This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/the-problem-of-deception/

2023 | Week of July 31 | Radio Transcript #1526

Deception. It’s one of Satan’s, the Father of Lies, greatest weapons—against both believer and unbeliever. Making truth look like a lie and a lie look like truth is as old as the dawn of human history. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent, the devil himself, comes to Eve and questions her about what God had told her and Adam regarding eating of the fruit of the trees in the Garden.

Eve tells Satan rightly that God had told them they could eat of every tree save one—the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil—and that if they did eat of that tree, they would die. Satan immediately goes into deception mode and boldly says, “You will not surely die. God just doesn’t want you to be like Him, knowing good from evil.”

Eve fell for the lie and very soon learned that God meant what He had said; death, both physical and spiritual, fell on the entire human race. And deception has been with us ever since. Satan continues to use it to destroy lives now and for eternity.

Scripture tells us that in addition to being the “father of lies,” Satan portrays himself as an angel of light, that he is a murderer and that there is no truth in him, that he is a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, and that he is the accuser of the brethren. Deception is at the core of each description—making good seem evil and evil seem good, making truth appear as false and false appear as true.

We see the results of this deception in so many ways today. From the truth of the origin of the universe and humans to gender identity and at all points in between and beyond, Satan is working seemingly overtime to deceive people, to ensnare them in lies that wrap themselves around people, much like a boa constrictor, squeezing the very life out of them. Unfortunately, too often they don’t sense the tightening until it’s too late.

I wish I could tell you deception is going to become less of a problem, but that would be incredibly wrong, even delusional to think or say that. Consider, for instance, Artificial Intelligence and the impact it is already having in our culture.

During our LEAD Wisconsin camp a couple of weeks ago, our worldview speaker Carl Kerby with Reasons for Hope spent an entire session on this topic. The 125 teens and the twenty or so crew in the room were mesmerized by what they saw and heard.

What became abundantly clear is that this AI is captivating the world and has the potential to deceive in ways we’ve never seen before. Essentially, AI has the ability to make discerning the true from the false basically impossible because the look and feel of what we see and hear is, can be and will be so realistic.

So how do we prepare for what is already happening and is bound to become pretty much ubiquitous? I say that with some assurance because one thing we have seen for decades is that science and technology believe the ability to do something is a inviolate mandate to do it, whether or not we have an ethical framework in place. I can’t believe AI will be an exception to this maxim.

But to deal with the deceptions we already have and those that are coming really requires that we truly know and can recognize the real thing. That means we need to saturate our minds with God’s Word—and some have even posited that we should be making Scripture memory a top priority since AI already has the ability to rewrite Scripture.

Keeping hard copies of the Bible and devoting ourselves to reading, studying, and memorizing God’s Word gives us an infallible filter—and we have the promise that His Word is eternal and unchanging. Building our worldview based on the Word of God will help us discern whether we are being deceived—whether by Satan or his minions or by human or artificial intelligence.

If we think Satan won’t use AI as a tool in his deception arsenal, we are fooling ourselves. We need to be aware of his tactics and as Scripture tells us daily seek to have the mind of Christ—Who is the embodiment of truth. AI didn’t surprise God. He knew we’d be dealing with this and thankfully He has equipped us to not be deceived. We just need to act on what we know.

This is Julaine Appling for Wisconsin Family Council reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

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