There is something happening with this generation that makes me think about a warning Jesus gave His disciples nearly two thousand years ago. We have reached a point in our technology where people can manufacture images, voices, and videos that appear remarkably genuine. A person can look at an image and believe that he is seeing an actual person in an actual place, or hear a familiar voice and believe that the person himself is speaking, when in reality what he is seeing or hearing has been artificially produced. We are learning that an appearance of reality is not necessarily reality itself. We are also learning that what our eyes see and what our ears hear cannot always be accepted as sufficient evidence of what actually happened. That may seem like a problem created by modern technology, but the principle behind it is much older than technology. The Bible has been warning God’s people about deception from the very beginning, and Jesus gave us a particularly sobering warning when He said, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect,” Matthew 24:24.
There is a part of that verse that I find particularly interesting: “if it were possible.” Jesus was warning His disciples that false christs and false prophets would arise and that they would show great signs and wonders. The danger was not merely that someone would make a claim that was obviously false. The deception would be persuasive enough to lead people away from the truth. That is what makes the Greek word translated “deceive” so important. It is πλανῆσαι (planēsai), from πλανάω (planaō), which means to lead someone astray, cause someone to wander, or cause someone to go where they shouldn’t. Jesus was talking about being led away from the right path.
Now look carefully at the words Jesus used. He did not say that the elect would never come across deception. He described deception powerful enough that, if it were possible, even the very elect would be led astray. Yet there is something else in His wording that we need to notice. He said, “if it were possible.” Whatever power that deception might have, Jesus did not present it as finally accomplishing its purpose against the elect. The warning is real, the danger is real, and the deception can be extremely convincing. But Jesus’ words also show us that there is a limit to what it can ultimately accomplish.
That becomes even more important when we look at what Jesus said earlier in the same chapter. When He began answering His disciples’ questions about His coming and the end of the age, one of His first warnings was, “Take heed that no man deceive you,” Matthew 24:4. Jesus did not tell them that deception would be impossible. He told them to take heed. That means they had a responsibility to pay attention to what they were hearing and to recognize that not everything presented to them should simply be accepted.
The rest of Scripture shows us what that responsibility looks like. Paul wrote, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good,” 1 Thessalonians 5:21. John wrote, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God,” 1 John 4:1. Notice the words Scripture uses. We are told to prove. We are told to try. We are not told to accept everything, but neither are we told to reject everything. We are told to examine what we encounter and determine whether it agrees with what is true.
That is what biblical discernment is about. Discernment is not simply being suspicious. A suspicious person can question everything without ever knowing what the truth actually is. Discernment is different because it has something against which to measure what it encounters. It examines in order to distinguish truth from error.
Hebrews tells us that this kind of discernment can become developed through practice: “But strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil,” Hebrews 5:14. The words “by reason of use” stand out to me. Our senses become exercised because we use them. There is practice involved. We become familiar with what we are examining. In the same way, spiritual discernment develops as we become familiar with the truth of God’s Word. The more we know what is true, the more readily we can recognize what does not agree with it.
Paul gave Timothy another instruction that fits right here: “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” 2 Timothy 2:15. We cannot rightly divide the Word of truth if we do not take the time to know the Word of truth. There is a reason we are told to study. It is not simply so that we can accumulate Bible knowledge. We study so that we can handle God’s Word correctly. When we know what God has actually said, we have something solid by which we can examine what someone else says God has said.
That brings these two Scriptures together in a way I find very important. Hebrews speaks about our senses being “exercised to discern”, while Paul tells us to “rightly divide the word of truth.” Discernment is not something we should expect to have without using it, and neither should we expect to know God’s truth without taking the time to study it. The more we use what God has given us and the more familiar we become with His Word, the better prepared we are to recognize when something does not agree with it.
This is why the standard we use matters so much. If the standard is our feelings, then something that feels right can easily become our definition of truth. If the standard is how impressive something appears, then something impressive can convince us before we ever stop to examine the message that comes with it. But Scripture gives us a standard that is outside of ourselves.
Moses showed Israel why that standard was necessary when he warned them about a prophet or dreamer who might give them a sign or wonder. He said that even if the sign or wonder came to pass, they were not to follow that person if he then tried to lead them after other gods, Deuteronomy 13:1-3. Think about what God was telling His people. The sign could happen. The wonder could happen. The person could demonstrate something that appeared to confirm what he was saying, and yet the message could still be wrong.
The sign itself was not the final test. The people had to consider what was being taught and whether it agreed with what God had already commanded them. God had already spoken, and a later sign did not give someone permission to contradict Him.
We see something similar when Moses and Aaron stood before Pharaoh in Egypt. Aaron cast down his staff and it became a serpent, and the magicians of Egypt were able to imitate that sign with their secret arts, Exodus 7:10-12. Their ability to imitate the sign did not make what they did the same as what God had done. Something that looks like a genuine manifestation does not automatically have the same source as the genuine thing.
That is important because we can be impressed by what we see. Human beings naturally respond to things that are unusual, powerful, or beyond what we normally experience. When something remarkable happens, there can be a temptation to assume that the remarkable thing proves the message that accompanies it. But God never gave us that as the standard. Scripture shows us that something can happen and still require examination.
Isaiah gives us that standard plainly: “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them,” Isaiah 8:20. The question is not simply whether something happened. The question is whether what is being said agrees with what God has already revealed.
