The Deception of Pretense

From the Pastor: Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.

It is written: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.” (Matt. 23:14)

There are three primary reasons for church problems: (1) ignorance of the Word of God; (2) stagnant babies in Christ constantly arguing over “my toys” and “my way”; (3) and the most damaging – masqueraders, deceiving professors, false brethren. The Scriptures frequently warn us to be on guard of false brethren creeping in unaware. In other words, there are folks who join with the churches for reasons that are not honorable. They are not saved, but if you ask, the wolves will sure “b-a-a-a-h” like a sheep and display woolly robes. Yet, the whole motivation of the wolves’ masquerade is to destroy the sheep. They have no intentions of being a sheep, they only wish to walk in their midst working their dastardly deeds. Since the very first church, there have always been pretenders who seek to devour and destroy; that is why every church suffers serious problems at times.

Be aware; these false brethren are skilled in the art of deception. They did not go to a school for the Arts of Deception; remember they are wolves and wolves are naturally endowed with stalking abilities. So to, the children of Satan are naturally gifted in the deception of pretense. Even like the Pharisees of old, they are able to stand in the House of God and with all piousness make sweet pretentious prayers dripping with honey. The undiscerning would think heaven itself came down to cloak upon this dear saint of saints. Jesus, however, was not so impressed with their skills. Jesus knew their hearts and declared, “…ye shall receive the greater damnation.” Some wolves come cloaked in robes of “righteousness,” and others come cloaked in robes of “humbleness,” but make no mistake, they will come.

I am certainly glad we cannot know other men’s hearts like Jesus knows them, but this does not mean we should stick our heads in the sand and ignore all the warning signs and traits of a wolf in our midst. We have divine authority to protect the sheep against the vicious attacks of the wolves. We are told to put on the whole armor of God that we might be able to stand against the wiles of the devil and those who serve him under the cloak of Deception of Pretense.