In informal English, a gold brick is something represented as valuable, something that looks good at first, but turns out to be worthless. Of course, no one wants to be a victim of goldbricking. Nevertheless, wherever you turn, you will hardly meet a person who can honestly say, “I have never been fooled or tricked.” Can you say that?

Not only naive people, but also smart fellows, often fall prey to some of the many forms of deception practiced in the world. Therefore, it is wise to take all possible precautions against the existing danger.

A teller in a bank was thinking about this very problem while examining a counterfeit banknote. His boss came to him and surprised him with the question:

“What are you doing?”

“I’m carefully looking at this counterfeit bill, so I won’t be deceived again and again,” he said.

“That is not the proper way to develop your ability to distinguish false bills from genuine bills,” the boss replied. “Counterfeit banknotes will appear in many forms. By identifying one, you will not necessarily be able to detect the others. What you need in the first place is to become well acquainted with the authentic stuff, the true money, and then you will have no doubt when you see bogus money.”

Unfortunately, the good advice of the bank manager is ignored in practically all the domains of our existence on earth. Therefore, according to Henry Mackenzie, “mankind, in the gross, is a gaping monster, that loves to be deceived, and has seldom been disappointed.” Yes, the human race accepts deception as a way of life. Worse than that, not being satisfied when deceived by others, human beings also like to deceive themselves.

In this short dissertation, I’m addressing those who want to be good to themselves, those who love their own soul, those who are sensible enough to choose that which will be beneficial to them and reject that which would hurt them one way or another. The following advice fits in with the thinking of reasonable people, whom I wish to reach:

“Test everything; hold fast what is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21 (RSV).

Let us be very cautious: Before we can act on the counsel of the apostle Paul, we must adopt the wise principle recommended by the bank manager. In the first place we ought to know what is genuine, authentic, or real, if we actually want to be free from deception. Christ admonishes us:

“You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32 (RSV).

When Jesus stood on trial before Pilate, the Roman governor asked Him, “What is truth?” (John 18:38), but turned away without giving Him a chance to reply. Honest and sober-minded people will never act that way. The question of the Roman governor can often be heard also today, and the answer is found in the Bible: Jesus Christ is the truth (John 14:6), the law of God is the truth (Psalm 119:142; Malachi 2:6; Isaiah 8:16, 20); and the word of God is the truth (John 17:17). It is not my purpose, here, to enter into details on this question. I only want to draw the attention of the readers to a great danger. In order to make it very difficult for people to discern the difference between truth and error, Satan has invented many forms of sophistic reasoning and a number of mind-control techniques, which his servants have been using with a measure of success.

Let us be warned against Satan’s methods, which can be summarized as follows:

1. Satan will influence his agents to appeal to right principles in order to falsely criticize your actions. Examples:

a) When the people of Israel were about to leave Egypt, Pharaoh wanted to give the impression that he was considerate of the safety of the little children and the women. So he said he would only allow the men to go and serve the Lord beyond the borders of Egypt. Exodus 10:7-11. In reality, Pharaoh only wanted to be sure that the men would come back. He had no concern for the little ones and the women.

b) The scribes and Pharisees pretended to have a high regard for the law of Moses when they dragged before Jesus a woman accused of committing adultery. And they wanted to know from Him whether or not she should be stoned according to the law. John 8:3-11. Actually, they did not care about the law of Moses; they only wanted to set a trap for Jesus.

c) Under the semblance of concern for the poor, Judas criticized the action of Mary Magdalene. “Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?” he asked. “This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.” John 12:5, 6.

2. Satan takes right and positive words, or sentences, or verses, and gives them a wrong definition or puts them to a wrong use. Examples:

a) You may have heard this sophistry: “God is immortal. Man was made in the image of God. Therefore, man is immortal.”

b) This was advocated by a man who started a new religion in Brazil: “Christ said, ‘Love your enemies.’ Satan is my enemy. Therefore, I must love my brother Satan.”

c) The great deceiver used the word of God when he spoke to Jesus: “It is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” But Satan misapplied this precious promise when he suggested to Jesus: Therefore, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence.” Luke 4:9-11.

d) Christ said to His followers, “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matthew 28:20. And the apostle Paul wrote: “Hath God cast away his people? God forbid.” Romans 11:1. Satan knows how to practice deception with these verses. He influences hundreds of churches to misappropriate these promises, unconditionally, for themselves. They ignore the basic conditions on which these promises may be claimed. 2 Chronicles 15:2; 2 John 9.

e) A man who started a new religion in South America taught: “Abraham, our father in the faith (Galatians 3:7), was a polygamist (Genesis 25:6). I follow his example (John 8:39).