That principle matters when we consider spiritual things because deception does not always arrive looking obviously false. A teaching can contain Scripture and still teach something Scripture does not teach. A person can speak confidently while teaching error. Someone can use the name of Jesus and still present a Jesus who does not agree with the Christ revealed in God’s Word. A spiritual experience can be powerful and deeply moving without that experience, by itself, telling us where it came from.
None of those things removes our responsibility to examine what we have encountered. In fact, that is exactly why Scripture tells us to prove all things and try the spirits. We are not being told to be afraid of spiritual things. We are being told to distinguish between what is true and what is not.
This brings us back to something that is easy to overlook when we talk about deception. Knowing what is false is not the only thing that matters. Knowing what is genuine matters even more. If I know God’s Word, then I have a standard by which I can examine a teaching. If I know Christ, then I can recognize when someone is presenting a christ who does not agree with the Christ revealed in Scripture.
Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,” John 10:27. There is a relationship in those words. His sheep hear His voice. They know Him, and they follow Him. That gives us another way to understand discernment. It is not merely about becoming skilled at finding mistakes in everything other people say. It is about knowing the Shepherd.
Think about how this works in ordinary life. If you know someone well, you can recognize that person’s voice. You do not have to memorize every possible voice in the world in order to know his. You know the person, and because you know him, you recognize him. In much the same way, our knowledge of God’s truth should not come only from learning what is wrong. We need to spend our time learning what is right.
That is especially important because there will always be something new to examine. There will always be another teaching, another claim, another experience, another person saying something in the name of God. If our entire spiritual life is built around chasing every new error, then we can spend all of our time looking at the false and very little time becoming established in the truth.
But when we know the truth, we have something solid with which to compare what we encounter. We can hear something and recognize that it does not agree with what God has said. We can see something remarkable without allowing the remarkable nature of it to determine what we believe. We can listen to someone speak with confidence without assuming that confidence makes the message true.
This is where the technology of our generation gives us an unusually clear illustration. We now understand something that previous generations could not experience in quite the same way. We can look directly at a photograph or video and still have to ask whether what we are seeing actually happened. We can hear a voice and still have to ask whether the person whose voice we recognize actually spoke those words. We have learned that seeing and hearing something does not always settle the question of whether what we have perceived is genuine.
That does not make our senses worthless. It simply reminds us that perception and reality are not always identical. What appears to be evidence still may need to be examined. And if we can understand that in the physical world, then it should not be difficult to understand why God has always told His people to examine spiritual claims instead of accepting them merely because they appear convincing.
The methods may change from one generation to another, but deception itself is not new. What changes is the way deception can be presented. In one generation it may come through a false prophet standing before a crowd. In another, it may come through a written teaching, a recording, a vision, a spiritual experience, or some other means by which a message is presented. The form can change, but God’s standard does not change with it.
That is why Jesus’ warning is so serious. False Christs and false prophets would arise. They would show great signs and wonders. Their deception would be powerful enough that Jesus said, “if it were possible,” they would deceive even the very elect, Matthew 24:24. He was not telling His disciples that they could simply trust whatever appeared supernatural. He was telling them to take heed.
And Scripture tells us how to do that. We prove all things and try the spirits. We exercise our senses through use so that we can discern good and evil. We measure what we encounter against the truth God has already given us. We do not have to live in fear of everything we see or hear, but neither should we allow appearances to become our standard for truth.
The more we know God’s Word, the more firmly established we become in what is true. The more we know Christ, the more readily we recognize what does not belong to Him. We do not have to know every possible deception that could ever appear in order to remain in the truth. We just need to know the truth.
And perhaps that is one of the things Jesus was showing us when He said “if it were possible.” He was warning us about the power of deception, but He was also pointing us toward the importance of knowing what is true. The deception would be persuasive. The signs and wonders could be impressive. The danger would be real. But the answer was not to live in fear. The answer was to take heed, to examine, and to remain grounded in the truth God has given.
We are living in a time when we can see with our own eyes that something can look real without being real. We can hear something that sounds genuine without knowing that it actually happened. That should remind us of something Scripture has been teaching God’s people all along. What appears convincing still needs to be examined. What sounds right still needs to be tested. What is presented as being from God still needs to agree with what God has said.
Jesus did not tell us to believe everything we encounter. He told us to take heed. Scripture tells us to prove all things, try the spirits, and exercise our senses to discern good and evil. God’s Word gives us the standard. Christ gives us the Shepherd’s voice to know.
The methods of deception may change from generation to generation, but God’s truth does not. We therefore need to know the truth, because that is the heart of what Jesus was warning us about.
“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect,” Matthew 24:24.
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Prayer:
Holy Father, You are true, faithful, and unchanging. Your Word is truth, and there is no deception in You. I worship You because You are my God, and I thank You for giving me Your truth and for teaching me to know Your voice.
Father God, give me wisdom and discernment to recognize what does not agree with Your truth. Help me to rightly divide Your Word, to test what I hear and see, and to hold fast to what is good. Keep me from being led astray by anything that only appears to be true, and keep me grounded in Christ and faithful to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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Don’t take my word for it. Like the Bereans in Acts 17:11, search the Scriptures daily to see whether these things are so. Open your Bible, study God’s Word for yourself, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you into all truth. Don’t simply accept my conclusions. If what I’ve written agrees with Scripture, hold fast to it. If it doesn’t, let God’s Word be your final authority.
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© AMKCH 2026
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If any of these people looks like you or someone you know, that is purely coincidental. They are not.
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