Lesson 24: “Be Not Deceived, but Continue in Steadfastness” --Sara

Do you have a good illustration of deception? An experience or story that would help others to understand the subtlety and danger of those employed by the great deceiver? Brownie points if you email your experience to me! 

I've been thinking about times when I've been deceived and what caused them. 
I've also been analyzing my reaction when I finally catch the deception. I always feel things that invite me to step away from God. Things like, anger or frustration with myself or the situation, fear or confusion of what to do next or of coming clean, and pride in not wanting to change my course. 

Here were a few causes of spiritual deception listed in the lesson for this week: 

Not recognizing the prophet as the source of revelation for the Church

Pride

Being critical of leaders’ imperfections

Being offended

Rationalizing disobedience

Accepting the false teachings of the world


Presiding Bishop H. David Burton taught: “One of [Satan’s] insidious strategies is to progressively soften our senses regarding what is right and wrong. Satan would have us convinced that it is fashionable to lie and cheat. He encourages us to view pornography by suggesting that it prepares us for the real world. He would have us believe that immorality is an attractive way of life and that obedience to the commandments of our Father in Heaven is old-fashioned. Satan constantly bombards us with deceptive propaganda desirably packaged and carefully disguised” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1993, 60; or Ensign, May 1993, 46).

President Harold B. Lee taught: “If [someone] writes something or speaks something that goes beyond anything that you can find in the standard Church works, unless that one be the prophet, seer, and revelator—please note that one exception—you may immediately say, ‘Well, that is his own idea.’ And if he says something that contradicts what is found in the standard Church works, you may know by that same token that it is false” (The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1996], 540–41).

What can we do to keep ourselves from being deceived and led into apostasy?

The lesson lists these reasons:

We can know clearly whom the Lord has called to lead the Church

We should study the scriptures and the doctrines of the Church

We should recognize that the things of God will always edify us

We should apply the Lord’s pattern for protecting ourselves from being deceived

President Joseph Fielding Smith taught: “There is no saying of greater truth than ‘that which doth not edify is not of God.’ And that which is not of God is darkness, it matters not whether it comes in the guise of religion, ethics, philosophy or revelation. No revelation from God will fail to edify” (Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 1:201–2).