3. Satan changes the terminology, causing certain words to assume a different meaning in the minds of the unwary. Examples:

a) If we preach a message of reformation as required by the Lord (Isaiah 58:1), some will shout at us: “Stop all criticism.”

b) When the church must correct disorderly members (Matthew 18:15-17; 1 Corinthians 5:11-13; James 5:19, 20), and when their misbehavior is pointed out (Luke 17:3), they will say that it is wrong to be an accuser of the brethren (Isaiah 58:9, last part; Revelation 12:10). When they are rebuked because of their subversive activity (2 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; Jude 4, 16, 18; 2 Peter 2:10), they will say that they have been called to break every yoke (Isaiah 58:6).

c) Sometimes you must be quite frank with somebody; otherwise they will not understand you. But then they will say that you have abused them with your tongue. And when you have to listen to an undeserved tongue-lashing from them, they will say that they did not use abusive language; they only tried to be frank with you.

d) You may have to disagree with a brother or sister, or even with some of the leaders, when you see that they are trying to force their wrong ideas upon you, or upon the committee, or upon the whole field or union conference. If they cannot push matters through in their own way because of your opposition, they may wrongly accuse you. “You are not converted,” they may say, “since you are not cooperative; you are destroying the spirit of unity in the church.” In their way of thinking and acting, the words “conversion,” “cooperation,” and “unity” imply the idea that you must be in full agreement with them, no matter whether they are right or wrong.

4. Satan makes your motives subject to the judgment of others, as though they were competent to define your intentions. They misinterpret the reasons for your actions as a pretext to accuse you so that, through their accusation, they may reach their own aims. Examples:

a) While Daniel was one of the three presidents set over the Medo-Persian kingdom, the other two presidents induced King Darius to sign a decree apparently for the purpose of protecting the king against a plot. Actually, however, they purposed to destroy Daniel by finding a pretext to falsely accuse him in order to promote their own ambitious aims. Read Daniel 6:1-23.

b) The Jews in Medo-Persia, under Ahasuerus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia, were free to live a peaceful life and practice their religion without opposition, until Haman denounced them to the king. He said:

“There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king’s laws, so that it is not for the king’s profit to tolerate them.” Esther 3:8 (RSV).

Haman added: “Let it be decreed that they be destroyed” (verse 9), not because he was interested in the security and prosperity of King Ahasuerus and his dominion, but because he hated them and wanted to get rid of them.

c) The Jewish leaders falsely accused Christ on political grounds, saying that He wanted to become a king, which would put the throne of Caesar in danger. John 19:12, 15. In reality, they were not interested in the security of the Roman emperor; they hated him and his domination. They wanted to put Jesus to death because they were not prepared to accept Him as the promised Messiah, though they were not able to refute the evidence of His Messiahship. John 10:37, 38; 11:43-53; 14:11.

5. Under the guidance of Satan, men will make wrong comparisons, putting mosquitoes and camels on the same level.

Nay, they will go farther than that. They will look at their own mistakes through a reduction glass and at your mistakes through a magnifying glass. Thus, they will see a molehill where there is a mountain, and a mountain where there is a molehill.

The rebuke of Jesus applies to people who speak and act under this kind of deception: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” Matthew 7:3 (RSV).

6. People get brainwashed when error is repeatedly blown into their ears and minds for a long period of time.

It has been said: “Repeat a lie many times over and it will finally be accepted as truth, and you yourself will believe it.”

7. Some people use a vicious inductive method of reasoning by drawing wrong conclusions from a few, insufficient facts.

Someone may talk like this: “My boss professes to be a Christian and he is a crook. My neighbor says he is a Christian and he is a crook. My brother-in-law claims to be a Christian and he is a crook. Therefore, all Christians are crooks.”

8. Others use a faulty deductive method of reasoning by drawing wrong conclusions from general principles or facts when applied to particular cases.

Example: A Cretan prophet said: “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Titus 1:12 (RSV). “My neighbor is a Cretan. Therefore, he is a liar and so forth.”

9. There are those who think they can prove their point through a subtle “conversion” (or transposition) of subject and predicate in a proposition. Examples:

“All those that honor father and mother live longer” (Exodus 20:12).

“All those that live longer are the ones that honor father and mother.”

“All good Christians are happy.”

“All happy people are good Christians.”

“All men are living beings.”

“All living beings are men.”

Have you noticed the deceptive reasoning?

10. In the presence of irrefutable evidence, some people try to quickly switch the discussion by jumping from one point to another, in order to evade difficult questions or undeniable facts (Luke 10:25-29; John 9:24-34).

People also practice deception by using half-truths (Genesis 20:9-12), overstatements (Numbers 13:32, 33), flattery (Acts 24:1-3), and duplicity. Duplicity is a form of dissimulation which consists in pretending one thing and intending to do another thing, or the practice of publicly acting one way and secretly acting another way in order to deceive. For examples of duplicity, read 1 Samuel 28:1, 2 and Matthew 2:1-8, 13.

“Men think they are representing the justice of God. . . . Their human invention, originating with the specious devices of Satan, appears fair enough to the blinded eyes of men. . . . A lie, believed, practiced, becomes a truth to them. . . . We are warned in the word of God that sleepless vigilance is the price of safety. Only in the straight path of truth and righteousness can we escape the tempter’s power.”1