparing everything that's coming your way back to Scripture as the Bereans did in the book of Acts, that is a way to improve discernment. So I want to thank you for listening to the Christian Real View today. You can hear past programs and get transcripts and order resources for adults and children. We still have our summer clearance sale going on with up to 50% off on store items. Also, My Boy Ben is still available for a donation of any amount. Take advantage of that and get a signed and personalized copy for yourself or a friend, and sign up for our weekly email and support the ministry or become a monthly partner by going to our website, thechristianworldview.org, or by calling us at our toll-free number, 1-888-646-2233. Thank you to so many of you who write such kind and encouraging letters. I wish we could respond to all of you.

We struggle to find the time to do that. We are a fairly small ministry, mostly volunteer. I'm a volunteer. But please know that we do read and appreciate all the things you send to us. And of course, thank you for your support of this listener-supported ministry as well. Thank you to our national sponsor, Samaritan Ministries, as well. If you have any need for an alternate to the health care insurance system you're in right now, we would strongly recommend you look into Samaritan Ministries.

We have switched over to them many years ago and couldn't be more pleased. You can click on the banner of Samaritan Ministries on our website, thechristianworldview.org. So just know this as we close, believers can have peace and we can have discernment in this age of delusion because Jesus Christ and His Word are the same yesterday and today and forever. Until next time, think biblically, live accordingly, and stand firm. The Christian Worldview is a listener-supported ministry and furnished by the Overcomer Foundation, a nonprofit organization. You can find out more, order resources, make a donation, become a monthly partner, and contact us by visiting thechristianworldview.org, calling toll-free 1-888-646-2233, or writing to Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. That's Box 401, Excelsior, Minnesota, 55331. Thanks for listening to The Christian Worldview. Until next time, think biblically and live accordingly.