Deception

I started reading (re-reading)THE LAST BATTLE by C.S. Lewis this afternoon. It struck me how the deception which the ape used to fool and deceive the Narnians is exactly how the enemy deceived me during the last few years before I came back to truth and God.

In the book C.S. Lewis talks about how the agents of the ape and "Aslan" (really a donkey in lion's clothing), were felling trees, enslaving free talking Narnians, and sending them to Calormen to work as slaves. Basically they were doing evil things which Aslan would have not condoned. All of these things did not seem to the Narnians and the King as something that Aslan would do. However, the rationalization that came up again and again was that Aslan is not a tame lion. He is not bound by the moral laws and decent ethics that the Narnians were used to and had ascribed to Aslan. Thus even though the actions did not match the character of Aslan at all, they believed the lie because they saw the lion (in reality a donkey) and thought it was Aslan. Also, they justified the horrid actions of "Aslan" by saying He was not a tame lion, and could act (in their minds) as he wished. For example when one of the wise Centaur said that the stars did not line up and did not foretell that Aslan was on the move (and he said stars don't lie, but men do), the Unicorn which was the King's friend said "He is not the slave of the stars, but their Maker", and he went on to make the point that he is not a tame lion.

I am stressing this point that even though the actions of "Aslan" did not match His known character at all, people were taken in by it because they saw "him" and also because they could justify his actions by saying that he was much bigger than how the old stories had depicted him, was not bound by any certain moral law.

This is how the devil fooled me for years. I was faced with actions that did not match God's character at all. For example I thought God wanted me to do all kinds of bizarre and strange things, and although this did not match the character of God that I was told about and read in the Bible, I was taken in because I thought I knew God (just as the Narnians thought they saw Aslan, when in reality they were seeing a donkey in lion's clothing). Thus, I would even do stuff which I knew in ordinary times was sinful, but because I thought God is not a "tame" God, and because I thought I "knew" Him, I went ahead and did them anyway.

All this to make the point that as the Narnians had believed a lie because they did not personally know the lion Aslan, and they rationalized all the wicked behavior of "Aslan", so for years I had followed a lie believing it to be the truth, because I did not know God as well as I should have, and I also rationalized all the wicked commands "god" was ordering me to do.

Thus to sum everything up, it is important to know the character of God, and to have it engraved in our hearts, so when deception comes (and it looks like the truth), we won't be taken in by things that seem to come from God and feel like they are from Him, but we will be able to discern them for what they truly are.